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The National Alliance to End Homelessness recently released The State of Homelessness in America 2016, the sixth in a series of
reports charting progress in ending homelessness in the United States. It
examines trends in homelessness, populations at risk of homelessness, and
homelessness assistance in America.
This analysis of the most recent federal data on housing and
homelessness shows that in 2014, 7 million poor people were doubled-up -living
with family and friends for a 52 percent increase from 2007. In 2014, 6.6 million poor renter
households spent more than half of their income for housing; an increase of 28
percent over 2007.
While this would seem to be a recipe for increasing
homelessness, and although that is the case in some areas like our own,
nationally the number of homeless people is going down. On a single night in
January 2015, 13 percent fewer people were homeless than was the case in 2007.
This decrease is likely due to the use of much more effective approaches to
homelessness.
Federal resources and local action have begun to focus much
more on returning people quickly to housing, and linking them to services that
can help stabilize them there. Communities do need shelter, but as a crisis
intervention rather than a place to live. Since 2007, permanent supportive
housing capacity has grown 69 percent and since 2013, rapid re-housing capacity
has grown 204 percent.
Nan Roman, President of
the National Alliance to End Homelessness wrote
in a blog post about the findings of the report.
“The Great Recession is over, the economy is recovering, and
yet the number of people who are at risk of homelessness remains significantly
higher than it was before that recession began.”
While the homeless assistance system is doing
what it can to serve those with the most desperate housing needs, Nan notes
that the report shows that 31 percent of people who are homelessness are
unsheltered and that to do better in addressing the homelessness crisis, more
resources are needed.
She calls on Congress to support the effective
work of homeless assistance programs in the following ways:
- Increase funding for McKinney-Vento Homeless
Assistance Grants by $414 million to finish the job of ending chronic
homelessness and provide 8,000 units of rapid re-housing for homeless families.
- Support the Administration’s FY 2017 proposal
to end family homelessness with the creation an $11 billion mandatory program
to fund housing vouchers and rapid re-housing assistance for 550,000 families
over the next ten years.
- Appropriate $20.854 billion for Section 8
Tenant-Based Rental Assistance, which includes support for 10,000 new Housing
Choice Vouchers for homeless families.
- Securing future funding for the National
Housing Trust Fund.
While the State of Homelessness report shows
that there is good news in the work of some states to end homelessness, to make
homelessness a rare occurrence, we will have to turn the tide on affordable
housing.
 AIGA Seattle is kicking off the
Design for Good Changemaker Series, uniting creative professionals with
organizations and nonprofits to enable design-driven social change. The 2016
theme is Housing & Homelessness and this year’s selected nonprofit and
change org partners will present their missions and
project challenges at the Changemaker Kickoff on
Thursday, April 14. The Kickoff is an opportunity to learn about the change organizations that are participating, including All Home, and how you can get involved and be on a project team to make an impact in our
community!
Read more about the entire
Changemaker Series at aigaseattle.org/designforgood.
 As the System Manager, King County
Housing and Community Services Division
(HCD) is responsible for the operations and daily oversight of
Coordinated Entry for All (CEA). As part of the implementation of CEA,
King County released an RFP for 5 Regional Access Points which will serve as
the primary front-door for the homeless housing system. The RFP announced
the availability of approximately $1M and closed on April 7th. The HCD team is also in the process of hiring for key positions that will assist in the System Manager role
including a Coordinated Entry for All Project Manager and three Referral
Specialist positions.
Single Adult Coordinated Entry
A Single Adult Phase I Workgroup is meeting weekly during the
month of April to plan for the initial phase of coordinated entry for single
adults beginning with referrals to Permanent Supportive Housing. The first
meeting included a review of the draft CEA Operations Manual and discussion of
the scope of PSH for Phase I, access to assessments, and additional questions
needed for the CEA assessment and screening process.
FHC and YHC Reassessment and
Transition
FHC and YHC are now using the new
assessment tool and have made tremendous progress on the reassessment of
families and young adults already on the placement roster. Each has
completed a first round of call-backs; families completing over 300 new
assessments and young adults completing more than 180 assessments. All
assessments are now being entered into BitFocus and within the next two weeks,
referrals will be made through HMIS using the new assessments.
Family and Young Adult programs
currently participating in FHC and YHC received a letter and survey to confirm
information about their programs in regards to the improvements to these systems
and implementation of prioritization using the banding approach with
Coordinated Entry for All (CEA). The survey included provided an
opportunity for questions and clarifications. All agencies who submitted
a response to the survey will be contacted individually.
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The Smoking
Cessation Leadership Center (SCLC) is presenting a free webinar, “Opportunities for Interventions: Tobacco use
among populations experiencing homelessness” on
Tuesday, April 26, 2016, at 2:00pm EDT (90
minutes). Maya Vijayaraghavan, MD, MAS, Assistant
Professor, in the Division of General Internal Medicine/Zuckerberg San
Francisco General Hospital, University of California at San Francisco (UCSF)
will present.
Webinar Objectives:
- Understand
the epidemiology of tobacco use among populations experiencing homelessness
- Describe
current interventions and policies that address tobacco use among homeless
adults and youth
- Identify
opportunities for interventions in clinical and non-clinical settings
Please
register here: https://cc.readytalk.com/r/lidn07in8t81&eom
The Washington Health Care
Authority (HCA) has just released a Request for Information in their
exploration of Pay for Success (PFS) in relation to supportive housing. The RFI
has been posted on their Healthier Washington
website and will also be posted in Washington
Electronic Business Solution (WEBS), under commodity code 952-55 and other
related codes. The goals of the RFI include facilitating conversations about
PFS in Washington and understanding possible opportunities for moving forward,
gathering details about local PFS projects HCA could support, and receiving
information and guidance about how to build better systems for preventative
services that may or may not require PFS.
Who should consider responding:
- MCOs and BHOs
- Local governments
- Housing and Service
Providers
- ACHs
- Other non-profits and
organizations interested in supportive housing
Responses will be extremely helpful in allowing HCA to craft
new policy mechanisms to help improve supportive housing. A forum for
questions will be held on April 20 and responses
are due on May 6. |
