Evaluating Keep People housed: Oakland's Targeted Homelessness Prevention Program

Mira Joseph, Cypress Marrs, Chi-Hyun Kim, Iris Zhang, Vincent Reina, and Jackelyn Hwang

Read the full report here.

In July 2023, the City of Oakland’s Housing and Community Development Department, in collaboration with Bay Area Community Services, launched a Homelessness Prevention Pilot (HPP), also called Keep People Housed, as pandemic-era residential stability programs ended. The program was conceptualized as a lifeline for low- income tenants experiencing extreme housing instability by providing short-term financial assistance and resource coordination. In just over a year, the program received 3,915 applications and assisted 1,146 households. With funding from the City of Oakland, 374 households identified as being at high risk of homelessness were assisted; additional philanthropic support allowed the program to serve an additional 772 highly vulnerable households. The Changing Cities Research Lab at Stanford University and the Housing Initiative at Penn at the University of Pennsylvania served as evaluation partners, analyzing the program’s operations and impact through program, survey, and interview data.

• The program conducted outreach in high-needs communities through partnerships with community-based organizations. Over fifty percent of applicants reported paying seventy percent or more of their income on housing costs, and twenty-four percent reported that they experienced homelessness in the prior two years.
  
  
• Eighty-five percent of survey participants who received assistance through the program agreed or strongly agreed that they would have lost their housing without the program’s assistance. Eligible applicants who received assistance from the program experienced homelessness less often than those who did not; however, this may be due to pre-existing differences between the two groups.
  
  
• Some households who had encountered a temporary financial shock, like a job loss or injury, before applying reported increased confidence in their ability to maintain stable housing going forward following assistance from the program. Other households faced long-term barriers, including disability and caregiving responsibilities, to maintaining stable housing and would benefit from longer-term support.
  
  
• Waiting times hampered the program’s ability to provide crucial emergency assistance to the highly vulnerable population it aimed to support. Applicants who applied with the support of a community-based organization were more likely to receive assistance through the program relative to other applicants. Utilizing community partnerships and ensuring staff capacity to process applications quickly should be a priority for policymakers and program administrators when designing support programs for at-risk households.

Read the report here.