The shelter and transitional housing system in your community is organized to minimize the length of time people remain homeless, and the number of times they become homeless. Outcome measures are a key component of this effort.

• Shelters and other homeless services providers have access to and incentive to use prevention resources to avert a homeless episode.
• Shelters and transitional housing providers have incentives to move people out of homelessness and into stable permanent housing as quickly as possible. To the maximum extent possible, a homeless person's service needs should not delay his or her entry into permanent housing.
• Structures are in place to meet the service needs of re-housed households.
• Homelessness providers are held accountable for people they have served in the past and are rewarded to the degree that their former clients have stable housing.
• At the same time, homelessness providers are encouraged to serve people who have the most barriers to permanent housing and are most likely to be homeless longest. Incentives for quick, sustained re-housing should not sanction "creaming."
• Outcome measures track the number of people who become homeless, the average length of homeless episodes (not necessarily the average stay in a shelter), and the rate of recidivism. 
•  Homelessness programs are be discouraged from using time limits, sanctions, or other devices that may reduce shelter use but do not end homelessness.