Working TOGETHER to Address Homelessness, Part 4: Eligibility, Access and Prioritization PATH’s services are funded almost entirely by either grants or donations. Almost all grants (and sometimes even donations) come with rules about how the funding can be used and who can be served. Almost all of PATH’s services are funded by grants that can only be used to serve people who are in situations that meet a narrow definition that basically says that a person is “homeless” if they “lack a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence” and have “a primary nighttime residence that is a public or private place not designed for or ordinarily used as a regular sleeping accommodation for human beings.” (That definition is from paragraph 1(i) of the definition of “Homeless” in 24 CFR Part 578.3 if anybody wants to google it – just keep in mind that not everything in that section of federal regulations applies to all PATH services – some funding programs just incorporate that definition “by reference” in their own regulations.) For services like Rapid Rehousing and Transitional Housing, a second option is added that expands eligibility to people who are currently “living in a supervised publicly or privately operated shelter designated to provide temporary living arrangements” so that people who are unsheltered can enter shelter and still be eligible for help with next steps. (That’s from paragraph 1(ii) of the definition of “Homeless” in 24 CFR Part 578.3.) As you may have noticed, people who are in situations that some might consider homeless - staying with family or friends or family, etc. – don’t fall within that narrow definition, and neither do people who are housed but in danger of losing their housing. PATH refers to these situations, collectively, as “precariously housed”. People who are precariously housed can get day services at PATH Plaza, including meals, clothing, pet food and resource navigation – help finding other services that might be of help to them. People who are eligible for one or more PATH service can access those services by coming into PATH Plaza between 7AM and 7PM. Day services are available 365 days per year, but case management and resource navigation is mainly provided on weekdays. If a participant is eligible for homeless services, they’ll be offered the chance to take a Coordinated Entry (CE) assessment as part of their intake at PATH Plaza. People can also take a CE assessment by calling 211, whether they want PATH Plaza day services or not. The CE assessment is designed to do a few things – it’s how they tell us what temporary and/or permanent housing services they’re interested in, it asks a series of questions that helps us determine their level of vulnerability and helps us determine which housing services might work best for them. “Vulnerability” is based on a number of factors that the assessment covers – things like how long they have been homeless, whether they have disabling conditions, etc. In a perfect world, we would be able to get everyone who needs housing services into those services without any delay, but since we can only serve so many people at one time, people have to wait until a spot opens up in the program(s) they need. When we have an opening in a program, staff go to the Coordinated Entry System to identify the next person in the Queue that fits that opening. For instance, if the opening is a bed in the Overnight Shelter Men’s Dorm, staff will identify the next man who said they were interested in a single-adult shelter bed and offer them that bed. People show up on the Queue in an order based on vulnerability, with the most vulnerable at the top. Openings happen when other people exit programs. While it’s not always the case, ideally, exits – from temporary housing or Rapid Rehousing - happen when current participants achieve stability in permanent housing. Right now, because we have a shortage of affordable permanent housing in our community, that doesn’t happen as fast or as frequently as it otherwise would. We know that our programs are effective at helping people transition out of homelessness into permanent housing – since 2018, when our Rapid Rehousing program first opened, more than 1700 unduplicated individuals in over 800 households (a household can be made up of one single adult, multiple adults or adults and children) have exited PATH programs to permanent housing. Ironically, these successes have contributed to how full local affordable housing units are. Of course, there are other households currently in these units too – not everyone who qualifies for low-income affordable housing ever experiences homelessness. But regardless of how the households in affordable units got there, the goal is that they stay housed. The only “positive” way that these units open up is when a household increases their income and can afford to “climb the ladder” into other housing options, like homeownership. As much as we hope this happens, that’s gotten harder and harder for people to do. What we really need, in order to break the current bottleneck in homelessness programs is more permanent, affordable housing available on the other end. While PATH is not directly involved in developing affordable housing, we do support our community partners who are involved in these efforts, and we hope that you will too. (fb)

Good morning everyone, Today marks the 1-year anniversary of the opening of the Navigation Center, during this time we have overcome many obstacles and challenges, but we are still going strong. For the 1 year we have served many clients and have great success stories. I would like to share some of the numbers of services that we have provided in this year of operation. We have served a total of 1,175 unduplicated individuals that have received a total of 165,503 services. Let’s break that down to see what kind of services were served: Breakfast: 19,652 meals Lunch: 27,934 meals Dinner: 31,257 meals Pet food: 4,546 Laundry: 4,453 Clothing Closet: 12,231 Day Shelter: 38,607 Our Overnight Shelter has served a total of 20,215 bed nights, averaging 55.3 clients per night. We have successfully assisted 159 households that comprises of 174 family members obtain permanent housing though all our programs. This is an average of 13.25 households per month. Of the 159 households 13 of them include bus tickets to family out of town or out of state. Thank you to everyone for your dedication, contributions and hard work this past year, without all of your hard work, it would not be possible. Jimmy Rolson Director of Operations PATH Plaza Navigation Center (fb)