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SP-60 Homelessness Strategy – 91.215(d)
Reaching out to homeless persons (especially unsheltered persons) and assessing their individual needs Newport News hosts designated outreach workers
through the PATH program at the Community Services Board, Veterans Hospital, and the Housing Broker Team at DHS who conduct daily outreach to
establish relationships, assess the various health and housing needs of the homeless clients, and link them to the necessary assistance programs. The most
common sites for outreach are through the Day
Service Center, the HNNCSB Drop-In Center, winter shelters, meal sites, and scouting wooded areas and other areas known to the workers where homeless
persons sleep. The Four Oaks Day Service Center has greatly enhanced outreach and assessment of needs, referrals to coordinated entry through the
Continuum of Care Council and connections to services and housing providers for permanent supportive housing and shelters.
Addressing the emergency and transitional housing needs of homeless persons
Upon intake into a housing program, provider agencies utilize comprehensive screening tools to identify all needs of each homeless person/household to
develop a housing stabilization plan. The staff of these agencies conduct these full assessments within two weeks of entering shelter in order to allow time
to establish trust with each person. Meetings to provide case management, life skills and/or employment training are held at least weekly and more often
when needed.
The needs of all homeless clients are entered into HMIS and triaged at the SCAAN bi-weekly meetings in order to coordinate services and housing with
other providers within the Continuum of Care. All transitional housing units are dedicated to households fleeing domestic violence. Due to the complexity
of the situations and the additional services required to provide safety and then stabilization services, the longer length of stays are better suited for these
vulnerable households.
Helping homeless persons (especially chronically homeless individuals and families, families with children, veterans and their families, and unaccompanied
youth) make the transition to permanent housing and independent living, including shortening the period of time that individuals and families experience
homelessness, facilitating access for homeless individuals
and families to affordable housing units, and preventing individuals and families who were recently homeless from becoming homeless again.
Staff members from most of the CDBG and HOME funded organizations, the City, and staff members of the Housing Broker Team and NNRHA are active
participants, along with numerous other organizations, in the Greater Virginia Peninsula Homelessness Consortium. This forum serves as a clearinghouse
for issues, including homelessness, and the evaluation of problematic cases from families requesting assistance for housing in many cases. In this regard,
the GVPHC Service Coordination and Assessment
Network comprised of CoC services and housing members meet every two weeks to triage such cases, in order to expedite the provision of housing
placements and supportive services.
System performance measures, now reported annually to HUD and Congress, demonstrate the length of time households are remaining homeless – either
unsheltered or in shelter – and if they exit successfully to permanent housing situations or not. They also record the returns
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