WASHINGTON, DC. Twenty six 10-Year Plan communities joined together in December to participate in the first National Project Homeless Connect Day organized by the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness. From San Juan to San Jose, over 16,000 people were engaged through the nationwide event, which brought together 8,870 people experiencing homelessness with 5,500 community volunteers. 709 people left the streets as a result, and thousands of others recieved assistance with housing, health care, legal issues, benefits enrollment, treatment and other basic needs. Community forums and other public awareness and education events were hosted in participating cities.

Communities participating in the National Day include: Bridgeport, CT; Chattanooga, TN; Chicago, IL; Clarksville, TN; Columbia, SC; Dallas, TX; Denver, CO; Indianapolis, IN; Knoxville, TN; Miami, FL; Minneapolis, MN; Nashua, NH; New York, NY; Norfolk, VA; Philadelphia, PA; Pittsburgh, PA; Quincy, MA; St. Louis, MO; San Francisco, CA; San Jose, CA; San Juan, PR; San Diego, CA; Tallahassee, FL; Warwick, RI; West Hollywood/Hollywood, CA; and Winston-Salem/Forsyth County, NC.

Project Homeless Connect, which originated in San Francisco and was central in the community response to Katrina, continues to grow as an effective means of providing services and engaging the entire community. In January, Connect events will take place in Portland, Oregon, (January 17) and Waco, Texas (January 27). Plans for the next Project Homeless Connect events are already underway in Miami, Minneapolis, Norfolk, Denver, and other National Day cities.

Pictured here at the top during the National Day event in Los Angeles is Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa (second from the left) with USICH Exectutive Director Philip Mangano (far left), PATH Executive Director Janet Ganaway, and County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky. Also, featured (bottom) are volunteers from Miami's National Day.

Communities interested in learning more about Project Homeless Connect may contact USICH Special Advisor Janna Jahn at 202-708-4663 or visit the Council website at www.usich.gov.

ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI. Recent federal funding from HUD is being invested by cities across the country to support the implementation of their 10-Year Plans. Here is one example:

The United States Department of Housing and Urban Development recently awarded nearly $10 million in homeless housing and service dollars to the City of St. Louis and $1.3 million to the county. The city award, which includes $8.8 million in competitive Homeless Assistance Grant (HAG) funds and $900,000 in Emergency Shelter Grant (ESG) funds, was pursued as part of the region's 10-Year Plan to End Chronic Homelessness, according to Mayor Francis Slay, who unveiled the Plan in August.

The Plan calls for 700 apartments and six drop in centers where people can be assessed and referred to services. HAG funds will be used to develop 102 new supportive housing units: 84 for those experiencing chronic homelessness and 18 for disabled families and individuals.

The funding "provides us a real shot in the arm in our efforts to implement the 10-Year Plan," said Bill Siedhoff, Director of the City's Department of Human Services.

New projects include:

• St. Patrick Center's Rosati House, which will provide permanent supportive housing for people experiencing chronic homeless who are severely mentally ill and dually diagnosed with substance abuse.
• The city's first Safe Haven, the Horizon Club House, a 24-hour "harm-reduction" facility for those considered the most difficult to serve.
• Supportive housing in scattered locations for homeless persons with disabilities provided by St. Vincent DePaul and for homeless veterans with disabilities provided by Employment Connection.

"HUD now understands that housing truly is the answer to ending homelessness," said Dan Buck, St Patrick Center's Chief Executive Officer.

Pictured above during the unveiling of St. Louis's 10-Year Plan is Mayor Slay (at podium) with Bill Siedhoff (far left), USICH Executive Director Philip Mangano, and St. Louis County's Director of Human Services Marilyn Robinson.

WASHINGTON, DC. Last month the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness released its latest toolkit: Good . . . to Better . . . to Great: Innovations in 10-Year Plans to End Chronic Homelessness in Your Community. The toolkit, known as G2B2G, features collective learnings and best practices from 10-Year Plan communities around the country, summarized into Ten Elements. This issue of E-NEWS explores element number five, Cost Implications.

More and more communities are undertaking cost-benefit studies as part of their 10-Year Planning process. The studies, which vary widely in scope and approach, consistently reveal the "hidden" costs of chronic homelessness. "The fact that people who live on the streets are a major expense for the community is counter-intuitive," said Philip Mangano, USICH Executive Director. "So is the notion that permanent supportive housing saves money. Yet, these are the realities being discovered by communities across the country."

People experiencing chronic homelessness have a high frequency of emergency room visits and hospitalizations, arrests, and incarcerations, shelter stays and treatment program admissions, all at taxpayer expense. Boston Health Care for the Homeless, for example, reviewed records for 119 chronically homeless individuals and found that they accumulated 18,000 emergency room visits in five years at an average cost of $1,000 per visit.

Excerpts of studies conducted around the country include:

• 10-Year Planners in Asheville, North Carolina analyzed the service use of 37 homeless men and women over a three-year period. Including emergency services, hospitalizations and arrests, the city and county spent over $800,000 per person per year.
• In 2000, 20 persons studied by King County (Washington) Mental Health, Chemical Abuse and Dependency Division totalled close to $1.1 million in jail days, emergency room visits, hospital inpatient stays, detox and substance abuse treatment. 24 persons tracked in 2003 totalled close to $1.2 million. The highest utilizers in the group cost $100,000 per person per year in emergency room and hospital services alone.
• In San Diego, California, the city and county engaged the University of San Diego to test the hypothesis that street homelessness did not cost very much to the public purse. Costs incurred by 15 people totaled $3 million over an 18 month period for emergency services, primary and behavioral health care, law enforcement and the justice system.

Studies also show that permanent housing with appropriate supports produces reductions and cost savings:

• The California Department of Mental Health conducted a state-wide study of 4,881 individuals to determine the impact of a housing initiative implemented in 1999 to address the needs of homeless adults with serious mental illness. Pre and post-placement results revealed a 55.8% reduction in hospital inpatient days, a 72.1% reduction in days incarcerated, and a 65% increase in days of full-time employment. The study also documented $27 million in annual savings in hospitalizations, incarcerations, and emergency room visits.
• Dr. Dennis Culhane's (pictured here) University of Pennsylvania study of 4,679 people with severe mental illness in New York City showed that those who were homeless utilized $40,451 per person per year in services, while those in supportive housing utilized $24,170 in services. The cost savings generated was enough to cover all but $950 of the annual housing costs. Dr. Culhane has also initiated cost-benefit studies in other cities.

Two Reno, Nevada police officers proved studies don't have to be elaborate to be effective. On their own initiative, they collected costs associated with just two homeless, mentally ill individuals they repeatedly encountered on the streets. When they added up health care and law enforcement costs, each person cost over $100,000 per year.

"Homelessness is wrong," says Mangano, "morally, spiritually, humanly wrong, and, we are learning more and more, economically wrong. A cost benefit study can help bring clarity to the issue, and generate focused political will."

FOR THIS ISSUE, the newsletter focuses on remarks made by New Hampshire Governor, John Lynch (at podium) and USICH Executive Director, Philip Mangano (far left) at the recent announcement of New Hampshire's 10-Year Plan. Also pictured are Department of Housing and Urban Development Regional Director, Taylor Caswell (far right), and Chair of New Hampshire's Interagency Council on Homelessness, Peter Kelleher.

From Governor Lynch:

"Reaching the goal of ending chronic homelessness in New Hampshire requires a new way of approaching that problem, and a new degree of collaboration among all sectors of the community.

"Having a concrete, well thought out, measurable 10-Year Plan for ending homelessness in New Hampshire positions the state to take maximum advantage of federal resources for homelessness; provides the framework for aligning efforts throughout the State of New Hampshire, and is a starting point for coordinating state-wide change; helps transform the myriad of publicly funded programs that provide services, housing and income supports to homeless individuals to make them more accessible, relevant, and appropriate; provides guidance to bolster the capacity and responsibility of these service systems for collaborative planning, financing and delivery of housing and support services for homeless persons, and improves statewide efficiencies and outcomes."

And from Director Mangano:

"All of us here symbolize the expansive national partnership that has developed in the last 3 years all across our country. An unprecedented partnership - every level of government - federal, state, local - every element of the private sector - business, non-profits, faith-based. All joined together in one goal, one objective, one mission - to move beyond managing the crisis to ending the disgrace of homelessness.

"In that national partnership we now have 20 federal agencies, 53 Governors, and 205 Mayors and County Executives, unprecedented political will. And that political will has led to unprecedented federal and local resources. 5 consecutive years in Washington of record commitment to targeted homeless investment.

"This plan seeks to disturb the status quo of homelessness to achieve results. To move from shuffling homeless people from one city to another, from one side of town to the other, from one homeless program to another, from the streets to treatment and back to the streets. The promise of this plan is that the quality of life for everyone, housed and homeless alike, will improve."

. . . that emergency shelters providing residential and food services to homeless children and their parents may be eligible to participate in the federal Child Care and Adult Food Program (CACFP), administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). USDA Secretary Mike Johanns is pictured here.

Since July 1999, CACFP benefits have been extended to include meal services to children and their families who reside in emergency shelters under provisions of the National School Lunch Act (NSLA). Each residential child who receives their meals at the shelter is automatically eligible for free meals and snacks. There are no application forms for the parents or guardians to fill out. Emergency family shelters, shelters for battered women, and day shelters, may all be eligible to participate in the CACFP program.

Homeless shelters can receive payments for serving meals and snacks, which meet federal nutritional guidelines, to eligible children. The maximum payment rates are based on the numbers of meals and snacks served at the free rate for day care centers. Shelters also receive 15.75 cents or cash-in-lieu of commodities for each CACFP lunch or supper they serve. A shelter must be a public or private non-profit institution and meet any health and safety codes that are required by state or local law. A shelter can complete an application and sign an agreement with the state administering agency, or it may participate as a facility under an existing CACFP sponsoring organization.

For more information visit the USDA Food and Nutrition Service website at: http://www.fns.usda.gov/cnd/care/Homeless/homeless.htm or contact the child nutrition staff at your state agency. A list of state agency contacts is available through the website.

"A Roof to Start With" in the December 2005 issue of Governing magazine chronicles San Francisco's efforts toward solving homelessness. Author Christopher Swope provides a comprehensive picture that includes challenges, results, and innovative approaches like Housing First and "harm reduction," all within the context of the national 10-Year Plan strategy championed by the Bush Administration. San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom and United States Interagency Council on Homelessness Executive Director Philip Mangano are featured.

"Cities are moving homeless people straight from the street into permanent housing. It's controversial, but it's showing results," Swope writes. The December issue is available at www.governing.com.