rapid re-housing webinar series: community highlights

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Rapid Re-housing Webinar

Series:

Community Highlights –

Scaling Up Rapid Re-

housing in Virginia

Today’s Speaker

• Kathy Robertson, Virginia Department of

Housing and Community Development,

Richmond, VA

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Core Components of Rapid Re-

Housing

Housing dentification

Rent and Move-In Assistance (Financial)

Rapid Re-housing Case Management and Services

Webinar Series

• Core Components – Housing Identification Strategies (12/14) – Financial Assistance (1/14) – Rapid Re-housing Case Management and Services (2/14)

• Ramping Up Rapid Re-housing – Los Angeles, CA & Mercer County (3/14) – Virginia (4/14) – Houston, TX and Hamilton Family Center, San Francisco, CA

(Next month: 5/19)

• Targeted Populations/Partnerships

Why Scale Up?

• Increasing positive outcomes.

– Reduces homelessness.

– Helps people move out of homelessness for good.

– Helps move people out of homelessness quickly, reducing length of time people are homeless.

– Makes shelter systems function better.

•

Making Progress Today

• After HPRP, and without dedicated money for HPRP, many

communities scaled down their RRH interventions, returning to

the status quo or retaining only small, boutique RRH programs.

• Bold progress requires bold action

– Reducing homelessness, reducing length of stays, and achieving the

benchmarks in HEARTH Act, requires communities to ramp up RRH so it is

a predominant (or even the predominant) intervention for the vast

majority of people whose homelessness does not self-resolve.

So, communities need to:

• Re-think how to use available resources to respond to

homelessness

• Shift how funds are used and invest them in RRH

– Reallocation

– Coordination and Braiding of Resources

– Create a systemic RRH response

• Tips for Success:

– Rapid re-housing needs to be rapid

RAPID RE-HOUSING:

TAKING IT TO SCALE

Kathy Robertson

Virginia Department of Housing and

Community Development

Virginia’s System Transformation

Started in earnest in 2010

Political will

Five major strategies to address homelessness

Focus on rapid re-housing

Changing Resources

Changing Practice

System Transformation

Changing Resources

Pilot program – 4 providers; $350,000

Shifted $1M for RRH activities

Through competitive application moved ~ $4.5M to RRH

activities

Changing Practice

Capacity Building Efforts

Rapid re-housing workshops - fundamentals

Learning collaboratives – in depth changes to staffing, policies and procedures; entire culture

100 day challenge – 32 providers housed 545 families

Spending plan – using data to ensure effective use of resources

System Design clinics – coordinated assessment

Data tools – Focus Strategies (Base Year Calculator and System Performance Predictor)

Emergency Crisis Response System

Homelessness should be rare, brief

and non-recurring.

Moving to Community-based Solutions

Focused on

Shelters

Focused on Prevention and RRH

Focused on

Outputs

Focus on Outcomes

Funding Projects

Funding Community-

based Solutions

CoC-

based

Funding

Why CoC - based funding?

• Difficult to make local funding decisions at the state level

• Need to ensure resources are used effectively and

efficiently

• More requirements (state and federal) for local and

statewide coordination

• Assessment systems

• Planning

• Data

• Outcomes

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CoC Based Application

Combined federal and state funding streams – Virginia Homeless Solutions Program (VHSP)

Eligible applicants – lead agencies for CoCs and local planning groups of balance of state CoC

Community proposed grantees

Budget by activity (shelter ops, RRH, prevention, coordinated assessment, CoC planning, HMIS, admin, HOPWA)

Contract directly with grantees

Encourage fiscal agents to ensure financial capacity to administer RRH

Working with grantees and CoCs regarding policies and procedures (removing barriers)

Two year grant – second year funding contingent on performance

CoC Based Application

Working with CoCs to right size systems

Are decisions data driven?

Are CoCs diverting when possible?

Are CoCs implementing the core components of RRH? (housing identification, rent and move-in assistance and RRH CM and services)

Do the solutions/programs address the need?

Have duplicative services been eliminated?

Results

9080

8816

8424

7625

7020

6500

7000

7500

8000

8500

9000

9500

2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

22.6 % Decrease in Homelessness Total Individuals

Individuals

Results

883

600

700

800

900

1000

1100

1200

1300

1400

2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

Households with Adults and Children 25% decrease from 2010-2014

10%

Contact Information

Kathy D. Robertson

Associate Director

Homelessness and Special Needs Housing

Virginia Department of Housing and

Community Development

804-225-3129

kathy.robertson@dhcd.virginia.gov