Key Performance Indicators are helping to inform how Los Angeles addresses the homelessness crisis.
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for Homelessness Services in Los Angeles
More than 70,000 people experience homelessness on any given night in Los Angeles. As public investment in solutions to address this crisis has grown, so too has the need for data and evidence to monitor progress in ending homelessness. Since 2022, CPL has supported these goals by partnering with system leaders to develop and calculate “Key Performance Indicators” (KPIs) for homelessness services.
In their simplest form, KPIs are high level data points to help understand how the system is serving people and how well its component parts are achieving their goals. Those data points include:
- How many people are served by street outreach, interim housing (e.g., shelter), and permanent housing programs
- Transitions from one program to another (e.g., the number of people served by street outreach programs who subsequently access interim housing, or how many people are connected to permanent housing)
- Retention in permanent housing, including how many people return to homelessness
- Where individuals go after exiting programs
Project Background
Status: ongoing
This project started with the Los Angeles Homelessness Services Authority (LASHA) in 2022. LAHSA is the lead agency for the Coordinated Entry System (CES), which coordinates housing and services for families and individuals experiencing homelessness in Los Angeles County. LAHSA manages over $800 million annually in federal, state, county, and city funds for programs that provide shelter, housing, and services to people experiencing homelessness. In 2023, the project was expanded to include Los Angeles County departments administering homelessness services and housing programs, including, but not limited to, the Department of Health Services and the Department of Mental Health.
KPIs are not program-specific evaluations and they should not be interpreted as causal estimates but rather descriptive indicators of trends. KPIs can establish facts shared across various stakeholders, inform joint decision-making and collaboration, reduce confusion from conflicting reports, and incentivize data quality improvement strategies.
Key Performance Indicators for LAHSA
Beginning in 2022, LAHSA leadership defined performance goals for the four largest types of homelessness services:
- Street outreach services;
- Interim housing;
- Time-limited housing subsidies (sometimes referred to as Rapid Re-housing); and
- Permanent supportive housing
The overarching goal is to help support people to achieve successful transitions out of homelessness. For example, this could mean helping somebody move into a shelter (instead of living on the street), and then helping them move to a permanent housing placement that will end homelessness for that person or household. By adopting these KPIs, system leaders can better see where the system is working as intended – and where there is room for improvement.
Once LAHSA set the policy goals for the system, CPL translated those goals into quantitative metrics using data from the Homelessness Management Information System (HMIS). CPL is also providing ongoing support to calculate these metrics. The KPIs are also disaggregated by population type (adults, families and transition-aged youth), race, ethnicity, gender, and age, which will help policymakers and program administrators see how well the system is working for different groups.
Throughout this iterative development process, LAHSA and CPL sought out and incorporated feedback on the metrics from a wide range of stakeholders, including the City of Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, LAHSA staff, service providers, the Homeless Youth Forum of Los Angeles (HYFLA), the Lived Experience Advisory Board (LEAB), and CPL’s own Community Advisory Board.
Results
Since September 2022, LAHSA and CPL have jointly produced five sets of System KPI data. Each quarter, LAHSA uses this data to update its oversight commission and releases data publicly on their website. The 2022 LAHSA Commission presentations are found here:
- Adults
- Families (Begins on page 55)
- Transition Aged Youth
Each quarter, LAHSA uploads the most recent set of data tables at the bottom of their data landing page.
Those tables can also be downloaded here:
Below is an example of one indicator included in the data tables that LAHSA makes available each quarter. This one provides the percentage of all adults served by interim housing programs each quarter who transition into a permanent housing program. It shows that these transitions are up by more than two percentage points in the most recent fiscal quarter in comparison to the previous quarter, and at a higher rate last quarter than all quarters in the previous fiscal year.
Quarterly Transitions from Interim Housing to Permanent Housing for Adults in Los Angeles
LA County Also Adopts Key Performance Indicators
LAHSA is not the only funder and administrator of homelessness services in Los Angeles. Los Angeles County — primarily through its Department of Health Services, Department of Mental Health Services, and Department of Social Services — also funds and administers street outreach, interim housing, housing subsidies, and permanent supportive housing. These services are frequently tracked in data systems outside the HMIS. To gain a true understanding of progress, these services and related data need to be integrated in a comprehensive set of performance metrics that could be reviewed by all system leaders.
Through the Executive Steering Committee for IT and Data Governance, in 2023, LAHSA and the County agencies formed a working group to review and agree on common performance metrics and a work plan to integrate these additional services and related data sources. These efforts are ongoing and responsive to recommendations made by the Blue Ribbon Commission on Homelessness to establish data governance, improve data infrastructure, and develop Countywide System Key Performance Indicators, among others. The County Board of Supervisors adopted these recommendations in March 2022.
CPL Project Team
Janey Rountree (Executive Director), Colin Caprara (Senior Data Analyst), Dean Obermark (Senior Data Analyst).
Partners
CPL supports the work of the Los Angeles County Executive Steering Committee for Data and IT Governance, and the members of its Key Performance Indicator Working Group, which include:
- Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA)
- Los Angeles County Chief Executive Office Homeless Initiative (CEO-HI)
- Los Angeles County Chief Information Office (CEO-CIO)
- Los Angeles County Department of Health Services (DHS)
- Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health (DMH)
- Los Angeles County Department of Social Services (DPSS)
- Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS)
- Los Angeles County Department of Public Health (DPH)