COVID-19 has brought into glaring focus the health perils people living without basic access to water and other life-saving necessities face not just during a pandemic, but every single day. We also know that a home is powerful medicine, that its health benefits can even outweigh prescribed medication a person takes for a chronic illness.

Considering these alarming realities, it is no surprise that reducing unsheltered homelessness is listed in the HUD Notice of Funding Opportunity’s (NOFO) Policy Priorities and Program Highlights section. It also acknowledges the disproportionate health vulnerabilities found among this group. In addition to the current and unprecedented levels of investments made over the past year to combat homelessness, the NOFO provides another chance to double down on rehousing responses that bring people out of encampments and into safe and stabilizing housing options.

A rehousing system that lacks an intentional strategy to solve unsheltered homelessness will only perpetuate the trends we’re seeing in the majority of communities across the country. People living on the streets can be less likely to seek assistance and could have service needs that extend beyond what Continuum of Care (CoC) programs typically provide.

The good news is that reducing unsheltered homelessness does not need to be a standalone strategy, but the “north star strategy” that all other policies and programs can coalesce around.

Read the full article about prioritizing unsheltered people by Christina Miller at National Alliance to End Homelessness.