Housing

NCHE Resources

CoC-LEA-RHY Program Crosswalk

This excel file contains crosswalked contact information for:

  • Continuums of Care (CoCs) funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to administer federally-funded homeless response programming;
  • Local educational agencies (LEAs/school districts); and
  • Runaway and Homeless Youth (RHY) grantees funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to administer street outreach, basic center, transitional living, and maternity group home programs.

Additionally, the file includes basic homeless education data for LEAs within each CoC's geographical bounds.
The goal of this resource is to facilitate partnership among CoCs, LEAs, and RHY grantees as they serve children, youth, and families experiencing homelessness in the same community. CoC, LEA, and RHY partners also may wish to connect with other partner systems and community stakeholders -including child welfare, juvenile justice, mental and behavioral health, public housing authorities, and afterschool programs -as they develop and implement coordinated community responses to homelessness.
Download the CoC-LEA-RHY Program Crosswalk.

Housing and Education Collaborations to Serve Homeless Children, Youth, and Families
This brief is designed for staff of homeless assistance programs and members of Continuums of Care (CoCs) funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), as well as for State Coordinators for Homeless Education and local homeless education liaisons who operate under the guidance of the U.S. Department of Education (ED). The brief provides basic information to help homeless service providers and homeless education staff understand each other's role in supporting children, youth, and families experiencing homelessness; explains HUD and ED requirements for housing-education collaboration; and offers tools to enhance collaboration among agencies.
Download Housing and Education Collaborations to Serve Homeless Children, Youth, and Families.
Incorporating Education into Coordinated Community Responses to Youth and Young Adult Homelessness: Lessons from the Youth Homelessness Demonstration Program

This NCHE program profile explores the role of education in the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Youth Homelessness Demonstration Program (YHDP); summarizes key education outcomes in, lessons learned in, and technical assistance provided to YHDP communities; and shares cross-system innovations and promising practices for preventing and ending youth and young adult homelessness in urban, suburban, and rural communities.
Download Incorporating Education into Coordinated Community Responses to Youth and Young Adult Homelessness: Lessons from the Youth Homelessness Demonstration Program.

Informational Resources

Ending Homelessness for Families: The Evidence for Affordable Housing
This paper from the National Alliance to End Homelessness and Enterprise Community Partners examines the existing research on family homelessness. The paper, by Marybeth Shinn of Vanderbilt University, examines existing research and indicates that families experiencing homelessness are similar to other low-income families and primarily lack access to affordable housing. The author discusses the important role of housing subsidies in helping families to prevent or end their homelessness and maintain housing stability. The paper also discusses the role of services in housing stability and family well-being.
Download Ending Homelessness for Families: The Evidence for Affordable Housing.
Housing + High School = Success: Schools and Communities Uniting to House Unaccompanied Youth
This publication and accompanying resource webpage from the National Association for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth (NAEHCY) highlight the success of local homeless education liaisons who have inspired their schools and communities to provide housing to unaccompanied youth. Their innovative housing programs make creative use of minimal funding to give young people the safety and support they need to complete high school and continue into higher education. The publication offers ten steps to consider for four different temporary housing models for unaccompanied youth: host homes, group homes, independent living, and emergency shelters. In addition, resource links provide sample youth applications, host home applications, power of attorney forms, parental consent forms, confidentiality notices, job descriptions, posters, flyers, PowerPoint presentations, data collection tools, and other useful forms and documents.
Download Housing + High School = Success: Schools and Communities Uniting to House Unaccompanied Youth.
National Low Income Housing Coalition
The National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC) is dedicated solely to ending America's affordable housing crisis. NLIHC strives to achieve this goal by working in four program areas: public education, organizing, research, and policy advocacy. One particularly useful area of their website is their Congressional District Housing Profiles page, where they provide housing affordability data for renter households in each congressional district by state.
Visit the NLIHC website.
Out of Reach: The High Cost of Housing (2021)
Out of Reach, an annual publication from the National Low Income Housing Coalition, reports on the housing wage - the hourly wage a full-time worker must earn to afford a modest rental home without spending more than 30% of his or her income on housing costs - for every state, county, and metropolitan area in the country. The report highlights the struggle faced by millions of families in affording a safe and decent home, as wages stagnate, rents increase, and the supply of affordable housing continues to be insufficient to meet the need.
Visit the Out of Reach 2021 webpage.
State of the Nation's Housing 2019
This report, published annually by the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University, uses statistics and trends to describe the current state of housing in the United States. It includes income and housing costs, median net wealth of owner and renter households, lowest-income households by cost burdens, median net wealth and homeownership rates by age and race/ethnicity, home prices by region and metropoltian areas, and more.
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is the primary federal government agency dealing with the issues of home ownership and homelessness within the United States. Browse their site to access numerous resources on these issues. Find information about homes and communities, organized by state, by selecting your state under "Local Information".
Visit the HUD website.
Access HUD grantee contact information.
Worst Case Housing Needs: 2017 Report to Congress
This report, published by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), is the sixteenth in a longstanding series providing national data and analysis of the critical problems facing very low-income renting families. The report draws on data from the 2015 American Housing Survey (AHS), and finds that benefits of the strengthening national economy are not adequately flowing to renter households at the lowest income levels, and severe housing problems are on the rise.
Download Worst Case Housing Needs: 2017 Report to Congress.
Access Worst Case Housing Needs reports from previous years.