Lessons learned

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.

Resources

Hilton Foundation–Corporation for Supportive Housing partnership

• 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.

Key information resources on homelessness

• Corporation for Supportive Housing
• National Alliance to End Homelessness
• Funders Together to End Homelessness

Related articles

• 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.
• 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.

A summary of the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation Homelessness program strategy is also available for download.

Research

• Crisis Indicator: Triage Tool for Identifying Homeless Adults in Crisis, Econonmic Roundtable, August 2011.
• CASA HOPE (Housing Opportunities Program Evaluation), The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University, July 2011.
• The Patterns and Costs of Services Use among Homeless Families, SelectedWorks of Dennis P. Culhane, 2011.
• "'Housing first' and helping the homeless" Los Angeles Times, August 15, 2010.
• Tools for Identifying High-Cost, High-Need Homeless Persons, Economic Roundtable, 2010.
• 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.
• Homelessness Landscape Research, Conrad N. Hilton Foundation.