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Learn More About: The Annual Homeless Assessment Report

BY JUDITH TACKETT

Nashville is getting ready for its annual Point In Time (PIT) count on Jan. 26. During that night, it is the goal that every person experiencing literal homelessness will be counted and surveyed to collect data that in spring will be submitted to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). In addition to the PIT data, Nashville’s Continuum of Care (CoC) will also submit data on a point-in-time inventory of beds dedicated to serve people experiencing homelessness within our county, which is called the Housing Inventory Count (HIC).

Those two data sets are collected from close to 400 CoCs across the country and accumulated into a report called the Annual Homeless Assessment Report (AHAR), which is submitted in two parts to Congress to provide detailed demographics and information about the national state of homelessness.

HUD released its AHAR Part 1 report in December 2022 around the same time the new federal plan to prevent and end homelessness was published. AHAR Part 1 is a 95-page document that is based on the PIT and HIC data. It provides snapshot information. AHAR Part 2, which has not been released yet, provides Congress with annualized data on literal homelessness based on data collected in the Homeless Management Information System (HMIS).

The information outlined here from AHAR Part 1 only provides a snapshot of homelessness and does not include people using motels as their long-term housing, staying doubled up meaning they live with families or friends due to economic hardship, or couch-surfing.

During COVID, tremendous federal investments occurred to help people remain in housing. These dollars benefitted the homelessness sector, which is largely reflected in the 2022 AHAR Part 1. Against all initial fears, we have not seen the big jumps in homelessness due to COVID that we all were afraid off. But the report nonetheless shows significant shifts in trends. While overall homelessness only slightly increased between 2020 and 2022 (there was not sufficient data collected for 2021), unsheltered and chronic populations increased.

One significant data point that jumped out at me was that with an increase of 3,311 people, Tennessee is listed as the state with the third largest absolute increase in homelessness between 2020 and 2022. Nashville, however, was not the cause of that. Rather, Chattanooga jumped from a PIT count of 648 in 2020 to 3,392. Memphis saw an increase of 33 people; Knoxville had an increase of 433 people; and Jackson counted 45 more people. The remaining increases occurred in rural Tennessee counties.

As you can see, this is where regular one-night snapshots can benefit communities, which then can go back and look at these trends over time. Is homelessness increasing slowly, rapidly, or staying pretty much the same? What are the causes at the local level and how can we turn the tide around?

For a long time, it was misunderstood that the more people we count during that one January night, the more dollars we will get. Let me reiterate that this is wrong information. Local CoCs receive extra points on the annual national competition for federal homelessness grants in their participation in collecting and submitting the PIT and HIC data. And Congress and local policy makers can and should use this data to evaluate the state of homelessness at a larger scale. Admittedly, ideally any significant increases in the number of folks experiencing homelessness may impact the level of overall federal funding that Congress decides to allocate to HUD, which then in turn has more funds to provide in the CoC grant competition. However, multiple other factors will persuade Congress to invest in more funding outside of this report. So far, it clearly has not worked to the level that we need it to end homelessness successfully.

What I have barely touched on so far is the Housing Inventory Count also known as the HIC. It will warrant another column to dig a little deeper into those local data points. But what it collects is the type of temporary beds and permanent housing units in each community that are designated for people experiencing homelessness. Overall, as you can imagine, the HIC data clearly shows that nationwide communities do not have enough housing inventory to meet the need. This is also the case in Nashville.

The U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH) in its new strategic plan places, among other things, an emphasis on the importance of using data to plan and evaluate the effectiveness of our local systems. But the federal government has also been clear that there is a combination of data sets needed to get a true picture of homelessness.

For one, there are two federal definitions of homelessness. The “literal homelessness” definition provides the information for the PIT and HIC data in the AHAR Part 1 Report as well as the HMIS data that provides an annualized picture of homelessness for AHAR Part 2.

The second definition is used by the Department of Education and the Department of Health and Human Services. This definition includes the literal homelessness population and adds all those households that are living in motels, are doubled up, and couch surfing.

In essence, data is great to have. What we need to learn now is how to best use it and translate it into policy changes that help drive homelessness numbers down.

GLOSSARY OF TERMS

Annual Homeless Assessment Report (AHAR): An annual report to Congress on the extent and nature of homelessness nationwide. It provides federal and local policy makers with a deeper understanding of how homelessness changes over time.

Continuum of Care (CoC): A group of community stakeholders within a geographically defined area to carry out the responsibilities required by the federal government to build a response to prevent and end homelessness. This group is composed of representatives of organizations, including nonprofit homeless providers, victim service providers, faith-based organizations, governments, businesses, advocates, public housing agencies, school districts, social service providers, mental health agencies, hospitals, universities, affordable housing developers, law enforcement, organizations that serve homeless and formerly homeless veterans, and homeless and formerly homeless persons to the extent these groups are represented within the geographic area and are available to participate. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) also provides a competitive grant to support the work at the local level.

Homeless Management Information Systems (HMIS): An information system designated by the Continuum of Care to comply with the HMIS requirements prescribed by HUD.

Housing Inventory Count (HIC): A point-in-time inventory of emergency and transitional beds as well as permanent housing units dedicated within a Continuum of Care to serve people who experience homelessness.

Point In Time (PIT) Count: a count of sheltered and unsheltered people experiencing homelessness on a single night during the last 10 days in January. HUD requires that CoCs conduct a biennial count of people experiencing unsheltered homelessness and sheltered homelessness, including those who are sheltered in emergency shelter, transitional housing, and Safe Havens.