HUD’s 2008 Annual Homeless Assessment Report Dennis Culhane, University of Pennsylvania Jill Khadduri, Abt Associates, Inc. Alvaro Cortes, Abt Associates, Inc. Presentation at the National Alliance to End Homelessness National Conference on Ending Homelessness July 29, 2009

This Presentation What is the 2008 AHAR What we learned from the 2008 Point-in-Time counts What we learned from the one-year estimates based on 2008 HMIS data What happened between 2007 and 2008 Future AHARs and the Homeless Pulse project

The 2008 AHAR Fourth annual HUD report to Congress First report to compare HMIS data on sheltered homeless people across two full years, 2007 and 2008 Reflects maturing data systems –More complete HMIS data from more communities: 98 communities in 2007; 222 communities in 2008 –Greater standardization of CoC point-in time counts

Homeless People Homeless people are sheltered (in emergency shelters or transitional housing programs) or unsheltered (in places not meant for human habitation) Homeless families are households consisting of at least one adult and one child who are homeless together Homeless individuals are all other homeless people, most of whom are single adults

Sources of Data AHAR uses HMIS data to count and describe people who are sheltered homeless at some time during a year AHAR uses CoC data to count and describe people who are both sheltered and unsheltered homeless at a particular point-in- time (a night in January)

2008 Point-in-Time Count About 664,000 people were homeless on a single night in January 2008 –62% individuals, of whom 51% unsheltered –38% persons in families, of whom 27% unsheltered Total dropped by 7,500 people (one percent) from January 2007

Homeless Persons as a Percent of State’s Total Population, 2008

Total Homeless Population is Concentrated in a Few States and Cites On a single night in January 2008, more than half of all homeless people were in California, New York, Florida, Texas, and Michigan Twenty percent of all homeless people were in Los Angeles, New York City, and Detroit In many states, a very large share of all homeless people are in the state’s largest city

2008 One-Year Estimate of Sheltered Homeless People For these estimates, we count a year as October 1 to September million people were homeless in emergency shelter or transitional housing at some time between October 2007 and September 2008 Number increased very slightly (5,200 people) between 2007 and 2008

Characteristics of Sheltered Homeless People in % of all homeless people are alone, 33% are homeless with others 64% of adults are men, 36% women 62% of all homeless people are minorities, 38% are white and not Hispanic 43% of adults have a disability 12% of adults are veterans Compared to the US poverty population, homeless people are more likely to be male and much more likely to be African American. They are much more likely to be middle aged adults and much less likely to be elderly.

Geographic Distribution of Sheltered Homeless People in 2008

Movement into the Shelter System in 2008

Types of Homeless Programs Used in 2008 Emergency Shelters Only 77.1% 5.3% Both Emergency Shelters and Transitional Housing 17.6% Transitional Housing Only

What Happened between 2007 and 2008? Family homelessness increased Homelessness increased in suburban and rural areas More families came from staying with family and friends More people became homeless from accommodations that had been stable Lengths of stay in both emergency shelter and transitional housing increased

Family Homelessness Increased The share of sheltered homeless people who are members of families went from 29.8 percent to 32.4 percent About 160,000 families (counting households, not people) were in shelters or transitional housing programs at some time during 2008, compared to 131,000 in 2007

Homelessness Increased in Suburban and Rural Areas Share of sheltered homeless people in suburban and rural areas increased from 23 percent in 2007 to 32 percent in 2008 HMIS data from communities in both types of areas showed increases Increases in suburban and rural areas (and decreases in principal cites) occurred for both families and individuals

How Families Entered Homelessness Changed The share of families who said they had been their own housing unit or with family or friends increased up from 54% to 62%. The share who said they were already homeless dropped from 30% to 26%. The share who said they had been in the place they stayed the previous night for at least a year went up from 18% to 23%.

Lengths of Stay Increased Lengths of Stay in Emergency Shelter for Families in 2008 Compared with 2007

Changes to the AHAR Reporting Requirements Changes to the 2009 AHAR: 1.Supplemental report on veterans that relies on the current reporting requirements but filtered differently to apply to veterans only 2.HPRP via the Quarterly Progress Reports 3.Qualitative field work with a small number of communities to explore key findings The 2009 AHAR includes information on persons served between Oct through September Communities begin reporting the data on Oct. 1, 2009.

Changes to the AHAR Reporting Requirements (con’t) 1.Adding new reporting categories for Permanent Supportive Housing programs 2.Adding new reporting categories for HPRP grantees 3.Minor changes to existing reporting requirements Changes include: By October 2009, HUD will release the revised AHAR reporting requirements that will go into effect for the 2010 AHAR

Changes to the AHAR Reporting Requirements (con’t) Future changes to the AHAR reporting requirements are not anticipated until the 2013 AHAR (Oct through September 2013) Changes to the 2013 AHAR reporting requirements would be released by October 2012 Future changes to the reporting requirements would likely occur on a 3-year cycle Possible specialized studies in-between cycles

Homelessness Pulse Project Participating communities are asked to report three types of data: –January Point-in-Time count estimates of sheltered and unsheltered persons –Counts of all sheltered persons on a quarterly basis, from HMIS –Counts of the “newly homeless” from HMIS— person who has not been in the residential system in the past 12 months but entered an emergency shelter or transitional housing program during the quarter What is it?

Homelessness Pulse Project (con’t) Currently, 9 communities have agreed to participate in the Homelessness Pulse project Only 9 communities were selected for the project to comply with the Paperwork Reduction Act The communities were selected based on several criteria: geographic location, jurisdiction type (e.g., rural versus urban), previous AHAR experience, and HMIS data quality

Homelessness Pulse Project (con’t) HUD will expand the Homelessness Pulse project to communities participating in the AHAR in an effort to: –Collect more comprehensive data on how homelessness may be changing over time. –Encourage use of HMIS data at the local level HUD is currently seeking OMB clearance to expand the Homelessness Pulse project