Report on the Innovative Homeless Initiatives Demonstration Program Final Report

Executive Summary Cambridge, MA Lexington, MA Hadley, MA Bethesda, MD Washington, DC Chicago, IL Cairo, Egypt Johannesburg, South Africa

March 2001

Prepared for U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development 451 Seventh Street, SW Washington, DC 20410 Abt Associates Inc. 55 Wheele r Street Cambridge, MA 02138

Prepared by Barbara Epstein

Executive Summary In 1993 the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) established the Innovative Homeless Initiatives Demonstration Program (IHIDP) in order to demonstrate how the Continuum of Care process can be implemented in communities around the country. The Continuum of Care process entails the broad participation of local stakeholders to identify the gaps, resources, and priorities in a community’s approach to outreach, housing, and related services for homeless persons. The experiences of IHIDP grantees were intended to provide lessons for others seeking to develop Continuums of Care. A total of $125 million was allocated for the program during 1994 and 1995. Under the program, two types of grants were awarded. Comprehensive Homeless Initiatives grants ranging from $5 million to $20 million were awarded in 1994 to six metropolitan areas designated by the Secretary of HUD: Washington, DC; Denver; Los Angeles; San Francisco; Philadelphia; and Miami. The grantees were charged with developing integrated Continuums of Care out of often fragmented service systems, and building cooperative relationships among providers, funding sources, advocates, government, and the homeless people they were attempting to serve. In addition, Innovative Project Funding grants were awarded competitively in 1994 and 1995 to 95 comparatively modest projects undertaken by local governments and nonprofit organizations. Funding ranged from $15,000 to over $1 million per grant. The 1994 NOFA defined a broad range of eligible activities, whereas the 1995 grants were targeted to aggressive outreach efforts benefiting the most vulnerable and difficult to serve homeless people. This report describes the results of the Demonstration Program based on a review of the six Comprehensive Homeless Initiatives and a sample of nine Innovative Project Funding grants. In general, the projects were found to have enhanced local efforts to build and develop Continuums of Care. Comprehensive Homeless Initiatives

The six Comprehensive Homeless Initiatives sites all reported improved coordination among homeless service providers, government agencies, and funding entities as a key achievement of the demonstration. The demonstration also provided a bridge to developing more stable, long-term sources of funding for Continuums of Care. Features of the individual discretionary grants are summarized below. 4In the District of Columbia, the first demonstration site to receive a Comprehensive Homeless Initiatives grant, the goal was ambitious: to establish a Continuum of Care where none existed. An independent entity, the Community Partnership for the Prevention of Abt Associates Inc.

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Homelessness (TCP), coordinated implementation of the new system and administered the $20 million grant. Indeed, the DC Initiative succeeded in transforming the city’s shelterbased system to a fully integrated Continuum and significantly reducing the number of people living on the streets. The Initiative created new housing opportunities and related services, despite a financial crisis and administrative problems within the City that prevented it from functioning as a full partner in the effort. The structure set up under the Initiative has continued to sustain the Continuum of Care in the District since the grant ended, and TCP maintains its role as coordinator of homeless services. 4The closing of Lowry Air Force base and the pressing need for affordable housing in the Denver area motivated the development of the Metropolitan Denver Homeless Initiative (MDHI). The goals of the $5 million project were: to increase the supply of transitional and permanent housing for the homeless in part through the adaptive reuse of the Lowry facility; and to implement the Continuum of Care. Grant funds were used to build housing units, establish supportive services, and mount a public relations effort to address community opposition. The MDHI was successful in securing additional funding to develop a computerized intake and assessment process, expand affordable permanent housing, and fully coordinate the Continuum of Care. The Initiative surpassed its goals for developing residential units and established an effective network that remains committed to quality services for the homeless. 4The $20 million grant awarded for the Los Angeles Homeless Area Initiative (LAHAI) enabled the community to address every level of the Continuum of Care in specific high-need areas of the City and County. Programs funded by the grant succeeded in better meeting the needs of service-resistant street dwelling individuals, providing prevention and emergency response systems, improving access to supportive services, and increasing the number of transitional and permanent housing units. Other resources leveraged through the grant enabled the development of additional housing opportunities. This project will complete its work in 2002. 4The Philadelphia Homeless Initiative is also ongoing. Prior to the grant, funding and resources committed to serving the homeless had been inadequate to meet existing needs. The $8 million Initiative has improved coordination among homeless services providers and enhanced prevention, supportive housing, supportive services, intake and assessment, and strategies to deal with community opposition. In most areas, the project has already met expectations for services provided. 4The $15 million Miami-Dade County Homeless Initiative was the only performance-based project among the six discretionary grants. Disbursements after the first year depended upon annual expenditure reports and documentation of successful outcomes. Supportive services were an important focus of attention, particularly related to job readiness and retention, mental health, and primary health needs. Funds were also devoted to programs serving

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chronically homeless individuals, and outreach services and permanent supportive housing were expanded. The grantee, the Miami-Dade County Homeless Trust, took steps to secure ongoing funding to ensure that all eligible programs would continue after the grant term ended. The grant facilitated the setting of regional priorities, coordination of services, greater networking and mutual support among providers, and improved service delivery. It created a standard for services to the homeless population and helped to confirm the community’s ongoing role in combating homelessness. 4The San Francisco Bay Are Regional Initiative (BARI) encompassed the largest area of the Initiatives—a nine-county region, with three additional counties joining later. The $7 million project assembled a broad array of stakeholders from every level of service and government to promote the overarching goal of regionalizing homeless service approaches and housing solutions in the Bay Area. Subgrantees were organized in collaboratives focusing on employment, youth, housing with supportive services, and regional information networking. Specific efforts were made to reduce community opposition to the siting of housing and programs. More than four times the grant amount was leveraged in other Federal, State, local, and private resources. The Initiative’s broad-based support enabled it to have a voice in regional discussions about the priority areas it identified. In addition to strengthening local Continuums of Care, the Initiative succeeded in keeping the needs of homeless individuals and families at the forefront of the public agenda. Innovative Project Funding Grants

Of the nine Innovative Project Funding grants reviewed for this report, four were awarded in 1995 and emphasized more effective street outreach to service-resistant or hard to serve individuals, through increased staffing, expanded hours of operations, or expanded service areas. These four include: • • • •

Times Square Business Improvement District (New York, NY); Harris County Housing and Community Development Agency (Harris County, TX); Thresholds, Inc. (Chicago, IL); and Tellurian UCAN, Inc. (Dane County, WI).

The remaining five 1994 projects were more diverse in their activities and ranged from a focus on job training or the needs of domestic violence victims to more general efforts to improve access to housing options and supportive services. These include: • • • •

UNITY for the Homeless (New Orleans, LA); Greensboro Urban Ministry (Greensboro, NC); Champlain Valley Office of Economic Opportunity (Burlington, VT); Oregon Housing and Community Services Department (Clackamas, Multnomah, Washington, and Yamhill Counties, OR); and

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•

Economic Security Corporation of Southwest Area (Joplin, MS).

A number of these projects implemented computer networks for intake, referrals, and case management to facilitate coordinating and streamlining resources and improving accessibility. While the report finds a mixed record of grantees’ success in meeting the particular objectives of the grant agreements, all of the competitive grantees studied reported progress toward developing cooperative relationships among providers and with other stakeholders as a result of the project.

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