B-H
Barrier 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.
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.
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.
Experiencing Homelessness: describes a person who lacks a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence.
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.
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 First: 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.
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.”
I-N
Imminent 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:
• Residence will be lost within 14 days of the date of application for homeless assistance;
• No subsequent residence has been identified; and
• 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.
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.
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.
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.
PPeople 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).
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.
Places not meant for human habitation: Examples include cars, parks, sidewalks, abandoned buildings (on the street).
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.
Point-in-Time (PIT) Counts: are unduplicated one-night estimates of both sheltered and unsheltered populations experiencing homelessness. The one-
night counts are conducted by CoCs nationwide and occur during the last week in January of each year.
R-S
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
T-Z
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.
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).
Zoning: 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.
