Give people housing now by supporting new SHARE! Recovery Retreat
SHARE! is asking for your support for an innovative approach to housing people in Los Angeles: A two-week residential SHARE! Recovery Retreat during which people are connected to permanent housing.
The State of California funded a SHARE! Recovery Retreat in North Hollywood that targeted unhoused people with serious mental health issues. During the grant period, SHARE! was able to permanently house 83 percent of people during their two-week stays. We are asking for support to expand this program to more people in Los Angeles. The addition of a SHARE! Recovery Retreat to SHARE! Collaborative Housing would allow SHARE! to permanently house at least 200 of the most difficult people to house a year.
This proven approach begins with a two-week stay at a SHARE! Recovery Retreat, where people engage in recovery activities, including conflict resolution, life skills, recovery planning and self-help support groups. They are supported in pursuing housing, rental assistance (if needed) and jobs. They then move into SHARE! Collaborative Housing or other housing (not shelters) prepared to get jobs and off of government benefits.
During a year’s time, the SHARE! Recovery Retreat in North Hollywood connected 151 people (133 unhoused, 102 with substance use issues) to housing, jobs and other services:
- 56 housed through SHARE! Collaborative Housing and other programs
- 27 went to live with family or friends
- 29 found a job
- 13 went to rehab
- 9 went to a shelter
- 7 went to a hospital
- 6 unknown
Click here to read the stories and testimonials which demonstrate how, after a two-week stay and connection to SHARE! Collaborative Housing, people’s lives changed for the better. They found support and tools to get housing, jobs, recovery, and community.
How SHARE! Collaborative Housing works
As part of the Coordinated Entry System, SHARE! Collaborative Housing receives calls from people needing housing and their case managers. SHARE!’s experience has been that waiting for income or documents often means that unhoused people change their minds and never get housed. By moving people into a SHARE! Recovery Retreat immediately, they have two weeks to get some recovery while they are matched with a house and rental assistance if needed.
SHARE! seeks $1,000,000 in funding to offset the bulk of the cost of 5- or 6-bedroom houses for use as SHARE! Recovery Retreats, serving various areas of Los Angeles County.
This will allow SHARE! to find permanent placement for 2,000 adults with serious mental health issues over 10 years. At the end of their stay, 83 percent will be housed, as the SHARE! Recovery Retreat in North Hollywood has demonstrated.
SHARE! has raised $189,783 towards this project and will use these additional funds to supplement the purchase of the SHARE! Recovery Retreat homes, make improvements per the Americans with Disabilities Act, and furnish them. It will cost $611,000 a year to operate each SHARE! Recovery Retreat–$500,432 for salaries and benefits for nine staff who are in recovery from serious mental health issues, substance use issues, trauma and/or homelessness. Other expenses come to $110,568. These services will be covered by SHARE!’s existing contracts with Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health and Los Angeles County Department of Health Services, as well as other funding sources.
Less taxpayer burden, improved communities
The Economic Roundtable found that an unhoused person in Los Angeles cost the county government $34,764 a year. SHARE!’s target population is people with serious mental health challenges, many with substance use issues, which arguably makes them even more expensive to serve. The project will save the government at least $3,653,000 a year for each SHARE! Recovery Retreat opened when the cost of running the project—the SHARE! Recovery Retreatand SHARE! Collaborative Housing—are subtracted. The savings over 10 years are $36.53 million. And at least 2,000 people will get their lives back and no longer live on the streets of Los Angeles. The project relieves the distress of family members and improves communities.
The Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) reports that 22 percent of those placed in Permanent Supportive Housing in LA County become unhoused again within four years. LAHSA data shows that 96 percent of those placed in SHARE! Collaborative Housing are still housed four years later. SHARE!’s programs stop the cycle of homelessness. The project adds a SHARE! Recovery Retreat to SHARE! Collaborative Housing which will end homelessness for many of the most difficult to house people.
Our timeline for obligating funds is as soon as possible. The crisis for those unhoused in Los Angeles is acute. As SHARE! receives funding for each SHARE! Recovery Retreat, SHARE! will purchase a 5- or 6-bedroom house and open it up in a few short months.
How will the project measure success?
The project performance measures are:
- The number of unhoused people who stay at the SHARE! Recovery Retreats
- The number of people who get housed from the SHARE! Recovery Retreats
- Length of stay in SHARE! Collaborative Housing
- Where people moved upon leaving SHARE! Collaborative Housing
- Number of people returning to homelessness as seen in LAHSA data
SHARE! will also track the demographics of people staying at the SHARE! Recovery Retreats.
This plan is ready to be implemented and will make a significant difference in the lives of people in Los Angeles.
Click here for testimonials and more
Change someone’s life today by supporting SHARE!’s vision to end homelessness.
