Pros
OPPORTUNITY FOR GROWTH In light of Measure H, there is a ton of opportunity at LAHSA to grow quickly in your role or transfer departments if there is something you’re a better fit for. Over the last six months many staff have been getting promoted to new or existing positions. Staff who do not are either staying put by choice or not competent enough to move up. But if you’re talented, you can easily rise. OPPORTUNITY FOR LOCAL ENGAGEMENT Homelessness is arguably the most pressing urban policy issue in Los Angeles, and there are plenty of opportunities at LAHSA to get on the ground to tackle it. This was a welcome change for me, because previously I had worked in a think tank setting that was often somewhat removed from the issues it was working on. Not so at LAHSA. In one week, you can meet with a service provider for coaching, attend a public meeting at the Hall of Administration, conduct a presentation at a community meeting, or engage with people experiencing homelessness with an outreach team. If you are someone who gets energized by working in the field in addition to the office, LAHSA is great. IMPROVED PAY RATES AND BENEFITS LAHSA recently unionized so that staff are now protected by a collective bargaining agreement. It was apparently a long time coming. The agreement guarantees pay raises, offers flexible work schedules, and rewards tenure with the agency. It has improved salary parity within the agency across staff who have been there longer compared to new staff, many of whom came in at higher rates. Lastly, it is beginning to offer better salaries to stay competitive in this tight labor market. Incoming hires should have plenty of room to negotiate for salaries within the provided range.
Kontras
DISORGANIZATION Also in light of Measure H, LAHSA has been growing fast. Too fast. Since July 2017, it went through a restructuring and has doubled in size. The restructuring has made collaboration confusing for long-term staff and new hires alike. Within some departments there are staff members who never work together and do not know what one another do. Similarly, there are departments that are very siloed and sectioned off from work across the agency. This disorganization has had several consequences. One, it has accelerated turnover. Faced with this chaos, some new staff come on and then quickly quit, especially in the Finance and Data departments. Second, it creates duplicative work. Because there are departments that do not talk to one another, there are projects created by different teams that often do the same exact thing. Third and most detrimental, it creates diffusion of responsibility. The growth has created more bureaucracy and ambiguity among roles, so you’ll see people pass off tasks, ignore emails, or duck out of projects all together. This puts the burden on the overachieving few who end up with a disproportionate load of work. Some of these folks will stay and grow, but many do not last long. LAHSA recently brought in strategic planning/organization development consultants to help on this front, but at the time of this writing not much has changed. LACK OF EMPLOYEE DEVELOPMENT AND SUPPORT Homelessness is one of the most complex challenges facing this country. After one month at LAHSA, you’ll start to get a sense of this. People experiencing homelessness are incredibly heterogenous. There are people with serious mental illness, people fleeing domestic violence, and people who’ve become disaffiliated from their communities and families. There are also people who prefer the streets to what the homeless services system can provide, people who refuse much-needed services offered to them, and people seeking services as resources have increased. I could go on and on. The results of this complexity weigh heavy on LAHSA staff. Staff absorb vicarious trauma from the suffering experienced by homeless participants. Staff get weighed down by the disillusionment that comes from participants refusing the help offered to them, or from participants exploiting the resources available. Staff get bewildered by the massive services system that has grown to keep up with the complexity of homelessness—the intricacy of programs, policies, and funding streams in homeless services is almost unfathomable. Unfortunately, LAHSA does not do enough to support staff in facing this complexity. The employee assistance, employee wellness, and learning and development programs are minimal. While leadership has been endeavoring more on these fronts, the fruits have yet to bear. And the consequences are clear: among those who don’t quit or burnout, frustration, dissatisfaction, and cynicism are common. LOW JOB CONTROL Homeless services is a tough area to work in. Something seems like it is always going wrong. If the media aren’t trashing leadership or County Supervisors aren’t grilling LAHSA, there’s some crisis going on with a provider, an outbreak in an encampment, or the public airing grievances. And if something isn’t going wrong, you can bet that there are significant internal or external changes happening that affect LAHSA’s work. This can make it difficult to find success on a day to day basis. Some people thrive on the chaos, but if you are someone who needs some order so that can meet goals and see the positive influence of your work, LAHSA is likely not a good fit for you. In part this could be improved with better leadership. The leaders at the helm of homeless services are constantly acquiescing to the public and elected officials. This leads to needless overreactions, programs and policies being rolled out haphazardly, and quick decisions without an understanding of the unintended consequences. Fortunately, following the 2019 Homeless Count results, City and County leadership is starting to come around to the true complexity of the task ahead. Whether this leads to a more measured and pragmatic management style remains to be seen.