Agenda

You’re here because you know now is our moment to make sure everyone has home. But too many of the people you need to succeed either don’t show up or are actively working against you. Join TheCaseMade in a joy-filled session where we’ll create a vision for an abundant future and teach you some of the will-building skills you need to get people on that journey with you.

Have you only recently begun to work in the field of homelessness, or is this your first national conference? If so, this preconference session will provide you a broad overview of data on homelessness, an introduction to the major interventions and their effectiveness, and an overview of the importance of a community-wide, systemic response to end homelessness.

This session is designed for first-time conference attendees. Join Alliance staff, experienced conference attendees, and other first-time attendees to get a jumpstart on the conference. Come hear an informal presentation on how you can maximize your time at the conference by taking advantage of conference tracks, different types of sessions, and networking opportunities. Meet other attendees to increase your peer learning opportunities.

Although there is vast evidence of the successes of Housing First, it is increasingly under attack due to misunderstanding of the approach and a lack of recognition of the resources that would be needed to truly bring Housing First to scale. This special “precon” will feature experts from homelessness services sector and the federal government who will offer insight on what Housing First actually means, identify challenges with implementing Housing First with fidelity, and engage in discussion with the session participants what resources and commitments would be required to bring the model to scale.

So much is at stake this year as Congress considers budget caps and spending cuts across a range of domestic programs. This session will help you prepare for Capitol Hill Day and advocate effectively for the people we serve – including talking points, handout materials, and the calendar of meetings that we’ve confirmed with your legislators. Capitol Hill Day is scheduled for the conference’s third day and we need your participation. Learn what will happen in a Hill visit and how to best advocate for this year’s homelessness priorities.

Decreases in CARES Act funding, coupled with high staff turnover, has created challenges in RRH implementation. This pre-con will offer an opportunity to learn about how to help new and existing RRH programs strenghen the core components of RRH in your systems: finding housing, paying for housing, and staying in housing. Understand approaches that work despite a difficult housing market and discuss lessons learned from implementation across service sectors.

The guidance of people with lived expertise makes it clear that we must reimagine our approaches to sheltering people. Framework for an Equitable Homelessness Response partners have developed recommendations for how communities can pursue such transformation. This includes creating interim housing and sheltering options that are responsive to the needs and recommendations of people experiencing homelessness, with a sustained focus on racial justice and equity. Participants will explore these approaches, learn from organizations about improvements and outcomes they have achieved, and identify steps forward to take in their own communities and programs.

If you’ve been feeling the disconnect between your organization’s goals for racial equity and what feels possible in the current environment, join us to be seen, connect, and learn with others in a community space.

Attendees must RSVP for this Pre-conference session. Space is limited.

Join the Minnesota Tribal Collaborative for a pre-conference forum to learn how a collaborative of six Minnesota tribal nations combine sovereignty, collaboration and data to successfully pursue policy and fundraising goals aimed at preventing and ending homelessness in tribal communities.

TBA.

TBA.

TBA.

TBA.

TBA.

TBA.

TBA.

TBA.

TBA.

Research on homelessness continues to grow, informing policy and practice. This session will feature a selection of recent studies that are helping to shape the conversation around topics such as unsheltered homelessness and older adults. Panelists will discuss their findings but also how their research designs are being informed by people with lived experience.

What do we know about preventing families from experiencing homelessness? This workshop will examine the research and explore how local data can reveal opportunities to shape impactful interventions. This workshop will also explore examples of innovative partnerships to reach families at heightened risk of homelessness. Participants will also discuss what is required to assist newly arrived migrant families so they never have to experience lengthy shelter stays or homeless episodes.

The traditional way of providing services for people experiencing homelessness must be adapted for an aging population. This means Continuums of Care may need to make modifications to their coordinated entry process. Additionally, shelter staff must often utilize a different set of skills and modify shelter environments and program elements. Further, those who participate in housing programs like permanent supportive housing and Rapid Re-Housing typically need more intensive case management support to age in place effectively. Join us as this workshop highlights practices and partnerships that can support the needs of older adults and those living with other complex care needs.

Chief Seattle Club has served the unhoused urban Native American community in Seattle, WA for 53 years. In this session, Chief Seattle Club’s leadership will share history regarding the causes of consistently high rates of houselessness for Native American and Alaska Native people in urban settings. This session will also explore how Chief Seattle Club’s unique model of culturally grounded and community responsive services can serve as a guide to best meet the needs of unhoused Native American & Alaska Native community members, as well as chronically homeless individuals.

In this session, participants will learn about the interconnectedness of immigration and homelessness in New York City; an innovative legal clinic developed as a solution for asylum-seeking families experiencing homelessness; and the use of trauma-informed care while working with asylum-seeking families with children and refugees. Speakers will then lead an interactive conversation and activity about providing trauma-informed direct-service work with asylum seekers and refugees.

This session is filled with innovative ways for organizations to transform their work in accessing and authentically engaging with youth and young adults with lived expertise of homelessness and other system involvement. This work isn’t new, but it continues to be a vital part of what we are all doing. We know that there should be “nothing about us without us.” In order to transform these youth-serving systems, we need to partner with those closest to the problem.

Between 2020 and 2022, unsheltered homelessness increased in 36 states. Systems are grappling with how to respond to this crisis through reorienting systems, adapting policies and procedures, and scaling up staffing and housing solutions. Hear from two communities – one urban, one rural – that designed a systematic framework for their response to unsheltered homelessness. They will discuss the processes they undertook to design their response, and share early successes and lessons learned from their experience.

What are localities doing to quickly bring new dedicated units online to provide permanent housing for people who have experienced homelessness? This workshop will examine lessons from hotel and motel acquisition and conversion efforts, including what it takes to attract the necessary funding, build political support, and overcome community opposition. Presenters will also examine strategies to capture dormant and underutilized permanent housing units, including properties in Public Housing Authority portfolios.

Nearly a fifth of all people experiencing unsheltered homelessness do so in largely rural Continuums of Care. Despite data collection challenges; limited staff or provider capacity; and a lack of overall federal, state, and local resources; rural communities are creating innovative strategies and adaptations to reach people experiencing unsheltered homelessness. Hear from experts about rural-specific policy issues, implementation challenges, and the unique ways some communities are tackling unsheltered homelessness.

State and local interagency councils on homelessness can support the alignment of programs, policies, and supports to drive progress towards preventing and ending homelessness. Whether new or veteran to world of ICHs, join us to understand the framework, partnership, and results of these councils.

The session will briefly outline two models that exemplify ultra-low barrier permanent supportive housing (PSH) and how/why each was created. Participants will learn how to build broad, cross-sector community collaborations to meet the needs of the longest stayers in homelessness. This session will discuss by-name list efforts, community decision making for prioritizing referrals, collaborative funding applications, and community design for housing the most challenging people. Participants will also develop a broader understanding of financing tools for acquisition, rehabilitation, and critical service provision for this type of innovative housing.

Join this session as presenters illustrate key elements of persons with lived experience compensation methods in real time, deliver best practices and guidance on the implementation of a meaningful and customized model, and address measurable implications in meeting provider population needs to promote equity and systemic change. This engaging dialogue will focus on compensation structure and value systems based on these categories: collaboration, consistency, flexibility, transparency, and abundance.

Cities and states across the nation are ramping up policies aimed at arresting, ticketing, and forcibly displacing people who are experiencing homelessness. One example is a coordinated effort by the Cicero Institute to enact criminalization laws in numerous state legislatures. Learn from advocates and providers who have successfully pushed back against these negative proposals, as well as strategies to counter ongoing threats.

Housing problem-solving is a person-centered, housing-focused approach to explore creative, safe, and cost-effective solutions to quickly resolve a housing crisis. As a philosophy and approach, housing problem-solving differs from historically marginalizing practices: it focuses on authentically partnering with people to resolve their housing crisis in an empowering way. Hear from communities who have implemented problem-solving as a system-wide approach, how they navigated buy-in challenges, and what their success to date is.

Explore the dangerous federal policy proposals that could threaten efforts to prevent and end homelessness. This session will shed light on why it’s important to weigh in and speak up about the harm that these proposals would cause. Hear from Alliance policy experts about opportunities from Congress and the Administration that would have the greatest impact on our national efforts to end homelessness.

This session will provide a snapshot into Hawaii’s LGBTQ community, the intersection of homelessness, and the importance of utilizing harm reduction principles in services. The session will include brief insight into the role of mahu in Hawaii society, an overview of Hawaii Health & Harm Reduction Center’s innovative programing that serves LGBTQ youth community experiencing homelessness, and the personal story from a member of the community. This interactive session will also feature a Q&A segment.

Rural and geographically diverse CoCs face unique challenges in addressing unsheltered homelessness. Join Flood Ministries of Kern County, CA, for lessons learned from piloting two-day shelters to provide the region’s unsheltered population with basic services, housing navigation, and connections to coordinated entry and other services as needed. Learn how this model could be incorporated in other communities.

Faith based organizations and individuals hold enormous influence over homeless services as service providers, funders, donors, and key community stakeholders. However, some can be resistant to best practices around harm reduction, housing first, and trauma-informed care. In this session, we will discuss ways to strengthen relationships with religious communities to promote, rather than sacrifice, best practices.

What are the key principles for creating compassionate and humane strategies for responsing to and resolving encampments? Learn how advocates and allies are educating policymakers, members of the media, and neighbors to alleviate the pressure clean encampments. Hear about what’s working, what’s not, and what your community can do.

The Foster Youth to Independence (aka FYI) voucher program provides dedicated housing assistance to youth exiting foster care who are at-risk of homelessness or have become homeless after exiting care. Learn how your community can facilitate access to this critical resource to support youth’s transition to stable housing and reduce inflow into your system.

This session will explore how to partner with agencies that bring the housing resources to the table, including public housing authorities and affordable housing developers. Speakers will explore successful examples of collaboration between housers and homeless system partners, lessons for how to build partnerships and consensus between these entities, and strategies for approaching challenging areas of divergence.

Be a part of a community conversation about what it means to work toward a future that is rooted in housing justice. Join us to explore topics as expansive as our dreams of decommodifying housing and making it a human right, and as concrete as what we can do now to shift our most basic activities to advance equity in housing opportunities, overcome NIMBYism, and get us to a place of justice.

The Domestic Violence Housing First (DVHF) approach focuses on getting survivors into stable housing as quickly as possible, and providing the necessary support as they rebuild their lives. This session will review the primary components of DVHF; the impact of flexible funds; the benefits of survivor-centered advocacy; and the importance of community engagement. Presenters will provide an overview of key findings, lessons learned, and longitudinal evaluation from DVHF pilot and demonstration projects.

Emergency Management Departments (EMD) are in a constant state of readiness, prepared to activate quickly to coordinate resources and create situational awareness among response and local agencies as emergencies arise. Learn how Riverside County CA’s EMD incorporated a Housing and Homelessness Branch into its model and significantly increased shelter capacity and care to unsheltered residents in all recovery efforts.

Structures and power dynamics often perpetuate racial disparities in homelessness and other sectors. But the tide is shifting on historical power imbalances in efforts to address homelessness. Explore how system leaders are learning to share power and co-design transformed systems in partnership with people who have lived expertise of homelessness.

As the housing affordability gap continues to widen, it has become more challenging to quickly connect people exiting homelessness into permanent housing. Learn about creative strategies to overcome this crisis, such as master-leasing, shared housing and room rentals, and boarding houses.

Finding housing remains critical to our work, yet communities are reeling from the current housing shortage and skyrocketing rental costs following the pandemic. Despite these challenges, many communities have continued to have success in building their landlord portfolios through creative engagement strategies. Come learn how to adopt them in your community.

Employment is a key determinant of housing security. However, it remains challening to secure high enough wages to afford rent and other essentials is, particularly for those emerging from homelessness. How are homeless services organizations successfully connecting people to long-term employment opportunities? How do they use programs to help people return to work after extended unemployment? Learn from representatives of homeless services organizations with successful employment programs what their biggest challenges are and what they need from their partners to bolster their efforts.

This session will bring together providers across the country to discuss partnering with the private housing market to rehouse people and finding innovative solutions. In Los Angeles County, we cannot get enough partners in the private market: subsidies are underutilized, landlords are more risk averse than ever before post-COVID, and employees are burning out. Speakers from Union Station Homeless Services hope to spark a lively, productive discussion on this relevant topic.

Continuums of Care are struggling to replace the VI-SPDAT with more equitable assessment approaches. This session is intended as a sharing and learning session to help Continuums of Care CoCs think through how to validate their replacement tools so that they don’t end up with an approach that is no better than what they had before.

Our homeless response won’t be equitable unless our organizations model equity. This must include representation and belonging in leadership so that our sector does not lose the talents and insights of those who have dedicated their careers to this mission, or next generation of leaders. Let’s talk about strategies to recruit, promote, and elevate Asian American, Black, Pacific Islander, Native Hawaiian, American Indian, and Hispanic/Latino(a) individuals in management, organizational leadership, and system leadership.

As health care organizations increasingly seek ways to address housing insecurity as a means to improve health outcomes and reduce costs, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services have outlined how states may address social determinants of health through flexibilities available under current law. This includes housing-related services and supports. This workshop will cover the healthcare needs and barriers of individuals experiencing homelessness and options available through Medicaid to address their care and housing-related social needs.

For about a decade, Coordinated Entry has been a critical component of homeless services systems. Over that time, various conversations have emerged about the benefits and challenges associated with implementation. This session will highlight recent and emerging research in the space. Insights will focus on such areas as the value of collaboration within CE, case conferencing, and transitioning from the VI-SPDAT.

Data is critical to informing the work of homeless response systems and policymakers alike. Learn about frameworks and best practices for linking individual-level data within states and across systems to improve data quality and utilization and better serve people experiencing homelessness.

Decades of data shows supportive housing allows tenants to thrive. Yet, our industry is struggling: tenants often don’t know their service providers; journalists often feature projects in decline; policymakers are moving people into institutional settings as quick solutions. This session will consider a culprit: the absence of adequately-funded services designed to serve highly marginalized populations. How much should it cost to fund evidence-based services? Selected experts and the audience will discuss.

With the rising number of fatal drug overdoses occurring while using alone or at home, it is imperative that the homeless services field innovate tailored solutions that incorporate overdose prevention into permanent supportive housing. This panel presentation and Q&A will explore various research, tools, and practices (such as naloxone distribution programs and overdose prevention rooms) to help save lives and ensure that integration of overdose prevention will transition from novelty to best practice.