Publications on Disabilities

In 2005, the Hilton Foundation gave CSH a five-year grant to launch an initiative in Los Angeles County to reduce the number of long-term homeless people, with a special focus on people with serious mental illness. The Urban Institute, which is evaluating the grant's impact, did a baseline assessment of homelessness and permanent supportive housing in 2005. A 2007 report assessed the policy and system changes that, working with others, CSH efforts had stimulated by that time. This report documents two-year changes in the level of homelessness in Los Angeles and the availability and characteristics of PSH availability. A second policy report will be available in fall 2008.

LA's HOPE is one of five HUD/DOL-funded projects awarded in late 2003 to demonstrate the feasibility of moving chronically homeless adults into permanent housing and helping them return to work. Its structure involved three public and nine nonprofit agencies. LA's HOPE was successful in its primary goals, housing 69 percent of ever-enrolled clients and engaging 84 percent in employment-related activities—54 percent in competitive employment. The project also sought to change the ways that the involved agencies worked together, but was less successful with these system change goals. The report discusses lessons learned, which closely resemble lessons from numerous other evaluations.

Children with disabilities are more likely than other children to live in poverty, live with only one parent, or have parents who are in poor health or unemployed. Our panel of experts discussed the maze of programs and problems confronting children with disabilities and recommended some ways to better coordinate services for this special population.

Panelists discussed the needs of the frail elderly and homeless populations, the missing pieces in housing options, design solutions that can improve accommodations, and ways to better a delivery system that is highly fragmented across jurisdictions and target populations.

Seldom do the needs of children with disabilities divide neatly along program lines. Instead, children and their families navigate a large, complex, and fragmented array of programs with inconsistent eligibility standards, application procedures, and program goals. "Meeting the Needs of Children with Disabilities" examines these programs, focusing on the three largest—special education, Medicaid, and Supplemental Security Income—and suggests ways to unify them into one system that will provide continuous care and support. Efforts at early intervention and prevention and difficulties caused by programs' funding structures are given particular attention.