Tip Sheet for Participating in Ten-Year Plans to End Homelessness and Continuums of Care


The Interagency Council on Homelessness (ICH) has devised a model for ending homelessness that engages stakeholders in a region through a task force to write Ten-Year Plans to End Homelessness. At the national level, ICH has brought together representatives from federal agencies and other resources to coordinate the national effort to combat home­lessness. These task forces may operate in collaboration with or in addition to other homeless coordinating services.

Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Continuums of Care (CoC) are committees comprised of agencies and individuals who serve people experiencing homelessness. HUD requires these collaborative groups to identify community needs and design a plan for meeting them using funds awarded competitively through three programs: Supportive Housing, Shelter Plus Care, and Single Room Occupancy. The purpose of the CoC is to streamline funding and resources to eliminate duplication of services and fill gaps in services.

Over the years since these programs started, more and more homeless education liaisons have participated in their CoCs and in designing Ten-Year Plans to End Homelessness. The homeless education liaison has an important role on the committee or task force, to be the voice for children, youth, and families who are experiencing homelessness and to emphasize education as a key asset that can lead to breaking the cycle of homelessness for children, youth and families. When homeless education liaisons and other child focused advocates participate in the CoC and in Ten-Year Plans, they have an opportunity to shape overall plans and develop key goals and strategies toward enhancing educational success and meeting needs identified in schools, such as barriers created by transportation logistics and costs, affordable housing for families with children, and housing for unaccompanied homeless youth. These are issues that can be overlooked in the rush for funds to serve HUD-identified priorities.

PARTICIPATE – You cannot make change unless you come to the table.

• Come early, come often! Attend meetings to work on, report on, and discuss the plan to end homelessness. By being there from the beginning, you can ensure that education is on the list of priorities and that it stays there.
• Be plural! Invite colleagues from the school district or community, who will be ready to speak on behalf of children, youth and families’ needs, in addition to you. Engage your neighboring districts in the planning.
• Represent what you know. You do not have to be an expert on policy changes, data and program strategies to help end homelessness of children, youth and families. Use your expertise in the challenges faced by schools, families, and youth in trying to achieve academic stability. Inform the committee about the correlation between housing and educational success.
• Be a partner! Let the organizer, convener, and/or the planning coordinator of the meeting know that you are looking forward to participating. Volunteer to be a note taker, send meeting announcements, offer meeting space or fill some other need.
• Know your partners. Identify which programs and providers serve families, runaway and homeless youth, and those at risk of homelessness. This can help fill in gaps in services as you work to overcome definitional barriers.
• Seek assistance. NAEHCY can assist you in compiling materials and information that will be helpful in preparing for and participating in these projects.

DATA – The numbers are hard to ignore

• You do not have to have all of this information available in order to participate.
• Have your numbers of identified children and youth for your school district/community. Be clear about the time period those figures represent (e.g., academic year, last three months). Comparative numbers are helpful also (i.e., this year, we have served 45% more students than last year at this time).
• Gather numbers of identified children and youth for surrounding communities and districts to provide a total for the geographic area of the local committee. (Your neighboring districts or the state office should be able to provide this information.)
• Provide cost comparisons to show how partnerships might make for more feasible solutions (i.e., providing free bus passes to students will save the district $225,000 in transportation costs that can be redirected into instructional programming).
• Look at numbers of youth exiting foster care and corrections, populations that have a high probability of homelessness. Connect transitions planning for school students as they graduate with other “discharge planning” work that is going on within other agencies.
• Use national outcomes data to enhance your message (e.g., Kids Count, Urban Institute, National Center for Education Statistics, National Center for Health Statistics). For instance, children born to mothers who do not have a high school education are more likely to live in poverty, drop out of school, be incarcerated, and experience homelessness.
• Ask for data too, and ask clarifying questions if data or budgets sound confusing.
• Stand tall if questioned about the validity of your quantitative data. Numbers of homeless children and youth can present a challenge to a community's idea of itself.

EDUCATION MATTERS – Inform others about the importance of Education.

• The role of education in the life of a homeless child is crucial. In a life that is filled with uncertainty, school is a place of safety.  Something as simple as a locker or a shelf to call her own can provide a homeless child with a sense of routine and ownership. A free, appropriate public education is also a right to which homeless children and youth are legally entitled. This right put into practice has the potential to break the cycle of poverty and homelessness that may otherwise continue. For a homeless child, the importance of a stable, quality education is immeasurable.
• Talk about prevention. Education is a key component for any plan that is working to end homelessness. Academic success reduces the dropout rate. Quality education leads to better employment opportunities.
• Make education one of the key goals for the Ten-Year Plan. Connect it to workforce readiness.
• Use the Hearth Act. Review the recent changes in definition of homelessness and bring copies with you. Not all housing advocates are aware of the fact that more homeless children, youth and families are now included. In addition, starting next year, Continuums of Care will have to demonstrate how they are coordinating with school districts to identify homeless families and inform them of their eligibility for services. In addition HUD programs that provide housing or services to homeless families will be required to designate a staff person to ensure that children are enrolled in school and connected to appropriate services in the community, including early childhood programs such as Head Start, part C of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, and McKinney-Vento education services. These new provisions make now an excellent time to start or renew your CoC partnerships.
• Make the case for covering doubled up families and unaccompanied youth. The needs of these families and youth, and their dire circumstances, are frequently misunderstood by traditional homeless services providers due to lack of interaction.
• Remind other stakeholders that increasing educational access, enhancing school stability and ensuring academic progress takes a high level of partnership among education, the community, and public and nonprofit other service providers.
• Use best practice examples to connect education with housing.
  • Suggest liaisons as a primary referral source to the Rapid Rehousing and Prevention stimulus dollars. This is a great way to bring a natural collaboration to the table right now for 10-year plans. [Read about a successful collaboration in San Diego, published in the Fall 2009 issue of The BEAM.]
• Host Homes for Homeless Youth projects demonstrate ways that schools are creating community change. [Read about model programs in a variety of communities across the nation, highlighted in the NAEHCY publication, Housing + High School = Success.]