Federal Innovations Succeed in Federal Innovations Succeed in Fighting HomelessnessFighting Homelessness

•In the Denver metro area, Jessie’s Homes for Families is one among a number of organizations dedicated to offering transitional housing and other vital services to homeless individuals and families. In collaboration with the long-established Colorado Coalition for the Homeless, Jessie’s Homes for Families is working to construct a multi-use complex that will provide childcare and other social services in addition to temporary housing. Such local nonprofit efforts can make a major difference in the quality of life for people struggling with homelessness, but the federal government has taken game-changing steps as well.

•From 2011 to 2012, homelessness among US veterans declined by more than 7 percent, and the number of individuals living in chronic homelessness went down nearly as much. Federal government programs, in partnership with those under state and local jurisdictions, have recently focused on rapid re-housing. The US Department of Veterans Affairs, committed to ending veteran homelessness by 2015, provided hundreds of millions of dollars in grant funding to communities in 2013 for rapid re-housing and prevention of homelessness among veterans. In addition, federal agencies have encouraged states to make use of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families monies.

•The 2009 Recovery Act for the Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing Program, which directed $1.5 billion to keeping the rate of homelessness down during the global economic downturn, has been praised for helping some 1 million people avoid becoming homeless. Today, about four-fifths of this group remain in long-term, stable housing situations.