Collapse of an Empire: The Inland Empire's Battle with Homelessness
By Maximilian Morici
While some may argue that they see less homelessness, more often than not they are simply being moved from one place to another.
The Inland Empire is no different. On a job assignment in Colton, Calif., I found myself talking with a man that soon became my friend named Tony - he had only recently become homeless. Until a few months ago, he worked at one of the many factories in Colton.
A typical life from the outside, a single trip to the hospital and the ever-increasing cost of living sent him on a one-way ticket to homelessness. He described the slippery slope: losing a job, being unable to work, falling behind on bills, losing hope of recovering, eviction and homelessness.
It can happen in a matter of weeks. Economic disparity in 2025 does not just look like the gap between a millionaire and Tony, it looks like the thinning line between one unaccounted for expense and a paycheck-to-paycheck lifestyle.
Within the midst of this dreary story, hope for those in disparity is not lost. There is a pilot program from a state-funded insurance company named Inland Empire Health Plan, also known as IEHP.
IEHP boasts over 1.5 million members and over 8,000 providers according to their website. This would make them the largest not-for-profit Medicare/Medicaid public health plan in the country.
IEHP hosts a vast number of programs outside of the baseline healthcare insurance. Two in particular called for a closer look: Housing Deposits and Housing Tenancy & Sustaining Services. To quote directly from their website.
“Housing Deposits assist with identifying, coordinating, securing, or funding one-time services and modifications necessary to enable a person to establish a basic household that does not constitute room and board.”
IEHP sees the link between health care and repeated homelessness — those who may bounce between having a place to live one month and be back out on the street the next. They understand that those who have a stable place to live or the resources to acquire a place to live will more than likely be able to keep it.
With that in mind, the Housing Deposits Program can help individuals who qualify to pay their first or last months rent set up utility assistance or grant security deposits for loans.
This type of assistance could be the deciding factor between someone having a stable home or ping-ponging between the streets and having a roof.
These programs make sense from a business prospective as well. If your members are living on the streets they are more likely to get sick or injured, which would cause them to be in your facilities more often. This in turn would make wait times longer and spending heavier.
Another service they provide is Housing Tenancy & Sustaining Services. In their own words, this program's function is “... tenancy and sustaining services, with a goal of maintaining safe and stable tenancy once housing is secured.”
This highlights that they see the correlation between poor health and an inability to remain in a stable home.
There are many facets to this program which you can read more about in this link.
Unfortunately, Julianne Frandson, the Special Programs Manager at IEHP, was not able to provide any concrete data on how effective these programs have been. She replied to outreach with the following statement:
“We appreciate your focus on how these initiatives aim to address the root causes of repeated homelessness by integrating healthcare services with housing assistance.
After conducting internal research, we unfortunately do not have formal evaluations or effectiveness data to share regarding Community Supports at either the state or plan level.
To our knowledge, no published evaluations currently exist at the state level, and we have not conducted one internally. Therefore, we are unable to provide the information you are requesting.
However, the California Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) publishes quarterly implementation reports on Community Supports that may offer helpful insights for your research."
They provided me with this link to investigate the data myself, however reports are only put out quarterly. We will have to wait until the end of the year to see any real data.
My hopes for the Inland Empire are high. While the problem of homelessness certainly is not going anywhere. We have promising programs like these paving a road in the right direction and potential to bring about real change for an empire in desperate need of help.