The U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH) released on October 21 a new spotlight on family homelessness as part of its Homelessness Prevention Series. The spotlight focuses on local and federal efforts to prevent homelessness.
According to the 2023 Point-In-Time (PIT) Count, the number of caregivers and children living without a home is increasing after a decade of national declines in family homelessness. The PIT counted 57,563 families (covering 186,084 people), meaning nearly three of every 10 people experiencing homelessness on a night in 2023 were parents and their children. Over 17,300 of those families were also living unsheltered on the street.
For mothers and children experiencing homelessness, domestic violence is a primary cause of homelessness, often leading to serious consequences such as developmental delays, chronic health conditions, mental illness, and substance use disorders. Furthermore, parents experiencing homelessness are also more likely to disproportionately suffer from major depressive disorder.
However, communities across the country are undertaking initiatives to address family homelessness. The USICH spotlight highlights how programs that focus on early rental assistance are supporting families in Boise, Idaho, and Cincinnati, Ohio. In Boise, for example, the Jesse Tree of Idaho prevented evictions from occurring in approximately 30% of all cases filed in Ada County in 2023 by providing tenants with rental assistance and case management directly in court. In Cincinnati, Strategies to End Homelessness uses predictive data analytics to identify and help families who are at risk of homelessness and proactively offer them financial assistance and services. USICH highlights additional strategies and local examples, including focusing on families in subsidized housing and identifying individuals at risk of homelessness, fostering collaboration between schools and community-based organizations to help families at risk of eviction, and offering direct cash assistance.
USICH’s All In: The Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness cites federal strategies and actions to prevent family homelessness, including reducing housing instability for survivors of domestic violence, promoting child welfare services, updating zoning laws, and improving the supply and impact of permanent supportive housing for families, among other solutions. USICH’s homelessness prevention framework, Ending Homelessness Before It Starts, identifies how partners can work together to effectively allocate and distribute resources and assistance to help people quickly access housing and improve housing stability (see Memo, 9/30). The framework also identifies how Housing First principles can be applied to homelessness prevention by reducing barriers to maintaining or obtaining new housing. Lastly, USICH highlights federal actions taken in the last year to prevent family homelessness. These include President Biden’s request that Congress invest more in families, HUD’s decision to award $10 million in housing vouchers through the Family Unification Program, the creation of the Affordable Housing and Supportive Services Demonstration Program to improve affordable housing supply and support services, and others.
Read USICH’s Spotlight on Family Homelessness at: https://tinyurl.com/2cc7r2wb
Read USICH’s federal homelessness prevention framework at: https://tinyurl.com/yx5t6pxp