HPRP

This section highlights model HPRP programs that are preventing homelessness, diverting people from shelter, and rapidly re-housing those who become homeless. Resources in a prevention and re-housing system should be targeted to households with the highest likelihood of becoming homeless, and programs should provide just enough assistance to prevent or end an episode of homelessness - stretching resources as far as possible.

In 2009, Congress reauthorized HUD’s McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Programs through the Homeless Emergency and Rapid Transition to Housing (HEARTH) Act, including incentives for communities to adopt rapid re-housing. Congress also included $1.5 billion for HPRP in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) to help prevent large increases in homelessness among families impacted by the recession. For the first time, communities across the country have dedicated resources to rapidly re-house families.

In the first year of HPRP, 110,000 homeless people in families received rapid re-housing assistance, including housing search, short-term rental assistance, and follow-up case management, to move out of homelessness and back into housing. (Many more families received homelessness prevention services through HPRP before they became homeless.) Almost all – 91 percent – of families receiving rapid re-housing exited homelessness for permanent housing. More than half of all households did so with just one month of assistance. 

Spotlight

Solutions Brief | May 21, 2012
Across the country, communities are implementing rapid re-housing to respond to family homelessness, and they are demonstrating impressive results. Communities are successfully, and quickly, re-housing families at a minimal cost by providing assistance locating new housing, short-term rental assistance, and follow-up case management focused on employment. In doing so, they are improving the lives of families.
Federal Policy Brief | January 6, 2012
This brief distills the Alliance's findings on how HPRP and other initiatives were implemented in numerous communities. It provides six recommendations for implementing the new ESG program.

Library Resources

Icon
Solutions Brief | June 25, 2010
Increasingly, communities and programs are providing homeless and at-risk families with short term rental assistance. In assessing which families to help, one of their primary concerns is to help families that will be able to sustain their housing once the short subsidy ends. To inform their choices about whom to help, this Fact Sheet examines the level of housing cost burden that poor families typically carry.
Icon
Webinar | May 5, 2010
In May 2010, the Alliance hosted a webinar discussing how Cincinnati developed its family rapid re-housing system goals and outcomes, its approach to stakeholder engagement, and its approach to targeting, accountability, and evaluation.
Icon
Webinar | February 19, 2010
On February 18, 2010, the Alliance hosted a webinar that explored how TANF Emergency Contingency Funds and Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing Program (HPRP) funds are being used by The Road Home in Salt Lake City to re-house families experiencing homelessness.
Icon
Best Practice | December 14, 2009
Each community receiving HPRP funds is responsible for designing its program based on its distinct needs, and many are taking this unique opportunity to transform their homelessness assistance systems. This community profile examines Alameda County, CA's efforts to use HPRP to transform its homelessness assistance system.
Icon
Solutions Brief | November 25, 2009
This document provides a summary to the November 12, 2009 Virtual Discussion on HPRP Implementation. It contains 26 questions asked during the Virtual Discussion, along with the responses given by Alliance staff.
Icon
Other | September 17, 2009
Congress allocated $25 million for a Rapid Re-Housing Demonstration to serve homeless families. The experience of the 23 communities that received grants awards under the Demonstration can be an important resource for communities developing Rapid Re-Housing programs to serve families using HPRP or other funding resources. This resource collects information about what the Demonstration grantees are doing.
Icon
Video | September 2, 2009
Norm Suchar, senior policy analyst for the National Alliance to End Homelessness, explains the Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing program and the nation's changing approach to addressing homelessness in the country.
Icon
Video | August 31, 2009
Norm Suchar, senior policy analyst at the National Alliance to End Homelessness, explains the Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing program and it's potential to transform the homeless systems in the country.
Icon
Webinar | June 23, 2009
In June 2009, the Alliance and the Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio (COHHIO) co-hosted a webinar entitled "Implementing HPRP in Rural Areas." Speakers explored the unique challenges that rural communities face as they implement their Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing Program (HPRP) plans. They also delved into new and significant opportunities to address these challenges through effective program design and collaborative strategies.
Icon
Solutions Brief | April 16, 2009
This paper provides basic steps for using HPRP to facilitate the transformation of homeless assistance from a system organized around emergency shelter to one centered on housing stability. Although no community has perfected homeless assistance, the steps in this paper have been used in communities to spark the process of transformation.
Icon
Solutions Brief | April 3, 2009
This paper explores key partnerships that communities should consider for both the planning and program design stage and the implementation, oversight, and evaluation stage of their HPRP program.
Icon
Best Practice | March 20, 2009
Many communities have in place best practices which can be funded through HUD’s new Homelessness Prevention and Re-Housing Fund. Highlighted below are model community-based and statewide programs, which are preventing homelessness, diverting people from shelter, and rapidly re-housing those who become homeless. Provided are the programs’ focus (noted under its name) and websites, and Alliance Audio Conferences, Best Practice write-ups, and National Conference presentations pertaining to the program.
Icon
Federal Policy Brief | March 9, 2009
Up to $5 billion is available to states under the economic recovery act for the TANF Emergency Contingency Fund. This brief explores how improving TANF agencies' capacity to work in concert with local efforts to prevent homelessness and re-house families can be used effectively to improve outcomes and end homelessness.