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Homeless Services 101 Fact Sheet

y WVCEH West Virginia Coalition to End Homelessness. The 501(c) 3 nonprofit organizationfocused on ending homelessness within the State.

y HUD Department of Housing and Urban Development. The federal agency that allocatesfunding for homeless services and oversees all funded programs.

y CoC Continuum of Care. The Department of Housing and Urban Development(HUD) allocatesHUD homeless assistance grants toorganizations that participate in local homelessassistance

program planning networks. Each of thesenetworks is called a Continuum ofCare (CoC). HUD

introduced the CoC concept to encourage andsupport local organizations in coordinating

theirefforts to address housing and homeless issues andreduce homelessness. CoC committees

at the city, county and state levelcoordinate their efforts to produce annual plans thatidentify

the needs of local homeless populations, theresources that are currently available in

thecommunity to address those needs, and additionalresources needed to fill identified gaps.

The CoCprocess is a community-based approach thatencourages the creation of

collaborative,comprehensive systems to meet the diverse of needsof local homeless

populations.

y BoS Balance of State. Many states have large areas (often rural in nature) which are notcovered by regional, county or city continuums. Balance of state continuums operate in 31

states and make up 7 percent of all continuums. These continuums often include both highly

functional local continuums and weak local organizations which have joined together to submit

a single McKinney-Vento application for their combined geographical area. In WV, theBalance

of State is made up of 44 counties.

y McKinney Act The original McKinney Act was the Homeless Assistance Act was signed into lawby President Regan in 1987 and created 15 programs for homeless assistance including the

Continuum of Care Programs, the Emergency Shelter Grant Program, Permanent Supportive

Housing Programs, and the Shelter + Care Programs. In 2002 as part of PresidentBushs No

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Child Left Behind Initiative, the McKinney Act was amended to include protection of

educational rights of homeless children and youth. The act became the McKinney-Vento

Homeless Assistance Act. This act defined certain situations that would make a child eligible

for services through the Department of Education, such as living in a hotel or motel, or living

doubled up with family/friends. The revision also allowed homeless children to attend their

school of origin if they became homeless because homeless children tended to have higher

truancy rates.

y HEARTH The Homeless Emergency Assistance and Rapid Transition to Housing Act, signed intolaw in 2009, but not yet implemented by HUD. Yet another reauthorization to the McKinney-

Vento Act. The most important thing that HEARTH will do is change the definition of homeless

under HUD. It will allow communities to utilize HUD funding for people who are homeless under

other federal programs (like the Department of Education) and will include language regarding

those who are unstably housed. HEARTH will also expand Homeless Prevention Programs and

rename the ESG Program from Emergency Shelter to Emergency Solutions. This represents a

shift in HUDs focus from warehousing homeless people in shelter to providing housing and

solutions to their barriers.

y HMIS Homeless Management Information System. A shared data system designed to providean unduplicated count of homeless individuals, information on the number of people who are

homeless, related demographics and their needs over time. All HUD funded projects must utilize

an HMIS system to track client level data for reporting purposes. The system that we use in the

BoS CoC can be used as a case management tool. Case managers can track client progress,

make case notes, enter tasks, interventions and goals as well as client demographics (age, race,

gender, income, etc.). Data can be extrapolated in many different forms.

y VA Department of Veterans Affairs - The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is taking decisiveaction to end Veteran homelessness in five years. All Veterans at risk for homelessness or

attempting to exit homelessness must have easy access to programs and services. VA offers avariety of resources, programs, and benefits such as Prevention Resources, in-patient mental

health facilities, Employment Assistance and Training, case management and linkage to other

non-VA resources. Each VA Medical Center has a Homeless Veterans Programs Coordinator.y PIT Point in Time Count. A count of all sheltered and un-sheltered homeless individuals and

families. It is required bi-annually by HUD, but WV does an annual count. Gives a snapshot of

homelessness on a given night. Supports planning efforts by the CoC and local communities to

address the needs of the homeless, identifies gaps in services, and measures progress.

y HIC Housing Inventory Chart. An electronic document submitted to HUD in conjunction withthe PIT. It lists all available beds and units to house the homeless in our state. Includes HUD

funded beds as well as community based beds (such as churches). The PIT is compared againstthe HIC to come up with a utilization rate, which is the percentage of beds available and bodies

using those beds.

http://www.hudhre.info/documents/CoC101.pdf

http://documents.csh.org/documents/policy/NAEHHearth.pdf

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McKinney%E2%80%93Vento_Homeless_Assistance_Act

http://www.va.gov/homeless/