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  Field Notes: Focusing on Permanent Housing

  January 23, 2013

  Many communities just finished the process of submitting their Continuum of Care (CoC) applications to HUD in which they talked about how they plan to expand on their successes and improve on their weaknesses in ending homelessness locally. These applications contained ideas about how to target interventions more carefully, count more accurately, and improve performance across the board. At the Alliance, we’ve been thinking about how best to implement the HEARTH Act as well, on a national scale. In the coming months, we’re going to share with our readers some HEARTH Implementation best practices that we’ve identified at the program and system levels.

  For today’s blog, we’d like to talk about how to incorporate a permanent housing focus into your program’s work.

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  Conference Update: Registration Closes

  January 17, 2013

  The 2013 National Conference on Ending Family and Youth Homelessness is only about a month away, and Alliance staff are working diligently to put together panelists and activities. We can’t wait to meet the 900 of you folks who have registered to join us in Seattle, WA, for two packed days of sharing new practices, education, networking, and new and improved approaches for ending family and youth homelessness!

  With the date of the conference rapidly approaching, a lot of the details are coming together and there’s a lot of new and important information about registration, schedules, workshops and speakers. Here’s the latest.

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  Field Notes: Housing Locators and Supply and Demand

  January 16, 2013

  In March 2008 Fairfax County, VA, approved their Ten Year Plan to End Homelessness and soon afterwards, the County's Office to Prevent and End Homelessness (OPEH) partnered with Good Shepherd Housing and Family Services to implement a County-wide housing location services network. The impact of housing locators hired at various shelters and transitional housing programs was immediate and substantial.

  Within homeless services, housing locators are basically real estate agents for individuals and families who are experiencing homelessness. Like real estate agents, they locate suitable and affordable housing for their clients, negotiate a good price, and facilitate the placement of their clients into housing. They reach out to private landlords, large housing complexes, real estate agents, and public housing agencies to create housing options that work for their clients.

  In 2011, working with homeless families residing in shelters in Fairfax County, our agency's housing locators helped cut the families' average shelter stay by more than 50 days, a decline of more than 30 percent over the previous year. In all, housing locators created more capacity and efficiencies within the existing homeless services programs and served as a critical bridge to housing.

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  More than 1,000 Homeless Families Re-Housed with TANF Support

  January 15, 2013

  Over the course of the last several years, more than 1,000 formerly homeless families have returned to permanent housing in Salt Lake City thanks to a rapid rehousing program supported by Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) resources.

  A new profile by the Alliance examines the partnership between the homeless service provider, The Road Home, and the Utah Department of Workforce Services, the state agency that administers TANF and Workforce Investment Act (WIA) programs, that helped all these families escape homelessness. This partnership is a unique one. It brings together both the expertise and the resources of The Road Home and Workforce Services in order to help homeless families. More communities would benefit from adopting this approach.

  Here’s how it works.

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  VAWA Reauthorization Fails. What Now?

  January 14, 2013

  Last year, the 112th Congress failed to pass a bill reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) due to opposition among some House Republicans against provisions that the Senate Democratic leadership insisted be included (provisions for LGBTQ, Native American, and immigrant domestic violence survivors). In light of this failure, there have been some questions as to what the impact will be on programs.

  Rest assured, programs and services will not close or cease to exist because VAWA reauthorization did not pass. Reauthorization does not impact the current funding for these programs. Still, the continuing budget discussions happening in Congress, as well as state and local budget shortfalls do threaten these and other programs that serve survivors. Both domestic violence agencies and homeless service agencies should continue to contact their Congresspersons to educate them about the important role their programs play in helping survivors, families, and other persons in need.

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  Thank You for Supporting the Alliance’s Mission in 2012!

  January 11, 2013

  With the start of the new year we wanted to take a minute to thank all of our donors and supporters who helped make 2012 such a success. 

  Last year we set an ambitious goal of $175,000, for our holiday giving. We should have known that our donors would surpass that goal and donate over $190,000!

  We know that times are tough and that deciding where to donate is a difficult decision. We want to assure you we work hard to make sure that the majority of contributions go directly to support our programs to prevent and end homelessness.

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  The Alliance’s New Year’s Resolutions for 2013

  January 10, 2013

  For us in the Alliance, and for our partners and advocates and the policymakers we work with, the coming year is sure to be a significant one. Big things will be happening that will affect our efforts to end homelessness, both good and bad. 2013 is the year to be resolute. So, with that in mind, here are four of our New Year’s resolutions.

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  Field Notes: Thinking about Homelessness Prevention

  January 09, 2013

  Improving homelessness prevention programs requires that providers and funders shift how they determine whom to award prevention funds. As the chart below will demonstrate, we can have the highest impact by serving the highest risk households, even though our success rate will be lower.

  One of the biggest challenges with doing homelessness prevention well is targeting to the right group. For a prevention presentation I did recently, I created a chart that shows some of the paradox involved in targeting prevention assistance well.

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  SSVF Funding: Act Now

  January 07, 2013

  There's still funding out there, folks! And there's a great need. Just take a look at this graph, which shows the amount of funding that should be available in 2013 for Texas, New York, Florida and California under the Supportive Services for Veteran Families (SSVF ) grant program, based on the number of veterans experiencing homelessness in 2010. Compare that to the total amount of SSVF funding each state received in 2012.

  This year states will need increased funding to meet the needs of veterans and their families. Thankfully there's still time for them to get it! On the first of February, the Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA) for $300 million for the SSVF grant will close. So if you're looking for funding, apply now.

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  Youth Homelessness: This Year We Learn More

  January 04, 2013

  It's January and that means that communities across the country are preparing for their HUD mandated Point-In-Time Counts, which they will be performing at the end of this month. This year the homeless assistance field will take an important step toward ending youth homelessness by 2020 - one of the four major goals of Opening Doors – by collecting more accurate data on the population of youth experiencing homelessness.

  Recently, the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH) completed a series of webinars focused on showing a number of communities how to collect more detailed and accurate data on homeless youth during their counts. Though targeted at specific communities – Boston, Houston, and Los Angeles – the webinars provide information that should be useful for training volunteers, picking locations to survey, and finalizing survey questions in a wide range of communities.

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  Advocacy in 2013: A Look Ahead

  January 03, 2013

  Last year, I wrote a blog post about the 2012 outlook for homelessness policy and legislation. I described 2011 as a tumultuous year during which many challenges arose that would eventually shape our advocacy and policy work in 2012. Looking back, I’d have to say that 2012 indeed proved to be an enormously challenging but successful year for us (see my 2012 wrap-up for details).

  These last few weeks, we’ve been inundated with news of action or, has more often been the case, inaction, dealing with the fiscal cliff and the details of the last-minute deal to avert it. Thanks to the deal Congress struck with the Administration, 2013 should be just as challenging for advocates, if not more so, as last year. That deal, which you can read more about here, kicked the can down the road two months on sequestration, which should give the newly minted 113th Congress time to do something about it, such as eliminating the measure, or reversing it and replacing it with a more balanced plan.

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  How the Fiscal Cliff Deal Will Impact Homelessness

  January 02, 2013

  Last night Congress passed a bipartisan bill that eliminates or postpones many aspects of the “fiscal cliff.” President Obama is expected to sign the bill shortly.

  As readers of this blog are no doubt aware, the fiscal cliff was made up of different federal laws that would have taken effect around now that would have either raised taxes or cut spending in a number of different areas, including programs important to ending homelessness. The Congressional Budget Office found that, if all these measures took effect on schedule, it would have sent the economy back into a recession and substantially increased the unemployment rate.

  For people working on homelessness, here are some of the important things the new bill does.

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  Top 3 Alliance Blog posts of 2012: Number 1

  December 28, 2012

  As the end of 2012 approaches, we'd like to share with you three of our most read blog posts of the year. This blog post, originally published on February 23, 2012, is the most read post of 2012. It covers data from the Alliance's The State of Homelessness in America 2012. We'd like to remind readers that the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) recently released new data.

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  Top 3 Alliance Blog posts of 2012: Number 2

  December 27, 2012

  As the end of 2012 approaches, we'd like to share with you three of our most read blog posts of the year. This post, number 2 of the Alliance's Top 3, was originally published June 14, 2012. For the Alliance's latest Analysis of the Fiscal Cliff deal, see our recent blog post, "How the Fiscal Cliff Deal Will Impact Homelessness."

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  Top 3 Alliance Blog posts of 2012: Number 3

  December 26, 2012

  As the end of 2012 approaches, we'd like to share with you three of our most read blog posts of the year. This post, contributed by Iain De Jong, the President and CEO of OrgCode Consulting, Inc. and a frequent and popular speaker at Alliance conferences, was originally published on January 10, 2012. It's number 3 of the top 3 most read Alliance blog posts of 2012. It is the first part of a two-part series.

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  LGBTQ Youth Homelessness Simulation

  December 26, 2012

  Each year the Victory Institute gathers LGBT elected and appointed officials from across the nation for its LGBT International Leadership Conference, where they discuss issues facing the LGBT community. This year I was invited to talk to these decision makers about LGBT homelessness. It was a fantastic opportunity to raise awareness of the plight of unaccompanied young people and, with such an esteemed group of individuals on hand, the occasion called for something more impactful than a typical PowerPoint presentation.

  It was time to roll out the LGBTQ Youth Homelessness Simulation that Ed SanFilippo (the Alliance’s Policy Fellow) and I had been developing.

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  National Homeless Persons’ Memorial Day

  December 21, 2012

  The date December 21 has meanings both ancient and new. Communities in every era have paused in awareness of waning daylight and the promise of the sun’s return; in our era, some will pause to look for assurance that the world keeps turning. It is appropriate that National Homeless Persons’ Memorial Day is December 21.

  For people living on the street, the darkest day of the calendar is especially dark; for a person to die on the street is an ending that should be unthinkable. Homeless advocates, today, will pause to honor the neighbors and fellow citizens who passed away in 2012 without a home.

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  2012 … And that’s a wrap!

  December 20, 2012

  Well, OK, not quite. We’ve still got about 11 days left in 2012 and a pesky so-called fiscal cliff to deal with. But for now, let’s set all the last-minute fervor aside and take a look back at what a great year our advocates have had!

  Starting with the release of the State of Homelessness in America 2012 in January, advocates teamed up with the Alliance to get widespread media coverage. With your help, we were able to educate and informed our neighbors and local opinion leaders about our report and the important data contained within. It was a great way to start the year!

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  We Don’t Want Anything for Christmas (Except For an End to Homelessness)

  December 19, 2012

  Earlier this month, I spoke on the phone with the husband and wife songwriting duo Fuzz and Carrie Sangiovanni of Caravan of Thieves, a gypsy-jazz band from Bridgeport, Conn. At that time, they were in South Haven, Mich., on the last leg of their fall tour promoting their third album, “The Funhouse.”

  The band is donating proceeds from downloads of two of their holiday themed songs, “I Don't Want Anything For Christmas,” and “Ms Priscilla Pumpkin” to the Alliance. You can listen to both songs and download them from the band’s website. And you should, not just because it would benefit the Alliance, but because they’re really great songs. Trust me. I spoke to them about the band, the tour, and the reason they’ve decided to devote so much time to the issue of homelessness.

  (By the way, check out the end of the blog post for what has to be the coolest Michael Jackson cover ever.) Here’s what Fuzz and Carrie had to say.

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  Field Notes: Progressive Engagement Activity

  December 19, 2012

  During last summer’s conference, we did an exercise that demonstrates to an audience how a progressive engagement process works. Progressive engagement refers to a strategy of providing a small amount of assistance to everybody who enters your homelessness system, then waiting to see if that works. If it doesn’t, you provide more assistance and wait to see if that works. If not, you apply even more, until eventually you provide your most intensive interventions to the few people who are left.

  We did the exercise with an audience of about 75 people. Here’s how it worked:

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