United States Interagency Council on Homelessness

Commitment to Setting Targets, Measuring Results, and Creative Collaboration Sets Chattanooga, Tennessee Apart

Since the release of Chattanooga, Tennessee’s Blueprint to End Homelessness in 2003, and the revamped Blueprint in 2007, the area has been able to make significant gains towards their homelessness goals—both in the number of people they have been able to help initially exit homelessness and the housing retention of those individuals. According to the June 2012 Chattanooga Regional Homeless Coalition’s  Blueprint Analysis, 2,987 people have moved out of homelessness into housing since 2003, 90% of whom have remained housed. The period since the publishing of the 2007 Blueprint has been one of dramatic results, especially for the population in the Chattanooga region experiencing chronic homelessness. From 2007-2011, chronic homelessness declined by 89%, and overall homelessness declined by 48% according to Point In Time data. 

Chattanooga’s leadership and commitment to the smart, strategic allocation of resources that can be used in flexible and innovative ways has allowed them to align their work with the Opening Doors Across America Initiative and has generated real results. Opening Doors Across America encourages communities to move with urgency and take action.  Two of the four elements of this call to action are setting targets and measuring results, and acting strategically with pivotal partners like public housing agencies across the region.  These are two areas where Chattanooga has shown strong leadership. USICH spoke with Mary Simons, Executive Director of the Chattanooga Regional Homeless Coalition, about their work in these areas and how it has helped make progress.

Setting Targets and Measuring Results

To gain a better understanding of the scope of homelessness, Chattanooga’s Regional Homeless Coalition took a close look at who was experiencing homelessness and the types of housing resources they had available.  Together as a Coalition, they set a target for the Blueprint that used the Point in Time (PIT) Count data and added more housing units to account for those who were not experiencing homelessness that night but may experience homelessness at another point in the year. “Once we had PIT data, we were able to see what was needed and who was already involved in programs like the HUD/VA/HHS Collaborative Initiative to End Chronic Homelessness program which began in 2004. When you measure something, everyone wants to get on board with helping to achieve that goal,” noted Ms. Simons. “We used information and strategies from our work with the 50 participants in the Collaborative Initiative to End Chronic Homelessness and previous work with of the Department of Mental Health, and married those strategies and targets with larger federal programs to come up with strategies for all populations.” The Coalition has also benefitted from a longstanding HMIS system, established in 1998. “Even when we only had funds for 50 units, we still noted tenant’s retention rate and also who was entering shelters that we were not able to help at that time. Because we have all of this data, we could see progress from our strategies and were able to estimate the number of housing opportunities we’ll need next year.” 

While there are many targets within the Blueprint, a major sphere of focus is commitment to developing permanent supportive housing and affordable housing. In the 2003 Blueprint, the goal was to create 1400 affordable housing units in 10 years to be used by individuals experiencing homelessness through the provision of rent subsidies, new housing development, and the preservation of affordable housing stock. Between 2003-2007, Chattanooga developed 1620 affordable housing options. The 2007 revision included providing an additional 200 affordable units per year. They also exceeded this goal.  

Acting Strategically – Working with the Public Housing Authority and Supportive Service Providers

Mary Simons spoke of their very successful relationship with Public Housing Authorities in both urban and rural areas as a driver of their success.  It was important to get everyone around the table to discuss all the resources they have and the number of vouchers per program – whether Supportive Housing Program vouchers, Shelter Plus Care vouchers or Housing Choice vouchers. This required federal, state, and local involvement from multiple departments to assess both what resources were available and what resources we needed.  Continued review of successes and ongoing needs of current tenants and people experiencing homelessness during the voucher renewal process helps to determine the level of supportive service provision, financial assistance, and collaboration needed to sustain progress in Chattanooga. Once all parties with resources come together and assess their needs and resources available, the group can work together to determine how best to meet tenant’s needs. 

Mary Simons shared an example of this flexibility: 

We were able to place 50 individuals into housing with services through Collaborative Initiative to End Chronic Homelessness funding in 2003 using Shelter Plus Care Vouchers, and last winter we worked with tenants to reevaluate their needs and see if they needed the same intensity of services. We found this year after working with the case managers that many of the individuals that needed Assertive Community Treatment teams in 2004 were in recovery and were stable at the end of 2011. The individuals we placed through this program (and across all programs) had a very low turnover rate, so the housing authority is very willing to lease to these tenants using any of their voucher programs. We worked with the housing authority to move the folks who were able to remain stable without intense services to the Housing Choice Voucher program. That freed up 44 Shelter Plus Care vouchers that could be used with a supportive services team that is nearby, available as frequently as the tenants may need. Working within the rules of the Housing Authority and the supportive service providers we were able maintain housing for 50 people and get 44 more people off the streets and into housing. 

This example is just one of the many in which all stakeholders in the Blueprint have come together to ensure that the level of intervention is appropriate to the needs of individuals, putting Chattanooga in a position that is best able to maximize resources and achieve their goals. . “Working with all of those who are committed to housing people throughout the region, we’re moving in a much better direction to find what a person really needs and then a voucher or resource to fit their needs.” While the work is not over, Chattanooga has been able to work within and across systems to make progress, engaging both public and private partners. 

Chattanooga has been able to make significant progress by implementing strategies at the core of the Opening Doors Across America Initiative: they aligned their plan with Opening Doors, collaborated with multiple partners, committed to developing targets and measuring their progress, and engaged in creative problem solving to keep momentum going. Using some of the same tools and collaborations, your community can move the needle on ending all types of homelessness as well. 

Learn more about Chattanooga by reading their Blueprint Analysis. 

Learn more about resources and innovations in Opening Doors Across America

Opening Doors Connecticut

Connecticut recently became the first state in the country to develop a state plan to end homelessness that is fully aligned with our national plan, Opening Doors. USICH discussed the development of Opening Doors Connecticut with Carol Walter, the Executive Director of the Connecticut Coalition to End Homelessness, and staff from the Partnership for Strong Communities.

Benefits of Aligning a State Plan 

Since the effects of homelessness are individual, personal, and local, there can be a tendency for states to expect local communities to do their own planning without providing the comprehensive leadership of a state strategic plan. This misses a great opportunity that can benefit the state, the communities, and people experiencing homelessness in the state. Connecticut has found that a strong state plan aligned with Opening Doors provides a framework for a comprehensive statewide approach to homelessness that helps:

Since the effects of homelessness are individual, personal, and local, there can be a tendency for states to expect local communities to do their own planning without providing the comprehensive leadership of a state strategic plan. This misses a great opportunity that can benefit the state, the communities, and people experiencing homelessness in the state. Connecticut has found that a strong state plan aligned with Opening Doors provides a framework for a comprehensive statewide approach to homelessness that helps:

• Improve access to interventions for people experiencing housing crises by streamlining collaboration at all levels of government and across jurisdictions. When everyone working on homelessness in the state shares the same goals and speaks with a unified voice, collaboration becomes easier and more effective.
• Encourage uniform use of best practices. The process to develop the federal plan was thorough and relied on the input of leaders in homeless services from every corner of the country. “The strategies that are in the plan are the best we have as a nation. If these strategies are used uniformly in my state, then I know we are moving toward our goals more effectively. There is no need to reinvent the wheel,” said Carol Walter.
• Coordinate outcome measures, ensuring all communities are truly measuring progress and that measurements are comparable. In order to use resources wisely, local communities need to be able to assess what programs are working. They cannot do this without using reliable measurements that are comparable with other communities.
• Access federal resources and ease federal reporting requirements. Walter explained, “All federal homeless programs are coordinated through Opening Doors, it can make life easier as a state or a community when your program dollars are aligned in the same way. This will become especially true when new HEARTH regulations take effect. High performing communities will be eligible for additional resources and it is much easier to be high performing and to demonstrate that performance, if you are using the same measuring stick that the federal government uses.”
• Save state dollars by reducing the burden on public systems and by increasing efficiency of state distributed resources. People experiencing homelessness - especially people experiencing chronic homelessness - are often high-cost users of public systems. State courts, prisons, and hospitals can reduce the strain on their systems if solutions to homelessness are in place. In addition, states are charged with distributing many resources related to homeless services. To make the most of these resources, states should be putting them into systems that are coordinated and using best practices.

Connecticut's Process of Alignment

In Connecticut, the process of developing the new state plan was spearheaded by a small group of non-profit and advocacy organizations including the Partnership for Stronger Communities, the Connecticut Housing Coalition, the Corporation for Supportive Housing, the Connecticut Aids Resource Coalition, the Connecticut Women’s Education and Legal Fund, and the Connecticut Coalition to End Homelessness. The effort has been guided by the Reaching Home Campaign, supported by the Melville Charitable Trust. Partnership for Strong Communities has provided the staff support needed to move the project forward. This initial small group of organizations realized the importance of a state plan, but they also realized the importance of welcoming many voices to the table.  “Housing loss is intertwined with the issues of income, health, safety, and social and family supports, among others," said Howard Rifkin the Executive Director of Partnership for Stronger Communities. "To develop a state plan that coordinates across these fields and uses the best practices they have to offer, we needed to bring in a broader range of partners that included healthcare systems, workforce development, education, the business community, municipalities and the faith community.”

In order to obtain as much feedback as possible from those working in the field, they identified six topics that were especially relevant to the needs in Connecticut and hosted listening sessions on these topics: housing; health; criminal justice; family, youth, and children; crisis response; and community planning and sustainability. These sessions brought in feedback from many sectors including representatives from state-level agencies (see the table below). An outside observer was tasked with tying all of the feedback together and gaining consensus on a plan aligned with Opening Doors that meets the unique needs of Connecticut.

Ensuring a plan that was implementable was a critical piece of the thought process. “A plan without implementation does not get us closer to our goals, to do the work ahead we kept plan implementation in our sights from the beginning by delineating a structure to guide the implementation,” said Rifkin. Plan implementation is being overseen by a steering committee made up of a broad-based coalition of more than 50 community stakeholders. This steering committee oversees progress from four implementation working groups on retooling crisis response, healthcare and housing stability, economic security, and affordable and supportive housing which guide action on the strategies laid out in Opening Doors Connecticut.

Listening Session Topic	Participating Groups
Housing	Connecticut Housing Coalition, public housing agencies, housing developers, Connecticut Housing and Finance Authority, Department of Economic and Community Development, Partnership for Strong Communities, Governor’s office, Melville Charitable Trust, workforce investment boards, permanent supportive housing providers, legal rights services, Mental Health and Substance Abuse Agency, philanthropy
Health care	hospital staff, behavioral health providers, federally qualified community health centers, health department staff, Mental Health and Substance Abuse Agency, health advocates, AIDS advocates, Department of Public Health, Department of Social Services, state healthcare advocates, Connecticut Women’s Education and Legal Fund, State of Connecticut Child Advocates
Criminal Justice	Department of Corrections, Court Support Services Division, the VA-Connecticut Healthcare System, state budget office, Mental Health and Substance Abuse Agency, Department of Social Services, community service providers, re-entry coordinators, Connecticut Alliance to Benefit Law Enforcement, Central Connecticut State University, philanthropy, Corporation for Supportive Housing, Partnership for Stronger Communities, state legislators
Family, Youth, and Children	children’s advocacy and legal rights groups, Youth Continuum, Youth and Family Services, magnet schools, permanent supportive housing providers, Department of Children and Families, workforce investment boards, Department of Social Services, Mental Health and Substance Abuse Agency, domestic violence advocacy, Department of Education
Crisis Response	permanent supportive housing providers, shelters, social services agencies, Mental Health and Substance Abuse Agency, State Budget Office, National Alliance on Mental Illness, Connecticut Coalition to End Homelessness, Department of Social Services, Partnership for Stronger Communities, United Way of Greater New Haven
Community Planning and Sustainability	Community colleges, Connecticut Coalition to End Homelessness, USICH, Mental Health and Substance Abuse Agency, the VA-Connecticut Healthcare System, Department of Economic and Community Development, Department of Social Services, philanthropy, state legislators

 

Five things you can do now to work toward an aligned plan in your state:

1. Determine a lead for the development of a state plan.  Consider state coordinating bodies or organizations that could convene participants around the development of a state plan. Some examples include a state interagency council on homelessness, state coalition on homelessness, state housing agency, and philanthropic organizations.

2. Convene meetings with a broad spectrum of representatives who work day-to-day in homeless services. Get everyone in the same room to talk about what is needed, what the benefits would be, and determine a course of action, that includes concrete steps, accountability for actions, and a timeline.

3. Connect with people experiencing homelessness and who are working on the ground (working case managers, people who run shelters, and others) and discuss the following questions:

• What do best practices look like on the ground?
• How do different practices work together?
• How would we bring them to scale?

4. Don’t reinvent the wheel. Share your own experiences and what you know about how different models work in the real world. Consider solutions that are working in other states, and applicable strategies outlined in Opening Doors. Use the framework of population goals, a clear timeline, and five themes to frame your plan.

5. Be prepared to open your mind.

In relation to this last point, Walter shared this advice for our readers:

Be prepared to open your mind. In order to end homelessness, some things will have to change. Whether that is giving up on a model you have used for a long time or working with partners that you haven’t gotten along with in the past, some uncomfortable changes are inevitable. If you are in a leadership position, make sure others in your organization understand the why behind these sometimes difficult changes. Putting yourself in a silo and immersing yourself in the work of saving people is understandable, but in order to end homelessness and stop just managing it we all need to take a step back and realize where these silos and blinders are holding us back. As an individual or an organization you can begin to do this work and begin to think more openly. As a state you can take leadership and push the whole field toward the use of best practices and a more efficient system.

Opening Doors Together: Strategies for Integrating Education and Housing Services

 

 

Policy experts from ED and HUD discuss why collaboration between CoCs and local school systems is important and how to implement new strategies for building relationships around targeted activities that advance the goal to prevent and end youth and family homelessness by 2020.

On this webinar you’ll learn more about the CoC program and the Education for Homeless Children and Youth (EHCY) program and how these programs can be better coordinated to improve housing stability and educational outcomes for youth and families. You’ll also hear how homeless service providers and educators in Houston, Texas collaborated to conduct HUD’s Point-in-Time (PIT) and the challenges and benefits they experienced.

 

Tell us what you thought about the webinar. Complete this short survey and let us know more about what is helpful for you and your work to end homelessness. 

HUD & VA Team Up to Provide Permanent Homes to 9,000 Homeless Veterans

via U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development

WASHINGTON - U.S. Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Shaun Donovan and U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Secretary Eric K. Shinseki announced today that HUD will provide $60 million to local public housing agencies across the country to provide permanent supportive housing to homeless Veterans, many of whom are living with chronic disabling conditions.

The supportive housing assistance announced today is provided through the HUD-Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing (HUD-VASH) Program which combines rental assistance from HUD with case management and clinical services provided by VA. Since 2008, a total of 48,385 vouchers have been awarded and 42,557 formerly homeless Veterans are currently in homes because of HUD-VASH. 

Donovan and Shinseki announced this additional support for homeless Veterans in an address to the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans Annual Conference today in Washington.  Find out how much of this assistance will help homeless Veterans in your area.

“Our Veterans have answered the call of duty. That’s why our nation has its own duty – to help homeless servicemen and women rejoin the very communities they have given so much to protect,” said Donovan. “These grants make it possible to help more Veterans obtain housing, bringing us steps closer to our goal of ending veteran homelessness by 2015.”

“These HUD-VASH vouchers are a critical resource to accomplish our shared goal of ending Veterans’ homelessness in 2015,” Shinseki said. “With the continued support of President Obama, Congress, and our community partners, we will end homelessness among Veterans and provide these brave men and women with the earned care and benefits that help them live productive, meaningful lives.”

HUD-VASH is a critical part of the Obama Administration’s commitment to end Veteran and long-term chronic homelessness by 2015.  Opening Doors: Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness serves as a roadmap for how the Federal government will work with state and local communities to confront the root causes of homelessness, especially among former servicemen and women. HUD’s annual “point in time” estimate of the number of homeless persons and families for 2012 found that Veteran homelessness fell by 7.2 percent (or 4,876 people) since January 2011 and by 17.2 percent since January 2009.  On a single night in January 2012, 62,619 Veterans were homeless.

The grants announced today are part of $75 million appropriated this year to support the housing needs of homeless Veterans. Local public housing authorities provide rental assistance to homeless Veterans while nearby VA Medical Centers (VAMC) offer supportive services and case management.  This is the first round of the 2013 HUD-VASH funding.  HUD expects to announce more HUD-VASH funding this summer.

VAMCs work closely with homeless Veterans then refer them to public housing agencies for these vouchers, based upon a variety of factors, most importantly the duration of the homelessness and the need for longer term more intensive support to obtain and maintain permanent housing.  The HUD-VASH program includes both the rental assistance the voucher provides and the comprehensive case management that VAMC staff provides.

Veterans participating in the HUD-VASH program rent privately owned housing and generally contribute no more than 30 percent of their income toward rent.  VA offers eligible homeless veterans clinical and supportive services through its medical centers across the U.S., Guam and Puerto Rico. 

Access HUD press release here

Management and Program Analyst

Location: This position is located in the immediate office of the U.S. Interagency Council On Homelessness (USICH) in Washington, DC. 

Start Date/Duration: Immediate; Open until filled.  

Key Roles for this position: 

The incumbent supports the work of Director-level and agency leadership. Incumbent has the necessary level of decision-making latitude in order to be effective in this position. 

Major Duties and Responsibilities: 

USICH seeks a Management Program Analyst (MPA) to support USICH policy, programmatic and communications activities. This role provides important contributions to a wide range of USICH’s efforts to advance the goals ofOpening Doors: Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness.  

Major duties and responsibilities include:

• Administers, implements, coordinates, and/or oversees a variety of complex projects, initiatives and processes to support USICH policy, programmatic, communications and technical assistance activities.
• Manages projects and coordinates with staff in the performance of various tasks.
• Undertakes or participates in special projects, analyses, investigations and initiatives that have high priority for high-level management. This may involve producing complex analyses and written reports, organizing and participating in special committees, workshops, or other gatherings.
• Participates in meetings and other forums with various levels of internal staff, Council member agency staff, and various other stakeholders in carrying out work assignments. Collaborates inside and outside of the Agency on a variety of work products, processes and projects.
• Serves as a focal point and content expert for issues affecting and impacting assigned areas.
• Manages data, databases and other informational systems to perform and support work. Reports out in various capacities on the content of these informational systems.
• Responds to requests for information from stakeholders and from within the organization in regards to the work of the Agency.
• Manages the processes and content to support a variety of meetings, conferences, and other dialogues that support the work the Agency.
• Takes initiative to anticipate issues, resolve conflict among multiple priorities, and implement effective solutions to prevent problems that might impact timelines and deliverables.
• Ensures that project work is completed according to project guidelines and manages resources to ensure successful project completion (e.g., budget, staff resources, timeline).
• Monitors the progress of projects, programs and/or plans and makes adjustments as needed.
• Sets goals and establishes priorities.
• Other special projects and duties, as assigned

Factor Level Descriptions & Qualifications:

USICH is seeking candidates with both subject-matter expertise in homelessness, proven project management and analytical skills, and experience with policy and program analysis.

Successful applicants meet the following qualifications:

• Understanding of the Council’s mission, strategies, goals and objectives: familiarity with efforts on the implementation of Opening Doors: Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness; knowledge of public systems that serve people at risk of and experiencing homelessness;  understanding of principles and implementation of practices that apply evidence based and innovative solutions (e.g. Housing First) to homelessness. 

• Excellent analytical skills, project and process management skills, content/program analysis and summarization, meetings/events planning, excellent content/technical writing skills, participating on cross-functional teams, strong oral communication skills, ability to work well with a wide range of stakeholders, good judgment, time-management, organization, multi-tasking, ability to work in a fast-paced environment and to respond appropriately to new developments.

• Self-directed and able to offer creative solutions. Ability to exercise professional judgment in carrying out assigned duties and responsibilities.

• The ability to work in teams and collaborate well with people both inside and outside of the agency.

• Knowledge of and experience in project management to including knowledge of project management principles, methods, and practices including developing schedules, estimating resource requirements, defining milestones and deliverables, monitoring activities, and evaluating and reporting accomplishments.

• Ability to research and analyze data, and to prepare documents in preparation for meetings, conferences, and for other uses.

• Technology savvy with solid proficiency in data storage, manipulation and management.  Knowledge of and specific experience using Excel, Outlook, Word, PowerPoint. 

• Experience conducting fact finding interviews and presenting recommendations to management.

• Strong written communication skills that can be applied with little oversight to developing policy, guidance, instructions, and reports of findings and recommendations. Experience preparing content in a variety of formats and media, and tailoring communications to the specific needs of different audiences, both internal and external.

Organizationally, the incumbent reports directly to a Director-level staff member.  Work is evaluated to ensure that overall objectives have been met. 

The work requires a minimum of physical exertion

Most of the work is performed in an office setting. 

Minimum 5 years of directly related experience.  Master’s degree preferred. Bachelor’s degree minimum.

How to Apply:

Please email a cover letter which includes your availability, your resume and salary history/requirements to jobs@usich.gov.

Position is open until filled. Once a final selection is made, non-selected applicants will be notified.

Position duty station is Washington, DC. 

USICH is an Equal Employment Opportunity employer.

You must be a U.S. citizen to be considered for this position. 

This position requires a background check; must be able to successfully pass and maintain clearance.

All Federal employees are required by PL 104-134 to have Federal payments made by Direct Deposit. 

Male applicants born after December 31, 1959, will be required to certify that they have registered with the Selective Service System, or are exempt from having to do under the Selective Service Law.

This is a Federal government, excepted service (Schedule A) position, open to all candidates with or without prior federal government experience.

Position includes a 1 year probationary period in which incumbent can be terminated without case.

Relocation expenses are not authorized.

Full-time position with Federal government benefits. 

The Federal government offers a number of exceptional benefits to its employees including health benefits, life insurance, annual and sick leave, flexible spending accounts, long term care insurance, retirement and thrift savings plan, and family friendly flexibilities.  To find out more click here.

This position is exempt from the Fair Labor Standards Act.

This position is not in a bargaining unit.

Opening Doors to Innovation: How to Improve Client Outcomes Using Housing First

USICH and the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans host a discussion on how Housing First practices can improve client outcomes in a transitional housing setting and help our Nation’s Veterans and others who experience homelessness move more quickly into permanent housing.

Participating in the conversation is Dr. Josh Bamberger from the San Francisco Department of Health, Dr. Tom O’Toole from Veterans Affairs Medical Center Providence, RI, and Sue Smith and Antoine Parks from Project H.O.M.E. in Philadelphia, PA.  The panel discusses the clinical dimensions of Housing First and how it helps to deliver improved care to clients and speed up their transitions into permanent housing.  

On this webinar you will learn more about Housing First as a clinical practice from healthcare providers in both community and VA-based settings. You’ll also hear from a local transitional housing provider for Veterans who innovated their program with Housing First principles to enhance the success housing Veterans experiencing homelessness.

 

Second Chance Act Two-Phase Program FY 2013 Competitive Grant Announcement

WAHINGTON - The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), Office of JusticePrograms’(OJP),Bureau of Justice

Assistance (BJA), is seeking applications for funding for the Second ChanceAct Two-Phase 

Adult Reentry Demonstration Program: Planning andImplementation. This program furthers the

Department’s commitment to providing services and programs to help facilitate the successful

reintegration of offenders returning to their communities.

 

Chronic Survey 2012

Here's something on chronic homelessness.

Obama Administration Renews Support For More Than 500 Local Homeless Programs Across The U.S.

via U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development

WASHINGTON – U.S. Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Shaun Donovan today announced a second round of grants for more than 500 local homeless housing and service programs across the U.S, provided through HUD’s Continuum of Care Program.  This year, HUD challenged local communities to reexamine their response to homelessness and give greater weight to proven strategies, from providing ‘rapid re-housing’ for homeless families to permanent supportive housing for those experiencing chronic homelessness (see chart on HUD.gov press release).

The $72 million in grants announced today support a wide range of programs including street outreach, client assessment, and direct housing assistance.  In March, HUD awarded more than $1.5 billion in a first round of grant funding to renew support for more than 7,000 other local programs.  HUD will make a third round of funding to support selected new projects later this year. View a complete list of all the state and local homeless projects awarded funding.

“We know these modest investments in housing and serving our homeless neighbors not only saves money, but saves lives,” said Donovan.  “These local programs are on the front lines of the Obama Administration’s efforts to prevent and end homelessness as we know it once and for all.”

Continuum of Care grants are awarded competitively to local projects to meet the needs of their homeless clients. The grants fund a wide variety of programs from street outreach and assessment to transitional and permanent housing for homeless persons and families.  HUD funds are a critical part of the Obama Administration’s strategic plan to prevent and end homelessness.

While the Fiscal Year 2012 funds awarded today are not impacted by the automatic across-the-board budget cuts under sequestration that began March 1st, Donovan cautioned that future budget cuts may reverse significant reported declines in homelessness: “During this challenging budget climate, we must make certain that we don’t balance our books on the backs of our most vulnerable citizens.  When we make event modest investments in these programs, we see a measureable decline in homelessness.”

HUD recently announced its 2012 “point in time” estimate of the number of homeless persons in America.  Approximately 3,000 cities and counties reported 633,782 homeless persons on a single night in January of 2012, largely unchanged from the year before.  While HUD found significant declines among the long-term homeless and veterans, local communities reported an increase in the number of sheltered and unsheltered families with children.

HUD’s Continuum of Care grants announced today will continue offering permanent and transitional housing to homeless persons as well as services including job training, health care, mental health counseling, substance abuse treatment and child care. Continuum of Care grants are awarded competitively to local programs to meet the needs of their homeless clients.

In 2010, President Obama and 19 federal agencies and offices that form the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH) launched the nation’s first comprehensive strategy to prevent and end homelessness. Opening Doors: Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness puts the country on a path to end veterans and chronic homelessness by 2015 and to ending homelessness among children, family, and youth by 2020.

Access HUD press releases

Successful Program Model: Washington State’s SOAR Program for Veterans

As mentioned in the article "Pushing To the Goal: Three Ways to Accelerate Ending Veteran Homelessness", a key element is improving Veterans’ access to mainstream benefits. A program developed in Washington State helps to increase access to Social Security disability benefits for disabled Veterans and their families who are homeless or on the brink of homelessness. One of the specific objectives of this program is to support the goal of eliminating homelessness among Veterans by 2015. Helping Veterans access Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) plays an important function in achieving the 2015 goal because SSI/SSDI provides access to income, housing, health insurance and treatment, as well as employment and related supports.

The Washington State SOAR (SSI and SSDI Outreach, Access and Recovery) program strives to streamline and expedite the Social Security disability benefits application and approval process for disabled Veterans. Specifically, SOAR provides training to case managers and other direct service providers that better equips them to assist disabled people with the application process for SSI and SSDI. What makes the Washington SOAR program unique is its focus on Veterans and their families, as well as a broad-based partnership that offers comprehensive and thorough coordination across various state and federal agencies, including:

• Washington State Department of Veteran Affairs (DVA);
• Washington State Department of Social and Health Services, the state agency that provides state benefits and services;
• Division of Behavioral Health and Recovery Services, through the state PATH coordinator;
• Division of Disability Determination Services (DDS);
• U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, through local VA Medical Centers and the Veterans Benefits Administration;
• U.S. Social Security Administration through its Regional Office (SSA); and,
• SOAR Technical Assistance Team, sponsored by Substance Abuse Mental Health Services Administration.

DVA entered into memorandum of understanding with its regional SSA and DDS part and trains service providers in the State of Washington on the SOAR method. Concurrently, DVA directly helps Veterans with their applications through an active collaboration with two VA Medical Centers, as well as those Veterans living in DVAs 60-bed Grant and Per Diem transitional housing program.

Over 200 providers received SOAR training across the state since 2011. In the past 24 months, DVA assisted with the approval of over 150 SSA/SSDI claims. The average wait time for approval on these claims was only 93 days and they received 100 percent approval. These rates become even more impressive when compared nationally: only about 30 percent of individuals who apply for SSI/SSDI receive approval on initial application and, when applications are denied, their appeals can take an average of one year to complete.

Ending Veterans Homelessness: HUD-VASH Makes Housing First a Priority

In October 2012, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs(VA) made Housing First the official policy of the Department of Housing and Urban Development-Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing (HUD-VASH) program, which combines rental assistance from HUD with case management and other services from VA. We recently spoke with Vince Kane, Director of VA’s National Center on Homelessness Among Veterans (the Center), about how VA decided to adopt Housing First, what VA has learned about implementing this approach within the HUD-VASH program, and using a Housing First approach in other VA programs.

Housing First differs from prior approaches and models of care that require Veterans to complete treatment or demonstrate “housing readiness” before being given the chance to live independently in permanent housing. Instead, Housing First centers on providing Veterans experiencing homelessness with housing as quickly as possible. Treatment and other supportive services are then provided as needed to assist Veterans with maintaining housing and improving their quality of life. This intervention places permanent housing with supports at the foundation for success and stability, including better access and outcomes with treatment services. The Housing First model minimizes barriers to recovery and focuses on access, rapid engagement, and then sustainment of community-based permanent housing. That means that Veterans can move from the streets or shelters directly into permanent housing as quickly and safely as possible. Housing First helps VA focus HUD-VASH on Veterans experiencing the most significant challenges to housing stability, including chronic homelessness, severe mental illness and other significant barriers.

Mr. Kane described how VA’s decision to adopt Housing First grew out of a focus on outcomes and solutions. He recalled, “[how Secretary Shinseki, Secretary Donovan, and USICH Executive Director Barbara Poppe] asked, ‘What are the evidence-based and emerging best practices that are recovery-focused and allow us to rapidly engage and sustain housing for Veterans?’” As a first step, the Center initiated a demonstration project in the District of Columbia in 2009 to assess the impact of Housing First compared to treatment as usual within HUD-VASH. Findings showed that Housing First:

• engaged more Veterans experiencing chronic homelessness;
• dramatically reduced time to housing placement;
• improved housing retention rates (98 percent remained housed for a year in Housing First compared with 86 percent otherwise); and
• significantly reduced emergency room visits and unscheduled acute hospital stays. 

These results suggested that Housing First would improve outcomes for all Veterans served by the HUD-VASH program. Mr. Kane refers to adopting Housing First for HUD-VASH as a “game-changer service delivery model.” He added, “This change in program policy is consistent with the federal strategic plan [Opening Doors], and VA Secretary Shinseki believes it is our most effective resource to reach our 2015 goal to end Veterans homelessness.”

In addition to the change in policy, VA continues to innovate and support practitioners in the field with tools and know-how to support implementation. VA surveyed VA Medical Centers about implementing Housing First for HUD-VASH, and provided targeted training based on those survey results on the core components of Housing First and ways to use the approach with the HUD-VASH program. The survey included a self-evaluation for each VA Medical Center on its adoption of Housing First, as well as the timeliness of access to housing, symptom stabilization, use of emergency and medical and mental health services, quality of life, and long-term housing stabilization of Veterans enrolled. In response, the Center is developing curriculum on key strategies of Housing First and an online course for VA and non-VA providers to learn more about the approach. Clinicians will receive Continuing Medical Education (CME) credits for completing the course, which will open to the public in early June 2013.

In 2012, the Center, in consultation with Dr. Sam Tsemberis of Pathways to Housing, launched a 36-month evaluation of a service-enhanced implementation of Housing First in 14 HUD-VASH program sites, to identify outcomes and lessons learned. These communities included: Bay Pines, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, District of Columbia, Denver, Detroit, Los Angeles, New Orleans, New York Harbor and Bronx, Philadelphia, Portland, San Francisco, and Syracuse. Through this effort, VA is building Assertive Community Treatment teams—multidisciplinary teams of health care, mental health treatment, vocational assistance, and job development providers—who together wrap the appropriate services around HUD-VASH participants to ensure stable housing and improve health and quality of life. The Veterans Health Administration (VHA) Homeless Program Office provided funding for this effort and the Center is evaluating its impact on outcomes for the Veterans served.

Beyond HUD-VASH, VA’s Transition-In-Place models within the Grant Per Diem (GPD) program offers Veterans access to housing and support services, with the expectation that services disengage when no longer needed, allowing the participant to remain stably housed. This approach is intended to increase the speed of Veterans moving from transitional to permanent housing and promote housing stability, instead of requiring Veterans to move out after using VA services. Transitional housing GPD programs are also exploring how Housing First principles apply to their programs. On May 8, USICH and the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans are hosting a webinar about using Housing First as a clinical practice in transitional housing programs under GPD. See the registration link below.

With the demonstrated success of Housing First, Mr. Kane mentioned that VA is continuing to examine other opportunities for Housing First to guide efforts to end Veterans homelessness. “Since 2011, by nature and design, Supportive Services for Veteran Families (SSVF) has made Housing First a focus and priority. With $300M proposed in the President’s Fiscal Year 2014 Budget to fund SSVF, a prioritization on collaborative community based housing stability will remain a hallmark of VA’s transformational efforts to end Veteran homelessness.”

VA continues to capture lessons learned from Housing First and apply them to its programs, as it leads the way in efforts to end homelessness among Veterans.

Learn more about HUD-VASH and Housing First

Read the breakdown of targeted homeless assistance funding for programs like HUD-VASH in the President’s FY 2014 Budget Proposal

Want a quick way to know if a program is Housing First? Access the Housing First Checklist.

Open Doors to Innovation and join the webinar on May 8, 2013 hosted by USICH and the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans on using the Housing First model as a clinical practice that can be adopted for transitional housing programs. Learn more about the webinar and register.

Breaking Down Legal Barriers to Housing

Like other people who experience homelessness, many Veterans encounter legal barriers to housing. Both civil and criminal legal issues can make it difficult to access housing, benefits, employment, treatment, and other needed services. These types of legal barriers may contribute to a Veteran becoming homeless, as well as make it challenging for a Veteran to exit homelessness.

Legal Services are Three of Top Ten Unmet Needs among Veterans Who Access Homeless Services

Every year, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) conducts a Community Homelessness Assessment, Local Education and Networking Groups survey (CHALENG), gathering input from Veterans, service providers, and other stakeholders regarding Veterans’ service needs. In the most recently published CHALENG report, legal assistance needs rank as some of the highest unmet needs, even ahead of housing. In fact, the report indicates that three of the top ten needs identified by both Veterans and providers are legal assistance needs for child support issues, outstanding warrants and fines, and help to restore a driver’s license.

While VA does not provide legal representation, the agency and its partners are taking notice and developing initiatives to address the needs of justice-involved Veterans. These initiatives (detailed below) provide access to the legal services and supports that homeless and formerly homeless Veterans identified in the CHALENG as critical unmet needs or needs that can present significant barriers to their housing stability. For Veteran-serving organizations, accessing these resources can improve stability for Veterans. We encourage organizations to improve their collaboration with these and other initiatives serving justice-involved Veterans.  Some of these important initiatives include:

Health Care for Re-entry Veterans

The VA’s Health Care for Re-entry Veterans Program (HCRV) plays an important role in preventing homelessness by helping Veterans formerly incarcerated in prisons to successfully transition back into their communities. HCRV conducts outreach and pre-release assessment services for Veterans before they leave prison. The program also provides referrals and linkages to medical, psychiatric, employment and social services upon release, as well as short-term case management assistance. Finally, the program offers state-specific resource guides to help incarcerated Veterans plan a successful reentry. More information on HCRV, its resource guides, and contacts by state is available.

Veterans Justice Outreach

The VA’s Veterans Justice Outreach Program (VJO) helps to prevent homelessness by providing various services to Veterans involved with local justice systems. Every VA Medical Center has at least one Veterans Justice Outreach Specialist who works with local courts, law enforcement, jails, legal service providers, and other justice system partners. The services provided by VJO Specialists include direct outreach, assessment, and case management to help ensure that justice-involved Veterans obtain timely access to VA medical, mental health, substance abuse and other services. VJO Specialists participate in problem-solving courts, help Veterans access legal assistance, and provide training to local law enforcement agencies. More information on the VJO program, including local contacts by VA Medical Center, is available.

The Child Support Initiative

Veterans experiencing homelessness face a unique set of challenges that can affect their child support cases such as higher unemployment rates, income changes, housing instability, and frequent moves. A child support order that is not appropriately tailored to a Veteran’s actual income level can make it difficult for that Veteran to pay housing expenses and create child support debts. These arrearages, in turn, can negatively affect a Veteran’s credit rating, eligibility for housing assistance, ability to rent housing and obtain employment, as well as pose psychological barriers to family reconciliation and support.

The Child Support Initiative is a collaborative pilot project between the Department of Health and Human Services, VA, and the American Bar Association that provides support for homeless Veterans and their families to address unresolved child support issues. Services include assistance negotiating sustainable child support payment plans, child support debt forgiveness as appropriate, connection to legal assistance, and referrals to community-based services like responsible fatherhood programs. This pilot project currently operates in nine cities that utilize a common framework; however, the exact services and activities vary according to the available resources and specific needs of homeless Veterans at each site. More information about The Child Support Initiative and individual site models can be found online here and here.

Supportive Services for Veteran Families

Under the Supportive Services for Veteran Families Program (SSVF), VA awards grants to nonprofit organizations that provide homelessness prevention and rapid re-housing services to Veteran families. One of VA’s requirements of SSVF grantees is to provide Veteran families with access to legal services to assist with issues that directly interfere with their ability obtain or retain permanent housing. Most SSVF grantees currently provide access to legal services through referrals to other community-based programs; however, SSVF grantees increasingly choose to deliver these services directly. VA has information about SSVF and the grantees located in your area available online.

Stateside Legal

Stateside Legal is a website dedicated to helping low-income Veterans, Servicemembers, and their families’ access free legal services, benefits, and legal information. The website provides localized searches to find legal assistance, clearly indicating which services are free. This search tool also includes links to State Veterans Affairs Offices and other organizations that provide Veterans help with VA-related claims and other legal assistance. Finally, this website offers user-friendly legal resources to help Veterans better understand their legal issues. 

Pushing to the Goal: Three Ways to Accelerate Ending Veteran Homelessness

The Administration’s commitment to end homelessness among Veterans and their families remains steadfast. The President’s FY 2014 Budget proposal continues to increase investment in effective strategies, including $75 million for the HUD-Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing (HUD-VASH) program and $300 million for Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Supportive Services for Veteran Families (SSVF) program. The Administration’s previous investments in ending Veteran homelessness continue to show significant results: homelessness among Veterans is down 18 percent since the launch of Opening Doors.

During the April 16, 2013 meeting of the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, along with representation from the White House’s Domestic Policy Council and Office of Management and Budget, Council leadership reviewed progress at ending Veterans homelessness, recognizing that even with the progress to date, efforts must be accelerated to meet the goal of ending Veterans homelessness by 2015. Ending Veterans homelessness remains possible with the right investments focused in the right way: investments that connect Veterans experiencing homelessness to housing, that ensure that Veterans in need of support are identified and connected with the right services, and that leverage mainstream benefits for Veterans experiencing homelessness. This article focuses on progress and opportunities in these three areas.

Faster Connections to Permanent Housing

Ending Veterans homelessness means connecting Veterans experiencing or at risk of homelessness to housing. The Department of Veterans Affairs’ (VA) Supportive Services for Veteran Families (SSVF) provides a clear example of the impact that focused, strategic investments can have on ensuring Veterans obtain and maintain housing. This program—modeled after HUD’s successful Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Rehousing Program (HPRP)—provides funding for nonprofit organizations and consumer cooperatives to deliver supportive services and financial assistance to very low-income Veteran families experiencing or at risk of homelessness. SSVF offers support services and financial assistance to help homeless Veterans move as quickly as possible into housing and attain housing stability. For those with housing in jeopardy, SSVF helps Veteran families remain housed by providing supports like landlord mediation and short-term financial assistance. VA’s investments in SSVF have been scaled up to reflect the program’s success and impact, approved at $300 million in FY 2013 and proposed at $300 million in the President’s FY 2014 Budget.

Thanks to SSVF and sustained commitments to other VA and HUD programs, the rate of homeless Veterans moving into permanent housing has increased by 40 percent compared to a year ago. The graph to the right depicts the number of homeless Veterans enrolled in various VA programs who obtained housing in the first quarters of 2012 and 2013; communities throughout the country are significantly increasing placements into permanent housing—one of the most critical indicators of progress toward ending homelessness.

For housing programs to make the biggest impact possible, they must be targeted judiciously for the Veterans who need them most. In her presentation the Council, Dr. Susan Angell, Executive Director for Veterans Homeless Initiatives for the Department of Veterans Affairs, described how VA and HUD retooled the HUD-VASH program to focus on engaging Veterans experiencing chronic homelessness and accelerating this group’s movement into permanent housing. She reported that for the first time since the creation of HUD-VASH, more than of 65 percent of new program participants were chronically homeless at entry.

See the interview with Vince Kane from VA’s National Center on Homelessness Among Veterans in this edition of the newsletter, describing VA’s experience applying Housing First principles to HUD-VASH.

Every homeless Veteran can be housed by investing in programs with proven outcomes, targeting resources so that Veterans receive the right housing response for their situation, streamlining the path from homelessness to housing, and increasing the rate of Veterans obtaining housing.

Identifying and Meeting the Needs of Every Veteran  

Ending homelessness among Veterans also requires reaching every Veteran in need of assistance. VA established the National Call Center for Homeless Veterans (1-877-4AID-VET or 1-877-424-3838) to identify Veterans experiencing homelessness or housing crises, and engage them with the most appropriate interventions. Through this free, national resource, Veterans experiencing or at risk of homelessness and their families can get connected with the VA services and benefits they have earned, including housing programs and support services. In its first year of operation, the Call Center received roughly 10,000 calls; today it receives nearly 10,000 per month. VA encourages Veterans and their families who are homeless or at risk of homelessness to make the call.

In October 2012, VA also implemented a clinical reminder within its VA medical facilities to assess homelessness and housing instability among every Veteran seeking VA health care. VA’s National Center on Homelessness Among Veterans identified two questions strongly correlated with Veterans’ risk factors for homelessness: 

• In the past two months, have you been living in stable housing that you own, rent, or stay in as part of a household?
• If not, are you worried or concerned that in the next two months you may not have stable housing that you own, rent, or stay in as part of a household?

These questions are now asked of all Veterans receiving outpatient services from VA Medical Centers. In the last quarter of 2012, almost 1.26 million Veterans were assessed using these questions, and 14,393 Veterans experiencing homelessness or housing instability and an additional 17,405 Veterans at-risk of homelessness or housing instability were identified and connected to services. Veterans with current housing instability are referred to a homeless specialist for housing stabilization services and connection to VA homeless programs. Veterans at-risk of homelessness are generally referred to social workers to coordinate access to other forms of assistance such as landlord and family mediation.

VA’s proactive approach with this clinical reminder is one example of how systematic assessment can assist with outreach and early detection of homelessness and housing instability. Through early detection, Veterans can receive less expensive forms of prevention assistance, like conflict mediation or utility assistance, and potentially avoid a costly and traumatic housing crisis.

Community-based organizations conducting outreach and providing services to people experiencing homelessness, including Veterans, can also help identify Veterans in need. How these questions are posed—even the basic questions to determine whether someone experiencing homelessness is a Veteran—is important. Tom O’Toole, Director of the National Homeless Veterans Patient Aligned Care Teams (HPACT) Program for VA, recommends using these three questions in the field to determine Veteran status and VA eligibility: 

1. Did you serve in the military?
2. If yes, were you on active duty (not reserves) after 1980 for at least two years or did you serve in combat? (If on active duty prior to 1980, the two-year requirement does not apply.)
3. If yes, did you have an honorable or general discharge? 

While not perfect, the first question can help determine Veteran status with better accuracy than other options, which are prone to misunderstanding or can become convoluted with technicalities. Affirmative answers on the second and third questions can help determine whether a Veteran is eligible for VA services. Communities can help end Veteran homelessness by making sure that Veterans are properly identified among people experiencing homelessness using field-tested questions like these, and connected with VA services whenever possible.

Stronger Bridges to Mainstream Benefits

Improving our ability to identify needs is critical, but must be accompanied by ensuring Veterans are successfully linked to the range of benefits and services available to address their needs, many of which are provided outside of the VA system. Mainstream benefits—health insurance, economic assistance, and income supports—play a vital role in the health and economic security of Veterans. SSVF providers are engaging Veterans and documenting dramatic increases in Veterans’ access to important mainstream benefits. 

The above graph compares entry and exit levels of enrollment in various mainstream benefits for Veterans and their family members participating in SSVF. Guided by this example, USICH and its member agencies are sharpening our focus on streamlining Veterans access to these important resources, wherever possible. At a community level, the success of SSVF providers in increasing Veterans access to these important benefits suggests the opportunity available for community-based organizations to help Veterans access the resources available to them which can be critical to ending homelessness, ensuring housing stability, and promoting recovery.

There are less than 1,000 days before the end of 2015. Focusing on these three important ways to accelerate progress will help communities and our nation ensure that every Veteran has a safe, stable place to call home – and together we’ll achieve our goal.

Read more in this April 2013 newsletter on Veterans: 

Breaking Down Legal Barriers to Housing 

Ending Veterans Homelessness: HUD-VASH Makes Housing First a Priority

Successful Program Model: Washington State's SOAR Program for Veterans

The Housing First Checklist: A Practical Tool for Assessing Housing First in Practice

Housing First is a proven method of ending all types of homelessness and is the most effective approach to ending chronic homelessness. Housing First offers individuals and families experiencing homelessness immediate access to permanent affordable or supportive housing. Without clinical prerequisites like completion of a course of treatment or evidence of sobriety and with a low-threshold for entry, Housing First yields higher housing retention rates, lower returns to homelessness, and significant reductions in the use of crisis service and institutions.1 Due its high degree of success, Housing First is identified as a core strategy for ending homelessness in Opening Doors: the Federal Strategic Plan to End Homelessness and has become widely adopted by national and community-based organizations as a best practice for solving homelessness.

Second Chance Act Reentry Program for Adult Offenders FY 2013 Competitive Grant Announcement

Applications due May 16, 2013

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Department of Justice, (DOJ) Office of Justice Programs (OJP), Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) recently announced the availability of funds under its FY 2013 Second Chance Act Reentry Program for Adult Offenders with Co-Occurring Substance Abuse and Mental Health Disorders. This grant program is designed to improve outcomes for adults with co-occurring substance use and mental health disorders through the provision of appropriate evidence-based services and treatment during and after incarceration in prison or jail. 

This year’s competition encourages collaboration between state and community reentry efforts and efforts to end chronic homelessness. Applicants are urged to propose programs that can serve offenders with co-occurring disorders who are also experiencing chronic homelessness. This includes services that support housing stability in permanent supportive housing to end homelessness, reduce recidivism, and promote public safety. 

Applicants must register with Grants.gov prior to submitting an application. All applications are due by 11:59 p.m. eastern time on May 16, 2013.

Learn more and apply.

President’s FY 2014 Budget Confirms Commitment to Opening Doors

Building on the progress of Opening Doors, President Obama’s Fiscal Year 2014 (FY 2014) Budget Proposal includes a significant funding commitment to implement Opening Doors. This year’s Budget Proposal includes more than $5.3 billion for targeted homeless assistance funding, a 21.1 percent increase over the previously enacted Fiscal Year 2012 Budget.

“The President’s Budget reflects a strong commitment to interventions that solve homelessness,” said USICH Executive Director Barbara Poppe. “Together we have demonstrated that increased investment combined with strong collaboration and improved targeting leads to reductions in homelessness.”

The President’s FY 2014 Budget Proposal is the third budget developed by USICH member agencies since the release of Opening Doors and is a statement of the Administration’s commitment to preventing and ending homelessness as a national priority.

HUD’s Budget requests $2.4 billion for Homeless Assistance Grants, $480 million above the 2012 enacted level and provides 10,000 new vouchers targeted to homeless veterans in addition to the 45,905 veterans already served under HUD-VASH.

The increase in targeted homeless assistance funding between FY 2012 enacted and FY 2014 proposed includes the following:

• Increased strategic investments to implement the HEARTH Act. $480 million increase for the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Homeless Assistance Grants.
• Continued commitment to ending homelessness among Veterans and their families.$75 million proposed funding for the HUD-VASH program. $300 million proposed funding for Department of Veterans Affairs Supportive Services for Veteran Families program—built on best practices developed across the country.
• Expansion of health care. $87 million increasefor the Department of Health and Human Services’ Health Care for the Homeless Program to provide primary health care, substance use treatment, emergency care with referrals to hospitals for in-patient care services and/or other needed services, outreach services to assist difficult-to-reach people experiencing homelessness in accessing care, and assistance in establishing eligibility for entitlement programs and housing.   

This fact sheet serves as an overview of the targeted homeless assistance programs across the government.

COLLABORATIVE INITIATIVE

HUD - Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing Program

The HUD-Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing program (HUD-VASH) combines Housing Choice Voucher rental assistance for Veterans experiencing homelessness with case management and clinical services provided by VA. VA provides these services for participating Veterans at VA Medical Centers and community-based outreach clinics. To date, approximately 48,400 of these vouchers have been awarded to public housing agencies nationwide. HUD is requesting an additional $75 million (10,000 vouchers) for HUD-VASH in 2014.

In FY 2014, VA will also provide $278 million in case management funding, a 37.7 percent increase over FY 2012.

TARGETED HOMELESS ASSISTANCE PROGRAMS BY DEPARTMENT

Department of Education

Education for Homeless Children and Youth

To ensure that all homeless children and youth experiencing homelessness have equal access to the same free, appropriate public education available to other children, the Education for Homeless Children and Youth Program provides assistance to States to (1) establish or designate an Office of Coordinator of Education of Homeless Children and Youths; (2) develop and carry out a State plan for the education of homeless children; and (3) make sub-grants to local educational agencies to support the education of children experiencing homelessness.

FY 2010 - $65.4 million

FY 2011 - $65 million

FY 2012 - $65 million

FY 2014 (proposed) - $65 million

Department of Health and Human Services

Health Care for the Homeless

The purpose of the Health Care for the Homeless Program is to provide primary health care, substance use treatment, emergency care with referrals to hospitals for in-patient care services and/or other needed services, outreach services to assist difficult-to-reach people experiencing homelessness in accessing care, and assistance in establishing eligibility for entitlement programs and housing.   

FY 2010 - $171 million

FY 2011 - $215 million

FY 2012 - $231 million

FY 2014 (proposed) - $319 million

Projects for Assistance in Transition from Homelessness

Projects for Assistance in Transition from Homelessness is a formula grant program that provides financial assistance to states to support services for homeless individuals who have serious mental illness or co-occurring mental illness and substance abuse disorders.

FY 2010 - $65 million

FY 2011 - $65 million

FY 2012 - $65 million

FY 2014 (proposed) - $65 million

Grants for the Benefit of Homeless Individuals

The Grants for the Benefit of Homeless Individuals Program in SAMHSA’s Center for Substance Abuse Treatment enables communities to expand and strengthen their treatment services for individuals experiencing homelessness with substance abuse disorders, mental illness, or co-occurring substance abuse disorders and mental illness. HHS can award grants of up to five years duration to community-based public or nonprofit entities to provide addiction and mental health services to individuals experiencing homelessness.

FY 2010 - $43 million

FY 2011 - $42 million

FY 2012 - $42 million

FY 2014 (proposed) - $42 million

Services in Supportive Housing Grants

The Services in Supportive Housing Program in SAMHSA’s Center for Mental Health Services was created to help prevent or reduce chronic homelessness by funding services for individuals and families experiencing homelessness while living with severe mental illness or co-occurring mental and substance disorders. The program addresses the need for treatment and support service provision to individuals and families.

FY 2010 - $32 million

FY 2011 - $33 million

FY 2012 - $33 million

FY 2014 (proposed) $33 million

Runaway and Homeless Youth Act

The Runaway and Homeless Youth Program funds over 740 public, community and faith-based organizations through three grant programs that serve the runaway and homeless youth population:

Basic Center Program

The Basic Center Program establishes or strengthens locally controlled, community and faith-based programs that address the immediate needs of runaway and homeless youth and their families. Basic Centers provide youth with temporary emergency shelter, food, clothing and referrals for health care.  Other types of assistance provided to youth and their families may include individual, group, and family counseling, recreation programs, and aftercare services for youth once they leave the shelter.  Grants can also be used for outreach activities targeting youth who may need assistance.

Transitional Living Program

The Transitional Living Program provides shelter, skills training and support services to homeless youth between the ages of 16 and 22 for a continuous period generally not exceeding 540 days, or in exceptional circumstances 635 days. Youth are provided with stable, safe living accommodations and services that help them develop the skills necessary to move to independence.  Living accommodations may be host family homes, group homes or supervised apartments.

Street Outreach Program

The Street Outreach Program provides educational and prevention services to runaway and street youth who have been subject to, or are at risk of, sexual exploitation or abuse.  The program works to establish and build relationships between street youth and program outreach staff in order to help youth leave the streets. 

FY 2010 - $115.6 million

FY 2011 - $115 million

FY 2012 - $115 million

FY 2014 (proposed) - $118 million

Department of Homeland Security

Emergency Food and Shelter Program

The Emergency Food and Shelter Program helps meet the needs of people experiencing hunger or homelessness throughout the United States and its territories by allocating funds for the provision of food, shelter as well as homelessness prevention through the administration of rent, utilities and mortgage assistance. The program is governed by a National Board, chaired by FEMA, and comprised of representatives from American Red Cross, Catholic Charities USA, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA, Jewish Federations of North America, Salvation Army, and United Way Worldwide. 

FY 2010 - $200 million

FY 2011 - $120 million

FY 2012 - $120 million

FY 2014 (proposed) - $100 million

Department of Housing and Urban Development

In 2014, HUD requests $2.456 billion to support programs designed to prevent and end homelessness. This represents an increase of $480 million over the FY 12 enacted amount, which will fund the increased competitive renewal demand in 2014 in addition to the funding necessary to meet the new HEARTH requirements and to continue implementation of Opening Doors.

The requested funds can be categorized via the HEARTH Act authorized programs and eligible activities as follows:

Emergency Solutions Grants: $346 million, of which $60 million will be set aside specifically for rapid re-housing projects in high-need communities.

The Emergency Solutions Grant Program (ESG) includes funds for a variety of life-saving activities in addition to newer interventions like rapid re-housing and homelessness prevention that have proven to be successful in many communities at preventing and ending homelessness.  ESG is an essential component of continuing the program infrastructure that was started via the Recovery Act Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing Program (HPRP) and has proven an efficient and effective way of quickly transitioning people from homelessness to permanent housing. 

Continuum of Care Program: $2.027 billion

The Continuum of Care Program (CoC) is HUD’s largest and broadest targeted program to serve individuals and families experiencing homelessness. It also provides the infrastructure for the implementation of a comprehensive planning approach, data collection and analysis, and performance measurement. CoCs have the dual role of planning and operating programs, and using data collected through Homeless Management Information Systems (HMIS) to inform planning decisions and track performance at both the project and systems levels. Eligible activities include CoC planning; acquisition, rehabilitation, and new construction for capital projects; leasing; rental assistance; housing operations; HMIS; supportive services; and administration.

FY 2010 - $1.865 billion

FY 2011 - $1.901 billion

FY 2012 - $1.901 billion

FY 2014 (proposed) - $2.456 billion

Department of Justice

Transitional Housing Assistance Grants for the Victims of Sexual Assault, Domestic Violence, Dating Violence or Stalking Program

The Transitional Housing Assistance Grants for Victims of Sexual Assault, Domestic Violence, Dating Violence, or Stalking Program focuses on a holistic, victim-centered approach to providing transitional housing services that move individuals into permanent housing. These grants support programs that provide assistance to victims of sexual assault, domestic violence, dating violence, and/or stalking who are in need of transitional housing, short-term housing assistance, and related support services. Transitional housing programs may offer individualized services such as counseling, support groups, safety planning, and advocacy services as well as practical services such as licensed child care, employment services, transportation vouchers, telephones, and referrals to other agencies.

FY 2010 - $18 million

FY 2011 - $18 million

FY 2012 - $25 million

FY 2014 (proposed) - $22 million

Department of Labor

Homeless Veterans’ Reintegration Program

The Homeless Veterans’ Reintegration Program provides services to help Veterans experiencing homelessness obtain meaningful employment and to stimulate the development of effective service delivery systems to address the complex problems facing Veterans experiencing homelessness. It is the only nationwide program exclusively focused on helping Veterans experiencing homelessness reintegrate into the workforce. Funds are awarded through competitive grants. The program also includes funds specifically for grantees providing specialized services to female Veterans experiencing homelessness and Veterans with families experiencing homelessness. This specialized funding was initiated in FY 2010 in recognition of the special needs of these subgroups.

FY 2010 - $36.3 million

FY 2011 - $36 million

FY 2012 - $38 million

FY 2014 (proposed) - $38 million

Department of Veterans Affairs

The proposed VA budget for FY 2014 contains nearly $1.4 billion for programs that prevent or end homelessness among Veterans. This includes an increase of 36.5 percent, or $373 million, over the 2012 level, continuing VA’s steady progress toward ending Veteran homelessness by 2015. 

In the past two years, the number of Veterans experiencing homelessness on a given night has declined 18 percent from 76,329 in 2010 to 62,619 in 2012.  

Supportive Services for Veteran Families

Supportive Services for Veteran Families (SSVF) provides supportive services to very low-income Veteran families in or transitioning to permanent housing.  Funds are provided through grants to private non-profit organizations and consumer cooperatives that will assist very low-income Veterans’ families by providing a range of supportive services designed to promote housing stability.  Through the SSVF Program, VA aims to rapidly re-house Veterans’ families who become homeless thereby improving housing stability for very low-income Veterans’ families.

FY 2010 - $20 million

FY 2011 - $61 million

FY 2012 - $100 million

FY 2014 (proposed) - $300 million

Homeless Providers Grant and Per Diem Program

VA's Homeless Providers Grant and Per Diem Program funds community agencies providing services to Veterans experiencing homelessness. The purpose is to promote the development and provision of supportive housing and/or supportive services with the goal of helping homeless Veterans achieve residential stability, increase their skill levels and/or income, and obtain greater self-determination.

FY 2010 - $175.3 million

FY 2011 - $172 million       

FY 2012 - $224 million

FY 2014 (proposed) - $250 million

The Domiciliary Care for Homeless Veterans Program

The Domiciliary Care for Homeless Veterans Program provides 24-hours-per-day, 7 days-per-week structured and supportive residential rehabilitation and treatment services for economically disadvantaged Veterans and Veterans experiencing homelessness.  The program provides rehabilitation and treatment to approximately 6,000 Veterans experiencing homelessness with health problems each year.

FY 2010 - $119 million

FY 2011 - $219 million          

FY 2012 - $201 million

FY 2014 (proposed) - $219 million

Healthcare for Homeless Veterans Program

The core mission of the Healthcare for Homeless Veterans Program (HCHV) is primarily to perform outreach, provide by VA social workers and other mental health clinicians, to identify Veterans experiencing homelessness who are eligible for VA services and assist these Veterans in accessing appropriate health care and benefits. The main goal of outreach is to connect Veterans experiencing homelessness with needed services that will end their homelessness.  HCHV also provides residential treatment through contracts with community providers and longer-term case management through the HCHV- Supported Housing program.

FY 2010 - $83 million

FY 2011 - $140 million

FY 2012 - $135 million

FY 2014 (proposed) - $137 million

The Justice Outreach, Homelessness Prevention:  Healthcare for Reentry Veterans (HCRV, prison outreach) and Veteran’s JusticeOutreach (VJO, law enforcement, jail and court outreach)

Justice Outreach addresses the justice involvement continuum from first contact with law enforcement through release from prison or jail.  Veterans Justice Outreach is designed to help justice-involved Veterans avoid the unnecessary criminalization of mental illness and extended incarceration by ensuring that eligible Veterans have timely access to Veterans Health Administration mental health and substance abuse services when clinically indicated, and other VA services and benefits as appropriate.  Health Care for Reentry Veterans assists Veterans released from prison to readjust to community life through access to community reintegration, health, and social services provided through VA and community services. 

FY 2010 - $6 million

FY 2011 - $14 million

FY 2012 - $22 million

FY 2014 (proposed) - $34 million

United States Interagency Council on Homelessness

USICH ensures interagency collaboration and local engagement, helping to guide homelessness funds into evidence-based solutions that are measurably reducing homelessness in America.  The Council performs this work through support to Federal council members and partners in the field. 

President’s FY 2014 Budget Proposal includes an increase in funding for USICH to accelerate progress toward the Opening Doors Goals by funding staff to continue and accelerate the ambitious collaboration, focus on data and performance measurement, emphasis on evidence–informed practice and policy, coordination among federal agencies, innovation, disciplined place-based work, and above all, an aggressive commitment to getting to the finish line of ending homelessness. 

FY 2010 - $2.5 million

FY 2011 - $2.7 million

FY 2012 - $3.3 million  

FY 2014 (proposed) - $3.6 million

Department of Labor Announces Homeless Veterans Reintegration Program (HVRP) Request for Applications

Applications due May 3

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor today announced the availability of up to $5 million to fund 16 or more Homeless Veterans Reintegration Program grants. Approximately 2,600 veterans will receive job training and related services to help them succeed in civilian careers.

“Every day, our service members and their families make tremendous sacrifices for their country. Although homelessness among veterans has fallen, too many of our heroes still are without jobs or homes,” said acting Secretary of Labor Seth D. Harris. “Through these grants, the Labor Department will provide those who have served our nation with the opportunity for a fresh start and a good job.”

Funds for the grants will be awarded on a competitive basis to state and local workforce investment boards, public agencies, nonprofit organizations, tribal governments, and faith-based and community organizations. Because these groups are intimately connected with their local economies and the needs of homeless veterans, they can offer occupational, classroom and on-the-job training, as well as job search and placement assistance, including follow-up services. Awards will range from $100,000 to $300,000 each.

HVRP is recognized as extraordinarily efficient and effective, and is the only federal program that focuses exclusively on the employment of homeless veterans.

The solicitation for grant applications is available at http://www.grants.gov. For more information, visit that site and http://www.dol.gov/vets, or contact grants officer Cassandra Mitchell at 202-693-4570. 

SAMHSA’s Expert Panel on Veterans of Recent Conflicts

In August 2011, USICH, SAMHSA, the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation at HHS, and the Departments of Veterans Affairs, Housing and Urban Development, and Defense sponsored an expert panel and discussion on what is known about how to prevent and end homelessness among Veterans of the most recent conflicts - Operations Enduring Freedom, Iraqi Freedom, and New Dawn. The panel documented research-based knowledge, field experience, and best practices in meeting the needs of Veterans returning from recent wars. As many of those in combat return to civilian life, they are faced with obstacles such as traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder that can result in suicide or high barriers to stability. 

Working with SAMHSA, USICH authored a fact sheet with 12 guiding principles for successful programs for Veterans discussed at the panel. In addition to the fact sheet, a full report of the proceedings is available. The report that follows is the result of that exchange of views and information from all of the federal partners at the expert panel. It offers hard-won insight that can be used by federal agencies and professionals in the field. USICH and SAMHSA are grateful for the contributions, hard work, and insights of the panel members in helping the nation work together to meet the goal of ending veteran homelessness by 2015.

Read the fact sheet

Read the full report 

 

SAMHSA Announces FY 2013 Request for Applications from select states for Cooperative Agreements to Benefit Homeless Individuals (CABHI)

via HHS' Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration

SAMHSA, the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (CSAT) and the Center for Mental Health Services (CMHS), is accepting applications for fiscal year (FY) 2013 Cooperative Agreements to Benefit Homeless Individuals for States (CABHI-States) grants. The purpose of this jointly funded program is to enhance or develop the infrastructure of states and their treatment service systems to increase capacity to provide accessible, effective, comprehensive, coordinated/integrated, and evidence-based treatment services; permanent supportive housing; peer supports; CMHS-funded peer navigator(s); and other critical services to persons who experience chronic homelessness with substance use disorders or co-occurring substance use and mental disorders. The outcomes will include: 1) assisting states to develop strategies associated with addressing the needs of individuals who experience chronic homelessness; and 2) increasing the number of individuals placed in permanent supportive housing and enrolled in Medicaid and other mainstream benefits (e.g., SSI/SSDI, TANF, SNAP).The major goal of the CABHI-States program is to ensure, through state and local planning and service delivery, that the most vulnerable individuals who experience chronic homelessness receive access to sustainable permanent housing, treatment, recovery supports, and Medicaid and other mainstream benefits.

Eligible applicants are the single state agencies for substance abuse in the District of Columbia (D.C.) and the following states: Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Washington. SAMHSA believes the most effective way to accomplish the goals of this three year state-based grant program is to limit eligibility to these 17 states and D.C., due to the high concentration of individuals who experience chronic homelessness that reside in these states. In 2010, the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH) approved Opening Doors, a Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness. One of the goals of this Strategic Plan is to achieve the goal of ending chronic homelessness by 2015. SAMHSA is committed in the effort to achieve this and other goals in the Federal Strategic Plan.

Deadline to apply for these grants is May 28, 2013.

Read the full detailed announcement of this RFA on SAMHSA's website

HUD Releases Rural Housing Stability Assistance Program (RHSP) Regulations and Chronically Homeless Definition

The Homeless Emergency Assistance and Rapid Transition to Housing Act (HEARTH Act), enacted into law on May 20, 2009, authorized the Rural Housing Stability Assistance Program (RHSP). The purpose of RHSP is to rehouse or improve the housing situations of individuals and families who are homeless or in the worst housing situations in the geographic area; stabilize the housing of individuals and families who are in imminent danger of losing housing; and improve the ability of the lowest-income residents of the community to afford stable housing. The proposed rule for the new Rural Housing Stability Assistance Program (RHSP) was published in the Federal Register on March 27, 2013. The public comment period of 60 days began March 27, 2013, and closes May 28, 2013. As this is a proposed rule, it will not go into effect until a final rule is published. Interested persons are invited to submit comments regarding the RHSP rule, including the chronically homeless definition, through May 28, 2013. Comments may be submitted to HUD either by mail or electronic submission at www.regulations.gov. For more information about submitting a comment, see page 2 of RHSP proposed rule. 

Definition of Chronically Homeless

The RHSP proposed rule includes a new proposed definition of “chronically homeless” which specifically defines what is meant by an occasion of homelessness in order to better target persons with the longest histories of homelessness and the highest level of need. HUD is seeking public comment on this new definition.

This proposed rule establishes a definition of “chronically homeless” that aids HUD and local jurisdictions to better estimate the number of chronically homeless, and will aid HUD and local jurisdictions in targeting resources to strategies designed to reduce the number of chronically homeless. HUD is publishing this definition again to provide the public an additional opportunity to comment based on the changes HUD made resulting from the previous public comments. The definition of "chronically homeless" will apply to all of HUD's programs. 

Read the full news item from HUD's OneCPD Resource Exchange

Annual Update 2012

Two years have passed since the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH) launched Opening Doors the nation’s first-ever comprehensive strategic plan to prevent and end homelessness. Recently, USICH released an amendment to Opening Doors focused on preventing and ending youth homelessness and improving educational outcomes for children and youth experiencing homelessness. 

Since the last Opening Doors Update in 2011, HUD published data from the 2011 and 2012 Point-in-Time counts, showing a modest 2.5 percent reduction in the number of people experiencing homelessness on a given night, but one that, given the current economic environment in which homelessness could be expected to increase, suggests that the work being done across the country is meeting with success. Most notable is the 18 percent reduction in homelessness among Veterans between 2010 and 2012. At the same time, data reported by the Department of Education (ED), which uses a broader definition of homelessness than does HUD, show that for the first time public schools identified more than one million children who experienced homelessness over the course of the 2010–2011 school year. This data highlights the urgency of increasing progress in order to achieve Opening Doors’ goal of ending family, youth, and child homelessness by 2020.

Looking across the country, it is clear that communities that are determined to prevent and end homelessness are achieving success. Chattanooga, Tennessee, for example, reports a stunning 89 percent reduction in chronic homelessness since 2007, and a 48 percent reduction in homelessness overall during that same period. In many communities across the country, there is new and concerted planning to prevent and end homelessness among youth. Ending homelessness in America requires commitment and determination at all levels of government and relies on effective public-private partnerships. As the third year of Opening Doors implementation begins, the lessons learned will shape actions moving forward:

• Collaborations must include mainstream and community programs. There has been significant forward progress engaging Public Housing Agencies, Medicaid directors, and TANF programs, as well as other targeted programs such as child welfare and criminal justice, in local efforts. Partnerships across the country are showing how to break down silos to develop shared goals, how to share data, and how to achieve better outcomes.
• Resources must be targeted effectively. Communities need to reserve homelessness prevention assistance to households that are most imminently at risk of becoming homeless. The most expensive and intensive interventions, like transitional housing and permanent supportive housing, should be reserved for people who require those interventions to end their homelessness. The good news is that short-term, less expensive interventions like rapid re-housing, critical time intervention, and transition-in-place programs are proving to be more efficient and cost-effective for many communities that once might have prescribed intensive and long-term interventions.
• Providers and funders must be willing to make significant changes. The $1.5 billion investment in HUD’s Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing Program (HPRP) spurred communities to adopt new tools quickly. The HUD-VA Supportive Housing program (HUD-VASH) has compelled VA Medical Centers and Public Housing Agencies to re-examine their processes to better target and more rapidly house Veterans experiencing chronic homelessness. The Affordable Care Act presents new opportunities for improving the health of people experiencing homelessness through Medicaid expansion and new vehicles like health homes. HEARTH Act implementation gives communities new tools but also creates high expectations for how HUD’s homelessness resources are managed.
• Results occur when new investments are strategically deployed. The three best examples of this are HPRP, HUD-VASH, and VA’s Supportive Services for Veteran Families program (SSVF). Communities that used HPRP in large part for rapid re-housing, and did so strategically, saw decreases in homelessness. Likewise, a concerted effort by HUD, VA, and local communities to improve implementation of HUD-VASH contributed to the 18 percent reduction in homelessness among Veterans between 2010 and 2012. When the VA implemented SSVF, they turned to HUD for lessons learned from HPRP so that, from the start, SSVF dollars could be used most effectively.

Read the Update

The Appendix to the Annual Update includes information on federal programs that provide assistance to those experiencing or at risk of homelessness, along with information on USICH and member agencies' activities and accomplishments in the last year.

Read the Appendix

To read previous year's Annual Updates and Appendices, you may do so from the green box on the right.

Progressive Engagement

In 2009, Congress passed the HEARTH Act, which set the stage for a new way of approaching homelessness, with the intent to end it. HEARTH provides resources to communities in a more flexible manner than before, and also provides the first set of performance expectations for homeless programs, including establishing a federal goal to “ensure that individuals and families that become homeless return to permanent housing within 30 days.” To achieve this goal, communities and service providers are going to have to use resources differently.

Progressive engagement provides an opportunity to do just that—to use resources differently to appropriately serve as many households as possible. The progressive engagement model fits neatly with one of the major themes of Opening Doors, retooling the crisis response system. Creating a crisis response system means looking at all the resources communities currently invest in addressing homelessness and figuring out how to best deploy them to meet the goals of reaching all who need assistance, and return households experiencing homelessness to stable housing more quickly. The lessons learned from HPRP and other programs that used progressive engagement techniques across the country are important to scale up now, as all communities look to stretch dollars further and help the most people possible.  

Briefly, progressive engagement refers to a strategy of starting off offering a small amount of assistance initially, and adding more if needed to help each household reach stability. This strategy uses the lightest touch possible for each household to be successful, knowing more assistance can be added later if needed. Assessment is still critical to this strategy, but is used primarily to identify the households’ strengths the program can work with and the barriers they’ll have to address to obtain housing, not to determine the amount of assistance they will ultimately need.  Communities learned from HPRP and conveyed to federal policymakers that most families need only short-term assistance to gain and retain housing. However, some families need more help, which can be challenging to determine.

The Road Home in Salt Lake City, Utah has used a progressive engagement approach for several years and has consistently found that most family households that enter shelter can be rehoused with a light touch and little or no financial assistance. Thirty three percent of families leave for housing with no financial assistance while another 62 percent get rapid rehousing assistance averaging five months. Their practice of using progressive engagement has also dramatically lowered lengths of stay in shelter, from 71 days five years ago to under 30. Since 2009, 87 percent of the households served by the Road Home in this way have not returned to shelter.

How Progressive Engagement Works

The progressive engagement model starts by offering a fairly basic level of assistance across the board. For example, a shelter might provide all households who enter with  help preparing a housing plan,  lists of units or landlords to contact , assistance  preparing applications, and access to  limited resources for  fees and deposits or local transportation. For households unable to exit with this level of help, the program provides a greater level of housing search assistance, tied to short-term rental assistance and case management. For most households, this will be sufficient to stabilize in housing in the community within a fairly short period. If, however,  the situation is still highly unstable after three or four months, the program can reassess the household and  continue to provide  assistance with the same or another resource, for the medium- or longer-term. Reassessment at this stage is frequent and assistance typically continued for a month at a time.

This approach is both responsive to the needs of the household while ensuring that interventions are right-sized to provide the greatest efficiency for the agency ,and the  households assisted don’t  have to move, or even change programs or case managers along the way.

Thinking Big Picture: Designing a Progressive Engagement Model

Though progressive engagement provides great flexibility in the delivery of services, it is critical to use t data to project how long households are likely to stay in the program to develop an initial program budget and staff cost. It is also important to think through how best to make the resources available match the households that will be assisted; is more than one short-term resource needed to accommodate different types of households?  And, programs must have a small amount of long-term resources or units at the ready, for those who over time demonstrate a need for the greatest intensity of subsidy and services.

The program is designed systematically and with an idea of what range of assistance the total group is likely to need, but each household is worked with on an individual basis to tailor service delivery specifically to their needs with an emphasis on supporting a rapid transition off support if at all possible.

An essential component of a progressive engagement approach is its reliance on partnerships. For the program to offer most participants a light touch, community partners must be identified to support an individual’s or family’s success with the kind of support the housing program will not be providing such as ongoing child care, connections to food banks and employment programs, and links to health care.

At its heart, progressive engagement represents a change in culture for most organizations and communities. Many of us come to this work with the desire to offer clients all that is available – they face great challenges and we want to help them. Progressive engagement reminds us that any time or resource used with one client is a resource that will not be available for the next client who has an equal right to an organization’s assistance. Programs should find ways to celebrate the success of the households’ that leave them and incentivize staff to “let go”.

Lastly, the outcomes of progressive engagement should be collected as data and used to inform further program design. Learning from the experience of the program will inform efforts to refine our progressive engagement efforts.

First, it is necessary to define expected outcomes, and we suggest beginning with three of the key HEARTH measures – are people getting housed, are they getting housed quickly, and are they staying housed after you assist them? That last one can be challenging because it poses additional questions – are you calling to check up on people, are you using re-entry data into shelters? What are the characteristics of the people and/or families who reenter the shelters, of those who remain housed?

Progressive engagement is an emerging best practice that we can learn from to support individuals and families in obtaining stable housing.  This progressive engagement approach is described in more detail in a supplemental document to the USICH Federal Strategic Plan to End Homelessness. Access it here. USICH Policy Director Katharine Gale also presented on this topic at the 2013 National Conference to End Family and Youth Homelessness, which you can access here.

Testing a Typology of Family Homelessness

Dennis P. Culhane, Stephen Metraux, Jung Min Park, Maryanne Schretzman and Jesse Valente

May 2007

This study tests a typology of family homelessness based on patterns of public shelter utilization and examines whether family characteristics are associated with those patterns. The results indicate that a substantial majority of homeless families stay in public shelters for relatively brief periods, exit, and do not return. Approximately 20 percent stay for long periods. A small but noteworthy proportion cycles in and out of shelters repeatedly. In general, families with long stays are no more likely than families with short stays to have intensive behavioral health treatment histories, to be disabled, or to be unemployed. Families with repeat stays have the highest rates of intensive behavioral health treatment, placement of children in foster care, disability, and unemployment. The results suggest that policy and program factors, rather than family characteristics, are responsible for long shelter stays. An alternative conceptual framework for providing emergency assistance to homeless families is discussed.

Go to the study

Homeless Families and Children

John C. Buckner and Debra J. Rog

May 2010

Since the mid-1990s, there has been continued research and policy interest in understanding the characteristics and needs of families and children who become homeless, especially in understanding the heterogeneity within the population and whether a “typology” of families can be created (i.e., distinguishing families with greater needs for services and housing from those with lesser needs). The authors review the findings from recent studies on homeless families and children and summarize the findings from evaluations of housing and service interventions and prevention efforts.  With respect to children, research has focused on understanding and documenting the impact of homelessness on children. Rog and Buckner emphasize that that many of the challenges homeless families and children confront are also experienced by families that are very poor but not homeless, pointing to the need for further research on how to target assistance most efficiently to minimize the incidence and duration of homelessness for low-income families and children in general.

Go to Study

Costs Associated with First Time Homelessness for Families and Individuals

Abt, Associates, Inc., Jill Khadduri, Josh Leopold, Brian Sokol, and Brooke Spellman

March 2010

This study measures costs associated with first-time homeless families and individuals incurred by homeless and mainstream service delivery systems in six study communities. Unaccompanied individuals were studied in Des Moines, Iowa; Houston, Texas; and Jacksonville, Florida. Families were studied in Houston, Texas; Kalamazoo, Michigan; Upstate South Carolina; and Washington, DC.

Past research has primarily documented costs associated with homelessness for individuals with chronic patterns of homelessness or severe mental illness. Newer work has been published on the costs incurred within the homeless system for families experiencing first-time homelessness. This study provides additional findings that help to improve our understanding of homelessness and its associated costs. It presents ideas about opportunities for cost savings, and it advances an approach for measuring costs that, coupled with other evaluation methods, can help communities understand the cost-effectiveness of different homelessness interventions.

Go to study

Obama Administration Renews Support for More than 7,000 Local Homeless Programs Across U.S.

via The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development

WASHINGTON – U.S. Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Shaun Donovan today renewed support for 7,000 local homeless housing and service programs across the U.S.  Provided through HUD’s Continuum of Care Program, the funding announced today will ensure these local projects remain operating in the coming year.  This year, HUD challenged local communities to reexamine their response to homelessness and give greater weight to proven strategies, from providing ‘rapid re-housing’ for homeless families to permanent supportive housing for those experiencing chronic homelessness (see attached chart).

The $1.5 billion in grants announced today support a wide range of programs including street outreach, client assessment, and direct housing assistance. Later this year, HUD will award additional grant funding to support hundreds of other local programs.  View a complete list of all the state and local homeless projects awarded funding.

“The evidence is clear that every dollar we spend on those programs that help find a stable home for our homeless neighbors not only saves money but quite literally saves lives,” said Donovan.  “We know these programs work and we know these grants can mean the difference between homeless persons and families finding stable housing or living on our streets.”

Continuum of Care grants are awarded competitively to local projects to meet the needs of their homeless clients. The grants fund a wide variety of programs from street outreach and assessment to transitional and permanent housing for homeless persons and families.  HUD funds are a critical part of the Obama Administration’s strategic plan to prevent and end homelessness.

While the Fiscal Year 2012 funds awarded today are not impacted by the automatic across-the-board budget cuts under sequestration that began March 1st, Donovan cautioned that future budget cuts may reverse significant reported declines in homelessness: “During this challenging budget climate, we must make certain that we don’t balance our books on the backs of our most vulnerable citizens.  When we make event modest investments in these programs, we see a measureable decline in homelessness.”

HUD recently announced its 2012 “point in time” estimate of the number of homeless persons in America.  Approximately 3,000 cities and counties reported 633,782 homeless persons on a single night in January of 2012, largely unchanged from the year before.  While HUD found significant declines among the long-term homeless and veterans, local communities reported an increase in the number of sheltered and unsheltered families with children.

HUD’s Continuum of Care grants announced today will continue offering permanent and transitional housing to homeless persons as well as services including job training, health care, mental health counseling, substance abuse treatment and child care. Continuum of Care grants are awarded competitively to local programs to meet the needs of their homeless clients.

In 2010, President Obama and 19 federal agencies and offices that form the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH) launched the nation’s first comprehensive strategy to prevent and end homelessness. Opening Doors: Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness puts the country on a path to end veterans and chronic homelessness by 2015 and to ending homelessness among children, family, and youth by 2020.

Access HUD Press Releases

The Solutions Database

Investing in proven solutions is a key premise of Opening Doors. The commitment to end homelessness compels communities to focus their resources on solutions that work, while encouraging well-designed innovations for continuous improvement. The USICH Solutions Database is a searchable source of up-to-date information drawn from around the country that federal, state, and local partners can use to further their collaborative efforts to end homelessness.  

Getting started

The database contains short profiles of important practices and programs, including tips for replicating and information about results, as well as links to help you find more information or resources you can use. The database includes several types of profiles.

• Evidence-Based Practices (EBPs) have been well-documented and implemented in a variety of locations and settings. EBPs are supported by evidence from a body of research that consistently shows positive outcomes.
• Promising Practices have been implemented in several places and there is some evidence to show that these practices produce good outcomes.  A growing number of programs and communities are adopting these practices. We have chosen to include these practices because they demonstrate strategic approaches that could inform local efforts. However, more research is needed (or may be underway now) before they can meet the standard of EBPs.
• Model Programs have been implemented in one or more communities, and these programs have demonstrated positive results.  Other communities may learn from these programs and consider replicating the program model, tailoring it to local needs, circumstances, strengths and opportunities. 
• Emerging Approaches are programs or practices that offer promising solutions aligned with the goals of Opening Doors and seem likely to produce good results, but more time and evidence is needed to demonstrate their impact.

Included in each profile of a practice or program you will find links to other related profiles in the database, including more information about practices covered in program descriptions, examples of model programs that have implemented the practice(s) described in a practice profile, or similar programs that have been implemented in other places around the country.

Local Solutions to Assisting Veterans with Move-In Costs in HUD-VASH

The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) continue to target chronically homeless single adults for permanent, supportive housing through the HUD/VA Supportive Housing (HUD-VASH) program.  As with other Housing Choice Vouchers, HUD-VASH provides funding so that no more than thirty percent (30%) of a recipient’s adjusted income goes towards housing costs.  While the HUD VASH program provides on-going rental assistance, a Veteran is expected to find other means of support to cover initial move-in costs.  Move-in costs can include first and last month’s rent and security deposit.  Move-in costs continue to be a barrier in some communities that may delay the Veteran’s ability to move into his/her apartment.  Some communities have overcome this obstacle through local initiatives.  USICH has conducted an informal survey and below is a report on how a few communities have found ways to provide funding to Veterans for move-in costs.  

Northwestern Ohio/Michigan and Houston:  Beginning in February, 2012 a local grassroots organization called 1Matters used established connections with music personalities John Mellencamp and ZZ Top to form a “60,000 Solders Housed” campaign through a program they started called “Veterans Matter” (http://www.veteransmatter.org/).  Together they began raising funds and awareness to assist HUD VASH recipients with move-in costs.  This low overhead agency based in Toledo, Ohio quickly turns around requests from Veterans who are in possession of a HUD VASH voucher and have a lease to provide first month and down-payment costs.  Turn around is often the same day so that a Veteran can have check in hand to sign a lease and get off the streets in to a HUD VASH supported unit.  At the end of 2012, through leadership from Dusty Hill of ZZ Top, Veterans Matter has expanded into the Houston, Texas area and raised $40,000 in two weeks to set up resources for homeless Veterans in Southern Texas.   To date the Veterans Matter program has housed 42 veteran families in 12 cities in three states at an average cost of $614. 

Atlanta: The challenge of move-in costs for Veterans receiving HUD VASH vouchers was brought to the attention of civic and philanthropic leaders in Atlanta as part of the Project Homeless Connect and Stand Down events organized by the homeless service providers and VA. Mayor Kasim Reed brought the local United Way to the table and together they established a fund that could be drawn down by homeless Veterans seeking move-in assistance.  

Hennepin County, MN:  Organized through the Minneapolis/Hennepin County Office to End Homelessness, Veterans seeking assistance with move-in costs can apply for funding through the State Soldiers Fund.  This state-run Veterans fund has funding to provide move-in costs for HUD-VASH recipients along with other non-VASH Veterans who need move-in assistance. However, the time frame from request to availability of funds averaged 30 days which often would be an impediment to rapid re-housing.  The Minneapolis/Hennepin County Office to End Homelessness stepped in and raised funds from local philanthropy to provide the bridge funding to move the process forward.  These funds, which are administered by a local non-profit, can pay for application fees, help guarantee funds from the State Soldiers Fund, and provide one time assistance if needed. This collaboration between local city officials and the State Veterans program was able to capitalize on the more nimble local providers together with the more robust state funding.  A similar program that placed the local providers at the hub of the State-VA collaboration has also been going on successfully in Phoenix, Arizona.

These three approaches exemplify separate locally-driven solutions to overcoming the barrier of move-in costs that can slow down or even impede successful housing for homeless Veterans receiving HUD-VASH vouchers.  While other VA lines of business such as Supportive Services for Veterans Families and HUD’s Emergency Solutions Grant can be drawn upon for federal assistance with move-in costs for homeless Veterans, these communities identified  local solutions that do not rely on Federal dollars.  In addition, these interventions raise community awareness about the needs of homeless Veterans and allows for local citizens to participate in the President’s goal of ending homelessness for Veterans by 2015. 

For other examples of creative solutions to paying for move-in expenses in the HUD-VASH program see HUD’s HUD-VASH Best Practices Guide

Executive Director Barbara Poppe at the 2013 National Conference on Ending Family and Youth Homelessness

2/21/13

I begin by bringing greetings from Council Chair and VA Secretary Eric Shinseki and Council Vice Chair and HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan.  I’d like to recognize the members of the USICH team that are present:  Laura Zeilinger our Deputy Director, Katharine Gale who has just joined us as a Policy Director, and our extraordinary team of Regional Coordinators, Matthew Doherty, Beverley Ebersold, Bob Pulster, and Amy Sawyer.

I’d also like to thank our DC-based Federal partners who have joined us, Mark Johnston and Ann Oliva from HUD, Don Moulds, Mark Greenberg, Barbara Broman, Sonali Patel and Resa Matthew from HHS, and  Vince Kane, Pete Dougherty, and John Kuhn from Veterans Affairs, along with other Federal partners who are here from across the country.

Before I begin my remarks on youth, I want to note that yesterday HHS released an Information Memorandum expressing the importance of addressing family homelessness with TANF funding for families experiencing or at risk of experiencing homelessness. 

The memo highlights the innovative work of our partners at the Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development, the Mercer County Board of Social Services in New Jersey, The Utah Department of Workforce Services, A Safe Haven in Chicago, as well as the Diversion Cash Assistance program and the Gates Foundation here in Washington State. 

Our partners are proving that real solutions can come from existing monies and existing authorities, and that bringing mainstream resources to bear is essential to the goals of Opening Doors—to ending and preventing homelessness in America.

Why do we care about youth? 

I care about youth because I am a mother of two youth.  My son was fifteen when I started this position and my daughter was 22. As they’ve struggled through adolescence, they have needed tremendous support (as have my husband and I to be supportive parents).  All kinds of resources were needed to get them through high school to college and launched on a career path. We view these as investments in their future.

For me, youth homelessness is personal, as my children have friends who are struggling with family conflict, domestic violence, and other types of traumatic situations.  They are at risk of and have experienced homelessness.  Caring adults stepped in and they were connected to resources to complete their education and get a meaningful job, and my children’s friends are succeeding day by day.  There are the usual ups and downs of adolescence but they are on a pathway to stability. 

Everyone in this room knows the struggles of adolescence.  It’s personal for each of us, and we can tap that energy to create a national movement to invest in youth now. Many of you have stepped up already, and I’m hoping everyone will step up to create more and better solutions for youth.

For me, I decided to work through the Council and join with other stakeholders to make ending youth homelessness a national priority.  Today, I’ve been asked to share what the federal government is doing.

So how did we get started?

As you know when Opening Doors was released in 2010, we set the goal of ending youth homelessness by 2020. This past December, the 19 agencies that make up the Council along with our colleagues at the White House recommitted to this goal for action during our second term.

My bosses at the Council are all Cabinet Secretaries, who once they commit to a goal, get very serious about success.  We began this work by believing that we needed to:

• Be honest about what we know and what we don’t know
• Not let the absence of good numbers get in the way of figuring out how to leverage Federal investments to act more strategically
• Fill in the gaps in our knowledge through more research on effectiveness of interventions
• Focus especially on connecting Federal resources for underserved populations, including LGBTQ youth, foster care and justice involved youth, pregnant and parenting youth, and others
• Illuminate what harm reduction and housing first means for youth

We knew that homelessness among youth differs from homelessness among other populations. Youth—aged 13 to 24—have distinct developmental needs.  Youth are not mini-adults.  Lives change rapidly during these ages so interventions must be flexible and responsive to this unique developmental period.  There is also a subset of youth who are young parents, presenting another critical dynamic which must be considered when developing homelessness interventions for youth.

The problem of youth homelessness is often invisible. We knew that many youth do not access shelters. They do not want to be identified for various reasons.  In many states, it is illegal for youth under 16 to be “runaways.”  For older youth, the stigma of homelessness (especially if they are still attending school) is not something they want known.  We knew that adult shelters are too often not safe for youth. 

We also knew that multiple Federal agencies—HHS, Education, Justice, HUD, Labor—have programs for youth, but none were solely responsible for addressing youth homelessness. This created greater complexity and opaqueness about this critical segment of people who experience homelessness.

And we knew, most importantly, that there was not a clear understanding of the scope of the problem, and that there was limited to no national consensus on the best interventions for homeless youth.

To make youth homelessness more visible and to identify the most promising strategies that solve the problem, the Council in 2011 charged Commissioner Bryan Samuels at HHS-Administration on Children, Youth, and Families and USICH Deputy Director Jennifer Ho to co-chair an interagency workgroup to propose a framework to end youth homelessness by 2020. 

In addition—from the development of the plan up to the present—USICH has continuously engaged stakeholders across the country and our national partners, conducted focus groups with youth who had first-hand experience of homelessness, made site visits to programs, and held discussions with youth providers. Early last spring, USICH also launched a crowd-sourcing platform to provide an opportunity for all stakeholders to provide input.

The Federal interagency work group provided two reports to the Council along with a set of policy recommendations that were described as the Framework to End Youth Homelessness, in addition to recommending that the Opening Doors plan be amended. Acting on the workgroup recommendations, the Council amended Opening Doors in September 2012 to include new strategies to prevent and end youth homelessness.

All of this work is intended as the necessary preamble to organize ourselves to prevent and end youth homelessness. Once we know what works for different groups of youth experiencing homelessness, we can scale up what works and reduce interventions that are less effective.

What are we doing now? 

Earlier today, USICH released the Framework to End Youth Homelessness, a resource for communities and States, which you can find on our website at usich.gov. The Framework is more detailed than the Plan amendment that was issued last September.

The Youth Framework calls on the Federal government working with communities, agencies and systems at all levels to work together on a strategic approach to getting to better youth outcomes in stable housing, permanent connections, education, employment, and wellbeing. 

The Framework involves two complementary and concurrent strategies: getting to better data on youth homelessness, and building capacity for service-delivery system to end youth homelessness.  

At the Federal level, we are taking a number of steps to improve our data on youth.  Most significantly, HUD revised the PIT data tables for the 2013 Count.  This means that for the first time we will have national data from every community about the number of youth up to age 24 who were counted.  Previously youth were grouped in with adults up to age 30.

This year we also launched the Youth Count! Initiative, a study to identify strategies used to reach unaccompanied homeless youth and to assess promising practices and interesting challenges to implementing a youth-targeted count. Nine study sites participated, including Seattle and Washington State. The early reports show that by involving youth and youth providers, better counts are possible, but it’s still tough to enumerate and survey youth.

HUD and HHS, with support from USICH, have been working to integrate HHS’ youth data system, RHYMIS, with HUD’s homeless data system, HMIS. This will improve these data systems by making them work better for youth-serving agencies while painting a clearer picture of young people touched by federally-funded services across agencies. 

The next steps to appear publicly will occur as HUD issues the new HMIS data standard. In the meantime, HUD, HHS, and USICH are actively engaged on the details of the integration.

These data steps can also pave the way for a new National Prevalence Study focused on youth experiencing homelessness. Stay tuned…

The Council is also working with local communities that are interested in adopting the Youth Framework’s preliminary intervention model. We are collecting and sharing tools that can identify risk and protective factors to help providers determine the type and level of intervention needed to improve outcomes for youth.  

A systems model for homeless youth is a new approach to the provider community for how they think about front-end assessment for youth experiencing homelessness and connections to the most effective services. Some communities, like Minneapolis, Portland, Boston, and Los Angeles are already beginning to organize their services systematically around addressing the needs of youth and testing screening and assessment tools that include risk and protective factors. Please let us know if your community is planning for how the intervention model can be applied to your community.

Even if your community hasn’t yet embraced the preliminary intervention model and a systems approach for youth, at a minimum, create stronger collaborations between systems that work with youth, including HHS’ Runaway and Homeless Youth providers, HUD’s CoC system and providers, and Education’s homeless liaisons. Our Federal partners have encouraged their grantees to reach across the silos of child welfare, public education, and juvenile and adult justice to integrate their efforts with community-driven approaches to youth homelessness.

What will it take to end youth homelessness?

Ending youth homelessness will take all of us working together – aligned in our approach and our advocacy. We will only meet our shared goal of preventing and ending youth homelessness by 2020 if we build the evidence of what works, identify the gaps and the resources that are needed, then build an effective case to attain those resources to fill the gap. Only by working together can we build a smart case and the solutions necessary to end youth homelessness. 

On behalf of President Obama and this administration, thank you for your hard and necessary work.  As he said in his State of the Union Address last week, “we need to build ladders of opportunity...” Together, we can make sure that homelessness will never stop a young person in this country from reaching that first wrung.  Together, it’s possible to end the national crisis of youth homelessness and ensure that everyone has a safe and stable place to call home.  Thank You. 

 

USICH Releases Additional Information, Detailed Framework to End Youth Homelessness

Today, as hundreds of advocates and service providers for youth experiencing homelessness gather in Seattle, WA for the National Conference on Ending Family and Youth Homelessness, USICH releases the USICH Framework to End Youth Homelessness: A Resource Text for Dialogue and Action (youth framework). As participants in this conference learn from and connect with one another on the best strategies and programs to end youth homelessness, we at USICH hope to ground the discussion with this important document for providers across the country. This federal framework for tackling the problem of youth homelessness sets forth the vision for how we should proceed in this important work, building off of the 2012 Amendment to Opening Doors.

Go to the USICH Framework to End Youth Homelessness page

When Opening Doors was launched it set the ambitious goal to prevent and end youth homelessness by 2020, a goal that was strengthened with clearer strategies outlined in the 2012 Amendment to Opening Doors. The Amendment outlined that in order to meet this goal, we must gain a better understanding of the nature and extent of youth homelessness and build our homeless services system to better meet the needs of unaccompanied youth experiencing homelessness. Introduced to the Council in June 2012 and available today to the public in greater detail, the youth framework sets a path for states, communities, and public and private stakeholders to work together on a strategic approach to getting to better youth outcomes in stable housing, permanent connections, education/employment, and well being.

The youth framework outlines strategies to improve our understanding of youth homelessness by getting better data and building the capacity of programs to effectively serve youth experiencing homelessness. The framework also includes a preliminary intervention model that looks at youth through the lens of risk and protective factors, focusing particularly on high-risk populations such as youth involved in the foster care or juvenile justice systems, LGBTQ youth, and pregnant and parenting youth. Ultimately, ending youth homelessness requires a collaborative, systemic approach-federally and locally-that includes targeted homeless assistance and mainstream systems. This framework is a positive step forward in our collaborative work to understand the scope and interventions necessary to end youth homelessness. USICH and our federal partners hope that this document continues the rich dialogue about what we all must do to meet the needs of unaccompanied youth experiencing homelessness.

Read the youth framework

HHS Releases Information Memorandum “Use of TANF Funds to Serve Homeless Families and Families At-Risk of Experiencing Homelessness”

Today the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Family Assistance released an information memorandum (IM) entitled "Use of TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) Funds to Serve Homeless Families and Families At Risk of Experiencing Homelessness." This information memorandum affirms the importance of using eligible Federal and State TANF funds to serve families who come into contact with homeless service providers, the majority of whom are eligible for TANF-funded assistance. Barriers to employment and stability for families experiencing or at risk of homelessness, such as housing costs, childcare, and transportation, can be addressed by closer coordination between TANF agencies and homeless service providers. However, many families experiencing homelessness who come into contact with homeless service providers are not connected to TANF resources. This IM encourages TANF agencies to consider providing interventions to families that help assist families in finding or staying in permanent housing with coordinated support services. 

Notably, the practice of using TANF funds to provide one-time or short-term assistance consistent with rapid re-housing programs is an encouraged use of TANF funds. The IM also encourages these funds to be used in coordination with HUD’s targeted homeless assistance programs. The IM also details the ways in which TANF agencies can assist in coordinating their program with other federal or state programs that can assist families in need. Key state examples are given to illustrate innovative ways State and local leaders have worked with TANF agencies to help families rapidly exit or avoid homelessness. 

Read HHS’ information memorandum 

HUD and HHS Partner to Provide Permanent Housing and Services to Low-Income Americans with Disabilities

Today the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Department of Health and Human Services announced nearly $98 million in funding for 13 state housing agencies to provide rental assistance for low-income Americans with disabilities through the Section 811 Project Rental Assistance Program. This program enables persons with disabilities who earn less than 30 percent of median income to live in integrated mainstream settings.  The state housing agencies are working closely with their state Medicaid and Health and Human Service counterparts to identify, refer, and conduct outreach to persons with disabilities who require long-term services and supports to live independently. 

“By working together, HUD and HHS are helping states to offer permanent housing and critically needed supportive services to offer real and lasting assistance to persons who might otherwise be institutionalized or living on our streets,” said HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan.  “We’re helping states reduce health care costs, improving quality of life for persons with disabilities, and ending homelessness as we know it.”

“Our nation is strongest when all our citizens are able to fully participate and contribute,” said HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. “This unique collaboration of federal and state agencies will enable thousands of Americans with disabilities to lead productive, meaningful lives in their communities.”

Read more of HUD's full press release and learn more about the recipients of this demonstration funding

HUD Issues Rule Formalizing Discriminatory Effects in Housing

via Department of Housing and Urban Development 

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced today that it is issuing a final rule to formalize the national standard for determining whether a housing practice violates the Fair Housing Act as the result of discriminatory effect.

"Through the issuance of this Rule, HUD is reaffirming its commitment to enforcing the Fair Housing Act in a consistent and uniform manner," said HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan. "This will ensure the continued strength of one of the most important tools for exposing and ending housing discrimination." 

HUD is statutorily charged with the authority and responsibility for interpreting and enforcing the Fair Housing Act and has long interpreted the Act to prohibit housing practices with an unjustified discriminatory effect, if those acts actually or predictably result in a disparate impact on a group of persons, or create, increase, reinforce, or perpetuate segregated housing patterns because of race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status, or national origin.

“HUD is maintaining well-established legal precedent and formalizing a nationally consistent, uniform burden-shifting test for determining whether a given housing practice has an unjustified discriminatory effect,” said John Trasviña, HUD’s Assistant Secretary for Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity.

The rule provides clarity and consistency for individuals, businesses, and government entities subject to the Fair Housing Act.  HUD anticipates the rule also will make it easier for individuals and organizations covered by the law to understand their responsibilities and comply with the law. 

The review process for the rule was expansive, transparent, and inclusive. Since January 2012, the Department solicited, received,  and incorporated input based on comments from individuals, fair housing and legal aid organizations, Attorneys General, state housing finance agencies, public housing agencies, public housing trade associations, insurance companies, financial institutions, and numerous other entities.

“The openness of this process allowed us to implement a rule that can be consistently and fairly applied,” noted Trasvina. 

View the final rule here

 

The 2013 Point-in-Time Count and Beyond

HUD requires Continuums of Care (CoCs) to count the number of people experiencing homelessness in the geographic area that they serve through the Point-in-Time count (PIT). Conducted by most CoCs during the last ten days in January, the PIT count includes people served in shelter programs every year, with every other year also including people who are unsheltered. In 2013, CoCs are required to count people who are unsheltered. Data collected during the 2013 PIT count is critical to effective planning and performance management toward the goal of ending homelessness for each community and for the nation as a whole.

The HUD PIT count is the main data source used for measuring progress in meeting the goals in Opening Doors and collects important data on the general homeless population and subpopulations of homeless persons, including Veterans, families, chronically homeless individuals, and youth. The unsheltered count provides the best biennial snapshot of where progress is being made and where redoubling of effort is required, both geographically and for different subpopulations. This data also provides the opportunity for CoCs to amplify the information they gather with more in-depth surveys of individuals using tools like the Vulnerability Index and partnerships with a 100,000 Homes Campaign if they are part of a campaign community. This coordinated data collection event also provides communities with the opportunity to go beyond a count, working with outreach teams, health care, and service providers to make this night an opportunity for those experiencing homelessness to get connected to housing and vital services.

For the 2013 PIT count, there was unprecedented Federal participation from headquarter and field office staff from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Department of Veterans Affairs, and the Department of Health and Human Services in addition to USICH staff. This mobilization illustrates the importance that all Federal agencies place on understanding the population of Americans experiencing homelessness in order to serve them better. USICH Staff and partners across the country share their experiences in blogs you can read below. From the bitter cold of Chicago to rooftops and underpasses in Las Vegas, teams conducting PIT counts embody the commitment and collaboration needed to end homelessness in America. We encourage you to read their blogs and to get involved in your community’s efforts to end homelessness.

Blogs

Making it Count: Reflections on Boston's Annual Homeless Census by Executive Director Barbara Poppe

Sub-Zero Snapshot: Experiences in Chicago's Point-in-Time Count by USICH Regional Coordinator Beverley Ebersold 

Counting the Hard to Find in Las Vegas and Laughlin, Nevada by USICH Regional Coordinator Matthew Doherty

Everyone Counts in Winston-Salem by USICH Regional Coordinator Amy Sawyer 

Homelessness in Washington, DC: Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute Fellows participate in DC's Point-in-Time Count by Aurelia De La Rosa Aceves, Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute & USICH Graduate Fellow

The People Behind the Count: A PIT Count Reflection from HUD's New Hampshire Field Office Director Greg Carson by Greg Carson, HUD New Hampshire Field Office Director

PIT Count Coverage Across the Nation by USICH Communications

HOPE: A Word on New York City's PIT Count from Department of Homeless Services Commissioner Seth Diamond by Seth Diamond, NYC Department of Homeless Services Commissioner

New York City PIT Count: A Reflection by USICH Regional Coordinator Bob Pulster 

The Youth Point-in-Time Count: Philanthropy Partnering with Government to End Youth Homelessness by Anne Miskey, Executive Director of Funders Together to End Homelessness

Reflections from the Philadelphia Count: Re-dedicating to the Mission by Barbara Poppe, USICH Executive Director

Reflections on the Omaha Point in Time Count by Erin Porterfield, Director of MACCH; Craig Howell, Chief Service Officer for the City of Omaha; and, LaFonda Tanner, Emergency Shelter Directer at the Stephen Center

The NOLA 2013 PIT Count: A Reflection by Bob Pulster, USICH Regional Coordinator

Guidance and Resources

Every year HUD also provides guidance and resources to communities participating in the count through the Homelessness Resource Exchange web page.

Access HUD’s PIT and Housing Inventory Count page here.

The data collected in Point-in-Time counts are analyzed and compiled by HUD for their Annual Homeless Assessment Report to Congress (AHAR), which also includes Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) data. There was a separate supplement in 2012, which compiles just PIT data collected in January 2012.

Access the most recent AHAR, using 2011 data, which was released in November 2012.

Access the most recent PIT data from 2012.

SAMHSA Webinar on Homelessness Prevention

The longer someone has been homeless, the more difficult—and expensive—it becomes to restore stability. An April 2011 expert panel on homelessness prevention hosted by SAMHSA with USICH participation highlighted pertinent research and specific strategies for preventing homelessness before it becomes a long term crisis for both individuals and public systems. This webinar, conducted on January 24, 2013 included participants from that panel and draw from information gained from that expert panel discussion. USICH created a fact sheet on the guiding principles and strategies gleaned from that panel and can be another resource along with this webinar. 

Homelessness prevention has been the focus of growing interest in the field. Not only is this a compassionate strategy, but it makes better fiscal sense. Once people have become homeless, it quickly becomes more difficult—and more expensive—to return them to sustainable self-sufficiency. Though the evidence base for homelessness prevention is in its early stages, recent efforts with the Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-housing Program (HPRP) and a history derived from federal initiatives provide information on lessons learned and suggest strategies that should be examined, studied, evaluated, and implemented.

This 90-minute webinar offered an opportunity for providers and policymakers to hear about innovative homelessness prevention strategies and guiding principles articulated by the experts involved in the expert panel event. The webinar offered lessons learned from a range of federal initiatives, strategies to prevent homelessness, and insights from the field. 

Panelists included: 

• Jennifer Ho, Deputy Director of the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH), will serve as Moderator.
• Martha Fleetwood is Founder and Executive Director of HomeBase, an organization that has worked for more than 25 years to help states and communities implement effective systems and programs to prevent and address homelessness and poverty.
• Marybeth Shinn, Ph.D., a Professor of Human and Organizational Development at Vanderbilt University, has focused much of her work on individuals who face social exclusion due to poverty, homelessness, and/or mental illness. Recent projects have included an examination of the impact of targeted homelessness prevention services in New York City.
• Jamey Burden, M.S.W., is Director of Housing Programs at Community of Hope in Washington, D.C., where he is responsible for developing and overseeing the agency’s four housing and supportive services programs. 

Access/download the recording of the webinar here

Access the Prevention Panel Fact Sheet here

You may also download the slides from the green box on the right

Management and Program Analyst (communications emphasis)

Location: This position is located in the immediate office of the U.S. Interagency Council On Homelessness (USICH) in Washington, DC.

Start Date/Duration: Immediate; Open until filled. 

Key Roles for this position: 

The incumbent provides direct support to Director-level staff across the Agency, Deputy Director and Executive Director.  Incumbent has the necessary level of decision-making latitude in order to be effective in this position.

The incumbent will support both policy work as well as communications work across the Agency.

Major Duties and Responsibilities: 

USICH seeks a Management Program Analyst (MPA) to support USICH communications, policy and programmatic activities. 

The MPA will support strategic communications efforts to advance the implementation of Opening Doors: Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness.  This work will involve some combination of:
• Website management/maintenance;
• Managing social media technology and content;
• Webinar and other communications technology support;
• Serving as liaison with web design developers and vendors to ensure site functionality and usability;
• Website analytics monitoring and reporting;
• Writing and editing content to support communications and other Agency work;
• Supporting the full spectrum of work to support the Agency’s communications plan and strategies, and initiatives in support of the Agency’s larger strategic plans, both internal and at the Council level.
• Other special projects and duties, as assigned.

The MPA will be substantive contributor to USICH policy and programmatic efforts.  In this capacity, the incumbent will:

• Undertake or participate in special projects, ongoing analyses, research and initiatives that have high priority for management.  This may involve producing complex analyses and written reports, organizing and participating in special committees, workshops, or other gatherings.
• Administer, implement, coordinate, and/or oversee a variety of complex projects and/or processes.
• Represent USICH to Council Member agencies, and other stakeholders. Collaborate inside and outside of the Agency on a variety of work products, processes and projects.
• Manage data, databases and other informational systems to perform and support work.  Report out in various capacities on the content of these informational systems. 
• Responds to requests for information from stakeholders and from within the organization in regards to the work of the Agency.
• Manages the processes and content to support a variety of meetings, conferences, and other dialogues that support the work the Agency.
• Takes initiative to anticipate issues, resolve conflict among multiple priorities, and implement effective solutions to prevent problems that might impact timelines and deliverables.
• Monitor the progress of projects, programs and/or plans and makes adjustments as needed to ensure that project work is completed according to project guidelines and resources are managed to ensure successful project completion (e.g., budget, staff resources, timeline).

Factor Level Descriptions & Qualifications:

USICH is seeking candidates with both subject-matter expertise in homelessness and technical communications skills. 

Successful applicants meet the following qualifications:

• Understanding of the Council’s mission, strategies, goals and objectives: familiarity with efforts on the implementation of Opening Doors: federal strategic plan to prevent and end homelessness;  knowledge of public systems that serve people at risk of and experiencing homelessness;    understanding of principles and implementation of practices that apply evidence based and innovative solutions (e.g. housing first model) to homelessness. 

• Excellent analytical skills, project and process management skills, content/program analysis and summarization, meetings/events planning, excellent content/technical writing skills, participating on cross-functional teams, strong oral communication skills, ability to work well with a wide range/levels of people, good judgment, time-management, organization, multi-tasking, ability to work in a fast-paced environment and to respond appropriately to new developments.

• Self-directed and able to offer creative solutions. Ability to exercise professional judgment in carrying out assigned duties and responsibilities.

• The ability to work in teams and collaborate well with people both inside and outside of the agency.

• Ability to research and analyze data, and to prepare documents in preparation for meetings, conferences, and for other uses.

• Technology savvy with solid proficiency in database creation, manipulation and management.  Knowledge of and specific experience using Excel, Outlook, Word, PowerPoint. 

• Experience conducting fact finding interviews and presenting recommendations to management.

• Strong written communication skills that can be applied to develop policy, guidance, instructions, and reports of findings and recommendations, with little oversight.

• Experience composing original content for a variety of communications, both internal and external and developing talking points, memos, or other communications.

• Knowledge of the broad objectives of a national public affairs program.   Excellent writing and editing skills, and skill in analyzing sensitive and/or complex information and developing written material to reach a variety of constituencies.

• Skill in managing a website via an in-house content management system, including an understanding of website functionality best practices.  Adept at navigating web analytics tools, whose results drive continuous improvement in website capability.

Organizationally, the incumbent reports directly to a Director-level staff member.  Work is evaluated to ensure that overall objectives have been met. 

The work requires a minimum of physical exertion

Most of the work is performed in an office setting. 

 Minimum 5 years of directly related experience.  Bachelor’s degree, minimum.

How to Apply:

Please email a cover letter which includes your availability, your resume and salary history to jobs@usich.gov.

Position duty station is Washington, DC. 

USICH is an Equal Employment Opportunity employer.

You must be a U.S. citizen to be considered for this position. 

This position requires a background check; must be able to successfully pass and maintain clearance.

All Federal employees are required by PL 104-134 to have Federal payments made by Direct Deposit. 

Male applicants born after December 31, 1959, will be required to certify that they have registered with the Selective Service System, or are exempt from having to do under the Selective Service Law.

This is a federal government, excepted service (Schedule A) position, open to all candidates with our without prior federa government experience.

Position includes a 1 year probationary period in which incumbent can be terminated without case.

Relocation expenses are not authorized.

Full-time position with federal government benefits. 

The Federal government offers a number of exceptional benefits to its employees including health benefits, life insurance, annual and sick leave, flexible spending accounts, long term care insurance, retirement and thrift savings plan, and family friendly flexibilities.  To find out more click here http://www.usajobs.gov/EI/benefits.asp .

This position is exempt from the Fair Labor Standards Act.

This position is not in a bargaining unit.

USICH Seeking Director of Communications and External Relations and Management and Program Analyst

USICH is looking to add to its staff as we begin the second term of the Obama Administration, and we are currently seeking two talented individuals in Communications and Policy teams.

USICH is seeking a qualified candidate with a strong background in public affairs and communications among stakeholders in the legislature, federal agency partners, and national partners to lead USICH Communications as its Director of Communications and External Relations. The Director will serve as a public affairs specialist responsible for planning and implementing communications and media information programs regarding the work of the USICH and its initiatives. Additionally, the Director has principal responsibility for developing, managing and implementing the agency’s legislative priorities and processes, as well as management of relationships, initiatives and work related to federal and national partners. This position works out of the Washington, DC office.

Some of the key responsibilties of this position include: developing and managing an agency-wide communications plan, developing, improving and managing usich.gov, serving as the point of contact for all press inquiries, responsible for all USICH media vehicles and messaging, and manages the coordination of all congressional relations and communications of the agency and council member agencies and other stakeholders, as they relate to the work of the agency.

USICH will consider candidates with a high level of experience and knowledge with emerging technology used in communications, including web site design and maintenance. Advanced degree is preferred, college degree required with a minimum of five years of related work and experience. 

Go to Director job announcement 

USICH is also seeking another integral member of the Communications and Policy Teams, a Management and Program Analyst. This position will support both policy work and communications work across the agency, and works to support a variety of initiatives and projects in the implementation of Opening Doors. The Management and Program Analyst will support communications with web site maintenance and support, writing and editing content to support the Agency's communications strategy, and social media technology and content. Their policy work will include undertaking special projects, ongoing analyses, research and intiatives that have high priority for management as well as working with Council member agencies and other stakeholders on a variety of work products, processes and projecs as assigned. The analyst will also manage data, databases, and other informational system to perform and support the work of the Agency. The ideal candidate would have excellent analytical skills, project and process management skills, and excellent technical writing skills.  Minimum 5 years of directly related experience.  Bachelor’s degree, minimum.

Go to Management and Program Analyst job announcement

Technical Assistance Opportunity for CoC Providers: SSI/SSDI Outreach, Access and Recovery (SOAR) TA Project

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) SSI/SSDI Outreach, Access and Recovery (SOAR) Technical Assistance Center is accepting applications from Continuums of Care (CoCs) that have not yet participated in the federally-sponsored SOAR Technical Assistance Program. 

SAMHSA’s SOAR program assists states and localities to expedite access to the Social Security Administration’s (SSA) disability programs – Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) – for persons who are homeless or at risk for homelessness and who have a mental illness, a co-occurring substance use disorder or other serious medical condition. Currently, all 50 states participate in the federally-sponsored SOAR technical assistance (TA).

CoCs are invited to submit a brief, 3-5 page application in response to the Request for Applications (RFA) to participate in the SOAR TA Project by March 15, 2013. A message of interest and intent to file an application is requested, but not required, by February 27.

Learn more and apply

New Resources from Administration for Children & Families on Expanding Early Care and Education for Homeless Children

HHS’s Administration on Children and Families released a letter and recommendations for early childhood and education programs on how to strengthen their programs for young children experiencing homelessness. This letter and the new policies and procedures are meant for the entire early childhood care and education community – particularly Head Start and Child Care Development Fund grantees—to improve policies and programs for homeless children or children living unstably. Resources include:

Letter from the Administration of Children and Families, the Office of Head Start, and the Office of Child Care
Policies and Procedures to Increase Access to ECE Services for Homeless Children and Families
Strategies for Increasing ECE Services for Homeless Children
Early Childhood and Family Homelessness Resource List

Go to ACF's website for more information

USICH Report to Congress on Homeless Veterans

For Fiscal Year 2012, the Senate Committee on Appropriations asked USICH to provide an assessment of the progress of the Department of Housing and Urban Development and Department of Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing (HUD-VASH) Program and of efforts to address homelessness experienced by Veterans in rural communities and on Native American reservations.  USICH is pleased to present the resulting report: USICH Report to Congress on Homeless Veterans.

The report credits the recent 17 percent reduction in homelessness among Veterans to increased collaboration between HUD and VA at the federal and local level and federal investment in innovative programs and practices for Veterans experiencing or at-risk of homelessness. One of the most effective programs for Veterans is the HUD-VASH program, which has as of September 30, 2012 provided over 40,000 Veterans with permanent supportive housing through rental vouchers provided by HUD and case management provided through VA.

The report assesses the progress of the HUD-VASH program against its performance measures concerning voucher utilization, targeting, and lease-up times. It highlights innovative practices government and community stakeholders are utilizing to improve the performance of this program, including:

• The adoption of the Housing First model for Veterans experiencing chronic homelessness;
• The HUDStat process used by HUD and VA to monitor the program’s progress;
• Rapid Results Boot Camps; and
• Collaborations with nonprofit homeless service providers. 

To improve the HUD-VASH program, the report calls for increased funding for new vouchers in Fiscal Year 2013 and additional resources to pay for move-in expenses to help Veterans successfully use their vouchers.

The second portion of the report details the programs and improvements needed to address Veteran homelessness in rural areas and on Native American reservations. Veterans living in rural areas tend to be less engaged in services for a variety of reasons that can exacerbate the effects of poverty and poor health. The report calls for improved coordination of resources among federal agencies serving Veterans in rural areas and reservations and increased engagement with tribal governments.

At this critical time in our efforts to end homelessness among Veterans by 2015, it is important to understand that it cannot be done by VA alone. With continued strategic investment in programs and practices that are effective, there is tremendous opportunity to harness momentum from our progress in order to work faster and better together to reach the goal.

Go to the Report

Ending Homelessness for Veterans and their Families: the Importance of SSVF

As agencies across the federal government accelerate their work towards the 2015 goal of ending homelessness among Veterans, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has increased its investment in services for Veterans and their families with a tripling of funding in the Supportive Services for Veteran Families program. Supportive Services for Veteran Families (SSVF) is the only program administered by VA that awards grants to local non-profit organizations to provide services and cash assistance not only to Veterans, but to their families as well.  Unlike most services provided by VA, an individual only needs to have served in the military one day to qualify for services and not have a dishonorable discharge. SSVF is crucial in filling gaps in services funding for Veterans that other VA programs are not able to fund, helping to move Veterans permanently out of homelessness in a faster and more efficient way. VA is presently accepting applications from community-based organizations with the expectation of awarding up to $300 million in grants in 2013 (an increase from $100 million in 2012). 

While between ten percent and 30 percent of all homeless Veterans meet the federal definition of chronic homelessness, most homeless Veterans leave homelessness in less than one year.  Some preliminary data reports that one third of all homeless Veterans leave homelessness within 30 days.The strong investment in permanent housing vouchers (via the HUD-VASH program) has helped to provide a successful exit for Veterans who have extensive homeless histories as well as histories of mental illness and substance abuse. SSVF can be a flexible service line to support Veterans who can more quickly get back on their feet and to prevent them from becoming chronically homeless. During this important time in the SSVF application process for potential grantees and with an increased focus on this program because of the large increase in investment for next year, it is important that we highlight successful SSVF programs that may spark innovations and collaborations for other communities across the country. An example of a successful SSVF program is Southwest Solutions in Wayne County, Michigan.

Southwest Solutions has been serving people living with mental illness and in poverty since 1970.  The agency grew out of the vision of Monsignor Clement Kern, a visionary leader in the Detroit area who passionately advocated for the improvement in the conditions of people living with mental illness and poverty.  Southwest Solutions provides direct service through its Southwest Counseling (SWCS) agency and has provided housing services through Southwest Housing Corporation since 1979.  Southwest Solutions received funding as an SSVF provider two years ago and received approximately one million dollars in 2012 with the expectation of serving 450 Veterans. 

Since 2010, SWCS has provided a diverse array of services for Veterans.  In addition to cash assistance to provide move-in costs and rent stabilization, SWCS provides services as diverse as funding for car repair, substance abuse treatment, skills building, job training, and case management.  In the past year, SWCS has served 467 families at a cost of about $900 per family.  More than 70 percent of the services provided have been rapid re-housing, an intervention that has proven successful at stabilizing families as evidenced by the outcomes among rapid-rehousing programs funded through the Homeless Prevention and Rapid Rehousing Program at HUD. For those living unsheltered with longer-term homelessness, Southwest Solutions workers with an outreach model based on harm reduction principles that uses a “snowball” recruiting method, following the word of Veterans to find other Veterans wherever they may be. Southwest Solutions staff also attend and engage Veterans during Stand-Down events in the area. Because of the variety of services offered, the organization is able to assist families who may only need short-term assistance to get back on their feet while also reaching out to and serving Veterans who have greater barriers to stability.   

SWCS employs two senior level social workers and six outreach and engagement case managers.  Southwest Solutions staff actively search out Veterans under bridges and in abandoned houses.  “Because of the collapse of the housing market in Detroit,” many Veterans are moving into run-down, abandoned buildings,” says Jamie Ebaugh, Director of the Housing Resource Center for Southwest Solutions.  While squatting in abandon homes has allowed some homeless Veterans to escape the full brunt of living unsheltered, it has only further marginalized people with mental illness who could benefit from support and treatment because they are more difficult to locate, with hundreds of abandoned buildings in the city.  Southwest Solutions staff actively engage people living on the streets or in abandoned buildings to assist them into decent, supported housing so that they can have the dignity and respect they deserve.

SWCS staff also collaborates with VA staff, with frequent joint training and case conferencing.  Referrals are a two-way street between SWCS and the local Veterans Affairs Medical Center (VAMC) where clients go from SWCS to the VAMC for medical care, benefits and enrollment into HUD-VASH, and VAMC refers people to SWCS for assistance with down payment for permanent housing, stabilization services, prevention, and rapid re-housing services.  The two-way street is made possible by having leadership of both institutions committed to fostering the relationship and having a strong agreement on the foundation of practice, including employing a Housing First model throughout their programs. 

In addition to assisting Veterans to access VA benefits, Southwest Solutions has actively supported Veterans to access mainstream government resources such as Medicaid and Social Security payments for Veterans that qualify for these services.  In addition, SWCS participates in the local Continuum of Care process so that mainstream housing resources are available for Veterans who cannot qualify for VA services.  Tapping into mainstream services is a key function expected of SSVF grantees to leverage the funding coming from the VA and further expand the impact of these services.  Southwest Solutions also regularly meets with the local Grant and Per Diem (GPD) providers, to assist Veterans in finding permanent housing as they are exiting these programs, capitalizing on the improvement in their substance use disorders achieved during treatment in a GPD program to a successful transition to permanent housing. 

Overall, Southwest Solutions is an example of an agency that has taken its initial mission and expanded its reach to serve Veterans and their families.  Southwest Solutions has the diversity of services so that it can leverage mainstream resources and be flexible enough to respond to the changes in the local economy.  While also working with chronically homeless Veterans who are able to leave homelessness using HUD-VASH, Southwest Solutions uses the SSVF funding to attend to the needs of people who have relatively brief periods of homelessness and prevent a brief episode of homelessness from becoming a long-term crisis. 

At present, VA is accepting applications for the SSVF program, with the deadline for applications on February 1, 2013.  New and established providers are encouraged to apply as the federal investment in this program is greater than ever. With this increased investment there is an outstanding opportunity for traditional Continuum of Care providers to participate in services working with Veterans and to bring their expertise to this population, further integrating  services and intervention models across the spectrum of homeless individuals and families.

The FY 2012 Continuum of Care NOFA - Thinking Strategically

On December 10, USICH hosted a webinar on ways for CoCs to think strategically about their resources and programs when completing their FY 2012 Continuum of Care application. This webinar went over the NOFA and the key elements HUD is encouraging communities to focus in their application . 

USICH host: Cathy ten Broeke
Panelists:
Norm Suchar, National Alliance to End Homelessness
Joyce Probst MacAlpine, Mgr. of Housing and Homeless Solutions, Montgomery County, OH

You may download the .wmv file and the webinar slideset from the Asset box to the right. 

HUD REPORTS SLIGHT DECLINE IN HOMELESSNESS IN 2012

WASHINGTON – On a single night last January, 633,782 people were homeless in the United States, largely unchanged from the year before.  In releasing HUD’s latest national estimate of homelessness, U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan cited as hopeful that even during a historic housing and economic downturn, local communities are reporting significant declines in the number of homeless veterans and those experiencing long-term chronic homelessness.  Read HUD’s 2012 Point-in-Time Estimates of Homelessness, including community-level data.

HUD’s annual ‘point-in-time’ estimate seeks to measure the scope of homelessness over the course of one night every January.   Based on data reported by more than 3,000 cities and counties, last January’s estimate reveals a marginal decline in overall homelessness (-0.4%) along with a seven percent drop in homelessness among veterans and those experiencing long-term or chronic homelessness.
Donovan said, “We continue to see a stable level of homelessness across our country at a time of great stress for those at risk of losing their housing.  We must redouble our efforts to target our resources more effectively to help those at greatest risk.  As our nation’s economic recovery takes hold, we will make certain that our homeless veterans and those living on our streets find stable housing so they can get on their path to recovery.”

“This report continues a trend that clearly indicates we are on the right track in the fight to end homelessness among Veterans.  While this is encouraging news, we have more work to do and will not be satisfied until no Veteran has to sleep on the street,” said Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki. “What success we have achieved is directly attributable to the strong leadership from the President and hard work by all of our federal, state, and community partners who are committed to ending Veteran homelessness.”

During one night in late January of 2012, local planners or “Continuums of Care” across the nation conducted a one-night count of their sheltered and unsheltered homeless populations.  These one-night ‘snapshot’ counts are then reported to HUD as part of state and local grant applications.  While the data reported to HUD does not directly determine the level of a community’s grant funding, these estimates, as well as full-year counts, are crucial in understanding the scope of homelessness and measuring progress in reducing it.

The Obama Administration’s strategic plan to end homelessness is called Opening Doors – aroadmap by 19 federal member agencies of the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness along with local and state partners in the public and private sectors. The plan puts the country on a path to end veterans and chronic homelessness by 2015; and to ending homelessness among children, family, and youth by 2020. The Plan presents strategies building upon the lesson that mainstream housing, health, education, and human service programs must be fully engaged and coordinated to prevent and end homelessness.

The plan, and its success, hinges on widespread implementation of an approach to preventing and ending homelessness known as Housing First:  a strategy whose fundamental premise is that homeless assistance programs must respond, first, to the most urgent need of every homeless household—permanent housing.  Then, around this housing must be provided the supports the individual or family needs to address other challenges in their lives.  The reductions today are the result of two elements of the Housing First approach.

First, the decline in veteran homelessness in particular is attributed to the close collaboration between HUD and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs on a joint program called HUD-VA Supportive Housing (HUD-VASH).   Research has demonstrated that for those who have been homeless the longest, often living on our streets for years at a time, permanent supportive housing—housing coupled with supportive services to address mental illness, substance addiction, and other challenges—not only ends homelessness for these vulnerable individuals, but also saves the taxpayer money by interrupting a costly cycle of emergency room visits, detoxes, and even jail terms.  To date, HUD-VASH has provided more than 42,000 homeless veterans permanent supportive housing through rental vouchers provided by HUD along with supportive services and case management by VA. The national estimate announced today reveal a particularly large decrease in the number of homeless veterans – more than 7 percent.

The reductions reported today are also attributed in part to the impact of HUD’s $1.5 billion Homeless Prevention and Rapid Re-housing Program (HPRP), a program designed to assist individuals and families confronted by a sudden economic crisis.  Funded through the Recovery Act, HPRP spared more 1.3 million persons from homelessness by offering them short-term rent assistance, security and utility deposits, and moving expenses.  HPRP—and the SSVF program whose grants VA is announcing today—reflect a Housing First approach inasmuch as it epitomizes the notion that the best interaction a family can have with the emergency response homeless system, such as shelters, is none at all, and if they have to enter the homeless system, the goal of that system should be to get them back into permanent housing as quickly as possible.

Key Findings of HUD’s estimated count

On a single night in January 2012, local communities or ‘Continuums of Care’ reported:

• 633,782 people were homeless.  This is largely unchanged (-0.4%) from January 2011, and a represents a reduction of 5.7 percent since 2007.  Most homeless persons (62 percent) are individuals while 38 percent of homeless persons are in family households.
• Veteran homelessness fell by 7.2 percent (or 4,876 persons) since January 2011 and by 17.2 percent since January 2009.  On a single night in January 2012, 62,619 veterans were homeless.
• Persons experiencing long-term or chronic homelessness declined 6.8 percent (or 7,254) from last year and 19.3 percent (or 23,939 persons) since 2007.
• Homelessness among individuals declined 1.4 percent (or 5,457) from a year ago and 6.8 percent since 2007.  Meanwhile, the number of homeless families increased slightly (1.4 %) from last year though declining 3.7 percent since 2007.
• Street homelessness (“the unsheltered homeless population) was unchanged since January 2011 yet declined 13.1 percent (or 36,860 people) since 2007.
• Five states accounted for nearly half of the nation’s population in 2012: California (20.7 percent), New York 11.0 percent), Florida (8.7 percent), Texas (5.4 percent), and Georgia (3.2 percent).

HUD's mission is to create strong, sustainable, inclusive communities and quality affordable homes for all. HUD is working to strengthen the housing market to bolster the economy and protect consumers; meet the need for quality affordable rental homes: utilize housing as a platform for improving quality of life; build inclusive and sustainable communities free from discrimination; and transform the way HUD does business. More information about HUD and its programs is available on the Internet at www.hud.gov and espanol.hud.gov.

HUD Releases 2012 Point-in-Time Count Estimates of Homelessness

via U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development

WASHINGTON – On a single night last January, 633,782 people were homeless in the United States, largely unchanged from the year before.  In releasing HUD’s latest national estimate of homelessness, U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan cited as hopeful that even during a historic housing and economic downturn, local communities are reporting significant declines in the number of homeless veterans and those experiencing long-term chronic homelessness.  Read HUD’s 2012 Point-in-Time Estimates of Homelessness, including community-level data. 

HUD’s annual ‘point-in-time’ estimate seeks to measure the scope of homelessness over the course of one night every January.   Based on data reported by more than 3,000 cities and counties, last January’s estimate reveals a marginal decline in overall homelessness (-0.4%) along with a seven percent drop in homelessness among veterans and those experiencing long-term or chronic homelessness.

Donovan said, “We continue to see a stable level of homelessness across our country at a time of great stress for those at risk of losing their housing.  We must redouble our efforts to target our resources more effectively to help those at greatest risk.  As our nation’s economic recovery takes hold, we will make certain that our homeless veterans and those living on our streets find stable housing so they can get on their path to recovery.”

Read the full release here.

Call for Abstracts! University of Pennsylvania to host International Homelessness Research Conference: Advancing the Policy and Practice of Crisis Response Systems, June 3-4, 2013

The University of Pennsylvania and the National Center on Homelessness Among Veterans in the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs are organizing an international research conference on homelessness crisis response systems, focused on the themes of homelessness prevention and diversion, rapid re-housing, and effective approaches to emergency housing. The conference will also include plenary sessions on recent multinational studies of Housing First research demonstrations, and cost of homelessness studies. This event is underwritten by the Dana and Andrew Stone Chair in Social Policy at the University of Pennsylvania and co-sponsored by the VA National Center on Homelessness among Veterans, the European Observatory on Homelessness, the Canadian Homelessness Research Network and the Australian Urban and Housing Research Institute.

The conference program will provide homelessness researchers with the opportunity to present research on theoretically significant models, best practices, evaluations, and related research. The Conference Planning Committee invites you to submit an abstract for an oral presentation or a poster on the topics listed below:

• Approaches to community based homelessness prevention (theory, practice)
• Shelter diversion programs
• Rapid re-housing models
• Emergency shelter programs
• Short-term interim housing models (30-60-90 days)
• Street outreach
• Safe Havens
• Programs that target youth, young adult families, young veterans and young single adults
• Institutional discharge issues
• Conflict mediation

Abstracts are also invited for two plenary panels – one on Housing First research demonstrations and another on cost of homelessness studies.

Submissions

All abstracts must be submitted via the online submission form by February 1, 2013. The following information must be provided.

Title: Abstract titles are limited to 10 words.

Authors: Authors names should be entered as follows: first initial and last name. Affiliations must be listed.

Indicate the presenting author and his/her email contact information in the appropriate fields.

Text: Abstracts should be no longer than 300 words. Text should be divided into the following sections:

Background; Objectives; Method; Results; Discussion.

Important Dates

Abstract submission site opens December 7, 2012

Abstract submission deadline February 1, 2013

Abstract notifications emailed to presenters March 1, 2013

Conference registration opens February 1, 2013

Conference registration deadline May 1, 2013

Click here to submit your abstract

Youth Count!

Developing Strategies for Counting Unaccompanied Homeless Youth

The U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH) and the Departments of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Health and Human Services (HHS), and Education (ED), launched Youth Count!, an interagency initiative to develop promising strategies for counting unaccompanied homeless youth, up to 24-years-old, through innovative implementations of HUD’s 2013 Point-in-Time (PIT) count.  The Youth Count! Initiative was developed per a recommendation from the framework for ending youth homelessness.

The HUD Point-in-Time (PIT) Count, the main data source used for measuring progress against the goals in Opening Doors, is an effective means of providing estimates for the general homeless population but has been less effective at addressing the challenges of counting homeless youth. Because the HUD PIT counts are conducted in every community around the country, this presents an opportunity to test youth PIT strategies to capture information on the numbers and characteristics of homeless youth.

The goal of this initiative is to learn promising strategies for conducting the following: 1) collaborative PIT counts of unaccompanied homeless youth that engage Continuums of Care (CoC), Runaway and Homeless Youth (RHY) providers, Local Education Agency (LEA) homeless liaisons, and other local stakeholders; and 2) credible PIT counts that gather reliable data on unaccompanied homeless youth.

The following nine diverse and dynamic communities are participating in the Youth Count! initiative: 

Boston, MA                                        New York City, NY
Cleveland, OH                                   King County, WA
Hennepin County, MN                       Washington State
Houston, TX                                      Winston-Salem, NC
Los Angeles, CA

Youth Count! Webinar Series

The Youth Count! Initiative includes a series of webinars throughout December 2012 and January 2013. The webinar series is a resource that the federal government is providing to communities across the country to support collaborative local counts of youth homelessness.  Even if you are not one of the nine communities participating in this particular initiative, this information is valuable to any community looking to improve their count of youth in January 2013’s PIT Count. As webinars are presented they will be added to this webpage, so we encourage you to check back often for new resources. 

Introduction to Youth Count! Initiative, October 11, 2012
This webinar, hosted by USICH, introduced stakeholders from the nine invited communities to the purpose of Youth Count! and its main features.
Watch now

Outreach & Sampling Methods for Youth Counts: Data Collection, December 5, 2012

Presenters: Martha Burt, The Urban Institute; Lauren Dunton, Abt Associates

Reaching unaccompanied homeless youth in PIT counts isn’t easy. Without good strategies to identify them, unaccompanied homeless youth, or subgroups of youth, could be greatly underrepresented in PIT counts. This webinar will describe approaches to identify hard to reach youth. It will also describe ways to map out the best locations for reaching homeless youth in street counts, and how to build creative partnerships, such as with law enforcement or social services, to improve outreach.

Watch now

Other national partners have presented webinars on the topic of including youth in the 2013 PIT Count, which you can access below.

Training and Preparation for Youth Counts: Involving Youth, Universities, and Volunteers, December 6, 2012

Presenters: Maggie Riden and Justin Rodriguez, DC Alliance of Youth Advocates

Young people from runaway and homeless youth services and local institutions of higher education have played important roles as both employed and volunteer contributors to both planning and implementing past efforts to count unaccompanied homeless youth. They can be tremendous assets for this kind of effort. At the same time, they require well-organized training and support to ensure their safe and effective participation. This webinar will address common issues including recruitment, selection, safety, training, and payment of young people in local services and institutions of higher education to support more effective youth counts.

Watch now

Strategies for Coordinating Data for Youth Counts: Street Counts, HMIS and Schools Data, December 19, 2012 

Presenters: Karen Deblasio, US Department of Housing & Urban Development; John McLaughlin, US Department of Education; McKinney-Vento Liaison(s)

One of the greatest challenges, and opportunities, for getting to better data on unaccompanied homelessness youth in PIT counts is coordinating and sharing data between systems and services. This webinar will include presenters from Federal agencies and the field to outline innovations and possible solutions for using and integrating data between schools, Homeless Management Information Systems (HMIS), and runaway and homeless youth services to provide a more accurate youth count. The webinar will discuss common challenges, such as timing, data protection, and data comparability issues.

Watch now

It’s a Data Driven World: Making the Most of the 2013 Youth-Inclusive PIT Count, NAEH, October 4, 2012

Watch now

Youth Targeted Point-in-Time Counts: What You Need to Know!, NAEH, October 18, 2012 
Watch now

 

HUD Releases 2011 Annual Homeless Assessment Report

At the beginning of December 2012, HUD released the 2011 Annual Homeless Assessment Report to Congress. The 2011 AHAR presents the most recent national estimates of homelessness, focusing on people who experience homelessness by themselves, as family members, and as members of specific subpopulations. For each of these populations, the estimates describe how homelessness has changed over time and provide a demographic profile of homelessness in America. The report documents how many people are using shelter programs for homeless people, and how many people are in unsheltered locations. The AHAR is delivered each year to the U.S. Congress, and its contents are used to inform Federal, State, and local policies to prevent and end homelessness. The information pertaining to homeless veterans is incorporated into this report, and HUD will no longer issue a separate supplemental AHAR on homeless veterans. In addition to the final report, the 2011 Supplemental Report outlines the key findings of the 2011 Point-In-Time (PIT) counts conducted in January 2011. Specifically, this report provides 2011 PIT estimates and national PIT estimates of homelessness, as well as national estimates of homelessness by state, estimates of chronic homelessness, and estimates of homeless veterans. In addition, this report provides the national inventory of beds for homeless people in 2011.

Go to the AHAR Report

Data Drives Performance: The Performance Improvement Calculator

One of the focus areas of this year’s CoC competition is a movement from analyzing the performance of individual programs to looking at the entire crisis response system in a community. Moving from siloed programs to a comprehensive system includes the work of affordable and supportive housing providers, supportive services, rapid rehousing programs, and mainstream programs for housing, health, and employment. To move the needle on the 2015 goals and to establish a clear set of strategies for our 2020 goals for families, youth, and children, communities are asked to analyze their current performance measures and holistically plan for the years ahead.

A tool for communities to access for this analysis and systems planning was released not long ago, the Performance Improvement Calculator (pictured below). Created by Focus Strategies and the National Alliance to End Homelessness, the Performance Improvement Calculator makes it possible to use data to see where there is room for improvement in a community's homeless crisis response system. USICH spoke with Katharine Gale and Megan Kurteff Schatz of Focus Strategies about the tool, its alignment with HEARTH Act performance measures, and the value of this tool for communities at this critical time during the annual CoC applications.

How does the HEARTH Act connect with the Performance Improvement Calculator?

Focus Strategies: There are two key pieces that really foreground the HEARTH Act:

1. A recognition of local community programs working as a system, and focusing on how all programs work together to house people and to keep them housed
2. An inclusion of selection criteria and performance measurement in what grantees are asked to report back on. From Focus Strategies’ perspective, the HEARTH Act hit the nail on the head in terms of what performance measures they are requiring communities to capture. 

The HEARTH Act puts three things into sharp focus for measurement: the rate of exit to housing, how quickly a program helped that individual or family into housing (average length of stay in shelter), and if the intervention sticks (rate of returns to homelessness). Focus Strategies was started a year and a half ago to work with communities to use the data they are already collecting through Homeless Management Information System(HMIS) and their Annual Performance Reports and to use them in a different way. Taking these data points (like average length of stay) and using it along with budget data (cost per intervention) allows communities to model which interventions are most cost-effective. How many nights individuals and families remain in homeless programs is directly related to the cost of serving those households (each night in a homeless program has an associated cost) and to the number of people that can be served with a given number of beds. Integrating these two items is critical in benchmarking and model efforts of communities.

It’s helpful to think about all the different types of interventions across a community’s homeless services system as “levers” that all work in particular ways to serve those experiencing homelessness.This tool allows a community to see the levers they have within their system to create change – taking the data they have on those measures already and how a change in an outcome or a reallocation of resources can change how many people their system can serve and the cost effectiveness of their work.

How does the tool work?

Focus Strategies: Using this tool requires calculations using 5 different data points, which also coincide with some of what HEARTH requires as well:

• How fast people exit the system – average length of stay in emergency shelter
• How many people are exiting to particular housing interventions
• The rate of return to homelessness
• Capacity of the system (how many beds you have)
• How much it costs per type of intervention and the total amount currently spent for that intervention system-wide (which can be found in budget documents for the Continuum of Care)*

* If your community does not have data for each of these data points (which is essential to help determine the cost-effectiveness of each intervention per successful exit to housing) the Performance Improvement Calculator can help estimate it.

After you enter data for each of these data points, you have a full report on the outcomes you’re currently achieving. For example, you will be able to see the average length of stay calculated for each type of emergency or transitional bed and how much that intervention costs. This is the first step for a community: modeling the outcomes you’re currently achieving with the resources and inputs you currently have.

The next step is to model what would happen if you improved program outcomes or reallocated resources to help improve the outcomes across one of the four main data points. Users can now enter shifts in outcomes by creating new targets for a specific outcome, and then see how this affects the entire system.

Let’s say your community is exiting 17 percent of the people who enter the system to permanent housing per year. If you change how some of your shelters operate or programs improve, you estimate that you can exit 30 percent to permanent housing. Putting this new outcome in the system, the tool calculates for you how it changes your cost per person in the system. If you work your way through the tabs, you can see the difference changing these outcomes make to the system overall – a change like this (from 17 percent to 30percent of exits to permanent housing) greatly reduced the cost per permanent housing (because there are more exits to permanent housing) and the cost/service also goes down because you are serving more people with the same amount of resources. With no new money, you got better outcomes and your cost effectiveness went up.

You can change each of the four data points (how many beds per intervention type, length of stay, exits to permanent housing, returns to homelessness) separately as well.You can see the effects of what happens if you don’t necessarily change the amount of exits to permanent housing, but you speed up the time it takes for people to get permanent housing.

One thing being talked about in this year’s NOFA application season is the reallocation away from transitional housing and into other interventions. Is there a way to model the effects of this in the tool?

Focus Strategies: Yes. If your community does not have exact data on exits to permanent housing from transitional housing and rapid rehousing, the Performance Improvement Calculator has estimations of typical outcomes that we are confident in. We found that generally the exit rate to permanent housing for transitional housing is 55 percent and the exit rate for rapid rehousing is 85 percent.

Let’s say if you have those rates, a 55 percent rate of exit from transitional housing to 85 percent from rapid rehousing programs, while reallocating $1M out of transitional housing (effectively doing a better job with fewer people in transitional housing), the summary will show you the rate of performance.

This tool can show people that reinvestment and reallocation of resources does not necessarily mean devastation of another intervention – in this example and in others, you can change how you reallocate things and get a net increase for the entire system.It’s not just about changing investments though, it’s also about modifying currentpractices and program administrative rules (if needed) so that it is possible to achieve more placements in permanent housing and shorter stay.

How do you envision community stakeholders or CoCs using this tool?

Focus Strategies: This is a modeling tool, and a simplified version of what happens in the real world. A community will have to look at their existing infrastructure to determine if they can reallocate resources in particular ways or if they have the budget flexibility for some items. But we believe this tool is valuable because it is able to strike a balance between what is digestible and what is relevant to communities in their particular context. The tool can be used to focus on each outcome separately or together. You can use it by yourself, report to a community, or project it to use the tool in meetings together.

A key element of this tool, and using data to help make decisions, is that it helps communities and stakeholders get away from anecdotal evidence on how a system works. While this tool is not perfect, it helps to move the conversation towards what resources communities have that can be used strategically to improve the outcomes that HEARTH emphasizes. Using a finite system of resources (e.g. shelter beds, PSH units), money, and people experiencing homelessness in a community, you can focus one or more of the “levers” available to change. At minimum, this work helps communities in starting to identify and then track key pieces of data from HMIS and their budgets. It’s our goal, though, that once a community has been able to work with their current data, model where they’re going, and agreed on program changes, they can continue to use this as a benchmarking tool.

Go to the Performance Improvement Calculator

Experts Hear From Communities, Highlight Important Elements of HEARTH Act

Recent legislative changes have been made to the HEARTH (Homeless Emergency Assistance and Rapid Transition to Housing) Act following its original passage in 2009. In order to understand the impact of these changes, USICH spoke with Norm Suchar, Director of the Center for Capacity Building at National Alliance to End Homelessness and Michelle Budzek, President of Partnership Center, ltd. (PCL). Both Mr. Suchar and Ms. Budzek’s organizations provide technical assistance to help communities and service providers reduce and end homelessness with the most effective strategies. The Center for Capacity Building at National Alliance to End Homelessness leads the dissemination of solutions that reduce homelessness in communities across the country, and works with communities and providers to implement these solutions. The Center accelerates the adoption of solutions that are cost effective, data driven, and that will ultimately accomplish the goal of ending homelessness. Partnership Center, ltd.’s  primary work is with units of government, community groups, and non-profit organizations that plan, fund, or provide housing and services to people experiencing homelessness. The Partnership Center is structured into three divisions: Technical Assistance, Information Technology, and Administration.

In these interviews, USICH spoke with these two experts about what they heard from communities about the changes to the HEARTH Act, and what they believe are now the ways these changes can help us best reach our collective goals in Opening Doors.

Norm Suchar spent time listening to providers’ reactions to changes in the HEARTH Act through his work at the Center. He describes the initial reactions of providers to these changes in four buckets:

1. The unknown unknowns. At the onset, providers didn’t know exactly what was happening with HEARTH and how it would change their programming. They had a piecemeal understanding, so they did not feel comfortable moving forward with planning without concrete specifics about what was expected of them. Release of the interim rule helped clarify their understanding of the changes to HEARTH, but many providers were waiting for the NOFA to clarify expectations completely.
2. Performance measures. Providers understand the new focus of HEARTH on outcomes and performance, but they didn’t know how it would be measured or implications of those measures.
3. Expectations of transitional housing programs. Many providers believed that they would be expected to change their models, in addition to a possible change in populations served. Some providers even had concerns about being defunded. 
4. Accountability. Providers were hesitant to be held accountable for things they thought to be outside their control. When it comes to providing housing services, more specifically helping clients maintain housing, providers must rely on other people like landlords, clients, and the employers of clients. Providers come from the perspective that they cannot “control” all these parties because they are individual and interact with one another in different ways, and the providers were worried that they alone would be held responsible for joint outcomes with these parties.    

Based on the above reactions of providers, it is clear that the changes to the HEARTH Act stirred some confusion. However, Suchar emphasized that providers had questions and concerns, but not in a negative way. The providers’ questions and concerns came from a place of wanting to learn and understand the changes to HEARTH and what those changes meant in their role as provider. From his conversations with providers, Suchar reflects that, “people see potential, but are proceeding cautiously” with making large program changes. Now that the NOFA has been released and program changes are delineated, what needs to happen moving forward is much clearer. 

So what do the changes in HEARTH really mean for providers? To both Suchar and Michelle Budzek, the changes present new opportunities to maximize efforts to prevent and end homelessness. Both Suchar and Budzek note some of these new opportunities result from the new focus on some very important functions:

• A process for renewal grants that emphasizes doing what works and not just more of the same;
• Data, outcomes and performance management;
• An increased ability to do much more rapid rehousing in communities;
• Building coordinated assessments integrated with a coordinated intake system; and
• A new focus on integrating youth providers in data collection and planning, starting with this year’s PIT Count

A New Process for Renewal Grants

Before changes were made to the HEARTH Act, as long as a provider was complying with the law they usually got their renewal. Suchar explained that the changes made to HEARTH prevent this method of “automatic” renewal moving forward. He said that in order to make real change 

we have to look at existing grants and identify how to retool them, not just continue  renewing projects year after year. Whether it’s shifting budget lines, or retooling of the  program. There are a lot of places where all grants are not performing well, and we should look  to reallocating from one provider to another if necessary.

With the focus in this year’s NOFA on just that, funding strategies and programs that achieve better results on HEARTH performance measures will take center stage.

Data, Outcomes and Performance Management

With the new HEARTH Act regulations, there’s a shift to not just measuring program outcomes, but community outcomes. We are measuring the whole experience for a person, not for the individual organizations. To see a clearer picture of an individual’s journey through a community’s system, accurate data on how individuals fare in programs is essential. Suchar firmly stated, “There is no one that succeeds without good data. It’s always a good decision to invest in data, but it can be hard to see when you have such a high-stakes environment like addressing homelessness.” Michelle Budzek adds, “When you use data for planning purposes and informing the design of programs, you create goals based on data and what’s actually happening.” The recent changes made to the HEARTH Act provide an impetus to create a data system, measurement system, and performance improvement infrastructure. According to Suchar, “Providers who do a good job [collecting data] should be rewarded and providers who are struggling [to collect data] should be helped. People need to see outcomes telling them how the community is doing.”

Increasing Rapid Rehousing

Implementing rapid rehousing was possible before the CoC Interim Rule took effect, but it was not easy to understand or take to scale for many providers, noted Suchar. The ability to use funds for rapid rehousing is laid out much clearer now in the NOFA and is encouraged as a primary intervention as part of a community’s crisis response system. The positive outcomes experienced by communities upon implementing rapid rehousing with Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Rehousing (HPRP) dollars show that for many subpopulations, like families, rapid rehousing works. Michelle Budzek forecasts, “As program types change from transitional housing to rapid rehousing, we have the potential to see declines in homelessness. There will be a much greater focus on getting people in housing as fast as possible, and we can expect to see the PIT Count overall to decline too. I think we’ll see people moving from the streets to housing rapidly as this intervention is taken to scale in more communities.”

Coordinated assessment

When a community of providers does not have a coordinated assessment, people experiencing and at-risk of  homelessness have difficulty accessing the many providers that can assist them in a streamlined way, as well as difficulty in getting matched with the right intervention for their needs. Without a coordinated assessment among housing and service providers, these individuals can be screened out of programs that they really need and from which they could benefit. Coordinated assessment provides a much more rational process matching people experiencing homelessness with appropriate services. The NOFA provides funding for communities to establish these systems.

A New Integration with Youth Providers

Michelle Budzek cannot remember a time when youth were not included in the Point in Time (PIT) Count, that is, in Cincinnati. She states, “Since the start in 1996, youth providers have always been at the table. Our HMIS system at the very beginning worked with and incorporated emergency shelters and CoC-funded programs, and Runaway and Homeless Youth programs.”  For many other communities, though, this integration has not always been strong. However, the federal government has taken the gaps in data and coordination for youth experiencing homelessness seriously, and is looking to leaders like Cincinnati to share their experience.  For this reason, she shared her firsthand knowledge of successful strategies to incorporate youth into the PIT Count that can be adopted by communities across the country:  

There is a work group in Cincinnati called the Homeless Outreach Group (HOG) that meets monthly and includes all outreach providers: both RHYA providers and those who focus on the adult population. These providers work collaboratively to make sure everyone on the street has an outreach worker assigned to them, including youth. This way, the youth on the street identified by HOG’s outreach efforts can be connected to the youth outreach workers directly and steered towards services that will best meet their needs.

HOG collectively leads the PIT Count, and the group is particularly well-positioned to perform this duty given the one-on-one ground work they do all year with those experiencing unsheltered homelessness. Budzek confirms, “the accuracy of the PIT Count increases with this approach, because the outreach workers know where those experiencing homelessness reside and usually have worked with them at one point throughout the year.” This year’s PIT count, that now includes changes to data capture focusing specifically on 18 – 24 year old youth, can provide an opportunity for providers who may not have worked together in the past to begin collaboration. 

Suchar and Budzek both see tremendous opportunities afforded by the changes made to the HEARTH Act. And, in their communication with providers they notice that the initial hesitations to HEARTH Act changes subside when providers learn exactly how the changes will impact their work. Technical assistance providers like National Alliance to End Homelessness and Partnership Center, ltd. (PCL) play critical roles during these times of legislative change. As communities begin work on their FY 2012 CoC Program applications, it is important for communities to connect with technical assistance providers to help clarify program regulations as well as stay on top of what practices are showing promise and success. Looking forward, the HEARTH Act will be able to flourish if effective elements like those mentioned in these interviews are taken to scale across communities large and small. 

 

Important Items to Note in This Year’s CoC NOFA

Below is a quick list of some important changes and items to note in the recently released NOFA for HUD’s CoC Program as applicants are working on improving their system to achieve better results.

• Details in the NOFA: It is critical that all applicants read the NOFA carefully, as it is different than many of the NOFAs released previously. Please take particular note of the scoring and selection criteria contained in the NOFA.
• The Interim Rule: The FY 2012 CoC Program Competition is the first funding competition to be administered under the CoC Program interim rule. If you are not familiar with the new regulations, please refer to this rule before and during your application process.
• CoCs must rank projects: To ensure that CoCs have the opportunity to prioritize their projects locally in the event that HUD is not able to fund all renewals, HUD is requiring that CoCs rank projects within 2 tiers in FY 2012. Tier 1 is equal to the CoC's Annual Renewal Demand approved in the Registration process, less 3.5 percent. Tier 2 is the amount between a CoC's Tier 1 and the CoC's Final Pro-Rata Need (FPRN) and any approved amounts for CoC planning and the Permanent Housing Bonus.
• Ending Chronic Homelessness: Aligned with Opening Doors: Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness, HUD has made ending chronic homelessness by the end of 2015 a priority. In order to reach this national goal, HUD strongly encourages CoCs to include this priority as part of their local planning process and HUD must prioritize funding targeted to this population.

A priority for HUD in the FY 2012 CoC competition is the development of new permanent supportive housing projects that propose to serve 100 percent chronically homeless individuals and families. HUD seems to be providing a strong indication that it will expect CoCs to prioritize those families and individuals with the longest history of homelessness first. The Permanent Housing Bonus will be limited to projects that propose to exclusively serve chronically homeless individuals and families.      

• Renewals under SHP and S+C: Applicants that were eligible in the past for renewals under the Supportive Housing Program (SHP) and Shelter Plus Care (S+C) will continue to be eligible for renewal of leasing, operating, supportive services, rental assistance, HMIS, and project administration—so  long as the recipient does not change the project.  
• Reallocation: All CoCs will be allowed to reallocate funding from existing renewal projects to new project applications (please read NOFA in detail for eligible projects) without decreasing the CoCs Annual Renewal Demand. HUD (and USICH) are strongly encouraging CoCs to take advantage of this flexibility to make changes to create better results.

Projects eligible for reallocation: Rental assistance projects formerly awarded under the (S+C) will now be eligible for reallocation; Supportive Housing Program resources will continue to be eligible for reallocation as well. Reallocated funds from Supportive Services Only projects are also eligible to establish and operate a coordinated intake system.

CoCs will not reduce their renewal amounts if they decide to reallocate some of their resources to be more effective.     

• Who to Contact for CoC Program Changes: If a CoC would like to make changes to their CoC program and crisis response system via repurposing existing programs or reallocating resources like those mentioned above, the first step is to contact their HUD Field Office to find out if it will be a grant amendment (which can happen anytime) or a “reallocation” which will have to take place during the CoC NOFA competition.

Access the NOFA here

HEARTH and Your Community

As providers and stakeholders across the country, we are all aware that the HEARTH Act enacted by Congress in 2009 is, in many ways, a game changer. It gave the federal government the charge to create the first federal strategic plan to prevent and end homelessness, setting forth the vision that no one in this country should be without a safe and stable place to call home. This strong statement by the federal government foregrounds the work of implementing the HEARTH Act in communities across the country. Perhaps most importantly, HEARTH moves governments and local stakeholders from a focus on individual program outcomes to a focus on how all programs work as a system to achieve results for an entire community.  Implementation of the HEARTH Act is critically important to all of the goals in Opening Doors: Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness, especially Objective 10: to re-tool the homeless crisis response system to more effectively prevent homelessness and rapidly return people who experience homelessness back into stable housing.

HUD’s recently released Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA) for the Continuum of Care program is a further indication of just how serious the federal government is about reaching the goals in Opening Doors. The Continuum of Care has always been a competitive grants program, and this NOFA essentially highlights the word “competitive” for Continuums this year. The NOFA makes it clear that communities cannot assume funding of all renewals and must therefore prioritize carefully. Because of the tight fiscal environment at all levels of government, all investments in ending homelessness must be smart investments.  We cannot afford “business as usual” programming and practices if they are not getting the results needed to meet the goals in Opening Doors. The next step is taking a tough but necessary look at what’s working and what could be modified for greater results in your community.

To help aid program changes for CoCs, HUD is providing greater flexibility to be thoughtful and strategic with federal dollars to fit the needs of particular communities. Communities now have more flexibility to reallocate resources to ensure a better system-wide response while being assured (as long as the new project meets threshold criteria) they will not lose their renewal amounts because of reallocations. HUD is awarding points to CoCs that do a thoughtful analysis of their system (see NOFA Section V.A.2.j). Communities are encouraged to repurpose existing programs that are not the most cost-effective to more cost-effective interventions, for example, repurposing a traditional transitional housing program into permanent supportive housing. Communities are also encouraged to reallocate resources away from a program or provider that is underperforming to a more effective program or provider.

The HEARTH Act makes clear that communities are expected to show how they’re making progress in ending homelessness. The Act introduced key indicators for communities to show their progress, including reducing the number of people who experience homelessness, the length of time people remain homeless, and the rate at which people who exit homelessness but later experience homelessness and return to shelter. Now is the time for communities to use their data to drive to better results system-wide. An analysis of where your community is now and where your community needs to be is critical to success, not just in this funding cycle but also in the years ahead.

As communities do this thoughtful analysis, there are many questions to consider: 

• How can your CoC use HMIS and PIT data to measure system and program performance then use this data to allocate resources? How can your local CoC approach system design strategically?
• Does your system have the right balance of interventions (rapid re-housing, permanent supportive housing) to respond to local needs?
• Is the system reducing the overall numbers of people experiencing homelessness? Is the system ensuring that no one is unsheltered?
• Are resources targeted effectively to those with the greatest needs, including those who are unsheltered?
• Are you exiting people from homelessness to permanent housing quickly and using the right size of intervention based on their needs? 
• Can existing resources be reallocated and repurposed to get better results? (e.g. Do large investments in transitional housing still make the most sense, or could some of these resources be more effective if repurposed to another intervention?) 

These are questions every community must ask themselves, and in every community the answers may be different.  There is not a one-size-fits-all way to move your community from a collection of individual programs to a coordinated system. During this time of transition, it is important to recognize that communities across the country are having these same sorts of challenging discussions. No community is alone in this work and no community has figured it all out.  There are, however, some very promising models that have achieved impressive results. Earlier this year we highlighted Chattanooga, Tennessee on their system-wide changes that enabled them to reduce chronic homelessness by 89 percent in four years. We’ve also highlighted the work of Clallam County, Washington and their systematic use of data to drive performance improvement and their data collection efforts despite a far-reaching Continuum in a rural area.  

The HEARTH Act has certainly created many questions for communities across the country.  Most importantly, however, it has created an opportunity to help change the conversation.  This is no longer a conversation about which programs do a good job, but rather a conversation of what needs to happen across all programs in a community to create better results.   At USICH, we encourage each of you to stay in that conversation, even when it gets hard.  It is often during the hardest and messiest conversations when the most transformative decisions are made.

Stay tuned in the coming weeks for a webinar USICH is hosting the week of December 3.  

For this newsletter, you will hear from some of our nation’s experts on what the HEARTH Act means to local communities and what key opportunities must be explored to maximize efforts to end homelessness.   We also highlight the importance of data and performance management to achieve the outcomes HEARTH requires, and share some of the most important things to know about this year's CoC NOFA

Read Important Items to Note in This NOFA

Hear from Experts on opportunities from HEARTH

Read about a new tool for performance improvement  

Resources from HUD

Go to HEARTH Homepage 

Go to the CoC Competition Page

Go t

USICH Framework to End Youth Homelessness

The 2012 Amendment to Opening Doors was developed to specifically address what strategies should be implemented to improve the educational outcomes for children and youth, and the steps that need to be taken to advance the goal of ending youth homelessness by 2020. The Amendment includes a new framework explaining how to approach the problem of youth homelessness in a more coordinated and effective way across different disciplines that work with this population. In February 2013, USICH released a detailed framework document for federal, state, and local leaders to use as a resource in their work to reach the 2020 goals that build off the strategies included in the Amendment, USICH Framework to End Youth Homelessness: A Resource Text for Dialogue and Action.

Read the detailed USICH Framework to End Youth Homelessness here

The framework calls on agencies and systems at all levels to work together to get to better youth outcomes in stable housing, permanent connections, education and employment, and well-being. To reach these outcomes, the framework has two prongs: improving data quality and collection on youth experiencing homelessness and building capacity for service delivery.

Improving data quality and collection will provider a clearer understanding of the prevalence, characteristics, and needs of unaccompanied youth experiencing homelessness. In order to improve data quality and collection the framework proposes three complementary strategies:

• Integrate the data system for Runaway and Homeless Youth Act grantees (RHYMIS) with the Continuum of Care data system (HMIS).
• Leverage HUD’s Point-in-Time count to improve strategies for counting youth by enhancing collaborations between Continuums of Care (CoCs), Runaway and Homeless Youth (RHY) providers, and Local Education Agencies (LEAs) and developing youth-specific methods for counting youth.
• Develop a national study that builds on program data and the HUD count that includes household surveys to get to a confident national estimate of youth homelessness.

Taken together, these three things will lead to a regularized estimate of and better data about youth experiencing homelessness.

An interagency initiative called Youth Count! was developed per this recommendation, which seeks to develop promising strategies for counting unaccompanied homeless youth, up to 24-years-old, through innovative implementations of HUD’s 2013 Point-in-Time (PIT) count. 

Learn more about Youth Count!

Building capacity for service delivery includes increasing our knowledge of effective interventions. The framework proposes and supports action by:

• Introducing a preliminary research-informed intervention model. This model builds on existing knowledge of effective interventions and is driven by improving the core outcomes for youth noted above. The intervention model presents a new way to assess an individual youth's risk and protective factors to tailor interventions on the premise that interventions that reduce these risk factors and increase these protective factors will lead to stable housing, permanent connections, education and employment, and well-being. It also supports systems level assessment and planning.
• Focusing efforts on highly vulnerable subgroups of homeless youth including youth involved in the foster care or juvenile justice systems, LGBTQ youth, and pregnant and parenting youth.

Using this framework as a guide, stakeholders at the federal, state, and local levels can begin to work collaboratively with agencies that serve youth experiencing homelessness to improve the data available on youth, including an estimate of the size of the problem, build our knowledge of effective interventions, and target vulnerable subpopulations.  Ultimately, ending youth homelessness requires a collaborative, systematic approach—federally and locally—that includes targeted homelessness assistance and mainstream systems. This framework is a positive step forward in our collaborative work to understand the scope and interventions necessary to end youth homelessness by 2020.

Resources on the youth framework are listed below and in the green box above. 

Access the youth framework 

Access the youth framework slide Set

Access the youth framework/amendment handout

More Resources on the Youth Framework:

Expert Briefs on the youth framework, presented at the June 2012 Council Meeting

Blog of the June 2012 Council meeting highlights

VA’s HPACT Program Collaborates to Meet Healthcare, Housing Needs

The nation is nearing the half-way point towards our goal of ending homelessness for Veterans by 2015, and USICH and its partners are focusing on ways to accelerate progress to that goal. The 12% reduction in Veteran homelessness in just one year is proof positive that the goal is achieveable if we focus our interventions in strategic ways, particularly for interventions serving Veterans who regularly use the emergency shelter system.  With the leadership of Secretary Shinseki, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) continues to develop Veteran-centric innovations to meet homeless Veterans where they are and help them to improve their health and get off the streets and into housing. In May 2012, USICH detailed the array of VA programs serving Veterans experiencing or at risk of homelessness that provide prevention, assessment, outreach, engagement, treatment, and housing as well as services for Veteran families. VA and its partners in communities continue to engage Veterans and offer them the correct level of service (“the right treatment for the condition”) to improve outcomes while simultaneously containing costs. 

A particular innovation worth exploring in greater detail is the Homeless Patient Aligned Care Team (HPACT), which focuses on the primary healthcare needs of homeless Veterans in coordination with housing programs.  Now up and running in over 30 sites with another eight sites in development or planning, the HPACT is built at the intersection between two successful healthcare models, the Healthcare for the Homeless Primary Care Clinics and the Patient-Centered Medical Home.

The Roots of HPACT: Health Care for the Homeless and Primary Care Medical Homes

Adults experiencing homelessness have greater healthcare needs and are higher users of crisis services than virtually any other sub-population of people living with poverty.  For people who have concurrent substance use disorders, mental illness, chronic medical conditions, and extensive histories of homelessness, medical care is critical to help stabilize individuals as they transition into housing as well as success in remaining housed.  Recognition of the need for specialists serving the homeless population began with the Robert Wood Johnson pilot project of healthcare for the homeless clinics in the mid-1980s, and resulted in the development of over 200 healthcare for the homeless clinics supported by the McKinney-Vento Act. 

More recently, primary care policy experts recommend that vulnerable individuals with complex needs who have high levels of health services utilization be served in Primary Care Medical Homes.  Some of the components of the medical home include open access appointments so that patients can be seen by their provider upon request, as well as integrated substance use, mental health services, nursing care, and case management in one location, preferably in a primary care setting. Many high performing healthcare for the homeless clinics such as Boston’s Healthcare for the Homeless and the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless have embraced the medical home model to improve quality, efficiency, and integration of services across their system of care. 

Fundamentals of HPACT

The VA’s new Homeless Patient Aligned Care Teams (HPACT) is modeled after both of these successful interventions, yet is tailored to the needs of homeless Veterans by creating a hub in primary care so that Veterans can access housing and stabilization services that have recently been developed and expanded across the VA system.  In addition, the HPACT program has a robust evaluation component so that the intervention can be assessed for quality and cost-effectiveness. It is expected that the evaluation will show that participating Veterans will have a marked decrease in utilization of expensive healthcare crisis services such as avoidable emergency department visits and inpatient admissions, in favor of increased utilization of primary care and preventive services.

Beginning around 2005, the Providence VA Medical Center developed a Homeless Oriented Primary Care Clinic.  Evaluation of the Providence program showed that participants had improved health outcomes as well as a 30% reduction in emergency department use and a 50% reduction in inpatient days.  Building on these successful results, the HPACT model was developed and has now spread to most areas of the country. 

There are three distinct types of HPACT clinics:  (1) a clinic co-located within a VA Medical Center or CBOC (Community Based Outpatient Clinic); (2) a service built on an outreach model in which HPACT staff arrange for and accompany homeless Veterans to a primary care clinic visits; and (3) services that are integrated into a CRRC (Community Resource and Referral Center) where Veterans can receive a wide range of services including job training, access to benefits, and health services.  All HPACT clinics are structured as multidisciplinary teams (i.e., medical and behavioral health providers, peer advocates, benefits managers, nurses, and nurse care mangers) with regular case management.  In addition, all HPACTs are mandated to:  

1. Provide accessible, just-in-time primary care;
2. Engage Veterans during a “treatable moment” where Veterans are engaged where they are and partner with providers to improve healthcare outcomes;
3. Create a care setting that is built on mutual trust and respect between the Veteran and the care provider; and
4. Provide integrated, coordinated care on site, that includes rapid re-housing and Housing First permanent supportive housing options. 

The HPACT Experience in Providence, Rhode Island

The Providence HPACT is part of the Providence VAMC located in downtown Providence.  Now serving over 300 homeless Veterans, the clinic is open five days a week and provides primary care, behavioral health, and nursing services.  Next month, the clinic will move to a newly renovated, free-standing building on the VA Medical Center campus.  The staff for the Housing and Urban Development VA Supportive Housing program (HUD-VASH) is co-located with the HPACT so that Veterans can have medical care as part of the services offered to them as they are being assessed for housing. 

The co-location of the HUD-VASH staff and the HPACT staff has been one of the factors that has led to a high proportion (71%) of VASH vouchers being offered to people who have had extensive homeless histories and meet the Federal definition for chronic homelessness. This targeting is an important way for this intervention to be right-sized for Veterans with highest needs that would not be as successful with another intervention. Kerrin Charpentier, the HUD-VASH lead social worker in Providence noted, “it sometimes breaks my heart to hold off on giving a VASH voucher to a recently homeless Veteran who is clearly ill.  However, I know that they can be served by our local GPD (Grant and Per Diem) program to get off the street and have their health care needs taken care of by the clinic. Hopefully, they will be able to leave homelessness without a voucher and I will be able to use the voucher for someone who can’t get off the street without it.” 

Dr. Thomas O’Toole, who is the Medical Director of the Providence clinic as well as Medical Director of the national HPACT program, points out that the intersection of chronic pain and addiction can often be an underlying issue that can lead to failure in permanent supportive housing. The HPACT model connected to permanent supportive housing can address this issue. He says that,

by providing continuity in primary care for Veterans with chronic pain and addiction, we can stick with them as the symptoms of their illness wax and wane, and we can intervene before the behavior that is sometime associated with their illness results in housing loss. The primary care relationship and supportive housing are both designed to last a lifetime.  Having the same time frame makes primary care and supportive housing a good fit when providing care to homeless Veterans.  

The experience in Providence has shown that the HPACT model can provide an excellent quality of primary care for Veterans, reduce healthcare costs and utilization, and help Veterans do something that has an even a greater positive impact on their health than primary care: leaving the streets and becoming housed. 

A Focus on Evaluation

As with any new intervention, sustainability is dependent on documenting success and cost efficiency.  Dr. O’Toole and his team have at their disposal a powerful opportunity for evaluation with the electronic medical record (EMR) that is in place throughout the VA system.  Over ten years ago, the VA invested in an EMR so that VA Medical Centers across the country could document services using the same platform.  Dr. O’Toole has capitalized on this powerful tool to assess healthcare utilization as well as disease-specific outcomes (such as glucose control for diabetics and blood pressure for people with hypertension).  EMRs are also used to assess severity of illness across patients in HPACTs so that appropriate utilization at each site can be weighted by severity of diagnosis.  Because the program is a little more than a year old, system-wide results are not yet available, but going forward HPACT’s success will be able to be assessed using some of the most sophisticated and powerful measures in healthcare delivery systems available. 

With the development of the Homeless Patient Aligned Care Team, the Veterans Administration health delivery system is taking another innovative step forward to be Veteran-centric in its service model.  Over the next year or two, this sensible, cost-effective system of care promises to make a strong contribution toward achieving the goal of ending homelessness among Veterans by 2015.

Dr. Josh Bamberger, MD, MPH, is the Medical Director of the San Francisco Department of Housing and Urban Health and the medical director of the Housing and Urban Health Clinic. He is serving as a Special Advisor to the Executive Director at USICH on a short-term assignment. 

HUD Releases Notice of Funding Availability for FY 2012 Continuum of Care Program

Today HUD’s Office of Special Needs Assistance Programs released the Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA) for the FY 2012 CoC Competition. This Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA) establishes the funding criteria for the Continuum of Care (CoC) Program. HUD is making available approximately $1.61 billion in Fiscal Year 2012 for the CoC Program. The CoC Program is designed to promote a community-wide commitment to the goal of ending homelessness; to provide funding for efforts by nonprofit providers, States, and local governments to quickly re-house homeless individuals and families while minimizing the trauma and dislocation caused to homeless individuals, families, and communities by homelessness; to promote access to and effective utilization of mainstream programs by homeless individuals and families; and to optimize self-sufficiency among individuals and families experiencing homelessness.

In the FY2012 CoC Program competition, HUD's priority is the development of new permanent supportive housing units that serve 100 percent chronically homeless individuals and families, particularly those who have the longest history of homelessness. The Permanent Housing Bonus will be limited to projects that propose to exclusively serve chronically homeless individuals and families.

This CoC Program Competition is the first funding competition to be administered under the CoC Program interim rule. While the process is similar to past Homeless Assistance Grants competitions, the content and steps differ in key ways. Applicants should review and follow the steps as outlined in the NOFA to ensure that applications are complete and submitted timely.

The application deadline for submitting applications to HUD is 7:59:59 p.m. Eastern Time, January 18, 2013. Applicants will be required to complete and submit their applications in e-snaps at www.hud.gov/esnaps.

Access the announcement

Access all CoC Competition resources from HUD

USICH released a newsletter alert regarding the important changes to this year's competition on Friday, November 9. Take a look at these important changes here. 

HUD Special Needs Assistance Programs Response to CoCs Affected by Hurricane Sandy

via Department of Housing and Urban Development

In response to Hurricane Sandy, HUD is coordinating with Continuums of Care (CoC) that were not impacted and that are in reasonable proximity to the New York City region to determine where there may be capacity to intake persons that are homeless—both those that were homeless prior to and those that are homeless as a result of the storm. Sandy-impacted areas currently have thousands (over 5,000 in New York City alone) of persons in evacuation shelters, many of whom have special needs. These temporary shelter accommodations are not viable long term and do not offer the types of supportive services that many of the persons being sheltered may need.

HUD is requesting that CoCs in a reasonable proximity to the New York City/New Jersey region inventory their providers to determine if there is capacity that can be offered to assist in relocating New York City residents. CoCs that identify capacity can notify HUD by sending an e-mail to Marcy.L.Thompson@hud.gov. HUD will be in contact with those CoCs to follow up. 

Please include the term “DISASTER” in the subject line.  

HUD understands that CoCs or individual providers may need additional information before units can be committed to this effort. Please submit your questions via email to Marcy Thompson at the address above. HUD will work to quickly to develop frequently asked questions and will begin the issuance of these questions over the next week.

For CoCs that identify units within their current inventory, in the body of your e-mail or in an attachment, please provide the following information:

• A point of contact for follow-up from HUD;
• Program name and location;
• Number of units and beds available;
• Types of facilities [Congregate, Barracks, Apartments, etc.];
• The program type [Transitional Housing, Permanent Supportive Housing, Emergency Shelter];
• Types of services available to participants [The most vulnerable shelter residents will be prioritized for placement];
• Targeted population availability [Families with children, Substance Abuse, Mental Health, etc.]
• Length of program time available [Short-term, medium-term, long-term]

Thank you in advance for any assistance you can provide in this effort.

Linking Human Services & Housing Assistance for Homeless Families & Families At-Risk of Homelessness

Alvaro Cortes, Ph.D. et al.

Abt. Associates

April 2012

Recent reports have brought national attention to the prevalence of family homelessness and the need to coordinate across all levels of government to prevent and end family homelessness.  In June 2011, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) released the 2010 Annual Homeless Assessment Report (AHAR), the sixth in a series of annual reports on the extent and nature of homelessness nationwide. The report documents a 29 percent increase in sheltered family homelessness between 2007 and 2010.  Today, an estimated 168,000 families— 567,000 people—use an emergency shelter or a transitional housing program at some point during the year. The toll of homelessness on children living with their families is troubling.  Homelessness can adversely affect children’s mental health and behavior, school attendance and educational achievement, cognitive and motor development, and general health.

A year prior to the 2010 AHAR release, the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH) released the nation’s first comprehensive strategy to prevent and end homelessness, Opening Doors: Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness.  The plan sets an ambitious agenda for addressing homelessness among families and other target groups, stresses governmental collaboration at all levels, and encourages using programs targeted to homeless families and mainstream resources to help families achieve housing stability. The growing concern about family homelessness has renewed the focus among policymakers, researchers, advocates, and practitioners on using mainstream programs to prevent and end homelessness. The underlying belief is that programs explicitly for homeless people cannot be expected to do the whole job of preventing and ending family homelessness.  Indeed, ever since the start of specialized federal funding for homeless people, it has been recognized that mainstream programs such as Housing Choice Vouchers (HCV) and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) provide much greater resources than targeted programs for helping families leave homelessness. 

It is within this context that the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) commissioned a study that focuses on local programs that link human services with housing supports to prevent and end family homelessness.  

The primary goals of this study are to: 

1. Identify programs nationwide that deliberately integrate human services and housing supports for homeless families and conduct site visits to understand how these programs were designed and implemented. 

2. Synthesize the information from the site visits into promising practices that facilitated the development, implementation, and sustainability of these programs.  

In addition, the study includes the development of an evaluation design document that provides a theoretical framework for rigorously evaluating programs that integrate services and housing supports for the purposes of preventing or ending family homelessness

Academic Achievement Trajectories of Homeless and Highly Mobile Students: Resilience in the Context of Chronic and Acute Risk

J.J. Cutuli, et. al.
University of Minnesota

October 2012

Analyses examined academic achievement data across third through eighth grades (N = 26,474), comparing students identified as homeless or highly mobile (HHM) with other students in the federal free meal program (FM), reduced price meals (RM), or neither (General). Achievement was lower as a function of rising risk status (General > RM > FM > HHM). Achievement gaps appeared stable or widened between HHM students and lower risk groups. Math and reading achievement were lower, and growth in math was slower in years of HHM identification, suggesting acute consequences of residential instability. Nonetheless, 45% of HHM students scored within or above the average range, suggesting academic resilience. Results underscore the need for research on risk and resilience processes among HHM students to address achievement disparities.

Go to Study

HUD Issues New Guidance on Whether PHAs are Eligible to Apply for Funds Under CoC Program

via Department of Housing and Urban Development, OneCPD

HUD rescinds the FAQ response on the Homelessness Resource Exchange (FAQ 1984) to the question about eligibility of PHAs to apply for funds under the Continuum of Care (CoC) program posted on October 3, 2012, except for the statement that all PHAs that are current grantees may apply for renewal funding under the CoC Program.

HUD has revised the answer to the question as follows:

All PHAs that meet the definition of “public housing agency” in 24 CFR 5.100 are eligible to apply for CoC funding (including as Collaborative Applicants) without limitation or exclusion. The CoC final rule and the CoC Fiscal Year 2012 Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA) will make explicit the eligibility of all PHAs to apply for CoC funding. Additionally, all PHAs that are current grantees may apply for renewal funding under the CoC Program.

For more information about OneCPD, visit www.onecpd.info

Department of Veterans Affairs Announces Availability of $300 million in SSVF Funding

Today the Department of Veterans Affairs announced the availability of funds for supportive services grants under the Supportive Services for Veterans Families (SSVF) Program. The Notice of Funding Availability was published in today’s Federal Register. The SSVF Program’s purpose is to provide supportive services grants to private non-profit organizations and consumer cooperatives who will coordinate or provide supportive services to very low-income Veteran families who: a.) are residing in permanent housing, b.) are homeless and scheduled to become residents of permanent housing within a specified time period, or c.) after exiting permanent housing within a specified time period, are seeking other housing that is responsive to such very low-income Veteran family’s needs and preferences.

Grantees will be expected to leverage supportive services grant funds to enhance the housing stability of very low-income Veteran families who are occupying permanent housing. In doing so, grantees are required to establish relationships with local community resources. The aim of the provision of supportive services is to assist very low-income Veteran families residing in permanent housing to remain stably housed and to rapidly transition to stable housing. Accordingly, VA encourages eligible entities skilled in facilitating housing stability and currently operating rapid re-housing programs (i.e., administering the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing Program, HUD’s Emergency Solution Grant (ESG), or other comparable Federal or community resources) to apply for supportive services grants.

Applications for initial and renewal supportive services grants under the SSVF program must be received by the SSVF Program Office by 4:00 pm EST on February 1, 2013. 

Read the full NOFA in the Federal Register and apply

 

 

Policy Director

Three Policy Director positions available

Application Open: Open until filled; initial review of applications will occur on/about November 16, 2012

Location: Federal Center SW, Washington, D.C. 20024

Salary: USICH positions are not GS-graded. Responsibility level, duties and salary range are similar to a GS-13/14. Position is in the Excepted Service; Schedule A appointment

Context: 

USICH is hiring three Policy Directors. All three positions will have involvement in policy work within USICH, with our federal partners, and in support of work happening across the country. USICH is seeking a range of expertise, knowledge, and experience so that together the three Policy Directors bring skills that cover critical areas of expertise and skills. We are seeking candidates who have subject matter expertise in homelessness and in the respective portfolios of our federal partners, especially the work of HUD, VA, and HHS, but also critical areas related to Labor, Education, Justice, SSA, USDA, and other agencies on the Council. We are seeking candidates who have population expertise—including chronic homelessness, Veterans, families with children, and youth—as well as best practices in ending homelessness. We are also seeking candidates who bring specific skills and experience in one of the following three areas: data analysis and performance management; project management; and communications. We recognize that no one individual could possess all these skills and expertise. Our intent is to build a team that together covers these critical areas of expertise and skill.

In partnership with the Deputy Director, the policy team is responsible for the implementation and any amendments to Opening Doors: Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness, reporting on progress, and measuring performance within USICH and for the Council as a whole. The policy team manages the convening of the Council and its subgroups. In addition to managing relationships with the agencies that belong to the Council, the policy team manages work with Congress, and strategic partnerships with national advocates and nonprofits. The policy team has responsibility for managing USICH communications, including publication of all major documents, the website and social media, speeches, and media. We manage a clearinghouse for research and information about solutions to homelessness.

All three Policy Directors must be passionate about the mission o f the USICH and be committed to achieving the goal of ending homelessness. All three Policy Directors must be recognized leaders in their current position and demonstrate excellent writing and presentation skills, strategic planning and implementation skills, ability to build collaborative relationships, and ability to execute in a complex, high energy environment. All three Policy Directors should have proven experience working on and building effective teams as well as supervising staff. All three must be able to foster innovation and create change within government. All three must have the professional experience to work effectively with senior officials in the highest levels of government and be comfortable working at both a high policy level and a deep level of detail.

Selection of final candidates will be based on how the complement of three policy directors covers all of these critical skills and areas of expertise.

The policy team also includes a program assistant, two management and policy analysts, and a communications specialist. The policy team works very closely with the national programs team, which includes Regional Coordinators that represent USICH in communities across the country, an executive team that includes the Executive Director, and the finance and administration team.

Education and Qualifications: 

Advanced degree preferred; college degree minimum. Minimum of 7 years of related work and experience in the areas of housing, homelessness, and other social service sectors or systems change. Minimum of 5 years in a leadership role is preferred. Minimum of 5 years supervising experience.
More specifically, the position calls for an incumbent who demonstrates the following specialized knowledge, skills and experience:

• Expert level knowledge and mastery of public systems that serve people at risk of and experiencing homelessness. Demonstrated understanding of research as well as principles and implementation of policy and practices that apply evidence based and innovative solutions (e.g. housing first model) to homelessness.
• Expert knowledge of federal homeless and housing programs along with the federal budget process, governing laws, regulations, methodologies, and/or policies to include technical knowledge of issues surrounding homelessness;
• Comprehensive understanding of federal and state programs that provide housing, public benefits programs, healthcare, employment programs, and programs and services for persons with disabilities;
• Understanding of strategies and programs that can be employed to serve specific subpopulations; (i.e. chronically homeless, veterans, families with minor children, youth)
• Excellent public speaking, verbal and written communication skills;
• Demonstrated experience engaging, convening, facilitating, and coordinating diverse stakeholder groups;
• Expert knowledge and experience with strategic planning;
• Involvement with systems reform;
• Ability to be responsive to numerous concurrent requests and set priorities; and
• Ability to brief and engage senior level government officials.

The Policy Director who will also have communications responsibility must demonstrate the following specialized knowledge, skills, and experience:

• Development and management of an agency-wide, comprehensive communications plan with associated goals and strategies.
• Development and management of a website, newsletters, and social media.
• Effective liaison with news media representatives. Must have working knowledge of major print and electronic media markets.
• Development and dissemination of information, including oversight of messaging in major publications.
• Leadership managing brand integrity and developing a team’s communications skills.

The Policy Director who will also have analytic and performance management responsibility must demonstrate the following specialized knowledge, skills, and experience:

• Practical experience in research, evaluation, and performance management with demonstrated quantitative/qualitative analysis and keen attention to detail.
• Ability to analyze at a metric level across research and projects.
• Experience in applying the principles of research design, data collection methods and strategies for data management, as well as program evaluation.
• Development, management, and analysis of performance management metrics across complex systems.

The Policy Director who will also have project management responsibility must demonstrate the following specialized knowledge, skills, and experience:

• Experience managing complex projects across broad and diverse teams, including development of reporting tools, process improvement, and cost containment.
• Team leadership in matrix-managed environments.
• Leading/managing the following project management activities: project integration, scope, cost, schedule, quality, procurement, human resources, and communications.
• Experience using project management software to support projects/work.

Major Duties and Responsibilities: 

• Provide senior level knowledge and direction. Improve impact of Federal agency programs to prevent and end homelessness, in consultation to the Deputy and Executive Director and the Council.
• Share leadership for implementation of Opening Doors: Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness. Assume leadership for designated objectives, strategies, and population groups.
• Establish and maintain effective, strategic, and supportive relationships with Federal agencies. Facilitate coordination of the Federal programs and activities available to assist state and local governments and private sector parties to prevent and end homelessness.
• Represent the Agency and the Council in meetings with other Federal agencies, Congress, State and Local officials and private sector parties.
• Participate in communications strategy development and implementation, including development of materials required by Congress or that advance understanding of strategies to prevent and end homelessness and how they can be implemented in communities across the country.
• Manage strategic development of agendas, supporting materials, and the process of convening the Council, the Council’s Policy Group, and other subgroups.
• Execute performance management within USICH and with the Council on effective implementation and impact, including analysis of gaps, development of alternate strategies, and effective communication of progress against the goals and objectives of the Plan.
• Perform other tasks as requested by the Executive Director, the Deputy Director and the Council including assisting in briefings, organizing and conducting meetings, and official speaking engagements involving various stakeholder groups.
• Develop and implement management systems and procedures necessary to assure that the policies, programs, goals and objectives of the Council and the Executive Director and Deputy Director are achieved.
• Assign and review work products, keep staff informed of the policies, procedures and goals of the Deputy Director, Executive Director and the Council.
• Supervisor staff that are within areas of responsibility.
• Other duties and/or special projects, as assigned.

Application Information: 

Please email a cover letter which includes your availability, your resume and salary history to jobs@usich.gov.

Additionally, in your cover letter, please outline:
1. Your subject matter expertise as it relates to our federal partners;
2. Your population expertise; and,
3. Your skills and experience in at least one of the following three areas: data analysis and performance management; project management; communications.

USICH is an Equal Employment Opportunity employer.

You must be a U.S. citizen to be considered for these positions.

These positions require a background check; Incumbents must be able to successfully pass and maintain clearance.

All Federal employees are required by PL 104-134 to have Federal payments made by Direct Deposit.

Male applicants born after December 31, 1959, will be required to certify that they have registered with the Selective Service System, or are exempt from having to do under the Selective Service Law.
These are federal government, excepted service (Schedule A) positions, open to all candidates

National Research Agenda 2012

Meeting the goals outlined in Opening Doors: Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness requires targeted investments in proven solutions. As we strive to expand and strengthen our knowledge base, there are still many areas where research is needed to inform the policy-making process as well as to better understand best practices in the field. The USICH National Research Agenda outlines priority areas where we believe federal, local, and private investments should be made in additional research. A robust research base enables the furthering of best practices for all those working to end homelessness, and is a key element in changing the way our nation takes action. Setting forth a National Research Agenda, USICH hopes to catalyze researchers, policy professionals, and national, state and local leaders to improve how we respond to the crisis of homelessness.

Our agenda is informed by an extensive review of published studies and research currently under way, as well as key policy areas such as the Federal Framework for Ending Youth Homelessness, the transition from a shelter-based homeless system to a prevention and rapid re-housing system, community integration of people with disabilities under Olmstead settlements, and the expansion of Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act.  

The research topics proposed in this agenda are organized across eight key domains:

• Affordable and supportive housing

• Cost offsets/cost effectiveness

• Homeless crisis response

• Homelessness prevalence and risk and protective factors

• Improving health, well-being, and stability

• Justice linkages

• Accessing mainstream benefits

• Pathways to employment

Taken together, these topics cover the wide range of issues facing those experiencing homelessness and communities seeking to implement solutions that work. USICH hopes that both funders and researchers will use this agenda to guide their choices about future investments in research. Although some of the topics will require a national or multi-site study, many of the proposed topics are important for local research and can have significant impact on local policy and funding decisions. USICH understands that research related to homelessness continues to evolve and will update its research agenda to reflect new studies that advance our knowledge base in these priority areas. 

Go to the National Research Agenda 

American Journal of Public Health Call for Papers - Deadline January 2013

The American Journal of Public Health intends to publish a theme issue on homelessness in 2013 and is calling for papers from researchers and all interested authors by January 1, 2013. Papers are invited on the following areas: epidemiology of homelessness and housing instability, homelessness and health disparities, development or evaluation of effective interventions, impact of service delivery, characteristics and needs of homeless veterans, and emerging risk populations or characteristics. We also invite original research papers featuring the identification and treatment of medical and or mental health disorders associated with homelessness, contribution of social context, ecological analysis of population data, and evaluation of promising prevention strategies.

All interested authors are invited to consider different categories of manuscripts as indicated on the AJPH website. All manuscripts will undergo the peer review process by the AJPH editors (guest editors Vincent Kane and Dr. Dennis Culhane) and peer referees as defined by AJPH policy. Manuscripts will be due to the Journal by January 1, 2013, and can be submitted at http:///ajph.edmgr.com. For more information on this supplement, please contact the guest editors: vincent.kane@va.gov or culhane@upenn.edu.

 

The Business Case for Medicaid-financed Services in Supportive Housing

Michael Nardone, Richard Cho and Kathy Moses

The Corporation for Supportive Housing and The Center for Health Care Strategies 

June 2012

Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) will provide new insurance coverage to more individuals who are homeless. States could consider leveraging various Medicaid service options, such as health homes, to provide these new beneficiaries with care management services linked to supportive housing. Medicaid-financed care management in supportive housing for high-risk homeless Medicaid beneficiaries could yield a significant ROI from reduced hospitalizations and emergency department use. Growth in Medicaid managed care for these individuals, particularly after 2014, will expand opportunities to capitalize on care management linked to supportive housing with the prospect for sharing associated savings across providers, health plans, and states. This brief from the Corporation for Supportive Housing outlines the rationale for states to consider designing Medicaid-financed, supportive housing-based care management services to improve care for at-risk beneficiaries while lowering costs associated with avoidable hospitalizations and other crisis services.  

Go to brief

Department of Housing and Urban Development Releases 2013 Point in Time and Housing Inventory Count Guidance

The Department of Housing and Urban Development yesterday released the data collection guidance for 2013 Point in Time (PIT) and Housing Inventory Count (HIC). All Continuums of Care (CoCs) are required to conduct a PIT and HIC count of all sheltered and unsheltered homeless persons in the last ten days of January 2013. As CoCs begin to organize their activities, staff should review this guidance and use it as a reference to ensure they are capturing the right information. There have been changes to the PIT/HIC this year, so this guidance is critical to ensure the count is conducted correctly among all ages and specific subpopulations of individuals experiencing homelessness. CoCs are encouraged to engage their homeless assistance partners, including the Department of Veterans Affairs, Runaway and Homeless Youth providers, Local Education Liaisons, and critical local agencies and service providers, to determine the most accurate count of homeless persons in your areas. Click on the link below to access to full guidance, which includes information on the specific changes that have been made to the PIT/HIC process for 2013. 

Access this guidance 

 

CoC Program Interim Rule Public Comment Period Extended!

via Department of Housing and Urban Development

The CoC Program interim rule published on July 31, 2012 solicited public comments through October 1, 2012. In response to requests to provide additional time to comment on this rule, HUD is extending the public comment period to November 16, 2012. Click on the link below to view this notice.

HUD will review all comments submitted and use the comments to consider changes for the Final Rule. When submitting comments, HUD strongly encourages communities to read the regulation carefully, consider any challenges or barriers that might arise when implementing this program at the local level, and include specific recommendations that will help ease the implementation burden in their comments.

Go to CoC Interim Rule

Successful Reentry Program: Oakland Prisoner Reentry Initiative

The Oakland Prisoner Reentry Initiative (OPRI) Program is a two-year-old collaborative (or “the collaborative) among the Oakland Housing Authority, Department of Health and Human Services, Volunteers of America and Abode Services using a Housing First approach to address the housing challenges faced by many people transitioning out of jails or prisons to Alameda County, CA. As California reduces its prison population by 35,000-40,000 people by 2013 as mandated by AB109: The Public Safety Realignment Act of 2011, it is timely and relevant to discuss how formerly incarcerated individuals will successfully transition from jails and prisons to their communities.  Alameda County was one of the four counties that received about one-third of California’s parolees in 2011 when AB 109 passed, which means the topic of reentry is important to both those being released and the community at-large. To date, the OPRI Program has been able to work successfully with 49 individuals, and nine of these original 49 have exited the program with full independence and steady employment. Although the program is in its infancy, this promising collaboration between the public and nonprofit sectors is an example of the ways that the criminal-justice involved individuals can be served successfully using both mainstream and targeted resources.  USICH spoke specifically with Sage Foster at Abode Services, the nonprofit organization that works to coordinate housing and support services for those enrolled in the program. 

According to Sage Foster, Housing Partnerships Manager at Abode Services in Oakland, CA, when people are transitioning from prison or jail they need housing paired with case management to help best meet complex needs. Participants in the OPRI program attend check-in meetings at least once a week with their case manager at Abode Services at the beginning of their enrollment in the program, and then have check-in meetings less often as they stay in housing longer (but never less than once a month). In addition, Foster encourages that check-in meetings should be conducted face-to-face.

In these meetings case managers emphasize the importance of individual responsibility to clients, including paying rent on time, being accountable for the condition of their housing unit, and always being mindful and respectful of their neighbors. Focusing on these skills can set a solid foundation for success when they are placed in an apartment or housing through the OPRI program. According to Foster, “We stress these core values because it allows our program participants to take ownership of their experience in addition to creating residents that landlords appreciate and want to have in their buildings.”

How is the program so successful?

Foster describes how his organization works daily to maintain good, strong relationships with the landlords in its Alameda County network by building a positive reputation through the quality of program participants placed in a landlord’s rental unit. “Because of our focus on our core values, our organization is very respected and trusted in the community among landlords in connecting them to responsible and trustworthy tenants.”

One of the key elements that makes the OPRI program successful is a strong commitment to landlord engagement. Landlord outreach is part of Sage’s daily responsibilities, and at times landlords may, “push back on the reentry population. They ask, how will it affect their other tenants?... I do landlord engagement with them, which entails some education on issues facing the reentry population in order for landlords to understand our program participants better. Most landlords can relate to the reentry population in some way—they know a family member or friend who has faced housing barriers and challenges upon their release.” This landlord engagement helps not only in securing more units for OPRI participants to move into, but it also improves understanding of the needs of people who were formerly incarcerated in the community broadly, which may help combat NIMBY. 

Foster proudly notes, “I haven’t gotten one call to complain about our clients. Not one.“ Instead, he receives phone calls from landlords when they have a unit available to rent, because they are seeking OPRI program participants as renters. The OPRI program has participants move out of units because they begin to earn too high an income to stay in the program’s subsidized housing, which is a clear testament to the success of OPRIs program model. One participant received one promotion after another at work and was able to secure his own housing without a subsidy, and “there are many more stories just like this one,” adds Foster.

Foster also describes that the success of the OPRI program rests firmly on the partner agencies and organizations and their ability to work well together. He says, “We hold monthly check-in meetings among the collaborative not unlike the ones we hold with our program participants.” The meetings are essential to maintaining clear coordination and communication among all the providers in the partnership where each one is invited to share and use their expertise in a group where roles are clearly defined. The agencies and organizations check in about their challenges, effective practices, and, more recently, policy. Now, they are looking at who is around the table and how they can affect structural change in the way all the public and nonprofit providers work for this population and what program changes they can advocate for. This is the next phase of the collaborative’s work.

He adds, “[The collaborative has] made good on our promises thus far, and that’s been unheard of in this jurisdiction.” This is in large part due to the honesty the collaborative employs about the challenges it faces. For example, the collaborative’s work is limited by its current level of financial and staff resources—which are not enough to meet the great need for the collaborative’s work. Foster explains, “We would like to serve more. We need more money for staff, but we are not in a great era of funding ability.” This honesty allows for an open dialogue regarding challenges faced by partners in the collaborative, and working together towards ways to use their time and resources most effectively.

Lastly, the members of the collaborative are aware that they need each other. As Foster explains, “Particularly in a county this large and diverse, this work cannot happen without collaboration. No one organization or agency could do this on their own. It takes a lot of work to make this work, and everybody has to do their part. It is a collaboration WE are a PART of, and we take that very seriously.” 

Successful Reentry Program: The Fortune Society

The New York City Department of Corrections (DOC) admitted 87, 515 people into the city’s jail system during FY2011. 77.7% of these individuals were admitted previously, and even more concerning, 44% were readmitted within a year of being released from the city’s jail system. These statistics illustrate how challenging the transition from jail and/or prison to society can be for previously incarcerated individuals and the urgent need for successful reentry efforts to help them overcome their specific barriers. 

New York City’s The Fortune Society addresses issues of reentry from prison/and or jail and also works to promote alternatives to incarceration by providing a one-stop shop of holistic services including: Alternatives to Incarceration (ATI), drop-in services, employment services, education, family services, health services, housing services, substance abuse treatment, transitional services such as the Rikers Island Discharge Enhancement (R.I.D.E.) program, recreation, and lifetime aftercare.

Glenn E. Martin, the Vice President of Development and Public Affairs at The Fortune Society, explains that the impetus for a one-stop shop model of holistic services is that “clients are involved in a web of agencies trying to get their lives together”; connecting clients to each part of this web in one place alleviates the complexity of doing all of this work on their own. The clients may not know what public benefits they have access to, if they qualify for public housing, or just how to navigate life outside of incarceration. For this reason, The Fortune Society offers clients access to legal service providers to assist with obtaining public benefits and it even provides its own transitional, transition in place, and permanent housing units to supplement the lack of immediate housing available to its client population.

The Fortune Society’s Housing Program

The Fortune Society began its housing programs about ten years ago to address a growing need among their clients: while many clients were being connected to other services, they were not completing programs like substance abuse treatment or employment programs. This, Martin mentioned, is typical for individuals without a quick connection to a secure residence upon release. Martin notes that “when clients do not have stable housing, it negatively impacts their success in other [Fortune Society] programs.” This is especially true within the first year of release, which is when formerly incarcerated individuals are most at-risk for reincarceration. “Now that we have housing, we can’t imagine not having a housing program,” adds Martin.
At the heart of The Fortune Society’s housing program are two residential facilities located in West Harlem. The first, called FortuneAcademy (aka The Castle), provides emergency and longer-term housing for 62 formerly incarcerated individuals. The second, called CastleGardens, is a new mixed-use, green, supportive and affordable residential community and service center. It provides supportive and affordable housing and essential services at the same site without preconditions. 

Learn more about these two residential facilities.

Providing a stable environment for formerly incarcerated individuals that do not have the means to access housing on their own can help to break the cycle of homelessness and incarceration that is all too common. Access more research here on studies linking high risk of homelessness to incarceration.

What makes The Fortune Society’s efforts successful?

There were two primary things that Martin emphasized about the Fortune Society that have contributed to its success, all of which can be integrated into programs that serve only formerly incarcerated individuals or organizations that serve the broader population of individuals experiencing homelessness. It is important for homeless service providers generally to understand the unique situation and barriers that formerly incarcerated individuals now face in every aspect of their lives. By providing culturally competent services and building transparent relationships with outside organizations, city agencies, and community members, organizations can learn from the success of The Fortune Society and improve their organizations in serving this population.

Culturally Competent Services

The Fortune Society published the toolkit Employing Your Mission—Building Cultural Competence in Reentry Service Agencies, which was praised by U.S.  Attorney General Eric Holder and located on the National Reentry Resource Center's website.

The toolkit highlights the barriers that previously incarcerated individuals face upon reentry in terms of housing, employment, and accessing public benefits. Offering programs to address these barriers is one piece of the puzzle, but a significantly vital piece is creating culturally competent programs. Martin shared that to achieve cultural competence at The Fortune Society, the organization employs formerly incarcerated individuals to reflect the experiences and realities of the population the organization serves.  To date the organization has over 190 employees of whom approximately 70% are formerly incarcerated and/or have histories of substance use disorder or homelessness. In addition, as written in the organization’s by-laws, one-third of the Board of Directors must be formerly incarcerated. “This helps our clients see employees in positions at all levels of the organization with histories like theirs – and shows them that one day it could be them. A staff with an understanding of a client’s experience first-hand helps us to have a vision for them when they may not have a vision for themselves,” says Martin. 

Martin, formerly incarcerated himself, illustrated the benefit of this hiring practice when he shared a story about a former client who had stopped utilizing The Fortune Society’s programs after he received a subway pass. The client took the subway pass and sold it so he could purchase drugs on the street. He continued to spiral down for some time and then when he was in a particularly low place he remembered how well he was treated while at The Fortune Society. This memory encouraged him to return to The Fortune Society where he began accessing programs and housing to get his life on track. At the recommendation of staff members who understand and have faced the challenges of reentry, The Fortune Society prioritizes clients who have dropped out of its programs and returned for services. Today the former client is a success story of The Fortune Society.

Building Strong Relationships with Outside Organizations, City Agencies & Community Members

Martin advised that organizations working on the issue of reentry  be mindful of two things: 1) no one agency can get this work done on its own, so let that inform your interactions with other organizations; and 2) be transparent and do not let other organizations, agencies, or people from the community assume anything about your organization.

In order to implement Martin’s advice, he suggested that organizations open up their office or facility space to government entities for events, whether they are hosted by your own organization or the government entity. It is important for other people to become familiar with your space and your work, and this is a great way of doing so.

An example of achieving transparency and building strong relationships occurred when The Fortune Society proposed and embarked on the development of its first residential facility, Fortune Academy. There was intense community opposition to the proposed location of the residence intended to house previously incarcerated individuals, and The Fortune Society reacted by inviting the community members who opposed the building’s location to become part of a community advisory board. This gave the individuals a venue to voice their concerns, but also learn more about The Fortune Society, its work, and the complexities of the approximately 3,000 people it serves annually.  This strategy proved fruitful and can be found discussed in greater detail in The Fortune Society’s toolkit In Our Backyard: Overcoming Community Resistance to Reentry Housing.

Federal Efforts to Improve Reentry: Federal Interagency Council on Reentry

For those leaving incarceration, overcoming the barriers to successful reentry may mean the difference between living a healthy and fulfilling life in a community and facing instability and potentially homelessness. Understanding the ways federal programs and systems interact with the formerly incarcerated is critical to helping individuals overcome these barriers. The Federal Interagency Reentry Council serves as the first-ever Executive Branch council to focus specifically on coordinating and advancing effective reentry efforts for communities. Chaired by Attorney General Eric Holder, the Reentry Council includes 20 agencies that all have a stake in effectively integrating individuals back into communities after incarceration—including those who focus on employment, housing and homelessness services, mental health, physical health, and public safety. Since the first meeting in January 2011, the Reentry Council has been able to bring together leaders at the cabinet level to improve the ways federal systems work for this population, improve public understanding of reentry, and serve as a go-to resource in concert with the National Reentry Resource Center. USICH spoke with Amy Solomon, Senior Advisor to the Assistant Attorney General at the Office of Justice Programs at the Department of Justice, about the work of the Reentry Council and specifically about the ways we can improve our understanding of federal programs’ interaction with people leaving incarceration.

The Reentry Council achieves its goals by coordinating and leveraging federal resources to be used in the field, and using public education to shine a light on solutions to recidivism and victimization. The Department of Justice's Bureau of Justice Programs, also supports jurisdictions and nonprofit partners who implement the over 400 programs nation-wide supported by the Second Chance Act.  The Second Chance Act was signed into law on April 9, 2008, authorizing federal grants to government agencies and nonprofit organizations to provide employment assistance, substance abuse treatment, housing, family programming, mentoring, victims support, and other services that can help reduce recidivism.These programs range from juvenile mentorship to housing placement assistance, and all address challenges faced by those reentering the community from incarceration. Most recently, the Office of Justice Programs put out new guidance that clarifies the wide range of legal assistance that may be an appropriate use of funds for grantees, as legal assistance is often a critical support to improve reentry.

If you have heard of the Reentry Council, it is probably primarily in their work on Reentry Mythbusters, a series of fact sheets meant to help communities and those formerly incarcerated clarify federal policy. Ten of the myth busters tackle access to federal benefits, such as Medicaid, TANF, Social Security, food assistance, and Veterans benefits.  The theme to many of these MythBusters is that pre-release procedures are often available, meaning that access to key health care and assistance can be put in place while a person is incarcerated, and then ‘activated’ the day of release.  The goal is to stabilize the reentry population immediately after release, when they are most at risk of relapse and reoffending.“A lot of laws and policies need to be explained better as they pertain to this population,” notes Solomon, “and we should see better outcomes when people – like Veterans, for example – are aware of the assistance they are eligible for.”

Public Housing Assistance

Specifically, the issue of eligibility for public housing assistance kicked off the Mythbustersseries. “In some communities, public housing agencies or landlords impose eligibility limits that are more restrictive than HUD regulations,” notes Solomon. The Mythbuster states that, “Public Housing Authorities have great discretion in determining their admissions and occupancy policies for exoffenders.  While PHAs can choose to ban ex-offenders from participating in public housing and Section 8 programs, it is not HUD policy to do so.  In fact, in many circumstances, formerly incarcerated people should not be denied access.”

Access this Mythbuster

The Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan has issued letters to both public housing authorities and landlords receiving subsidies about eligibility of resources for those with criminal convictions. Two letters here clarify who is eligible for resources and encourage local PHAs and managers that work with HUD housing vouchers not to bar all individuals with a criminal record, only those who are ineligible under the federal HUD regulations.  There are only two convictions which ban individuals from HUD housing assistance outright:

• If any member of the household is subject to a lifetime registration requirement under a State sex offender registration program; and,
• If any household member has ever been convicted of drug-related criminal activity for manufacture or production of methamphetamine on the premises of federally assisted housing.

 Access Secretary Donovan’s letters

The work of the Reentry Council in this area is helping make the rules and policies more transparent. “We’ve heard about people taking the Mythbuster and letters directly to their local PHA to help explain their eligibility for assistance.  Some of their stories speak to the mutual benefits of reuniting families, getting a person off the streets or out of shelter, and hopefully stabilizing their lives in a way that will promote better work, crime, and sobriety outcomes.”

Employment Barriers

Another barrier that Ms. Solomon specifically noted is that to employment for those who were formerly incarcerated. Because one in three Americans has a criminal record, it is important that employers and job seekers understand the facts around the role of a criminal record in hiring decisions. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, a member of the Reentry Council, recently revised their guidance this spring, stating that a criminal record should only bar someone from employment when the conviction is closely related to the job, after considering (1) the nature of the job, (2) the nature and seriousness of the offense, and (3) the length of time since it occurred.  This guidance, along with Federal Non-Discrimination laws, will help providers, advocates, and employers make informed decisions when working with this population. The Reentry Council has put all of this information and guidance together for providers to better assist individuals in their employment search who have a criminal record.

Building on that momentum, the Department of Labor recently issued a Training and Employment Guidance Letter to the entire public workforce system.  This guidance provides explicit steps that the public workforce system – like One Stops – should take to ensure compliance with the EEOC and other nondiscrimination laws, to educate their employer customers, and, importantly, to promote employment opportunities for people with criminal records. The Department of Labor also assists individuals through the Reintegration of Ex-Offenders program, which is designed to assist ex-offenders find employment and make a smooth transition to community life through an employment-centered program that includes mentoring, job training, and other transtiional services implemented by local faith-based and community organizations in collaboration with DOL One Stop Centers. 

And just last month, the Federal Trade Commission announced a $2.6 million civil penalty in a settlement agreement with HireRight Solutions a nationwide employment background screening agency, for allegedly violating the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA).  The FTC alleged that the company failed to ensure criminal history information was accurate and up to date.  They also failed to give consumers copies of their reports and to investigate consumer disputes.  We hear this is all too common, and hope this settlement will help bring needed attention to the issue.

Read the EEOC Guidance

Read more about employment barriers for the formerly incarcerated

Access all the Mythbusters

For communities or providers that are looking to improve their services for people who were recently incarcerated, the Reentry Council and the National Reentry Resource Center is a great place to begin gathering information about program models. Here’s some specific ways Ms. Solomon shared: 

Reentry In Focus

October 2012

Annually, approximately 730,000 Federal and state prisoners return to communities and over 9 million pass through local jails. For people held in state and federal prisons, the path to stability can be long and challenging. Beyond the employment barriers and stigma related to a criminal conviction, many do not have a stable home or a family support system when released.  These individuals are far more likely to become homeless in the days and weeks after release. Residing in shelters rather than a more stable environment has shown to increase the risk of re-incarceration. There is also a subset of individuals in the nation’s prisons and jails that cycle between the criminal justice system and homelessness that incur high costs to themselves and public systems. These “frequent users” often incur the highest costs to local jails and prison systems and are often low-risk offenders (e.g. those charged with trespassing, public intoxication, small theft, non-felony drug charges): their cycling through these systems is often a symptom of larger health, mental health, and/or housing-related problems. As noted by an intensive study in a Florida jail, nearly 80 percent of these individuals were transient or homeless at the time of arrest, and have high rates of substance abuse and mental illness histories.

The good news is there are solutions, especially for those with high-needs upon reentry who are at a severe risk of homelessness. Permanent supportive housing using a Housing First approach is a cost-effective solution for those experiencing or at most risk of chronic homelessness.  Comprehensive reentry planning is key to ensure that individuals released are connected to housing, health, and mainstream resources. This planning involves working with the corrections system, service providers, and housing providers before an individual is released. Collaboration and coordination is pivotal to the success of the reentry plan and assisting individuals in navigating the many public and nonprofit support systems. 

Opening Doors’ Objective 9 is to “advance health and housing stability for people experiencing homelessness who have frequent contact with hospitals and criminal justice.” Focusing on this high-risk population not only  gets us closer to our goals in Opening Doors, it also offsets costs that can instead be invested in long-term solutions like affordable and supportive housing and mental and physical health care for those most in need. Programs at the Department of Justice, Department of Labor and Department of Veterans Affairs specifically work to reintegrate people who have been incarcerated and help them on a path towards safe, stable, and successful lives. Through the Second Chance Act, more communities are now implementing programs that work on reentry planning and long- term support that help prevent and end homelessness in their communities. In this newsletter we share our discussions with leaders among our federal partners and at the local level who are serving this population with innovative and comprehensive programs.  Implementing comprehensive and culturally competent solutions for people who have formerly been incarcerated and frequent users of jails and prisons is not only cost-effective, it saves lives. 

The articles below detail what is being done among federal agencies to improve reentry and a profile of one organization in New York City that has implemented successful reentry programs in its community. 

Learn about the Federal Interagency Reentry Council

Program Profile: The Fortune Society

Read about CSH's Returning Home Ohio initiative on the blog

Homepage photo courtesy of CSH

USICH Hiring for Communications Specialist

USICH has just announced a call for applications for a Communications Specialist at its headquarters in Washington, DC. The Communications Specialist serves as a public affairs specialist responsible for planning and implementing communications and media information programs regarding the work of the USICH and its initiatives as well as serves as the primary webmaster for the organization. Knowledge of the broad objectives of a national public affairs program and skill in working with the media and working knowledge of the newspapers, wire service, radio and television procedures is required. Applicants should possess excellent writing and editing skills, and skill in analyzing controversial and/or complex information and developing written material designed to reach a variety of constituencies. Applicants should also be adept at managing a large website via an in-house content management system, including an understanding of website functionality best practices. This includes skill in navigating web analytics tools, whose results drive continuous improvement in website capability. This is just a short description of the full duties, responsibilities, and skills in the full job announcement. 

This is a full-time position that includes a federal government benefit package. 

Learn more about this position and apply

For undergraduate or graduate students, USICH is always looking for paid interns to join our team for a semester or more. Please be sure to access these job postings as well, particularly for an Administrative Intern to join our National Programs team. Learn more about this internship.

Department of Veterans Affairs Announces $28 Million in Grant and Per Diem Funds

Yesterday the Department of Veterans Affairs announced awardees of funds to implement transitional housing programs through VA's Grant and Per Diem program. $28.4 million was awarded to fund 38 projects in 25 states and the District of Columbia. Notably, 31 of 38 awardees committed to using the "Transition in Place" model, which allows Veterans to take over the lease of their unit instead of moving out when they have gained stability. This model creates continuity for Veterans as they stabilize their lives and ensures they have a permanent residence after receiving VA services in substance use disorder and mental health treatment. Traditional transitional housing programs require Veterans to move out of their unit after 24 months. Once the lease transitions to the Veterans name, the Veteran stays connected to VA support services to ensure ongoing needs are met to sustain a healthy lifestyle and benefit receipt when they take over the lease. 

“Securing permanent housing is a vital step in the journey of our homeless Veterans,” said Dr. Susan Angell, executive director for VA’s Veterans Homeless Initiative. “This is the last piece of the puzzle, and it is crucial for them in continuing to lead independent lives." 

For a list of grant recipients, please access VA's Press Release.

For more information on the GPD Program, go to: http://www.va.gov/HOMELESS/GPD.asp

 

September 2012 Council Meeting on Family Homelessness

On September 12, USICH hosted its third full Council meeting of the year. On September 12, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) hosted the third Council meeting of the year, which focused on work being done in Utah and Washington State to use mainstream programs to help prevent and end family homelessness. USICH Chair and Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius was joined by HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan, Director of the Corporation for National and Community Service Wendy Spencer, Luke Tate from the White House Domestic Policy Council, and representatives from 18 member agencies.

This meeting focused on how leaders at all levels can bring mainstream resources and programs to the table to give families the support they need to exit homelessness. These mainstream resources, which include public housing, schools, workforce centers, and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), can be woven together with targeted homelessness resources to make progress. For the nearly 242,000 individuals in families experiencing homelessness on a given night, it is critical that agencies at all levels of government work together to expand practices that work for families, like rapid re-housing and school interventions.

Watch the video using this link or on the right

Access more information on the September Council meeting and family homelessness 
 

Administrative Intern

Location: Federal Center SW, Washington, D.C.

Start Date/Duration: Immediate; Part-time position

Salary: $10/Hour

Description of Responsibilities:
The mission of the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH) is to coordinate the Federal response on homelessness and to create a national partnership at every level of government and with the private sector to reduce and end homelessness in the nation while maximizing the effectiveness of the Federal Government in contributing to the end of homelessness. Currently USICH is implementing the first-ever Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and End homelessness, Opening Doors, as the Administration’s response to this important issue. USICH is comprised of 19 federal agencies and entities, and currently chaired by Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.

USICH is seeking a part-time administrative intern to support its work on behalf of the nation’s homeless population. The position will offer exposure to a range of USICH work with a focus on the state and community-level activities. The intern will work perform a variety of administrative duties to support the National Programs team, which may include document preparation, travel planning, answering calls and responding to questions of a non-policy nature. Assignments will also include note taking, research support, drafting correspondence and maintaining current information on state and community issues related to homelessness. Work may entail contact and discussion with top personnel at Council member and other government agencies, congressional staff, and the housing industry. Assignments may include work to support key initiatives, projects with policy leads and strategic communications tasks that support the goals of Opening Doors.

Experience:
Applicants must be self-starters who are flexible, able to balance multiple competing tasks, work well under tight deadlines, and have excellent organizational skills. Additionally, applicants must have the ability to perform research, think critically, write succinctly, manage multiple deadlines, and work both independently and in a team-based environment. Domestic policy knowledge and/or experience is a plus but not required. Experience with/knowledge of (USICH member) federal agencies’ events process and organizational structures a plus. Bachelor’s degree or equivalent work experience preferred. Position requires knowledge of Microsoft Office products and professional English writing and grammar conventions.

How to Apply:
If interested, contact Darren Franklin, Director of Finance and Administration, at jobs@usich.gov. With your inquiry, please include a cover letter which includes your availability and resume.

USICH Adds Three Special Advisors to Staff in Washington, DC

USICH is pleased to welcome three Senior Advisors to the Executive Director this September who will work in specific program areas to continue progress towards to the goals in Opening Doors. They will be taking leaves of absence from their current positions and joining us in the short-term. 

Lloyd Pendleton focuses on reducing the impact of the criminal justice system on homelessness as a Senior Advisor to the Executive Director.
In 2006, Lloyd was appointed the Director of the State of Utah’s Homeless Task Force where he was charged with implementing Utah’s 10-year plan to prevent and end chronic homeless and reduce overall homelessness by 2014, a plan which he had authored in 2004. Prior to his appointment with the state, Lloyd was an executive with Ford Motor Company for 14 years.  After leaving Ford, he worked for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints where he was instrumental in developing and implementing a worldwide humanitarian program.  In 2009, Lloyd was awarded a Purpose Prize Fellowship and was honored with a Governor’s Award for Excellence in Humanitarianism. He is a graduate of Brigham Young University and holds a bachelor’s degree in political science and a masters of business administration. 

Cathy ten Broeke focuses on housing and homelessness system policy as a Senior Advisor to the Executive Director.
Cathy has 19 years of experience working on the issue of homelessness.  Cathy is taking a leave from her position as Director of the Minneapolis/Hennepin County Office to End Homelessness where she has led the planning and implementation of the community’s plan to end homelessness and coordinated the City of Minneapolis and Hennepin County’s response to homelessness in partnership with hundreds of business, faith, philanthropic, and nonprofit community partners.  Cathy also Co-Chaired Minnesota’s Statewide Homeless Coordinators Council, which coordinates the plans to end homelessness in over 14 jurisdictions and among eight tribes.  Cathy’s additional experience includes principal policy advisor to a County Commissioner, advising on policy related to homelessness, affordable housing, and mental health; direct service provider and shelter director at a shelter for homeless men; and membership in The National Alliance to End Homelessness’ Leadership Council.  Cathy holds a master’s degree from the University of Minnesota’s Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs.

Joshua Bamberger, MD, MPH will work on Veterans homelessness as a Senior Advisor to the Executive Director. Josh is the Medical Director of Housing and Urban Health for the San Francisco Department of Public Health.  He coordinates all medical and behavioral health services at the health department’s supportive housing programs, presently serving over 5,000 people in housing.  He is also the medical director of the Housing and Urban Health Clinic, a Federally Qualified Health Center that is designed to provide integrated primary care and behavioral health services for formerly homeless people living in supportive housing.  He has published in the areas of overdose prevention, cost effectiveness of supportive housing, and HIV post-exposure prophylaxis as well as in the area of drug user health related issues.  Josh is an Associate Clinical Professor in the Department of Family Medicine, University of California, San Francisco and a Lecturer at the School of Public Health at the University of California Berkeley.  He has been practicing family medicine with people living in poverty since 1989.

HHS, Private Foundations Announce Sites for Supportive Housing Program for Child Welfare-Involved Families

Today the Department of Health and Human Services announced the local partners for the combined public and private $35 million initiative aimed at providing supportive housing for families with a history of involvement in the child welfare system, which includes reuniting families with children who have entered the foster care system if that is approprate. This initiative is an outgrowth of the success of The Corporation for Supportive Housing's Keeping Families Together, which showed tremendous positive outcomes for families and cost-effectiveness for the public sector. The Adminstration on Children and Families will provide $1 million per year to each of the five grantees for five years ($25 million total) to demonstrate the effectiveness and potential cost-savings of projects incorporating stable housing and comprehensive services that focus on safety, positive family functioning, and child well-being. Four foundations - the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Annie E. Casey Foundation, Casey Family Programs, and the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation - will provide a combined total of at least $10 million over the next five years, primarily in the areas of technical assistance and evaluation. 

“As more states move toward serving families safely outside of foster care, it has become more apparent that families face multiple challenges,” said Commissioner Bryan Samuels of the Administration on Children, Youth, and Families.  “This initiative is designed to help us identify high need families earlier and to provide the right set of targeted services that lead to meaningful family improvements.” Improvements include reducing child abuse and neglect, reducing the number of foster care placements, and increasing housing and employment stability, Samuels added.

The five grantees are Kids in Distress (Wilton Manors, Fla.), Community Alliance for the Homeless (Memphis, Tenn.), Four Oaks Family and Children’s Services (Cedar Rapids, Iowa), the San Francisco Human Services Agency, and the Connecticut Department of Children and Families.

Read more from HHS

Read more from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

USICH Releases 2012 Amendment to Opening Doors, focusing on educational outcomes and youth

Today the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH) officially submits the 2012 Amendment to Opening Doors: The Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness. While we have been able to make progress in the fight to end homelessness, especially for our nation’s Veterans, we recognize that more work must be done across the board to provide support and stability for children and youth experiencing homelessness. This Amendment focuses on strengthening the objectives and strategies needed to end homelessness for families, youth and children by 2020. Specifically, this amendment addresses what is needed to improve the educational outcomes of children experiencing homelessness and adds specific steps that must be taken to prevent and end homelessness for unaccompanied youth. 

The Amendment document is divided into two sections. The first is Improving Educational Outcomes for Children and Youth, which amends Objectives 5 and 2. The second is Meeting the Needs of Unaccompanied Youth, which amends Objective 8. Notably, this Amendment includes the work of the Interagency Working Group on Youth Homelessness and the preliminary research-based intervention model for unaccompanied youth, part of the new youth framework presented at the June 2012 Council Meeting. This Amendment will be formally presented to the Council at today's meeting, where it will be discussed along with the topic of family homelessness. 

Learn more about the Amendment

Read the Amendment

This Amendment should be viewed as part of a larger 2012 Update to Congress, which will also include the 2012 Annual Report. This Annual Report will include information on the progress made in the first two years implementing the objectives in Opening Doors, information on the nature and extent of homelessness, and federal resources needed to continue progress. This document will also include an Appendix detailing all Federal Government programs that serve those experiencing or at-risk of homelessness. The 2012 Annual Report to Congress will be submitted later this year.

Program Profile: Tacoma Housing Authority (THA) McCarver Special Housing Program

The problem of high school mobility is one that affects many students and districts across the nation, and McCarver Elementary School in Tacoma, Washington is no exception. Last school year, 120 percent of the students at McCarver Elementary changed to a different school primarily because of the lack of affordable housing for their families in the attendance area. Increased school mobility hampers the academic and social achievement of students who are very low income. THA’S McCarver Special Housing Program was designed to address this problem.

THA used housing vouchers to stabilize 49 families with 76 children who attended McCarver and were experiencing homelessness or whose families were at imminent risk of experiencing homelessness. Two THA case managers were located in an office at the school where they could easily meet with parents, students, teachers, and school staff on a daily basis. They helped identify needs and set goals, counseled parents and students, and connected them to community resources and services. Case managers also helped ensure that parents met their obligations and supported their children’s educational efforts.

The program staff collaborated with a variety of service providers to ensure a comprehensive approach to meet each family’s unique needs.The additional support and resources provided to families included food, clothing, toys, utility subsidies, furniture and other household items, monthly group parenting classes, educational opportunities for parents such as earning a GED, diplomas, or professional certificates, and employment assistance.

In this year’s evaluation of the program, it was reported that half of the families who received housing vouchers now live in the attendance area and all others plan to move into the area soon. Among participants there have been fewer suspensions, an increase in attendance, increased parent engagement, and signs of both academic and behavioral progress for students.By providing for the housing needs of families using THA vouchers, families and students are now able to focus on finding employment and improving educational outcomes in a safe, stable home environment. 

Read the full evaluation of THA’s McCarver Special Housing Program

More on school and family stability

The Seimer Institute for Family Stability, a nationwide effort through United Ways in 18 locations across the country, works specifically to address housing stability needs to improve student outcomes and decrease school mobility. Learn more about their work and model from the USICH blog post from Rob Podlogar of the Seimer Institute.

Experts Share Successes on Using Mainstream Resources for Families Experiencing Homelessness

The September 2012 USICH Council meeting on family homelessness featured two experts from the field: Associate Executive Director of Programs at The Road Home, Michelle Flynn, and Executive Director of the Tacoma Housing Authority, Michael Mirra. USICH invited these two leaders because they demonstrate how organizations can leverage mainstream resources and collaborations to address family homelessness. Each organization submitted a brief describing their respective work in detail.

Michelle Flynn outlines how The Road Home serves as a rapid re-housing agency using the flexibility of TANF to invest in housing stability for families experiencing homelessness. She explains further that The Road Home assists families in shelter to move as quickly as possible into housing through a regular reassessment process, which determines the level of support needed. Families in emergency shelter are assessed for rapid re-housing assistance after seven days. The program has been financed with a combination of HUD’s one-time Homeless Prevention and Rapid Re-housing Program (HPRP) funds and state TANF funds. And, through partnerships with the State Department of Workforce Services (DWS) and TANF, there is a strong program emphasis on getting families into gainful employment. Flynn emphasizes that all services are focused on removing housing barriers and increasing income, and that 87 percent of the 1,044 families have remained housed since the beginning of the program in October 2009.  

Read Expert Brief 

Michael Mirra describes how the Tacoma Housing Authority in Washington State is using flexibility provided under HUD’s Moving to Work demonstration to support rapid re-housing, as well as partnering with schools and the child welfare system to improve outcomes for families and children experiencing or at risk of homelessness. He asserts that tailoring the availability, type, amount, and duration of assistance to the need for family housing is essential, in addition to linking housing dollars with services. Mirra emphasizes the importance of helping people residing in Tacoma Housing Authority units to succeed not just as tenants, but also as parents, students, wage earners, and builders of assets. He adds that housing programs can be effective staging grounds for these efforts and good launching pads for family success. Lastly, Mirra elaborates on the Tacoma Housing Authority’s three specific initiatives on homelessness: 1) Rapid Re-housing Project; 2) McCarver Elementary School Initiative; and 3) Collaboration Among Washington State’s Child Welfare Agency and Housers. 

Learn more about the Tacoma Housing Authority’s McCarver Special Housing Program 

Read Expert Brief

September 2012 Council Meeting on Family Homelessness

On September 12, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) hosted the third Council meeting of the year, which focused on work being done in Utah and Washington State to use mainstream programs to help prevent and end family homelessness. USICH Chair and Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius was joined by HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan, Director of the Corporation for National and Community Service Wendy Spencer, Luke Tate from the White House Domestic Policy Council, and representatives from all 18 member agencies. This meeting was the second meeting of the Council to be webcast live, this time via HUD.

This meeting focused on how leaders at all levels can bring mainstream resources and programs to the table to give families the support they need to exit homelessness. These mainstream resources, which include public housing, schools, workforce centers, and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), can be woven together with targeted homelessness resources to make progress. Michelle Flynn from The Road Home in Salt Lake City talked about how the State has invested TANF in rapid re-housing, and how they have collaborated with schools, workforce programs, and local housing providers to make progress. Michael Mirra from the Tacoma Housing Authority (THA) also discussed how they are investing dollars once used for long-term rental assistance into rapid re-housing, specifically with the flexibility provided by the Moving to Work status of THA. He also presented how his housing authority is partnering with the local elementary school and child welfare department to keep children in school and get parents back to work, as well as pairing housing with services to preserve or reunify families with child welfare involvement. For the nearly 242,000 individuals in families experiencing homelessness on any given night, all resources must be brought to bear in innovative partnerships. The briefs linked to below describe how two communities were able to work across systems to reach and serve families experiencing or at risk of homelessness get connected to employment and stable housing, and to provide academic continuity for children and youth.

Go to Expert Briefs 

Within the last five years family homelessness has decreased by five percent overall, with a small increase in sheltered homelessness and a 29 percent decrease in the number of families experiencing unsheltered homelessness. The majority of the decrease in family homelessness was between 2008—2009 and the number has stayed relatively the same since then, although the number of doubled up families has increased significantly(as documented by the Department of Education). One of the reasons we believe the number of families in shelter has not spiked in the face of the recession is the impact of the HUD’s Recovery Act-funded Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-housing program (HPRP), which has prevented or ended homelessness for 1.3 million Americans. One of the best lessons learned from HPRP is that rapid re-housing should continue to be supported in communities and in federal policy. 

While ending family homelessness will ultimately require the improved availability of decent-paying jobs and better access to affordable housing, there are things that can be done today to align targeted and mainstream systems to support the goal of ending homelessness for families by 2020 beyond expanding rapid re-housing. Communities should consider converting transitional housing into transition-in-place models and permanent supportive housing if that intervention is a best-fit for the family. Schools are also a key partner in our efforts to both identify children and families who are either experiencing homelessness or housing instability; improving coordination between schools’ homeless education liaisons and HUD-funded Continuums of Care can result in better access to needed supports, including educational supports for children. Leaders at all levels need to buildand promote collaborations that include mainstream systems and the child welfare system. Together, harnessing resources from all systems that promote health and stability for families and children and investing new resources wisely, we can reach the goal of ending family homelessness by 2020. 

Amendment 2012

Since the release of Opening Doors in June 2010, communities across the nation have come together at the federal, state, and local levels to make progress towards the Plan’s four major goals: ending chronic and Veteran homelessness by 2015, ending homelessness for families, youth and children by 2020, and setting a path to end all types of homelessness. The 10 objectives and 52 strategies laid out in the Plan inform needed action at all levels of government to bring about a day when all Americans have a safe, stable place to call home. While we have been able to make progress in the fight to end homelessness, especially for our nation’s Veterans, we recognize that more work must be done across the board to provide support and stability for children and youth experiencing homelessness. 

This Amendment to Opening Doors was developed to specifically address what strategies and supports should be implemented to improve the educational outcomes for children and youth, and the steps that need to be taken to assist unaccompanied youth experiencing homelessness. The Amendment provides further clarity on what needs to be done specifically for youth and children if we are to reach the goal of ending homelessness among families, children and youth by 2020. 

Read the Amendment

To further supplement the strategies developed on assisting unaccompanied homeless youth, the Amendment includes the logic model and preliminary research-based intervention model to guide continuing practice and research. USICH has created a handout of these models for use when discussing the new framework for ending youth homelessness, which was confirmed by the Council in June 2012. 

Access the Youth Framework Handout

Plan Amendments 

The Amendment document is divided into two sections. The first is Improving Educational Outcomes for Children and Youth, which amends Objectives 5 and 2. The second is Meeting the Needs of Unaccompanied Youth, which amends Objective 8.

Objective 5 is amended to now include language on educational outcomes and addressing improved educational outcomes by adding more strategies. Objective 5 now reads: 

“Improve access to education and increase meaningful and sustainable employment for people experiencing or most at risk of homelessness.” 

Related strategies to address improved educational outcomes include

• Improve the identification of children experiencing homelessness and support them in enrolling in school;
• Review existing program policies, procedures, and mechanisms that could increase retention in high-quality programs; andImprove education of homeless assistance providers about laws and practices that are designed to increase access to early care and education. 

Objective 2 is amended to now include strategies to address increasing knowledge and awareness of successful collaborations and interventions that increase access to and retention in high-quality educational programs. The Objective language is not amended.

New strategies include: 

• Access to and retention in early childhood education programs, elementary and secondary education, and postsecondary education; and,
• Awareness of child and youth development and strategies to support health child and youth development in housing programs. 

Objective 8 is expanded to describe the steps needed to allocate resources to assist unaccompanied youth while considering the level of intervention appropriate to the circumstances. A preliminary, research-informed intervention model was developed and is included in the Amendment to guide continuing practice and research. Objective 8 now reads: 

“Advancing health and housing stability for unaccompanied youth experiencing homelessness and youth aging out of systems such as foster care and juvenile justice.” 

Related strategies to address unaccompanied youth homelessness include: 

• Obtain more comprehensive information on the scope of youth homelessness with improvements in counting methods, coordination and dissemination of information, and new research that expands understanding of the problem;
• Build an evidence base of the most effective interventions for different subsets of youth, which will refine the preliminary intervention model set forth in the Amendment; and, 
• Improve access to emergency assistance, housing, and supports for historically underserved groups of youth, including those with histories in the child welfare system, LGBTQ youth, pregnant or parenting youth, and youth with mental health needs. 

 

Corporation for Supportive Housing releases new Public Housing Authority (PHA) toolkit

Today the Corporation for Supportive Housing released a new resource for Public Housing Agencies (PHAs) and other stakeholders interested in creating supportive housing in their communities, the PHA Toolkit. 

The online toolkit provides the knowledge and know-how, through templates and examples, to advance the efforts of PHAs, regardless of size and Moving to Work status, to establish supportive housing in their communities. Supportive Housing combines affordable housing with services that help people achieve housing stability by addressing their other needs such as employment and health. The toolkit offers a primer on homelessness and supportive housing in addition to showing you how to form solid local partnerships to build a network committed to supportive housing in your own community.

It also explains in detail housing choice vouchers, public housing, project-based vouchers, and unique PHA programs and initiatives that you can utilize based on what your community needs. The toolkit has been developed with the generous support of J.P. Morgan Chase.

Click here to access the PHA toolkit

RWJF test for United Ways

The mission of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is to improve the health and health care of all Americans. Our goal is clear: To help our society transform itself for the better.

This heading is too big. 

 

New button

 

The plan puts us on a path to end Veterans and chronic homelessness by 2015; and to ending homelessness among children, families, and youth by 2020. The Plan presents strategies building upon the lesson that mainstream housing, health, education, and human service programs must be fully engaged and coordinated to prevent and end homelessness, including

• Increasing leadership, collaboration, and civic engagement, with a focus on providing and promoting collaborative leadership at all levels of government and across all sectors, and strengthening the capacity of public and private organizations by increasing knowledge about collaboration and successful interventions to prevent and end homelessness.
• Increasing access to stable and affordable housing, by providing affordable housing and permanent supportive housing.
• Increasing economic security, by expanding opportunities for meaningful and sustainable employment and improving access to mainstream programs and services to reduce financial vulnerability to homelessness.
• Improving health and stability, by linking health care with homeless assistance programs and housing, advancing stability for youth aging out of systems such as foster care and juvenile justice, and improving discharge planning for people

Supportive Housing for Returning Prisoners: Outcomes and Impacts of the Returning Home-Ohio Pilot Project

Jocelyn Fontaine, Douglas Gilchrist-Scott, John Roman, Samuel Taxy, Caterina Gouvis Roman

August 2012

This evaluation of a supportive housing reentry pilot project, "Returning Home-Ohio", yielded positive outcomes for program participants. The pilot project, developed jointly by the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction and the Corporation for Supportive Housing, was designed for disabled prisoners returning from state prison to five Ohio cities. A process, impact, and cost evaluation employing a quasi-experimental design with multiple data sources found that RHO participants were significantly less likely to be rearrested or reincarcerated within one year of release and significantly more likely to be delivered substance abuse and mental health services, relative to a comparison group. 

Go to Study

Department of Veterans Affairs Calls for Letters of Intent for Organizations Seeking SSVF Funding in FY 2013

Today the Department of Veterans Affairs posted a notice in the Federal Register calling for letters of intent for FY 2013 funding for the Supportive Services for Veteran Families (SSVF) program. Organizations are encouraged to submit a non-binding letter of intent to apply for either initial or renewal funding for supportive services grants by 4 pm on September 28, 2012. The FY 2013 Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA) will be published after the beginning of the fiscal year and will include information about the SSVF program, application procedures, and the amount of funding available. You may download a copy of the Letter of Intent format from the SSVF program page here. 

The SSVF Program's purpose is to provide supportive services grants to private nonprofit organizations and consumer cooperatives who will coordinate or provide supportive services to very low-income Veteran families who are residing in permanent housing, are  homeless and scheduled to become residents of permanent housing within a specified time period, or after exiting permanent housing, are seeking other housing that is responsive to such very low-income veteran family's needs and preferences.

Letters of Intent are due by 4 pm EDT on September 28, 2012.

Go to the Federal Register

Go to the SSVF program page at VA.gov

HUD seeks your input on public housing agencies serving homeless households

On June 18, HUD launched a web-based survey of all public housing agencies (PHAs) nationwide. This survey supports research that will explore and document how PHAs currently serve and interact with homeless households to achieve the following:

• Establish a baseline level of PHAs’ current commitment in serving homeless households
• Document the policies of PHAs that have an explicit preference for homeless households
• Explore PHA perceived roadblocks to increasing the number of homeless households served or targeting homeless households for priority housing assistance
• Identify methods to address or eliminate barriers to serving homeless households in mainstream housing assistance, with a focus on the housing choice voucher (HCV) program and public housing.

Input received through this study will allow HUD to develop strategies to expand mainstream housing opportunities for homeless households that are based in evidence and informed by the PHAs themselves. Each housing authority has received an e-mail from Abt Associates Inc. that provides the PHA with a unique link to the web-based survey. It is important that all PHAs complete and submit the survey! Questions about the survey can be directed to PHASURVEY@srbi.com.

Department of Labor Announces $11.53 Million in Grant Awards for Veterans Job Programs

Today the Department of Labor awarded grants to eleven organizations in 10 states to implement the Veterans Workforce Investment Program. The grantees are either state and local workforce investment boards, local public agencies, and nonprofit organizations, including faith-based and community organizations. Grants totaling $11.53 million will go to serve roughly 5,500 Veterans struggling with employment and will fund training programs for Veterans in fields such as computer services, construction, hospitality management, and more. This investment furthers the work of the Department of Labor's Veterans Employment and Training Service (VETS), which works to ensure access to education and training, access to Gold Card services at One-Stop Career Centers, and provide connections to businesses to hire unemployed Veterans. The press release, which can be accessed below, lists the grantees and their organizations that received funds today. 

Go to press release

Learn more about VETS

Executive Director Barbara Poppe at the Home for Good Funders Collaborative Press Event

8/17/12

The pins on your collar say:  I am Home For Good.  I feel that way when I am in Los Angeles; as you might know, I consider LA to be my third home along with DC and Columbus.

Frankly, I didn’t always feel that way.  We all know the problems of the past, the lack of a unified vision for change, the idea the LA was just too big, too segmented to work together.

Still, the fact that making progress in Los Angeles is absolutely critical to the national effort to prevent and end homelessness was as true then as it is now. Los Angeles has to be the place we can point other communities to and say: This is how you solve homelessness.This is how you strategically align goals and collaborate, and use resources effectively and push them toward quality providers; this is how you create tools to measure success. Simply put, Los Angeles hasto be the home for our best practices. Two years ago, I wasn’t sure that was possible.

But when the Obama Administration launched Opening Doors, the first ever federal strategic plan to prevent and end homelessness, Home For Good was there to adopt this vision alongside the federal government. 

Los Angeles started to collaborate. Partnerships grew out of the Collaborative Leadership Summit and out of efforts to get Veterans off the streets and into housing using the HUD VASH program, both of which are paying huge dividends to our cause. The awards being announced here today signal further evidence that collaboration works in LA. Let’s keep it working.

Yes, solving homelessness requires resources. Just since my visit in February, HUD and VA awarded a record 800 new HUD-VASH housing vouchers to LA, worth over seven million dollars. VA announced nearly one million dollars in Supportive Services to Veterans Family grants to the area, and HUD gave close to 100 million dollars for supportive housing through the Continuum of Care competition, including fourteen million dollars for nine new projects. The Corporation of National and Community Service through CSH awarded the Economic Roundtable with a highly competitive, five-year annual grant of $375,000 that will help build a model of supportive housing linked to health services that saves public dollars and improves the lives of vulnerable men and women.

The charge is placed before this community to continue to use resources strategically and continue to achieve better outcomes.  You must look to unlock more mainstream resources and identify more new local private and public funding.

I want to thank and congratulate the City and County Housing Authorities, the Los Angeles Housing Department, and the County Departments of Mental Health, Health Services, and Public Health for their dedication and creativity in bringing resources to the table today.

I want to thank the private sector partners who dedicate their resources and serve as flexible, efficient partners to leverage public resources. The leadership of the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation is particularly commendable. 

Resources have to have quality providers and programs to support.  And today, we honor 25 providers who have demonstrated their effectiveness and commitment to the goals we’ve set forward.

To you, I say, keep expanding capacity; keep transforming outdated models, and keep evolving your network into a true system of care for each individual who is now on the streets or in shelter.

And hats off to Home for Good, Hilton Foundation, and the County for your commitment to better performance measurement systems. You’re almost there. Soon, we can point to Los Angeles as an example of how to use data transformation ally. 

Today, we celebrate the Home For Good initiative and the Funders Collaborative.These awards represent incredible signs of progress toward aligning public and private sector resources.

To any potential partners, collaborators, or funders here who have not yet come to the table, please use today as your inspiration to join us.  The need is evident all around us – you have a chance to make a real difference by joining the Funders Collaborative.

The US Interagency Council is committed to partnering with everyone in this room. We recognize Los Angeles as a home for solutions, a home for best practices, and a home for collaboration where the goal is clear and singular:  no one should experience homelessness;no one should be without a safe, stable place to call home. 

Los Angeles is a Home for All.

On behalf of President Obama and Council Chair, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, thank you for all of the hard work you do, day after day to make Los Angeles – and this country - a better place. 

LGBTQ Youth Homelessness In Focus

USICH on LGBTQ Youth Homelessness 

A Conversation with Jeff Krehely, Director of The LGBT Research and Communications Project at the Center for American Progress

Two Model Programs for Serving LGBTQ Homeless Youth: The Ali Forney Center in New York City, and The Ruth Ellis Center in Detroit

Additional Resources on LGBTQ Youth Homelessness

LGBTQ Youth Homelessness

Youth homelessness is a problem that doesn’t fit neatly into a box. The exact number of youth experiencing homelessness is difficult to determine: they are undercounted in national data as unaccompanied youth are often unconnected to services or shelters.  Though they do not have a safe stable place to call home, many wind up “couch surfing” with friends, relatives, or acquaintances.  There does appear to be agreement that twenty to forty percent of youth experiencing homelessness self-identify as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, or Queer/Questioning (LGBTQ), which is disproportionate to the percentage of LGBTQ youth in the general youth population.

Like many homeless youth, LGBTQ youth either runaway or are forced out of the home due to severe family conflict, abuse, neglect, mental health or physical disabilities. They are more at risk once they are homeless for sexual abuse and exploitation. There is a high incidence of depression, suicide initiations, and other mental health disorders among all youth experiencing homelessness, and chronic physical health conditions are common as are high rates of substance abuse disorders.  Yet, in spite of all this, if you’ve ever had the opportunity to hang out with LGBTQ youth in a drop in center or elsewhere, you know they are energetic, funny, thoughtful teenagers who have the same hopes and dreams as their peers.

Across the country, there are programs aimed at reaching out to and assisting LGBTQ youth experiencing or at risk of homelessness, we highlight two such programs below. There are people and programs across the Federal government working to provide housing and services that will best help LGBTQ youth to become stable enabling them to lead safe, healthy and productive lives.  We provide a list of resources below that help to paint a picture of the difficulties LGBTQ youth encounter in America and the work that is being done around the county to aid these youth in finding a sense of self they can celebrate.

There is more we can and should do to help these young people to safety. Opening Doors: the Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness sets the goal of ending youth homelessness by 2020. Through collaborations between the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness and 19 federal agencies, we are working to make sure that all youth, including LGBTQ youth, do not fall through the cracks and that they receive the following

   1. Low Barrier Housing
   2. Education that helps lead to employment
   3. On-going support services connected to mainstream resources
   4. Independent Living Skills Training
   5. Connections to supportive and trusting adults and a support network

In collaboration with the Interagency Working Group on Youth Programs, USICH will draft a framework to specifically address the housing and service needs of youth at risk of or experiencing homelessness. This group will also examine ways that Federal agencies can better collaborate and allow better access to existing resources for those most at risk, including LGBTQ youth.

A Conversation with the Director of The LGBT Research and Communications Project at the Center for American Progress Jeff Krehely

USICH: Why are LGBTQ youth so disproportionally represented in youth homelessness today?

We are seeing a new epidemic of LGBTQ youth homelessness largely because youth are coming out earlier.  They are coming out to their families at age 12 or 13 instead of 18 or 20.  In some ways this is a good thing, it means they are getting societal cues that it is ok to be gay, but they are not old enough to be able to live independently yet and they face rejection by parents and families and emotional and/or physical abuse at school.  They fall through a series of failing support systems.  It’s a chain reaction.  Rejection leads them to run away from home (if they aren’t physically locked out) and then they end up dropping out of school, and tumble from a stable life in a family to couch surfing, living at a shelter or in foster care, and ultimately end up on the street.  Because at each step they are discriminated against, they just keep falling.

USICH: Why are LGBTQ youth a special needs population?  Shouldn’t we just try to end youth homelessness in general?

Tackling homelessness across the board is very important and the Federal Strategic Plan released last year is hugely important toward this goal.  This population deserves special attention though because the youth’s LGBTQ identity is very often the direct cause of homelessness.  Because homelessness and LGBTQ status are so closely intertwined, it is a special area that needs to be addressed.  These kids have exhausted the usual safety nets (family, schools, often foster care). We need to make sure we catch them at the level of shelter and/or service provider.  Service providers are often the last stop before the streets and if a youth’s very identity is attacked here as well, it can be very damaging.  Providers need to understand gender identity issues on a basic level.

USICH: What should we do differently to meet the needs of LGBTQ youth in America?  What can our readers do or advocate for that will help create better outcomes for these kids?

There are three basic components that are needed at the service provider level.  The first step is to give provider staff basic cultural competency awareness training and to make service providers around the country aware that this population is out there and they have special needs.  Most studies show that they make up 20-40% of the homeless population which is well more than double the LGBTQ percentage in the general population.  They have higher rates of suicidality, depression, abuse, and are more likely to engage in risky social behaviors.  These kids don’t need all staff to become advocates for gay rights, but they do need the staff to look at them and their needs as individuals and they need a safe space free of attacks on their identities.

The second piece is to provide a programmatic package of services that can address the special needs of this population.  LGBTQ youth benefit from the same best practices that service providers offer from education help and job training to clothes, beds, and food.  But there are three services that are especially helpful for this population:  The first is to offer a program for family acceptance and reunification.  The second is to offer HIV testing and safe sex programs.  The third is to offer robust Mental Health support that has an understanding of the needs of the population and the identity crisis, abuse, and rejection these kids face as a part of their daily life.  Together these three services provide a fundamental basis of care and health that can then allow these kids to get back into regular development and success at school and at a job.

Finally, the third piece is that providers should be aware that at many shelters LGBTQ youth are abused by their heterosexual peers both physically and mentally.  This is a common and serious problem.  Provider awareness is the first step, but extra care needs to be taken to make sure that LGBTQ youth don’t end up fleeing the shelter that is their last chance at stability.

USICH: What are we currently doing right to make sure this population has its needs met?

We can only go up from here.  While there are certainly some examples of very strong programs that meet the needs of LGBTQ youth and while we now finally have some data on the depth and breadth of the problem, the needs are huge compared to the small number of programs available.

USICH: Besides the obvious positive of helping a young person find themselves and get a foothold on life and the moral obligation we have to help, are there other benefits to society that come with programs that help LGBTQ youth experiencing homelessness?

Yes, absolutely.  Many of us are in this fight because we believe deeply in the moral obligation we have as a society to protect our most vulnerable, because we feel a personal connection to these kids, but there is also an economic benefit over time as well.  These kids don’t disappear once they pass beyond the age that we count them as youths.  They cycle in and out of homeless shelters and often the criminal justice system and emergency health care offices.  If we can break the cycle for these kids at a young age and get them on a better path, it can save them personally, but it can also save money over time.

USICH: How do you see the trajectory for this issue?  What does the future hold?

The future is mixed.  I am optimistic because we are finally seeing an accumulation of data on this issue and we are seeing a new awareness in the field on how to address it.  However, we are at the same time going through a tough time economically as a nation and that leads to cuts in social services in general.  It makes it that much more important for us to make clear that these programs need to be viewed from a long-term perspective economically.  The cost is not high and the results can be dramatic.

USICH: Do you have any final thoughts on this topic that you would like our readers to consider?

I would come back to what I said about the need to make clear to our partners on the ground: you do not need to become an advocate for gay rights in general.  It isn’t political.  But, if you are serving homeless youth as your mission, you must be aware of this population and address their needs.  You need to be aware of the unique backgrounds of LGBTQ youth; the rejection and abuse they experience as a part of everyday life.  You need to help them break that cycle by not rejecting them because of their gender identity and sexual preference.

Model Program Profile: Ali Forney Center

Location: New York City

Services Offered: 

The Ali Forney Center provides a safe shelter and nurturing environment for homeless LGBTQ youth in New York City.  The Ali Forney Continuum of Care includes four components:

Youth outreach: workers hit the streets and look for youth who might be in need of help and inform them about the available resources at Ali Forney and in the city in general.  They talk to 500-600 youths a month.

Two drop in centers: The first is in Manahattan and offers food, showers, and a place to rest indoors.  Center staff talk to the youth, build up trust and begin to figure out individual needs.  There is a health clinic on site which provides free HIV testing and basic care as well as a mental health and substance abuse clinic.  The second drop in center is in Brooklyn and is focused on job readiness and life skills.  This is also an open to anyone drop in, but it is mostly used by the youth who are in their housing programs.

Twenty-eight beds of emergency housing.  Get youth in as quickly as possible though there is still unfortunately a wait list.  Emergency housing is provided without pre-conditions and is available for 6 months.
Thirty beds of transitional housing which is available for 2 years.  Youth must be willing to work (could be mentorship, volunteer, or paid).  If young person doesn’t have a high school degree, they are required to get a GED.  They are not required to take college courses but they are encouraged to do so and 75% of transitionally housed youth are enrolled in college.  Youth are not charged rent, but they are required to save some of their income in a savings account, so that when they transition out, they have some money available.

Three tips from Ali Forney Center Director Carl Siciliano on how to make sure a general service provider meets the needs of LGBT youth:

Make providing a safe space a top priority. This space needs to be free of rejection and homophobia. The youth need a space to breathe and be themselves. One simple step you can take is to run an LGBTQ support group in coordination with your other services. A group like this gives LGBTQ youth a place to interact, share their experiences, and just enjoy the sense of safety for awhile.

Provide visual clues that you are open to this population. This sends a signal both to LGBTQ youth but also to staff and other youth that the center supports the needs of this community. A rainbow flag or a coming out poster can go farther than you might think in setting the tone.

Talk to your staff openly about the issue. This is not a minute subpopulation. LGBTQ youth make up anywhere from 20-40% of homeless youth. LGBTQ status is an important part of a youth’s identity.This identity needs to be reaffirmed.  If possible, hire openly gay staff. If youth see that a staff member feels safe sharing their identity, they will feel safer themselves.

Two tips from Carl Siciliano on running programs for homeless youth:

Don’t assume that if you cut a service, you can save money.  We have found that often the opposite is true.  When you provide more services, you can open yourself up to more funding streams.  This is especially true when you provide quality mental health services.  Mental health is a critical service for homeless youth and LGBTQ youth in particular.  It can also help you secure more funding.

Licensing requirements may seem like a headache, but if you want to help youth and you want your program to grow, it is best to abide by all city, state, and federal laws so that you can receive legal licensing to operate your center.  This is true no matter what services you are providing.  Licensing requirements ensure a safe and comfortable place for our youth, but we have also found that much of the funding that keeps us running would not be available to us if we were not licensed.

Exciting New Partnership:

The Ali Forney Center and the Center for Social Innovation are pleased to announce their collaboration on a new project, the development of a National Center for Excellence on LGBTQ youth homelessness. The collaboration will be a partnership with LGBTQ youth experiencing homelessness and will translate best practices into tools for homeless service providers. The project will be piloted in the New York City area but will then be scaled nationally. Specific activities include the development of online resources and an online peer-to-peer learning community; creation of web-based training courses; custom technical assistance for individual programs; and face-to-face trainings. The goal of this partnership will be to develop concrete tools and resources that homeless service providers can use to serve youth experiencing homelessness and identifying as LGBTQ—and ultimately improve the lives of these very important young people.

Model Program: The Ruth Ellis Center

Location: Detroit, Michigan

Services Offered:

The Ruth Ellis Center provides short-term and long-term residential safe space and support services for runaway, homeless, and at-risk gay, lesbian, bi-attractional, transgender and questioning youth in Detroit and Southeastern Michigan. The Ruth Ellis Center Continuum of Care includes a spectrum of services:

Street Outreach: street outreach workers go to the streets and make contact with youth where they are. The Center’s street outreach workers have a great reputation on the streets for listening to youths’ needs and trying to meet those needs at that moment.  They can provide food, clothing, blankets, coats and safe sex kits on the streets. Street work allows youth access to limited services in lieu of coming to the drop-in center, though all youth are encouraged to come off the streets to the Center and get the help they need.

Drop in center that operates two days a week. Here the Center provides for the fundamental needs of the youth (meals, showers, laundry) and served 2,535 youth last year. From here, if the youth choose, they are referred to other community resources for healthcare and transitional housing and enrolled in mainstream services like Medicaid if they are not accessing those resources already. There are mental health counselors on site as well as nurses who can conduct HIV testing. A successful program at the Center is the Gender Identity Support group, which is facilitated by LGBTQ adult mentors from the community who create a supportive space for the youth to discuss their identity.

Ten beds of transitional housing. Five of these beds are for youth under the age of 18 and are dedicated as housing for those in the child welfare system who have gone in and out of foster care.  Working with the Wayne County Department of Human Services, Ruth Ellis is licensed as the primary placement for these youth for roughly 6 to 8 months. The ultimate goal of this partnership is to reunite these children with their families if possible or, if not, to find them a stable foster home. The other five beds are transitional housing for youth ages 18-21. The goal for these youth is to be out of transitional housing and in a stable home within 21 months. Ruth Ellis also offers a variety of educational services to help youth position themselves for the future.  The center also works with youth to find employment or volunteer opportunities and learn valuable job skills. Each transitional resident is also paired with a mentor who has made a successful transition from the Ruth Ellis Center to permanent housing.  The youth and mentor work together in the youth’s journey to independence.

Some recommended best practices for operating a drop-in center from the Ruth Ellis Center’s Executive Director, Laura Hughes:

Don’t push the youth too hard.  We operate around the Harm Reduction Model of case management which basically states: meet the youth where they are.  If they come in for a meal, give them a meal.  Talk to them and build their trust, but if they aren’t ready for your other services (testing or mental health evaluation) don’t push it.  A majority of the youth who come into the drop-in center have had to engage in survival sex and have been rejected by their parents or those on the street.  Because of this history they have trouble trusting new people right away. We never want the youth to come in and feel the same rejection that they have experienced time and again in their lives. With this model of care, we send the message: “When you’re ready, we’re here for you.”

Peer mentorship works.  We have found that peers are often the most effective at referring youths to services while at the drop-in center. Our Youth Advocacy Project mentors are those who have gained permanence in housing and have created a wide network of opportunities and contacts in the community in order to gain stability. Homeless youth see the change in their peer mentors and trust them with greater ease because they have a shared history.

Five suggestions from Laura Hughes for general service providers to meet the needs of LGBTQ youth:

Realize that not every youth that comes into your Center is straight. Use symbols (rainbow flags, Safe Space stickers, magazines) to cue the youth that here they are safe and accepted.

Training for staff is essential: the staff needs to feel comfortable talking about sexual identity and gender identity, and know the language to use for each type of youth that comes in and does disclose their identity to you. Also learn what language youth in your community use to describe themselves by talking with them – not every youth may use the term “queer” but it might be in the literature. A great first step is to reach out to LGBTQ resources and groups in your community to see if they can conduct training for your staff.

Understand that young people, and LGBTQ youth in particular, are often each other’s best teachers and supports and can be your best teachers too.  Listen to them. They have experiences, stories, and solutions to share and creating something like a Gender Identity Support Group will provide that space for conversation and sharing.

For those searching to make their program serve this population best, partner with LGBTQ community centers and support groups that have positive adult role models. These adults have gone through the unique experience of coming out and have wisdom and support to share. Youth are able to benefit from seeing successful adults, and there is power in hearing their experiences. Volunteers from support groups in our community participate as mentors at the drop in center and facilitate our gender identity support group.

Most importantly, we need to dispel the myth that there is one way to serve LGBTQ homeless and runaway youth and straight allies are not it. Allies are powerful and effective at creating exceptional outcomes for LGBTQ youth in programs where they feel safe and cared for. While we all strive to be the best we can be as allies, we cannot always be exceptional at first. You don’t have to be an exceptional ally—you just need to be an ally.

Resources on the issue of LGBTQ Youth Homelessness 

The profiles above skim the surface of best practices and resources on effectively meeting the needs of LGBTQ youth. For additional best practices and ways to address the issues of the LGBTQ youth homeless population visit the sites below:

Homelessness Resource Center:  SAMHSA’s LGBTQ youth homelessness online center with links to best practices, guides for service providers in areas of public health, safe zone creation, and shelter staff training.

National Center for Homeless Education: the resource page for LGBTQ youth research regarding how to prevent homelessness, working with school homeless liaisons, and working with those in foster care.

National Gay and Lesbian Task Force: a detailed report of on LGBTQ youth homelessness and fact sheets for LGBTQ homeless youth in 9 major cities.

National Alliance to End Homelessness: the full solutions brief for service providers “National Recommended Best Practices for Serving LGBT Homeless Youth.”

Center for American Progress: On the Streets: the Federal Response to Gay and Transgender Homeless Youth and statistics on this population

National Coalition for the Homeless: summary of policy issue, statistics, and resources (including videos) to train shelter staff and the public on the issue of LGBTQ Youth Homelessness

The Obama Administration’s It Gets Better Campaign: the Administration’s response to violence against LGBTQ youth, the Federal Strategic Plan on Youth Policy, and links for service providers to LGBTQ youth support services

The Give a Damn Campaign: LGBTQ advocacy organization’s website, that speaks directly on the issue of LGBTQ youth homelessness. Videos and links to nonprofit partner websites serving youth and advocacy materials.

National Center for Excellence, LGBTQ Youth Homelessness: A project of the Center for Social Innovation focused on training service providers and advocates on the needs of LGBTQ youth experiencing homelessness, including program highlights, best practices, and training materials and information.

The National Alliance to End Homelessness has a National Advisory Council to address LGBTQ homeless youth issues, with subcommittees focused on best practices, appropriations, and transgendered youth. This Advisory Council is always looking for more experts in this area to contribute. If you are interested in joining or want to learn more about the work of the Council, please contact Andre Wade at awade@naeh.org or 202.942.8254.

A Mayoral Commission in New York City put together a comprehensive report on the needs of LGBTQ youth in New York and the strategies available to meet these needs.  The report, All Our Children: Strategies to Prevent Homelessness, Strengthen Services, and Build Support for LGBTQ Youth, details a ten point plan to improve outcomes for LGBTQ youth.

Santa Monica Stands Out, Makes Progress on Homelessness and Joins Opening Doors Across America

The City of Santa Monica has made progress in all four of the key steps of the Opening Doors Across America initiative: plan alignment, setting targets and measuring results, acting strategically, and partnering. In the past four years, they have developed and updated their strategic action plan to end homelessness and have implemented this plan which calls for “targeting resources, evaluating the effectiveness of services such as housing and special initiatives, and identifying opportunities to transform service delivery” collaboratively across city agencies. Santa Monica joined Opening Doors Across America in March 2012, but they have been acting on the four steps of Opening Doors Across America for years.

Plan Alignment 

Santa Monica’s Action Plan to Address Homelessness was first adopted by the City Council in 2008. In 2010, the Plan was updated to align with the goals of Opening Doors and the strategies in the HEARTH Act– all of which are shown to advance efforts to end homelessness. As encouraged as a part of Opening Doors Across America, alignment is one of the first steps communities can take to improve coordination of systems and efficient use of resources. For the Human Services Division which administers homeless services in Santa Monica, the benefit of alignment with Opening Doors is clear: “All the things we did previously and we’re continuing to do now are reflected in the federal plan, which reinforces our strategy. We benefit from the synergy that comes with being aligned with something bigger," explained Julie Rusk, Manager of the City's Human Services Division. "We can reference the best practices and policies in Opening Doors when we go to our City Council and other stakeholders who want evidence this is the right way to go."

Act Strategically 

Targeting resources to serve those who have been homeless the longest with the most severe disabilities is a priority for Santa Monica. In 2004, the City’s Chronic Homeless Project began identifying the most vulnerable individuals in the city who were experiencing chronic homelessness to connect them to housing and service resources. To assess the vulnerability of these “hardest to serve” individuals, a Service Registry was created in 2008. This registry implements the use of a Vulnerability Index and is used to track length of time on the streets, age, and both the physical and mental health of participants.

Furthermore, a Santa Monica Priority Population was developed from the registry and is accessible to City-funded service providers and first responders (the Santa Monica Fire and Police Departments and local hospitals) to coordinate service to individuals. This collaboration across government and private entities uniquely positions Santa Monica as a city that has successfully managed to break down the silos of service provision to create a cohesive care plan to meet an individual’s needs. This targeting of resources toward high-users of public services manages the demand on local programs and helps to serve people who need the most help.

Set Targets and Measure Results 

Santa Monica measures progress toward their goals and uses this information to inform their programmatic planning. The city relies on data from their Homeless Management Information System (HMIS), ServicePoint, to evaluate the effectiveness of programs in serving the priority population. This strategic use of data allows Santa Monica to determine if resources are reaching those who need them the most and allows them to maximize the effectiveness of prevention dollars and programs. This analysis has led the City to continue its investment in the Opening Doors strategies of permanent supportive housing, rapid re-housing, and shelter diversion when possible.

Join Santa Monica, Join Us

With a coordinated and targeted approach, Santa Monica has decreased overall homelessness by 25 percent since 2007 and has sustained progress even in the midst of the recession. “If we can get others to see that a small city like Santa Monica with a large chronic homeless population has implemented these practices effectively, other small communities can move the needle on their problem as well. Everyone needs to see this as a solvable issue, regardless of the size of their community.” Opening Doors is a plan that belongs to all of us and the realization of our goals requires action at every level of government and in partnership with the private sector. Decide to join those already participating in ending homelessness.

 

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Summary of HEARTH Regulations Available from The Alliance

Yesterday, the National Alliance to End Homelessness released summary information regarding the interim HEARTH Act regulations for new Continuum of Care providers (CoC) with the Department of Housing and Urban Development. New regulations go into effect on Thursday, August 30.  Public comments due Monday, October 1.

Go to summary information

 

Department of Veterans Affairs Announces $100M in grants for SSVF Program

Today the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) announced the awarding of $100M to community organizations across the nation to implement the Supportive Services for Veteran Families.

141 community organizations will serve roughly 42,000 Veterans and their families who are currently experiencing homelessness or who are at-risk of experiencing homelessness. The SSVF program's first year of implementation was in 2011. The first year of the program, community organizations granted $60 million by the Department of Veterans Affairs served roughly 22,000 Veterans and their families. We are committed to ending Veteran homelessness in America,” said Shinseki. 

“These grants will help VA and community organizations reach out and prevent at-risk Veterans from losing their homes.The SSVF program provides assistance to very low-income Veteran families who are living or transitioning to permanent housing, and offer a range of services from short-term rental assistance to case management for VA benefits

 

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Investing in proven solutions is a key theme of the Opening Doors. Significant research has been and is being conducted on homelessness across the federal government and throughout the country. There is tremendous opportunity to better understand and apply what is being learned by coordinating and sharing research across federal agencies and with states and local communities.

Towards that end, USICH has compiled and developed abstracts for approximately 150 studies conducted over the past decade.

Users can browse through the listings by clicking on a category below or sort the information using the “Information by” filter along the left-hand side of the screen.

Browse by category:

1. Access to Justice
2. Accessing Mainstream Benefits
3. Affordable and Supportive Housing
4. Collaboration, Capacity and Planning
5. Homeless Crisis Response
6. Improving Health, Well Being and Stability
7. Pathways to Employment

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New HUD HEARTH Continuum of Care Rule and Guidance Published

HUD Posts Interim Continuum of Care Rule

The Homeless Emergency Assistance and Rapid Transition to Housing Act of 2009 consolidates HUD's competitive homelessness assistance grant programs into one new "Continuum of Care (CoC) Program." The interim rule posted on the HUDHRE website over the weekend focuses on regulatory implementation of the new CoC Program, including the CoC Program planning process.

The regulation was published in the Federal Register. The interim regulation will be effective 30 days after publication in the Federal Register, the effective day be August 30, 2012. CoC Program recipients and subrecipients are reminded that the final Homeless Definition is in effect for administration of the CoC Program interim rule.

To assist CoCs, stakeholders, recipients and subrecipients in the successful implementation of the new consolidated program a number of resources are available on the HUDHRE website.

Learn more

Federal Resources for Rural Communities

The federal government is committed to providing resources and support to the 51 million Americans living in nonmetropolitan areas. We've compiled program information from four major Departments that have targeted programs for rural America. These resources have far-reaching goals and audiences, from those living on Tribal lands to Veterans. Please take a look at the resources below to learn more. 

USDA Rural Development Program - Housing and Community Assistance 

USDA’s Rural Development Program provides assistance for individuals and families experiencing homelessness through its housing and community facilities programs, both of which provide assistance in the form of guaranteed loans, direct loans, and grants. USDA provides funding for single family homes, apartments for low-income persons or the elderly, housing for farm laborers, childcare centers, homeless shelters and domestic violence shelters, and other social service agencies that serve rural communities. In partnership with non-profits, Indian tribes, state and federal government agencies, and local communities, HCFP creates packages of technical assistance and loan and grant funds to assist more rural communities and individuals. Rural development programs help families and individuals escape homelessness by providing safe and affordable housing to a sector of the population that would not otherwise receive housing assistance. 

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HUD Office of Native American Programs 

HUD’s Office of Native American Programs (ONAP) is the principal administrator of housing assistance in tribal communities. ONAP administers funds to tribes for affordable housing activities through the Indian Housing Block Grant (IHBG) program. Housing assistance programs for Native Americans were consolidated into the IHBG program, which allows tribes to fund a variety of housing related activities including: housing development, assistance to housing developed under the Indian Housing Program, housing services to eligible families and individuals, crime prevention and safety, and model activities that provide creative approaches to solving affordable housing problems. ONAP provides homeownership opportunities through the Section 184 Home Loan Program and leveraging opportunities through the Title VI loan guarantee program, which funds the same activities as the IHBG program. 

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Interior’s Bureau of Indian Affairs Housing Improvement Program

The Office of the Interior’s Bureau of Indian Affairs’ (BIA) Housing Improvement Program provides housing repair assistance and homes for American Indians with incomes at or below 125% of the federal poverty level who are homeless or living in substandard housing. 

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Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Rural Health

To better serve Veterans in rural areas, VA’s Office of Rural Health (ORH) was established in 2007 to improve access and quality of health care for rural Veterans and Native American Veterans in tribal communities. Veterans living in rural areas have traditionally been underserved with regard to health care access. ORH supports three Veterans Rural Health Resource Centers that provide technical assistance to service providers, evaluations of promising practices, and promotion of telehealth technologies (the delivery of health-related services through information technology). ORH also funds Veterans Integrated Services Network (VISN) Rural Consultants to coordinate rural health efforts in each VISN.  The ORH funded projects are expanding services within communities, facilities, and community-based outpatient clinics to provide and improve access to care for all Veterans, specifically hard-to-reach Veterans in rural, highly rural, and reservation areas.  ORH has obligated over $50 million dollars in the past four years for Native Veteran services and projects.  

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HHS/HRSA Rural Health Services

The Office of Rural Health Policy (ORHP) coordinates activities related to rural health care within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Part of the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), ORHP has department-wide responsibility for analyzing the possible effects of policy on 62 million residents of rural communities. ORHP administers grant programs designed to build health care capacity at both the local and State levels. These grants provide funds to 50 State Offices of Rural Health to support on-going improvements in care, and to rural hospitals through the Medicare Rural Hospital Flexibility Grant (Flex). Through its community-based programs, ORHP encourages network development among rural health care providers; upgrades in emergency medical services; and places and trains people in the use of automatic external defibrillators. Rural health teams include those focused on border health, telehealth, community-based health and capacity building, and on improving small rural hospitals. 

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Ending Rural Homelessness: Advice from Experts in the Field

USICH spoke with two providers, Dreama Shreve of the Appalachian Regional Coalition to End Homelessness and Dr. Tom Simpatico of Pathways to Housing Vermont and the University of Vermont, on the nature of homelessness in rural areas and ways to improve services. 

What Everyone Should Know about Rural Homelessness: An Interview with Dreama Shreve

Dreama Shreve is the Executive Director of the Appalachian Regional Coalition on Homelessness (ARCH). ARCH is a rural continuum of care, made up of 40 agencies and over 200 churches that collaborate on data collection and data sharing. This coalition has succeeded in pulling eight counties and three small cities, which are located in mountainous Appalachian terrain and cover 1,243 square miles, into a regional service area that responds as a unit. 

USICH: How would you describe rural homelessness to someone who may only understand homelessness as an urban problem?  

Shreve: The differences span multiple barriers. Transportation is a key difference, as towns in rural areas, and homeless individuals as a result, are sprawling rather than centralized. People who are impoverished need a car and gas to access service providers and other social services. If these individuals do not have a car (which is common), services need to be brought to them.

Access to education is also an issue that is magnified in rural communities. Youth tend to live far from local schools. Schools and faculty are also usually under resourced. Family life can also encourage students to drop out. If a student is able to find a job, they are likely to drop out of school to provide for the rest of the family. 

The threat of domestic violence is an important factor in the regions where ARCH provides services. With financial dependency on their male partners, women can often be forced to choose between homelessness and a violent home life.

The greatest differences between rural and urban homelessness continues to be the gap in employment and availability of suitable housing. Rural communities have even fewer jobs, due to underdeveloped industry, and even fewer homes available for occupancy.

USICH: What needs to be done better? 

Shreve:

Transportation: there is limited to no public transportation in rural communities. What public transportation that does exist ends at 5PM. Public transportation funding is desperately needed when individuals in these communities are typically traveling around an hour to get to work every day. This investment will also enable individuals living in poverty to get to service providers in larger towns. 

Rural areas need more industrial development. The nurturing of young entrepreneurs and business owners will create and sustain new jobs. Universities could be used as a resource to start employment co-ops and career centers. Unfortunately, most large manufacturers cannot locate an office, headquarters, or retail chain in rural areas because it is so far from the interstate. Innovation needs to occur so as to establish local business through entrepreneurial ventures. People are full of ideas but they have no means, no connections. We need to work together to get a vehicle for those means to come to rural areas. 

The housing stock in rural communities is vastly different from urban communities and needs to be upgraded, or new housing needs to be developed. Rural areas have a lot of open land but there is an absence of apartment buildings. Of the housing that does exist, it often would not pass inspection, because landowners cannot afford to upgrade their current housing. The problems that do exist are extremely hazardous for residents: some homes do not have proper sewage; they may have well water which may or may not be reliably clean. The first step should be to get existing housing up to code, and then work to create more rental units.

USICH: What are some of the unique strategies service providers in your area use to address the challenge of rural homelessness? 

Shreve: Due to the sprawling nature of rural homelessness, providers need to bring their services out to individuals and families experiencing homelessness. Service providers going out to communities provide a regular schedule of case management and treatment that is spread across the community. The community action agency typically has an office in each county, which serves as a central hub where providers can meet with clients, make referrals, and allow for greater access.  

USICH: What does the PIT count look like in your region? What improvements do you think need to occur?

Shreve: If you are in an urban setting, the timing of the PIT count makes sense. January typically has cold weather which funnels the majority of population into shelters, making them easier to count. However, in rural areas this is just not the case. Individuals and families experiencing homelessness cannot reach shelters; they are residing in caves in the woods, people’s barns or under houses. If we had the resources, we’d do a second count in April so we could compare the results. Folks are out and about, able to walk and get around. Individuals experiencing homelessness in rural communities are much more transient, and unless you know where they are, you are much less likely to encounter them. 

Urban Best Practices in a Rural Context: Housing First Works
An Interview with Tom Simpatico

Dr. Tom Simpatico is Director of the Division of Public Psychiatry at the University of Vermont’s College of Medicine, and Director of the Integrative Care Management Institute at the UVM Center for Clinical & Translational Science.  He serves as Medical Director for Pathways to Housing Vermont and as Director of Psychiatric Services for the Vermont Department of Corrections.

Pathways to Housing Vermont opened in January 2010 in Burlington, and opened their second office in Montpelier in July of that year and a third satellite in Brattleboro soon thereafter. Funded by grants from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and the Vermont State Department of Corrections (DOC), the Pathways Team works to find permanent and independent housing for individuals experiencing chronic homelessness, many with alcohol and substance use disorders. Since 2010, Pathways Vermont has housed more than 70 individuals experiencing chronic homelessness in communities around Vermont. USICH spoke with Dr. Simpatico on the subpopulations he has identified in rural communities and their needs. He also then details the ways in which the Pathways to Housing model has been adapted for Vermont’s rural environment.

USICH: From your research and experience, what are some of the subpopulations of rural Americans experiencing homelessness? 

Dr. Simpatico: The nature of rural communities often obscures the homeless population.  Unlike urbanized areas, rural communities seldom have in place a formal social service network that would facilitate measuring the problem. 

To the best of our knowledge, some of the subpopulations of people experiencing homelessness in rural and frontier areas include the following:

• The Traditional Homeless - people living unsheltered on the street, the characteristics are similar to people experiencing chronic homelessness in urban areas. They often suffer from substance abuse, personal tragedy, or mental or physical disabilities.  They generally have had little recent attachment to the labor force and have trouble maintaining a permanent address or securing employment. 
• The Working Poor - often driven by financial hardship, this group has been growing in recent years.  They are often one- and two-parent families with children.  They often double-up with friends/friendly acquaintances and/or move frequently in search of work.
• Displaced Farmers and Farm Workers - farm foreclosures cause displacement for many who rely on farms for work and livelihood. Since it is often difficult to resell property after foreclosure, farmers are often permitted to stay on the land.  There is often despondency involved as farms have been in a family’s possession for generations; there is a sudden loss of personal identity as well as financial security. 
• Veterans - Veterans are more likely to live in rural areas than other households and Veterans in rural areas tend to be older and in worse health than Veterans in urban areas.  Because rural Veterans experiencing homelessness are not easily identifiable and not engaged in services, it is difficult to capture an accurate picture of the number of Veterans experiencing homelessness in rural communities. However, we will most likely see an increase in the number of younger Veterans living in rural areas. In 2008, Rand Corporation reported that since October 2001, almost 1.64 million U.S. troops have been deployed for Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF; Iraq) and Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF; Afghanistan). The report highlighted the invisible wounds of war, relating to the psychological aftermath of these military initiatives. The two main invisible psychiatric and neurological areas of concern were post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and traumatic brain injury (TBI). We will need to ensure that Veterans in rural areas can access reliable behavioral healthcare if we are to address these issues. 

USICH: Can you tell me a little about the Housing First/Pathways to Housing Model? How does the model work and how is it adapted for Vermont?

Dr. Simpatico: The Pathways to Housing Housing First Model is relatively simple: provide housing first, and then combine with supportive services encompassing the areas of mental and physical health, substance abuse, employment, and education. Typically, in urban areas, the housing is provided in apartments scattered throughout the community. In cities, the model has been effective in addressing chronic homelessness. The people who created Pathways to Housing came to me at the University of Vermont to see how the model would work in a rural setting. The typical urban model would not work as well since the rural population is geographically spread out and access to a strong and established social service network is not available.

To be adapted for a rural setting, what Pathways Vermont has done is use technology to create a virtual version of the urban model. The individuals receive the services, aided by technology, after the initial outreach has been made. All it takes is connection to one social service organization and much of the rest can be done virtually with other organizations and housing providers. Recipients still have access to specialists and case management; however, in the rural setting they are using refurbished computers to do video visits. When clients have access to computers, frequent contact occurs between individuals and service providers. Service providers in the Pathways network have also been outfitted with refurbished iPhones and laptops which allows for greater communication between teams. These organizations have even been able to use advanced features on Google+ to have conference calls with one another and with clients so they can coordinate services and transitions to housing at the same time. Technology is an important tool to bridge the void and compensate for the distances between service providers and clients, especially when there is not a strong public transportation system. 

USICH: What should policymakers know about rural homelessness and how best to address it?

Dr. Simpatico: Rural homelessness is less conspicuous. Homelessness is a very real part of the urban landscape. It is much harder to see something that conspicuous in a rural setting. Rural homelessness is often misrepresented, falling under the rubric of “quaint” or “simple.” Policymakers should not fall into complacency, thinking homelessness does not exist in a rural or frontier setting. It may not be as obvious but it still requires our attention.

Using Data to Measure Results: a Rural Community Profile

Clallam County, Washington, is located on the northernmost point of the Olympic Peninsula, three hours away from Seattle, Washington (via ferry) and isolated from the interstate grid. Many residents in Clallam County have experienced chronic, intergenerational poverty. Unemployment above 11% is not atypical. Forks, located in Clallam County, has been identified as the most remote city in the lower 48 states with a population of roughly 3,000. The largest town, Port Angeles, has roughly 20,000 residents.

Despite persistent poverty, Clallam County has emerged as a leader in housing those in their county with clear results: since 2004, they have achieved a 40% reduction in homelessness. In 2006, their Point in Time (PIT) Count identified 1,055 people experiencing homelessness. In 2011, that number was 592. These results have been sustained in part because of a strong collaborative network of providers and a commitment to data and accountability.

USICH spoke with Kathy Wahto, the Executive Director of Serenity House in Port Angeles, WA. Serenity House is the lead agency in the Shelter Providers Network, a collaboration of agencies providing shelter, housing, social services, and treatment for individuals at-risk of or experiencing homelessness that has been meeting regularly since 1989. The collaboration became the formalized Continuum of Care in 2000, and has since been responsible for the authoring of the county’s plan to end homelessness and developing and implementing the PIT count throughout the county. The Shelter Providers Network contains agencies of all sizes and works to ensure that all agencies in this partnership work together to coordinate resources, assessment, and data for the greatest impact. Ms. Wahto shared with USICH some of the ways that Clallam has been able to specifically utilize the PIT Count and HMIS, and the ways they have been able to collaborate county-wide on initiatives like permanent supportive housing to reach these outcomes. 

Conducting a PIT Count & Using HMIS

Clallam County conducted its first PIT Count in 2003, with 65 agencies participating. “All of us [in the Shelter Providers Network] agreed that we needed to really understand the scope of what was happening, because at that time the only information we had was anecdotal. That first midnight count, we counted about 1,000 people across the county fitting the homeless definition.” Ms. Wahto mentioned that the problems that may plague other communities in conducting a PIT Count is not different than in Clallam—the prevalence of individuals who are living in campsites and parks in heavily wooded areas, however, may be more than in an urban environment. “Because our county is both rural and mountainous, it is not safe for volunteers to be searching in the woods in the middle of the night.” In order to overcome this, they had to get creative: “To make sure people who are living far out in the woods can be counted, we began to hold outreach events during the day with food and supplies that have the potential to draw people into town. Outreach workers who have relationships with these individuals would tell them about these events weeks in advance when they make their contacts.” 

Using these improved (and inventive) PIT Count methods adapted to Clallam’s specific rural area, the Shelter Provider Network has been able to get a strong baseline from which to work. Their data has also been enhanced by utilizing HMIS, which is statewide in Washington. According to Ms. Wahto, “The PIT Count is the beginning of the outreach process for many people in Clallam and helps us identify who’s out there. HMIS has been able to take our services to the next level and serve more people.”

In Washington State, HMIS is operated at a state-wide level and local communities and organizations are able to update the data as needed. “HMIS as a state-mandated database has been great for organizations like ours because it reduces the technical demands of running a quality database that Serenity House and the SPN didn’t have the funds for. We can update HMIS from anywhere as soon as we receive new information about an individual or family we work with.”
Another system that has improved our knowledge of individuals and families we work with is Secure Access Washington, a state-run integration of various databases. The state aggregates data and administrative records for from HMIS, unemployment services, the Department of Human Services, WorkSource (Washington’s Workforce Investment Act funded system), the Housing Authority and other state benefit enrollment systems and anyone in the network can access this at any time. “We’ve been using this system for six years now—this information sharing platform has improved the information we get from the Housing Authority as well regarding availability of units, tenants, etc.” Using HMIS along with information from Secure Access lets service providers see what services individuals and families are accessing, and which ones they are not yet utilizing to help them gain stability. HMIS as a starting point can help connect those experiencing homelessness with mainstream resources that they may not otherwise access on their own with the help of social service staff. 

Finally, Ms. Wahto notes that improving your data collection system not only helps improve services, it also helps to engage county leadership to do more: “Getting a good count of those in need is a commonsense approach to identifying where the problems are and county leadership understands that. Using this data, we can convince people to implement solutions like permanent supportive housing at the right level for their community.” 

Collaboration in Rural Areas

One of the key goals in Clallam County’s 10 Year Plan is to increase the number of permanent supportive housing units available for individuals and families, with a goal set of 150 new units to be developed. The county is on track to reach that goal because of the work of the Shelter Providers Network and its close relationship with the Peninsula Housing Authority. Ms. Wahto notes, “A partnership with the Housing Authority, both rural and urban, is most meaningful when the county plan is aligned with their agency goals as well. For the Peninsula Housing Authority and the Shelter Providers Network, we’re all focused on permanent housing solutions that we know are successful and cost-effective. We’re all in agreement that developments like permanent supportive housing and utilizing public housing countywide is a pragmatic approach to a serious—but not permanent—problem.” This collaboration, grounded in the smart use of data and a commitment to evidence-based practices, has made significant progress on homelessness in their rural area when it may have seemed like the population was too spread out to serve effectively. 

Department of Labor Secretary Solis visits Veteran jobs programs, highlights HVRP program investments

This week, Department of Labor Secretary Hilda Solis spent time visiting innovative employment programs focused on serving our nation's Veterans experiencing homelessness. Funded in part by the Department of Labor's Homeless Veterans Reintegration Program, the three employment sites she visited in California and Minnesota work to ensure that Veterans in need receive the best training and support needed to succeed in civilian life while also working to connect Veterans with other supports to maintain stability. These sites include Swords to Plowshares in San Francisco, Goodwill of Silicon Valley in San Jose, and the Minnesota Assistance Council for Veterans. Secretary Solis was able to sit down with the leadership of these organizations as well as Veterans involved in the programs to get a first-hand look at the ways HVRP funds are changing lives through these organizations. 

To learn more about Secretary Solis' visits and to see a slideshow, go to the DOL Newsletter. 

Presentation - Session at NAEH 2012 Annual Conference: Chronic Homelessness

7/17/12

USICH's Barbara Poppe and Joshua Leopold, along with Joyce Probst-McAlpine of Dayton, OH and Greg Shinn of Tulsa, OK presented the session Chronic Homelessness: Getting to Zero by 2015 at the 2012 National Alliance to End Homelessness Annual Conference. USICH presented an analysis of chronic homelessness, which includes potential factors that may be slowing progress on ending chronic homelessness and what is needed to accelerate progress moving forward. The session also featured two communities that have made significant progress in ending chronic homelessness - Dayton, OH and Tulsa, OK - and how they have been able to move the needle on chronic homelessness in their communities using innovative and effective approaches. 

Access the slideset

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