Continuum of Care: A continuum of care (CoC) is a government structure that coordinates and funds homeless response for a geographic area. The CoC gets money from HUD and distributes that money to other agencies. According to HUD, a CoC should do “prevention, outreach and assessment, emergency shelter, transitional housing, permanent supportive housing, and affordable housing, plus supportive services in all components.” A CoC might provide these services directly, or they might contract with other agencies to provide services. In Portland & Multnomah County, the CoC is the Homeless Services Department.
People experiencing homelessness: Homelessness is defined differently by different government entities and organizations. HUD has four “categories” of homelessness: literally homeless, at imminent risk of homelessness, homeless under other federal statutes, and fleeing or attempting to flee domestic violence. HUD does not authorize CoCs to spend money serving people who are homeless under other federal statutes. Though HUD allows CoCs to serve people who are at imminent risk of homelessness, most of what HUD funds is services for people who are either literally homeless: who “lack a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence” or who are “fleeing, or attempting to flee, domestic violence, have no other residence, and lack the resources or support networks to obtain other permanent housing” (HUD, n.d.) The U.S. Department of Education has a more expansive definition of homelessness that includes children who are living doubled up: “children and youths who are sharing the housing of other persons due to loss of housing, economic hardship, or a similar reason”(National Center for Homeless Education,). Though this definition specifically references children and youth, doubling up is widely understood to be something that can happen to people of any age.
These definitions determine who is eligible for services.
Housing Authorities: Housing authorities, “are public corporations with boards appointed by the local government. Their mission is to provide affordable housing to low- and moderate-income people. In addition to public housing, housing authorities also provide other types of subsidized housing” (U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development). The housing authority in Portland is Home Forward. Housing authorities work parallel to CoCs, and are not part of the CoC.
Emergency Shelter: emergency shelter is physical shelter for people experiencing homelessness. It is time limited. There are usually rules and restrictions - for example, people may not be able to bring in their pets or possessions, or it may be gender segregated. High barrier shelters include more requirements for accessing the shelter, such as being sober. Low barrier shelters allow people to bring in pets. Emergency shelters may provide services like connections to permanent housing and case management, or they may not. Shelters can be congregate (everyone sleeps/stays together in one big room) or non-congregate (people have their own secure space, like in a hotel or in a tiny pod village). Emergency shelter is meant to be short in duration.
Service providers: Many other systems interact with the homeless services systems. First responders interact with people experiencing homelessness, and could be helpful or unhelpful. Health systems (emergency, community-based) serve people experiencing homelessness. Since homelessness has really negative effects on people’s health, the ability of the homeless response system to prevent and quickly end people's homelessness effects inflow into high-cost emergency services. Public transit, ODOT and PBoT; stormwater; waste management
HMIS/Coordinated Entry/By name list: each of these terms is different, but all three describe an attempt to accurately count and track the number of people experiencing homelessness in a CoC
HMIS (Homeless Management Information System): the HMIS system tracks information of people experiencing homelessness who engage with the homeless services system through staying in a shelter or using other services (like day centers or housing navigation). HMIS does not track people who are living unsheltered and not using other services. The federal government conditional receipt of federal funds on the use of HMIS or a similar system. Coordinated Entry: standardized way that people are assessed for homeless services across the whole CoC. people access, they are assessed according to some standardized tool, and they are prioritized or deprioritized for services. This happens across the whole CoC, not just for whatever one place the individual made contact with. "By-name list”: a by-name list is a list of all people experiencing homelessness in a community (attempted). Includes people who are sheltered or unsheltered. Set parameters for when people get removed from the list. If a by name list is done well, it keeps pretty good track of all people experiencing homelessness in a community.
Policy: the homelessness system is influenced by many levels of policy, including federal, statewide, regional (from Metro), and city. Policy regulations create the context in which homeless response happens- for example, Portland’s daytime camping ban affected how homeless response was conducted. Policymakers can also control how much money is earmarked for homelessness response.
Local government: most homelessness response is on the local or regional level. CoCs are regional or local bodies, and mayors and city councils also control homeless policy to a large extent.
HUD (U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development): HUD is a federal (national) agency that exists to solve problems or housing and homelessness. It controls all federal money for homelessness. HUD uses its control of homeless response dollars to set agendas and policies.
Funding: all homelessness funding from the federal government comes through HUD. Local and state governments can also distribute funds for homelessness. In Portland, the Supportive Housing Service tax contributes to homelessness monies.
Homeless services system staff: the homelessness response system depends on staff. People who provide direct service: outreach staff, case managers, housing navigators, behavioral health workers, peer support workers.
Services for people experiencing homelessness: in addition to providing temporary shelter, the homeless response system provides supportive services to help people connect to and succeed in stable housing. Supportive services include housing navigation, case management, peer support workers. Permanent supportive housing. Referrals to other government resources and entitlements, or to other community resources.
Culturally specific providers: CSP make up a subset of the service providers in the homelessness response system. Culturally specific services are services provided by members of a cultural group for members of that same group (ie, an organization created by Black people, staffed by Black people, and intended to serve Black people). Culturally specific organizations can provide any type of services- mental health care, housing case management, etc.
