1. Homeless Solutions Policy Board
Dayton-Montgomery County, OHJuly 2010
Homelessness Prevention System Evolution

2. Homeless Solutions Community 10-Year Plan
Adopted June 2006
Prevention one of four key principles in Plan. Two types of Prevention recommendations:
Affordable Housing Assistance
Development of 1,800 units of affordable housing
Preserve existing affordable housing
Create county-wide rental rehab program
Create rental subsidy program for LIHTC projects
Explore affordable housing set-aside program
3. Homeless Solutions Community 10-Year Plan (cont.)
Emergency Assistance
Implement eviction prevention program modeled on Louisville, KY program for public housing and Section 8 tenants
Consolidate existing emergency financial assistance into shared system of fund-raising, management and dispersal, with appropriate case management follow-up
Develop eviction early warning system
Identify and resolve discharge planning policies and practices that lead to homelessness
4. Definition of Prevention
To keep something that would have happened from happening.
Who will it happen to? How do you reach them?
How likely is it to happen?
What intervention will prevent it from happening?
Not enough to show that most people who get the intervention do not become homeless they might not have become homeless without the intervention or their homelessness may have only been delayed.
5. Prevention Committee Framing Questions
How can emergency assistance be more efficient (targeted at those who are most at risk of homelessness)?
How can emergency assistance be more effective (prevent homelessness for those most at risk)?
Difference between preventing homelessness and creating self-sufficiency need to be clear about goal.
6. Emergency Assistance
Existing emergency assistance programs help low-income people with a financial emergency but often are not able to prevent homelessness:
Limited assistance - $500 maximum or less
Once a year
Help recover from a one-time event
Households must show that they will be able to pay the rent after the assistance ends
Households have to have the lease or utility bill in their name
Require eviction or utility shut-off notice
7. Emergency Assistance Client Analysis
Sunrise Center county agency that screens for several emergency assistance programs
Compared Sunrise Center client list to HMIS
Over two years Sunrise Center provided 2,559 households with emergency assistance
6% entered homeless system after receiving the financial assistance
Either fairly effective or clients were not at risk of homelessness
8. Other Prevention Issues
Do not want to replace the safety net of church, family and friends with public programs
Some emergency assistance providers can not or will not exclusively focus on homelessness prevention
Concern about low income households who rely on financial assistance programs but who will never become homeless
9. Ohio Family Homelessness Prevention Pilot Project
Case management and up to $1,000 in financial assistance
Focused on preventing eviction of families from subsidized housing
Intensive home-based case management for 3-6 months
All households who are referred for services are entered into HMIS
10. Family Homelessness PreventionScreening Matrix

Based on existing research on family homelessness developed risk factor screening matrix:

11. Prior stay in emergency shelter 12. Young parent (under 24 years old) 13. Young children (under 6) 14. Infant or pregnant 15. Extremely low-income (less than 67% of poverty) 16. Loss of benefits or employment 17. Paying over 40% of income for rent 18. Unable to secure other housing due to financial issues 19. Prior eviction, pattern to housing instability 20. No temporary housing options with family or friends 21. Significant personal barriers