Evaluation of Continuums of Care For Homeless People

U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Office of Policy Development and Research

Evaluation of Continuums of Care For Homeless People Final Report

Evaluation of Continuums of Care For Homeless People

Final Report

Prepared for: U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development

Office of Policy Development and Research

Prepared by: Martha R. Burt Dave Pollack Abby Sosland Kelly S. Mikelson Elizabeth Drapa Kristy Greenwalt Patrick Sharkey

With Aaron Graham Martin Abravanel

Robin Smith

The Urban Institute Washington DC

ICF Consulting Fairfax Virginia

May 2002

i Evaluation of Continuums of Care for Homeless People: Final Report

FOREWORD

A Continuum of Care is a local or regional system for helping people who are homeless or at imminent risk of homelessness by providing housing and services appropriate to the whole range of homeless needs in tl'1e community, from homeless prevention to emergency shelter to permanent housing. In 1995, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) implemented the Continuum of Care approach to streamline the existing competitive funding and grant-making process under the McKinney-V ento Homeless Assistance Act and to encourage communities to coordinate more fully the planning and provision of housing and services for homeless people.

In 2000, HUD contracted with the Urban Institute and its subcontractor, ICF Consulting, Inc., to conduct an assessment of the Continuum of Care approach. This study examined 25 Continuums of Care in all regions of the country .At the outset of the study, the Department was unsure whether the Continuum of Care concept had achieved detectable results in fostering a coordinated response to homelessness. For this reason, the study intentionally identified communities to study that appeared to have been successful in implementing a Continuum of Care. Because they had been able to convey a sense of progress in meeting their goals, these communities also happened to receive more than a typical share of funding under HUD's competitive allocation process. Among these high performers, the study sought to ensure that the study communities were broadly representative geographically, but the sites cannot be taken as representative of all of the communities that are operating HUD-assisted homeless programs.

The completed study provides a rich array of information on the activities of highperforming Continuums of Care and documents the extent of progress of the studied communities along many dimensions of a comprehensive approach to homelessness prevention and remediation. On balance, the report concludes that for the high-performing communities studied, HUD's implementation of the Continuum of Care funding process stimulated increased communication within local communities in their response to homelessness. As a result, respondents generally agreed that more people have received more services and participate in more and better coordinated programs than before as a consequence of the Continuum of Care approach. In the most advanced communities, the response has moved beyond planning to obtain HUD funding to the far broader goal of attempting to integrate all available funding and services to try to end homelessness.

The Department is continually refining and reassessing its approaches to program delivery, and homelessness is no exception. HUD's FY 2003 budget request includes a proposal to Congress to consolidate the existing McKinney programs and change the way homeless activities are funded. The Department's proposal would ensure that localities are provided with a predictable source of flexible funds through a streamlined, locally- driven process. It is designed to preserve the achievements documented in this report while providing more flexibility to local communities in addressing homelessness, as well as incentives for communities that have been less successful in implementing the Continuum of Care to improve their planning and program delivery.

Evaluation of Continuums of Care for Homeless People: Final Report

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This report is a significant addition to our knowledge about homelessness. It provides important insights into local responses to the problem and identifies issues that must be resolved as the nation grapples with the difficult and serious problem of homelessness.

Lawrence L. Thompson, General Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy Development and Research

iii Evaluation of Continuums of Care for Homeless People: Final Report

Table of Contents

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ...............................................................................................IX

Purpose of the Research.................................................................................................... ix Who, What, Where, and When?......................................................................................... ix Why This Study Is Important .............................................................................................. xi Key Findings...................................................................................................................... xii

How Communities Organize Themselves to Respond to HUD and to Homelessness ............................................................ xii

What Local Homeless Assistance Systems Look Like.............................................xiii Navigating the Homeless System ........................................................................... xiv Involvement of Mainstream Agencies and Services ................................................ xv CoC Planning for and Coordination of Homeless Services...................................... xv How the CoC Application Process Has Shaped

Planning and Provision of Services..................................................................xvii Implementing Data Systems: A Few CoCs Far Ahead of the Rest.........................xvii Implications for Research ................................................................................................xviii Implications for Practice ................................................................................................... xix Implications for Policy........................................................................................................ xx

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY .............................. 1

Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 1 Background .........................................................................................................................2

The Growth of America's Shelter Capacity in the 1980s and 1990s..........................2 Growth of the Homeless Population...........................................................................4 The Need for Continuums of Care .............................................................................5 First Efforts Toward Continuums of Care...................................................................5 Methods ............................................................................................................................. 10 The Rest of This Report ....................................................................................................14 Caveats .............................................................................................................................15 A Word on Numbers, or their Absence..............................................................................15

CHAPTER 2: POWER AND PEOPLE--"LEAD" AGENCIES AND LEADERSHIP..... 17

No Formal Authority...........................................................................................................17

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