Continuum of Care News

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has been stressing the importance of using data to inform local decision making and to make changes to local systems of care. However, to understand the full scope of what is going on in each community we need to use traditional Continuum of Care (CoC) data in concert with other homeless data sources. People experiencing homelessness often touch several public systems and a subset continuously cycle through a variety of costly emergency interventions (i.e. shelters, emergency room visits, hospitalizations, arrests, etc.). These different systems often lack effective methods for identifying persons who are homeless and connecting them to the most appropriate services and housing. Integrating data across these sectors helps target and coordinate care for vulnerable populations and allows communities to better track outcomes to answer key policy questions and inform practice. As you look at these broader data sources, ...

The State of Homelessness in America sheds light on the homeless population, the homeless system's response, and what's changing over time. On any given night, more than 550,000 Americans are without a home. The Alliance's State of Homelessness in America report sheds light on the population experiencing homelessness, the homeless system's response, and how both are changing over time. What the interactive report finds:   While the vast majority of people experiencing homelessness live in some form of shelter or transitional housing, 34 percent live "unsheltered" in a place not meant for human habitation. Individuals comprise 67 percent of the homeless population and people in families make up the remaining 33 percent. ...