USICH Announces First Federal Homelessness Prevention Framework

Today, the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH) formally adopted and released Ending Homelessness Before It Starts: A Federal Homelessness Prevention Framework, which was developed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and other federal agencies that make up USICH.

The framework-which is the first-of-its-kind at the federal level-was informed by people with lived experience of homelessness and formally adopted by agency leaders during today’s USICH meeting that included several White House Cabinet members. It is an actionable guide intended for a wide range of partners, including local, tribal, and state governments; nonprofits, funders, systems, providers, and advocates of housing, health, human services, justice, education, employment, child welfare, and emergency services.

“We end homelessness every day for thousands of people. But for every person housed, more lose their home,” said USICH Director Jeff Olivet. “To make progress toward ending homelessness as we know it, we must close this revolving door and prevent homelessness before it starts. To do that, USICH urges communities to work together across systems and sectors, using this prevention framework and our new homelessness prevention spotlight series, to keep people from ever experiencing the trauma of living without a home.”

“Homelessness can be deadly - but it is also preventable. During the pandemic, we saw the benefits of investing in housing, health care, and other systems that prevent people from losing homes,” said HHS Xavier Becerra, who chairs USICH and led today’s meeting. “During the worst of the pandemic, these nationwide efforts prevented millions of evictions and helped prevent a massive rise in homelessness from 2020 to 2022. The federal homelessness prevention framework builds on what we learned to help communities keep people in their homes.”

The framework:

• Details steps for developing a community-wide, cross-system approach to homelessness prevention
• Defines categories of homelessness prevention
• Shares promising practices for homelessness prevention programs
• Lists federal resources that can be used for homelessness prevention

In addition to the framework, USICH published the first spotlight in a series on specific methods of homelessness prevention with a focus on specific populations (youth, families, older adults, and people involved the justice system). To inform the spotlights, USICH collected emerging best practices from communities that are working to prevent homelessness.

Read USICH’s announcement and visit usich.gov/prevention for more information.

Along with developing this framework, HHS understands the importance of working with partners across systems, as well as within our own, to better support housing stability and prevent homelessness and has recently taken the following actions toward addressing this crisis and implementing All In: The Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness:

• HHS, in partnership with the U.S. Departments of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Justice (DOJ), Education (ED), Agriculture (USDA), and the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH, has updated the Youth.gov Homelessness and Housing Instability webpage to include recently released federal research, resources, and guidance, as well as a subpage on federal eligibility for programs serving youth and young adults experiencing homelessness and young people at risk of experiencing homelessness. Youth.gov will now reflect the needed multi-sector approach to help prevent housing instability among young people and support those already experiencing homelessness with more comprehensive research, tools, and opportunities.
• HHS has worked to develop and strengthen partnerships across housing and early childhood programs to promote well-being and housing stability for the whole family and support a two-generation approach to meeting the needs of both parents and their young children experiencing homelessness - check out the comprehensive Homelessness Modules on the website for the Office of Head Start
• Early this year HHS’s Administration for Children and Families (ACF) released new guidance to help prevent homelessness for youth who have transitioned out of foster care gain access to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Foster Youth to Independence (FYI) program. This important guidance, developed in partnership with HUD, will help ensure eligible young adults gain access to rental assistance and supportive services to ensure safe and stable housing.  ACF also supported the development of a HUD technical assistance resource on “Combining Runaway and Homeless Youth and Youth Homelessness Demonstration Project Resources.”
• Recently, the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) at HHS, in collaboration with the Raikes Foundation launched the National Prevention Learning Collaborative on Youth Homelessness. The Collaborative brings together experts, organizations, federal staff, and other partners from across the country who have expertise in youth homelessness prevention, housing stability, education, employment, well-being, health care and human services. It aims to identify best practices for enhancing youth homelessness prevention programs, as well as to learn from both new and existing homelessness prevention programs and research. The collaborative has been co-designing this work alongside youth and young adults who have lived experience.
• HHS’s Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) released an Eviction Prevention Toolkit for Tenants and Service Providers. The toolkit is for people with mental health conditions, substance use disorders, or co-occurring disorders living in community-based low-income housing and the service providers and organizations supporting them in their housing and recovery. The toolkit provides essential information to support stable tenancies, avoid the trauma of housing eviction, and prevent homelessness.
• SAMHSA’s Children’s Mental Health Initiative (CMHI) grantees collaborate with community-based housing programs (such as homeless and runaway shelters) to provide access to mental health and wraparound and supportive services.  CMHI grantees also partner and collaborate with local school districts to support youth and families experiencing homelessness who are identified under the McKinney-Vento Federal Homeless Education Act by providing needed mental health services/supports and support efforts to improve access to educational services and participation at school.
• SAMHSA’s Enhancement and Expansion of Treatment and Recovery Services for Adolescents, Transitional Aged Youth, and Their Families (Youth & Family TREE) initiatives fund agencies that collaboratively respond to the needs of unhoused youth. To increase access and respond to the immediate needs of unhoused youth, SAMHSA-funded programs partner with agencies that specialize in providing services to unhoused youth in the community by offering drop-in centers, free job training, education, safe and appropriate recovery housing, and assist with securing permanent housing.
• HHS’s Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) has been working with researchers, leaders of human services agencies, and people with lived experience to visualize, describe, and document models of prevention of human services needs,  including approaches for the prevention of child maltreatment, the promotion of housing stability and prevention of homelessness for families and youth, and increasing the use of economic supports such as Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) to promote economic stability. The project deliverables include 3 briefs:
  • Integrating Services to Strengthen Children, Youth, and Families and Prevent Involvement in the Child Welfare System – published
    • This brief focuses on child welfare-related prevention by highlighting initiatives from case studies that used service integration and agency collaboration to (1) increase protective factors, (2) prevent child maltreatment and reduce substantiated reports, and (3) prevent homelessness among youth aging out of foster care. The brief explores four key themes for successful integration to prevent child welfare system involvement:
      • Involve community members and organizations in planning, designing, and implementing an integrated services approach
      • Focus on establishing trust and relationships with families served to repair harm
      • Use a person-centered approach to implement services
      • Braid flexible funding sources to respond to communities' varied needs
  • Case Studies in Supporting Prevention through Human Services Program Integration – publication forthcoming (late September/early October)
  • Coordinated Integrated Prevention Approaches to Serve the Whole Person: Findings from Case Studies in Supporting Prevention Through Human Services Program Integration - publication forthcoming (late September/early October)