California Policy Lab

On any given night, nearly 60,000 people experience homelessness in Los Angeles County.1 Although the County has successfully navigated homeless individuals into available housing and other services in recent years, inflows have outpaced exits to permanent housing. Between 2018 and 2019, despite the influx of Measure H-funded2 services, the homeless population in Los Angeles County grew by 12%.3 Although Van Nuys contains a relatively small portion of the overall population experiencing homelessness in Los Angeles County, Van Nuys has also experienced an increase in homelessness in recent years. In 2017, 589 people in Van Nuys experienced homelessness.4 In 2019, that number increased by nearly 30% to 765 people.2 In addition, compared to Los Angeles County as a whole, Van Nuys has a higher percentage of rent-burdened individuals. In 2017, 66.8% of individuals in Van Nuys were rent burdened (i.e., spent more than 30% of their monthly income on rent and utilities). In Los Angeles County as a whole, 56.1% of individuals were rent burdened in 2017. In 2017, 35.9% of individuals in Van Nuys were severely rent burdened (i.e., spent more than 50% of their monthly income on rent and utilities). In Los Angeles County as a whole, 30.1% of individuals were severely rent burdened in 2017.5 Moreover, the San Fernando Valley has a relatively high eviction rate compared to Los Angeles County as a whole. In 2016, 1.23 of every 100 rental homes had an eviction filed against the tenants in the San Fernando Valley. In Los Angeles, an average 0.58 of every 100 rental homes had an eviction filed against the tenants. In response to these conditions, with support from Los Angeles County Supervisor Sheila Kuehl, the Los Angeles Homelessness Services Authority (LAHSA) and a non-profit, New Economics for Women, collaborated to pilot a new family homelessness prevention pilot called “Solid Ground.” This process evaluation provides an overview of the Solid Ground program and client outcomes for the first year of the pilot (September 2018- September 2019). 

This work has been supported, in part, by the University of California Multicampus Research Programs and Initiatives grants MRP-19-600774 and M21PR3278