• New Alliance Website Features @endhomelessness.org

  August 31, 2012

  We are excited to announce that over the Labor Day weekend, the Alliance’s website, www.endhomelessness.org, will re-launch with a number of new features and navigation updates designed to improve our the user experience and provide more detailed information about upcoming events. Users will notice new drop-down navigation on the primary search menu and a new calendar feature with upcoming event details. Additionally, the Alliance blog will now be hosted on our website under News and Events. Please update your bookmarks and subscriptions to ensure you are linked to the right pages and getting the most up-to-date information. If you are having trouble reaching the right page or experiencing other technical issues, you might want to try refreshing your cache. We are optimistic about upgrading our website and excited about the new functionality it will offer users. However, we know that web sites are complicated things and that, in the transition, some disruptions or glitches may be inevitable. If you notice a page taking a bit longer than usual to load, or you stumble upon a broken link, please know that we already have a team working on it. Thank you for your patience! ... Read More »
• Interns: What I learned at the Alliance

  August 27, 2012

  Today’s post was written by Christian Brandt, Federal Policy Intern, Amanda Jensen, Federal Policy intern, and Maulin Shaw, Federal Advocacy Intern. Christian Brandt, Federal Policy Intern This summer I had the immense privilege to be a Federal Policy Intern at the National Alliance to End Homelessness. Though I arrived at the Alliance with some independent research on homelessness under my belt (with projekt UDENFOR in Copenhagen, Denmark), I didn’t know that much about homelessness in the States. I came to the Alliance hoping to learn a lot more about the American homeless service system and homelessness in general. From my first week to my last day, I’ve learned more than I ever could have imagined when I started. If I were to make a list, it would go on forever, so I’ve distilled my experience into a few key points: Numbers are important. I remember writing in my first college research paper on homelessness that “counting” homeless people was “slightly irrelevant.” Boy have I been proven wrong this summer! Not only do numbers matter to direct service organizations (how else would they be able to figure out demographics, gauge area need, or measure institutional progress?), but numbers are the driving force behind political advocacy and policymaking on issues surrounding homelessness. The solution to homelessness is housing! In the back of my head,... Read More »
• Field Notes: Allocating Resources

  August 01, 2012

  At our recent annual conference, we held a workshop on the topic of allocating resources. One of the presentations in that session included some data and suggestions that are worth sharing again, particularly as we turn to the new HEARTH CoC regulations and the next NOFA. You can see the slides here from the presentation by Katharine Gale, one of our close partners who has assembled a lot of the data that’s been collected about cost-effectiveness and outcomes. Pay special attention to slides 4, 5, 7, and 14, which present the aggregated data from numerous communities. I’ve had a chance to look at a lot of data from different communities very closely. One thing that stands out is that there tends to be a lot of variation between the average cost and outcomes of different programs within communities, far more than the variation between different communities. In other words, the difference in average cost and outcomes, for instance, between an urban area with a high cost of living, and a rural area with a lower cost of living, isn’t that dramatic. However, the difference in cost and outcomes between two programs in a particular community can be very large. This presentation does a nice job of summarizing that data and also identifying some of the key questions that community leaders and homeless assistance providers should be asking themselves as they implement the new CoC regulations and... Read More »
• ReRun: The Right Organization At The Right Time For The Right Need

  March 19, 2012

  Today's blog is a re-run of a guest blog from Iain  DeJong. This post was among the top 10 most popular in 2011. [caption id="attachment_7751" align="alignright" width="362" caption="Iain DeJong presenting at the 2010 National Conference on Ending Homelessness."][/caption] I have the great privilege of working with communities and organizations across North America that are dedicated to ending homelessness. Being the nerd that I am, I feel passionate about using real-time information to link the right intervention to the people who need that intervention. This seems to make sense to a lot of people, but the unfortunate reality is that this is not how many organizations or communities work. Imagine you have a heart attack. You are rushed to the hospital by paramedics. I now want to give you a choice: you can be seen by a cardiologist or an obstetrician/gynecologist (OB/GYN). Which one do you choose? The cardiologist, of course. Are cardiologists successful with heart attack victims 100 percent of the time? Nope. But that doesn’t prevent us from seeking out cardiologists when we experience a heart attack. They’re heart experts after all. Here is another choice for you: again, you’ve had a heart attack. The cardiologist and OB/GYN choices remain, but this time I want to add a third choice: an acquaintance who watches a lot of House on TV. Oh, and he used to watch ER, dabbles in Grey’s Anatomy, and loves MA... Read More »
• Taking part in the DC Annual PIT Count

  January 26, 2012

  Do you know how many alleys there are in the average city?  Well, ok, neither do I…but after last night, I have a much better idea.  Last night, instead of just bustling by these dark passages as I usually do, I traipsed up and down every alley I came across here in downtown DC. As you’ve probably guessed, I was exploring these alleys, and every other nook and cranny of the Golden Triangle (which also happens to be, more or less, the Alliance’s neighborhood) as a volunteer with DC’s annual PIT Count.  Still relatively new to the field and working on federal policy here at the Alliance, I don’t often venture over to the practice side of the field.  I do, however, rely heavily on data and experiences gathered by practitioners every day to make the argument for increased funding for key federal homelessness programs.  Last night was my opportunity to match each number with a face. After more than three hours and more than 30 people counted (yes, that’s unfortunately more than one person for every square block I covered in a neighborhood a stone’s throw from the White House), I was beginning to sympathize with the challenges that every homeless person faces, but particularly those living on the streets.  There were common themes: bureaucratic delays within departments like Veterans Affairs, long waits (years and years) for Section 8 or Public Housing, and a distinct lack of ho... Read More »
• Community Point-in-Time Counts

  January 26, 2012

  Here’s a smattering of clips about homeless point-in-time counts conducted this week. Did we miss your community? Tell us in the comment section below or shoot us a note on Facebook or Twitter! Homeless tally 'not an accurate account' of population in Delaware County (Star Press, DE) Point in Time homeless count offers opportunity to help (News Leader, MO) Camden County begins 24-hour count of its homeless (Philadelphia Inquirer, PA) Harford, Balto. counties survey homeless for annual census (Baltimore Sun, MD) Connecticut social service providers set for annual count of homeless (Associated Press, CT) ... Read More »
• The Alliance Welcomes Kay Moshier McDivitt

  January 18, 2012

  Our new Capacity Building Associate, Kay Moshier McDivitt, joins the Alliance’s Center for Capacity Building with a strong background in community planning and programming to prevent and end homelessness. Throughout her career, she has worked to develop systems change and implement best practices specific to vulnerable populations. Kay was an early advocate for the Housing First approach, pioneering the “Shelter to Independent Living Program,” a best practices model of rapid re-housing. Building on her community experience with the Lancaster County Coalition to End Homelessness developing systems change and shifting the local community direction to a system of prevention, diversion, and rapid re-housing, Kay has provided consultation and technical assistance to a number of communities in ten year plan development and systems change. Kay passionately believes that ending homelessness is possible and has committed her professional career to helping communities find the tools and strategies to accomplish this goal. The Lancaster, PA resident enjoys travel (including her commute to the Alliance office), spending time with her family, and Saturday morning breakfast with friends.... Read More »
• The Right Organization at the Right Time for the Right Need

  November 30, 2011

  Today's guest blog comes to the Alliance from Iain  DeJong. [caption id="attachment_7751" align="alignright" width="402" caption="Iain DeJong presenting at the 2010 National Conference on Ending Homelessness."][/caption] I have the great privilege of working with communities and organizations across North America that are dedicated to ending homelessness. Being the nerd that I am, I feel passionate about using real-time information to link the right intervention to the people who need that intervention. This seems to make sense to a lot of people, but the unfortunate reality is that this is not how many organizations or communities work. Imagine you have a heart attack. You are rushed to the hospital by paramedics. I now want to give you a choice: you can be seen by a cardiologist or an obstetrician/gynecologist (OB/GYN). Which one do you choose? The cardiologist, of course. Are cardiologists successful with heart attack victims 100 percent of the time? Nope. But that doesn’t prevent us from seeking out cardiologists when we experience a heart attack. They’re heart experts after all. Here is another choice for you: again, you’ve had a heart attack. The cardiologist and OB/GYN choices remain, but this time I want to add a third choice: an acquaintance who watches a lot of House on TV. Oh, and he used to watch ER, dabbles in Grey’s Anatomy, and loves MASH re-runs. Who do you choose this time? My money is still... Read More »
• A European Perspective to Ending Homelessness

  April 13, 2011

  Today’s post was written by Suzannah Young, Communications Officer at FEANTSA (European Federation of National Organisations Working with the Homeless). Suzannah thanks the Alliance for inviting her to write. FEANTSA, the European Federation of National Organisations working with the Homeless, is an umbrella of NGOs which contribute to the fight against homelessness in Europe.  It is the only major European network that focuses exclusively on homelessness in the European Union (EU). I’m grateful for this opportunity to tell you about FEANTSA and hope it will be interesting for you too.  Actually, our Director recently took part in a meeting on homelessness involving Australia, Canada, Europe and the USA and enjoyed the opportunity to share best practices.  So, as part of a big sharing exercise, this post should clarify how FEANTSA tries to tackle homelessness in Europe, working with NGOs and other stakeholders in the fight against homelessness: local authorities; national governments; legal and health professionals; the EU institutions; the housing sector (public and private); transport companies; human rights organizations; academics, etc. The NGOs we work with are largely our members – more than 100 national or regional umbrellas of homeless service providers, operating in areas including housing, health, employment and social protection, in 30 countries.  We have close contact with the EU institutions (mainly the European Parliament[1] and the European Commission,[2]) and have consultative status at the Council of Europe[3] and the United Nations. One of FEANTSA’s main roles is to promote ... Read More »
• 2011 PIT Counts Media Map

  March 01, 2011

  Today's post comes to us from Alliance research associate Pete Witte. Earlier this year I wrote here about the annual point-in-time (PIT) counts being conducted across the country, and explained why the PIT counts are so important for helping us to understand homelessness and measure progress we’re making toward ending the problem. Well, it’s that time of year again when local media stories announcing the results of their January point-in-time (PIT) slowly begin to sprout up in daily clips. The Alliance is collecting and mapping these media accounts or, when available, the Continuum of Care (CoC) reports in order to provide a sense of the changing homeless situation in communities across the country. These reports are the basis of our new and—considering federal budget conversations where homeless programs are at-risk of being cut—timely, interactive 2011 Counts Media Map, which tracks reports on changes in overall homelessness (increases are noted by a red-colored placemarker and decreases are in green). Amid current economic and budgetary conversations, providing a sense about the change in homeless counts across the country is important and timely, especially considering how homeless, health care, employment, and other aid programs are increasingly at-risk of being cut. Tracking the 2011 PIT counts also provides an opportunity to get a sense on how much progress is being made at ending homelessness at the federal level, since the 2011 PIT counts will be the first count where both HPRP and Opening Doors h... Read More »
• We're online: Thoughts from a luddite-in-disguise

  February 23, 2011

  So Anna and I just got off a webinar about the new Facebook pages offered by Andrew Cohen, managing editor at Forum One. (Disclaimer: Forum One is our internet strategy/website development/all things geeky consultant. But they do offer some good notes about Facebook for new users!). Yesterday, Anna sat in on a call hosted by Network for Good on ways to improve web writing and compose better micro-content for social networks (specifically, fundraising on social networks). And just this morning, I got a call from an eager outreach officer asking me to embed some video on our social networks to support a homelessness radio marathon streaming live from Kansas City, MO. And so I find myself again at that juncture between social change and social media. At the Alliance, we continue our struggle to find the right balance between traditional and social media outreach. We work hard to assess and re-assess the value and return of our Facebook page, our Twitter account, our blog. And based on the community online, based on the emails I receive, and based on the chatter around the office, I know that we’re not the only ones to struggle with these not-really-new-anymore mediums. Me – I’m a luddite-in-disguise (and it’s not a great disguise either). As much as I like the new and shiny tools online, I’d really rather not have to learn a whole new thing – especially if it’s going to tak... Read More »
• What's so special about the PIT counts?

  January 27, 2011

  A few days ago, Catherine talked about point-in-time counts. As a researcher, I can’t begin to tell you how important that raw data is to both understanding homelessness and measuring whether or not we’re making any progress on the problem. In fact, point-in-time (PIT) counts were pivotal to The State of Homelessness report. The PIT counts are a census conducted on a single night in January by communities across the U.S (over 450 communities participated for the last count). This PIT count is not the only data available on the homeless population; there’s also 12-month data collected by these communities. However, the PIT counts have a clear advantage over the 12-month data because the PIT data captures data on the unsheltered populations as well as sheltered populations. But getting this wonderful data – now that’s another thing altogether. Imagine for a minute the logistical nightmares of conducting the PIT counts across the boundaries of an entire community, block by block, in order to capture that unsheltered data. Despite participation in the census by a large contingent of volunteers and an expert group of homeless service workers, it still sounds challenging, doesn’t it? Each year, though, communities are continually learning from their experiences, and their methodologies for conducting the census continue to improve. The reality is, while imperfect, the PIT counts provide the best available data on what the homeless population “looks like” on a given night. And the reality... Read More »
• Are you helping out with the point-in-time count?

  January 19, 2011

  Every year, right around this time, communities across the country conduct their point-in-time count. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) requires that communities receiving federal funds from the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Grants program conduct a point-in-time count at least every other year. Most communities conduct their counts annually; some do it even more often than that. These point-in-time counts are the cornerstone of homelessness data. Data conducted during these counts are used to create the Annual Homeless Assessment Report to Congress and provide the best data available on the number of people experiencing homelessness in the United States. Count methodology varies across the country. For smaller communities, volunteers may comb the streets and individually count each and every person they see experiencing homelessness. And then there are some communities – think New York, Detroit, Los Angeles – where such a practice would be impossible. So advocates and city officials create formulas and algorithms to extrapolate a more limited count into a realistic estimate. And every year, count methodology evolves and improves so we’re able to get a more and more accurate count. And why’s that important? Because in order to solve a problem, we first have to understand it – and these counts are the first line in developing that understanding. Before we delve into the details, before we pick apart subpopulations and demographics, we gauge the scope of the problem by understanding these point-in-time counts. And – as always –... Read More »
• How we communicate about homelessness

  December 20, 2010

  Last week, I had the opportunity to meet with members of the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness – brand new research director Kristy Greenwalt (formerly of ICF International and communications director Jason Kravitz. We did a lot of talking about communications. It’s always the same questions: what are the best methods to share information with lots and lots of people? How do we get information to where people are? How do we know what information to give them? How do people consumer information nowadays? And (my personal favorite) what if the information they want isn’t the information we want them to want? Basically the same topics that haunt any thoughtful communications officer in her sleep. But despite my fears of the 24-hour news cycle, the unwieldiness of social media, the impact – or lack thereof – of newsletters and email campaigns, I generally try to come back to two main guiding principles (fingers-crossed): a) the goals of the organization and b) the information I want to share. And I find when I keep that in mind, my work becomes clearer. I try to push out the great resources we have to share: our counts data, our best practices, our community snapshots, our interactive tools. We consider our audience, the ever-shortening time span of the average consumer, the best and most concise tools we have. We blog to clarify the information we send out, we link to other articles, briefs, and notes we ... Read More »
• Guest Blog: Health Care and Homelessness, by Abe Oudshoorn

  December 16, 2010

  Today’s guest blog post comes from Abe Oudshoorn, RN, PhD(c), Year 4 Coordinator, School of Nursing, The University of Western Ontario. After spending three years on a Dissertation research study about homelessness and health care, I realized that I nearly missed the point. I am a registered nurse by trade, and my clinical background is working with people who are experiencing homelessness in a community-based clinic. Based on my observations of the importance of healthy client-provider relationships, I set out to study these relationships, and particularly how power comes into play in health care relationships. I had a lot to work with going into the study: I knew that people who are experiencing homelessness face the worst morbidity rates in Canada, I knew that homeless persons face multiple barriers to accessing health care, and I knew that negative attitudes of health professionals have consistently been identified as the primary barrier to care for homeless people. So I did my study, and - sure enough - I heard and saw much conflict in client-provider relationships. But when I set about to write, my committee members asked about how policy impacts on my findings. And this is what I almost missed: Indeed, health providers do use and abuse control with homeless clients, but much of the workplace context is beyond their control. For example, in the clinic I was studying, there were very limited resources (socks, bus tickets, food and clothing) a... Read More »
• Social Media for Social Change (or ending homelessness?)

  December 13, 2010

  This morning, our friend Nathan Rott wrote piece about Eric Sheptock, a consumer advocate for homeless people in Washington, D.C. Eric is a homeless advocate who, himself, is experiencing homelessness. As Nathan observed, “Being homeless has become Sheptock's full-time occupation. It's work that has provided him with purpose and a sense of community.” And not just in person, but online. Eric has a robust Facebook and Twitter network and two blogs in which he chronicles his life as a person experiencing homelessness. Social networks have become a powerful medium for Sheptock to spread his message and amass followers. “"I don't think I'd be able to do much of anything without the Internet," Nathan quotes Eric. And it’s not just Eric. Another good friend of the Alliance – Mark Horvath has taken the cause of assisting homeless people online. With a ceaseless stream of tweets, Facebook posts, streaming video, and countless other mediums, Mark peppers his ever-growing group of followers with information about and thoughts on the state of homelessness wherever he goes. He’s even taken his mission on the road – traveling cross-country and back to learn about homelessness on the ground and relay it to his awaiting digital public. Their stories, Mark and Eric’s, are compelling, stirring, moving. They serve an important role in our efforts to end homelessness – drawing awareness and attention to the problem so that it becomes real and palpable to decision makers and activists. Creati... Read More »
• Extra: Five Years Later

  August 30, 2010

  Today’s guest blog comes from Martha Kegel of UNITY. The Blessings of Katrina The mood this weekend across New Orleans was somber.  Rain poured and dark threatening clouds filled the sky, and I couldn’t seem to shake the gloom.  The rebroadcasts of people stranded on their rooftops five years ago only served to remind me of all those who did not survive.  All weekend I could feel a pain in my chest at the sight of all those empty houses everywhere I go, the thought of all those New Orleanians still displaced, homeowners still struggling to make their houses habitable, disabled people squatting in abandoned buildings because of drastically inflated rents.  This was supposed to be over with by now. But it’s not. Yesterday, the fifth anniversary of Katrina, I awoke early in the darkness.  By eight o’clock, I was on my way to the Lower Ninth Ward, the scene of the worst devastation in New Orleans, where a poorly designed levee broke with such force that a wall of water swept a neighborhood away, leaving not much but a huge barge behind.  Much of the devastation remains.  Spending the morning in the Lower Nine was a bad idea, I thought to myself all the way there. But it wasn’t. As soon as I fell in line with a crowd of neighborhood people behind a high school brass band sending forth those joyful and unmistakably New Orleans soun... Read More »
• Meet the New Guys

  August 10, 2010

  For the next two weeks – starting on Monday, August 16 – we’ll be seeing new faces and hearing new voices on the Alliance social networks as staff and interns alike take their intrepid first steps into the Twitterverse, blogosphere, and whatever we’re calling Facebook. Marisa Seitz is already a familiar face and regular contributor on the Alliance blog. She’s largely  responsible for the aesthetic qualities of the new look of the blog and images around the Alliance’s first-ever photo contest. Make her happy and get those photos in! You’ve probably also heard from Grace Stubee, a returning intern here at the Alliance. She’s hard at work on the advocacy team, helping our hardworking supporters to get their message to their elected officials. Grace will serve as the point person for our photo contest – she can answer all your questions! From our policy shop, we have Kate Seif, one of the newest full-time Alliance staffers and new assistant to the president. As Nan’s assistant, she triages all the requests, invitations, projects, and papers that Nan receives and handles Nan’s calendar. In addition, she’s a critical element of our policy staff, often serving as point or coordinator on our larger policy publications, including the Policy Guide and upcoming Advocacy Toolkit. She’s also really into vlogging, so look out for videos featuring Kate! And finally, we have Anna Blasco, social media extraordinaire. Anna is on our admin team and has a s... Read More »
• Musings on Social Media

  July 07, 2010

  A couple weeks ago, I gave a brief, casual presentation about our organizational social media networks over a lunch meeting. The Alliance has been online for about a year now, on Twitter, Facebook, Blogger, and YouTube. Not surprisingly, Twitter and Facebook are our most active networks; the blog averages a few thousand readers per month. And as we invest the time and manpower it requires maintaining these networks (and sometimes it takes quite a bit!), we’re constantly asking ourselves the following questions: 1. What is the goal of our social networks? 2. What do people want from our social networks? So to answer the second question, we put out a social media survey in May/June of this year. We asked people who they were, what their roles were in the homeless assistance community, how they followed the Alliance, and what content they preferred (Reports? Advocacy updates? Federal policy information?) And we came up with some interesting results. The majority of our Twitter users say advocacy updates and opportunities to take action are most useful, followed by media clips about housing and homelessness. Community members on Facebook, blog, and our weekly newsletter were all most interested in learning about permanent supportive housing; Twitter users were interested in learning about HPRP. The policy advocates, grassroots advocates/activists, housing/service providers, and interested citizens who follow us all preferred Facebook updates to updates on other outlets. 50 percent of the survey respondents either collaborate w... Read More »
• Examining the Federal Plan: Objective 10 – Crisis Response Systems

  July 01, 2010

  And we’re back! The Alliance is examining all ten goals of Opening Doors, the federal strategic plan to end homelessness. You may remember that we took a closer look at Goal 8 – Ending Youth Homelessness a bit back. As the Alliance’s new media intern, I’m really excited to be writing this series, because every time I examine one of these goals, I get to learn about a new aspect of homelessness and solutions to homelessness (and really, that’s what the Alliance is all about). This week we’ll be looking at Objective 10: “Transform homeless services to crisis response systems that prevent homelessness and rapidly return people who experience homelessness to stable housing.” To learn more about this objective, I talked to Norm Suchar, our new (!) Director of the Center for Capacity Building (formerly senior policy analyst at the Alliance). The first thing I tried to wrap my head around was what this objective meant, and why it was part of the federal plan. Right now, the “crisis response system” in place is shelters. When someone encounters an event that creates a situation where they can no longer afford housing, the first response is to put them in a shelter. This shelter system, however, is not effective if we are to eradicate homelessness. The crisis response system for homelessness needs to be transformed, so that when someone enters a crisis situation and that person’s housing needs are addressed, we turn to... Read More »

 1 2 >