What Focus Strategies does

Focus Strategies is a privately held, founder-led national consulting firm founded in 2006 by Megan Kurteff-Schatz and headquartered in Covina, California. The firm provides professional services to city, county, and state governments, Continuums of Care, foundations, and select healthcare and nonprofit organizations working to reduce homelessness. Its six service lines — Assessment & Evaluation, Equity Analysis, Supportive Housing Technical Assistance, Systems Planning & Performance, Training, and Housing Market Analysis — are delivered by a remote team of approximately 13 people and supported by proprietary analytics tools, notably SWAP (System-Wide Analytics and Projection, comprising the Base Year Calculator and System Performance Predictor) and SPOC (System Planning and Optimization Concepts), which model the projected impact of system-level interventions against locally sourced HMIS and housing-market data.

The firm has served more than 50 communities and several states since inception, including the City of Boston, City of Fresno, City of Detroit, San Mateo County, County of Humboldt, Commonwealth of Virginia, and Indiana Housing & Community Development Authority, alongside nonprofit and research partners such as the National Alliance to End Homelessness and Abt Associates. Revenue is generated through fee-for-service consulting contracts and technical-assistance engagements, with no public pricing — consistent with bespoke, quote-based government and foundation procurement. The leadership bench is unusually credentialed for a firm of its size, including former U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness Policy Directors, a former Minnesota Assistant Commissioner, a former CoC Director, and an NYU Stern-trained COO brought in to professionalize operations.

Strategically, Focus Strategies occupies a defensible niche at the intersection of homelessness systems analytics, equity analysis, and supportive housing technical assistance — a category too narrow for generalist consulting firms but well-suited to small, senior-staffed teams with embedded public-sector relationships. The principal growth constraints are typical of founder-led professional services: limited capacity, dependence on individual practitioners, and exposure to government procurement cycles. The principal moat is the combination of credentialed talent and proprietary domain-specific modeling tools, which together create high switching costs for clients that have adopted the firm's frameworks for system design and benchmarking.

Name

Focus Strategies

Legal name

Focus Strategies

Website

https://focusstrategies.net

Company type

Private

Founded year

2006

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Focus Strategies is a national, founder-led consulting firm that helps U.S. city, county, and state governments reduce homelessness through data analytics, equity analysis, and proprietary system-modeling tools, serving 50+ communities.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Homelessness Consulting Services

NAICS

Other Management Consulting Services (541618), Management Consulting Services (54161), Administrative Management and General Management Consulting Services (541611)

SIC

Services-Management Consulting Services (8742)

akta.pro primary industry

Corporate Strategy Advisory (BPAHADAA)

akta.pro secondary industries

Real Estate Development & Feasibility Advisory (Highest-and-Best-Use, Entitlements Support) (BPAJANAC), Real Estate Market Research & Economic Advisory (Demand/Supply, Location Analytics) (BPAJANAD)

Keywords

• Homelessness consulting services
• Technical assistance
• Systems planning
• Equity analysis
• Housing market analysis

Headquarters

HQ city

Walnut

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Consulting and Technical Assistance Services: Focus Strategies generates revenue through providing professional consulting services including assessment and evaluation, equity analysis, supportive housing technical assistance, systems planning and performance services, training, and housing market analysis to government agencies and organizations addressing homelessness.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

Focus Strategies is a national consulting and technical assistance firm that helps U.S. cities, counties, states, Continua of Care, and nonprofits reduce homelessness through equity-informed, data-driven system planning. Its core offerings span Assessment & Evaluation, Equity Analysis, Supportive Housing Technical Assistance, Systems Planning & Performance, Training, and Housing Market Analysis, augmented by proprietary analytics tools (SPOC and the SWAP suite) that model system performance and project the impact of policy and program changes.

Product overview

Focus Strategies is a national consulting firm offering a portfolio of professional services and proprietary analytic tools to help communities reduce and end homelessness. The core offerings span six service areas: Assessment & Evaluation, Equity Analysis, Supportive Housing Technical Assistance, Systems Planning & Performance, Training, and Housing Market Analysis. These services are supported by proprietary analytics tools including SPOC (System Planning and Optimization Concepts) for thought-provoking system impact modeling, and the SWAP (System-Wide Analytics and Projection) suite comprising the Base Year Calculator and System Performance Predictor for comprehensive system analysis and projection. The firm also provides COVID-19 Practical Guides as resource materials.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Assessment & Evaluation System assessment and evaluation services combining qualitative and quantitative methods to help communities transform their response to homelessness.
• Equity Analysis Services designed to help communities understand disparities in homelessness experiences and outcomes, identify systemic bias, and implement solutions that promote equity.
• Supportive Housing Technical Assistance Technical assistance supporting community and developer efforts to develop, operate, and evaluate permanent supportive housing (PSH).
• Systems Planning & Performance System-level responses to homelessness using analytics and community strengths, including strategic planning and the SWAP analytics tool.
• Training High-quality training on homelessness response system design, performance measurement, program models, and housing solutions tailored to community context.
• Housing Market Analysis Analytics identifying rental housing supply and demand, modeling projections, and identifying gaps in affordable housing by income level and locale.
• System Planning and Optimization Concepts (SPOC) A tool helping communities understand their current homelessness response system and model the potential impact of system changes including diversion, housing-problem solving, and inventory additions.
• System-Wide Analytics and Projection (SWAP) Suite of tools including the Base Year Calculator and System Performance Predictor that analyze system performance at the project level and allow communities to model results of system changes.
• COVID-19 Practical Guides Template guides and funding summaries to assist homeless system lead agencies in developing guidance for providers on program modifications necessitated by COVID-19.

Quantifiable outcome

• 276% increase in permanent housing attainment for people experiencing chronic homelessness in Tucson Coordinated Entry program
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers17 records

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature2 records

Scale indicators2 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Homebase: Homebase is a national nonprofit technical assistance and consulting organization focused on homelessness systems change and prevention, directly overlapping with Focus Strategies' core service lines of system planning, equity analysis, and CoC support.
• Corporation for Supportive Housing (CSH): CSH provides consulting, financing, and technical assistance for supportive housing, directly overlapping with Focus Strategies' Supportive Housing Technical Assistance and Housing Market Analysis services and serving similar government and nonprofit clients.

Broad incumbents

• Abt Associates: Abt Associates is a large research and consulting firm that conducts homelessness and housing evaluations for HUD and other federal clients. It competes for the same government contracts as Focus Strategies but at significantly larger scale and broader portfolio.
• Mathematica Policy Research: Mathematica conducts policy research and program evaluations for federal and state agencies, including HUD-funded homelessness studies, making it a broad competitor with deeper resources than Focus Strategies.
• Urban Institute: Urban Institute's research spans housing and homelessness policy with significant federal and foundation funding, competing for similar evaluation and equity-analysis engagements but as part of a much broader policy research portfolio.
• Enterprise Community Partners: Enterprise is a large housing and community development organization offering advisory, lending, and policy services; its housing market analysis and affordable housing technical assistance overlap with Focus Strategies' offerings at greater scale.
• ICF International: ICF is a large federal contractor providing research, evaluation, and technical assistance across HUD and HHS programs, competing for the same government homelessness and housing engagements but with substantially broader scale.

Regional players

• Building Changes: Building Changes is a Washington-state focused organization that provides training, technical assistance, and advocacy on homelessness systems, comparable in niche focus but limited geographically relative to Focus Strategies' national reach.

Others

• Funders Together to End Homelessness: Funders Together is a national membership network of foundations funding homelessness work; it partners with Focus Strategies on research and is a potential adjacent buyer of equity-analysis and program-evaluation services.
• National Alliance to End Homelessness: The National Alliance to End Homelessness is a leading policy and advocacy organization in U.S. homelessness; it partners with Focus Strategies and overlaps in research, federal policy engagement, and systems-change thought leadership.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/mks-consulting
• Xx.com/FocusStratCA

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles14 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Focus Strategies