Just six months into implementing the CalWORKs Housing Support Program, counties and their partners are serving more than 2,200 families by offering an array of flexible services to secure permanent homes and help them start rebuilding their lives.

County human service departments along with community-based housing organizations have diligently worked to launch the innovative Housing Support Program created last year by the Legislature and Governor Brown. Twenty counties received a combined $20 million in the 2014-15 State Budget, and an estimated 3,000 families will be served by the end of the fiscal year.

The program is unique in allowing flexibility to meet a families’ particulars needs. Support may include partnerships with landlords, move-in assistance, temporary rental subsidies, financial counseling, credit repair and intensive case management. County human services providers and their community partners say the program is the critical link that had been missing in serving homeless CalWORKs families who were working hard to find jobs and provide for their children by day but did not know where they would sleep each night.

“It sounds very basic but it’s something many of us take for granted – if you’re homeless what address do put on a job application? How many landlords are willing to rent to someone without an income or permanent address? How do you prepare for a job and get your children ready for school every day without a home to bathe in and prepare meals?” said Frank Mecca, CWDA Executive Director. “The CalWORKs Housing Support Program recognizes that by addressing a families’ homelessness, they are empowered to take advantage of job services and other supports we offer to help them become self-sufficient.” 

“There is a growing understanding that solutions for families in crisis must be holistic and tailored to their unique needs,” said John Bauters, Policy Director for Housing California. “The Housing Support Program is a marriage of social services and housing that not only addresses the immediate needs of homeless children but also prevents life-long harm. Research shows that a family’s daily struggles to make ends meet disrupts a child’s healthy development and creates toxic stress that carries on into adulthood. We are changing the lifelong prospects for children in a very meaningful and substantial way.”

CSAC supported the creation of the Housing Support Program last year, and is again supporting CWDA and Housing California’s joint 2015-16 State Budget proposal to expand the program by $30 million. It’s estimated an additional 10,350 homeless children in 4,500 families would be served by the expansion.See the CWDA Budget Letter here.

The Housing Support Program is serving families like 22-year-old Desiree and her 11-year-old sister who suddenly became homeless when their mother needed to enter a long-term drug rehab program and they had no other family to turn to for support. Months of instability, living in and out of their small car and with friends, ended when a team from the Ventura County Human Services Agency helped them move into a small rental home. Desiree said suddenly having to raise her sister on her own, for an unknown period of time, came with much stress and responsibility. Now that they have a safe and stable home, Desiree has been able to increase her hours at work and continue her education at the local community college. Desiree and her sister are thankful for the basic comfort of peaceful sleep each night in their own home that energizes them to tackle work and school the next day.

Counties and their partners know far more work lies ahead. Statewide, a staggering 8,400 children and their parents apply for temporary homelessness assistance each month in the CalWORKs program.