Knowledge & resources
Through our work to help the homeless and mentally ill over the last 20 years, the Hilton Foundation has learned several key lessons that inform our ongoing strategy in this area. These include:
- Research shows that permanent supportive housing provides the best quality of care and offers the most cost-effective solution to chronic homelessness.
- The development of permanent supportive housing requires the coordinated efforts of multiple public and private partners who may be unaware of its benefits or consider it a low priority.
- Cities that have prioritized permanent supportive housing and aligned public and private resources have seen declines in chronic homelessness.
Chronic Homelessness Initiative
Key Strategy Documents
- Homelessness Landscape Research, Conrad N. Hilton Foundation.
- Chronic Homelessness Initiative Strategy Summary, Conrad N. Hilton Foundation.
Evaluation and Learning Reports
- Home For Good Funders Collaborative: Lessons Learned from Implementation and Year One Funding, Abt Associates Inc., May 3, 2013
- Evaluation of the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation Chronic Homelessness Initiative: 2012 Report, Abt Associates Inc., October 12, 2012
- Los Angeles Homeless Data Assessment Report: Issues and Recommendations, Abt Associates Inc., April 2012.
Related Articles
- L.A. County to focus funds on chronically homeless, Los Angeles Times, August 15, 2012.
- Housing project for hard-core homeless pays off, Los Angeles Times, June 8, 2012.
- Plan Exceeds Goal in Getting Long-Term Homeless and Vets into Housing, February 23, 2012.
- Helping the Homeless Isn't Just for the Holidays, Los Angeles Times, November 23, 2011.
- L.A. County to Focus Homeless Services on Most Hard-core Street Dwellers, Los Angeles Times, April 20, 2011.
- Los Angeles Confronts Homelessness Reputation, New York Times, December 12, 2010.
- Seeding systems change, innovation and a plan to end homelessness in Los Angeles, Funders Together, December 9, 2010.
- Official: LA County Can House 12,000 Homeless by 2016, CBS Los Angeles, December 7, 2010.
- Plan to House Homeless Vets and Chronically Homeless Gains Wide Support, Los Angeles Times, December 2, 2010.
- "'Housing first' and helping the homeless" Los Angeles Times, August 15, 2010.
- Exploring the Notion of Public-Private Partnerships to End Homelessness, Funders Together, March 3, 2010.
- Progress in Addressing Homelessness in Los Angeles, Funders Together, March 11, 2009.
Resources on Homelessness
Key Information
- Corporation for Supportive Housing
- National Alliance to End Homelessness
- Funders Together to End Homelessness
Hilton Foundation-Corporation for Supportive Housing Partnership
- Mobilizing Los Angeles County to End Chronic Homelessness, Conrad N. Hilton Foundation In Practice Paper
- The Initiative to End Homelessness for People with Mental Illness in Los Angeles County: Final Evaluation Report, Urban Institute, 2010.
- "Addressing Homelessness Among People With Mental Illnesses: A Model Of Long-Term Philanthropic Effectiveness," Health Affairs, 28, no.3 (2009): 907-911.
- Widening Effects of the Corporation for Supportive Housing's System-Change Efforts in Los Angeles, 2005-2008, Urban Institute, 2009.
- Hilton Foundation Project to End Homelessness for People with Mental Illness in Los Angeles: Changes in Homelessness, Supportive Housing, and Tenant Characteristics Since 2005, Urban Institute, 2008.
- System Change Efforts and Their Results, Los Angeles, 2005-2006, Urban Institute, 2007.
Hilton Foundation- Funded Research
- Annual Evaluation Report Downtown Women's Center Critical Time Intervention Project, April 2012.
- The Patterns and Costs of Services Use among Homeless Families, SelectedWorks of Dennis P. Culhane, 2011.
- Tools for Identifying High-Cost, High-Need Homeless Persons, Economic Roundtable, 2010.
- CASAHOPE (Housing Opportunities Program Evaluation), The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University.
Other Research
- Project 50: The Cost Effectiveness of the Permanent Supportive Housing Model in the Skid Row Section of Los Angeles, County of Los Angeles, June 2012.
- Where We Sleep: The Costs of Housing and Homelessness in Los Angeles, Economic Roundtable, 2009.
- Homelessness Research Institute
- Selected Works of Dennis Culhane, University of Pennsylvania.
- Research by Martha Burt, Urban Institute.
- Research and Evaluation, Corporation for Supportive Housing.
The Hilton Foundation is working to 
