Homeless News

The requests made by the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles (HACLA) and the Los Angeles County Development Authority (LACDA) were approved by the Department of Housing and Urban Development last week as part of the All Inside Initiative. The main reason for doing so was to lower the local requirements for housing vouchers.

One of the six communities part of the All Inside Initiative is Los Angeles launched by the White House and USICH in May. The Initiative brings together all federal, state, and local leaders to move people from the streets to their homes which in turn will help them to recover from homelessness trauma and enable them to rebuild their lives. The other communities part of the All Inside Initiative are Chicago, Dallas, Phoenix Metro, Seattle, and the State of California. The Biden Administration will embed a federal official into each community and deploy federal teams to work with state leaders and reduce regulatory barriers to housing and health care.

Besides HUD, there are plenty of agencies that have joined the initiative including the Departments of Agriculture, Energy and Human Services, Treasury and Veteran Affairs, Transportation, the General Services Administration, and the Social Security Administration.

HUD’s Secretary Marcia L. Fudge said, “HUD is committed to supporting every community’s effort to solve homelessness by helping vulnerable people obtain housing and supportive services. In light of the extraordinary crisis of homelessness that exists in Los Angeles, HUD is allowing the Los Angeles housing authorities to modify a rule that too often delays people’s access to the assistance they need to move from the streets or temporary housing into healthy, stable, affordable homes.”

The housing choice vouchers which help families and people with low incomes to afford rental housing in the market are a key part of the federal strategies to reduce homelessness. The waiver approved by HUD will allow housing authorities in Los Angeles to issue housing choice vouchers to people experiencing homelessness and then verify their income via third-party sources.

HUD has awarded nearly 7400 housing choice vouchers since the beginning of 2020 out of which, 5300 are emergency housing choice vouchers for people experiencing homelessness. HUD has also approved numerous waiver requests facilitating the use of housing choice vouchers.