• Tomorrow is Capitol Hill Day 2012!

  July 17, 2012

  We at the Alliance are getting increasingly excited for tomorrow, July 18 – the official Capitol Hill Day 2012! Capitol Hill Day is held every year in conjunction with our National Conference on Ending Homelessness. This year, conference participants from an astounding – and record-breaking! 44 states will head up to Capitol Hill to meet with their senators, representatives, and their staff members. They are scheduled to attend upwards of 250 meetings. We’ve been extremely busy! Conference participants have been stopping by the Advocacy Information Table at the conference to pick up Capitol Hill Day Packets that contain information on each of the official Capitol Hill Day policy priorities. Advocates will then educate members of congress and their staff about the great work being done in their communities to solve homelessness, and explain the impact of these policy issues on their efforts. If you’re unable to attend the conference, please keep an eye on this blog next month for a full report of the success of this year’s Capitol Hill Day. In the meantime, you can always check out last year’s report and get involved in the Alliance’s advocacy efforts by checking out our ongoing campaigns. But if you ARE at the conference, we hope you plan to participate in Capitol Hill Day 2012! It couldn’t be any easier. Your state captains have been busy scheduling meetings. They just need YOU to participate! Stop by the Advocacy Information Table to get more information on how to get involved.... Read More »
• HUD's Mark Johnston speaks at 2012 National Conference

  July 17, 2012

  This year will be a year of change for the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and, by extension, for advocates and people working on behalf of people experiencing homelessness, said HUD’s acting assistant secretary for the Office of Community Planning and Development, Mark Johnston. Speaking at the opening plenary session of the 2012 National Conference on Ending Homelessness on Monday, July 16, Assistant Secretary Johnston addressed what is perhaps the most significant piece of news circulating the conference, the release on Saturday, July 15 of the Continuum of Care interim regulations under the HEARTH Act. Assistant Secretary Johnston reminded the nearly 1,500 practitioners, public officials, and advocates at the conference that the new regulations will alter how communities manage and distribute resources in the future, but will also provide communities with important tools that have the potential to strengthen prevention and rapid re-housing efforts. He noted that the HEARTH was signed into law in 2009, the same year as the Recovery Act, which created the Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing Program (HPRP). Developing and implementing both policy initiatives have been a challenge for his agency, he said, but doing so has taught HUD officials a great deal about homelessness prevention and rapid re-housing. “In retrospect, it was great timing,” he added. HUD officials have incorporated lessons learned from  the implementation of HPRP into their regulations for the HEARTH act. But Assistant Secretary Johnston also acknowledged the difficult fiscal environment in which agencies and ad... Read More »
• An Increase for Vulnerable Young People

  June 21, 2012

  Last week, the Senate Appropriations Committee announced its funding levels for key programs serving low-income and homeless people within the Departments of Health and Human Services (HHS), Labor, and Education (yes, it’s quite a big bill!). To cut to the chase, many of the programs on which the Alliance works and on which people experiencing homelessness rely, including SAMHSA Homeless Services, Runaway and Homeless Youth Act (RHYA) programs, Projects for Assistance in Transition from Homelessness (PATH), and the Education for Homeless Children and Youth (EHCY) program, along with many other programs, would receive the same amount of funding in fiscal year (FY) 2013 under the Senate’s proposal as they do in FY 2012. Many of these programs, - especially RHYA programs - have seen several years of flat funding in a row – despite increased need, despite a bad economy that continues to fare poorly month after month, and despite the program’s target population: our nation’s most vulnerable young people. In recognition that flat funding is not enough, the Alliance has made RHYA and SAMHSA two of its top priorities for Capitol Hill Day this year.  We are hoping to bring these two issues, and a handful of others, to the forefront of congressional offices’ minds and educate as many Members of Congress as possible on the importance of these key programs.  We’ve got loads of materials to help participants prepare, and our State Captains are in the process of sett... Read More »
• Live Webcast of USICH Council Meeting Today

  June 12, 2012

  Today, June 12, at 1:30 p.m. ET, the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness (USHICH) meeting, chaired by Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, will be streamed live online.  Today’s meeting will feature a presentation by the U.S. Department of of Health and Human Services (HHS that will announce a new framework to advance the goal of ending youth homelessness by 2020. The Alliance’s own Nan Roman will be on a panel of experts who will participate in a discussion immediately following the presentation of the new framework.  The other experts on the panel will be Dana Scott, State Coordinator for Homeless Education for the Colorado Department of Education and Vice President of the National Association for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth; and Bob Mecum, Executive Director of Lighthouse Youth Services. Check back here at the Alliance’s blog this afternoon to read more about the presentation and the Alliance’s response.... Read More »
• Supportive Housing and Medicaid – Moving the Agenda in States

  June 11, 2012

  Leaders and innovators in supportive housing convened in Chicago last week for a multi-faceted look at integrating housing and health care. The Leadership Forum, sponsored by the Corporation for Supportive Housing, was also the occasion for the release of a “business case” for states to tap Medicaid to pay for key services in permanent supportive housing. The presenters at the day-long conference and the paper on the business case speak to recent innovations with health care and supportive housing -- demonstrating what’s possible under the Affordable Care Act, and what’s actually happening in communities where state government and homeless providers are proactive. Two stand-out ACA provisions enable homeless advocates to persuade state policymakers that supportive housing is a worthwhile Medicaid investment.   First, the “health home” benefit can be a good vehicle for funding care management and service coordination, services that make supportive housing viable as a strategy to end chronic homelessness. As the Forum audience heard, a Medicaid health home is a unique concept that has to be understood in a health policy context. But once that context is understood, it is easier to bring relevant data and analysis to Medicaid decision-makers. The business case illustrates that if Medicaid pays appropriately for care management via this new benefit, states can expand their service capacity in supportive housing. That’s because Medicaid allows the state to access federal funding to pay a portion of what the state would otherwise hav... Read More »
• ACF Welfare Research Conference

  June 04, 2012

  Last week, the Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation (OPRE) in the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services hosted the 15th Annual Welfare Research and Evaluation Conference in Washington, DC.  This conference provides welfare and poverty researchers, state and local administrators, practitioners, and Federal officials to meet and discuss research, programs, and policies that impact welfare and related programs. This year, the conference featured tracks on TANF, education and the labor market, child and youth well-being, fatherhood, evaluation of social programs, and alleviating poverty and strengthening the safety net. While a number of the sessions at the conference had implications for homeless families, individuals, and youth, there was a session specifically dedicated to the role that TANF and other human services programs play in ending family homelessness. The session was moderator by the Alliance’s own Sharon McDonald, Director of Families and Youth, and featured: Dennis Culhane of the University of Pennsylvania who provided an overview of his widely accepted typology of homeless families and discussed the important role that short- and medium-term rent assistance in ending homelessness for a large proportion of homeless families; Frank Cirillo of the Mercer County Board of Social Services in New Jersey who discussed the successful efforts in Mercer County to fund rapid re-housing for families using TANF funds; and Alvaro Cortes from Abt Associates who provided a broad overview of findings from a st... Read More »
• Why You Should Go to the Summer Alliance Conference on Ending Homelessness

  May 24, 2012

  Today's blog was written by Iain De Jong, President & CEO of OrgCode Consulting. Over almost a decade, attendance at the National Conference on Ending Homelessness put on by the National Alliance to End Homelessness in Washington, DC each year has changed my experience in working in homeless programs and services for the better. In this guest blog for the Alliance, I thought I’d tell you all the reasons why you should go… Why You Should Go to the Summer Alliance Conference on Ending Homelessness You Are Not Alone – meet other people that do the same thing you do day in and day out. Realizing you are not alone is a good feeling and it can be empowering. Smart People – I don’t know how they do it, but the Alliance does an amazing job attracting really smart people and speakers year after year. Realizing You Are Part of A Movement Bigger Than Yourself – maybe where you live people cock their head sideways and think you have completely lost it when you speak of ending homelessness. The people at the conference? They get it. Agenda is Content Rich – have you seen the agenda for the conference? You won’t find that much amazing content at any other homeless conferences. DC Is a Great Place for a Conference – with all of the museums, great nightlife, and other sights to see, you’ll find your time pre- and post- conference well spent…and perhaps at... Read More »
• Webinar on Increasing Stability for Runaway and Homeless Youth

  May 22, 2012

  On June 14 at 2 p.m. ET the Alliance is holding a webinar on using family intervention to reunify and connect homeless youth with their parents. Family intervention is a strategy used to link unaccompanied runaway and homeless youth, regardless of age, to their family or a caring adult. It provides an avenue for families in crisis to work on core issues that led to a youth leaving the home, identify extended family members who they’d like to be a part of the process, and learn to identify resources that can mitigate future crises. A number of strategies fall under family intervention, such as family reunification, family connecting, family finding, and even aftercare services.  Family intervention should be made available to all unaccompanied runaway or homeless youth, including: Youth over the age of 18, Youth that identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or questioning (LGBTQ), Youth who access street outreach, basic center, transitional living and other housing programs, Youth who are in need of a caring adult in their life, and Youth who have the desire to be reunited or connected with their family when it is safe to do so. There are several evidenced-based family intervention models available for providers looking to implement this strategy. The Support to Reunite, Involve, and Value Each Other (STRIVE) model will specifically be discussed during the webinar. Other models include: Strengthening Families Program Brief Strategic Family Therapy Family Behavior Therapy Family Acceptance Project Multisystemic Th... Read More »
• Workshops on Ending Homelessness for Survivors of Domestic Violence

  May 21, 2012

  This coming July, the Alliance’s National Conference on Ending Homelessness to be held in Washington, DC, will feature a variety of workshops that are designed to help domestic violence service providers find ways to better meet the housing needs of survivors in their programs as well as help homeless service provides better provide safety and services to survivors in their housing programs. To kick off the conference, the Alliance is hosting a pre-conference session that is intended for homeless service providers who are interested in more effectively addressing the needs of survivors in their housing programs.  The session will address increasing safety for survivors, best practices for case managers, and developing successful partnerships that benefit survivors.  Speakers in the session will be from domestic violence programs that successfully implement a variety of housing models and are experts in adapting those housing models to survivors.  While preregistration for this session is not required, we are asking that interested persons email their intent to attend this preconference session to Samantha Batko at sbatko@naeh.org so that we can track anticipated attendance. Additionally, throughout the conference, participants will find content on better serving survivors in a number of sessions, including, but not limited to those focusing on: Successful partnerships between domestic violence serving agencies, homelessness assistance programs, and employment programs, Overarching strategies for ending family homelessness and rapid re-housing for survivors, Research on homelessness prevention and rapid re-housing, Development of and impl... Read More »
• Learning about Advocacy at our National Conference on Ending Homelessness

  May 16, 2012

  When our blog readers think of Washington, DC, they often think of politics (and politicians, of course), soaring monuments, and hopefully, the Alliance’s advocacy efforts.  But in all seriousness, coming to our nation’s capital is a great opportunity to learn what’s happening with federal policy and to make an impact on it.  We talked last week about how to participate in Capitol Hill Day, but our National Conference on Ending Homelessness also offers a great opportunity to learn more about federal policy and advocacy, including messaging and how-tos. This year, we’ve got a great track of workshops for anyone who wants to better hone their advocacy skills, for seasoned advocates, for Capitol Hill Day participants, or for folks who are just curious.  Here’s a basic overview of some of the great advocacy workshops we’re planning: Building a Systems Change Movement: Engaging Local Leaders – This workshop will provide attendees with concrete examples and how tips for getting your local community leaders (elected officials or otherwise) to work together to support and affect positive systems change. Impacting Policy: Making the Most of your Advocacy Meetings – Ideal for Capitol Hill Day participants, this workshop will cover the nitty-gritty of conducting a meeting with your Member of Congress or their staff.  The lessons imparted will also translate to local and state policymakers or other key stakeholder meetings. The Federal Budget: Update and Impact on Ending Homelessness – There have been many changes to ... Read More »
• Ending Chronic Homelessness State by State: Strategies for Medicaid to Make a Difference

  May 14, 2012

  “States vary” –  a top research finding in virtually every field studied inside the Beltway. When it comes to understanding how Medicaid is relevant to ending chronic homelessness, we would like to be more helpful. True, Medicaid’s relevance to ending chronic homelessness in your community depends greatly on the profile of your state. Still, success in another state is worth looking at, along with assessing what can be borrowed effectively. A pre-conference session for early arrivals at the Alliance’s summer conference will offer an opportunity to do just that.  The half-day mini-conference is co-sponsored by the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness. We will examine several key facets of how to make Medicaid a stronger partner in programs that house and stabilize people who have been chronically homeless. Homeless Advocates at the Table. One facet is effective engagement at the right time in state health policymaking. How do homeless advocates get the ear of state health care officials before they make decisions that have implications for addressing chronic homelessness in a person-centered way? New York has an inspiring story of supportive housing stakeholders at the table of statewide Medicaid reform -- with results that bolster community-based strategies to end homelessness. In Louisiana, supportive housing is now viewed as a core element in Medicaid’s plans for managing care of behavioral health enrollees. In short, policy gaps have been successfully bridged with stakeholder input at high levels. Benefits and Payment Policy. Anoth... Read More »
• Join Us for Capitol Hill Day!

  May 10, 2012

  Capitol Hill Day is held every year in conjunction with the Alliance’s National Conference on Ending Homelessness here in Washington, DC every July.  It allows conference participants to take the opportunity to take advantage of their time in the nation’s capital to meet with their U.S. Senators and Representatives and their staff.  Last year, participants attended nearly 270 meetings with congressional offices from 42 states! Face-to-face time with Members of Congress and their staff is one of the most important ways to take part in federal advocacy by educating Members and describing what’s happening on the ground back in their districts.  These meetings are a critical component to your work in ending homelessness. By participating in these meetings, you can work to build or establish relationships with the congressional offices, educate your Members on your progress in preventing and ending homelessness at home, and encourage them to support your work. So how can you get involved?  The first step is to register for our conference, if you haven’t already done so! Early registration closes on May 30, so register now to receive the best rates!  For a closer look at what we’ll be covering at the conference, check out the website or our recent blogs. After registering for the conference, get in touch with your State Captain.  State Captains take the lead in each state scheduling the meetings, coordinating participants, and ensuring the right policy priorities are covered in each... Read More »
• Track of Workshops on Youth Homelessness at Upcoming Alliance Conference

  May 07, 2012

  In February, at the first ever National Conference on Ending Family and Youth Homelessness, the Alliance introduced a brand new framework for ending youth homelessness.  Springboarding off the introduction of that framework, the Alliance is featuring a wide variety of content at the upcoming National Conference on Ending Homelessness to be held July 16-18 in Washington, DC, including, but not limited to: Systems-level outcome measures and approaches for communities working to end youth homelessness, Family intervention strategies to successfully prevent youth from becoming homeless and reunite youth who have become homeless with their families, Strategies for engaging and maintaining high need youth in housing programs, Improving outcomes of youth aging out of the child welfare system and those exiting the juvenile justice system to prevent homelessness, Scattered site housing models for youth, Improving employment outcomes for youth, and Creating welcoming and safe environments for LGBTQ youth to get these youth off of the street and keep them safe while in care.. These workshops are strategically placed throughout the conference to allow attendees to attend as many sessions on youth as possible.  This will truly be a conference not to be missed for anyone working to end youth homelessness in their community.  The early registration rate for the conference is only available online until  10am EST on Wednesday, May 30, 2012.  Or, you may mail in your registration form postmarked by Wednesday, May 30, 2012.... Read More »
• Ending Youth Homelessness — Themes from the NAEH Conference

  February 16, 2012

  Today's guest post comes to us from Shahera Hyatt. I would first like to start off by thanking the Alliance for explicitly including youth in this year’s conference on ending homelessness. For those of us who work day in and out on this issue, it was great to be with others to share our knowledge, experience, and passion for this work. There were a few themes over the course of the conference regarding youth homelessness, with the first being the need for more timely and consistent data on this population. Not only was there a workshop on this topic, but Nan Roman gave considerable time to the issue in her plenary speech on the first day of the conference. She stated that even though the current data on the size and scope of youth homelessness is severely lacking (and I whole-heartedly agree), moving forward with the data we’ve got is absolutely critical. To that end, she presented data from the NISMART-II in a new way, stating that about 96 percent of runaways under the age of 18 return home within one week (although many cycle in and out of homelessness). Policy Analyst Samantha Batko translated the data in a way that hasn’t been done before by identifying characteristics about the trajectory of youth homelessness in the hopes to shed new light on where interventions should be targeted. This information indicates that supporting crisis interventions to help facilitate the process of returnin... Read More »
• Whitney Gent: Housing as a Human Right

  May 16, 2011

  Today’s guest post comes to us from Whitney Gent, Development & Communications Director at the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty. Recent polling indicates that 3/4 of Americans believe that adequate housing is a human right, and 2/3 believe that government programs need to be expanded to ensure this right. The U.S. helped shape the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights – both of which recognize that housing is not a privilege, but a right. But despite our declarations and our international treaty ratifications, it’s obvious our ideals do not match our reality. But now, we’re seeing big progress. This March, for the first time, the federal government officially acknowledged that reducing homelessness implicates its human rights obligations. Government is now catching up with advocates who have been working for this recognition for years. This is thanks to advocates across the country who have demanded that our government be held accountable to its international commitments and to make the human right to housing a reality here at home. Using a rights-based framework for homelessness advocacy gives us a different set of tools to create change, to end homelessness. A rights-based framework can help us fight budget cuts that would send more people to the streets. It will help us turn the Federal Plan to End Homelessness into federal action. This June 7-8, the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty... Read More »
• How do we make our community better?

  March 21, 2011

  I’ve been doing some thinking about community. Last week, the Nonprofit Technology Conference descended on DC. Every year, thousands of happy geeked-out NGO workers get together to find out what’s new in the field of technology and how those new shiny tools can be used to make NGOs better! And while I enjoy the workshops, I think what NTC does best is gel a community together. There’s always ample opportunity to mingle between workshops, there’s a community lounge where people can rest up, plug in, and meet new people. There are endless opportunities for people who live in the same city, who have the same job functionality, who have the same interests, who have the same challenges to share their struggles and stories. And the playful spirit of the conference – from the opening remarks to the ice cream breaks to the relaxed dress code – perpetuates a sense of ease and comfort. “We’re all in this together!” the conference seems to announce from the get-go. And that experience, at least for me, is the backbone of this community. Every year, I’m excited to see the friends I met the year before and throughout the year, I join in on webinars and conference calls to stay updated on what’s happening. And I know that there is a resource out there to which I can turn if I find myself up against a technology wall I can’t hurdle over. We... Read More »
• Friday News Roundup: Local counts, SPENT, and the Alliance conference

  February 11, 2011

  So this week, we saw a lot of articles about community point-in-time counts - and the increases and decreases that officials found. It also lead to some discussion about what localities are going to do about homelessness in their neighborhoods. Both Kansas City and Seattle are dealing with homeless camps, Northern California suburb San Ramon is considering creating a housing authority, and Gov. Lincoln Chafee (R – RI) has announced his intent to reactivate the state’s Interagency Council on Homelessness. Take Part blogged about that great game we’ve been promoting all week, SPENT. The interactive tool (that we wrote about earlier this week) is a great way to learn about the decisions that low-income and people at-risk of homelessness face. And of course, this was the week of our National Conference on Ending Family Homelessness. We were so excited for all the great speakers, workshops, and events - and we’re proud to report that we weren’t the only ones! The Oakland Tribune and the local NPR affiliate, KQED also took notice of the great work all of you guys are doing to end family homelessness. ... Read More »
• Take 2: The Rapid Re-Housing Clinic at the Oakland Conference

  February 08, 2011

  Today, we're reviewing Kim Walker's post about the day-long Rapid Re-Housing Clinic because - drumroll! - it's tomorrow! Our Center for Capacity Building will be hosting the training to educate advocates, providers, and consumers about this excellent strategy to end homelessness. It’s that time again! It’s T – five weeks (!) until the Alliance’s National Conference on Ending Family Homelessness, set this year in Oakland, Calif. For you veterans out there, you know that the Alliance strives to make the conference as informative, interesting, and useful as possible, chock full of workshops, meetings, plenary sessions, and group discussions. (Seriously – check out this year’s agenda.) And we’re not planning on disappointing in February! In fact, the Alliance’s Center for Capacity Building is taking it up a notch and offering a day-long Rapid Re-Housing for Families clinic at the February conference. Rapid re-housing is a strategy focused on returning people experiencing homelessness to permanent housing as quickly as possible by eliminating their barriers to obtaining and retaining permanent housing. Doing this effectively requires the careful implementation of a number of strategies, including effective housing search and location, landlord engagement, and home-based case management. Needless to say, it’s not always easy – and that’s where we want to help. Our clinic will review the nuts and bolts of rapid re-housing and include interactive activities and discussions to ensure participants leave with a clear idea of how to make their rapid re-housin... Read More »
• Conference Update: Join us at the Rapid Re-Housing Clinic!

  January 05, 2011

  Today's post comes to us from Kim Walker. It’s that time again! It’s T – five weeks (!) until the Alliance’s National Conference on Ending Family Homelessness, set this year in Oakland, Calif. For you veterans out there, you know that the Alliance strives to make the conference as informative, interesting, and useful as possible, chock full of workshops, meetings, plenary sessions, and group discussions. (Seriously – check out this year’s agenda.) And we’re not planning on disappointing in February! In fact, the Alliance’s Center for Capacity Building is taking it up a notch and offering a day-long Rapid Re-Housing for Families clinic at the February conference. Rapid re-housing is a strategy focused on returning people experiencing homelessness to permanent housing as quickly as possible by eliminating their barriers to obtaining and retaining permanent housing. Doing this effectively requires the careful implementation of a number of strategies, including effective housing search and location, landlord engagement, and home-based case management. Needless to say, it’s not always easy – and that’s where we want to help. Our clinic will review the nuts and bolts of rapid re-housing and include interactive activities and discussions to ensure participants leave with a clear idea of how to make their rapid re-housing program more successful. We're capping registration at 100, so be sure you register now! We think that this clinic will be a great way to kick of the conference (it’s slated for Wednesday, F... Read More »
• The 10 Best Things on Our Website

  October 20, 2010

  So after tipping my hat to the 100,000 Homes Campaign for featuring our interactive tools and maps on their (awesome!) blog, I did a little tooling around to remind myself of other really useful tools on our very own website! The Alliance has, for almost 30 years, lead the campaign to end homelessness in the United States. And over the decades, we’ve accumulated the data, best practices, and effective strategies necessary to end homelessness. And we’re hoping to share them with you! After checking out our most visited pages and most popular tools, we’ve compiled a list of ten things - links, pages, reports – you need in order to end homelessness in your community (read: really great tools and info). And, just for good measure, I've tossed in a couple not-so-popular but ever-so-useful links as well. The About Homelessness section. This section gives you a broad snapshot of homelessness at the national level and includes sections and information on different demographics, the cost of homelessness, and maps produced by the Homelessness Research Institute(HRI).   The Interactive Tools and Solutions section. HRI produces a number of charts, tools, and maps to help you better understand homelessness. Some of the more recent tools illustrate the number of doubled-up households in the United States, HPRP spending per household in the cities we’re tracking, and reductions in point-in-time counts necessary to meet the goals outlined in the federal strategic plan to end homel... Read More »

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