FAQs About USICH’s 19 Encampment Strategies

On June 4, USICH hosted a webinar about our new federal guidance—19 Strategies for Communities to Address Encampments Humanely and Effectively. Click to read the guidance and watch the webinar.

We received dozens of audience questions, which have been consolidated, organized around the pillars of the All In strategy, and answered below by either USICH or the community panelists on the webinar: Cole Chandler, senior advisor for homelessness for the Denver Mayor’s Office, and Erin Wixsten, principal planning analyst and Streets to Housing program manager for the Hennepin County Office to End Homelessness.

For more on their local encampment responses, click to read Denver and Hennepin County’s “community spotlights” at usich.gov/encampments.

EQUITY

How do you involve and compensate people with past lived experience in encampment response from beginning to end?

Denver: Denver does not formally compensate people for their lived experience through this process, however, several of our city and contracted outreach workers have their own lived experience with homelessness. For more on how Denver engages people experiencing homelessness in the policymaking and planning for encampment response, read our community spotlight on USICH.gov.

Hennepin County: Hennepin County has a Lived Expertise Advisory Group (LEAG) that is a Continuum of Care Committee and is involved in many programmatic and staffing considerations, including hiring of staff and evaluation of proposals and programming. Streets to Housing’s budget includes funding and a process for reimbursing people with current living experience of homelessness when participating in encampment or street-based programming. All people with lived experience of homelessness are reimbursed $20 per hour for their contributions.

COLLABORATION

What are some best practices on how to engage with local and state governments in creating policies that align with USICH's 19 strategies?

USICH: Addressing homelessness requires robust collaboration among a wide range of partners, including mayor’s offices, Continuums of Care, health providers, city councils, county supervisors, public housing authorities, public works and emergency management departments, street outreach teams, schools, law enforcement and public defenders, plus faith-based, civic engagement, and business communities. Land management agencies that do not have social services functions will need to develop strong collaborative relationships with agencies that provide housing and services. For specific ways to establish a cross-agency, multi-sector approach, view Strategy 3 of USICH’s guidance.

How do you respond to neighbor's concerns about encampments and calls for criminalization and closures and build public support for their strategy?

Denver: Encampment complaints are managed through calls or text messages to 311. These calls are analyzed and considered for response from our street outreach teams.

Hennepin County: Most concerns about encampments go to the city of Minneapolis’ 311 line. If Hennepin County receives direct inquiries about people experiencing unsheltered homelessness, our response is to dispatch our Streets to Housing team to ensure the people in question are connected to services and the homelessness response system. Streets to Housing can respond to concerns raised across 45 cities in Hennepin County to ensure full geographic coverage.

How can smaller but non-rural communities expand their resources?

USICH: Homelessness can look different in rural areas than in cities. There are no one-size-fits-all solutions, and no community has all the solutions—or the resources to implement solutions that meet the need. For examples of federal funding opportunities to address encampments, view the chart on Pages 22-24 of USICH’s 19 strategies. To meaningfully and sustainably address this crisis, especially in smaller but non-rural areas, systems must work together to identify possible resources and individually acknowledge their role in contributing to and solving homelessness. In USICH’s new Community Spotlight series, the small community of Las Cruces, New Mexico, explains how it leverages housed neighbors, businesses, schools, and other local organizations to expand their resources for people experiencing homelessness.

How do you coordinate with law enforcement agencies to promote and ensure positive and productive relationships with people living in encampments?

Denver: The Denver mayor’s office holds multiple calls each week with law enforcement leaders to ensure strategic and operational alignment around addressing encampments. We work to ensure that first touches with encampments are outreach focused and targeted towards getting people indoors.

How do you support staff with systems frustration or burnout?

Hennepin County: Hennepin County is constantly centering the principles of trauma-informed care, including supporting our staff to identify symptoms around compassion fatigue and secondary trauma. We offer our team training and 1:1 support. We see ourselves as change agents both for the people we have the privilege to serve as well as elevating system gaps and failures to Leadership and Planning Analysts for ongoing improvements as needed.

What role (beyond Coordinated Entry) should Continuums of Care play in encampment response?

USICH: People living in encampments often develop strong connections with each other. When possible, CoCs should consider simultaneously connecting everyone residing in the encampment to the same shelter or housing locations. In addition, CoCs should generally advocate for people without a home by organizing service providers and pushing the community to use best practices.

How do you collaborate with schools/McKinney-Vento programs?

Hennepin County: Hennepin County’s Streets to Housing Program works closely with youth providers whose target population is youth at risk of or experiencing homelessness to coordinate services, ensure a developmentally appropriate service response, and connect these youth to emergency shelter, housing, and services and support with school enrollment and attendance.

DATA

How does Hennepin County use HMIS on mobile devices?

Hennepin County: Streets to Housing has tablets and laptops actively in the field. Our encampment engagement events include a tent/canopy, tables and chairs, phones and phone chargers, Wi-Fi hotspots, and staff enabled with technology to connect people to benefits, apply for housing, and complete housing assessments.

How does Hennepin County prioritize people on the by-name list for housing?

Hennepin County: Single adults and families are referred to homeless-dedicated units via the Coordinated Entry System according to medical fragility, chronicity, and then months homeless by HUD definition.

Do you have any data on the impact of providing low-barrier shelter?

Hennepin County: Hennepin County has made significant efforts to lower barriers to shelter, including reducing congregate spaces, reinventing substance use policies, adding culturally specific shelter options, increasing staff training and case management services, removing financial obligations for shelter, and integrating a Shelter Bill of Rights into emergency shelter contracts. The Shelter Bill of Rights was created by Street Voices of Change, a group of advocates with lived experience, to ensure people have access to safe and dignified emergency shelters.

CRISIS RESPONSE

What kind of waste management and hygiene services do you offer, and how do you fund them?

Denver: These services are coordinated through our public works and public health agencies. We provide trash collection and portable toilets to encampments during the encampment resolution process. These are funded through our city’s general fund.

How do you respond to people who say they prefer to live in an encampment than a shelter or even housing, particularly if they have a mental health or substance use disorder?

Denver: More than 90% of those we have encountered in encampment resolution have chosen to move indoors when offered a dignified, secure option with supportive services.

Hennepin County: Hennepin County utilizes the principles of Housing First, Assertive Engagement, and trauma-informed care, understanding that people we are working with may have resistance or distrust in systems and traditional care structures. We also center voices with lived experience in the development and implementation of this model, and they have repeatedly told us that they do not want to live outside but have not been adequately supported in exploring options that meet their needs.

How does your outreach remain housing-focused if and when there is no permanent housing or shelter available?

Denver: When beds are limited, we utilize the time to continue making progress on vital documents and coordinated entry assessments.

Hennepin County: Remaining housing-focused allows us to constantly explore emergency shelter and housing options that may exist and utilize our Coordinated Entry system and other housing resources including resources for specific sub-populations like veterans or youth. Of course, not everything is available immediately, but we seek a functional zero in terms of inflow/outflow through our homelessness response system. If we are not talking about housing with people who are experiencing homelessness, we’re having the wrong conversation. For more on Hennepin County’s housing-focused outreach program, read our community spotlight on USICH.gov.

What happens to the people who are not successfully housed through your outreach programs?

Hennepin County: Households are continued to be served through street outreach and drop-in centers while they explore and navigate emergency shelter and housing options that exist in Hennepin County or their destination of choice.

Can any federal funds be used for storage?

USICH: The following are examples of federally funded programs that offer funding that can be used for this purpose. For specific terms and conditions, contact the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD):

Continuum of Care Program (HUD)
Emergency Solutions Grants (HUD)
Youth Homelessness Demonstration Program (HUD)

For more examples of federal funding opportunities to address encampments, view the chart on Pages 22-24 of USICH’s 19 strategies.

What does the federal government recommend communities do when both shelters and housing are not available?

USICH: When emergency shelters are full and permanent housing is not available, it is important that communities expand short-term strategies to offer shelter that promotes dignity, respect, and pathways to permanent housing. All shelter or short-term housing must meet standards of care, rather than serving as alternative forms of encampment, and they should meet individuals’ needs (which should include accessible services for people with disabilities). Interim strategies range from congregate options, such as safe camping sites and safe parking programs, to non-congregate options, such as tiny homes and hotel/motel rooms. Non-congregate shelter gained popularity during the pandemic, helped more people move off streets and into shelter. Shelter options should include ample capacity for “low-barrier” shelters, meaning there are few programmatic requirements that may pose as barriers to people entering. For specific ways to ensure interim strategies promote dignity, respect, and pathways to permanent housing, view Strategy 14 of USICH’s guidance.

Are there any best practices for government-sanctioned encampments?

Denver: They should be housing-focused and include 24/7 staffing and services. These should be seen as places focused on rehousing people from the streets through direct street outreach efforts.

When communities have a shortage of both shelter and housing, does the federal government recommend equal investment in expanding both?

USICH: Encampment budgeting should focus on the primary goal: moving people as quickly as possible into permanent housing. While shelter and short-term housing are vital for the treatment of unsheltered homelessness, permanent housing is the ultimate cure. Investing in shelter or short-term housing must not come at the expense of expanding permanent housing. For specific ways to expand the supply of affordable housing, view Strategy 17 of USICH’s guidance.

How do you communicate an upcoming encampment closure while being sensitive to the encampment residents and housed community that may be against the closure?

Denver: We only close encampments when there are legitimate indoor options available for people, including permanent housing or non-congregate shelter beds. When we do so, we communicate publicly and with city council seven days prior to the resolution to ensure that everyone knows what to expect over the final week of the process.

The National Park Service is closing several encampments in D.C. this summer, displacing dozens of people living in them. How does this align with USICH's 19 strategies?

USICH: USICH believes that any action taken to address harmful conditions in encampments should use evidence-based strategies to collaboratively, equitably, and humanely make housing, health care, and other support available to all who need it. When health and safety factors call for encampments to be closed before that happens, the process must be implemented in a humane and trauma-informed way, and the goal must be to connect every person to housing and services to help them overcome and avoid future experiences of homelessness. That is USICH’s standard, informed by people with lived experience of homelessness and other experts. USICH does not evaluate specific encampments.

What are you doing to protect people living in encampments, especially given the national rise in violence against them?

Hennepin County: Hennepin County works on personal safety planning with the households we work with that are unsheltered and we have partnerships with programs that offer intervention and support for households fleeing or seeking to flee domestic violence and/or sex/human trafficking. Encampments can be an unintentional target for predatory behavior on the vulnerable households who occupy these spaces so Streets to Housing is always leading with assisting households to identify a safe, appropriate alternative to sleeping in places unmeant for human habitation.

How will the Grants Pass ruling impact USICH's 19 strategies?

USICH: The Supreme Court’s decision to allow Grants Pass, Oregon, to make it illegal to sleep in public further erodes the civil rights of Americans, puts the lives of people without a home in even more danger, and makes it harder for people experiencing homelessness to get housing, shelter, and services. USICH urges local and state leaders to reject expensive, ineffective, and inhumane laws that criminalize homelessness, and USICH is committed to helping communities implement our 19 strategies and invest more in affordable housing and evidence-based services that help people move off streets and into homes.

How will the Grants Pass ruling impact local encampment response?

Denver: We will continue to focus on resolving encampments through housing and non-congregate shelter regardless of the ruling.

HOUSING & SUPPORT

How often do people move straight from an encampment into permanent housing?

Hennepin County: The Streets to Housing Program is moving people from encampments and other places not meant for human habitation every day through our Coordinated Entry System and other housing options, including board and lodges, reunification with friends/family, and shared housing. Since August 2022, Streets to Housing has housed more than 300 people directly from the street into housing. There is no one-size-fits-all solution, and our team is trained to triage and navigate housing solutions that exist for each person based on their household needs and personal interests.

What federal funding is available to expand permanent housing?

USICH: The following are examples of programs that offer funding that can be used for this purpose. For specific terms and conditions, contact the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) or HUD:

Low Income Housing Tax Credits (IRS)
HOME Investment Partnerships (HUD)
Housing Trust Fund (HUD)
Pathways to Removing Obstacles to Housing (HUD)
Community Development Block Grants (HUD)

For more federal funding opportunities, view HUD’s Primer on Affordable Housing Development and Key Funding Sources and view the chart on Pages 22-24 of USICH’s 19 strategies.

What federal funding is available to include health providers in homelessness outreach?

USICH: The following are examples of programs that offer funding that can be used for this purpose. For specific terms and conditions, contact the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) or HUD:

Medicaid (HHS)
Health Care for the Homeless (HHS)
Projects for Assistance in Transition From Homelessness (HHS)
Grants for the Benefit of Homeless Individuals (HHS)
Treatment for Individuals Experiencing Homelessness (HHS)
Continuum of Care Program (HUD)
Emergency Solutions Grants (HUD)

For more federal funding opportunities, view the chart on Pages 22-24 of USICH’s 19 strategies.

What federal funding is available for converting vacant property into housing or shelter for people experiencing homelessness?

USICH: The following are examples of programs that offer funding that can be used for this purpose. For specific terms and conditions, contact the IRS, HUD, U.S. Department of Treasury, or U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT):

Low Income Housing Tax Credits (IRS)
HOME Investment Partnerships (HUD)
Housing Trust Fund (HUD)
Pathways to Removing Obstacles to Housing (HUD)
Community Development Block Grants (HUD)
State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds (Treasury)
Mortgage Insurance for Rental Housing—Section 221(d)(4) (HUD)
Mortgage Insurance for Rental Housing for Urban Renewal and Concentrated Development Areas—Section 220 (HUD)
Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (DOT)
Railroad Rehabilitation and Improvement Financing (DOT)

For more federal funding opportunities, view the White House’s Commercial to Residential Conversions Guidebook to Available Federal Resources and view the chart on Pages 22-24 of USICH’s 19 strategies.

How much does mental health and substance use factor into encampment response?

USICH: While not every person living in an encampment has a mental health or substance use disorder, this population is more likely than people in shelters to have one or both. This is partially because some shelters require sobriety, which denies entry to people struggling with substance use disorders and leaves them nowhere else to go but the streets. Furthermore, when hospitals and inpatient treatment centers lack strong housing-focused discharge planning, these institutions can serve as a pipeline into homelessness. Living unsheltered presents dangerous conditions for any person, but people with mental health or substance use disorders are at higher risk of death and other negative health outcomes, so it is important to 1) move quickly to treat health conditions while people are living in encampments, 2) consider immediately housing people with mental health or substance use disorders, and 3) continue treatment after people move into shelter or housing. For more on helping people with unique health needs, view Strategy 2 of USICH’s guidance.

How do we help people with mental health and substance use disorders without making treatment a requirement for housing or shelter?

USICH: Mental health and substance use treatment are most effective and sustainable when people choose it, and forced treatment is constitutionally limited to people who present a clear danger to themselves or others. Furthermore, it is easier for people to treat and recover from mental health and substance use disorders if they have safe and stable housing. For these reasons, the most effective outreach connects people with housing and health care, including residential and outpatient mental health and substance use treatment. Outreach teams should lead local encampment response and should include or partner with trauma-informed staff who specialize in mental health and substance use treatment and use harm reduction strategies. As part of USICH’s community spotlight series, San Diego County and Hennepin County, Minnesota explained how they integrate mental health clinicians, opioid use disorder specialists, and public health nurses into outreach.

PREVENTION

How can we interrupt pipelines into homelessness, particularly from health and corrections settings?

USICH: At least 50,000 people are discharged from jails into homelessness every year, and many people are discharged directly from hospitals and treatment facilities with no place to go. Both health and corrections systems should begin discharge planning as early as possible—ideally during admission—and assess and strengthen discharge planning protocols by, for instance, adding questions about housing status on discharge screening tools. Other prevention strategies that have been developed and explored in health-care settings include: medical-legal partnerships targeted at eviction prevention; case management focused on emergency departments and hospitals; and predictive tools for homelessness. For more ways to interrupt pipelines into homelessness, view USICH’s guidance on “How Health Systems and Hospitals Can Help Solve Homelessness” as well as Strategy 18 of USICH’s encampment guidance.

What is the federal government doing to prevent evictions?

USICH: The federal response to the COVID-19 pandemic showed the power of prevention. The creation of emergency rental assistance prevented millions of evictions. As a result, we prevented an expected rise in homelessness from 2020 to 2022 during the pandemic. To continue those efforts, President Biden asked Congress to invest $3 billion to promote and solidify state and local eviction prevention programs. Since then, the White House also created a Blueprint for a Renters Bill of Rights, which outlines principles and best practices to strengthen tenant protections and increase fairness in the rental market. Meanwhile, federal agencies have taken the following actions to prevent evictions:

HUD proposed a rule for public housing agencies and owners of properties with project-based rental assistance to provide at least 30 days of written notice to tenants facing eviction for falling behind on their rent.
HUD published a fact sheet highlighting situations in which housing providers may not evict or threaten to evict someone.
HUD published policies that local and state governments can adopt to reduce eviction filings.
HUD launched the National Standards for the Physical Inspection of Real Estate (NSPIRE) to reduce health and safety hazards in the home and identify tenants’ concerns.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced a set of actions to protect tenants living in rural development-assisted housing.
HUD, USDA, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), and the Federal Housing Financing Agency each released guidance for landlords, operators, and stakeholders who rely on tenant screening reports when evaluating applications from renters.
CFPB and FTC asked for public comment on how background screening may shut renters out of housing, and they committed to using those responses to inform potential policy changes.

What is the federal government doing to expand housing in rural areas?

USICH: The following are examples of federal efforts and resources to expand housing in rural America:

How are you using master leasing to identify permanent housing?

Denver: We don’t formally use a master leasing tool but work with landlord liaisons to identify available units and ensure they are ready to go during encampment resolution processes.

Hennepin County: We look to our community partner agencies that provide supportive housing to explore shared housing and master leasing. Our Continuum of Care and local resources would support these initiatives whenever possible.

Are there any federal resources for job training or employment for people experiencing or at risk of homelessness?

USICH: The U.S. Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Helpline (1-877-872-5627) can help identify these resources, but other resources include: