Tanya Tull (born 1943) is a leading expert in family homelessness in America.[1] In 1980 she founded Para Los Ninos (For the Children),[2] in reaction to an article she read in the Los Angeles Times concerning children living in Skid Row hotels. Para Los Ninos began as a childcare center that blossomed into a full range family service center utilizing renovated warehouses in Skid Row, Los Angeles.[3][4] Today Para Los Ninos also operates charter schools in Central Los Angeles.[5]
In 1983 Tull co-founded L.A. Family Housing,[6][7] a nonprofit that creates permanent housing and maintains emergency shelters. In 1988, she created and established two more nonprofit agencies: Beyond Shelter[8] and A Community of Friends.[9] A Community of Friends develops permanent supportive housing for the homeless mentally ill. “Housing first for families,” was Tull's mission statement for Beyond Shelter.[10] Beyond Shelter became a workshop for social change and promoted the “housing first” approach for families nationally and internationally for the next two decades. The focus on helping families to relocate from shelters into rental housing as rapidly as possible introduced an innovation in the field at the time, represented today by Rapid Rehousing programs in the Helping Families Save Their Homes Act of 2009.[11] In 2011, Tull founded Partnering for Change[12] to: “ Promote and facilitate strategies in communities that ensure access to stable and adequate housing as the vital platform for child and family health and well-being.”[13]
- ^ Dvorak, Heidi (20 May 2010). "Tanya Tull: First, a Home". L.A. Weekly.
- ^ "Para Los Ninos' Tull Takes On a New Challenge : Founder of Skid Row Agency Shifts Sights to Homeless". 3 February 1986 – via LA Times.
- ^ "The Next Step Toward Home : Tanya Tull helps homeless go beyond temporary shelter and into residential neighborhoods". 18 September 1994 – via LA Times.
- ^ GIBBS, NANCY (24 June 2001). "For Goodness' Sake". Time – via content.time.com.
- ^ "Home". Para Los Niños.
- ^ "'Beyond Shelter' Group Helps Families to New Lives". 26 January 1992 – via LA Times.
- ^ "It's not 'homeless housing.' It's just housing, and there should be enough of it for all people". Los Angeles Times. 13 October 2018.
- ^ "Beyond Shelter's Inspiration Awards Honor Mayor James Hahn, National Public Radio -NPR- and Award-Winning Producers Marian Rees and Anne Hopkins". www.businesswire.com. 19 October 2004.
- ^ "MAKING A DIFFERENCE: A Community of Friends finds housing for disenfranchised -". 2 November 2018.
- ^ "High-cost US Cities See Homeless Population Grow". VOA. 25 June 2017.
- ^ "Annual Symposium on Tackling Homelessness in California: Implementing Housing First | Public Policy Exchange".
- ^ "How can I help the homeless?". KCRW 89.9FM - Music, NPR News, Culture Los Angeles. 23 November 2016.
- ^ "Mission & Vision - Innovative Strategies to Promote Child & Family Well-Being".