Note: please note that this issue overview should (a) contain links to the issue briefs on this topic that are focused either the local, state, national, or global level, and (b) be neutrally presented, based on facts, and include footnotes for each of the items.  See the Research Guide and Information Sources to assist you. 

Goal Statement   one sentence that further defines the topic

To ensure all people have decent, safe and affordable housing, as well as are provided with necessary welfare assistance, mental health care, medical care and job placement to ensure stable living conditions.

Policy Options / Model Programs   specific policies or program models, grouped by type, that are profiled 

• Emergency Shelter & Assistance

  • Critical Time Intervention (CTI): Designed to prevent recurrent homelessness among persons with severe mental illness by enhancing continuity of care during the transition from institutional to community living. Full paper available here.^[1] 

  • Shelter Plus Care (HUD): The Shelter Plus Care Program provides rental assistance for hard-to-serve homeless persons with disabilities in connection with supportive services funded from sources outside the program.

  • New York-New York Agreement: "... the 1990 New York/New York Agreement to House Homeless Mentally Ill Individuals, a historic joint effort by New York State and New York City that created 3,615 units of supportive and licensed, permanent and transitional housing for homeless mentally ill people in New York City. The New York/New York (NY/NY) Agreement remains the largest housing initiative for homeless mentally ill people to date..."^[2]

• Rapid Transition to Housing

  • Housing First:  Housing First is an approach that guides a set of interventions designed to help homeless people transition more rapidly out of the shelter system; it includes crisis intervention, re-housing as quickly as possible, follow-up case management, and housing support services to prevent the reoccurrence of homelessness. What differentiates a Housing First approach from traditional emergency shelter or housing transitional models is the immediate and primary focus on helping homeless people quickly access and then sustain housing—put simply, housing comes first, then services.^[3]

  • Homeless Emergency Assistance and Rapid Transition to Housing Act (H.R. 840):  Reauthorizes McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance programs. Like the Senate's reauthorization proposal, it would consolidate the three competitive housing programs into one competitive program with a broad set of eligible activities; codify the Continuum of Care process; and establish a single 25 percent match. The bill would also set deadlines for HUD to issue Notices of Funding Availability and make award announcements. It is an amendment to a former bill that would include changing the definition fo homelessness to those who are at-risk of losing their homeless, Incentives for Rapid Rehousing programs for homeless families and permanent supportive housing programs for individuals and families who experience chronic homelessness, among other changes. ^[4]   

Local/State/National Information   additional information on this topic at the local, state, national, global level

• Chronic Homelessness - USA

• Chronic Homelessness - New Jersey

  • Chronic Homelessness - New Brunswick, NJ

  • Chronic Homelessness - Trenton, NJ

Glossary of Terms   key words or phrases that the layperson needs to know to understand this issue 

• Chronic Homelessness:A chronically homeless person is an unaccompanied disabled individual who has been continuously homeless for over one year (working definition).^[5]

• Homeless Management Information Systems

• Section 8 Housing: A program to assist tenants of their housing, primarily low-income individuals whereby they usually pay only 30 percent of their income for rent, as opposed to the normal 70 percent for low-income individuals.^[6]
• Affordable Housing: The generally accepted definition of affordability is for a household to pay no more than 30 percent of its annual income on housing.^[7] 
• Continuum of Care: Continuum of Care (CoC) is a regional or local  planning body that coordinates housing and services funding for homeless families and individuals. services.^[8]

• Ten Year Plan to End Homelessness : In 2000, the National Alliance to End Homelessness released A Plan, Not a Dream: How to End Homelessness in Ten Years. Drawing on research and innovative programs from around the country, the plan outlined key strategies in addressing the issue locally, which cumulatively can address the issue nationally.^[9] 

• Scattered Site Housing: public housing, esp. for low-income families, built throughout an urban area rather than being concentrated in a single neighborhood.^[10]

Bibliography    

• Cullhane, Dennis P. and Stephen Metraux. "Rearranging the Deck Chairs or Reallocating the Lifeboats: Homelessness Assistance and Its Alternatives." Journal of the American Planning Association. Vol. 74 No.1, Winter 2008. 

• Cunningham, M., Lear, M., Schmitt, E., & Henry, M. (2006). A new vision: What is in community plans to end homelessness? Washington, DC: National Alliance to End Homelessness. 

• (2006) "Good... to better... to great: Innovations in 10-year plans to end chronic homelessness". Washington DC: Interagency Council on Homelessness (Jim Collins).

• Daniel Herman, Sarah Conover. Alan Felix, Aman Nakagawa, Danika Mills, "Critical Time Intervention: An Empirically Supported Model for Preventing Homelessness in High Risk Groups" (2007).

• Dept. of Housing and Urban Development's Website: http://www.hud.gov/

• National Alliance to End Homelessness' Website: www.endhomelessness.org

• Explainer What is a Continuum of Care? \Questions and Answers on Homelessness Policy and Research, 2007. National Alliance to End Homelessness