HomeAid Glossary by homeaidnational

Numerical Index

211: The 211 national hotline provides information about and referrals to local human and social resources and services in the U.S. Its goal is to centralize and simplify the process of accessing social services, thereby helping to address the needs of individuals and communities.

By simply dialing 211 an easy-to-remember number assigned by the Federal Communications Commission people can obtain referrals regarding everything from housing assistance, food pantries, and healthcare services to substance abuse programs, financial counseling, and Veterans crisis lines. Available 24/7, the service is free to anyone, and calls are confidential and can be anonymous.

311: This is a non-emergency phone number that provides access to local government services and information. It's a citizens' hotline that allows people to report issues, ask questions, and make complaints without using emergency lines.

Here are some things you can do with 311: Report a malfunctioning traffic light, get a pothole fixed, turn on the heat in your apartment, and get a refund on an overpaid parking ticket.

AAbuser: A person choosing to cause harm to their partner.

Access Point: Access Points are the virtual or physical places or programs where an individual or family experiencing homelessness or at imminent risk

of homelessness seeks and receives assistance to connect to resources from the Housing Crisis Response System that are available through Coordinated Entry.

Adequate Housing: Housing that is reported by residents, as not requiring any major repairs. Housing that is inadequate may have excessive mold, inadequate heating or water supply, significant damage, etc.

Addiction: A type of condition characterized by a mental or physical dependence on alcohol or other drugs. Individuals can also experience behavioral addictions, such as sexual, internet, and gambling addictions.

ADU: An accessory dwelling unit (ADU) is a legal and regulatory term for a secondary house or apartment that shares the building lot of a larger, primary home.

Adults: refers to people age 18 or older.

Adult Protective Services: When someone is called to investigate or assess your family because of a situation that involves the safety of an elderly person.

Adults with HIV/AIDS: This subpopulation category of the Point in Time (PIT) includes adults who have been diagnosed with AIDS and/or have tested positive for HIV.

Adults with a Serious Mental Illness (SMI): This subpopulation category of the PIT includes adults with a severe and persistent mental illness or emotional impairment that seriously limits a person's ability to live independently. Adults with SMI must also meet the qualifications identified in the term for “disability” (e.g., “is expected to be long-continuing or indefinite duration”)

Adults with a Substance Use Disorder: This subpopulation category of the PIT includes adults with a substance abuse problem (alcohol abuse, drug abuse, or both). Adults with a substance use disorder must also meet the qualifications identified in the term for “disability” (e.g., “is expected to be long-continuing or indefinite duration”).

Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE): Events that occur during childhood, between birth to age 17, that likely cause trauma. Studies have shown that the more ACEs someone experiences, the higher the risk of chronic health problems as an adult. ACEs also increase the risk that an individual will experience domestic violence or be a perpetrator of domestic violence in adulthood.

Advocacy: Advocacy simply means promoting the interests of someone or a group–including yourself. Self-advocacy is speaking up for your needs and wants.

Advocate: An advocate can stand by you, and stand up for you, when important decisions are being made about your care, treatment and the way you live your life. They can help you understand your rights and options, and then support you in expressing your views and wishes to the relevant services.

Affordable Housing: Affordable housing is generally defined as housing on which the occupant is paying no more than 30 percent of gross income for housing costs, including utilities.

Aging Out: Leaving foster care at 18 years or older (age at which a youth ages out varies by state).

AHAR Report: The Annual Homeless Assessment Report (AHAR) is a HUD report to the U.S. Congress that provides nationwide estimates of homelessness, including information about the demographic characteristics of homeless persons, service use patterns, and the capacity to house homeless persons. The report is based on Homeless Management Information Systems (HMIS) data about persons who experience homelessness during a 12-month period, point-in-time counts of people experiencing homelessness on one day in January, and data about the inventory of shelter and housing available in a community.

ALICE (The ALICE Initiative): (Asset Limited Income Constrained Employed)

Many individuals and families who have a job even two or three are doing

everything they can to make ends meet yet struggle to get by each month. ALICE represents the growing number of households who are above the Federal Poverty Line, do not qualify for many government assistance programs, and who are working yet cannot afford basic necessities to remain stable and selfsufficient.

Attribution bias: is the tendency to explain a person's behavior by referring to their character rather than any situational factors.

BBarrier to entry: In the homelessness context, barrier to entry means an obstacle to accessing a particular service. For example, shelters that do not allow pets can pose a barrier to entry to clients who own animals.

Basic income: is a regular cash payment to members of a community, without a work requirement or other conditions.

Basic needs: Physiological needs such as hunger, thirst, bodily comforts, etc. associated with the lowest level of human need on Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.

Battered woman: In the 1970s, when the social movement to combat domestic violence started in earnest, survivors of abuse were often referred to as “battered” in conjunction with “battered woman syndrome”. The phrase is largely outdated now, replaced with “survivor” in many instances, though some shelters are still referred to as “battered women’s shelters.”

BIPOC: Black, Indigenous and People of Color

Boise vs. Martin: A 2018 decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in response to a 2009 lawsuit by six homeless plaintiffs against the city of Boise, Idaho regarding the city's anti-camping ordinance. The ruling held

that cities cannot enforce anti-camping ordinances if they do not have enough homeless shelter beds available for their homeless population. It did not necessarily mean a city cannot enforce any restrictions on camping on public property. The decision was based on the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution's prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment.

Bridge Housing (Transitional) is a continuum of housing that’s between emergency and permanent housing. These short-term accommodations bridge the gap between homelessness and permanent housing. On-site support services are offered to individuals as they work with outreach workers to secure permanent housing. Residents typically stay in bridge housing for an average of 30 to 90 days.

Builder Captain: Builder captains (licensed residential, commercial, and remodeling contractors) for HomeAid projects lead the construction of a development serving those experiencing or at risk of homelessness that may include the design, entitlement and construction of ground up or remodeled housing or programmatic facilities, and will recruit trade partners, consultants, suppliers and others that will participate with pro bono or discounted labor, materials, and services.

Bum is a derogatory term for someone without a fixed residence and regular employment, terms like “hobo” and “tramp” conjure up nostalgia that belies the difficulty in their wandering lifestyles.

CCareKit: A small bag filled with basic needs items (water, hygiene items, food bar, etc.) for our neighbors experiencing homelessness. These bags are typically kept in vehicles for immediate distribution to people seen living on the streets or panhandling. It may include a resource card as well.

Case Management: A collaborative and client-centered approach to service provision for persons experiencing homelessness. In this approach, a case worker assesses the needs of the client (and potentially their families) and when appropriate, arranges, coordinates and advocates for delivery and access to a range of programs and services to address the individual’s needs.

Caseworkers investigate reports of safety concerns for children and families in their state or county. This includes conducting child safety assessments of alleged child abuse or neglect, evaluating whether a child is at risk of being harmed and, if needed, determining appropriate services to ensure child’s safety.

Child Abuse: Not adequately caring for a child that results in physical, emotional or sexual harm, or exploitation. Studies show that it is highly likely that domestic violence and child abuse will occur simultaneously.

Child Protective Services: Government agency that is called to investigate or assess a family because of a situation that involves the safety of a child.

Children: Refers to people under the age of 18.

Chronic homelessness People experiencing chronic homelessness are entrenched in the shelter system, which acts as long-term housing for this population rather than an emergency option. They are likely to be older, underemployed, and often have a disability. People who are chronically homeless have experienced homelessness for at least a year – or repeatedly –while struggling with a disabling condition such as a serious mental illness, substance use disorder, or physical disability.

Coercive and controlling behavior refers to a pattern of behavior carried out by perpetrators in an attempt to exhibit control over their victim. Coercive and controlling behavior may also be referred to as ‘the invisible noose’ due to the concealed nature of this crime. Women are far more likely to be victims, men are more likely to be perpetrators

Cold Weather Shelter Program: The cold weather shelter provides shelters in various locations during the cold weather months. The shelters operate from

November end to March end each year and provide respite from the cold weather to the homeless people.

Community Development Block Grant (CDBG): The CDBG program was created by the Housing and Community Development (HCD) Act of 1974. The County CDBG program is federally funded by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to assist lower income and special needs persons to address housing and community development needs.

Cooling Center: A cooling center is an air-conditioned public or private space to temporarily deal with the adverse health effects of extreme heat weather conditions, like the ones caused by heat waves. Cooling centers are one of the possible mitigation strategies to prevent hyperthermia caused by heat, humidity, and poor air quality.

Congregate shelter is a shared living environment combining housing and services such as case management and employment services. Often in congregate shelters, people sleep in an open area with others. They are typically separated by gender and have set hours of operation.

Continuums of Care (CoC) are local planning bodies responsible for coordinating the full range of homelessness services in a geographic area, which may cover a city, county, metropolitan area, or an entire state.

Coordinated Entry Assessment: A standardized approach to assessing a person’s current situation, the acuity of their needs and the services they currently receive and may require in the future. It considers the background factors that contribute to risk and resilience, changes in acuity, and the role of friends, family, caregivers, community and environmental factors.

Couch surfing is a term that generally indicates the practice of moving from house to house, sleeping in whatever spare space is available (often a couch or floor), generally staying a few days before moving on to another house.

Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA): A CASA is a volunteer that supports, represents, and elevates the wants and needs of a young person in court.

Criminal Justice System: The system of law enforcement that is directly involved in apprehending, prosecuting, defending, sentencing, and punishing those who are suspected or convicted of criminal offences.

Criminalizing homelessness: Refers to policies, laws, and local ordinances that make it illegal, difficult, or impossible for unsheltered people to engage in the everyday activities that most people carry out daily. "No sit, no lie" laws, which prevent people from sitting or lying down in public, are considered the criminalization of homelessness. Other examples include prohibiting camping in public, sleeping in parks, panhandling, and sweeping tent encampments (removing the personal belongings of people experiencing homelessness).

Crisis Housing: An emergency shelter in the homeless coordinated entry system. Crisis Housing means any facility, the primary purpose of which is to provide temporary shelter for the homeless or to provide a bridge to permanent housing.

Critical Time Intervention (CTI): A time-limited case management model designed to prevent homelessness and other adverse outcomes in people with mental illness following discharge from hospitals, shelters, prisons, and other institutions.

Current Inventory: A complete listing of the community’s existing beds and supportive services, reflecting a certain point in time.

Cyberstalking: The misuse of technology to harass, stalk or threaten an individual, also referred to as cyberbullying or cyber harassment. All ages and genders can be targeted but young people are especially vulnerable through social media channels that cater to them.

DDay and Hygiene Centers: Day and Hygiene Centers provide a place to rest during the day and a place to tend to basic needs like using the restroom, showering and doing laundry.

Dating Violence: Violence committed by a person (A) who is or has been in a social relationship of a romantic or intimate nature with the victim; and (B) where the existence of such a relationship shall be determined based on a consideration of the following factors: (i) The length of the relationship. (ii) The type of relationship. (iii) The frequency of interaction between the persons involved in the relationship.

Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD): A federal department, which collects and reports data on homelessness to Congress. This department sets regulations around housing and shelter programs, data collections, and allocates funding to communities across the United States.

Digital Abuse is the use of technology, the Internet, and online spaces (e.g. social media) to bully, harass, stalk, intimidate, or control a partner. This behavior is often a form of verbal or emotional abuse conducted online.

Disability refers to an individual with one or more of the following conditions: (A) A physical, mental, or emotional impairment, including an impairment caused by alcohol or drug abuse, post-traumatic stress disorder, or brain injury that: (1) Is expected to be long-continuing or of indefinite duration; (2) Substantially impedes the individual’s ability to live independently; and (3) Could be improved by the provision of more suitable housing conditions; (B) A developmental disability, as defined in section 102 of the Developmental Disabilities Assistance and Bill of Rights Act of 2000 (42 U.S.C. 15002); or (C) The disease of Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) or any condition arising from the etiologic agency for Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome.

Discharge Planning/Placement Planning: The case plan which identifies client needs when transitioning from one type of setting or service to another and connects the client to appropriate community resources to ensure stability once discharged or placed.

Diversion: Diversion services offer people experiencing homelessness one-time financial assistance or services to bypass shelter and move directly to housing. Diversion is offered to people who are homeless but have not yet or have just entered the shelter system. These programs offer financial assistance and/or case management to find creative solutions to the difficulties a person faces. Diversion can help people reunite with family, mediate with a landlord, or pay rent for a short time. Diversion services are available from outreach programs, shelters and Coordinated Entry for All (CEA) Regional Access Points. A person successfully exits a diversion program when he/she uses one-time assistance to bypass shelter and move directly to housing.

Domestic violence is violence committed by someone in the victim's domestic circle. This includes partners and ex-partners, immediate family members, other relatives and family friends. The term 'domestic violence' is used when there is a close relationship between the offender and the victim.

EElder Abuse: The intentional or negligent mistreatment of an adult over age 60. It can include physical, sexual, emotional or psychological abuse, as well as neglect, abandonment or the illegal use of an elder’s finances for someone else’s gain.

Emancipation: A youth who is legally declared an adult (by a court) prior to age 18. A youth in foster care who emancipates is no longer a ward of the court (or in foster care).

Emergency Proclamation: The purpose of a local emergency proclamation is to provide extraordinary police powers; immunity for emergency actions; authorize issuance of orders and regulations; activate pre-established emergency provisions; and is a prerequisite for requesting state or federal assistance.

Emergency Shelter (ES) is a facility with the primary purpose of providing temporary shelter for people experiencing homelessness. For example, cold and hot weather shelters that open during extreme temperatures are considered emergency shelters.

Emergency Solutions Grant (ESG): Formerly known as the Emergency Shelter Grant, the HUD Emergency Solutions Grant provides funding for homelessness prevention and re-housing as well as emergency shelter.

Emotional Abuse includes non-physical behaviors that are meant to control, isolate, or frighten a survivor. Undermining an individual’s sense of self-worth or self-esteem is abusive. This may include but is not limited to the constant criticism, diminishing one’s abilities, name-calling, or damaging one’s relationship with their family, children, friends, or coworkers. Encampment: Refers to a place of temporary accommodation consisting of huts, tents or other nonstandard housing options, often occupied by multiple individuals.

Equity: The consistent and systematic fair, just, and impartial treatment of all individuals, including individuals who belong to underserved communities that have been denied such treatment, such as Black, Latino, and Indigenous and Native American persons, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders and other persons of color; members of religious minorities; lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning or queer, intersex, and more, (LGBTQI+) persons; persons with disabilities; persons who live in rural areas; and persons otherwise adversely affected by persistent poverty or inequality.

E-snaps: The electronic grants management system managed by HUD’s Office of Special Needs Assistance Program (SNAP). It supports the annual Continuum of Care (CoC) Program Application and the Annual Performance Reporting (APR).

Essentials Kit: A small bag filled with basic needs items (water, hygiene items, food bar, etc.) for our neighbors experiencing homelessness. These bags are typically kept in vehicles for immediate distribution to people seen living on the streets or panhandling. It may include a resource card as well.

Eviction: to expel (a person, especially a tenant) from land, a building, etc., by legal process, as for nonpayment of rent.

Eviction Prevention refers to any strategy or program, usually geared at renters that is designed to keep individuals and families in their home and that helps them avoid homelessness.

Experiencing Homelessness describes a person who lacks a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence.

Episodic homelessness refers to people who experience regular bouts of being unhoused. Unlike transitional homelessness, they are chronically unemployed and may experience medical, mental health, and substance use issues.

Eviction moratorium refers to the federal (or state or local) ban on evicting certain tenants from a residential rental property due to non-payment of rent.

FFair Housing and Neighborhood Deconcentration: This category refers to state and local laws that prohibit discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status, and national origin. It also refers to actions taken by state and local governments to enforce or evade these laws.

Fair Market Rent (FMR): Cost to rent a moderately-priced dwelling unit in a local housing market, which is calculated by HUD as the 40th percentile of gross rents for typical, non-substandard rental units occupied by recent movers in a

local housing market. A Small Area FMR allows for FMR rate to be based on specific zip codes in areas with significant voucher concentration or market conditions where using a Zip Code-based FMR would increase opportunities for voucher holders.

Faith-based organization: (As defined by the Federal Office of Faith Based Initiatives)

• A religious congregation (church, mosque, synagogue, or temple)

• An organization, program, or project sponsored/hosted by a religious congregation (may be incorporated or not incorporated)

• A nonprofit organization founded by a religious congregation or religiously-motivated incorporators and board members that clearly states in its name, incorporation, or mission statement that it is a religiously motivated institution • a collaboration of organizations that clearly and explicitly includes organizations from the previously described categories.

Families Experiencing Chronic Homelessness refers to people in families with children in which the head of household has a disability and has either been continuously experienced homelessness for one year or more or has experienced at least four episodes of homelessness in the last three years where the combined length of time experiencing homelessness on those occasions is at least 12 months.

Family Households refers to the total number of households made up of at least one adult age 18 or older and one child age under 18 that were experiencing homelessness on the night of the point-in-time count.

Family Justice Center: A place where survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, child abuse and human trafficking can access a multitude of services in one centralized location, such as counseling, shelter, legal or law enforcement support, parenting assistance and basic needs like clothing. Their goal is to reduce the number of places survivors need to go to access services.

FEMA: The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) employs more than 20,000 people nationwide. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., FEMA has 10

regional offices located across the country. They leverage a tremendous capacity to coordinate within the federal government to make sure America is equipped to prepare for and respond to disasters.

Financial Abuse or Economic abuse occurs when an abusive partner extends their power and control into your financial situation and limits a survivor’s earning potential. This might include employment-related abuse, coerced debt, restricting access to existing funds or equity, or any combination of these.

First time homelessness (or new homelessness): A person or household who has lost housing and becomes homeless for the first time.

Food Insecurity: Condition often experienced by PEH (defined below) of not having access to sufficient food, or food of an adequate quality, to meet one's basic needs.

Former Foster Youth: Youth and young adults who exited the foster care system. Some of these young adults are unprepared to live independently and to retain housing stability.

Formerly Incarcerated Person: A person who has been in a carceral setting. Examples of carceral settings are prisons, immigration detention centers, local jails, and juvenile detention centers.

Foster Youth: A child in foster care is defined as any child who has been removed from the custody of their parent(s)/guardian(s) by the juvenile court and placed in a group home or foster home. The child is under the direct supervision of a county probation officer or social worker.

GGaslighting: An extreme form of emotional abuse that causes a victim to question their own feelings, instincts, and sanity. An abusive partner may employ one or several gaslighting techniques, including withholding, countering, blocking/diverting, trivializing, or forgetting/denial.

Gender-Affirming Care: Utilization of a gender affirmation framework in providing care, treatment, and support services. Gender affirmation describes processes whereby a person receives social recognition, value, and support for their gender identity and expression.

HHarm Reduction: A proactive and evidence-based approach to reduce the negative personal and public health impacts of behavior associated with alcohol and other substance use at both the individual and community levels. Harm reduction approaches have proven to prevent death, injury, disease, overdose, and prevent substance misuse or disorder. Harm reduction is an effective approach to addressing the public health epidemic involving substance use as well as infectious disease and other harms associated with drug use.

HEARTH ACT: Homeless Emergency Assistance and Rapid Transition to Housing Act (HEARTH Act): The HEARTH Act of May 2009 amends and reauthorizes the earlier McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act. The HEARTH Act puts a greater focus on performance and flexibility.

Hidden homelessness refers to people who aren't part of official counts. They might be couch surfing at a friend's, a relative's house, living in a car/rv or a motel.

High Barrier Shelter: Requirements may include a criminal background check, an income, a pledge to change behavior, for example use no alcohol or drugs/some may require drug testing, meet curfews, participate in life skills classes, work at the shelter or in another business or volunteer capacity. Other barriers may include taking prescribed medications, meeting with support services or a case manager.

HMIS stands for homelessness management information system. CoCs use an HMIS to collect data on people who are experiencing sheltered homelessness in their area, such as information about their characteristics and service-use patterns over time.

Hobo: “Hobos” emerged in the U.S. after the Civil War, when many men were out of work and their families displaced. The term emerged in the American West around 1890, though its origins are hazy. Some say it was an abbreviation of “homeward bound” or “homeless boy”; author Bill Bryson wrote in his 1998 book “Made in America” that it may have come from “Ho, beau!”, a railroad greeting. Be careful when you call a person experiencing homelessness a hobo as it is a somewhat offensive term.

Home is the word we use to describe the personal community in which we live. Home includes our loved ones and pets, our important or sentimental possessions and valuables, and our traditions and rituals.

Home Investment Partnership Program (HOME): The HOME program is federally funded by the HUD to provide decent affordable housing to lower income households. Eligible activities under HOME include – New construction, acquisition and rehabilitation of rental housing for low-income tenants.

Homeless is a word most often used to describe people living unsheltered on sidewalks, in tents, camps, cars, or RVs. The Merriam-Webster dictionary

defines the word homeless as “having no home or permanent place of residence.”

Homeless Bill of Rights: These laws affirm that homeless people have equal rights to medical care, free speech, free movement, voting, opportunities for employment, and privacy.

Homeless courts are designed to help participants address outstanding criminal cases, including infractions, misdemeanors and low-level felony cases that can keep them from being able to secure employment and housing.

Homeless Persons’ Memorial Day takes place each year on the longest night of the year, the winter solstice (usually December 21st). The first Annual Homeless Persons’ Memorial Day was commemorated in 1990.

Homelessness Response System: The overall system of programs, housing, and services to address homelessness within a given community or region, usually within a Continuum of Care.

Homelessness Response System Model: A model for the optimal homelessness response system that effectively and equitably allocates resources and prioritizes investments to end homelessness.

Homelessness Prevention: Any of a number of programs that provide shortterm financial, legal and/or support services assistance intended to prevent atrisk households from losing their housing and becoming homeless.

Honor based violence or HBV refers to abuse which is carried out to enforce the rules of various beliefs, cultures, values, and/or social norms. Perpetrators of this form of abuse claim upholding these rules as a justification for their actions. This form of violence is more commonly carried out against women and girls.

House is the structure in which all of this takes place. It’s why we say, “home sweet home” and not “house sweet house.” We experience homesickness, not house-sickness. If “home is where the heart is,” then people experiencing homelessness absolutely have homes. But they don’t have a house. They may have shelter, but not shelter we ordinarily think of as a house.

Houseless More frequently, the word houseless is used in place of homeless. The reason is the important distinction between a house and a home. People described as homeless are not necessarily without homes.

Housing Affordability: Affordability is definitely a key component of housing insecurity. People lose their housing because they can no longer afford it. Many people in our community exist on the knife’s edge of losing their housing because they are “rent burdened” or “severely rent burdened,” which means too much of their monthly income is required to sustain it. Any change in their financial situation reduced hours at work, an unexpected health care or repair bill, increased rent can result in houselessness.

Housing Authority: Housing authorities are public corporations with boards appointed by the local government. Their mission is to provide affordable housing to low- and moderate-income people. In addition to public housing, housing authorities also provide other types of subsidized housing. Housing Choice Vouchers: Funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Housing Choice Vouchers assist low-income families, or those with disabilities, in finding safe and affordable housing in the private market. Local Public Housing Agencies issue Housing Choice Vouchers to qualified families.

Housing First refers to providing people experiencing homelessness with independent and permanent housing as a first step. There are no preconditions or compliance requirements to being admitted into housing first programs. Once the person is provided housing, other supports such as mental health or addictions can be addressed once the housing situation is resolved.

Housing Insecurity: The term housing insecurity most completely describes the varied experiences and challenges of people who are homeless/houseless, as well as those who are at risk of becoming so. Using this terminology emphasizes the factors that contribute to a person’s homelessness/houselessness.

Housing Inventory Count (HIC) is produced by each CoC and provides an annual inventory of beds that provide assistance to people in the CoC who are

experiencing homelessness or transitioning out of their experience of homelessness.

Housing is Health Care: The primary and essential function of housing, to provide a safe and sheltered space, is absolutely fundamental to the people's health and well-being.

Housing opportunities for persons with aids (HOPWA): (as defined by HUD) Established by HUD to address the specific needs of persons living with HIV/AIDS and their families. HOPWA makes grants to local communities, States, and nonprofit organizations for projects that benefit low-income persons medically diagnosed with HIV/AIDS and their families.

Housing Navigation: Housing Navigation is the process by which homeless clients that have entered the CES system are provided ongoing engagement, document collection, and case management services in order to facilitate a match to an appropriate housing resource. In the context of CES, outreach workers, case managers, and other homeless service providers may provide housing navigation assistance.

Housing Navigator(s): Housing Navigator is the client’s primary point of contact in CES, often a social worker, case manager, outreach worker, or volunteer. The primary function of the Housing Navigator is to: 1) assist clients in collecting necessary documents for housing applications, 2) accompany clients to housing appointments, and 3) assist clients in navigating the entire housing search and placement process.

HUD’s definition of homelessness: The definition includes four broad categories of homelessness:

• People who are living in a place not meant for human habitation, in emergency shelter, in transitional housing, or are exiting an institution where they temporarily resided if they were in shelter, or a place not meant for human habitation before entering the institution. The only significant change from existing practice is that people will be considered homeless if they are exiting an institution where they resided for up to 90 days (it was previously 30 days) and were homeless immediately prior to entering that institution.

• People who are losing their primary nighttime residence, which may include a motel or hotel or a doubled-up situation, within 14 days and lack resources or support networks to remain in housing. HUD had previously allowed people who were being displaced within 7 days to be considered homeless. The regulation also describes specific documentation requirements for this category.

• Families with children or unaccompanied youth who are unstably housed and likely to continue in that state. This is a new category of homelessness, and it applies to families with children or unaccompanied youth (up to age 24) who have not had a lease or ownership interest in a housing unit in the last 60 or more days, have had two or more moves in the last 60 days, and who are likely to continue to be unstably housed because of disability or multiple barriers to employment.

• People who are fleeing or attempting to flee domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, stalking, or other dangerous or life-threatening situations related to violence; have no other residence; and lack the resources or support networks to obtain other permanent housing. This category is similar to the current practice regarding people who are fleeing domestic violence.

HUD Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing Program (HUD-VASH): The HUD-VASH program combines HUD’s Housing Choice voucher (HCV) – rental assistance for homeless veterans and their families with case management and clinical services provided by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) at its medical centers and in the community.

Human Trafficking is often referred to as modern-day slavery. According to the definition used by Homeland Security “human trafficking involves the use of force, fraud or coercion to obtain some type of labor or commercial sex act.”

Hygiene Kit: A small bag filled with basic needs items (water, hygiene items, food bar, etc.) for our neighbors experiencing homelessness. These bags are typically kept in vehicles for immediate distribution to people seen living on the streets or panhandling. It may include a resource card as well.

IImminent risk of homelessness: It applies to individuals and families on the brink of being unhoused. They have an annual income below 30 percent of the median income for the area. They don't have sufficient resources or support networks needed to obtain other permanent housing and will imminently lose their primary nighttime residence, provided that:

1. Residence will be lost within 14 days of the date of application for homeless assistance;

2. No subsequent residence has been identified; and

3. The individual or family lacks the resources or support networks needed to obtain other permanent housing.

Note: Includes individuals and families who are within 14 days of losing their housing, including housing they own, rent, are sharing with others, or are living in without paying rent.

Inclement Weather Episode (IWE): An inclement weather episode (IWE) is when the overnight temperature is 38° F or lower and 50% chance or less of rain OR 42° F or lower and 50% chance or more of rain.

Inclusionary Zoning: Usually practiced in urban areas, is planning communities and developments that will provide housing to all income brackets. Inclusionary zoning ordinances often require any new housing construction to include a set percentage of affordable housing units. The positive aspects of Inclusionary zoning include the production of affordable housing at little cost to local government, the creation of income-integrated communities, and the lessening of sprawl. Negative aspects of inclusionary zoning may include shifting the cost of providing affordable housing, segmenting the upwardly mobile poor, and inducing growth.

Individual refers to a person who is not part of a family with children during an experience of homelessness (i.e., the person is not experiencing homelessness in a household with at least one adult and at least one child under age 18). Individuals may be single adults, unaccompanied children, or in multiple-adult or multiple-child households.

Individual Experiencing Chronic Homelessness refers to an individual with a disability who has been continuously experiencing homelessness for one year or more, or has experienced at least four episodes of homelessness in the last three years where the combined length of time experiencing homelessness on those occasions is at least 12 months.

Inflow: The number of people entering the homeless services system each year. Inflow is not synonymous with the number of people newly experiencing homelessness, as it also captures people with previous episodes of homelessness and homeless people with unmet needs carrying over from the previous year.

KKinship Care: Placement of a foster child in the home of someone who is related to the child by family ties or by a significant prior relationship connection.

LLand Trusts: A trust created to effectuate a real estate ownership arrangement in which the trustee holds legal and equitable title to the property subject to

the provisions of a trust agreement setting out the rights of the beneficiaries whose interests in the trust are declared to be personal property.

LGBTQI+: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Questioning or Queer, Intersex, and more. This is an inclusive way to refer to people who broadly fall into the queer community.

Life Skills: Abilities that are helpful to a person to possess or gain to ensure a success as an adult. These include skills and knowledge pertaining to employment, housing and home life, money management, health and self-care, relationships, education, and daily living.

Literally Homeless: As per HUD definition, a literally homeless individual or family is an individual or family who

1. Has a primary nighttime residence that is a public or private place not meant for human habitation; or

2. Is living in a publicly or privately operated shelter designated to provide temporary living arrangements (including congregate shelters, transitional housing, and hotels and motels paid for by charitable organizations or by federal, state and local government programs); or

3. Is exiting an institution where (s)he has resided for 90 days or less and who resided in an emergency shelter or place not meant for human habitation immediately before entering that institution.

Low Barrier Shelter: Shelter or service provision that are designed to screen-in rather than screen-out applicants with the greatest barriers and assistance is provided without service participation requirements and restrictive rules related to pets, partners, possessions, etc.

Low Barrier Navigation Center means a Housing First, low-barrier, serviceenriched shelter focused on moving people into permanent housing that provides temporary living facilities while case managers connect individuals experiencing homelessness to income, public benefits, health services, shelter, and housing.

Low income Housing Tax Credit: Many for-profit and nonprofit-developed rental properties use these federal income tax credits. A Housing Finance Commission

allocates these credits to developers to build or fix up low-income housing. Large corporations, institutions, pension funds, and insurance companies invest in the housing as a method to gain the tax credits and reduce their income tax obligations. These apartments serve residents below 60% of median income and must accept Section 8 vouchers.

MMainstream Benefits: Publicly-funded assistance for a variety of needs— including food, health care, housing, and childcare, Head Start for people who meet eligibility criteria and are generally low-income.

Mandated Reporter: Also known as a mandatory reporter, these individuals have a duty to report known or suspected abuse or neglect of children, elders or dependent adults to protective services. Laws vary by state as to who is mandated to report, but these individuals may include social workers, medical professionals, teachers and law enforcement officers.

Marginalized: Marginalized communities are those excluded from mainstream social, economic, educational, and/or cultural life. Examples of marginalized populations include, but are not limited to, groups excluded due to race, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, physical ability, language, and/or immigration status. Marginalization occurs due to unequal power relationships between social groups.

Market Rate Rent: The prevailing monthly cost for rental housing. It is set by the landlord without restrictions.

Master Lease: A master lease is a type of lease that gives the lessee the right to control and sublease the property during the lease, while the owner retains the legal title. In this case, a housing authority or service provider would be the lessee, allowing them to sublease the property to its clients.

Matched: Matched is the process by which an individual in CES is determined to be eligible or initially eligible for a housing resource, and is “matched” to that resource.

McKinney-Vento Act is a federal law that provides important educational rights and services to PreK-12 children and youth experiencing homelessness.

McKinney-Vento homeless definition: Includes children living in emergency shelters, motels, hotels, trailer parks, cars, parks, public spaces, or abandoned buildings, and those sharing the housing of other persons due to loss of housing, economic hardship or a similar reason.

Median Family Income (MFI): This is a statistical number set at the level where half of all households have income above it and half below it. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Regional Economist calculates and publishes this median income data annually in the Federal Register. Mental illness: Also called mental health disorders, refers to a wide range of mental health conditions — disorders that affect your mood, thinking and behavior. Examples of mental illness include depression, anxiety disorders, schizophrenia, eating disorders and addictive behaviors.

Moving On: A strategy that enables individuals and families who are able and want to move on from PSH to do so by providing them with a sustainable, affordable housing option and the services and resources they need to maintain continued housing success.

Multiple Races or Multi-Racial refers to people who self-identify as more than one race.

NNAMI is the National Alliance on Mental Illness, the nation’s largest grassroots mental health organization dedicated to building better lives for the millions of Americans affected by mental illness.

Narcissism: This word has grown in popularity recently to describe a person who is egotistic or self-serving and does not acknowledge the feelings of others. However, the term originates from a clinical diagnosis of narcissistic personality disorder, or NPD. While it can be easy to equate with “abusive,” it is important to remember that not all people who abuse have NPD, and not all people who have NPD abuse their partners.

National Alliance to End Homelessness (NAEH): The National Alliance to End Homelessness is a U.S. based non-profit, non-partisan organization committed to preventing and ending homelessness in the United States. The Alliance is a leading voice on the issue of homelessness.

Neurodivergent is differing in mental or neurological function from what is considered typical or normal (frequently used with reference to autistic spectrum disorders); not neurotypical.

NIMBY & YIMBY: NIMBY = Not in my backyard. This label often refers to people who don't want the solution to a particular issue addressed in their "backyard." For example, they would object to a Permanent Supportive Housing building coming to their neighborhood or business. NIMBYism isn't limited to homelessness. It can apply to other issues. Conversely, YIMBY= Yes, in my backyard.

NOFA means a Notice of Funding Availability issued by the Department to announce the availability of Program Funds, the terms and conditions of awards and requirements for the submittal of applications. Each year the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) releases a NOFA

signifying the beginning of a funding competition among approximately 450 Continuums of Care (CoCs). HUD also releases a NOFA for the CDBG and HOME programs.

Non-congregate shelter: Emergency shelter that provides private units or rooms as temporary shelter to individuals and families experiencing homelessness and do not require occupants to sign a lease or occupancy agreement.

Nonprofit Housing: Nonprofit housing is developed by nonprofit corporations with a community board of directors and mission. Most housing developed by nonprofit housing developers is affordable with rents or prices below marketrate. Income generated from the housing is put back into the mission of the organization, rather than being distributed to stockholders or individual investors as would be the case in for-profit housing.

Nonprofit Housing Developer: A nonprofit organization with a mission that involves the creation, preservation, renovation, operation or maintenance of affordable housing.

OOperating Subsidy: This is a type of subsidy going to property owners to reduce the management, maintenance and utility costs of housing. It is needed for projects housing extremely low-income residents who can't afford rents covering the actual costs of housing.

Orphanage: An institution that houses children who are orphaned, abandoned, or whose parents are unable to care for them. Orphanages are rarely used in the United States, but are more frequently found in other countries.

Other Permanent Housing (OPH) is housing with or without services that is specifically for people who formerly experienced homelessness but that does not require people to have a disability.

Outreach and Engagement: The work to engage unsheltered people and connect them to all available resources including shelter, employment, public assistance, legal services, essential items, and permanent housing.

Outreach services include extending services or help in order to develop a relationship of trust and engage homeless persons into treatment and service programs; to provide basic materials, such as meals, blankets, or clothes, to homeless persons; or to publicize the availability of various types of assistance such as emergency shelter or food programs that are available to individuals experiencing homelessness. Outreach services may take place in a variety of settings, including public places, meal programs, shelters, drop-in centers, or health care facilities. They are typically delivered to individuals who generally live on the streets or other unsheltered settings.

PPay for Success (PFS): PFS is an innovative, funding model under which governments pay for services only if and when a service provider achieves clearly defined, measurable results. The service providers generate upfront funding for the project from private sector and philanthropists. Project Welcome Home (PWH) is the first PFS project in California.

Parenting Children are people under age 18 who are the parents or legal guardians of one or more children (under age 18) who are present with or sleeping in the same place as the child parent and there is no person over the age of 18 in the household.

Parenting Child Household is a household with at least one parenting child and the child or children for whom the parenting child is the parent or legal guardian.

Parenting Youth are people under age 25 who are 4 the parents or legal guardians of one or more children (under age 18) who are present with or sleeping in the same place as that youth parent, where there is no person over age 24 in the household.

Parenting Youth Household is a household with at least one parenting youth and the child or children for whom the parenting youth is the parent or legal guardian.

Paternalism generally involves competing claims between individual liberty and authoritative social control. Questions concerning paternalism also may include both the claims of individual rights and social protections and the legal and socially legitimated means of satisfying those claims.

People in Families with Children are people who are experiencing homelessness as part of a household that has at least one adult (age 18 or older) and one child (under age 18).

People with lived experience/expertise: Individuals who have personally experienced homelessness either previously or currently.

Permanent Housing: A type of housing that includes one of three HUD housing programs: permanent supportive housing (PSH), rapid re-housing (RRH), and other permanent housing (OPH).

Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH) is a housing model designed to provide housing assistance (project- and tenant-based) and supportive services on a long-term basis to people who were experiencing homelessness when they entered the program and are now considered formerly experiencing homelessness. HUD’s Continuum of Care program, authorized by the McKinneyVento Act, funds PSH and requires that the client have a disability for eligibility.

Permitted Village/Encampment: Permitted villages offer outdoor, temporary accommodation for people who are living unsheltered in conditions that threaten their health and safety. Villages offer tiny house like living structures, community kitchens, hygiene services and case management to clients that have lived outside for extended periods of time or for whom traditional shelter may not be a good fit. A person successfully exits a village when he leaves the village to move to permanent housing.

Person Centered Strategies: Identification of individual strengths, goals, preferences, needs, and desired outcomes that staff, family, and other team members use to help people access paid and unpaid services.

Places not meant for human habitation: Examples include cars, parks, sidewalks, abandoned buildings (on the street).

Point-in-Time (PIT) Counts are unduplicated one-night estimates of both sheltered and unsheltered populations experiencing homelessness. The onenight counts are conducted by CoCs nationwide and occur during the last week in January of each year.

Polyvictimization refers to the incidence of being victim to more than one traumatic event or situation. This victimization may take the form of physical assault, child maltreatment, sexual abuse, or bullying. They may also witness such events in their homes, schools, and communities. There is a high incidence of polyvictimization among runaway and homeless youth.

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder: PTSD is a type of anxiety disorder which may develop after being involved in, or witnessing, traumatic events. The condition was first recognized in war veterans and has been known by a variety of names, such as ‘shell shock’. But it’s not only diagnosed in soldiers – a wide range of traumatic experiences can cause PTSD – including domestic and sexual abuse.

Poverty Level: Poverty is measured in the United States by comparing a person's or family's income to a set poverty threshold or minimum amount of income needed to cover basic needs. People whose income falls under their

threshold are considered poor. The U.S. Census Bureau is the government agency in charge of measuring poverty.

Precariously housed or housing insecurity refers to people who are at risk of losing their housing. They are facing severe affordability problems when it comes to maintaining their housing. They may risk losing housing in the immediate or near future. Those who manage to maintain their housing often do so at the expense of meeting their nutritional needs, heating their homes, and other expenses that contribute to their health and well-being.

Primary Health Care: Health services that cover a range of prevention, wellness, and treatment for common illnesses, including reproductive health services.

Primary Prevention: Universal strategies broadly aimed at reducing the risk of housing instability and homelessness “upstream” and before an individual requires assistance from the homelessness response system. Activities may include increasing income, increasing familial connections, increasing availability of and access to affordable housing, providing legal protections for people facing discrimination, and ensuring increased overall access to quality health and behavior health services.

Project-Based Rental Assistance (PRA): Project-based Rental Assistance is different from Tenant Based Rental Assistance (TBRA). Both the TBRA and the PRA are rental assistance subsidy programs but while the PRA is associated to particular residential units, TBRA is not associated to particular units and can be used to obtain housing in any unit that meets the program guidelines.

Protection Order: Also known as a personal protection order (PPO), an order of protection (OOP), a protection from abuse order (PFA), an emergency protection order or a restraining order, this is a document issued by a circuit court, or during a criminal or civil case, and is designed to stop violent or harassing behavior, including stalking. It is free to obtain in most states and often lasts for about a week, giving a survivor time to file for a temporary or permanent restraining order.

Public Housing Authority (PHA): Any State, county, municipality, or other governmental entity or public body, or agency or instrumentality of these

entities, that is authorized to engage or assist in the development or operation of low-income housing under the 1937 Act.

RRacial Equity: The systemic fair treatment of people of all races that results in equitable opportunities and outcomes for everyone. All people are able to achieve their full potential in life, regardless of race, ethnicity, or the community in which they live.

Racism: A belief that race is a fundamental determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority or inferiority of a particular race; behavior or attitudes that reflect and foster this belief.

Rapid Re-Housing (RRH) is a housing model designed to provide temporary housing assistance to people experiencing homelessness, moving them quickly out of their experience of homelessness and into permanent housing.

Recuperative care (also known as medical respite) is a not-for-profit program that offers healthcare providers a safe place to discharge homeless patients.

Redlining: An illegal practice in which lenders deny or discourage applications or avoid providing loans and other credit services in neighborhoods based on the race, color, or national origin of the residents of those neighborhoods.

Regional Coordination: Oversight of Service Planning Area (SPA) -wide partnerships across public and private entities that ensure homeless persons are fully supported and connected to housing and services within their respective communities. Regional and coordinated access to housing and services ensures that a homeless person does not have to go to multiple agencies to obtain housing and services assistance.

Relational poverty is the idea that societal poverty exists if there is a lack of human relationships. One can have impaired relations with individuals in various degrees of severity. Relational poverty can be the result of a lost contact number, lack of phone ownership, isolation, or deliberate severing of ties with an individual or community.

Rent Controls: Defined as state and local government actions that restrict rent increases or service fee charges to tenants.

Rent Reasonableness: The total rent charged for a unit must be reasonable in relation to the rents being charged during the same time period for comparable units in the private unassisted market and must not be in excess of rents being charged by the owner during the same period for comparable non-luxury unassisted units. Such determinations should consider: (a) location, quality, size, type, and age of unit; and (b) any amenities, housing services, maintenance and utilities to be provided by the owner. Comparable rents may be verified by using a market study, reviewing comparable units advertised for rent, or by obtaining written verification from the property owner documenting comparable rents for other units owned.

Rental Subsidy: Financial assistance provided within a housing program that supplements rent paid by a tenant. Specific program or resource guidelines determine eligibility, length, and amount of rental subsidies that can be provided.

Residential Facility: A structured care facility with highly trained staff that provides services to young people to overcome behavioral, emotional, mental, or psychological problems that have had harmful impacts on family life, school achievement, and peer relationships.

Results Based Accountability: A framework that uses a data-driven, decisionmaking process to help communities and organizations identify population level results and monitor their programs’ performance in order to determine how to improve their impact on the clients they serve.

Returns to homelessness: The rate at which people who have been homeless and become rehoused lose that housing and return to the homelessness response system.

Reunification is the process of returning children in temporary out-of-home care to their families of origin. When children must be removed from their families to ensure their safety, the first goal is to reunite them with their families as soon as possible.

Right to Shelter is a legal right providing that anyone (i.e.in New York City) without a place to live is guaranteed safe, decent, and appropriate shelter. Rough sleeping is one of the most visible types of homelessness. Rough sleeping includes sleeping outside or in places that aren't designed for people to live in, including cars, doorways and abandoned buildings.

Runaway Youth: While there is no single definition of the term "runaway youth" or "homeless youth”, they include youth with unstable or inadequate housing, i.e., youth who stay at least one night in a place that is not their home because they could not stay at home, ran away from home, did not have a home, and/or stayed at a shelter, outdoors, in a squat, a car or public transportation, under a bridge, or in a temporary arrangement with another person (i.e. couchsurfing).

SSafe Camping / Safe Sleeping: Organized sites where camping or overnight sleeping is legal / sanctioned by local government; security and supportive services are often provided.

Safe Havens (SH) are projects that provide private or semi-private temporary shelter and services to people experiencing severe mental illness and are limited to serving no more than 25 people within a facility.

Safe House: Also known as a refuge, this is emergency, transitional or permanent shelter/housing that is confidentially located.

Safe Housing for Homeless, Houseless, or Unhoused: A person’s housing might be unsafe because of who is living there or nearby. People living with an abuser be it domestic abuse, child abuse, or elder abuse are housing insecure. People living in a high-crime neighborhood or complex are insecure. Housing might be unsafe because there is inadequate heating or cooling. It might be unsafe because of environmental pollutants, infestations, or disrepair.

Safe Parking: Program intended to provide vehicle dwellers with a safe and legal place to park overnight; open to persons who apply and meet various criteria. Security, restrooms and access to resources and services are offered.

Safety Plan: A safety plan is a personalized plan that helps someone to prepare, in advance, for a violent or abusive situation. Safety planning can be done with survivors before, during, and/or after they leave an abusive partner.

Sanctioned Camping: Places where unhoused folks can pitch a tent and live without the threat of law enforcement telling them to leave. They may have varying degrees of services, from basic sanitation like porta-potties, to on-site case management.

Schizophrenia: A psychotic disorder characterized by an abnormal interpretation of reality due to cognitive, emotional, and behavioral disturbances. Schizophrenia usually onsets between the late teens and midthirties. Individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia must experience disturbances associated with the disorder for at least six months, including one month of at least two active-phase symptoms, including delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech, catatonic behavior, lack of emotional responsiveness, or apathy. They must experience delusions, hallucinations, or disorganized speech as one of their symptoms.

Section 8 Housing: Many Section 8 contracts have expired or will expire soon, and the property owners must now decide whether to renew their contract or leave the program ("opt out"). Most of these contracts are now renewed on a

one-year basis. Projects with high risk of opting out typically have rents set by the Section 8 contract below the prevailing market rents for comparable units. Owners thus have an incentive to leave the program and convert their property to private market rentals.

Section 8 Vouchers: This federal program is administered by the local housing authority. Eligible tenants receive vouchers they can use to help them pay for apartments in the private market.

Service Planning Area, or SPA, is simply a specific geographic region within a county.

Service Provider: A nonprofit, nongovernmental homeless service provider, such as a homeless shelter, a homeless service or advocacy program, a tribal organization serving homeless individuals, or coalition or other nonprofit, nongovernmental organization carrying out a community-based homeless or housing program that has a documented history of effective work concerning homelessness.

Sex Trafficking is the action or practice of illegally transporting people from one country or area to another for the purpose of sexual exploitation.

Sexting refers to the act of sending sexually explicit messages and/or photographs, primarily between mobile phones. It can be used as a control strategy in unhealthy and abusive relationships by requiring photos of the victim be sent or by sending photos of the perpetrator or others to the victim.

Sexual Assault: Any nonconsensual sexual act proscribed by Federal, tribal, or State law, including when the victim lacks capacity to consent.

Shallow Subsidy: A housing subsidy that is typically less than the amount of a full or deep subsidy such as a Housing Choice Voucher, and which is usually calculated at a flat monthly amount or a specific percentage of rent. Shallow subsidies can be time limited or can be indefinite.

Shelter: A place that provides temporary living accommodations. The Department of Housing and Urban Development funds and oversees several

different shelter options including Emergency Shelter, Safe Haven, and Transitional Housing.

Sheltered Homelessness refers to people who are staying in emergency shelters, transitional housing programs, or safe havens.

Shelter Plus Care: HUD provides grants for rental assistance to homeless persons with chronic disabilities under the Shelter Plus Care program. Eligible recipients are state and local government units, public housing agencies and Indian tribes. To receive the funds each recipient must provide supportive services at least equal in value to the rental assistance. Supportive services would address mental illness, substance abuse and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) and related diseases.

Single room occupancy (SRO): Single-room occupancy housing for homeless persons

Social capital: The networks of relationships among people who live and work in a particular society, enabling that society to function effectively.

Social determinants of health (SDOH) are the conditions in the environments where people are born, live, learn, work, play, worship, and age that affect a wide range of health, functioning, and quality-of-life outcomes and risks.

Social Enterprise: Social Enterprises are profit or non-profit organizations whose primary purpose is “common good to advance their social, environmental and human justice agendas.” Many Social Enterprises provide a supportive work environment for those with significant barriers to employment. Social Enterprises provide those with barriers to employment, including individuals experiencing homelessness, those reentering the community from incarceration, Veterans, disconnected youth, and those with disabilities, subsidized transitional employment combined with case management, supportive services and job readiness skills to prepare the hardto-serve individual for unsubsidized, permanent employment.

Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI): A monthly benefit for people who are disabled.

Social Worker: A licensed professional who gives children and families support. Social workers play a key role in the recruitment of qualified foster parents, placing children in supportive homes, and coordinating available resources for families.

Spiritual/religious Abuse: Within the context of domestic violence, this refers to an abuser using a victim’s religious beliefs to control them or coerce them to put up with abuse because their religion justifies it, or when an abuser prevents a victim from practicing their religion. Within a religious organization, spiritual abuse is when a religious leader shames or controls members using their position of power.

Sponsor-Based Rental Assistance (SRA): In a sponsor-based rental assistance program, a nonprofit organization that works with homeless people administers some voucher functions on behalf of a Public Housing Agency (PHA).

Stalking: Engaging in a course of conduct directed at a specific person that would cause a reasonable person to— (A) fear for his or her safety or the safety of others; or (B) suffer substantial emotional distress.

Street Outreach: Important work that involves moving outside the walls of the agency to engage people experiencing homelessness who may be disconnected and alienated not only from mainstream services and supports, but from the services targeting homeless persons as well.

Subsidized Housing: A generic term covering all federal, state or local government programs that reduce the cost of housing for low- and moderateincome residents. Housing can be subsidized in numerous ways—giving tenants a rent voucher, helping homebuyers with downpayment assistance, reducing the interest on a mortgage, providing deferred loans to help developers acquire and develop property, giving tax credits to encourage investment in low- and moderate-income housing, authorizing tax-exempt bond authority to finance the housing, providing ongoing assistance to reduce the operating costs of housing and others. Public housing, project-based Section 8, Section 8 vouchers, tax credits programs are all examples of subsidized housing. Subsidized housing can range from apartments for families to senior housing

high-rises. Subsidized simply means that rents are reduced because of a particular government program. It has nothing to do with the quality, location or type of housing.

Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA): SAMHSA is an agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that leads public health efforts to advance the behavioral health of the nation.

Substance Abuse Disorder: Drug addiction is a disease that affects a person's brain and behavior and leads to an inability to control the use of a legal or illegal drug or medication. Substances such as alcohol, marijuana and nicotine also are considered drugs.

Supplemental Security Income (SSI): A monthly benefit program for people with little income and who are disabled.

Supportive housing provides a permanent home and on-site support (e.g. medical assistance, counselling) for people who need assistance to live independently. This could include people exiting homelessness, people who are elderly or who have disabilities, addictions, or mental illness.

Support Services: Include employment services, education support, parenting classes, connections to benefits, mental healthcare, substance use treatment, and basic needs, food and clothing services.

Survivor of Domestic Violence: The term survivor often refers to an individual who is going or has gone through the recovery process; additionally, this word is used when discussing the short- and long-term effects of domestic violence. Some people identify as a victim, while others identify as a survivor.

System Performance Measure: Measures defined by HUD to evaluate and improve homeless assistance programs by understanding how programs are functioning as a whole and identifying where improvements are necessary.

Systematic Racism: Policies and practices that exist throughout a whole society or organization, and that result in and support a continued unfair advantage to some people and unfair or harmful treatment of others based on race.

TTech Abuse: When an abuser uses modern technology to stalk, isolate and control their partner using the tools of everyday life.

Tenant-Based Rental Assistance (TRA or TBRA): TBRA is a rental assistance subsidy that can be used to obtain housing in any unit that meets the program guidelines. The main form of TBRA is the Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher program.

Therapeutic Foster Home: A foster home in which the foster parents or caregivers have specialized training to provide care for children and adolescents who may have higher emotional or behavioral needs. Also referred to as a “Treatment Foster Home.”

Throwaway Youth: A term used to describes two types of circumstance: 1) A child who is asked or told to leave home by a parent or other household adult, without adequate alternative care being arranged for the child by a household adult, and with the child out of the household overnight; or 2) A child who is away from home and is prevented from returning home by a parent or other household adult, without adequate alternative care being arranged for the child by a household adult, and the child is out of the household overnight.

Tiny Home Village: A form of transitional housing (defined below) in which several small (typically 8’x8’) “houses” are built on available land along with central communal facilities such as bathrooms, laundry, cooking and dining areas.

Toxic Charity is trying to address chronic ongoing issues through one-way giving. It often looks like this: people with resources give to those who lack resources. This kind of giving approaches inequity as though the core issue is that people don't have the same amount of “stuff.”

Transcarceration is the transfer of prisoners or persons institutionalized for mental illness from one facility to another of the same type. Through transcarceration, prisoners are moved from one prison to another, and those institutionalized due to mental illness are moved from one psychiatric facility to another.

Tramps came out of the Civil War era, with the term, originally from England referring to “tramping about”, becoming Americanized as a term for a long war march. While the term came into use around the same time as “hobo”, they means different things. Depression-era writer H. L. Mencken wrote, “Tramps and hobos are commonly lumped together, but see themselves as sharply differentiated. A hobo or bo is simply a migratory laborer; he may take some longish holidays, but sooner or later he returns to work. A tramp never works if it can be avoided; he simply travels.”

Transient: An individual with no permanent living arrangement, i.e., no fixed place of residence, is considered homeless or transient. Someone who is transient is neither a member of a household nor a resident of an institution.

Transition Plan: A Transition Plan is a document that outlines what a young person wants and needs in ordered to be prepared for adulthood. A Transition Plan covers every aspect of a young adult’s life, including education, employment, housing, finances, health, and more. Agencies are required by law to develop a Transition Plan with youth no later than 90 days prior to the youth aging out of foster care.

Transitional Age Youth (TAY): Although variably defined, TAY typically refers to the span from older adolescence (e.g., 15–16 years of age) to young adulthood (24–26 years). TAY are navigating the potentially perilous developmental years of growing out of childhood and into adulthood—a time of facing more adultlike challenges without having yet mastered the tools and cognitive maturity of adulthood.

Transitional homelessness is when people enter the shelter system for only one stay – usually for a short time. They are likely to be younger and have become homeless because of a catastrophic event, such as job loss, divorce, or domestic abuse.

Transitional Housing Programs (TH) provide people experiencing homelessness a place to stay combined with supportive services for up to 24 months (about 2 years).

Trauma Informed Care: A framework for organizational and individual service delivery across the homelessness services system that acknowledges and responds to the trauma experienced by all members of the household. Traumainformed practices are policies, procedures, interventions, and interactions among clients and staff that recognize the likelihood that a person receiving services has experienced trauma or violence. For effective service delivery and stable housing placements, organizations and staff must understand the impact of trauma on individuals and families and learn how to effectively minimize its effects and respond appropriately with cultural awareness and competence, without contributing to further trauma.

Trauma-informed design (TiD) is about integrating the principles of traumainformed care, as originally established by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and continually evolving, into design. The goal is to create physical spaces that promote safety, well-being, and healing.

UUnaccompanied Youth (under 18) are people in households with only children who are not part of a family with children or accompanied by their parent or guardian during their experience of homelessness, and who are under the age of 18.

Unaccompanied Youth (18-24) are young adults in households without children who are not part of a family with children or accompanied by their parent or guardian during their episode of homelessness and who are between the ages of 18 and 24.

Unduplicated Count: The number of people who are homeless within a specified location and time period. An unduplicated count ensures that individuals are counted only once regardless of the number of times they entered or exited the homeless system or the number of programs in which they participated.

Unhoused or houseless describes individuals without a physical address. However, government agencies and research institutions continue to use the word homeless when reporting on people experiencing homelessness or housing insecurity.

Unsanctioned camping: Unhoused people camping in areas not designated as campsites. These campsites are subject to law enforcement actions and sweeps where their possessions are collected and removed from their campsite.

Unsheltered Homelessness refers to people whose primary nighttime location is a public or private place not designated for, or ordinarily used as, a regular sleeping accommodation for people (for example, the streets, vehicles, or parks).

USICH (United States Interagency Council on Homelessness) is the only federal agency with the sole mission of preventing and ending homelessness in America. USICH harnesses the collective power of 19 federal agencies to drive a coordinated strategy and support state and local governments and the private sector to create partnerships, implement evidence-based best practices, and use resources in the most efficient and effective ways.

VVA U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is an agency of the federal government that provides benefits, health care, and cemetery services to military Veterans.

Vagabond/Vagrant: Vagrancy was criminalized in England four centuries before the American Revolution; in 1547, England began branding those arrested for vagrancy with a “V” for “vagabond”.

Vanlords: Individuals who rent out RVs or similar vehicles (often old, dilapidated vehicles purchased from salvage lots) as vehicle dwellings, without regard to safety or habitability.

Vehicular homelessness refers to when people rely on cars, trucks, or RVs to provide them shelter.

Veteran refers to any person who served on active duty in the armed forces of the United States. This includes Reserves and National Guard members who were called up to active duty.

Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing (VASH): Combination of Section 8 rental assistance and individualized case management services for homeless veterans.

VI SPDAT: VI-SPDAT stands for Vulnerability Index - Service Prioritization Decision Assistance Tool. It is an assessment tool used to identify the needs and vulnerabilities of people experiencing homelessness, and to prioritize them for appropriate housing and support services.

Vicarious Trauma is an occupational challenge for people working and volunteering in the fields of victim services, law enforcement, emergency

medical services, fire services, and other allied professions, due to their continuous exposure to survivors of trauma and violence.

Victim of Domestic Violence: Victim of domestic violence means an individual who has received deliberate, severe, and demonstrable physical injury or mental injury, emotional suffering, economic loss or substantial impairment of their fundamental rights, or is in fear of imminent deliberate, severe, and demonstrable physical injury from a current or former spouse, or a current or former cohabitant.

Violence Against Women Act (VAWA): A piece of U.S. federal legislation specifically designed to provide protections for survivors of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault and stalking.

Voluntary Placement: When a parent or guardian makes a decision on their own to place a child in foster care. Voluntary placement also occurs when a young person over the age of 18 chooses to voluntarily remain in foster care.

WWard of the state: A ward means a child who is placed in the legal custody of the State or other agency, institution, or entity, consistent with applicable Federal, State, or local law.

Warming Center: A warming center (also a heat bank or warm bank) is a shortterm emergency shelter that operates when temperatures or a combination of precipitation, wind chill, wind and temperature become dangerously inclement. Their paramount purpose is the prevention of death and injury from exposure to the elements.

Wrap around services: This term refers to a comprehensive service provision model that guarantees that any and all services needed by an individual or

family are integrated through a cohesive, individualized service plan that guides all service provision across all components of a homeless service delivery system – prevention, interim housing, and permanent housing.

YYouth Homelessness Young people between the ages of 13 and 24 who are living independently of parents and/or caregivers and lack many of the social supports deemed necessary for the transition from childhood to adulthood.

ZZoning: Local zoning regulations dictate how land can be used in different parts of a city or county. They determine the types of properties that can be constructed in specific areas. Throughout history, exclusionary zoning has unintentionally led to the blocking of affordable housing from certain neighborhoods, contributing to racial and economic inequality and concentrated poverty in certain areas.