Homelessness Prevention

Leaving home can have destabilizing impacts on survivors and their children. Helping survivors remain in the safe housing they have achieved is a promising alternative.

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A Promising Approach to Prevent Homelessness for Domestic Violence Survivors

2016
Cris Sullivan
Heather Bomsta
Peg Hacskaylo

This presentation describes how flexible funds are employed in a DV housing program in Washington DC as a means to prevent homelessness for survivors. Further, it discusses the elements and results of a longitudinal pilot study that tested whether this project (DASH's Survivor Resiliency Fund) represents a promising strategy to prevent homelessness for survivors of intimate partner violence.

In Focus: Sexual Violence - Economic Security for Survivors Project

2015
Wider Opportunities for Women

While the immediate impact of sexual assault may include fear, injury, diminished quality of life and emotional distress, survivors can also incur long-term economic costs with life-long impacts. The costs and impacts of sexual assault can increase the likelihood of homelessness, unemployment and interrupted careers or education. This can create cyclical risk of re-victimization. This report examines barriers to safety and justice for SA survivors, and to specific populations in particular, and makes key recommendations about how to respond.

Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing for Survivors of Domestic Violence

National Alliance to End Homelessness

This paper describes how communities are increasingly using homelessness prevention and rapid re-housing approaches to meet the needs of domestic violence survivors, helping survivors avoid homelessness altogether or quickly re-establish housing in the community to minimize their experience of homelessness. This allows providers to keep emergency shelter available for women and children who need immediate safety and the confidential location a domestic violence shelter provides.

Maintaining Safe and Stable Housing for Domestic Violence Survivors: A Manual for Attorneys and Advocates

2012
Meliah Schultzman, et al.
National Housing Law Project

This Manual is designed for advocates and attorneys assisting domestic violence survivors who are at risk of losing their housing or who need to improve the safety of their housing. Survivors often return to abusive partners because they cannot maintain safe and secure housing on their own. As a result, housing advocacy is a critical part of holistic services for domestic violence survivors. The purpose of this Manual is to provide background information and sample documents that can be used to advocate on behalf of survivors facing evictions, rental subsidy terminations, and other forms of housing instability.

Housing & Sexual Violence Bulletin

2010
National Sexual Violence Resource Center

For sexual violence victims, safe and affordable housing is often further out of reach, due to the effects of trauma, economic insecurity, and lack of resources in the aftermath of sexual violence. The majority of sexual assaults take place in or near victims’ homes or the homes of victims’ friends, relative or neighbors. Safe and affordable housing can be a protective factor against sexual victimization. This paper provides suggestions for how advocates to prevent homelessness and increase housing resources for these survivors.

Emergency Housing Voucher Roadmaps

2022
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development

The Emergency Housing Voucher (EHV) Roadmaps are a collection of quick-read topic guides designed to assist participating Public Housing Agencies (PHAs) and partners in understanding the main components of the EHV program and strategies, to expedite lease up of vouchers, and fully utilize funding. The EHV Roadmaps are companion pieces by topic area to the EHV How to Guide for PHAs and consolidate information and links to available resources within each topic area. 

Home, Together: The Federal Strategic Action Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness

2018
United States Interagency Council on Homelessness

The Federal Strategic Action Plan focuses on identifying and describing essential federal strategies that will help states, communities, and public and private partners build effective, lasting systems that will drive toward the goals of preventing and ending homelessness now, and be able to respond quickly and efficiently when housing instability and homelessness occur in the future. The plan also seeks to serve as a road map for non-federal agencies and partners, providing a detailed framework through which they can identify and implement their own strategies activities and align their efforts with federal agencies and other partners.

The Effectiveness of Housing Interventions and Housing and Service Interventions on Ending Family Homelessness: A Systematic Review

2014
Ellen Bassuk, et al.

Family homelessness has become a growing public health problem over the last 3 decades, yet few studies have explored the effectiveness of housing and service interventions. The purpose of this systematic review is to appraise and synthesize evidence on effective interventions addressing family homelessness.

The Gap: A Shortage of Affordable Homes

2017
National Low Income Housing Coalition

Each year, the National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC) measures the availability of rental housing affordable to extremely low income (ELI) households and other income groups. Based on 2015 American Community Survey (ACS) data, this report provides information on the affordable housing supply and housing cost burdens at the national, state, and metropolitan levels. This year’s analysis continues to show that ELI households face the largest shortage of affordable and available rental housing and have more severe housing cost burdens than any other group.

A New Direction: A Framework for Homelessness Prevention

2017
Stephen Gaetz
Erin Dej

This report from Canada provides a starting place for a national conversation about how to think about responding to homelessness in a different way. It proposes a new emphasis on the prevention of homelessness, not in opposition to, or as a replacement for, the focus on Housing First, but rather to complement it. It argues for the need to shift from prioritizing an investment in the crisis response to one that emphasizes both prevention and successful exits from homelessness.

Prioritizing Homeless Children and Their Families

2017
New Destiny Housing, Enterprise and the Citizens Committee on Children of NYC

As a response to research on the impact of homelessness on children, Citizens’ Committee for Children (CCC), Enterprise Community Partners (Enterprise), and New Destiny Housing (New Destiny) convened the Family Homelessness Task Force (FHTF), a group of stakeholders from over 40 organizations with expertise in housing, homelessness, and child well-being. FHTF came together to call more attention to the needs of homeless children and their families and to develop and advance recommendations to prevent and end family homelessness, while ensuring the well-being of families living in shelter. This report provides recommendations from FHTF.

Healthy Communities of Opportunity: An Equity Blueprint to Address America's Housing Challenges

2016
Kalima Rose
Teddy Kỳ-Nam Miller

Housing is a key determinant in whether or not household members have the resources to live healthy lives and achieve their full potential. This paper proposes bringing an equity framework to health and housing as an integrated approach to create healthy communities of opportunity where everyone can thrive.

SPARC: Supporting Partnerships for Anti-Racist Communities - Phase One Study Findings

2018
Center for Social Innovation

People of color are dramatically more likely than White people to experience homelessness in the United States. In September 2016, the Center for Social Innovation launched SPARC (Supporting Partnerships for Anti-Racist Communities) to understand and respond to racial inequities in homelessness. This report presents phase one finding from an ambitious mixed-methods (quantitative and qualitative) study documenting high rates of homeless among people of color and beginning to map their pathways into and barriers to exit from homelessness.

Protect Tenants, Prevent Homelessness

2018
National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty

Strengthening tenants’ rights can reduce housing instability and prevent homelessness. This report details the relationships between renters’ rights, evictions, and homelessness, highlighting issues low-income renters face and providing recommendations for improving housing security among vulnerable populations.

Women and the Right to Adequate Housing

2012
Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights

The right to adequate housing is clearly recognized in international human rights law, yet millions of people worldwide are homeless, live in unsafe conditions, or face housing instability. A gender analysis indicates that women are particularly affected by these issues. This publication provides an overview of the meaning, intent and implications of the human right to adequate housing, and illustrates de jure and de facto obstacles to women worldwide enjoying this right effectively.

The Right to Adequate Housing Toolkit

Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights

​The human right to adequate housing is more than just four walls and a roof. It is the right of every woman, man, youth and child to gain and sustain a safe and secure home and community in which to live in peace and dignity. This toolkit from OHCHR outlines the elements of the right to adequate housing and offers UN publications, treaty bodies, and other resources for advancing this human right.

Housing Rights for All: Promoting and Defending Housing Rights in the United States

2011
National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty

Education for and about human rights is essential; it can contribute to the building of free, just, and peaceful societies and prevent human rights abuses. With this premise in mind, NLCHP developed this resource manual as a guide for housing rights activists in the United States and for those interested in becoming involved in housing rights issues and/or for use as a resource during training programs. The manual presents information, articles, and activities, which provide, within the specific context of housing issues in the United States.

What is Progressive Engagement?

Building Changes

Progressive Engagement is an approach to support families to quickly self-resolve their homelessness by tailoring services to offer just what is needed. This document by Building Changes identifies fundamentals of progressive engagement along with the benefits already seen with the approach.