Home Sweet Home: Preventing Eviction and Encouraging Housing Stability

Training Overview

This presentation will explore what exactly “Eviction Prevention” might be from the lens of the Community Manager, Service Provider and Residents. While no one wants to evict, and sometimes it is necessary no matter what you do to intervene, all would agree that eviction is not good for anyone. Owners spend on legal processes and endure costly vacancies, Community managers lose time and energy better invested in building a healthy community, service providers use up already limited-service hours meant to build community and housing stability and instead get caught up in ongoing crises, while local resources are stretched and depleted and families may wind up becoming homeless with little chance of becoming housed again. This ongoing cycle only brings financial and emotional stress to the entire housing team and the community. In this training, key competencies to prevent eviction will be explored with effective and innovative strategies discussed and shared, including how on-site teaching of life skills and effective mediation can save dollars lost with unpaid rents and legal fees spent towards evictions and the road to emotional trauma. The goal of the property team is to prevent an eviction while also maintaining accountability. With proactive collaboration among the team, high-risk residents are identified and can be engaged early on with supportive services that can lead to a positive outcome that avoids eviction and strengthens the ability to maintain housing. Presentation participants will learn new skills in how to engage with at risk residents, using an upstream approach to reduce and prevent evictions, building long-term housing sustainability, units secure and occupied and a consistent thriving community.

Beth Southorn

Bruce Kuban

Executive Director of LifeSTEPS

Project and Training Specialist

Beth Southorn is the Executive Director of LifeSTEPS, a Sacramento-based, mission-driven organization providing comprehensive social services in the affordable and supportive housing sectors. Since joining LifeSTEPS in 2001, Beth has been instrumental in growing the organization into one of the nation’s leading resident services providers, now supporting more than 48,000 affordable homes and over 124,000 residents statewide.

With more than 35 years of experience and a master’s degree in counseling psychology, Beth brings a deep, interdisciplinary perspective to her work, integrating vocational rehabilitation, supportive services, and affordable housing strategy. She is a sought‑after speaker at major housing and social services conferences, serves on multiple nonprofit boards, and is a recurring national trainer—sharing LifeSTEPS’ proven approaches and advancing best practices across the housing and services field.

Bruce Kuban is the former LifeSTEPS’ Director of Supportive and Health Services and has been with LifeSTEPS for over 12 years. He currently is semi-retired and serves as the Project and Training Specialist working to develop new projects for the agency while also assisting with quality assurance, compliance and oversight to several programs contracted by LifeSTEPS to provide social and supportive services to residents living in affordable permanent housing. These programs include intensive case management services for formerly homeless residents living in permanent supportive housing provided through the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services, Housing for Health division.

With more than 30 years of experience in the social services field, Bruce previously served as a case manager to clients receiving subsidized childcare and worked as a Family Resource Center project manager and was a middle school counselor for 10 years. Bruce received his Master’s Degree in Marriage, Family and Child Counseling from Sacramento State University.