The Mayor’s Office of Homelessness and Community Health in Los Angeles is working to integrate health and social services for unhoused individuals to address historical inequities, improve access to essential care, and reduce homelessness. The FUSE Executive Fellow will support the implementation to streamline comprehensive service delivery that includes housing, health/behavioral health and other social service delivery for the unhoused. Ultimately, this will help Los Angeles integrate housing and health, address inequities and foster greater stability and well-being for the city’s most vulnerable populations.

Fellowship Dates: April 28, 2025 – April 24, 2026

Salary: Executive Fellows are FUSE employees and receive an annual base salary of $80,000. Fellows can also access various health, dental, and vision insurance benefits. Compensation for this year of public service is not intended to represent market-rate compensation for the experienced professionals in our program.

ABOUT THE FUSE EXECUTIVE FELLOWSHIP

FUSE is a national nonprofit working to expand social and economic opportunities, particularly for communities that have been limited by a history of systemic and institutionalized racism. FUSE partners with local governments and communities to more effectively address pressing challenges by placing experienced professionals within city and county agencies. These FUSE Executive Fellows lead strategic projects designed to advance racial equity and accelerate systems change. Since 2012, FUSE has led over 250 projects in 40 governments across 20 states, impacting the lives of 25 million people.

When designing each fellowship project, FUSE works closely with government partners and local stakeholders to define a scope of work that will achieve substantive progress toward regional priorities. FUSE then conducts an individualized search for each project to ensure that the selected candidate has at least 15 years of professional experience, the required competencies for the role, and deep connections to the communities being served. They are data-driven and results-oriented and able to effectively manage complex projects by developing actionable roadmaps and monitoring progress to completion.

Executive Fellows are hired as FUSE employees and embedded in government agencies for at least one year of full-time work. Throughout their fellowships, they receive training, coaching, and professional support from FUSE to help achieve their project goals. FUSE Executive Fellows bring diverse perspectives and new approaches to their projects. They build strong relationships with diverse arrays of stakeholders, foster alignment within.

PROJECT CONTEXT

The City of Los Angeles is facing a profound humanitarian and public health crisis of homelessness with over 45,000 residents currently live on the streets or in temporary shelters. BIPOC communities, particularly Black and Latino individuals, are disproportionately impacted by homelessness due to historic inequities in housing, employment, and healthcare access. These social determinants of health and systemic disparities have left these populations more vulnerable to the economic and social forces that lead to homelessness. Individuals experiencing homelessness often face barriers to accessing essential services, including healthcare, mental health treatment, and substance use support, creating a cycle that disproportionately affects underserved populations. Addressing these inequities is critical to ensuring that solutions to homelessness not only provide shelter, but also foster long-term stability and well-being.

In response to the crisis, the City of Los Angeles has launched a series of initiatives to bring unhoused individuals indoors and provide comprehensive support services. This includes the Inside Safe program which resolves encampments by voluntarily bring unhoused individuals and their entire encampment community into temporary housing while ensuring access to housing, health/behavioral health, and other social services.

Furthermore, in early 2024, Mayor Karen Bass established the Mayor’s Office of Homelessness & Community Health (MOHCH) as part of a comprehensive strategy to further integrate homeless and health services. This office focuses on improving the coordination of social, health, and behavioral health services for individuals experiencing homelessness. By emphasizing a holistic approach to care, the office aims to bridge service gaps, enhance long-term health outcomes, and create more sustainable solutions to the city’s homelessness crisis. They have also worked on coordinating and expanding partnerships with the County, Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA), contracted homeless service providers, street medicine teams, and healthcare delivery systems and plans. Through these partnerships they have worked to also enhance services across the City’s interim housing portfolio and laid the groundwork for a more integrated response to homelessness by establishing a regional deployment of street medicine teams, launching a substance use treatment pilot, and increasing enrollment in the CalAIM Medicaid waiver

PROJECT SUMMARY

Beginning in May 2025, the FUSE Executive Fellow will work closely with the Deputy Mayor of H&CH, Senior Director of Community Health and/or Director of Social Care to improve the integration of health and social services for unhoused residents. The Executive Fellow will collaborate with key stakeholders from city and county departments, healthcare providers, and community-based organizations to enhance service delivery and health outcomes for sheltered and unsheltered populations across Los Angeles.

The Executive Fellow will begin by conducting a comprehensive listening tour involving key partners such as LAHSA, Los Angeles County departments, street medicine teams, health plans and non-profit service providers. This will gather insights into existing challenges in coordinating health and social services for homeless individuals and identify gaps in service delivery. The Executive Fellow will also conduct a landscape analysis of current policies and programs in Los Angeles. Based on the insights gathered, the Executive Fellow will develop project goals and deliverables for the remainder of the Fellowship for the city to review and approve before moving forward with implementation.

The Executive Fellow will then use collected insights to develop strategic recommendations that expand and streamline existing key initiatives for the unhoused. These recommendations will focus on improving the coordination with non-profit homeless services providers and the health/behavioral healthcare providers to enhance accessibility of street medicine teams across council districts, increasing enrollment in substance use treatment pilot programs, and expanding enrollment in the CalAIM Medicaid waiver for unhoused individuals. This will include designing trainings for homeless service providers and health/behavioral healthcare providers so they can streamline their efforts es for individuals in city-managed housing programs. Additionally, this will include designing more ways to integrate data systems to track outcomes for these programs.

The Executive Fellow will then work to implement these strategies by bolstering pilot programs, coordinating interdepartmental efforts, and fostering partnerships across the healthcare and homeless service sectors. The Executive Fellow will engage with stakeholders to ensure alignment between all departments and partners executing programs and that community voices, especially those from underserved groups, are represented in decision-making processes.

By the project’s conclusion, the Executive Fellow will have outlined steps for the long-term sustainability of integrated health and housing services in Los Angeles. The Executive Fellow will work to identify long term program implementation goals, milestones, and activities as well as build monitoring and evaluation frameworks to track progress. This will ensure that implementation efforts are responsive to community needs and aligned with the city’s overarching equity and health outcome goals.

PROJECT DELIVERABLES

By May 2026, the FUSE Executive Fellow will have produced the following:

  • Service Integration: Support the execution of plans to streamline the coordination of health and social services for unhoused individuals, including strategies to expand enrollment in the CalAIM Medicaid waiver, substance use treatment programs, and the deployment of street medicine teams across council districts.
  • Improved Data Collection and Health Outcome Monitoring Systems: Support the coordination of data systems across homeless and housing sectors to track outcomes for individuals in city-managed interim housing programs, ensuring that health and service utilization metrics are integrated into the city’s homelessness response framework.
  • Expanded Enrollment in Key Health Initiatives: Increased participation in substance use treatment pilot programs and enrollment in the CalAIM Medicaid waiver by developing and implementing targeted outreach strategies, improving access to healthcare for unhoused populations.
  • Cross-Sector Partnership Strengthening: Established new and strengthened existing partnerships between city and county departments, healthcare providers, and community-based organizations to ensure the continuous coordination of services and support for unhoused populations.
  • Operational Plan for Long-Term Sustainability: Created a detailed operational plan outlining the steps necessary to sustain the integration of health and social services for unhoused individuals beyond the fellowship term. The plan will include key milestones, program goals, and strategies for ongoing monitoring and evaluation to ensure alignment with the city’s equity and health outcome objectives.

KEY STAKEHOLDERS

  • Executive Sponsor – Carolyn Webb de Macias, Mayor’s Office, Chief of Staff
  • Project Supervisor – Dr. Etsemaye P. Agonafer, MD, MPH, MS, Deputy Mayor of Homelessness and Community Health; Daisy Paez, Executive Officer of Homelessness and Community Health

QUALIFICATIONS

  • Synthesizes complex information into clear and concise recommendations and action-oriented implementation plans.
  • Develops and effectively implements both strategic and operational project management plans.
  • Generates innovative, data-driven, and result-oriented solutions to complex challenges.
  • Respond quickly to changing ideas, responsibilities, expectations, trends, strategies, and other processes.
  • Communicates effectively verbally and in writing and excels in active listening and conversing.
  • Fosters collaboration across multiple constituencies to support more effective decision-making.
  • Establishes and maintains strong relationships with diverse stakeholders, both inside and outside of government, particularly community-based relationships.
  • Embraces differing viewpoints and implements strategies to find common ground.
  • Demonstrates confidence and professional diplomacy while effectively interacting with individuals at all levels of various organizations.

 

FUSE is an equal-opportunity employer with core values of diversity, equity, and inclusion. We encourage candidates from all backgrounds to apply for this position.