ENDING CHRONIC HOMELESSNESS Community Development TA: Ending Chronic Homelessness The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has set a national goal to end chronic homelessness within ten years and seeks to meet the needs of chronically homeless individuals as well as other homeless persons and families. Among HUD’s initiatives are the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act programs, which award funds competitively and require the development of a "Continuum of Care" system in the community where assistance is being sought. A continuum of care system is designed to address the critical problem of homelessness through a coordinated community-based process of identifying needs and building a system to address those needs. AHP provided TA to prospective applicants, applicants, grantees, and project sponsors of McKinney Vento Act-funded housing and supportive services for homeless persons, under the direction of HUD and prime contractor ICF Consulting. The TA focused primarily on improving the ability of these organizations to develop and operate permanent housing projects for homeless persons and to coordinate services between mainstream resources and these housing units. The project also provided TA to communities in the Continuum of Care planning process and helped them to create "Ending Chronic Homelessness" plans. The AHP team assisted ICF in conducting research that identified a number of successful models and techniques communities are using to house chronically homeless persons. AHP also contributed to a “decision tree” designed to help communities assess and address Not In My Backyard (NIMBY) opposition during the development of permanent supportive housing. AHP investigated successful system changes employed by HUD/HHS Homeless Policy Academy State Teams. Finally, AHP and ICF developed a guidebook on alternative clinical approaches for serving chronically homeless people who have mental illnesses and co-occurring disorders.
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