4.1 Running on All Cylinders: Homeless Systems Measurement Speakers: Katherine Gale Megan Schatz All parts of the homeless system engine should be working together. How well are your collective responses working? Is your community experiencing system-wide reductions in homelessness? Are individual’s and family’s length of homeless episodes decreasing? This workshop will discuss ways to measure your homeless assistance system and will help your community answer these questions to stay on the path toward ending homelessness.

1. Measuring Performance with Purpose:
Working toward a Right-Sized Housing Crisis System
Megan Kurteff Schatz & Katharine Gale
February 10, 2012
www.focusstrategies.net
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2. Works with communities to:
• Assess and improve the quality of local homeless data for
informing change
• Analyze system outcomes and costs
• Synthesize data from multiple systems of care (homeless,
mental health, human services, etc.) to identify client overlap
and service utilization patterns
• Identify how system resources are currently invested &
recommend how they can be repurposed to be more effective
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3. Overview
Reorienting as a System
Presenting findings from sample communities:
•Review of Success – exits to permanent housing
•Look at cost per person served & cost per success
•Returns to homelessness
•Cost for “success that sticks”
•Current resource allocation compared with population
distribution and need
•Distribution of resources to maximize success that sticks
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4. Homeless Program Coordination
Out- RR
reach Prev
TH PSH SSO
Objectives:
• Maximize and keep HUD CoC funding in Continuum
• Keep shelters open and operating as needed
• Coordinate and increase resources
• Maintain high standards for serving people in programs
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5. Moving to a System
• A system is a set of components and
relationships that form a whole.
• All of a system’s resources are directed
toward its common purpose & outcomes.
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6. Housing Crisis Resolution System
Objectives:
•Permanent housing fast and make sure housing sticks
•Least expensive resource to each household to resolve their
homelessness
•Measure what is working, do right amount of that
•Measure what is not working, do better and/or less of that
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7. System Components
• Prevention
• Outreach
• Emergency shelter
• Transitional housing
• Support services
• Rapid rehousing
• Permanent supportive housing
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8. Greasing the Wheels
• Coordinated entry
• Assessment &
assignment of right
resource
• Buy-in to common
outcomes
• Measuring outcomes &
responding to findings
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9. Does the current set of components
fit the need?
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10. Population Distribution &
System Capacity – Community A
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11. Population Distribution &
System Capacity – Community A
Sample Community A
Adults Only Household (N=1,727)
2011 PIT Count
Unsheltered Homeless Sheltered Homeless Homeless in TH
930 287 510
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12. Population Distribution &
System Capacity – Community B
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13. Population Distribution &
System Capacity – Community B
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14. Program Use & Implications –
Community A
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15. Program Use & Implications –
Community A
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16. Program Use & Implications –
Community B
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17. Program Use & Implications –
Community B
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18. Engineering Success
Each System Component:
•Leads to success – exits to permanent housing (PH)
•Right-sized allocation of system dollars to maximize PH exits
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19. Success: Exits to PH
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20. Success: Exits to PH
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21. Success: Exits to PH
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22. Success: Exits to PH
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23. Cost of Success by Program Type
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24. Cost of Success by Program Type
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25. Success that Sticks
Success that sticks means
leaving homelessness for permanent
housing & NOT returning to
homelessness.
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26. Returns to Homelessness
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27. Returns to Homelessness
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28. Cost of Success that Sticks
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29. Cost of Success that Sticks
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30. Maximizing Success
Lowest
cost of
Success
that Sticks
Greatest
Number
Housed
Maximum
Resources
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31. Where are resources invested in
Community A now?
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32. What would happen, if…?
Program Rate of PH Exits Program Rate of PH Exits
Increase %
ES 26% of PH exits ES 50%
1200
1000 1091
800
531 new PH
Exits!
600
561
400
200
0
Emergency Shelter
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33. What would happen, if…?
Program LOS Shorten Program LOS
TH 300 days LOS TH 150 days
700
600
605
500 302 new PH
Exits!
400
300
303
200
100
0
Transitional Housing
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34. What would happen, if…?
Program Current $ Program New $
TH $6,415,004 Swap TH $4,415,004
$2 mil
RR $2,052,760 RR $4,052,760
Exits to PH that Stick
1,600
1,400
592 new PH1,391
1,200
exits!
1,000
800
600 704
400
200 303
208
0
Transitional Housing that Stick
Current PH Exits Rapid Re-Housing PH Exits that Stick
New 34

35. All Together Now
1,330 new PH
Exits!

36. Maximizing Success that Sticks
Includes:
•Right-sizing investments by
program type, and
•Assessing program
performance and making
funding decisions accordingly
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37. Q&A
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