Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing

Years of research and experience in working to end homelessness has proven that prevention and rapid re-housing are key strategies.
While a small portion of the homeless population requires sustained assistance and more intensive services, a large number of individuals and families experiencing homelessness can be assisted through the provision of rent assistance and some housing stabilization services, such as help with employment, connecting with mainstream resources like TANF and SSI/SSDI, and budget counseling. Another group of individuals and families can be prevented from becoming homeless in the first place through the provision of rent assistance -- such as first month's rent and security deposit or paying back rent owed to the landlord -- and limited services.

To encourage this kind of proven assistance, Congress and the Administration approved a $1.5 billion Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing Program (HPRP) as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act in February 2009. This program provides funds to communities across the country to provide homelessness prevention and rapid re-housing assistance to individuals and families experiencing or at risk of homelessness.

The pages included in this section provide information about the proven strategies of homelessness prevention and rapid re-housing, strategies for designing and re-evaluating an HPRP program, and examples of how these strategies are being used throughout the country.

Spotlight

Federal Policy Brief  |  January 17, 2012
The Alliance has prepared draft comments on HUD's interim rule for the Emergency Solutions Grant (ESG) program as part of the HEARTH Act. The interim rule went into effect on January 4, and final comments are due to HUD by February 3.
Solutions Brief  |  November 23, 2011
This page provides a summary of the interim Emergency Solutions Grant (ESG) rule, as well as resources for implementing the rule and maximizing the impact of your community's ESG resources.
Solutions Brief  |  March 15, 2011
| Communities are increasingly using homelessness prevention and rapid re-housing to meet the needs of domestic violence survivors. These brief goes over some effective strategies to assist survivors.

Library Resources

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Federal Policy Brief  |  December 22, 2011
This brief summarizes the interim rule for the Emergency Solutions Grant program.
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Toolkits  |  October 3, 2011
This tool may help determine which services a rapid re-housing eligible household needs. Communities would ideally use this tool only after prevention or diversion had been ruled out as options for a household and before or very shortly after admitting them to a shelter program if they have no place else to stay.
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Solutions Brief  |  January 10, 2011
This document profiles how Hennepin County, MN began to assess how it was targeting its homelessness prevention resources.
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Solutions Brief  |  September 28, 2010
| Minneapolis and Hennepin County, MN began implementing their Ten Year Plan to End Homelessness, Heading Home Hennepin, in January 2007. Using a few replicable practices, the community has made significant progress.
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Report  |  September 7, 2010
| The Alliance released the third Quarterly Leadership Council Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-housing Report, which documents the progress of 13 cities implementing their HUD-funded prevention and rapid re-housing programs.
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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.
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Report  |  May 31, 2010
| The Alliance released the second Quarterly Leadership Council Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-housing Report, which documents the progress of 13 cities implementing their HUD-funded prevention and rapid re-housing programs.
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Online Training  |  May 24, 2010
This online training is designed to introduce some basic concepts necessary to design a prevention program. The training covers outreach strategies, explains the importance of targeting services, offers ideas for assessment and financial assistance plans, and examines program evaluation.
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Report  |  March 2, 2010
In conjunction with a group of 11 cities from across the country, the Alliance has created a quarterly report on the status of HPRP. It examines how the 11 communities are spending their HPRP funds, as well as the results of their January 2009 point-in-time counts.
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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.
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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.
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Toolkits  |  July 29, 2009
The National Alliance to End Homelessness has published this guide and companion to help organizations create a homelessness prevention program or improve an existing prevention program.
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Toolkits  |  July 29, 2009
The Alliance has published this guide to help organizations develop Rapid Re-Housing programs.