We expect to achieve the following quantifiable outcomes): 1. 200 homeless Orange County families with minor age children (approximately 680 individuals) receive housing assistance 2. 85% of those served secure and maintain stable housing after program completion 3. 75% of parents increase/maintain their annual income to maintain stability for their children Families Forward's Housing Program assists families in achieving self-sufficiency and housing stability with the aim of ending family homelessness in Orange County by 2020. While our comprehensive Housing Program enables us to respond to the reality of family homelessness in Orange County, Families Forward acknowledges that any long-term solution to homelessness must include an increase in the overall supply of permanent affordable housing. Families Forward currently owns or has formalized access to 23 affordable housing units, with an additional 14 units in development and 14 units planned for conversion from interim to affordable housing over the course of 2018. Once these projects are completed, Families Forward will own or operate a total of 51 units of affordable housing. This will assist Families Forward in achieving its 2016-2019 strategic goal of increasing its inventory of accessible affordable, rapid, and shelter units by 25%.

The Housing Program provides housing and supportive services to homeless Orange County families with dependent children. Families Forward participates in the Orange County Continuum of Care (CoC), a public-nonprofit partnership that helps ensure the comprehensive, regional coordination of efforts and resources to reduce the number of individuals who are currently homeless and at risk of becoming homelessness. Families Forward's Housing Intake Coordinator works through the CoC to assess a family's degree of vulnerability. Those who qualify are enrolled in the county-wide Coordinated Entry System, prioritized according to need, and reassigned to various housing agencies within Orange County. Families Forward serves approximately 15-17 families per month for a total of 200 families per year after assignment or match from the Coordinated Entry System. Each family receives a Case Manager who offers accountability around the creation of short and long-term goals, as well as a Housing Resource Specialist who assists with tenant education, housing navigation, and landlord advocacy. Those in need of emergency shelter receive up to one week of motel vouchers while Families Forward prepares an interim unit. Once in interim housing, the family works with their support team to locate a permanent housing solution and overcome key barriers, such as unemployment, eviction history, or poor credit. The Housing Program is designed to assist families for a short period of time, averaging 4-6 months, as they regain independence and take steps towards stability. During this time, families have access to a wide range of supportive services offered at our Program Center in Irvine, including weekly food pantry visits, counseling, career coaching, school supplies in August, and gifts during the holidays. Those who rapidly rehouse into a permanent unit receive steadily decreasing rental assistance. After the family becomes economically self-sufficient, Case Managers check in with the family for up to one year to ensure housing stability.

Housing Program: Placing homeless children and families into stable housing. Families Forward works with homeless families to find realistic solutions for sustainable housing and build individualized plans to return each family to self-sufficiency. By stabilizing these families and giving them tools to build a future, we create a stronger community for all of us. A key factor for success is Families Forward's commitment to collaborate with many organizations to end family homelessness in Orange County, including Orange County United Way, the Commission to End Homelessness, the Children and Families Commission and many other partner agencies and foundations. Only together will we be able to end homelessness in Orange County. Visit the Housing Program page for more information. Community Services: Providing supportive services to improve lives. Families Forward also reaches out to low-income families to help reduce the pressures that can cause homelessness and help them maintain their stability. Through various safety-net services, those at-risk are given access to assistance such as our on-site food pantry, counseling, career coaching, and financial and life skills education. The goal of the program is to help families recover from a financial crisis so they can maintain their self-sufficiency. Visit the services page for more information.

Families Forward utilizes an internal database called Client Track and the HUD-approved Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) to monitor housing and income progress. Using Client Track and our HMIS system, Families Forward is able to report and determine the attainment of goals for both the clients and the organization. Families Forward uses the holistic approach to solving homelessness in Orange County by providing the many stop-gap measures throughout the time that families are in the program. Each family is kept in contact with for up to one year post graduation with assessments taken at 6 and 12 months. Families Forward is proud to state that 97% of families do not return to the homeless provider system during that year post graduation.

Families Forward expanded access to affordable and rapid rehousing in the county. During the grant term, we achieved: Two new affordable units purchased – Families Forward accomplished our goal of purchasing not only one, but two additional affordable units in 2017. The board has also approved a plan to convert most of our transitional units into affordable beginning in 2018. This change will increase the total number of owned Families Forward affordable units from 13 to 27, enabling us to offer more long-term solutions for families transitioning from homelessness to affordable and eventually market-rate housing in Orange County. Two new landlord/developer partnerships – Families Forward solidified two new partnerships that will lead to more available affordable housing units designated for homeless parents and children. The first partnership is with Chelsea Investment Corporation, a company planning the groundbreaking of a new apartment community in 2019 that will contain 10 units set aside for Extremely Low and Very Low Income (<50% AMI) homeless families. The second partnership is with National Community Renaissance (CORE), a leading affordable housing developer. National CORE plans to break ground on a new Lake Forest development in 2020 that will contain at least 10 designated units of affordable housing for income-qualifying homeless families. The completion of these will increase the organization's accessible to affordable housing through partnership to 34, providing significant progress towards Families Forward's 3-year goal of 20% growth in rapid rehousing and affordable housing partnerships. Families Forward achieved 17% growth in the number of people served compared to last year, increasing from 9,851 individuals served to over 11,517. We also increased our overall success rate for long-term family stability. Every year, the county-wide Continuum of Care evaluates Families Forward and other continuum partners to determine agency efficiency in serving homeless individuals and families. The continuum determined that, of those who successfully exit homelessness in partnership with Families Forward, approximately 97% did not enter the homeless service provider system within one year. This is a 4% increase over our last year. Over the course of the grant term, Families Forward launched its first formalized homeless Prevention and Diversion (P&D) Program. Now serving as a model for others in the county, the initiative employs a team of trained volunteers to return 100% of the calls Families Forward receives from families in a housing crisis. This team offers over-the-phone case management, referrals, and limited financial assistance designed to prevent families from entering homelessness. The P&D team served a total of 790 families during the grant term with 70 families (approximately 245 individuals) reporting that Families Forward's intervention enabled them to avoid homelessness altogether.