New Federal Program To Support Services for Unhoused Residents

A new federal effort to stem the nationwide unsheltered homelessness crisis will provide assistance to five cities and the state of California through a new program called ‘ALL INside.’ In addition to California, the initiative selected Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, Seattle, and the Phoenix metropolitan area, each communities with large populations of unhoused residents.

In Smart Cities Dive, Ysabelle Kempe outlines the initiative, which the federal government says “work closely with these communities for up to two years, offering each the assistance of a dedicated federal official and teams to navigate federal funding streams, facilitate a peer learning network across the selected communities and identify opportunities for regulatory relief and flexibilities.”

The new initiative directs the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to “provide technical assistance to communities to help them use federal programs such as Medicaid to cover housing-related services and behavioral health care” and tasks the Social Security Administration with facilitating access to support services “by leveraging data-sharing and regulatory flexibilities” as part of the initiative’s overall goal to “address barriers for communities and people to access federal housing resources and support” and the administration’s goal to reduce homelessness nationwide 25 percent by 2025.