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  The State of Homelessness in America 2013: Chapter 1

  April 12, 2013

  This has been a busy week at the Alliance. The Homelessness Research Institute released The State of Homelessness in America 2013. This is the third installment in a series of reports that examines trends in homelessness and the economic and housing context in which those trends occur.

  Today we are going to take a quick look at Chapter 1, which examines national and state level trends in homelessness. The data presented in Chapter 1 comes from Point-In-Time estimates for January 2011 and January 2012 reported to the Department of Housing and Urban Development by communities across the U.S.

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  How Would the President Fund Homeless Assistance in 2014?

  April 11, 2013

  The President’s budget proposal, released Wednesday, provides a detailed look at this Administration’s spending priorities for the next year and beyond. Right now you can find all kinds of commentary on the proposed budget, in terms of both policy and politics, about the big picture and larger items like tax and spending policies aimed at reducing the long-term federal deficit, as well as concessions by the President to Republicans in the form of proposals to reduce spending on middle-class benefit programs.

  Today, however, I want to go over a few specific items, much smaller in scale, that would have an impact on homelessness.

  One important piece of background information that’s important to keep in mind: This budget proposal is based on certain assumptions about how much money overall will be available for HUD programs. While those assumptions are certainly reasonable, not all members of Congress agree on them. The President’s budget is always “just a proposal.” This year there is more uncertainty than usual, but there is a greater need for Congress to enact it.

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  Get Your U.S. Rep to Support Homeless Assistance Funding! Here’s How.

  April 05, 2013

  After what can only be called an epic journey, fiscal year (FY) 2013 is over and Congress has moved full steam ahead into FY 2014. After the release of their Budget Resolutions (non-binding outlines of how the federal budget should look this year and in the near future – both the House and Senate came out with very different visions), the House and Senate are now working on the specifics of funding programs for various programs, including HUD’s McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Grants.

  As such, Members of Congress are currently circulating Dear Colleague letters. Dear Colleague letters, also known as “sign-on letters,” are usually sponsored by one to three Members of Congress and contain a message for specific people in Congress – in this case, the Chair and Ranking Member of the Appropriations Committee or an Appropriations Subcommittee.  The message usually refers to increasing or maintaining funding levels for specific programs for the upcoming fiscal year. The sponsors circulate the letter among their colleagues in either the House or Senate (in this case, both letters are in the House) to gather signatures.

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  We’re Screening a Movie at our DC Conference

  April 04, 2013

  This is turning out to be quite a busy week at the Alliance. We’re currently preparing for the release of our State of Homelessness 2013 report this Tuesday, April 9, which will involve a press conference that morning and webinar that afternoon for advocates and stakeholders. You should register, if you’d like to hear about the data in the report as well as ways to act on the information through media engagement and advocacy efforts.

  But we’re also putting together our next National Conference on Ending Homelessness. It’s happening on Monday July 22 through Wednesday July 24 at The Renaissance Washington DC Hotel in Washington, DC. Already, we’re at work on roughly 80 workshops covering veteran homelessness, youth homelessness, chronic homelessness, homelessness advocacy, Continuums of Care, rapid re-housing, and more.

  This February, we had to close registration early for our Family and Youth conference because so many people registered for it so quickly, and we had to set up a wait-list for those who weren’t able to register in time. Obviously, we’re pleased with the huge response, and we want everyone who wants to attend to be able to, but we can only accommodate so many people.

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  Field Notes: Implementing the CoC Regulations

  April 03, 2013

  Though the rule is out and Continuum of Care (CoC) competition season has passed – well, almost –there’s still some work left to do regarding the Continuum of Care regulations.

  Around the time the regulations were released, we released several documents offering guidance on them, including a copy of our comments and a summary document. Last week, we released a brief on the next step: namely, how to implement the CoC rule and take advantage of the opportunities in it to promote best practices in your community. Here are some of the issues we address.

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  Sneak Preview: The State of Homelessness in America 2013

  April 02, 2013

  I’m excited to announce that, on next Tuesday, April 9, the Alliance’s Homelessness Research Institute will release The State of Homelessness in America 2013. This report is the third in a series that examines trends in homelessness as well as trends in the economic, housing, and demographic context in which homelessness exists. The reports from previous years are available here and here.

  The Alliance is hosting a press conference to present the report on the morning of April 9. The press conference will feature Congressman Cleaver (D-MO) and Alliance president and CEO Nan Roman who will discuss the major findings of the report and the implications of those findings on ending homelessness in the U.S.

  Additionally, the Alliance will be hosting a webinar at 3 p.m. on April 9 to provide more details on the findings for our partners throughout the country. The webinar will also provide information for how you can get involved in media engagement and advocacy efforts using this report.

  The report is not available until next Tuesday, but here is a sneak peak at some of the findings.

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  No HPRP? What now?

  April 01, 2013

  Some innovative communities have already shown how much we can accomplish when homeless service providers partner up with state agencies administering the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program. This Thursday, the National Alliance to End Homelessness hosted a webinar, Partnering with TANF Agencies to End Family Homelessness:  Idaho, that examined how one local provider did just that. 

  The webinar which was recorded on March 28 features representatives from the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare and the Charitable Assistance for The Community’s Homeless (CATCH, Inc.) who share how the public-private partnership evolved.  Check out the embedded video of the webinar to see how.

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  Field Notes: How to Plan a Learning Collaborative – Step One

  March 28, 2013

  There is a deep gulf between what we know we should do, and what we actually do. We can see across it, we can even describe what the other side looks like, but we are not sure how to actually cross it. This is where some homeless service providers find themselves in their efforts to move toward rapid re-housing.

  Last year the Alliance trained 172 organizations in Virginia on rapid re-housing. We also brought in Kris Billhardt, Director of Volunteers of America, Oregon’s Home Free program, to conduct trainings on rapid re-housing for survivors of domestic violence. The next step in helping service providers in Virginia adopt rapid re-housing was to help them bridge the gap between what they now knew about rapid re-housing, and the practices and policies of their organizations.

  To accomplish this, the Alliance launched seven Learning Collaboratives. A Learning Collaborative is an opportunity for organizations to make changes in the way they operate, while being supported by their peers and experts in rapid re-housing. Here is how it works.

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  Homeless Assistance Grants Receive Funding INCREASE!

  March 27, 2013

  Last week, the House and Senate finalized a final fiscal year (FY) 2013 funding bill for all federal discretionary spending. As we read through the list of anomalies (the handful of programs that received funding increases, as opposed to the vast majority of programs that received flat funding from FY 2012), we felt mixed emotions. We were relieved and excited to see an increase for HUD’s McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Grants and beyond thrilled at the 33 percent increase homeless assistance programs within the Department of Veterans Affairs received.  On the other hand, we were shocked and disappointed to see that following sequestration, many programs serving low-income populations would be taking a tremendous hit.

  After a tumultuous (to say the least) year, well, 16 months, focusing on FY 2013 funding, here’s our assessment on the final funding levels and what they mean.

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  One-stop-shop for homeless vets coming soon to a community near you?

  March 25, 2013

  Over the last year or so, the Department of Veterans Affairs has been implementing a new model, the Community Resource and Referral Center or “CRRC.” Basically, it’s a one-stop-shop for homeless and at-risk veterans, and it’s being tested in 17 urban sites across the nation. Most of these initial test sites are currently operating and more are planned for the future. So, what exactly is this new model and how does it work?

  The CRRC is VA’s attempt to develop a centralized assessment of homeless veterans at the community level. The goal is to get vets connected to stable housing and supportive services. These centers assess veterans for programs and services, both within VA and community-based organizations. Besides offering housing assistance through VASH Referrals, SSVF interventions and other housing services, CRRCs also offer medical services, employment and training services, hygiene and laundry services, benefit assessment (both VA and non-VA) and much more.

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  Poor People Can’t Afford Housing. How Can We Fix That?

  March 21, 2013

  We over at the National Low Income Housing Coalition spend most of our time focused on solving one specific problem: the acute shortage of housing that is affordable and available to extremely low income (ELI) households. This shortage is a primary driver of homelessness, and closing the gap between the number of affordable housing units and ELI households will make a big difference in the ongoing effort to prevent and end homelessness.

  Our latest numbers show that, for every 100 ELI households, there are just 30 affordable and available units. This number grows every year. In our annual report Out of Reach (released this month), the authors reveal that nationwide, a household must earn $18.79 an hour (working 40 hours  a week, 52 weeks a year) in order  to afford a decent two bedroom rental home. This number, which we call the “housing wage,” is even higher in many parts of the country. (You can get data on your own community at the NLIHC website.)

  While federal programs exist to help make housing more affordable for ELI households, these programs are oversubscribed, and many eligible households go unassisted, even if they otherwise qualify. Low income households desperately in need of housing find themselves on years-long waiting lists, or find that waiting lists for affordable housing in their area are closed entirely. Households on waiting lists for housing assistance have an average wait time of two years.

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  Field Notes: What if your program’s leadership doesn’t support retooling?

  March 19, 2013

  Continuing our series of answering frequently asked questions,  today’s vlog answers a question on the topic of retooling transitional housing programs: “What if our organization’s executive director/leadership does not support the retooling our transitional housing program, but the local Continuum of Care is moving in that direction?”

  This is a question I received during our Performance Improvement Clinics, where we often discuss retooling transitional housing as a possible change strategy. In these discussions, we have learned that reluctant leadership can be a struggle, particularly for organizations that have operated a transitional housing program for many years under the same board of directors or executive director.

  In this video I share information and ideas from providers who have retooled their programs as well as ideas from my own experience in retooling a transitional housing program prior to my work here at the Alliance. The key to engaging organizational leadership is through education and lots of dialogue, both at the organizational and the community levels.

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  Data Points: Unaffordable Housing

  March 19, 2013

  We spend lots of time developing and evaluating program models and service and housing interventions, but, on a basic level, homelessness occurs because of a household’s inability to afford housing.

  Here are some startling  statistics from the National Low Income Housing Coalition’s recent Out of Reach report: There are a total of 10.1 million extremely low income (ELI) renter households across the U.S. For every 100 ELI renter households, there are just 30 affordable housing units. Most newly constructed rental units are for high income households and older units are being swiftly upgraded to serve a higher income market. To afford a decent apartment at fair market rent, a household needs to make $18.79 per hour, but the average renter earns only $14.32 per hour.

  So, what does this mean for families and individuals every day? It means that households don’t make enough money to afford decent housing.

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  What will the End of Veteran Homelessness Look Like?

  March 14, 2013

  The United States Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH) recently released a report on veteran homelessness and it’s impressive (here’s why): The report is forward-looking; it envisions a future era in which we have reached our goal of ending veteran homelessness and have shifted our focus to prevention. The report also looks at the seldom discussed issue of veterans who are ineligible for VA services.

  This report backs up this vision of the future with data projections and models. Of all the models, by far the most aggressive and most interesting is the Eliminate Veteran Homelessness Analytic Model. This tool was developed by our friends at the National Center on Homelessness among Veterans.

  Using this model, we see that, if we continue our current federal funding levels (the “status quo”) for veteran homelessness systems, we could still have more than 40,000 veterans experiencing homelessness in 2016. Compare that to the numbers we reach if we increase federal funding, (USICH calls for 20,000 HUD-VASH vouchers and ongoing annual funding of SSVF and continued smart targeting of resources): 

  10,000 or fewer homeless veterans. (Presumably, those 10,000 would be a population of veterans in the process of transitioning out of homeless).

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  Field Notes: Incorporating Consumers

  March 13, 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, performance measurement, and building systems-level cooperation. Our final topic today is consumer involvement.

  A consumer presence on the new Continuum of Care (CoC) board, as well as the boards of all CoC-funded recipients and subrecipients, is now mandated by the interim CoC regulations. The intent of the new regulations is to improve the way we serve consumers - without their feedback, it is impossible to keep track of their needs and how well homeless assistance programs and systems are meeting those needs. Here are some questions you should ask about your program to determine how well you are incorporating consumer input into your program’s design and operations:

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  Housing Commission Recommends Rental Assistance be Provided to Anyone Who Needs It

  March 12, 2013

  At a time when low-income renters are spending a larger percentage of their incomes on housing than ever before, current federal housing policy and the institutions that support it are outdated and inadequate, according to a new report by the Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC) Housing Commission. In the report, the  Commission recommends housing policy reforms that, if implemented, could greatly improve the lives and  well-being of the most vulnerable Americans.

  Released Monday, February 25, “America’s Future: New Directions for National Policy,” is the culmination of a 16-month examination of housing issues, including roundtable discussions, regional housing forums, and research by the (BPC) Housing Commission and housing experts. In the report, the Commission warns that the aging Baby-Boomer population and shifting demographics will soon present new challenges for housing providers throughout the country.

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  Tracking Progress: Interactive Point-in-Time Count Map

  March 11, 2013

  One of the roles of the Homelessness Research Institute (HRI), the research and education arm of the Alliance, is to track trends in the homelessness population in communities across the country in an effort to document progress in ending homelessness.

  Every Continuum of Care (CoC) in the country recently participated in HUD mandated point-in-time counts of their sheltered and unsheltered homeless populations. These enumeration efforts do not provide a precise count of homeless people, but they do provide a regular way of measuring progress in ending homelessness over time.

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  Farewell from an Alliance Staff Member

  March 07, 2013

  Over the past two and a half years I’ve met and worked with some incredibly smart and passionate people who have dedicated their careers to ending homelessness and with whom I hope to maintain an ongoing and close connection. From these individuals I’ve learned a great deal and, as a result, I’ve grown immensely over this time. I look forward to using what I’ve learned in other contexts as I continue to work on behalf of children, youth and families.

  The end of my time with the Alliance is not the end of my work, which will continue with a new beginning at the place where I began it – in Southern Nevada. There I will be creating, developing, and managing a strategic initiatives and community partnership program with the goal of decreasing child maltreatment in Clark County (Las Vegas.)

  I’m proud to have contributed to advocacy efforts and the promotion of emerging strategies and best practices to end youth homelessness. I’m most proud of the work I’ve done on family intervention, which I believe should play a significant role in the prevention. Family intervention should be a part of concurrent planning and ought to be available to all youth regardless of their age, sexual orientation, gender identity, or parenting status.

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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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