Emergency Solutions Grant Administration (ESG)
The Housing Limited Development Group (HLDG) is responsible for the administrative duties associated with the ESG received by the County of Los Angeles from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Depending on the annual federal appropriation, the HLDG expends roughly $1 million to over $2 million each year.
Our duties associated with managing these grant funds include preparing and filing the necessary applications and reports with HUD to receive ESG funds. These funds then pass through our agency to the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA).
Through a joint exercise of powers agreement, the County and the City of Los Angeles created LAHSA in 1993. LAHSA plans the continuum of care for homeless services in the County and City, part of which includes distributing the County’s ESG funding to nonprofit agencies operating shelter programs. LAHSA works to coordinate homeless service funds throughout the County and link such funds to development activities.
Programs initially assigned to LAHSA include the ESG Program and the Cold/Wet Weather Emergency Shelter Program, funded in part with CDBG funds, as well as other homeless services programs already being provided by the County and City. The County and City also appointed LAHSA to administer the Los Angeles Area Homeless Initiative including the Continuum of Care Programs.
For more information about LAHSA, please visit their website at: www.lahsa.org
More About the Emergency Solutions Grant
In response to the growing issue of homelessness among men, women, and children in the United States, Congress enacted and incorporated the Emergency Shelter Grant Program in 1986 into the subtitle B of title IV of the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 11371-11378). The program provided for the improvement of existing emergency shelters, making available additional shelters, helped meet the cost of operating emergency shelters, and provided essential social services to homeless individuals.
The Homeless Emergency Assistance and Rapid Transition to Housing Act of 2009 (HEARTH ACT), revised the Emergency Shelter Grant Program and renamed it to the Emergency Solutions Grant (ESG) Program. The ESG Program builds upon the existing Emergency Shelter Grant Program, but includes new activities in order to emphasize assisting people to quickly regain stability in permanent housing after experiencing a housing crisis and/or homelessness. To reflect this new emphasis, the ESG Program is expanding its homelessness prevention component and including a new rapid re-housing assistance component.
The ESG Program ensures that the homeless have access not only to safe and sanitary shelter, but also to supportive services and other kinds of assistance needed to improve their situations.