2024 Impact Report

The results are clear – homelessness dropped in Los Angeles this year for the first time in six years. Mayor Karen Bass has made addressing homelessness her top priority, and the Mayor’s Fund for Los Angeles led the effort to prevent evictions and homelessness in the first place.

It has been over a year since the Mayor’s Fund for Los Angeles shifted its focus to preventing Angelenos from falling into homelessness through our We Are LA program. We have reached out to more than 430,000 Angelenos and helped at least 23,000 residents stabilize their housing.

We Are LA helps prevent homelessness by connecting Angelenos in danger of eviction to all the resources that may be available to them, like CalFresh, MediCal, the Earned Income Tax Credit, and the Child Tax Credit. We also assist individuals and families to respond to eviction notices and connect them to the legal services that will help them stay in their homes.

In 2024, we began sending direct mail to households that received eviction notices, ensuring those who need our help most know where to turn for help. We formed a new partnership with U.S.VETS, and we established a Foster Youth Program to help prevent young adults aging out of the foster care system from becoming homeless, in partnership with the RightWay Foundation and the Children’s Law Center of California.

The Mayor’s Fund has already made a substantial impact, but with 45,000 people still living on the streets of LA each night, we need to improve and expand what we’re doing to meet the crisis. We’re working to better connect a greater number of Angelenos to direct legal representation, expanding our outreach to vulnerable communities, and conducting an independent study assessing the outcomes of our efforts.

We can’t do this work alone. We are very grateful to our generous donors, to our partners, and to the board members who give so generously of their time and expertise.

By locking arms together, we are helping Angelenos stay housed. With your continued partnership and support, we will make continued, critically necessary progress over the coming year.

We Are Los Angeles (We Are LA) is the Mayor’s Fund’s primary eviction prevention program. The goal is to connect Angelenos in danger of losing their home to all the available resources for which they may be eligible in order to help them remain stably housed.

When an individual or family contacts We Are LA for help, we meet with them, discuss their situation, and determine what resources are available. We offer the following assistance:

To reach as many Angelenos at-risk of eviction as possible, we make it easy to connect to We Are LA services. Our strategies include:

– Elizabeth, We Are LA tenant

This year, we launched a partnership with Children’s Law Center of California and the RightWay Foundation, to provide crucial support services for 20-year-olds transitioning out of the foster care system in Los Angeles County – about 60 per month. An estimated 40% of this population becomes homeless or incarcerated, which drives the importance and urgency to help these young people lead stable, healthy adult lives.

– Annissa, Former foster youth and Caseworker at the RightWay Foundation

In the coming year, we are expanding and improving services in the following ways:

Expanding the Foster Youth program to serve more young adults and better connect them to housing.

Improving our legal resources model to provide a greater number of tenants fighting eviction with a lawyer representing them in court.

Increasing outreach and services to immigrant individuals and families, expanding the current Spanish-speaking offerings.

Commissioning an independent study of program effectiveness and learnings led by the Center for Urban Resilience at Loyola Marymount University.

In 2023, we saw the first decrease in homelessness in years. That’s because on Day 1, we launched an urgent and comprehensive strategy to save lives – and at the center of that effort is prevention.

If we cannot prevent Angelenos from falling into homelessness, we will not be able to make progress on this crisis.

That’s where the Mayor’s Fund comes in.

The Mayor’s Fund is executing unprecedented work to help Angelenos at risk of falling into homelessness – and I’ve been especially proud that LA’s government, philanthropic, and business communities have all come together to support on this important issue.

The Mayor’s Fund’s We Are LA program has become a one-stop resource for Angelenos facing eviction. In partnership with the City, all LA renters who receive an eviction notice are able to be connected to available benefits and tax credits to help stretch their money further and often stabilize their housing. Tenants also gain direct access to full legal representation to navigate the complicated eviction process and help negotiate a mutually agreeable result between the tenants and landlords.

The new Foster Youth Program is filling a critically important need by connecting youth aging out of foster care to both housing assistance and wraparound services. A majority of homeless youth in Los Angeles have been in foster care, and too many are also victims of trafficking. So this program is crucial. It helps prevent homelessness, provides stability, and enhances well-being for some of LA’s most vulnerable youth.

We’ve seen real progress in ensuring every Angeleno has a safe, stable place to live, and the prevention efforts led by the Mayor’s Fund play a significant part in that success. I’m deeply grateful for the Mayor’s Fund’s work and for Angelenos support for the Mayor’s Fund.

Sincerely,
Mayor Karen Bass

July 1, 2023 – June 30, 2024