Ending Family Homelessness in Washington State: An Emerging Approach

Workshop 1.1−Ending Family Homelessness: An Overview

NAEH Conference

February 2011

Betsy Lieberman

Executive Director

www.buildingchanges.org

About Building Changes

• Work in partnership with public, nonprofit sectors, and private philanthropy to end homelessness in Washington State

• For more than 20 years, paired housing with services for our most vulnerable populations

• How we work: • Grantmaking and evaluation• Consulting and technical assistance• Advocacy and communications

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Why Building Changes Developed This Paper

• Capture the Emerging Approach to prevent and end family homelessness

•Opportunity to align federal and local resources• 2010 Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and End

Homelessness• 3 counties in Puget Sound have family homeless plans to

implement systems changes

• Recession is impetus for more efficient use of resources

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Who Contributed to This Paper

National, State, and Local:• Advocates and experts• Government agencies• Philanthropy• Public housing authorities• Nonprofit providers

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The Scope of Need in the U.S.

• Homelessness: 656,129 in 2009• Overall homelessness up by 3% • Family homelessness up by 4% (79,652 families)• Doubled-up persons up by nearly 12% (6 million)

• Unemployment:• 9.5% in 2010• 17% for African-Americans in 2010• 12-14% for Latinos in 2010

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Concepts Supporting the Emerging Approach

1. Define and understand the needs of the population

2. Housing and services aretwo distinct domains of need.

3. Balance prevention, early intervention, and housing stability.

Cont.

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Concepts Supporting the Emerging Approach

4. Develop a network of community services andsupports.

5. Opportunities for collaboration under healthcare reform.

6. Interactions with families should be based on respect, resilience, and recovery.

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Policy Recommendations

1. Promote leadership and collaboration

2. Expand supply and access to affordable housing

3. Increase economic security

4. Utilize changes under healthcare reform to serve homeless and vulnerable families

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Policy Recommendations, cont.

5. Re-focus resources in the homeless system

6. Ensure educational opportunities for children

7. Strengthen links between child welfare and the homeless systems

8. Support families of incarcerated individuals

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Going Forward

• Building Changes will:• Continue partnership with NAEH on federal

advocacy• Use paper for advocacy work

• Paper is a guide for WA State and others

• We urge our partners to champion recommendations.

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