Policy Academy

Access to mainstream resources, such as health, human services, employment, and housing services, is critical to ensure the well-being of homeless individuals. However, access is generally limited, even though these basic services help homeless individuals to achieve and maintain permanent housing and self-sufficiency.

A series of Policy Academies on Chronic Homelessness was designed to help states develop interagency and multidisciplinary teams and to assist these teams in the development of statewide plans to improve access to mainstream services for people who are homeless. Forty-six states, the District of Columbia, and five U.S. territories participated in these 3-4 day meetings, which took place between 2001 and 2004.

The National Center will perform an in-depth evaluation of the Policy Academies. We will examine the Policy Academy process and its impact on the development of collaborative action plans to end chronic homelessness in each state. We will also explore the successes and challenges states face in implementing these plans. The results will inform future federal efforts to encourage systemic change at the state-level.

The Departments of Health and Human Services (HHS), Veterans Affairs (VA), Labor (DOL), and Housing and Urban Development (HUD) sponsored the Policy Academies. The evaluation, which The National Center is coordinating with The CDM Group Inc., is being funded by the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration's (SAMHSA) Center for Mental Health Services (CMHS) and the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA).