Research and News Roundup:
December 2024
Mary Ann Priester
Senior Management Analyst
Mecklenburg County Community Support Services
The Research and News Roundup is a monthly blog series that features a curated list of recent news and research related to housing instability, homelessness, and affordable housing. Together, these topics provide insights about the full housing continuum and provide community stakeholders with information about emergent research, promising practices, and innovative solutions related to housing and homelessness.
This month’s Research and News Roundup highlights the recently released NAEH Interim Strategies for Responding to Unsheltered Homelessness, a research article on quantifying and predicting doubled up homelessness, and the Picture of Preservation report which outlines risks to preserving affordable housing.
HOUSING INSTABILITY
Quantifying Doubled-Up Homelessness: Presenting a New Measure Using U.S. Census Microdata
The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) considers households that are temporarily sharing a living situation with another household due to economic hardship or a lack of affordable housing as unstably housed. They are not technically homeless by many federal definitions but if their doubled-up situation becomes unsustainable they are at risk of becoming homeless. This research article identified significant differences in doubling up by race/ethnicity, age, educational level, and employment status. In addition, the article outlines community-level predictors of doubled-up homelessness include housing market conditions such as high rental costs and housing supply shortages, high community poverty rates, geography, area median rent, and unemployment rates.
HOMELESSNESS
Interim Strategies for Responding to Unsheltered Homelessness
Yesterday the National Alliance to End Homelessness (NAEH) released Interim Strategies for Responding to Unsheltered Homelessness. The strategy document asserts that permanent housing strategies serve as both a short- and long-term solution to homelessness, that all strategies should be evidence-based, low-barrier, and housing focused, and that all strategies should center client choice and autonomy. The document highlights the following fundamental system principles and standards that should be guide community decision making about temporary solutions:
- Take inventory of current resources and housing focused tactics such as housing problem solving.
- Integrate all efforts within the Continuum of Care (CoC) structure including participation in the CoC’s Coordinated Entry System (CES) and the Homeless Information Management System (HMIS)
- Include people with lived expertise in the development of all solutions and center the needs of people experiencing unsheltered homelessness in the design of all interventions.
The document also highlights important universal design strategies that should be integrated into non-congregate shelter solutions designed to serve people experiencing unsheltered homelessness including considerations for space and safety, health and wellness, and program design elements. The principles provide guidance on the following areas of consideration:
- Accessibility, security, and safety
- Personal, medication, and storage space
- Accommodations for households and pets
- Sanitation and bathroom access
- Overdose prevention and substance use
- Housing-focused strategies
- Staffing and case management
- Outcome and effectiveness assessment
AFFORDABLE HOUSING
In December, the Public and Affordable Research Corporation (PAHRC) and the National Low Income Housing Coalition released the Picture of Preservation report. Using data from the National Housing Preservation Database (NHPD), the report assesses preservation risks for federally assisted housing (housing where the construction of 2 or more units was financed in whole or part by federal funds). Preservation risks include expiring affordability, rising building age, and reduced funding allocations. The report found that 10% of housing rental stock nationally is federally assisted. The average federally assisted home has been affordable for 36 years and affordability restrictions will expire on close to 400,000 homes in the next five years. While 104,000 new homes have been added to the federally assisted stock recently, 71,000 homes have been lost resulting in a net gain of only 34,000 homes. Coupled with growing depreciation and deteriorating housing quality, additional funding and preservation protections are needed to preserve this vital supply of affordable housing.
SO WHY DOES THIS MATTER?
Addressing Charlotte-Mecklenburg’s goal of reducing homelessness and ensuring access to safe, affordable housing requires integrated and innovative strategies that span the housing continuum. The doubled-up homelessness research article provides insights into individual and community level predictors of being doubled up which could inform interventions such as doubled up housing as well as inform how and who to target prevention resources to ensure those who are doubled up do not become homeless. The USICH Framework can be a resource for the community can use as Mecklenburg County continues its partnership with Community Solutions – Built for Zero, to build out and scale a local coordinated prevention system. The Interim Strategies for Responding to Unsheltered Homelessness document provides a blueprint for a low-barrier, housing-focused non-congregate shelter, a project currently under development in Mecklenburg County. Finally, the Picture of Preservation report can guide local analysis and identification of federally assisted affordable housing that may be at risk as well as innovation strategies to preserve and retain it through public private partnerships. Together, these innovative solutions related to housing and homelessness can inform local strategy to address the housing needs of all residents in Charlotte-Mecklenburg.
