"If you want to end homelessness, you've got to house people, as fast as possible. "

Whenever I'm presenting, participating, or listening to talk about ending homelessness, I'm struck by the manner in which so many of us - self included at times - get trapped in the minutiae of delivering services to support the person experiencing homelessness and lose sight of the end goal.

Bottom line: if you want to end homelessness, you've got to house people, as fast as possible. 

Period. 

Rapid Rehousing: Achieving the Greatest Impact in Ending Homelessness        "To build on the legacy of HPRP, we cannot simply celebrate its successes. We have to be willing to learn its lessons. I am asking our grant recipients to...invest an unprecedented percentage of your funding in rapid rehousing...We can have the greatest impact on homelessness by helping people who have just fallen into homelessness quickly get back out by rapidly finding long-term living situations for them."   - HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan, Feb 3, 2012 Message to HUD's Emergency Solutions Grant Recipients on the Importance of Rapid Rehousing

Why are we still writing about the Recovery Act's Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-housing Program (HPRP) if its legacy is no longer news? Communities have been living without HPRP for over a year, but they still have choices today about how to use Emergency Solutions Grant (ESG), Continuum of Care, HOME Tenant Base Rental Assistance (TBRA), Supportive Services for Veterans and their Families (SSVF) and even Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) to dramatically decrease the amount of time people experience homelessness by leveraging these funds for rapid rehousing.  Rapid rehousing is an effective and efficient strategy to help families and individuals quickly move out of homelessness and into permanent housing with appropriate services. Following the demonstrated success of the HPRP initiatives in communities across the country, USICH and HUD have been joined by a growing number of federal agencies that are urging investment in rapid rehousing interventions. Rapid rehousing is an important tool to serve individuals and families who need time-limited assistance to get and keep housing. A rapid rehousing model offers five primary program elements: Immediate intervention and engagement to help households obtain housing; Financial assistance to address barriers to secure housing such as security deposits, utility arrearages, and other one-time costs; Flexible funding for short-term rental assistance typically over a period of three to six months but in some cases for over a 24 month period, as well as intermittently; Case management to link households to mainstream benefits and community supports to help families stabilize and retain housing; Frequent reassessment to adapt provider service engagement levels to the households' needs and strengths. The objective is to minimize the need for ongoing assistance while promoting greater family independence.  Known as progressive engagement, this approach begins with a small amount of assistance initially, while adding more assistance if needed to reach a level of household stability. With the end of the HPRP, communities across the country are reallocating funds to increase their ability to offer rapid rehousing because it is a cost effective and viable tool that allows them to serve more families and individuals. Rapid rehousing offers a way out of homelessness, particularly among families, by increasing turnover in shelters so that communities can improve their ability to serve more families in immediate need of emergency placement without increasing shelter-bed capacity.  Most importantly, rapid rehousing minimizes extended shelter stays that can be stressful for individuals and families with children. The VA's SSVF program, which emphasizes a rapid rehousing approach, demonstrates numerous success stories, such as that of Army Veteran Felipe Medrano and his family. Shortly after entering the Emergency Family Shelter at UMOM New Day Centers in Maricopa County, the Medrano family connected with an SSVF case manager and quickly located affordable housing. This allowed them to minimize their shelter stay and return to safe, stable housing much more quickly. After only three months of incrementally lowered rental assistance, the family was able to pay their own rent and thrive independently. Regarding the SSVF program, UMOM New Day Centers says that it "has been of great benefit to the agencies as it has allowed us to truly assess the needs of our Veteran Families and target resources that are appropriate to the housing and supportive needs of the families." Many communities that have adopted rapid rehousing are experiencing the benefits of these systemic changes.  In an evaluation of their Performance Improvement Clinics in seven communities in four states, one presentation from the National Alliance to End Homelessness shows that the rate of return to homelessness for families served in rapid rehousing is only four percent, compared with 10 percent from shelter and nine percent from transitional housing. Furthermore, 85 percent of exits by families to permanent housing were accomplished with rapid rehousing. For single adults, the percent of exits into permanent housing with rapid rehousing was 75 percent. In Utah, The Road Home operates the largest family shelter in Salt Lake County. Over the past five years The Road Home experienced a significant increase in the number of families seeking shelter. They responded by implementing a rapid rehousing and a progressive engagement service delivery model beginning in October 2009. In September 2012, The Road Home reported that the average cost of supporting a family through rapid re-housing was $4,866, with an average length in the rapid rehousing program of five months. Moreover, their average length of stay in shelter has been reduced from 71 days five years ago to 26 days. Most importantly, since the program began, 87 percent of families have remained housed. The Road Home continues to work with the 13 percent of families that do return to homelessness and helps them get rehoused, often with more intensive service packages. Federal agencies are united in their support of rapid rehousing's demonstrated effectiveness in reducing homelessness and urge communities to continue to adopt rapid rehousing strategies.   Recently, Ann Oliva, Director of HUD's Special Needs Assistance Programs encouraged communities to use ESG for rapid rehousing, reinforcing the key point articulated by HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan released in a video message a year ago.    Earlier this year, the Department of Health and Human Services released an information memorandum on how states can effectively use TANF as a resource to assist families that are homeless or at risk of homelessness, including rapid rehousing. The Department of Veterans Affairs SSVF program invests in rapid rehousing, providing $300 million this year for services and financial assistance to rehouse Veterans and their family members.  While communities respond to sequestration-related and other budget reductions, investing in rapid rehousing is one way to do more with less.  For more information on Rapid Rehousing see USICH's information in the recently launched Solutions Database.