Regional Task Force on Homelessness (RTFH)

History and Activities

The Regional Task Force on Homelessness is a San Diego, California-based homelessness nonprofit. RTFH was founded in 2004 as a nonprofit public benefit corporation. It originally began as a task force of the San Diego mayor in 1983 designed to create strategies to address homelessness in the city. This mayoral task force became a broader regional task force in 1985 in partnership with the County of San Diego and the United Way of San Diego County. By 1998, the regional task force formed into the Regional Continuum of Care Council (RCCC) to facilitate requests for funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. RTFH gained tax-exempt status in 2004 and today provides data and other strategies to the region of San Diego to address homelessness. ^{1  2  3}

RFTH works with universities and other partners to conduct research into homelessness and to evaluate the effectiveness of existing strategies and identify gaps in support for the homeless. The organization also advocates for policies and legislation at the local, state, and federal levels to address homelessness. ⁴

RTFH runs a diversion and resolution strategies pilot program, which aids the homeless in finding alternatives to permanent housing, which the organization argues is in short supply, and which offers support for the homeless to stay out of the shelter system. Support offered by the pilot program includes assistance in locating housing, temporary rental assistance, payment of application fees, and payment of security deposits. ⁷

RTFH also offers grant funding, including to local jurisdictions to support local attempts to address homelessness and grants focused on youth homelessness. One grant program operated by RFTH is the Housing Assistance and Prevention (HHAP) grant, a block grant program that provides one-time funds to jurisdictions to expand local efforts to address homelessness with a focus on best practices identified by RTFH. The first round of HHAP grant funding that ended in June 2025 was for approximately $10.7 million over a period of five years, with new rounds of grants planned to be available every year until 2029. ^{5   6}

RFTH also operates a flexible housing pool, or FHP, that funds, locates, and secures housing from a variety of sources for the homeless. Through the FHP, TFTH claimed to have placed nearly 240 households into permanent housing within the first year and secured over 650 available housing units.  ⁸

People

The chief executive officer of the Regional Task Force on Homelessness is Tamera Kohler. Previously, Kohler was the chief operations officer for RTFH, a homeless strategy and investment division director of the City of Seattle, a division director of housing and community development for the State of Utah, and a foreclosure prevention program director of the Neighborhood Nonprofit Housing Corporation. ^{9  10}

Financials

According to tax filings, in 2023, the Regional Task Force on Homelessness reported $19,284,431 in revenue, $17,006,033 in expenses, and $30,993,848 in assets. RTFH received nearly 88 percent of its revenue ($16,944,410) from government grants and nearly four percent ($749,786) of its revenue from gifts, grants, and other contributions. Other funding sources include income from its conference and membership fees. ²