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As the cost of housing continues to rise across the United States, homelessness remains a growing issue in nearly all areas of the country (NAEH).  In urban areas, this struggle is often visually and physically represented by the presence of encampments. As jurisdictions struggle to understand how they should address homelessness, many are taking a punitive or enforcement approach (Thornton).  Despite knowledge that abating or “sweeping” encampments is harmful to encampment residents’ health (Chang et. al) and potentially breaks people’s access to local services/resources and residents’ sense of community (NHCHC), American governmental jurisdictions feel the acute pressure from housed residents’ complaints about visible poverty (Herring).  California, and similar jurisdictions, have attempted to pair enforcement actions with outreach and housing efforts so that folks can move from encampments into housing. At present, data are inconclusive about the effectiveness of encampment resolution efforts in achieving long term housing stability (Kendall).

As the state and localities invest in this model, it is imperative that we are able to answer the following questions:

What are the key factors that make encampment resolutions effective or not?  Given America’s history of over policing people of color, how can encampment resolution efforts ensure housing and services are provided equitably?  Which types of governmental support and service provision are necessary to move folks off the street and into housing?  What is the appropriate time frame for resolving encampments and what can be done in the interim?  What approaches in encampment resolution are working and how can we amplify those efforts?  We hope you will join us at our September symposium to seek answers to these questions and more!

 

Panelists:

• Kim Olsen – Executive Director, West Valley Homes Yes
• Ann Pacia – Associate Director for Metro LA Programs, People Assisting the Homeless
• Daymond Johnson – Founder/ CEO of Community Crisis Housing Management
• Clifton Jones
• Marissa Cuellar – Science & Research Analyst, Abt Associates
• Nick Weinmeister – Project Specialist, Homelessness Policy Research Institute

Moderators:

• Nichole Fiore – Principal Associate, Abt Associates
• Gary Painter – Director, Homelessness Policy Research Institute
• Saba Mwine – Managing Director, Homelessness Policy Research Institute

 

Panelist Bios

Kim Olsen – Executive Director, West Valley Homes Yes

Kim Olsen is an advocate for our unhoused neighbors. During the start of the pandemic, Kim sourced food and mobilized volunteers in the West San Fernando Valley to address the food insecurity and distress she was seeing in the community. Today, this work has transformed into a nonprofit with the largest volunteer-led outreach program in the San Fernando Valley, serving hundreds of unhoused Angelenos each week. She created food pantry pop-ups, organized sanitation stations, organized emergency frozen water drops on the hottest days of the year, emergency winter supply distribution before and during the worst storms and facilitated voter registration drives to elevate the voices of our unhoused neighbors. She also partnered with the Department of Health Services to facilitate Covid-19 vaccines and to increase harm reduction supplies in the encampments that WVHY serves.

As Executive Director of West Valley Homes Yes (WVHY), Kim is focused on building collaboration across Los Angeles in support of better housing, health outcomes, and overall well-being for our unhoused neighbors. Kim created WVHY’s RV Program which is focused on service-first to decrease the total number of recreational vehicles and car dwellers living in uninhabitable vehicles across the San Fernando Valley. This successful program is elevating WVHY’s unique, individualized, holistic and trauma-informed work and is creating the groundwork for a citywide protocol to work with unhoused neighbors living in recreational vehicles and cars. Earlier this year, Kim received a 2023 Pioneer Woman of the Year award from the Los Angeles Civil + Human Rights and Equity Department for her pioneering work in homelessness. Kim Olsen was born and raised in Los Angeles and received a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from UCLA.

 

Ann Pacia – Associate Director for Metro LA Programs, People Assisting the Homeless

Ann began her career with PATH in 2015 as a Care Navigator and has served Angelenos experiencing homelessness ever since. She has served as Program Manager to a variety of outreach programs including Council District 1, the Downtown Business Improvement District and Starbucks as well as Outreach Coordination for the entire SPA 4. She is now PATH’s Associate Director for Metro LA Programs, leading multiple outreach and service initiatives across Los Angeles. Ann was nominated by Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez, Council District 1 to be a recipient of the 2023 Pioneer Women Award for her efforts to solve the homelessness crisis. Ann is dedicated to helping those who are underserved. Outside of work, Ann enjoys traveling with her husband and trying new foods. She is a first-time mom who loves spending time with her 8-month-old son.

 

Marissa Cuellar – Science & Research Analyst, Abt Associates

Marissa Cuellar, MPA is a multilingual social policy researcher at Abt Associates with a focus on homelessness, employment, and economic well-being. She contributed to the 2022 Annual Homeless Assessment Report to Congress and has gained specific knowledge on the context of homelessness in Los Angeles through an evaluation of California’s Project Roomkey and studying distinct approaches to encampment resolution efforts across the San Fernando Valley. Prior to Abt, she worked in roles focused on community engagement in New Mexico and has continued to build on this interest at Abt, conducting outreach and interviews with individuals receiving guaranteed income, people experiencing homelessness, and individuals in HUD’s Stepped and Tiered Rent Demonstration (Moving to Work 2).

 

Nick Weinmeister – Project Specialist, Homelessness Policy Research Institute

Nick Weinmeister (he/him/his) is a Project Specialist at the Homelessness Policy Research Institute. He holds a Master of Public Policy from the USC Price School of Public Policy, where he developed his interests in housing and homelessness policy, as well as strategies using policy, research, and communication as tools to pursue social and racial justice.

Nick comes to HPRI after working with the policy team at the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority. During his time in local government, Nick facilitated a variety of research on emerging issues in homelessness, created policies pursuant to the goals of the Los Angeles Continuum of Care, developed processes to ensure high levels of culturally-informed agency operations, and wrote myriad reports and resources for providers, elected officials, and the general public. In his free time, Nick loves to attend live music performances and watch and play soccer.

 

Nichole Fiore – Principal Associate, Abt Associates

Ms. Fiore is a Principal Associate with Abt Associates with over 15 years of experience evaluating housing and homelessness programs across the country, developing deep expertise on homeless service system alignment and coordination, organizational capacity, political and community will, unsheltered homelessness, and permanent supportive housing. During her time at Abt, Ms. Fiore has successfully managed complex multimethod research projects, including the State of California’s Homeless System Landscape Assessment, the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation’s Chronic Homelessness Initiative Evaluation, the California Community Foundation’s Accelerating Permanent Supportive Housing Evaluation, LAHSA’s Transitional Housing for Youth Evaluation, and the United Way of Greater Los Angeles’ Investigating Housing Models for Accelerating PSH Production Evaluation. She has also contributed to HUD’s Family Options Study, the HHS/HUD Study of Homeless Encampments, and HUD’s Homelessness Prevention Study. Her skills include: collecting and analyzing qualitative and quantitative data; analyzing system alignment and coordination; working with diverse stakeholders to plan and execute evaluations; and conducting site visits, focus groups, and interviews.

 

Selected Relevant Readings from the Research Catalogue

Here are some research readings, including some authored by our panelists, from our catalogue that provide useful insights on encampments and unsheltered homelessness.

Barocas et al. (2023). “Population-Level Health Effects of Involuntary Displacement of People Experiencing Unsheltered Homelessness Who Inject Drugs in US Cities.” Journal of American Medical Association. https://hpri.usc.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Health-Effects-of-Involuntary-Displacement.pdf

Caprara, C., Obermark, D., Rountree, J., Santillano, R. (2022). “Serious Mental Illness among People who are Unsheltered in Los Angeles.” California Policy Lab. https://www.capolicylab.org/serious-mental-illness-among-people-who-are-unsheltered-in-los-angeles/

Chiang, J., Bluthenthal, R., Wenger, L., Auerswald, C., Henwood, B., Kral, A. (2022). “Health risk associated with residential relocation among people who inject drugs in Los Angeles and San Francisco, CA: a cross sectional study.” BMC Public Health. https://hpri.usc.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Health-Risks-of-Injection-Drugs.pdf 

Dunton, L., Yetvin, W., Fiore, N., Kwan, C. (2023). “From Policy to Practice: Responses to Homeless Encampments in Los Angeles.” Abt Associates. https://www.hiltonfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Encampments-Brief_Abt-Associates_3.28.23_FINAL-1.pdf

Feldman, B.J., Feldman, C.T., Coulourides-Kogan, A. (2023). “The California Street Medicine Landscape Survey and Report.” California Health Care Foundation. https://www.chcf.org/publication/ca-street-medicine-landscape-survey-report/

Lanz, P., Cunningham, T., Nguyen, H., White, P., Bar, F. (2021). “Skid Row Power Now! A Participatory Co-design Project to Power up Digital Devices in Skid Row.” 10th International Conference on Communities and Technologies. https://socialinnovation.usc.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/CT21-31-final-SkidRowPowerNow.pdf

Montgomery, A.E., Szymkowiak, D., Culhane, D. (2017). “Gender Differences in Factors Associated with Unsheltered Status and Increased Risk of Premature Mortality among Individuals Experiencing Homelessness.” Women’s Health Issue. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1049386716303528?via%3Dihub

Richards, J., Henwood, B.F., Porter, N., Kuhn, R. (2023). “Examining the Role of Duration and Frequency of Homelessness on Health Outcomes Among Unsheltered Young Adults.” https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1054139X23003233

Weare, Christopher. (2019). “Counting the Homeless: Improving Knowledge of the Unsheltered Homeless Population.” Homelessness Policy Research Institute. https://socialinnovation.usc.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Christopher-Weare-Counting-the-Homeless.pdf

Weare, C., McElwain, L., Schiele, D., Waheed, L. (2021). “Safe Parking: Insights from a Review of National Programs.” Center for Homeless Inquiries. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5e40681539b77957555f10e0/t/609ef366f1f5035bc056db19/1621029735677/Safe+Parking+Briefer+Final.pdf

Wusinich, C., Bond, L., Nathanson, A., Padgett, D. (2019). “‘If you’re gonna help me, help me’: Barriers to Housing Among Unsheltered Homeless Adults.” ScienceDirect: Evaluation and Program Planning. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0149718918303823?via%3Dihub