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FY 1999 Annual Performance PlanStrategic Objective 2
Help Communities and States Establish a Full Continuum of Housing and Services Designed to Assist Homeless Individuals and Families
Introduction
The best approach to alleviating homelessness is a community-based
process that responds comprehensively to the varying needs of
homeless individuals and families. A comprehensive and coordinated
housing and service delivery approach helps communities plan for
and executes that balanced response. Utilizing this approach,
the community can design a strategy that works best locally to
assist homeless persons and families achieve permanent housing
and self-sufficiency. The continuum of care model is based on
the understanding that homelessness is not caused merely by a
lack of shelter, but involves a variety of unmet needs -- physical,
economic, and social. HUD helps communities develop a holistic
system through a community-based process that provides a comprehensive
response to the differing needs of homeless individuals and families.
The best estimate of the extent of homelessness in America is
600,000 persons at a point in time. This figure is based on a
landmark 1988 study conducted by Martha Burt of the Urban Institute
(the estimate is contained in a "Projections of Our Estimate
of Service-using Homeless People in U.S. Cities of 100,000 or
More to All Homeless People in the United States"). Given
the age and very approximate nature of that estimate, the figure
cannot be used as an absolute base from which to measure reductions
in homelessness. However, this national figure does serve as
a useful benchmark of the approximate level of homelessness.
The best available measures of reduction are two existing homeless
performance measures: percent of persons moving to permanent housing
and the number of persons moving from transitional to some form
of permanent housing, which to some extent overlap each other.
The Department is further committed to ensuring that the non-discriminatory
provisions of the Fair Housing Act and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation
Act of 1973 are fully complied with in programs and activities
receiving Federal financial assistance. HUD will ensure that
homeless programs and facilities are accessible to persons with
disabilities and address their disability related needs. The Department
must also ensure that the rights of persons with disabilities
are protected in this program. We do so by conducting monitoring
reviews and investigating discrimination complaints filed against
recipients of Federal financial assistance.
Strategies
The primary strategy of HUD since 1993 has been to foster a Continuum
of Care strategy in communities with significant homeless populations
throughout the United States. This has been accomplished by including
such a strategy within the framework of the Consolidated Plan
undertaken by every entitlement community and State. It has also
been carried out by encouraging joint coordinated submissions
for homeless assistance under the competitive programs.
Among the components of a fully operational Continuum of Care
System are: outreach and assessment to identify an individual's
or family's needs and connect them to facilities and services;
immediate shelter as a safe, decent alternative to the streets;
transitional housing with appropriate supportive services, such
as job training, job placement, child care, substance abuse treatment,
mental health services and instruction in independent living skills;
and permanent housing or permanent supportive housing arrangements.
HUD works with communities to establish cost-effective "continuum
of care" systems in which gaps in the housing and services
needed to move homeless families and individuals into permanent
housing are identified and filled. The continuum of care system
serves the specific needs of all homeless sub-populations within
a particular community. It is an inclusive process that coordinates
the energy and experience of non-profit organizations, State and
local governmental agencies, housing developers and service providers,
private foundations, local businesses and the banking community,
neighborhood groups, and homeless or formerly homeless persons.
The Continuum of Care is both a process and a result. The Continuum
of Care process is an approach to local decision making that stresses
bringing all the relevant groups in a community together to identify
gaps in the community's response to homelessness and to set priorities
to meet those gaps. It also refers to the anticipated and evolving
results of such a consultative process, that is, a system in which
an individual or family, once they have been identified as homeless,
are likely to receive the housing and services they need, from
outreach, intake and assessment through emergency and transitional
housing to independent permanent housing or permanent supportive
housing.
To foster a true continuum of options for the homeless, the
Department makes public and assisted housing resources available
to families with extremely low incomes. HUD's legislative proposals
would eliminate Federal admissions preferences for public and
assisted housing, enabling local Housing Authorities to establish
admissions preferences according to community needs. Preferences
may be established for families that are homeless or threatened
with homelessness if determined necessary by Housing Authorities.
Homeless or at-risk families will remain eligible for housing
assistance even in those Housing Authorities not establishing
preferences for the homeless, however. This is because the Department
has proposed to require that Housing Authorities reserve significant
portions of their admissions each year for families with extremely
low incomes. Many families making the transition from homelessness
would fall into this income category.
Linkage to HUD 2020: Management Reform Plan
Problems encountered by CPD in the past have included limited
staff for on-site monitoring, fragmented approaches to solving
community problems; and an inability to completely track and respond
to market trends. CPD has addressed these issues through outsourcing
discrete functions, using advanced mapping software to aid community
planning (Community 2020), aligning resources within a
new Economic Development and Empowerment Services (see also Objective
#1), and implementing the Continuum of Care approach to addressing
homelessness.
The Continuum of Care approach, which is a important element
of the HUD 2020 Management Reform Plan, has evolved since it was
first introduced, in 1994, in a manner which has significantly
impacted the way HUD and local communities partner to address
homelessness. Applications for HUD's homelessness assistance
funding have been consolidated and streamlined, making them significantly
more user friendly, the competitive process rewards comprehensive
local planning , and Federal top-down mandates have been replaced
by funding decisions which are driven by local decision-making
and priority setting and linked to the communities overall Consolidated
Planning process. While the Continuum of Care approach has received
significant praise from communities for the way it has transformed
how homelessness is addressed at the local level, HUD continues
to consider ways of refining the competitive process to ensure
the most effective and efficient system possible. External Factors
Macro-economic factors can dwarf the Department's efforts to
affect homelessness. Increases in unemployment, the failure to
provide employment for people leaving the welfare rolls, and increases
in the cost of housing all can lead to increases in homelessness.
Factors such as the rates of domestic violence, substance abuse,
and the incidence of disabilities, which are associated with homelessness,
also are beyond the Department's control. Moreover, HUD's ability
to transition people into permanent housing is constrained by local housing
markets, by the ability to place people into employment, and by
the availability of financial support for these individuals.
The Department's performance measures include goals for the number
of homeless persons that will be served by HUD transitional housing
and HUD permanent housing. Achievement of these goals will be
within legislative confines as Continuum of Care allows communities
to choose the types of assistance they seek. Supportive services
provide the most people (e.g., case management, day care, job
training, mental health counseling, drug treatment). Given the
flexibility in the array of services from which applicants can
choose, HUD is not able to predict with precision the number of
persons that might be served by all HUD homeless programs in any
given year.
During the course of consultations, there was discussion of establishing
a goal by sub-populations as to the number served. HUD gives
communities significant discretion as to which populations they
target requested resources. HUD cannot predict which populations
will be targeted by any given community to be served in a given
year. An appreciable portion of HUD's homeless funding goes to shorter-term programs (e.g., Emergency Shelter Grants) or activities (e.g., Supportive Services Only
projects like service centers) for which there is currently only
negligible beneficiary information. Also, many homeless persons
have more than one population characteristic (e.g., a single male
veteran who is mentally ill and has AIDS). Given the overlap
of sub-populations, any count by sub-population would have little
meaning. Annual Performance Goals
Adopting a comprehensive approach to the prevention of homelessness
is an integral part of the HUD's focus. Simply partnering with
communities will not solve the problem. For those who already
face the plight of homelessness, we must first increase annually
the number of transitional beds linked to supportive services,
and, more importantly, the number of homeless persons moved from
HUD transitional housing to permanent housing.
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Content Archived: November 29, 2011 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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