Breaking Cycles of Homelessness: Achieving Stability

The cycle of homelessness is a nesting crisis not only in Los Angeles but across the state and country. Even when those who are unhoused get connected to housing or supportive services, some will experience homelessness again. In California, of 75,000 individuals placed into Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH), 8% wound up back on the streets within 6 months. For Californians placed into temporary subsidized housing, the recidivism rate was 23% at 6 months (Christopher, 2023). National research on returning to homelessness shows rates at about 20% for both individuals and families who were in some form of temporary housing (“National Summary of Homeless System Performance,” 2023). Of California’s total unhoused population, 36% are experiencing chronic homelessness (different from returns to homelessness, as those chronically unhoused have a long-standing disability impeding their independent living and have been unhoused more than a year/or on at least four occasions within a 3-year period) (Davalos & Sara, 2023). For Black people experiencing homelessness, the data indicates return rates higher than white and Latinx populations. Black single adults returned to homelessness at 14.2% within a year after exiting PSH, nearly double that of white individuals at 7.3% and Latinx single adults at 8%. For Black families experiencing homelessness, the rates more than triple that of white and Latinx families after exiting PSH at 13.5% in contrast to 4.2% of white families and 3.7% of Latinx families (LAHSA, 2018). Children of families that experience homelessness are vulnerable to later experiences of homelessness. Research indicates that in Los Angeles 20% of unsheltered single adults reported first experiencing homelessness under the age of 18 (Duffield, 2020). The rates of cycling into homelessness vary depending on a multitude of factors such as housing type provided, supportive services offered, and population served. Regardless, with such substantial rates, policy interventions must adapt current approaches to connect people to housing and services that help them achieve overall stability (housing, financial, employment, healthcare, etc.) to truly end the cycles of housing instability and homelessness. 

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