Ending Family Homelessness: National Trends and Local System Responses provides information on national trends that are suggesting significant changes in the country’s approach to ending family homelessness and offers guidance to communities for responding to these changes by realigning existing resources to establish strategically designed system responses. The paper was prepared for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and presented at the Washington Families Fund Systems Initiative Strategy Convening.
In part one of the paper, the National Alliance to End Homelessness analyzes national research on the characteristics and typologies of homeless families, related federal policy direction, and the components of a coordinated system that emphasizes rapid re-housing. In part two, CSH provides a framework for determining the right balance of local system interventions and examines potential changes to the use of existing resources, primarily those currently used for transitional housing.
System responses that emphasize rapid re-housing must clearly differentiate the desired outcomes for resources dedicated to housing stability from those dedicated to income progression and other elements of family self-sufficiency. Converting transitional housing resources to create a more balanced system response requires analysis and decision-making at both the system and project levels to ensure the right mix of interventions. CSH lays out the critical elements of this analysis and the steps required for local systems to move forward.
