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Role of HMIS in VA’s Plan to End Homelessness Among Veterans. Secretary Shinseki’s Goal: End Homelessness Among Veterans in 5 Years.
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Role of HMIS in VA’s Plan to End Homelessness Among Veterans
Secretary Shinseki’s Goal: End Homelessness Among Veterans in 5 Years “We will provide new help for homeless Veterans because those heroes have a home – it’s the country they served, the United States of America. And until we reach a day when not a single Veteran sleeps on the street our business is unfinished.” - President Barack Obama
Strategic Efforts to End Veteran Homelessness • VA 5 Year Plan to End Veteran Homelessness • VA Strategic Plan for 2010-2014 • United States Interagency Council on Homelessness’ (USICH) “Opening Doors: Federal Strategic Plan to End Homelessness” • Local Ten Year Plans to End Homelessness • National Center on Homelessness Among Veterans All of these efforts require accurate and timely data describing extent and scope of veteran homelessness.
VA’s Plan to End Homelessness • Announced on November 3rd, 2009 at the National Summit on Homeless Veterans • Based on six strategic pillars: 1. Outreach/Education 2. Prevention 3. Income/Employment/Benefits 4. Treatment 5. Housing/Supportive Services 6. Community Partnerships “Objective 2: Strengthen the capacity of public and private organizations by increasing knowledge about collaboration, homelessness, and successful interventions to present and end it.” • HMIS provide infrastructure to achieve this objective
VA’s Strategic Plan • Released in June 2010 • Names 13 goals, including “eliminate veteran homelessness” • Among the key statements made in discussing the goal to eliminate veteran homelessness: “Robust management system: We will hold ourselves accountable with a system to monitor outcomes for individual Veterans as well as the outcomes of our programs so that the homeless are not nameless to us.”
USICH Opening Doors • Released in June 2010 “It is simply unacceptable for individuals, children, families and our nation’s veterans to be faced with homelessness in this country.” President Obama June 18, 2009
USICH Opening Doors • Goals: 1. Finish the job of ending chronic homelessness in 5 years 2. Prevent and end homelessness among veterans in 5 years 3. Prevent and end homelessness for families, youth and children in 10 years 4. Set a path to ending all types of homelessness • Themes: 1. Increase leadership, collaboration and civic engagement 2. Increase assess to stable and affordable housing 3. Increase economic security 4. Improve health and stability 5. Retool the homeless crisis response system
National Center on Homelessness Among Veterans • Center’s Goals: • Promote the development of policy & practice • Develop new empirical knowledge • Provide education /training for VA & community partners & disseminate evidence-based/emerging best practices • Support implementation of relevant research findings into clinical practice • Partnership between: • Department of Veteran’s Affairs • University of Pennsylvania • University of Southern Florida • UMass Medical School and the Yale School of Medicine
HUD’s Commitment to Ending Homelessness Among Veterans “One out of every six men and women in our shelters has worn our country’s uniform, and that is a national disgrace. It is also the reason HUD put together a strategic plan to end homelessness among veterans by 2015. Not reduce it, not redefine It, but end it.” Secretary Shaun Donovan
HUD Strategic Plan InitiativesFY 2010–2015 • Homeownership • Assisting homeowners who are at risk of losing their homes due to foreclosure • Restoring the Federal Housing Administration’s excess capital reserves • Improving Outcomes for the Poorest Families • Reducing the number of households with worst case housing needs • Increasing the proportion of HUD-assisted families in low-poverty and racially diverse communities • Ending Homelessness • Reducing the number of chronically homeless families, individuals, and veterans
HUD Strategic Plan InitiativesFY 2010–2015 • Catalyzing Energy- and Transportation-Efficient Homes • Completing cost-effective energy and green retrofits of public, assisted, and other HUD-supported affordable homes • Reducing the share of household income spent on the combined costs of housing and transportation • Revitalizing the Gulf Coast • Expanding the rate of occupied or repurposed Gulf Coast homes in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas ▪▪severely impacted by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita from 2005. • Transforming HUD • Making HUD the “Most Improved Large Agency” in the ▪▪Best Places to Work in the Federal Government report • Increasing the percentage of customers that are “satisfied” or “very satisfied” with “Timeliness of Decision-▪▪Making” as measured in the survey of Partner Satisfaction with HUD’s Performance.
Collaboration between Federal Agencies to End Veteran Homelessness • There has been a dedicated effort for collaboration across governmental agencies to: • Understand the scope of the problem • How many veterans are homeless and where are they? • Starts with good data. That’s why, in the effort to end homelessness among veterans, the departments are using data to monitor the effectiveness and efficiency of our services to veterans. • Focus on identifying what strategies work best and how to deliver those strategies • HPRP (and SSVF), HUD and VA’s efforts to prevent homelessness among servicemen and women have been incredibly successful • VASH, collaboration between HUD and Veterans Affairs , helping more than 21,000 veterans.
Collaboration between Federal Agencies to End Veteran Homelessness • Investing in efforts to end homelessness saves taxpayers money by ensuring America’s most vulnerable are not sent through the revolving doors of emergency rooms, shelters, and jails. • VA and HUD have increased funding to end homelessness through new and existing programs in 2011– HPRP, SSVF, ESG, VASH
Collaboration between Federal Agencies to End Veteran Homelessness • VA, HUD, DOL, USICH and the White House are dedicated to addressing this crisis. Collaboration and coordination among federal partners is critical. All have expressed a commitment to work together until homelessness is no longer a problem for our nation’s veterans.
For More Information • VA’s 5 Year Plan to End Homelessness http://www.oregon.gov/ODVA/TASKFORCE/reintegration/FiveYearPlan-PPT.pdf?ga=t • VA’s Strategic Plan http://www1.va.gov/op3/Docs/StrategicPlanning/VA_2010_2014_Strategic_Plan.pdf • USICH Federal Plan to End Homelessness http://www.ich.gov/PDF/OpeningDoors_2010_FSPPreventEndHomeless.pdf • Local Ten Year Plans to End Homelessness http://www.usich.gov/slocal/plans/index.html • National Center on Homelessness Among Veterans http://www1.va.gov/homeless/NationalCenter.asp