Monarch Housing’s Blog!

HUD released its Annual Homeless Assessment Report (AHAR) and claims that there “were 754,000 homeless people in 2005, including those living in shelters, transitional housing and on the street. That’s about 300,000 more people than available beds in shelters and transitional housing.” Is this number accurate? Share your comments.

To read HUD’s overview of the report click here. To read the full report click here.

For information that HUD used to develop the Annual Homeless Assessment Report (AHAR) for each NJ CoC click here and then on the specific CoC on the map.

The following is the Associated Press report on the AHAR.

Gov’t Estimates 754,000 Homeless People
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 4:18 a.m. ET February 28, 2007

WASHINGTON (AP) — The nation has three-quarters of a million homeless people, filling emergency shelters through the year and spilling into special seasonal shelters in the coldest months, the government said Wednesday.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development estimated there were 754,000 homeless people in 2005, including those living in shelters, transitional housing and on the street. That’s about 300,000 more people than available beds in shelters and transitional housing.

Read the rest of this entry »

This is an abstract of an article in the March 2007 issue of The American Journal of Psychiatry. This may be of interest to those developing or implementing a Housing First model. To read the full text you need to either subscribe to The American Journal of Psychiatry or pay a one-time fee for the article. Click here to find out more.

The American Journal of Psychiatry 164:393-399, March 2007
doi: 10.1176/appi.ajp.164.3.393
© 2007 American Psychiatric Association

Reviews and Overviews

The Effectiveness of Assertive Community Treatment for Homeless Populations With Severe Mental Illness: A Meta-Analysis

Craig M. Coldwell, M.D., M.P.H. and William S. Bender, M.P.H.

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to assess the effectiveness of assertive community treatment in the rehabilitation of homeless persons with severe mental illness using a meta-analysis.

Read the rest of this entry »

We share these presentations from the National Alliance to End Homelessness National Conference on Ending Family Homelessness on Friday, February 9, 2007.

Service Enriched Housing Curan House by Quyen Le

Date: 8 Feb 2007 Files: PPT | 46 KB | 16 pages

Research on Permanent Supportive Housing for Families by Jacqueline Anderson

Date: 8 Feb 2007 Files: PPT | 87 KB | 17 pages

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development will release a landmark report on the scope and nature of homelessness in America during a media briefing at 1 p.m. (EST), Wednesday, February 28th at HUD Headquarters in Washington. Due to space limitations, this briefing is reserved for members of the working media and invited guests.

To accommodate all interested parties, the news conference will also be webcast.

This feed will be provided on satellite channel AM-1, C-band, Transponder 9, 3880 MHz, horizontal polarity, 103-degrees west longitude.

Although we fully agree with Steve Kirby’s points about health insurance and the threat of bankruptcy of urban hospitals, our concern is that the failure to end homelessness is a major contributor to this problem. The failure to end homelessness is an enormous financial drain that not only undermines hospitals but also other public and private organizations. Thus, the goal should be universal health care and an end to homelessness.

To share your comments on this issue click here.

A hospital system in the emergency room

The Star-Ledger, Tuesday, February 27, 2007

BY STEVE KIRBY

Overcrowded emergency rooms, a serious problem for any urban hospital, are only a painful symptom of a much deeper pathology that threatens all emergency facilities. In the end, those problems threaten the very financial survival of many hospitals that provide care to those who most need it.

Emergency rooms often provide the primary care that people who cannot afford to pay medical bills desperately need. They even provide a place to come in out of the weather for some or social services for others. The homeless, people in need of mental health services, and many non-emergency cases come to us because there simply is no other place to go. We are morally and legally required to treat everyone. We provide that care every day. Everyone who appears at our emergency room receives excellent medical care. Those without private insurance, nearly three of four of our patients, are treated exactly like everyone else. Every day, we average 250 patients over our peak eight-hour period.

Read the rest of this entry »

We share these presentations from the National Alliance to End Homelessness National Conference on Ending Family Homelessness on Friday, February 9, 2007.

The first is a presentation entitled Michigan Statewide HMIS: Performance Improvement Using Outcome and Indicator Measures by Barbara Ritter.

Date: 9 Feb 2007 Files: PPT | 80 KB | 18 pages

The second is entitled Prove It: Using Performance Measurement Systems to Show Success by Tom Albanese.

Date: 9 Feb 2007 Files: PPT | 1.3 MB | 21 pages

The third is entitled Outcomes Measurement in Service Enriched Housing: What it is, Why it matters, & How to do it by Joelle Greene

Date: 8 Feb 2007 Files: PPT | 277 KB | 13 pages

The Section 202 pre-development grant NOFA was in today’s Federal Register: almost $20 million in pre-development funding for the HUD Section 202 seniors projects, up to $400,000 per application or $800,000 per entity. This is a good opportunity for an organization incubating a supportive housing development for the elderly.

The deadline is March 28th. Could the brief deadline be a result of HUD not being able to wait for the SuperNOFA or a way to limit applications.

Click here for the NOFA. For the Grants.Gov site for this application click here.