National Strategic Plan
to Prevent and End Homelessness
On June 22, 2010, the lead Cabinet secretaries from the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH) - from the U.S. Departments of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Labor (DOL), Health and Human Services (HHS), and Veterans Affairs (VA) unveiled and submitted to the President and Congress the nation's first comprehensive strategy to prevent and end homelessness. HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, VA Secretary Eric K. Shinseki, and Labor Secretary Hilda Solis declared the vision of Opening Doors: Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness 2010 to be centered on the belief that “no one should experience homelessness—no one should be without a safe, stable place to call home.” The Plan is focused on four key goals:
- Finish the job of ending chronic homelessness in five years;
- Prevent and end homelessness among Veterans in five years;
- Prevent and end homelessness for families, youth, and children in ten years; and
- Set a path to ending all types of homelessness.
Background
Our nation has made significant progress over the last decade reducing homelessness in specific communities and with specific populations. Communities across the United States—from rural Mankato, Minnesota, to urban San Francisco—have organized partnerships between local and state agencies and with the private and nonprofit sectors to implement plans to prevent, reduce, and end homelessness. These communities, in partnership with the federal government, have used a targeted pipeline of resources to combine housing and supportive services to deliver permanent supportive housing for people who have been homeless the longest and are the frailest. The results have been significant.
In many respects, this current period of economic hardship mirrors the early 1980s when widespread homelessness reappeared for the first time since the Great Depression. Communities will need all of the tools in our grasp to meet the needs of those experiencing homelessness, including families and far too many of our nation's Veterans. In particular, we are concerned that recent national data shows a significant rise in family homelessness from 2008 to 2009.
This is the right time to align our collective resources toward eradicating homelessness. There is a legislative mandate from the Homeless Emergency Assistance and Rapid Transition to Housing (HEARTH) Act of 2009 and bi-partisan support to adopt a collaborative approach. Most importantly, we now know how to address this important issue on a large scale. Over the past five years, the public and private sectors have made remarkable progress in reducing chronic homelessness. By developing the "technology" of combining permanent housing and a pipeline of support services, there has been a reduction of chronically ill, long-term homeless individuals by one-third in the last five years.
From years of practice and research, we know what works to prevent and end homelessness. Evidence points to the role housing plays as an essential platform for human and community development. Stable housing is the foundation upon which people build their lives—absent a safe, decent, affordable place to live, it is next to impossible to achieve good health, positive educational outcomes, or reach one's economic potential. Indeed, for many persons living in poverty, the lack of stable housing leads to costly cycling through crisis-driven systems like foster care, emergency rooms, psychiatric hospitals, emergency domestic violence shelters, detox centers, and jails. By the same token, stable housing provides an ideal launching pad for the delivery of health care and other social services focused on improving life outcomes for individuals and families. More recently, researchers have focused on housing stability as an important ingredient for the success of children and youth in school. When children have a stable home, they are more likely to succeed socially, emotionally, and academically.
More Information
Overview: http://www.usich.gov/PDF/OpeningDoorsOverview.pdf
Full Report: http://www.usich.gov/PDF/OpeningDoors_2010_FSPPreventEndHomeless.pdf
-Adapted from: Opening Doors: Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness 2010 – Overview, at http://www.usich.gov/PDF/OpeningDoorsOverview.pdf, retrieved 6/29/10. Linked from “ Obama Administration Unveils National Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness” e-mail, housingbenefits@googlegroups.com, June 22, 2010.
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