2.4 Preventing Family Homelessness Speaker: Sara Zuiderveen One of the keys to ending homelessness is to prevent it from happening in the first place. This workshop will examine the most effective strategies to prevent family homelessness, including using homelessness data to target interventions and partnering with providers serving high-risk families. Presenters will cover a wide array of services and solutions.

1. Targeting Homelessness
Prevention in High Risk
Communities
In New York City
NAEH Conference, February 9, 2012
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2. What is Homebase?
Established in 2005, DHS’ community-based homelessness prevention program
know as Homebase is firmly rooted in the communities with the highest shelter
demand across the city.
The program works to stabilize families in their own homes through
 family and landlord mediation
 rental assistance
 Budgeting and financial counseling
 entitlements advocacy
 employment and training
 legal advice and referral
 short-term financial assistance
DHS partners with 8 non-profit organizations to run 10 Homebase programs that
will serve over 9,000 households in 2012
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3. How do we target services?
HomeBase Shelter Profile
PROFILE OF ELIGIBLE FAMILY SHELTER ENTRANTS
CD 203: Jan - Sep, 2006
Age of Head of Household Family Size (Number of Individuals)
213 200
240 180
Number of Families
200 160
131 140
160 120
120 100
40 80
80 37
60
40 40
20
0
0
Family Size
Primary Tenant Reason for Secondary Tenant Reason for
Homelessness Homelessness
5% 8%
2%
1%
13% 13%
Lockout Domestic Violence
1%
33% 37% Eviction
Provide services to families who DV
10%
Crime situation
have similar characteristics to
51% Eviction 26%
Unlivable Conditions
Discord
families who enter shelter. Crime Situation Overcrowding
Financial Strain
Unlivable Conditions
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4. How do we target services?
L
L
L
Outreach to families who are
L most likely to end up in shelter.
L
L
L
L
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5. How do we target services?
Planning
• Public awareness campaign
with placements in high-
demand communities
• Developed screening and
referral service through 311
• Calls transferred to
Homebase doubled
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6. How do we target services?
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7. How do we target services?
Match households served against shelter
entrants to determine client impact.
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8. How do we target services?
Sample CD 303 8
Foreclosure Filing Map

9. In 2011, nearly two-
thirds of family
shelter entrants
come from the
highlighted
communities

10. What makes these communities so high-risk?
The Center for Urban Research CUNY Graduate
Center, directed by Dr. John Mollenkopf, established that
neighborhood homelessness correlates with
demographics, family dynamics and rental costs. It is not
strongly correlated with rising property values (neighborhood
gentrification).
The communities identified by CUNY are the poorest in the
city, have the highest concentration of single headed
households and have severe rent burden.

11. How do we enhance community targeting?
Within these communities, we zoomed in on actual
blocks and buildings with the largest cluster of
shelter entries
We estimated the cost of sheltering families who
lived in this hot spot, drawing on the concept of
“million dollar blocks” from the criminal justice
field.
Our new neighborhood targeting campaign will
focus on finding solutions.

12. How do we enhance community targeting?
Mollenkopf’s data revealed six census
tracts in the Bronx that had the highest
concentration of shelter entries
Over six years, over 600 families entered
shelter from a two square miles.
Mollenkopf found that factors such as
poverty, family form, marginality, and
neighborhood characteristics were
correlated with shelter entry.
Nearly 50% of households live below
poverty
Nearly 50% receive public assistance
Represents 5% of the population in the
Bronx and 11% of major crime

16. Million Dollar Block Campaign
•Create real-time central
tracking center at DHS
•Quickly deploy outreach
workers to hot spots
•Launch grass-root prevention
campaign to raise public
awareness
•Set targeting goals to
eliminate million dollar blocks
by 2013

17. How do we enhance consumer-level targeting
Planning
In 2008-2009, DHS commissioned a comprehensive set of
studies to test the efficacy and effectiveness of two highly
regarded homelessness prevention programs, Homebase
and Housing Help. Among several others, the nation’s top
researchers in the field examined the following question:
What makes a household high risk for shelter entry
and can Homebase target services to these high
risk individuals? MaryBeth Shinn and Andrew
Greer, Vanderbilt University
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