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  Data Points: Is the Homeless Population Aging?

  March 05, 2013

  This blog post is the first in a series that will analyze important research on homelessness, housing, poverty, and other related topics and what it means in the context of ending homelessness. Research can help inform both policy and practice and this blog series will attempt to do just that.

  The Age Structure of Contemporary Homelessness: Evidence and Implications for Public Policy by Dennis Culhane (and Metraux, S., Byrne, T., Stino, M., & Bainbridge, J.), released in January, examined the changes in age demographics among the single, unaccompanied adults and families experiencing homelessness. The study used data from New York City dating back to 1987 and the census data from 1990, 2000, and 2010. The findings in this study have very distinct impacts for homelessness assistance for both single, unaccompanied adults and families.

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  Sleeping Rough

  March 04, 2013

  One bright spot during the NAEH Ending Family and Youth Homelessness Conference last week was the session with Micah Projects from Brisbane, Australia. Yes, Australians are struggling with the same issues that we’re struggling with here – but they’ve got really great accents! And, they refer to homelessness as “sleeping rough”. I love that.

  My “a-ha” moment occurred during the first 20 minutes after I arrived at the conference. We were learning about DESC’s controversial and yet successful wet housing complex 1811 Eastlake.  The point the speaker made was “we don’t wait for people to be ‘ready’ for housing – everyone is ready for housing.”

  Isn’t that the truth?  I have yet to meet anyone experiencing homelessness who said they weren’t ready for housing.  I certainly didn’t hear it from the multitude of individuals I surveyed during my shift at the Central Library for our county’s one night street count a couple of weeks ago.

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  Field Notes: Retooling Transitional Housing Success Stories

  February 27, 2013

  Today we continue our vlog series where Alliance staff members answer common questions on a particular topic. Kim Walker kicked our series off by answering five common questions on Coordinated Assessment. Today, Alliance Capacity Building Associate Kay Moshier McDivitt answers a common question we receive about retooling transitional housing programs: “can you give me some real examples of programs that have retooled?”

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  Sequestration: It’s Happening. What Now?

  February 26, 2013

  Whether you’re here in Washington, DC or not – there’s one big thing everyone’s talking about this week. And no, it’s not Jennifer Lawrence’s trip at the Oscars. It’s sequestration (cue ominous music). Sequestration, the automatic, across-the-board cuts to both security and non-security discretionary spending (which must be appropriated through the federal funding process each year, and does not include mandatory spending programs such as Medicaid, Medicare, SSI, etc.), is set to take place this Friday, March 1. As of now, it’s unlikely to be averted. While some last-minute proposals are being addressed (see today’s Hill Update for the latest), it’s unlikely that they will gain much traction in the next four days.

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  Good Morning Conference Attendees!

  February 21, 2013

  We’re kicking off the National Conference on Ending Family and Youth Homelessness today!

  Good morning, conference Attendees! Please find your way to the Grand Ballroom for the Opening Plenary beginning at 9 a.m. Alliance President and CEO Nan Roman will be delivering the keynote address. Also giving remarks will be Mark Johnston, HUD’s Deputy Assistant Secretary for Special Needs and Delegated Authority over CPD Programs.

  Check out the program journal for details about today’s workshops. And don’t forget to share with us on our social media! Post on our Facebook wall, and Tweet about the conference using the hashtag #NAEH13.

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  Remarks from Last Year’s Family And Youth Conference

  February 20, 2013

  Tomorrow morning at 9 a.m. here in Seattle, Alliance President and CEO Nan Roman will deliver her keynote address in the opening plenary of the National Conference on Ending Family and Youth Homelessness. As we look forward to the conference tomorrow, I'd like to share with you Nan's address from our previous family and youth conference, which she delivered on February 8, 2012 in Los Angeles.

  In these remarks she explains why the Alliance started an annual conference devoted to family and youth homelessness, and she provides some important insights about the progress we had made up to that point.

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  The Alliance is in Seattle!

  February 19, 2013

  The Alliance DC headquarters is empty, or nearly so. Right now, on the floor where I work, there are only two other members of staff besides me, and they will be leaving soon too. Many of the Alliance staff are already in Seattle, and I will be joining them early tomorrow morning to help with our 2013 National Conference on Ending Family and Youth Homelessness. It will be my second conference with the Alliance, and I’m very excited to meet everyone (and very excited to see Seattle for the first time).

  I’d just like to remind everyone who may want to get a hold of Alliance staff during the conference that, since the Alliance staff will be working remotely on Thursday, February 21, and Friday, February 22, we will have limited access to our email and phone lines. During the conference, we will be checking email and voicemail periodically, but we will likely be extremely busy and may be unable to get back to you until after the conference is over (but we WILL get back to you, so please leave a voicemail, if you call).

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  Call for Youth Point in Time Count Information

  February 14, 2013

  Last month, every continuum of care in the country conducted a point in time count enumerating the homeless population in shelters, transitional housing, and living in places not meant for human habitation such as the streets, cars, or abandoned buildings. These counts help local communities and the nation as a whole measure progress in ending homelessness year to year.

  For the first time, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) required communities to report out the numbers of persons in each household type under modified age categories, which included under 18, ages 18 to 24, and over age 24. This should provide a much clearer picture of the number of unaccompanied homeless youth and minors and young parents that live in emergency shelters and transitional housing at any point in time.

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  Obama Proposes Strengthening Working Class (No Mention of Homelessness)

  February 13, 2013

  When you live inside the beltway of our nation’s capital, like nearly all of us here at the Alliance, there are a few big events where the political buzz in the town grows a little louder and your inner politico comes out to play. The elections are one, inaugurals another, and of course, the State of the Union Address. Last night, President Barack Obama delivered the 223rd annual State of the Union (his 5th) to a joint session of Congress. The SOTU is an opportunity for the President to use his “bully pulpit” and lay out the Administration’s agenda for the upcoming year.

  Some of these agenda items were unsurprising: gun control, immigration, climate change, and the budget. As one of the policy team members at the Alliance, I was watching the Address for some obvious specifics – will the President talk about homelessness? Low-income people? Housing? We know from past analysis, that the President was unlikely to mention homelessness directly, but housing did get a brief mention (couched in terms of refinancing mortgages and making it easier for Americans to afford their own homes).

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  Field Notes: The Systems Perspective

  February 12, 2013

  So far in our series on how programs can best implement the HEARTH Act, we’ve talked about the importance of a permanent housing focus and performance measurement. Today we explore another important aspect: collaboration.

  While providers will need to make changes to their individual programs to improve performance, one of the biggest shifts under the HEARTH Act is the need for a focus on the system. Providers will need to work together and with other stakeholders to create one effective homeless assistance system. Cooperation between providers in system-wide endeavors such as coordinated assessment can lead to greater efficiency and a homeless assistance system better equipped to meet the needs of people experiencing homelessness.

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  Proposed Regulations, Gaps in Coverage for Homeless Youth

  February 07, 2013

  Some 15 percent of vulnerable homeless people were in foster care at some time in their lives, by at least one estimate. That’s what the 100,000 Homes Campaign finds in communities where the campaign is engaged in housing the most vulnerable people. This data point squares with what the Alliance has seen and what child welfare experts find. Youth aging out of foster care are more likely to have mental health problems, histories of trauma, and other potentially disabling conditions, compared to the same age group in the overall population.

  So it is disconcerting that the the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), which is responsible for implementing health care reform wants to limit Medicaid eligibility under one of the more promising Affordable Care Act provisions for youth. In short, starting in 2014 the ACA allows  former foster youth to remain in Medicaid until they are 26 years old. (Age of emancipation varies by state, from 18 to 21). For access to health care, this policy puts them on the same footing as others in their age group, for whom the ACA guarantees continued coverage under a parent’s private health insurance policy.

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  Field Notes: The Importance of Performance Measurement

  February 06, 2013

  A few weeks ago, we introduced a new blog series on HEARTH Implementation best practices that we’ve identified at the program and system levels. In our first entry in the series, we discussed the need for programs to adopt a permanent housing focus. Today we will talk about another crucial practice for programs to master: performance measurement!

  In most communities, homeless assistance programs were developed before good research and data were available about who was homeless and what strategies most effectively prevented and ended homelessness. Community data can help you identify who in the community is being served well and who is slipping through the cracks. Indeed, performance measurement, besides being a requirement under the CoC regulations, is the only way you can know how well your program is performing and whether your current model is a successful one. That’s why it is crucial that you  measure your program’s performance at consistent intervals around permanent housing related outcomes.

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  The Promise of Partnerships

  February 05, 2013

  At the community day center where I worked 20 years ago, we had a very rapid response to family homelessness. We worked closely with the local welfare department, which expedited cash benefits for families and provided other forms of assistance. With an easier rental housing market than families face today, the informal collaboration between homeless service providers who encountered families in crisis and the welfare agency that had resources to support them helped prevent families from experiencing long spells of homelessness. We need similar, but updated, partnerships today so that families have the support they require to quickly escape homelessness.

  The upcoming National Conference on Ending Family and Youth Homelessness will include workshops that explore partnerships between Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) agencies and homeless service providers who are working together to rapidly re-house families in today’s more challenging economy and housing markets. Leaders from three communities (Boise, ID; Salt Lake City, UT; and Mercer County, NJ) will discuss with conference participants how they are blending resources and expertise from two service systems to rapidly re-house families.

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  Busting Silos: the Veterans Track

  February 04, 2013

  Let me start off by saying that this year’s Family and Youth conference will be the best one the Alliance has put together, ever. There are a variety of factors of why this is so: record attendance (The event is already sold out), world class speakers and presenters, and, from my perspective, the coolest thing of all: a track of workshops on veteran homelessness.

  That’s right. You heard me! A veterans track at a family and youth conference? How odd, you might think. Aren’t veterans are their own category, their own silo? That’s the point. We’re busting these silos – both internally as an organization, and externally as a way of doing business.  We’re acknowledging the intersection of the various subpopulations that the homeless assistance field has identified. Every subpopulation includes an element of veteran homelessness. That goes for both families and youth.

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  A Long Cold Night

  February 01, 2013

  Last night, some Alliance staff and I joined thousands of volunteers nationwide who participated this month in the 2013 Point-in-Time Count. (This year’s count was unique because Continuums of Care (CoCs) are required to report the numbers of youth aged 18 to 24 they encountered.) The purpose of the count is to reach an accurate estimate of the number of people experiencing homelessness, so that  HUD can target funding for services where the need is greatest.

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  Field Notes: Tackling Assessment and Referrals as Part of Coordinated Assessment

  January 30, 2013

  Over the course of the past year, we have worked with communities across the country, and we’ve learned a lot about coordinated assessment. Today, we’d like to share with you some of those lessons.

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  MSNBC Covers Youth Homelessness

  January 29, 2013

  As volunteers across the country take part in their communies' Point-In-Time Counts, braving lousy weather and chilly temperatures, walking streets well after midnight in an effort to find and count unsheltered persons experiencing homelessness, the media has taken notice.

  This week and last week articles about local counts have been popping up in newspapers all over the country, and recently, the Alliance President and CEO Nan Roman spoke with Nevada Public Radio about homelessness and the PIT Count in Las Vegas.  Also, one of the Alliance's guest bloggers, Jimmy Ramirez, a formerly homeless youth appeared on MSNBC, when the Melissa Harris-Perry show did a segment on youth homelessness.

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  Conference Reminder: Reception Deadline Approaching

  January 25, 2013

  In less than a month, roughly 900 folks will convene in Seattle for the Alliance’s 2013 National Conference on Ending Family and Youth Homelessness. With record registration numbers (for the first time ever, capacity constraints forced us to close registration early) we at the Alliance are thrilled to see so many motivated advocates join together to make change happen!

  For those of us who work in the homeless assistance field, networking is extremely important. It allows us to further collaborations and share strategies and solutions. With that in mind, I’d like to take this opportunity to encourage those of you who will be attending the conference to join us at the Alliance’s special reception on Thursday evening, February 21.

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  Making Your PIT Count More Useful to Local Providers

  January 24, 2013

  This week and next, volunteers across the country are canvassing their communities to count the number of people sleeping in shelters and on the streets. But many communities are doing much more than that-- they are combining legally mandated “point-in-time” (PIT) counts with efforts to survey, identify, and gather crucial data on each individual person experiencing homelessness in their midst. These communities are all participating in the 100,000 Homes Campaign, and they hope to do more than just count their homeless neighbors-- they want to learn their names, assess their needs, and identify specific services and resources to help them off the streets permanently.

  We can’t end homelessness without knowing every person on our streets by name and learning what services, subsidies and supports will help them access and maintain permanent housing. Federal aggregate data is important to help us accurately identify the national scope of homelessness, but local organizations also need much more specific data to house their homeless neighbors quickly and efficiently.

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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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