Around the same time, the
Federal Government realized that it was not enough to build and fund these
housing programs. Policy makers realized that just having the resources
available to help those experiencing homelessness would not suffice. Like every
product, commodity or service, without a delivery system, communities could not
deal with their challenges. This was especially true given the scarcity of the
resource they were trying to deliver, housing for the homeless.
This is why in its landmark
legislation on homelessness, the 2009 Homeless
Emergency Assistance and
Rapid Transition to Housing (HEARTH) Act[i], and in Opening Doors[ii],
the national strategic plan to end homelessness, established under the Act,
Congress mandated that there needed to be a homeless response system in every
community. Crucially, Congress tasked organizations like ours, in most American
communities, with the responsibility and necessary statutory authority to
establish and run these robust systems. The five most important roles they
gave us are:
- Facilitate grant funding for U.S. Department of Housing and Urban
Development (HUD) funded homeless services programs (Continuum of Care or
CoC grants totaling about $16 million annually in Dallas’ case);
- Administer the Homeless
Management Information System (HMIS), the federally-mandated community
wide database, that drives improvement of homeless services programs, serving
10,126 persons;
- Maintain a count of persons experiencing
homelessness;
- Maintain an inventory of housing and shelter
beds for the homeless and formerly homeless.
- Develop and quarterback an effective unified homeless response system, where all homeless services programs work together to make homelessness rare, brief and nonrecurring.
[i] See https://www.hudexchange.info/resources/documents/S896_HEARTHAct.pdf, for the full text of the Act (beginning
page 32).
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