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Service to the Homeless Home | ![]() U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness
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SSA has a long history of providing outstanding service to the American public, including homeless populations. We also are strongly committed to supporting the President's initiative to end chronic homelessness within 10 years. We therefore are increasing outreach efforts among the homeless for both the Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) programs. We see these benefit programs as a basis of income support around which a case manager can build a network of other government and community services. SSA continues to participate in the revitalized Interagency Council on Homelessness. In addition, we have developed an Agency-wide plan to address homeless issues and document activities to provide benefits and services to the homeless. We have also created a workgroup that is responsible for coordinating and monitoring these activities. Our homeless plan seeks to identify locations with significant homeless populations and to determine what areas to target for outreach activities. Specific homeless plan objectives include:
Through the Homeless Outreach Projects and Evaluation (HOPE) initiative, SSA awarded $6.6 million in cooperative agreement funding to 34 public and private organizations in April 2004 and an additional $1.2 million in cooperative agreement funding to 7 organizations in November 2004. Organizations that have been awarded funds are required to provide outreach, supportive services, and benefit application assistance, to homeless adults and/or children. The target population for these projects is homeless individuals who are members of underserved groups, which may include individuals with severe and persistent mental illness, HIV infection, limited English proficiency, multiple and co-occurring disorders or cognitive impairments, and U.S. armed service veterans. We plan to fund these projects for three years with requirements that awardees reduce their dependence on cooperative agreement funding in each year of the project. We provided a comprehensive 3-day program orientation to one group of our cooperative agreement partners in August 2004, and to a second group in January 2005. Following this training, HOPE projects began enrolling homeless individuals and assisting them with filing for SSDI and SSI payments based on disability. From September 2004 through October 2005, HOPE projects enrolled 4,579 homeless individuals and, as of that date, received 1,046 favorable disability determinations. We continue to monitor the progress of our cooperative agreement partners and gather current information from their quarterly reports, regarding such issues as enrollments and awards, to produce a consolidated report on grantee activities. Consistent with SSA's high-level focus on this initiative, Deputy Commissioner James B. Lockhart offered welcoming remarks at our first annual conference for HOPE projects. At the conference, SSA provided information about HOPE evaluation plans and provided a forum to share ideas.
Social Security Programs In 1935, the Social Security Act established a program to help protect aged Americans against the loss of income due to retirement. Protection for survivors of deceased workers was added in 1939, creating the Old Age and Survivors Insurance (OASI) program. The SSDI program was added in 1956, followed by the SSI program in 1972. In fiscal year 2005, the average number of people receiving benefits and the total benefits paid were as follows:
Few government agencies touch the lives of as many people as SSA. About 53 million individuals, one of every six, receive monthly cash benefits from Social Security or SSI, the major programs we administer. The combined Old-Age, Survivors and Disability Insurance programs, commonly referred to as Social Security, provide a comprehensive package of protection against the loss of earnings due to retirement, disability and death. Monthly cash benefits are financed through payroll taxes paid by workers and their employers and by self-employed individuals. The monthly benefit amount, to which an individual (or spouse and children) may become entitled under the OASDI program, is based on the individual's taxable earnings during his or her lifetime. To qualify for OASI benefits, a worker must have paid Social Security taxes for at least 10 years over the course of his or her lifetime. To qualify for DI benefits, an individual must meet a test of recent covered work before becoming disabled. Disability benefits provide a continuing income base for eligible workers who have qualifying disabilities and for eligible members of their families. Workers are considered disabled if they have a medically determinable physical or mental impairment that prevents them from engaging in substantial gainful activity. The disability must have lasted, or be expected to last, for a continuous period of not less than 12 months, or be expected to result in death. SSI is a means-tested program designed to provide or supplement the income of aged, blind or disabled individuals with limited income or resources. SSI payments and related administrative expenses are financed from general tax revenues, not from Social Security payroll taxes. Children, as well as adults, can receive payments because of disability or blindness. There are general provisions to encourage working and special incentives to those beneficiaries who have disabilities or are blind. The Federal benefit rate and eligibility requirements are uniform nationwide. However, various States provide a SSI benefit supplement. Also, SSI beneficiaries may be eligible for food stamps, Medicaid and social services. Thus, for homeless individuals who are age 65 or older, blind or disabled, SSA plays a critical role in helping provide monthly benefit payments and linkages to medical and nutrition services.
Targeted Homeless Assistance Program Congress appropriated $8 million in fiscal year 2005 and directed SSA to use the appropriation to provide outreach and application assistance to homeless and other underserved populations. SSA used this earmarked funding to continue the HOPE program in support of the President's initiative to end chronic homelessness in America within 10 years. The HOPE initiative is focused on assisting eligible, homeless individuals in applying for SSI and SSDI benefits. HOPE projects help SSA demonstrate the effectiveness of using skilled medical and social service providers to identify and work with homeless individuals with disabilities, including assisting them with the application process. Cooperative agreement funding was made available to public and private organizations, including non-profit, profit-making, and faith-based organizations that possess existing expertise and capacity to conduct outreach activities to locate and engage homeless individuals; are able to provide or arrange for health care services; and are able to provide culturally competent services to all members of the target population, without regard to race, sex, religion, or disability. Currently, we have cooperative agreement partners in Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, the District of Columbia, Florida, Hawaii, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Texas, Washington and Wisconsin.
Planned Evaluation SSA awarded an evaluation contract to WESTAT in September 2004. Grantees are expected to work with WESTAT and make data available to them for the evaluation. The evaluation will determine whether the additional resources impact the ability of social service providers to (1) identify homeless individuals who may be eligible for Social Security or SSI benefits and (2) develop the appropriate documentation for disability applications.
Addressing Impediments that Homeless Individuals Experience SSA is uniquely positioned through its network of over 1,300 field offices to provide assistance to the homeless. SSA field offices have established a variety of activities and special procedures to reduce the problems faced by homeless individuals in obtaining SSDI or SSI benefits for which they may be eligible. The primary impediment identified by field office and disability determination services staff is the difficulty of maintaining contact with the homeless individual. It is also difficult for homeless individuals to keep appointments and to maintain records of medical treatment. SSA addresses these impediments by:
Field offices and disability determination services throughout the nation have established liaisons with various organizations to assist homeless individuals in applying for, and maintaining, entitlement to SSI benefits by:
Training Initiatives Field office and disability determination services staff provide ongoing training to agencies and community service organizations that serve the homeless. For example:
While many SSA offices around the country have developed programs and procedures to address target populations, including homeless individuals, the centerpiece to those efforts is the new working relationships developed through our cooperative agreement partners under the HOPE project. The goal of the cooperative agreements is to demonstrate efficient, replicable and sustainable approaches for identifying individuals who are potentially eligible for benefits under the Social Security or SSI disability programs and providing direct assistance to these individuals in the benefit application process. The core objectives for the projects are to identify homeless individuals who are potentially eligible for benefits and to provide assistance to project participants that results in faster claim decisions and higher initial allowance rates for those who are eligible. As noted in the Overview of Activities and Accomplishments, cooperative agreement partners enrolled over 4,500 homeless individuals in the HOPE project over the course of the first 14 months of operation.
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