We can stop homelessness before it happens. Effective prevention strategies use the latest research to target emergency financial assistance, housing stabilization services, and legal services to the people most likely to experience homelessness (“targeted prevention”). 

All Home is advancing a regional strategy and targeted program model to keep people in their homes, reduce the number of people being pushed into homelessness across our region, and redress racial disparities in who becomes homeless.

The Need for a Regional Strategy and Targeted Program Model

Across the Bay Area, about three people are becoming homeless for every one that is housed by homeless response systems. The region’s undersupply of housing, along with extreme income inequality, low-paying jobs that don’t cover high housing costs, and a fraying social safety net, are driving increases in homelessness. As long as more people are being pushed into homelessness than housed, the problem will get worse. This is why preventing homelessness—balancing entries and exits—is critical to ending it.

When All Home started, there was no regional consensus on what homelessness prevention really meant. Most cities and counties—to the extent that they were funding homelessness prevention at all—were not targeting their limited resources efficiently and equitably, to the people most at risk of ending up on the street. Many programs still serve clients on a first-come, first-served basis, relying on eligibility criteria rather than evidence. 

screenshot of fact sheet on targeted homelessness prevention
See our fact sheet about targeted homelessness prevention

All Home knew the region could do better, and we set out to build consensus around a more strategic, targeted approach. We started with promising examples from the field, where early adopters of the targeted prevention program model were distributing their resources to high-risk households with great results:

  • Santa Clara County: Destination: Home launched its Homelessness Prevention System (HPS) in 2017. Since the pilot phase, the HPS has served over 5,400 high-risk households, with a 97% housing retention rate after one year and a 94% housing retention rate after two years.
  • City of Oakland: Bay Area Community Services (BACS) launched Keep People Housed—Oakland (KPH) in 2018. Since the pilot phase, KPH has served more than 7,700 high-risk households, with a 92% housing retention rate from 2018-2021 and a 93% housing retention rate from 2021-2023.

We partnered with Bay Area Community Services (BACS) to develop a technology platform that could help the model scale. The platform hosts a portal for each program, with an online application available in several languages; an assessment tool we developed with researchers, which scores applications based on risk factors (e.g., previous experience of homelessness); and a secure “back end” where service providers can verify applications and target flexible financial assistance and services to high-scoring households.

We piloted our technology during the pandemic, distributing tens of millions of dollars in federal rent relief in Fremont, Oakland, and San Francisco. Service providers in our partner networks processed more than 11,000 checks (about $7,250 per household), and our assessment tool helped the resources reach the highest-risk applicants:

  • More than 97% of households had very low incomes (below 50% of the AMI)..
  • More than 36% had previously experienced homelessness.
  • More than 15% had received an eviction notice.
  • More than 77% identified as BIPOC.

All Home’s Regional Homelessness Prevention System

All Home’s Regional Action Plan—the RAP—provides a roadmap for creating rapid and substantial reductions in unsheltered homelessness across our region. To get there, we need investments in interim and permanent housing as well as targeted prevention, to help reach the people most at risk of ending up on the street and keep them in their housing.

We are currently expanding our pilot programs into a first-of-its-kind, regionally coordinated homelessness prevention system with programs in several communities: 

As of January 2024, our pilots and programs have targeted flexible financial assistance and services to more than 16,500 households across the region. Our program model pairs flexible financial assistance with housing-focused services, as well as legal referrals for all households facing eviction. We are also piloting employment services for jobseekers.

To build our system, we partner with local government agencies and service provider networks. Thanks to philanthropic partners who share our vision, we have raised a pooled prevention fund, which allows us to offer our technology platform at no cost to government partners as well as make accelerator grants to launch new programs. A significant share of each budget is financial assistance that goes directly to people in need in each community.

The Road Ahead

Our model strives for better household outcomes—preventing the trauma and disruption of homelessness—and better system outcomes too. The more we can fund our model at scale, the more clearly we will start to see system impacts: reduced numbers of people entering or returning to homelessness, and reduced demand for shelter and crisis services.

We have engaged a research partner to design and implement an impact evaluation so that we can learn from and share our long-term impacts. We know that strong prevention programs—scaled to meet community needs—are absolutely critical to reduce homelessness regionally, statewide, and nationally.