Housing Works

“I’ve been reflecting deeply on what it means to show up,” Housing Works’ Executive Director Celina Alvarez writes in her welcome letter for the organization’s just-released annual report. The document explains the org’s work, housing and sustaining the homeless, at every level. “[But] not as a case manager or nonprofit professional, but as a human being. In this work, our staff hold incredible emotional and moral responsibility. They walk alongside folks through trauma, relapse, complex mental health challenges, violence, and more often than not, death. They listen to stories of pain that most people could not bear to hear, and then they get up the next morning and do it all over again.”

Indeed, the nonprofit continued to grow and support 454 once-homeless people across Los Angeles County while also sustaining its trauma-informed and wellness-centered efforts. Housing Works also created deeper partnerships with hospitals, housing developers, and peers in the fight against the homeless issue while also training its staff in reflective supervision and restorative practice. 

The organization has a four-pronged approach to create housing opportunities for those facing the challenges of homelessness. Its Scattered Site Housing program provides effective, flexible, accessible, and comprehensive services so that tenants can sustain their housing, develop the skills to manage their own lives, and build the confidence and personal resources to invest in their individual futures and genuinely thrive in their home and community. 

The Single Site Housing program forges partnerships with property developers to be the on-site provider of supportive services to tenants who were formerly experiencing chronic homelessness. The nonprofit now counts 11 single site buildings in the program, including Bungalow Gardens, which specifically houses formerly incarcerated individuals. 

Housing Works’ MIST (Mobile Integrated Services Team) assists chronically homeless individuals and families in locating Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH) units acquired through partnerships with nonprofit housing developers and private landlords. Once they’re housed, MIST provides to these tenants comprehensive, supportive services to help new tenants sustain their housing – from transitioning, to building a safe, inclusive and healthy community, to following an individual path of recovery – while also providing housing retention and eviction prevention services to at-risk households. The organization’s Special Projects Team works with local medical providers throughout Los Angeles, connecting in this way with people experiencing homelessness who frequent hospitals. The goal is to match them with housing. 

In its most recent fiscal year, Housing Works served a total of 1,174 PSH households, delivered 9,400 bags of supplemental food to those in need, aided more than 400 others through housing navigation, and conducted 434 enrichment events. Its systematic, whole person approach has resulted in an enviable 97% success rate of housing retention, up an additional four percent from last year’s lofty figure. 

But Housing Works faces mounting challenges to effectively continuing its mission. Not least of these concerns; pending reductions in funding due to changes in governmental support. 

“In the coming year, L.A. County’s homeless services sector is facing unprecedented fiscal challenges,” Alvarez said. “We are anticipating cuts at every level – federal, state, and county – even as the housing and homelessness crisis continues to deepen. These cuts will test the very foundation of our work.”

Nevertheless, the organization is doing its best to become as effective, efficient, and purpose-oriented as possible. Which included updating its set of guiding principles that center dignity, humanity, and possibility. 

“We believe housing is not a reward, but a foundation – one that makes recovery, stability, and growth possible,” the report states. “From creating safe and empowering environments to showing up with compassion, accountability, and flexibility, our approach honors each individual’s lived experience. We lead by example, respond without judgment, and remain adaptable to meet people where they are. At the core of everything we do is a belief in second chances – the willingness to try again, together, and give success room to take hold.”

Housing Works also refocused its strategic planning process, centering on the belief that the people doing the work every day should help shape the future of the organization. Over the past year, the nonprofit expanded efforts to gather meaningful staff input through surveys, listening sessions, full staff retreats, and direct feedback opportunities across all departments. 

Moving beyond its own offices, another innovative approach found Alvarez and LAHSA’s Senior Advisor for Workforce Development Vanessa Rios playing a pivotal role in advocating for and co-creating the Homeless Service Work Certificate Program at Santa Monica College. The school offers a curriculum for students’ seeking to make an impact in service and advocacy for Los Angeles’ unhoused neighbors. This certificate program is the first of its kind in California, offering a structured pathway to the student’s frontline roles in the homeless crisis.

Housing Works also participated in the 2025 Housing California Conference in Sacramento, where five of its staff performed The Frontline Mind – spoken-word monologues written by Bikbaye Inejnema that shed light on the real experiences, pressures, and financial challenges faced by frontline workers. Attendees shared validating feedback, underscoring the urgent need for leadership support, fair compensation, and meaningful systemic change. This work is part of a commitment to advocate not only for the people served, but for the people doing the serving. 

“Housing Works cannot continue to provide ethical, trauma-informed support if members of its staff are struggling to afford rent and other basic needs,” Alvarez said. “We can’t sustain the quality of engagement that defines Housing Works if we don’t protect the well-being of the people doing the hardest human work there is.”

All of which leads to an appeal to donors that is transparent in its understanding that taking care of the people who take care of their clients is of paramount importance.

“When donors invest in Housing Works, they aren’t just funding housing units or case management hours,” Alvarez said. “They are investing in the radical power of authentic human engagement. Meaningful and intentional relationships CAN build and restore trust.”  

Visit www.housingworksca.org