Union Station Homeless Services has rolled out a three-year strategic playbook that it says will reshape how the Pasadena-based nonprofit fights homelessness across the San Gabriel Valley. CEO Katie Hill outlined the plan Saturday, describing a tightly packed set of five priorities that link rental help, job pathways, mental health care, and expanded food services into one roadmap for the next three years.
What the plan includes
Hill told local reporters the plan revolves around five core priorities: weaving behavioral-health care into housing and program models; boosting prevention and early intervention, such as rental assistance and mediation; expanding workforce development and employment pathways; growing food services to provide nutritious meals and hands-on skill building; and increasing access to affordable permanent housing. That framework, she said, will guide how Union Station deploys staff and funding over the next three years, as reported by Whittier Daily News.
Where the plan lives
The nonprofit has posted the full three-year strategy on its website and says it is beginning to line up staff, partners, and budgets behind those goals as implementation ramps up. The complete document is available at the USHS strategic plan.
Why it matters
The scale of the challenge is hard to ignore. The 2024 Greater Los Angeles Homeless Count estimated about 75,312 people experiencing homelessness across Los Angeles County, a reminder of why agencies keep talking about system-level change instead of one-off fixes. Capacity on the ground is stretched too: Hill told KPBS that Union Station had to turn away roughly 700 families when vouchers or beds were not available.
Leadership and next steps
Hill joined Union Station in December after senior posts at PATH and HOPICS, an experience the nonprofit highlighted when it announced her hire. Her background leading large homeless-services operations and navigating policy and funding battles is the backdrop for this new strategy, which USHS says will hinge on partnerships with local governments, landlords, and regional funders.
Officials say turning the plan from paper into actual housing and services will require more resources, along with buy-in from cities across the San Gabriel Valley. Union Station has already started courting municipal partners and potential funders to back implementation. Hill has framed the strategy as a practical, place-based push to move more people into stable housing while matching services to long-term needs, per the Whittier Daily News.
