Homelessness Housing and Assistance Act Implementation

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Homelessness Housing and Assistance Act
Implementation Year 3
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• At a point in time
• At least 21,947 people were homeless
• 6,498 unsheltered
• 15,449 in emergency or transitional
• Per year
• About 87,000 people experience homelessness in a
  year

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Individual County Results Vary

• Dramatic declines in some counties offset by
  increases in others.

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Chronically Homeless

• 16 - 3,000
• Disabled, Single
• AND
• Homeless for a year or more
• OR
• Homeless four or more times in three years

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• Self reported characteristics of those sheltered
• 17 mental health disability
• 19 substance abuse problem
• 7 both SA and MH disabilities
• 14 victims of domestic violence

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Causes (oversimplified)

• Most people fall into homelessness because they
  temporarily do not have enough money to buy
  housing and do not have family or friends who
  will house them.
• A smaller group is also need time-limited case
  management, treatment and education.
• A small minority has severe and persistent mental
  health illnesses or other disabilities that will
  require a lifetime of supportive services and
  subsidized housing to keep them housed.

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Causes of Historic Changes (oversimplified)

• Very low cost housing eliminated (building codes
  and gentrification)
• Federal housing funds have not kept pace with
  need
• 90 cut in per-capita psychiatric beds since 1950
• Stagnant/declining wages plus housing price
  increases
• Illness, job loss, family break-up, etc. plus
  above equals homelessness

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Causes - Pool of people at risk
(oversimplified)

• Over 99,000 households (200,000 people)
• Earn less than 30 percent of median income
  (lt16,300)
• Pay more than 50 percent of income for rent

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Broad Strategies

• Increasing earned household income
• Subsidizing housing
• Giving money or services
• Reducing the market cost of housing
• Connecting people to family or friends that can
  house them and manage problems they are having
• Providing help with daily care needs

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Local Responsibilities

• The Act requires county governments to
• Develop a ten-year plan to reduce homelessness by
  50 percent.
• Conduct an annual point in time count of homeless
  persons.
• Report progress implementing plans annually to
  CTED.
• Use the local portion of document recording fee
  (20.2 million per year) to reduce homelessness.
• Implement Homeless Management Information System
  (HMIS)

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State Responsibilities

• The Act requires CTED to
• Work with Interagency Council on Homelessness
  (ICH) and Affordable Housing Advisory Board
  (AHAB) to develop a ten-year plan to reduce
  homelessness by 50 percent by 2015.
• Coordinate the annual point in time count.
• Produce an annual report on the performance
  measures used to measure state and local plan
  implementation.
• Provide technical assistance to counties.
• Pass through most of the state portion of
  document recording fees (8.6 million per year)
  to local governments to reduce homelessness.
• Implement Homeless Management Information System
  (HMIS)

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Ending homelessness is a math problem

• To end homelessness for a person
• X amount of housing
• Y amount of case management services
• Z treatment or education
• Research plus political/values decisions can
  fill-in the blanks in the equation.
• There are many correct solutions to the equation,
  and there are solutions that dont add up.

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Dosage and volume must be adequate

• Appropriate intervention/dosage for the needs of
  each individual (i.e. - life skills and 90 days
  of housing not enough for a chronic alcoholic)
• Overall volume must match the scale of the
  problem (i.e. - 2 million in new funds for
  transitional housing will not address a 20
  million gap)

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CTED Homeless Programs

• Emergency Shelter - 6.2 million per year, 1-90
  days shelter or rent assistance, Serves 36,000
  per year
• Transitional Housing - 4.2 million per year, up
  to 24 months of housing and services, 1,020
  families served each year

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CTED Homeless Programs, continued

• HGAP Pilot initiatives to integrate housing
  with social service and/or criminal justice
  systems - 8.2 million per year
• Independent Youth Housing Program - 500,000 per
  year, housing vouchers and case management for 32
  youth served per year
• McKinney CTED supported competition for
  competitive federal funding in the Balance of
  State Continuum of Care, 5 million per year.
  Includes 350,000 in new funding each year for a
  new permanent supportive housing project.