Number of people who return to homelessness after moving into housing
Status
Continuums of Care (CoCs) representing the 50 most populous cities in the United States, including the Austin/Travis County CoC, are assigned to the “Major City” CoC category by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). This is done to better understand how homelessness differs by geography and levels of urbanization and population.
Among Major City CoCs:
- The average percent of individuals who exit homelessness to permanent housing and then return to homelessness within 24 months in 2020 was 21%; the median was 22%
- The average percent of individuals who exit homelessness to permanent housing and then return to homelessness within 24 months in 2019 was 22%; the median was 21%
- The average percent of individuals who exit homelessness to permanent housing and then return to homelessness within 24 months in 2018 was 21%; the median was 18%
- The average percent of individuals who exit homelessness to permanent housing and then return to homelessness within 24 months in 2017 was 22%; the median was 20%
- The average percent of individuals who exit homelessness to permanent housing and then return to homelessness within 24 months in 2016 was 23%; the median was 25%
Based on this, the Austin/Travis County CoC is performing better than the national standard (average and median) for this measure.
*Medians provided to show the skewness of this data (i.e. cities that have extremely high numbers of clients represented in this measure that drag the average towards a higher number).
**Average numbers for 2021 data are not yet available.
Trending
As you can see here, the percentage of individuals who have returned to homelessness (after a previous stable exit) has remained steady.
Note: to see the underlying data for this chart, please select the "View Source Data" link to the left.
Additional Measure Insights
The chart below displays the number and percent of individuals who return to homelessness within two years of a stable exit broken out by race. It is important to examine the characteristics of clients being served by the homeless services system with a lens to racial equity. This helps our community recognize disparities that exist and work to eliminate them, ensuring that individuals experiencing homelessness in Austin can access and receive services without prejudice.
To this end, the Ending Community Homelessness Coalition (ECHO) is leading a work group to evaluate equity within Austin's homeless services system, particularly with regards to race, and they have set the following objectives:
- This work group will collaborate with the City of Austin Equity Office to critically analyze system tools, policies, hiring practices, housing interventions/ strategies, etc.
- This group has a desire to switch the responsibility of culturally congruent services from the client to the service provider(s)/ homeless system.
- This work group will work with the CoC [Continuum of Care] to ensure that all agencies/ programs working within the CoC adhere to best practices that decrease racial disparities.
In 2021, the Austin/Travis
County Continuum of Care, led by ECHO, implemented a number of equity-focused changes to to address racial
disparities in the Homelessness Response System, including:
- Revamping
the governance structure of the Continuum of Care (CoC). The newly created
Homelessness Response System Leadership Council, the managing board of the
CoC, has codified policies to maximize diverse representation of
homelessness system stakeholders and individuals with lived expertise.
Specifically, the governance charter requires one-third of its
members to be composed of people who identify as non-white and / or
Hispanic, and reserves three seats for individuals with lived expertise of
homelessness.
- The
Leadership Council decided and sourced funding to compensate people with
lived expertise in homelessness that serve not only on Leadership Council,
but its committees and workgroups.
- The
CoC created and adopted the Austin Prioritization Index, a new equity-centered
prioritization tool that is used to connect people experiencing
homelessness with housing programs. The goal is to eliminate race, gender,
and sexual-orientation disparities in how people access housing programs
in Austin.
Measure Details and Definition
1) Definition: This measure provides information on individuals who exit homelessness to permanent housing destinations and then return to homelessness within 2 years from their exit in the Austin/Travis County Continuum of Care (CoC) in a given fiscal year.
2) Calculation method:
-Step 1: Using Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) data, add the number of persons in the client universe (all persons in Street Outreach (SO), Emergency Shelter (ES), Safe Haven (SH), Transitional Housing (TH) and any Permanent Housing (PH) project type who exited to permanent housing destinations during the fiscal year two years prior to the reporting period)
-Step 2: Of the client universe, add up those persons who were also recorded in SO, ES, SH, TH, and all PH projects in HMIS within 24 months after their date of exit to permanent housing destinations
-Step 3: Divide the total from Step 2 by the total from Step 1 to calculate the percent of persons who return to homelessness within 24 months
3) Data Collection Process: This data is collected homeless services organizations who provide shelter to individuals experiencing homelessness. The data is aggregated by the Ending Community Homelessness Coalition (ECHO) and reported to the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) on an annual basis.
4) Measure Target Calculation: The target for this measure (18%) is the median percent of returns to homelessness counted by communities similar to Austin/Travis County during the 2020 fiscal year. There is not yet aggregate national data published on HUD's website to create a new measure target calculation for FY2022.
5) Frequency Measure is Reported: Annually (Fiscal Year)
Date page was last updated: July 2022