Housing costs have risen nationally every single year for a decade, with the trend finally breaking in September of 2022 (Gopal). Nowhere was this painful trend more evident than along the West Coast where housing markets in Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco/Bay Area, and Seattle frequently make the top 5 in terms of high prices for housing (Ziraldo). We know that most of the West Coast has failed to build adequate new, affordable housing while demand to work and live in urban areas has reached a fever pitch across the globe (Levin). Even when Los Angeles passed housing bonds to address its affordable housing gap, the difficulties in permitting processes, pushback from communities of property owners, and high construction costs have prevented those large local investments from noticeably reducing its housing shortage (Klein). In light of these trends, what strategies have different localities across the Pacific coast employed? What successes have been achieved? What lessons have been learned? What are the most actionable steps we can take to increase housing stability and decrease homelessness? Do any of these solutions have implications for gentrification/displacement?

Presenters and Panelists:

Rachel Fyall, Associate Professor, University of Washington’s Evans School of Public Policy and Governance; Faculty Co-lead, Urban@UW’s Homelessness Research Initiative
Rachel Fyall (Ph.D., Public Affairs, Indiana University, 2014) is an Associate Professor at the Evans School of Public Policy and Governance at the University of Washington. Her research investigates the formation of public policy and the implementation of public services, particularly within the areas of low-income housing and homelessness. Dr. Fyall is a mixed methodologist, with extensive experience in qualitative methods, survey research, and quantitative evaluation. Dr. Fyall’s research has been published in Housing Policy Debate, Housing and Society, Public Administration Review, Policy Studies Journal, Cityscape, and Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly. She is a faculty affiliate of the West Coast Poverty Center and the Center for Studies in Demography and Ecology, both at UW, as well as the Faculty Co-Chair of the Urban@UW Homelessness Research Initiative. Before pursuing her doctorate, Dr. Fyall worked in housing policy at the Housing Development Consortium of Seattle-King County.

Felicia Salcedo, Executive Director, We Are In
Felicia Salcedo (she/her) is the Executive Director of We Are In. As a regional leader, strategist and advocate for racial equity and social justice, she strives to build authentic relationships, utilize data to drive towards measurable results, and support the leadership of people with lived experience of homelessness. Salcedo has worked for Public Health – Seattle & King County, supporting overdose prevention and harm reduction solutions to substance use disorder. She has also worked at C4 Innovations, providing technical assistance, tools, and training to communities across the nation and for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), embedding racial equity principles within its funding guidelines, housing policies, practices, and services. Previously, Salcedo was the External Relations Manager for All Home, the Seattle/King County Continuum of Care Lead, where she developed cross-sector community partnerships in support of ending homelessness.

Reba Stevens, Homelessness Advocate
Reba Stevens is an advocate and activist who experienced homelessness for 21 years in Los Angeles. She has used her experience to promote approaches that will yield the greatest impact for anyone in a housing crisis.
She possesses a unique understanding of the mental health, criminal justice, and substance abuse treatment systems in Los Angeles County because of incidents she had with each one. A mental health diagnosis and health resources were the lynchpins to her successful road to recovery and journey out of homelessness. These life changing markers fuel her passion to ensure that mental health and substance abuse screenings and treatment are funded; and accessible and embedded in all facets of service delivery for people experiencing homelessness as well as those who are now housed after being homeless.
Reba’s service to community includes numerous cross-departmental appointments to strategic and major bodies that drive policy and practice in homelessness, mental health, criminal justice, and substance abuse areas. She currently serves on the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health-Service Area 6 Advisory Committee, Los Angeles City & County Office of Diversion and Re-entry Prop 47 Steering Committee, Los Angeles County Steering Committee on Black People Experiencing Homelessness, Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health Commission, Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority Continuum of Care Board, LGBT South Community Advisory Board, SPA 6 Homeless Coalition, USC Homelessness Policy Research Institute and USC/UCLA (PCHOOSE Study) Person-centered, Housing Options, Outcomes Services & Environment and newly appointed to the California Interagency Council on Homelessness Advisory Committee.
Her unabashed voice for equality and humility in serving people experiencing homelessness is largely documented in print and broadcast media such as the Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Daily News, NBC Universal, Free Your Mind Projects Radio Show, KABC-AM (AM790), Hope on The Horizon MHSOAC News Publication, Making Sense of Measure H: Dr. Mitch Katz and Reba Stevens with Pat Prescott (94.7 The Wave), Unsheltered… New Possibilities TEDx Crenshaw (Ted Talk), and Strategic Concepts in Organizing & Policy Education (SCOPE).
Reba is a mother of 4, the fur parent of two lovely Boston Terriers Sage & Star, and a Los Angeles native.

Dr. Christopher Weare, Director of Research and Outcome Management, Santa Clara County Behavioral Health Services
Christopher Weare, Ph.D. is the Research Director for the Santa Clara County Behavioral Health System. He is also President of the Center for Homeless Inquiries, a non-profit research organization that he founded when he identified a need to improve the capacity of policy makers and program managers to incorporate data analysis into addressing homelessness. He has over 25 years of experience in public policy as a researcher, professor, and practitioner. Previously, he was the Manager of Data Analytics and Research at Sacramento Steps Forward, the lead agency for Sacramento’s Homelessness Continuum of Care and a research professor at the USC Price School of Public Policy where he led major, grant–funded research projects on citizen engagement, e-government, and performance management. Prior to being at the USC Price School, Dr. Weare conducted research at the Public Policy Institute of California. There he authored a report on the 2001 California Electricity Crisis that Sacramento Bee Columnist Dan Weintraub called “the best thing written about the crisis I have seen.”
Dr. Weare also has extensive experience as a practitioner. Most recently, he advised Mayor Garcetti’s administration in Los Angeles on a major set of management reforms to create an innovative, data-centric management culture within City operations. With Mayor Hahn’s and Villaraigosa’s administrations he developed a system of participatory budgeting for Los Angeles that remains in place to this day.
Dr. Weare received a BA in Government from Harvard University and a MPP and Ph.D. in Public Policy from the University of California, Berkeley. He lives in San Francisco with his wife, who is a USC Professor. They all enjoy taking advantage of a house in Bolinas to commune with the beautiful California coast.

Marisa Zapata, Associate Professor of Land-Use Planning at Portland State University; Director, PSU Homelessness Research & Action Collaborative
Dr. Marisa Zapata is an Associate Professor of land-use planning and Director of the Homelessness Research & Action Collaborative at Portland State University, an interdisciplinary research center dedicated to reducing homelessness and its negative impacts on individuals, families, and communities, with an emphasis on communities of color. As an educator, scholar, and planner, Dr. Zapata is committed to achieving spatially-based social justice by preparing planners to act in the face of the uncertain and inequitable futures we face. She believes how we use land reflects our social and cultural values.

Facilitators:
Gary Painter, Director, Homelessness Policy Research Institute
Saba Mwine, Managing Director, Homelessness Policy Research Institute