The U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH) has officially adopted and released "Ending Homelessness Before It Starts: A Federal Homelessness Prevention Framework." Developed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) alongside other federal agencies within USICH, this framework marks a first at the federal level.

Informed by individuals with lived experiences of homelessness, the framework was formally adopted during a USICH meeting that included several White House Cabinet members. It aims to guide various partners including local, tribal, and state governments; nonprofits; funders; and advocates in 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.”

Xavier Becerra Secretary and Deputy Secretary | U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra emphasized the preventable nature of homelessness: “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,” he said. “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 outlines steps for developing community-wide approaches to preventing homelessness. It defines categories of prevention measures and shares promising practices along with listing federal resources available for such programs.

Additionally, USICH published its first spotlight series focusing on specific populations like youth, families, older adults, and individuals involved in the justice system.

Beyond releasing this framework HHS has undertaken several initiatives aimed at addressing housing stability:

- In collaboration with various departments including HUD and DOJ among others HHS updated Youth.gov’s Homelessness and Housing Instability webpage.

- Strengthened partnerships between housing programs promoting family well-being.

- Released guidance through ACF helping youth transitioning out of foster care access HUD’s Foster Youth to Independence program.

- Launched National Prevention Learning Collaborative on Youth Homelessness with Raikes Foundation.

- SAMHSA released an Eviction Prevention Toolkit aiding those with mental health conditions or substance use disorders.

- Various SAMHSA-funded initiatives are collaborating with local agencies supporting unhoused youth.

Furthermore HHS’s Office of Assistant Secretary for Planning & Evaluation (ASPE) is working on documenting models focused on preventing child maltreatment promoting housing stability among families/youth while increasing economic supports like TANF.

For more details visit usich.gov/prevention.

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