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How Communities Prevent Homelessness: Lessons for Howard County. Samantha Batko National Alliance to End Homelessness October 28, 2010. Nonpartisan, nonprofit that works to end homelessness through improving policy, building capacity, and educating opinion leaders.
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How Communities Prevent Homelessness:Lessons for Howard County Samantha Batko National Alliance to End Homelessness October 28, 2010
Nonpartisan, nonprofit that works to end homelessness through improving policy, building capacity, and educating opinion leaders. • Promotes pragmatic and evidence based models and best practices. • The Center for Capacity Building helps communities replicate and customize best practices that can be brought to scale.
Prevention: A Federal Movement • Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing Program (HPRP) • Homeless Emergency Assistance and Rapid Transition to Housing Act (HEARTH Act) • Important performance measure: Decrease the number of people and households entering homelessness. • Emergency Solutions Grant (ESG) = Old ESG + HPRP
Prevention: A National Trend • New York City: Home Base estimated that in neighborhoods that they targeted prevention efforts, shelter placements decreased approximately 20%. • Hennepin County, MN and Alameda County, CA: Evaluation of prevention targeting by comparing shelter population to prevention population. • Hennepin County: Of families receiving prevention assistance, 40 percent had incomes below $1,000 per month. This compares with an astounding 94 percent of those who entered shelter, with approximately 70 percent of those families having incomes below $500 per month.
Evaluate & Target Prevention • Importance: Giving the right resource to the right people at the right time. • Compare shelter population to prevention population. • Do they share the same characteristics? • How many households that entered shelter had received and/or requested prevention money? • Remember: Not every household needs maximum intervention.
Resources • The Center for Capacity Building • thecenter@naeh.org • www.endhomelessness.org • Homelessness Prevention: Creating Programs that Work • http://www.endhomelessness.org/content/article/detail/2451 • Samantha Batko • sbatko@naeh.org