Homelessness Glossary Notes

2-1-1 Infoline

  • Free, one-stop health and human service helpline.
  • Sponsored by the United Way.
  • Available 24/7.
  • Specialists identify problems and refer callers to local service providers.
  • Assistance includes utilities, food, housing, child care, after-school programs, elder care, and crisis intervention.
  • Housing specialists can be reached by selecting option 3, then option 1.

8-30 (g)

  • Connecticut state law encouraging affordable housing development.
  • Allows developers to override local zoning decisions to build affordable housing for working-class and low-income individuals and families.

Affordable Housing

  • Rental or owned housing costing a household no more than 30% of their income.
  • Sometimes referred to as Workforce Housing.

ALICE (Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed)

  • Households earning above the Federal Poverty Level but below a basic cost-of-living threshold.
  • Struggle to pay rent despite working hard.
  • Studied by Connecticut United Way.

Area Median Income (AMI)

  • The income amount at which half of households in an area earn more and half earn less.
  • Estimated by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
  • Used to determine eligibility for government housing programs.
  • HUD adjusts AMI based on family size.
  • Example: Eligibility may require a family income to be 80% of AMI.

Balance of State

  • Organizational structure mandated by HUD.
  • Composed of community service providers, public housing authorities, nonprofits, and local/state governments.
  • Required for states to receive homeless assistance funding.

Chronic Homelessness

  • An individual or family continuously homeless for a year or more.
  • Or, a disabled individual with at least four episodes of homelessness in the past three years.
  • Approximately 20% of homeless people fall into this category.

Community Care Team

  • Team consisting of hospital staff, behavioral health, health, and social service agencies.
  • Focused on improving health outcomes, care experience, and reducing unnecessary healthcare expenditures.
  • Works closely with frequent ER users with behavioral health and/or substance abuse diagnoses, typically with unstable or no housing.
  • Stable housing for chronically homeless can significantly reduce taxpayer expenses for ER visits.

Continuum of Care (CoC)

  • Collaborative funding and planning approach.
  • Helps communities plan for and provide a range of emergency, transitional, and permanent housing and related resources to address the specific needs of a homeless person.
  • Functions within the Balance of State structure.

Coordinated Access Network (CAN)

  • Network of service providers streamlining access to housing assistance.
  • Includes standardized assessment and referral process to community resources within a geographic region.
  • Individuals and families should call 2-1-1, select option 3, then option 1 to connect to the CAN system and start the assessment process.

Functional Zero

  • Measure of homelessness reached when the number of individuals who are homeless is no greater than the monthly housing placement rate for military veterans.
  • No waitlist for housing services, and episodes of homelessness are brief and nonrecurring.

Homeless Person / Family

  • Those who:
    • Lack a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence.
    • Reside in a place not meant for human habitation.
    • Reside in an emergency shelter or transitional housing for the homeless.
    • Are being discharged from a residential program with no place to live.
    • Are fleeing a domestic violence situation.

Homeless Management Information System (HMIS)

  • Statewide database mandated and funded by Congress through HUD.
  • Collects demographic data on people utilizing housing services and information on service needs and usage.
  • Used to evaluate and improve housing services.

Housing Choice Voucher Program

  • Federal government’s major program for assisting very low-income families to afford decent, safe, and sanitary housing in the private market.
  • Eligible families can choose any private rental housing that meets program requirements.
  • Funded through HUD and administered locally by public housing agencies (PHAs) and statewide by the Connecticut Department of Housing (DOH).

Housing First

  • Approach offering permanent housing with few to no treatment preconditions, behavioral contingencies, or barriers.
  • Based on evidence that all people experiencing homelessness can achieve stability in permanent housing if provided appropriate services.
  • Yields higher housing retention rates, reduces the use of crisis services and visits to institutions, and improves people’s health and social outcomes.

Inclusionary Zoning

  • Requires a given share of new residential construction to be affordable for people with low to moderate incomes.

Permanent Supportive Housing

  • Provides long-term subsidized housing, health care, and supportive services.
  • For individuals with barriers to housing (such as a disability or addiction) who would otherwise be homeless.

Point in Time Count (PIT Count)

  • One-day snapshot of sheltered and unsheltered homeless individuals and families across the United States.
  • HUD requires each Continuum of Care to conduct a count at the end of January every year.
  • Connecticut regions conduct counts the same way and simultaneously so that findings can be compared across communities and over the years.

Rapid Rehousing

  • Approach focusing on moving homeless individuals and families into appropriate housing as soon as possible.
  • Assistance is time-limited and can include financial support (security deposit or short-term rental subsidy) and light case management.

Section 8 Housing

  • Federally funded program to assist low-income families to afford decent, safe, and sanitary housing in the private market.
  • Eligible families can choose any private rental housing that meets program requirements.

Shelter Diversion

  • Strategy to prevent people needing housing assistance from entering an emergency shelter.
  • Helps identify immediate alternate housing arrangements and connects them with services if necessary.
  • Can reduce the number of families becoming homeless, the demand for shelter beds, and the size of program wait lists.
  • Can include financial assistance to maintain current housing, conflict resolution, and mediation to return to existing housing, or assistance to locate and secure new housing through financial assistance and advocacy.

Single Room Occupancy (SRO)

  • Housing type where one or two people are housed in individual rooms and share bathrooms, kitchens, and common space, similar to a dormitory.
  • Can be part of creating affordable housing options in a community if managed well.

Situational Homelessness

  • Forced to live without housing due to a specific and temporary emergency (natural disaster, job loss, or death of a primary income earner).
  • Can return to permanent housing with minimal assistance.
  • Approximately 80% of people who are homeless fall into this category.

Security Deposit Guarantee Program

  • Helps eligible households (currently residing in emergency housing or shelters) transition to permanent housing.
  • Guarantees payment to the landlord of up to two months’ rent (instead of a direct security deposit payment).
  • The CT Department of Social Services covers the cost, in part or in full, if the tenant moves and there is damage requiring repair or back rent owed.

Supportive Housing

  • Approach that helps people who have been homeless for a long time and who have special needs (such as a disability) maintain housing.
  • Provides permanent (time unlimited) affordable housing along with support services suited to the person’s needs.

Transit Oriented Development

  • Community development that includes a mixture of housing, office and retail space, and/or other amenities integrated into a walkable neighborhood.
  • Located within a half-mile of quality public transportation, such as a bus or train station.

Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing (VASH)

  • Combines rental assistance with case management and clinical services for homeless veterans.
  • The Department of Veterans Affairs administers the program, and services are delivered at VA medical centers and community-based outreach clinics.

VISPDAT (Vulnerability Index-Service Prioritization Decision Assistance Tool)

  • Pre-screening tool used by Coordinated Access Network to assess the health and social needs of homeless persons quickly.
  • Results allow specialists to match needs with the most appropriate support and housing interventions.

Wrap-Around Services

  • Intensive, holistic method of assisting individuals with complex needs (most typically children, youth, and their families).
  • Connects people to all appropriate services in the community so they can live in their homes and communities and realize their full potential.

Youth Homelessness

  • Youths with no secure ‘rights of tenancy’ (for themselves or through a parent/guardian).
  • Examples include youth living in shelters, transitional housing programs, couch surfing, doubled up, in hotels or motels, in parks, on the streets, in cars, in abandoned buildings, or other places not fit for human habitation.
  • Youth homelessness is increasing in Connecticut, and special programs to reach this population are being developed.