1. SSVF Homelessness Prevention
The New Screening Tool and Screening Process:
Grantee Decisions and Actions

2. Homelessness Prevention Screening Stage 1: VA Eligibility
Condition 1: Veteran status
Condition 2: Very low income status (50% AMI)
Requirements for determining and documenting Veteran Status and Very Low-Income Status have not changed.
Indicate on Eligibility Screening Disposition Documentation Form (aka “Screener”).
This is the part that will be most familiar to you all.
The household must include a Veteran whose discharge status was NOT dishonorable.
The household income cannot exceed 50% of your local Area Median Income. You probably know that HUD publishes AMI for households of different sizes, in every community in the U.S. and updates the figures annually. So you will have to update your numbers annually. The 2012 AMI was announced on December 1, 2011 and was effective immediately. So start watching for 2013.

3. Eligibility Condition I. Veteran Status
Eligible? ___ YES ___NO
VA Eligibility Requirements:
Served in the active military, naval, air service, National Guard, or Merchant Marines
Other than dishonorable discharge
Eligibility Condition 2. Very Low Income Status
Eligible? ___ YES ___NO
VA Eligibility Requirement:
Gross annual household income less than 50% Area Median Income for household size (grantee may set lower income threshold)
Household size (all adults/children): _______
50% of Area Median Income for Household Size: $_______________________
Total Annual Gross Income from All Sources: $__________________________
Here’s a look at that portion of the Screener where you will document that you have determined that the participant meets these two requirements. You will still need all of the documentation of Veteran status and income in the case file. But you will also fill in the blanks and check the boxes on the Screener. That form will also go into the case file.

4. Homelessness Prevention Screening Stage 1: VA Eligibility (cont.)
Condition 3: Imminently at-risk of homelessness:
1. Imminent loss of current housing… AND…
2. No other residence… AND…
3. No resources or support networks immediately available to prevent them from becoming homeless… AND…
The household must be facing the imminent loss of their housing AND they have to meet the BUT FOR test—But for this assistance, they would become literally homeless. How do you screen BUT FOR? You talk with them about whether they have any other housing they could go to; what financial resources they have that can be quickly accessed; and if they have any family, friends, or organizational affiliation that could step in to provide either financial assistance or alternative housing.
This is a very critical part of your screening, and to be honest, many programs funded by HUD or VA do not do this screening well (if at all). I can tell you what is NOT a good way to do this screening. You don’t say “Do you have any other housing, financial resources or support networks immediately available to prevent you from becoming homeless” and then check yes or no. You explore each of these in some detail and document the responses. Do you have any family nearby who might put you up while you get back on your feet? Do they rent or own? Would their landlord allow you to stay for awhile if you need to? Is there any reason you think it would be unsafe for you to stay there? And so forth. You don’t need to get a notarized statement from Auntie Emily and her landlord that she can’t let you sleep on her couch because she’s in a subsidized unit and would lose her subsidy if anyone else moves in. But have the discussion. This is truly one way for you to assure that you don’t spend precious resources on someone who has other options…while another household ends up sleeping in their car…

5. Homelessness Prevention Screening Stage 1: VA Eligibility (cont.)
At least one of the following:
2 or more moves due to economic reasons during the past 60 days
Living in the home of another due to economic reasons
Has been notified in writing that right to occupy current housing or living situation will be terminated within 21 days
Lives in a hotel/motel not funded by a government or charitable organization
Is exiting an institution without a stable housing plan
Lives in housing that has characteristics associated with instability/risk of homelessness as identified in VA-approved Grantee Screening Criteria and Targeting Threshold Plan
Indicate on Eligibility Screening Disposition Documentation Form (aka “Screener”).
AND, their housing status is associated with housing instability, which increases their risk of homelessness.
READ
Note the last bullet. VA will allow you to propose another eligibility factor that is not on the list. I want to stress that this is optional. Both VA and TA consultants urge you to adopt the Screener without adding additional eligibility factors here. At least not yet. For new grantees, unless you have been doing HPRP for the past couple of years, you may not have sufficient experience to accurately identify high-risk housing situations. For all grantees, new and old, it may make sense to try the Screener for awhile and get used to these categories. Then you can decide if any significant situations are missing from this list. WE DO NOT WANT A LAUDRY LIST OF HOUSING SITUATIONS THAT MAY OR MAY NOT BE RELEVANT AND NECESSARY FOR SCREENING.
Here’s an example of why we don’t want you to use “common sense” to add to the list. This list has been verified by data and research. But let’s say you are convinced that it’s not exhaustive enough. In my community, when we were developing HPRP criteria, foreclosures were a huge problem. A majority of foreclosures were of rental housing, and a search of the tenants on our Public Assistance database showed that there were many tenants who would be at 15-20% of AMI. So we assumed that the foreclosure of rental properties would result in homelessness among very low-income tenants. There was a fair amount of press on the subject and everyone was convinced. But yet, in fact, it turned out that these extremely low-income tenants did not become homeless at a higher rate than other PA households. A nonprofit we had contracted to respond to the crisis could not find enough tenants who had no other options; they had to ask for a contract amendment to broaden their population. So if you want to propose additional conditions, you will need more than assumptions or common sense to sell your proposal; you will need data. So do your homework.
YOU CAN ADD ADDITIONAL CRITERIA LATER. This is not a one-shot opportunity—add criteria now or never. So while you may have enough data to make a request to include additional criteria, if you don’t have a compelling case (yet), wait.

6. Eligibility Condition 3. Imminently At-Risk of Literal Homelessness
Eligible? ___ YES ___NO
VA Eligibility Requirements:
Imminent loss of current primary nighttime residence (housing an individual or family owns, rents, or lives in with or without paying rent; housing shared with others; and rooms in hotels or motels paid for by the individual or family); AND
No other residence; AND
No resources or support networks, e.g., family, friends, faith-based or other social networks, immediately available to prevent them from becoming literally homeless; AND
At least one of the following:
Has moved because of economic reasons two or more times during the 60 days immediately preceding the application for homelessness prevention assistance;
Is living in the home of another because of economic hardship;
Has been notified in writing that their right to occupy their current housing or living situation will be terminated within 21 days after the date of application for assistance;
Lives in a hotel or motel and the cost of the hotel or motel stay is not paid by charitable organizations or by Federal, State, or local government programs for low-income individuals;
Is exiting a publicly funded institution, or system of care (such as a health-care facility, a mental health facility, or correctional institution) without a stable housing plan; OR
Otherwise lives in housing that has characteristics associated with instability and an increased risk of homelessness, as identified in the SSVF grantee’s VA approved Grantee Screening Criteria and Targeting Threshold Plan. VA approved housing situation(s):
Here’s a shot of the screener. Note that we’ve highlighted (at the bottom) the option for additional housing conditions that are associated with homelessness in your community. Remember, you need VA approval to incorporate one or more additional conditions. If you want to propose a criterion now, you’ll have a form that allows you to do this.

7. Other Proposed Program Eligibility Conditions
Other Program Eligibility Conditions
Eligible? ___ YES ___NO
___ Not Applicable
Additional Grantee Eligibility Requirements (must be VA approved)
There is another section on the Screener that allows you to insert screening eligibility criteria. This is specifically for any screening criteria that are not elsewhere on the form but are included in the SSVF proposal you submitted to VA—which is the basis of your contract. VA will have to approve these, but if your contract proposal is the basis for your request, VA will almost certainly approve. For example, if your proposal states that you will only assist women veterans, you should add “Applicant is female Veteran.” If an applicant is a male, the screener you complete for him will show NO in this box. If you state you will serve 25% chronically homeless vets, 50% veteran families with children, and 25% female vets, you might have 3 criteria listed here and at least one box must be checked. If you will assist any veteran eligible for the program (ie any veteran who passes the rest of this screener), you don’t have to add anything here.
If you want to add criteria here, you will also use the form you’ll be receiving/you have received.

8. Homelessness Prevention Screening Stage 2: Targeting
Points/weights have been assigned for 14 risk factors that have been shown, through research, to increase the likelihood of homelessness
Grantee can propose to VA additional risk factors they want to score
Now, here’s where we talk about the new point system VA, in consultation with homelessness researchers, has designed to increase the effectiveness of your ability to prevent literal homelessness. We have included a Homeless Prevention Eligibility Screening Disposition Form in your binder.
They started with 14 risk factors that have been shown to increase the odds that a household will become homeless. Some of those risk factors are also one of the criteria in the last slide, but at this stage, there is a point value from 1-3 for each factor. So if an applicant meets the Stage One screening requirement by living in a hotel that is not paid for by a charitable or government organization, that same living situation is worth 3 points in Stage 2. But there are also additional risk factors in the Stage 2 list--A sudden and significant loss of income, including employment and/or cash benefits is also included, with a score of 2. So, we have 14 risk factors each of which has a weighting score.
Again, while VA allows you to propose additional targeting factors and scores to go with them, we’re suggesting you wait for while first. Get used to the form and collect data on any targeting factor you think should be added to the list.
Additional targeting factors, and points, must be based on the characteristics of homeless households in your particular community. I’ll give you an example that is not related to Veterans but demonstrates the principle of local risk factors. In Minnesota, a few years ago, new SE Asian refugee families with as many as 8-10 children were ending up in a privately-funded shelter, filling 30% of all the beds and staying for a year or more. Hypothetically, we could propose that very large refugee families who had recently exhausted their federal resettlement benefits might be on our list of risk factors. We might propose to VA that this be an additional factor with a weighting of 2, because we would be able to show that this population was disproportionately experiencing homelessness and their length of stay in shelter was far longer than other populations.
On the other hand, this proposal would probably be unnecessary. Every one of the families had an income less than 30% of AMI, which is already on the list at 3 points. 95% had a child under 6, which would give them another 3 points from the list; the rest certainly had children 6-17, for 2 points. Virtually all would have rental and/or utility arrears. So even without adding these refugee families to the targeting list, their scores would have been quite high—probably in excess of the threshold for many programs.
The next part of stage 2 is that you need to decide how many points is the threshold for your program to provide assistance. This is a kind of sophisticated analysis and don’t be overly worried about getting it absolutely right in the first year you use it. You can change the point score later, when you see how it affects your caseload. Think about it as a very efficient, effective way to sort through all the requests you receive for homelessness prevention assistance.
Let’s say you have enough funding to offer TFA and supportive services to a total of 100 households. But during a year, you receive 1000 applications of people who are eligible. So you will need to somehow screen out 90% of these applicants. If you set your minimum or threshold score at 6, that, alone, might reduce those 1000 applicants to On the other hand, if you set it at 18, you might reduce your applicants to a pool of only 50—too few to meet your targets.
If you have already been running an SSVF program for a year, you may be able to make a fairly educated guess. If this is a new program, you may have to make a relatively uneducated guess. In either case, by scoring households and looking at the distribution of scores, you will learn where to place your threshold. Of course if you get 100 applications and you can assist 100, then you might propose to VA that your threshold score should be 1 because otherwise, you will not be able to meet your projected numbers.
In any case, this will really help you target your limited dollars most effectively. Remember, for every household you assist who would NOT have become homeless, there is another household who will not be able to obtain that assistance—and will become homeless.

9. Targeting Criteria
Circle all that apply 3
Has moved because of economic factors two or more times in the past 60 days
Living in a hotel or motel not paid for by charitable organizations or by Federal, State, or local government programs
Living with friends or family, on a temporary basis
Being discharged from an institution and reintegrating into the community without a stable housing plan
History of homelessness as an adult, prior to any homeless episode occurring in the past 60 days
Households annual gross income is less than 30% of local Area Median Income for household size
Housing loss within 14 days
At least one dependent child under age 6 2
At least one dependent child age 6 – 17
Veteran returning from Iraq or Afghanistan
Applied for shelter or spent at least one night during the prior 60 days literally homeless (shelter, place not meant for human habitation, transitional housing for homeless persons)
Sudden and significant loss of income, including employment and/or cash benefits
Housing loss within 21 days 1
Rental and/or utility arrears
Total Points (sum of VA targeting criteria circled points above)
Additional Target Factors/Scoring Established by Grantee (must be VA approved)
Total Points (sum of VA/Grantee points above)
Here’s a shot of the Screener’s Targeting factors and the points that have been assigned to each.
Note that there is a line for a Grantee to add another Targeting factor, if and when they propose such to VA and VA accepts the addition. See if the existing list will qualify the same targeted applicants you might think about adding to the form. You may not ever need to modify the form. If you decide later that an additional criterion is needed, you can propose that to VA when you can show why it’s needed.

10. How the total score affects eligibility
Grantee proposes to VA the minimum score (number of points) an applicant must have to be eligible to receive prevention assistance from their SSVF program.
The higher the threshold score, the higher the risk (and the more likely the household would become literally homeless if not assisted)
A higher threshold score will reduce the number of eligible applicants; a lower threshold score will increase the number.
Now, here’s your most significant decision point. What will the scoring mean for your decisions to accept an applicant for Homelessness Prevention assistance? VA expects you to decide how many points, how much risk, you will require as part of your new eligibility determination process.
As mentioned earlier, this is a potentially very effective way to control your screening. Programs often receive 3, 4 10 times more applications than they could possibly afford to assist. I don’t know many programs that have to spend much time on outreach for prevention assistance. Word spreads fast and households come to you. The more publicity you get, the more you will be flooded with requests. In fact, you probably should have a plan for how you can add phones and use volunteers to staff the intake line if your program ends up on the evening news, because the calls will come in. By having a threshold score, you can limit the number of applicants you need to interview in person and the documentation you need to obtain. If your program is looking for Veteran families with dependent children and you are not in an urban area, the experience of other SSVF grantees suggests you should select a fairly low threshold score because you will not have an overwhelming number of applicants. However, if you are targeting single male Veterans in a large urban city with a large military base, you might want to raise the threshold score.
VA understands that the first year you implement this, you are really guessing. So you will want to track all the applicants’ scores and indicate which ones meet your threshold, so you can see how the threshold you selected affects screening. But if you initially pick a threshold that turns out to reduce the number of eligible applicants too much, you can discuss this with VA and your data will indicate a better choice for a threshold score. If you picked 17 points and screen out 80% of your applicants but you only want to screen out 60%, you can see what threshold score would have allowed you to screen out 60%. Maybe it’s 8?
This will become increasingly helpful to you as you fine-tune the threshold that will give you the best match between applicants and case slots.

11. How does it all fit together?
VA Eligibility factors and the Targeting (risk) score will become the basis for determining whether or not an applicant receives prevention assistance from your program assistance.
This will require you to change your current screening policies and procedures. You have probably not been using scoring to decide which applicants are accepted for prevention assistance; you may have been looking (or, for new grantees, planning to look) at different criteria. You’ll note that there is no reference to disability on the Screener. People with a disability who apply for prevention would be scored the same way as people with no identified disability. It is the housing crisis and housing circumstances that would affect their eligibility; people with disabilities would have to present the same kind of housing crisis as anyone else. They would not be screened in or out on the basis of a diagnosis.

12. Next steps:
Review your data/experience re populations. Are there important groups you would be screening out unless you add additional criteria? Or would those population(s) be eligible using the current Screener—without modifications?
Review your data/projections on request volume. The threshold score can reduce the number of applicants who will qualify for your program. How much reduction do you want?
Fill out and submit the Grantee Screening Criteria and Targeting Threshold Plan form. Timeline:
November 9th: Grantee plan (additional criteria and threshold score) submitted to VA Regional Coordinators
November 27th: VA Regional Coordinators notify grantees of approved plans or need for revision

13. New Grantee Site Visits to Mentor Programs
Suggestions for maximizing the value of your visit
We’re going to switch topics now. We know that new grantees are scheduling site visits with their mentor agencies. From experience, we also know it can be overwhelming to listen to all the aspects and details of a program. There will be handouts, there will be presentations, Q&A sessions. If you’re like me, you will come back with 72 pages of notes and then wonder how to organize them in a way that will help you recall and/or use the important items.

14. Site Visit: New Grantee Responsibilities
Don’t just listen and take notes: think about what you are hearing.
Notice how the mentor’s program fits with VA SSVF philosophy and requirements:
How do the program’s policies and procedures implement philosophy and requirements?
How are staff trained and supervised to carry out the P&P, philosophy, etc.?
How does the program measure the extent to which they are effectively implementing the program—to enable improvements in performance and quality?
We’ve developed a “reflections” tool that will help you organize this information as you are hearing it. Or, if you don’t go out for a nice dinner, you can sit in your hotel room and sift through the notes to organize them into these “buckets.” (I prefer to go out to dinner, myself)
The reflections tool is broken into a handful of sections:
Housing First philosophy
Consumer involvement
Eligibility
Targeting
Outreach and Engagement
Screening and Admissions decisions
Assessment
Housing Plan
Case Management
Tenancy Supports
Landlord Supports
Financial Assistance
And some special considerations around Prevention.
There are only a couple of questions under each section to help you focus on each area.

15. “Reflections Tool”
New grantees can use this tool to help design questions for their site visit.
Mentors can use this tool to include discussion around the kinds of topics included in the tool.
New grantees can use the tool to take notes they can take back to their program to further discuss implementation.
The tool and any notes will not be submitted to VA or to TA providers.
Here’s how you can use the tool.
If you’re a new grantee, look through this, add other questions you might have. As you are going through the site visit, it’s your responsibility to assure that you ask your questions.
Mentor agencies may want to address these areas as a part of the site visit. You probably already have a site visit schedule figured out—and you don’t have to change that. But as you are going through your presentations and handouts, you may want, for example, to include some of your policies and procedures related to Screening. Or a handout for the training your staff receive on providing case management and developing housing plans. You don’t have to cover everything in this Tool. But you probably want to think about how you will answer if your mentee brings up one or more of these questions.
Finally, you’ve received (or will receive) this tool electronically. You may or may not be able to take notes directly onto the form. But you can also modify it—adding additional questions, leaving big white spaces for note-taking, etc. and then as you go through your site visit, you may take a note when you hear something well, noteworthy—and put that note under the topic area that’s on the form.
Those of us on the presentation side of this call have visited many hundreds of programs for many reasons. In some cases we had a monitoring checklist so we could ascertain compliance with a grant or contract requirement. But sometimes, we were just getting a tour and presentation. We wish we had had a structured way to take notes on the items we particularly wanted to remember later. It would have worked SO much better than a bunch of Post-It Notes or writing on the backs of the 7 handouts. Most of real learning comes not from listening and watching but from retrieving and using information. So if this tool helps you organize and retrieve good information about some good programs, please use it!