LAHSA Releases New Data Dashboards to Increase Transparency and Understanding of Homelessness Across the LA Area

Contact:
Christopher Yee, [email protected]

LOS ANGELES-The Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) announced the release of new data dashboards that provide the public with unprecedented access to track the work being done to address homelessness in Los Angeles. The LAHSA posted the dashboards to its website over the last five days.

The dashboards, of which an initial iteration is being made public, offer never-before-seen insights into outreach, the interim housing system, and programmatic key performance indicators. These dashboards provide insight into rehousing system performance at a granular level not seen in Los Angeles County before, increasing accountability and our understanding of what works and what does not work to end homelessness. With just a few clicks, the public can see how many people the rehousing system has helped in their LA City Council or Board of Supervisor's district, how many people individual programs have helped, the performance of their local service providers, and more.

This dashboard release represents a major milestone for LAHSA CEO Dr. Va Lecia Adams Kellum, who outlined the need to improve the transparency and accountability of the rehousing system when she took office in March 2023. The data has been made available for the first time after requests for greater transparency from LA City Councilmembers.

"I have always been a data-driven leader and recognized the need for profound change in data reporting well before I joined LAHSA," LAHSA CEO Dr. Va Lecia Adams Kellum said. "We've been working hard to provide the public access to clear, easy-to-digest data on homelessness in Los Angeles. LAHSA is committed to transparency and accountability as we work toward ending homelessness for our unhoused neighbors."

The initial planning and development of these dashboards began in June 2023. LAHSA's data infrastructure required significant improvement before data could be presented via easy-to-understand dashboards like these.

"For too long, the City has lacked access to comprehensive real-time data from service providers needed to inform both elected leaders and the public on our progress toward solving the homelessness crisis and the best ways to use our dollars," said Councilmember Nithya Raman. "The data available to us now shows us clearly the gaps in the system and where we need to make progress. We will now be better equipped to hold the homelessness services system accountable for dollars spent across the City and the County and be able to ensure that our investments are serving people effectively."

"Los Angeles' elected representatives have been working with LAHSA to develop a data dashboard for a long time, and I am pleased we'll have this homelessness data at our fingertips," said LAHSA Commissioner Chair Wendy Greuel.  "Data is imperative to our decision-making process as we seek to end homelessness in Los Angeles County." 

While the dashboards provide a uniform and comprehensive data experience, LAHSA continues to work with providers to improve data quality. In some instances, it may be clear that data is missing or was not appropriately entered. LAHSA will roll out its data quality plan to providers in November. It will identify policies and processes designed to improve the reliability of all data tracked through HMIS moving forward.

In addition, testing will continue for the next several months to identify bugs and errors as the dashboards are used in a real-world environment. Through this testing period, LAHSA aims to ensure these dashboards are as helpful as possible. If dashboard users encounter a bug or seemingly incomplete results, please notify our Data Management Department via our Dashboard Feedback Form (https://app.smartsheet.com/b/form/923906eb956e4c3e85a3c6b5ec416d65).

We expect the dashboards to exit the testing phase by mid-2025.

Earlier this year, LAHSA also launched the System Key Performance Indicator and Homeless Count dashboards. LAHSA's commitment to increasing accountability and transparency continues as it develops more data dashboards that will be released in the near future.

Public link

Please use the above public link if you want to share this noodl on another website.