When we set out to help homeless service providers navigate Medi-Cal renewals, we didn’t expect to uncover another systemic challenge faced by people experiencing homelessness: keeping Medi-Cal when moving across county lines. In this blog post, Policy Analyst, Riley Meve, and Senior Directing Attorney, Julie Silas, share how community conversations led to new collaborations and resources.

Homebase presented on workforce development at the national Housing First Partners Conference in April 2024. This presentation covers retention, burnout and well-being, and living wages.

The research is clear – low wages are directly related to challenges with employee recruitment and retention. There is no single standard for determining adequate wages within an organization or region, but this document includes tools to help determine what an adequate wage may look like in your community.

In 2024, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) introduced a new policy priority focused on building an effective workforce in the Continuum of Care (CoC) Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO). During the awards process, HUD will automatically apply cost of living adjustments to supportive services activities and other staffing-focused budget lines to allow renewal project budgets to keep up with rising costs. This document offers suggestions for how communities and project applicants can leverage this new policy priority to support appropriate staff wages across all CoC-funded projects.

Across the country, organizations serving individuals experiencing homelessness face challenges with recruiting and retaining direct service staff due to low wages. The research is clear – low wages are directly related to challenges with employee recruitment and retention. This resource offers steps organizations and funders can take to improve wages and support front-line workers.

This worksheet presents a list of adverse outcomes resulting from continued homelessness and links them to the characteristics that increase vulnerability to each outcome. It follows with a set of steps that communities can take to update their prioritization factors and schemes.

Homelessness service providers often experience high rates of staff turnover, burnout, and low wages. These resources, shared at the 2024 Housing First Partners Conference, support development of a thriving homelessness systems workforce.

This slidedeck presents strategies for increasing client engagement and reducing no shows.

This slidedeck presents the basics on quality improvement as well as a 6-month action plan template.

This slideck presents an explanation of HUD's System Performance Measures (SPMs) including the kinds of data that impact the SPMs.

This report explores ways to streamline and improve the Medi-Cal renewal processes for people experiencing homelessness, with recommended strategies and best practices based on Homebase’s understanding of the common barriers people experiencing homelessness faced during Medi-Cal’s continuous coverage unwinding, as well as the direct feedback that Homebase received from people experiencing homelessness, their health and homeless services providers, and advocates during our Medi-Cal renewal campaign.

On 6.28.24, the Supreme Court released their decision in City of Grants Pass v. Johnson. They ruled that it isn’t “cruel and unusual punishment” for governments to pass or enforce laws that criminalize sleeping or camping on public property. While this decision overturns Martin v. Boise, it doesn’t require governments to enforce or create laws making sleeping outside or camping a crime. This guide offers resources and steps communities can take to protect people experiencing homelessness and continue to work towards better housing outcomes for residents.

On 7.25.24, the California Governor issued Executive Order N-1-24. The Order directs State departments and agencies under his authority to adopt policies consistent with the California Department of Transportation’s (CalTrans) encampment policy. The Order follows the Supreme Court’s decision in City of Grants Pass v. Johnson, which held that bans prohibiting camping and sleeping in public areas may be enforced. This guide covers what Californians should know about the Order and ideas for how to respond.

This tool covers a set of 5 process steps universally observed in communities working to update their prioritization process: planning, prioritization design, assessment drafting, implementation, and continuous quality improvement.

This training is an introductory overview of Coordinated Entry - what it is, how it works, requirements set by HUD, and considerations for successful Coordinated Entry systems.

Stipends are a recognition of the uniquely valuable insights that people with lived expertise bring to work to respond to and solve homelessness. However, receiving a stipend can have implications for taxes and benefits. This toolkit offers guidance on what to consider when distributing or receiving stipends.

Peer Health Ambassador Programs have been developed to improve health education and connections for people experiencing homelessness by hiring, training, and mentoring health ambassadors who have lived expertise and experiences of homelessness. This toolkit is designed to help new and expanded Peer Health Ambassador Programs design, develop, and implement their programs in ways that are effective, equitable, and specific to the needs of people experiencing homelessness in the community. This toolkit provides foundational information, best practice guidance, and sample resources that can support local design and implementation.

Designed specifically for people with lived experience, this toolkit offers insights on how you can use your lived experience as a marketable skill. The toolkit provides resources for personal and professional development - tapping into your skills, growing your career, and setting yourself up for success.

This training provides guidance on financial management for CoC and ESG recipients, with a focus on timekeeping and match requirements.

This crosswalk compares key requirements of the HOME-ARP Tenant-Based Rental Assistance (TBRA) activity with Continuum of Care Program (CoC) Rapid Rehousing projects (RRH).