Elevating Tenant Leadership in Permanent Supportive Housing

Affordable housing and homelessness

Expand existing project, program, or initiative (expanding and continuing ongoing, successful work)

An estimated 75,518 people across Los Angeles County are unhoused. As one of the most complex and divisive social issues of our time, it is crucial that the expertise and lived experience of peers - people who have directly experienced homelessness - informs approaches taken to solving the crisis. Quality affordable housing and effective service delivery rely fundamentally on incorporating tenant perspectives, knowledge, and social capital into all aspects of the work. Beyond this, it is widely acknowledged that creating genuine leadership and peer support opportunities in permanent supportive housing is impactful on tenants’ quality of life, recovery, and self-actualization. When researchers conducted a systematic review of over 2,000 research papers about peer involvement in homelessness services, they confirmed that tangible benefits extend to everyone involved – the people who receive peer support, the peers who take on leadership and advocacy roles, and service providers.

ACOF's Tenant Advisory Council (TAC), established in 2013, is a leading example of peer-led listening and engagement, with our approach being emulated by other Permanent Supportive Housing providers. The TAC meets monthly and currently has nine members, with an ambitious membership growth plan for Fiscal Year 2025. Representing all 2,736 tenants in ACOF’s 46 apartment communities, the Council’s achievements range from influencing housing policy, to creating impactful community events, to shaping ACOF's program development and building designs. Beyond ACOF, members share their unique lived experience to provide insights on supportive housing and strategies to end homelessness to influence both policymakers and the general public. The TAC creates engaging events such as community gatherings and an art contest. Members contribute to design decisions and meet regularly with senior leadership to discuss and refine services programming. The TAC is an impactful tenant-led initiative, in which members showcase and enhance their skills and influence through participation in conferences and training, including public speaking and trust-building. Every two years, the TAC develops and distributes the Tenant Survey to all households, and reviews the results. When the survey found a resounding need for more storage in apartments - particularly in family buildings - ACOF responded by designing in additional storage.

Policymakers, architects, and affordable housing developers across Los Angeles and the State of California will have direct access to tenants’ input and lived experience to inform their approaches to solving the homelessness crisis thanks to the leadership and advocacy that the TAC will undertake. Other affordable housing nonprofits can use the ACOF model to establish their own tenant leadership programs - two organizations have done so recently - and we are ready to share even more widely. A Community of Friends’ ongoing housing development pipeline - which will see 406 units in construction in the next twelve months - will continue to be rigorously informed by tenant input through the TAC. The TAC is integrally involved in ACOF’s pioneering work to rapidly build quality Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH) using prototypes and alternative financing achieving half the time and cost of comparable projects. The first of these, in South LA, will be built in 2025.

The TAC, the Board, and ACOF senior staff engage in reflective and evaluative conversations throughout the year to understand and hone the effectiveness of the TAC’s work and the interactions between the TAC and ACOF staff. Another measure of impact is observing the strengths and growth of members. For example, one long-serving member experienced anxiety about leaving her house but was committed to attending meetings, which took three modes of public transit to reach. Her spouse would attend with her, waiting for the duration of the meeting. Over time, she grew more confident and it was a joyful day when she confidently traveled alone to a meeting. Other successes include members rejoining the workforce, and being invited to join advisory boards. Achievements of the TAC are another affirmation of its positive impact. For example, when the TAC identified a need for upgraded computers for a tenant common area, 20 new computers were secured through a corporate giving partnership.