Department of Health and Human Services
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is the United States government’s principal agency for protecting the health of all Americans and providing essential human services, especially for those who are least able to help themselves. The Department is responsible for more than 300 programs, covering a wide spectrum of activities. Some highlights include: Medicare and Medicaid; financial assistance and services for low-income families; improving maternal and infant health; Head Start; preventing child abuse and domestic violence; mental illness and substance abuse treatment and prevention; medical and social science research; preventing outbreaks of infectious disease, including immunization services; and food and drug safety.
In FY 2010, the HHS budget totaled $854 billion. The Department is the largest grant-making agency in the Federal Government and a key health insurer. These activities are administered by 11 operating divisions. These components work closely with State, local, and tribal governments, and many HHS-funded services are provided at the local level by State, county or tribal agencies, or through community- and faith-based grantees.
Treatments and services to persons experiencing homelessness are included in the activities of the Department, both in programs specifically targeted to homeless individuals (targeted homeless programs) and in those programs that assist eligible persons in need (mainstream programs).
More than 90 percent of the total departmental budget is distributed to provide services and benefits to poor, disabled, and underserved persons. These resources constitute a critical safety net in the lives of many people in the U.S. Representing a small portion of this funding, HHS has a portfolio of six programs specifically targeted to address the service needs of homeless persons: 1) Health Care for the Homeless, 2) Grants for the Benefit of Homeless Individuals, 3) Services in Supportive Housing, 4) Projects for Assistance in Transition from Homelessness, 5) Programs for Runaway and Homeless Youth, 6) the Federal Surplus Real Property program.
HHS is the current Chair of USICH.
Blog
Keeping the Momentum for Ending Youth Homelessness: Reflections from Indianapolis and Beyond
What We’re Talking About: The Week at USICH - July 23-27, 2012
The Affordable Care Act and Homelessness
Fact Sheets
SAMHSA Veteran Homelessness Panel - Guiding Principles and Strategies
In August 2011, USICH, SAMHSA, the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation at HHS, and the Departments of ...
SAMHSA Homelessness Prevention Panel - Guiding Principles and Strategies
In April 2011, leaders from USICH, SAMHSA, and ASPE (Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, HHS) led an expert ...
Programs
Access to Recovery
The Access to Recovery program began in 2007 to provide vouchers for low-income individuals to access clinical treatment and recovery ...
Basic Center Program
The Runaway and Homeless Youth Act (RHYA) serves runaway and homeless youth by funding the following grant programs: the Basic Center ...
Chafee Foster Care Independence Programs
Administered by the Children’s Bureau in the Administration for Children and Families, the Chafee Foster Care Independence ...
Children’s Health Insurance Program: CHIP
The Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) is a partnership between the Federal and State government that provides health ...
Child Support Enforcement Program
The Child Support Enforcement (CSE) program is a federal, state, tribal and local partnership to promote family self-sufficiency and ...
Community Services Block Grant
The Community Services Block Grant (CSBG) Program provides funds to states, territories and Native American tribes to support efforts ...
Community Mental Health Services Block Grant
The Department of Mental Health at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMSHA) administers The Community ...
Consolidated Health Centers
Consolidated Health Centers (CHCs) provide health services to underserved populations which include all residents in their catchment ...
Family Violence Prevention and Services Act
The Family Violence Prevention and Services Act (FVPSA) provides the primary federal funding stream dedicated to the support of ...
Federal Surplus Real Property
The purpose of Title V of the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act is to provide suitable federal properties (land or buildings) ...
Grants for the Benefit of Homeless Individuals
The Grants for the Benefit of Homeless Individuals Program (GBHI) enables communities to expand and strengthen their treatment ...
Head Start
The Office of Head Start (OHS) provides grants to local public and private non-profit and for-profit agencies to provide comprehensive ...
Health Care for the Homeless
The purpose of the Health Care for the Homeless (HCH) program administered by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) ...
Healthy Start Block Grant
The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) administers the Healthy Start program which is designed to increase the access ...
National Runaway Switchboard
The Runaway and Homeless Youth Act (RHYA) serves runaway and homeless youth by funding the following grant programs: the Basic Center ...
Maternity Group Home Program
The Runaway and Homeless Youth Act (RHYA) serves runaway and homeless youth by funding the following grant programs: the Basic Center ...
Medicaid
Medicaid is generally a means-tested health care entitlement program financed by States and the Federal Government that provides ...
Projects for the Assistance in Transition from Homelessness (PATH)
Projects for the Assistance in Transition from Homelessness (PATH) supports programs that provide services for individuals ...
Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program
The Ryan White HIV/AIDS program began in 1990 and the majority of funds support primary health care and specialized medical care to ...
Services in Supportive Housing
The Services in Supportive Housing (SSH) program was created to help prevent or reduce chronic homelessness by funding services for ...
Social Services Block Grant
The Social Services Block Grant (SSBG) program provides flexible funding to assist states in providing a wide range of services to ...
Street Outreach Program
The Runaway and Homeless Youth Act (RHYA) serves runaway and homeless youth by funding the following grant programs: the Basic Center ...
Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment Block Grant
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMSHA) administers the Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment Block ...
Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) Block Grant
Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) programs provide time-limited assistance to needy families with children to promote ...
Title V Maternal and Child Health Block Grant
Unique in its design and scope, HRSA’s Maternal and Child Health (MCH) Block Grant is the only Federal program that focuses ...
Transitional Living Program (TLP)
The Runaway and Homeless Youth Act (RHYA) serves runaway and homeless youth by funding the following grant programs: the Basic Center ...
Related Research
Building Bridges to Self-Sufficiency: Improving Services for Low-Income Working Families
Jennifer Miller March 2004 In 2001, MDRC and the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices began an extensive ...
Sexual Abuse Among Homeless Adolescents: Prevalence, Correlates, and Sequelae
Jody M. Greene November 2002 Over the past two decades, there has been increasing recognition that runaway and homeless youth ...
Criminal history as a prognostic indicator in the treatment of homeless people with severe mental illness
James F. McGuire 2004 This study examined the clinical problems and treatment outcomes of homeless people with severe mental ...
A SAMHSA Research Initiative Assessing the Effectiveness of Jail Diversion Programs for Mentally Ill
Henry J. Steadman, Ph.D., Martha Williams Deane, M.A., Joseph P. Morrissey, Ph.D., Mary L. Westcott, Ph.D., Susan Salasin and Steven ...
Web-Based Screeners and Applications: Potential Tools for Improving Benefit Access and Program Efficiency
HHS, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation September 2011 ASPE released a new issue brief on the design ...
Findings from a Study of the SSI/SSDI Outreach, Access and Recovery Initiative
Jacqueline Kauff, Jonathan Brown, Norma Altshuler, Noelle Denny-Brown, and Emily Sama Martin September 2009 "The Supplemental ...
Variations in Maternal and Child Wellbeing by TANF Participation
Nancy E. Reichman, Julien O. Teitler, Irwin Garfinkel, and Sandra Garcia January 2004 "This study uses baseline and one year ...
Homelessness, substance misuse, and access to public entitlements in a soup kitchen population
Peter C. Nwakeze, Ph.D., Stephen Magura, Ph.D., C.S.W., Andrew Rosenblum, Ph.D., and Herman Joseph, Ph.D. 2003 This study examines ...
Promoting Medicaid and Food Stamp Participation
LaDonna Pavetti, Kathleen Maloy, and Liz Schott June 2002 This study, 'Promoting Medicaid and Food Stamp Participation: ...
Homelessness, Substance Misuse, and Access to Public Entitlements in a soup kitchen population
Peter C. Nwakeze, Stephen Magura, Andrew Rosenblum, and Herman Joseph January 2003 This study examines the effects of homelessness ...
Permanent Housing For Homeless Families: A Review of Opportunities and Impediments
Jill Khadduri and Bulbul Kaul Fall 2007 This report focuses on the role of federally funded rental housing subsidies in helping ...
Tenant Outcomes in Supported Housing and Community Residences in New York
Carole E. Siegel, Judith Samuels, Dei-In Tang, Ilyssa Berg, Kristine Jones and Kim Hopper July 2006 This study examines whether ...
The Evidence on Supported Housing
Debra J. Rog May 2006 This study reviews the evidence base for supported housing that was initially prepared for the Texas ...
Outcomes of Homeless Adults with Mental Illness in Housing
Colleen Clark and Alexander R. Rich January 2003 This study compares the effectiveness of two types of service programs in ...
An Evaluation of an Initiative to Improve Coordination and Service Delivery of Homeless Services Networks
Greg A. Greenberg and Robert A. Rosenheck Feburary 2007 In 2003, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Department ...
An evaluation of an initiative to improve coordination and service delivery of homeless services networks. Preliminary Report: Draft 2.
Greg A. Greenberg 2007 In 2003, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Department of Health and Human Services, and ...
Current Opportunities for Medicaid Financing
Corporation for Supportive Housing 2003 This White Paper is part of an ongoing Corporation for Supportive Housing project to study ...
Lessons From the Evaluation of the ACCESS Program
Howard H. Goldman, Joseph P. Morrissey, Robert A. Rosenheck, Joseph Cocozza, Margaret Blasinsky, and Frances Randolph August ...
Integration of Service Systems for Homeless Persons With Mental Illness Through the ACCESS Program
Joseph P. Morrissey, Michael O. Calloway, Neil Thakur, Joseph Cocozza, Henry J. Steadman, Deborah Dennis August 2002 The aim of ...
Service Systems Integration and Outcomes For Mentally Ill Homeless Persons
Robert A. Rosenheck, Julie Lam, Joseph P. Morrissey, Michael O. Calloway, Marilyn Stolar, and Frances Randolph August ...
What Do You Know About Systems Integration and Homelessness?
Deborah L. Dennis, Joseph J. Cocozza, and Henry J. Steadman August 1999 Comprehensive systems of care to address the needs of ...
Making Homelessness Programs Accountable
Dennis Culhane, David Eldridge, Robert Rosenheck and Carol Wilkins August 1999 This paper discusses how different types of ...
Evaluability Assessment of Discharge Planning and the Prevention of Homelessness: Final Report
Garrett Moran, Rafael Semansky, Elizabeth Quinn, Rebecca Noftsinger and Teresa Koenig September 22, 2005 Past research has ...
Housing first, consumer choice, harm reduction for homeless individuals with a dual diagnosis
Sam Tsemberis 2004 This study examined the longitudinal effects of a Housing First program for homeless, mentally ill individuals ...
Homeless Children: Update on Research, Policy, Programs, and Opportunities
Judith Samuels, Marybeth Shinn, and John C. Buckner May 2010 This paper provides an update on the research, policy, laws, and ...
The Effects of HIV Stigma on Health, Disclosure of Health Status, and Risk Behavior of Homeless and Unstably Housed Persons Living with HIV
Richard J. Wolitski, Sherri L. Pals, Daniel P. Kidder, Cari Courtenay-Quirk and David R. Holtgrave December 2009 HIV-related ...
Associations Between Substance Use, Sexual Risk Taking and HIV Treatment Adherence Among Homeless People Living With HIV
Mark S. Friedman, Michael P. Marshal, Ron Stall, Daniel P. Kidder, Kirk D. Henny, Cari Courtenay-Quirk, Study Group The Project START, ...
Factors Associated With Adherence to Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy in Homeless or Unstably Housed Adults Living With HIV
Scott W. Royal, Daniel P. Kidder, Satyendra Patrabansha, Richard J. Wolitski, David R. Holtgrave, Angela Aidala, Sherri Pals, and Ron ...
Housing Status and HIV Risk Behaviors Among Homeless and Housed Persons with HIV
Daniel P. Kidder, Richard J. Wolitski, Sherri L. Pals, and Michael L. Campsmith December 2008 The purpose of this study was to ...
Factors Associated With Incarceration History Among HIV-Positive Persons
Cari Courtenay-Quirk, Sherri Pals, Daniel Kidder, Kirk Henry and James Emshoff June 2008 Among persons living with HIV/AIDS ...
Health Status, Health Care Use, Medication Use, and Medication AdherenceAmong Homeless and Housed People Living with HIV/AIDS
Daniel P. Kidder, Richard J. Wolitski, Michael L. Campsmith, and Glenn V. Nakamura December 2007 The purpose of the study was to ...
Physical and Sexual Abuse Among Homeless Adults Living With HIV: Prevalence and Associated Risks
Kirk D. Henny, Daniel P. Kidder, Ron Stall and Richard J. Wolitski November 2007 The purpose of this study was to examine the ...
Access to Housing as a Structural Intervention for Homeless and Unstably Housed People Living With HIV: Rationale, Methods, and Implementation of the Housing and Health Study
Daniel P. Kidder, Richard J. Wolitski, Scott Royal, Angela Aidala, Cari Courtenay-Quirk, David R. Holtgrave, David Harre, Esther ...
Treating Homeless Clients with Severe Mental Illness, Substance Use Disorders
Gary A. Morse, Robert J. Calsyn, W. Dean Klinkenberg, Thomas W. Helminiak, Nancy Wolff, Robert E. Drake, Robert D. Yonker, Gyanesh ...
Long-Term Effectiveness of the ACCESS Program
Aileen B. Rothbard, So-Young Min, Eri Kuno and Yin-Ling Irene Wong October 2004 This study examined the long-term effectiveness of ...
Blueprint for change: Ending chronic homelessness for persons with serious mental illnesses and/or co-occurring substance use disorders
Susan Wells 2003 The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and its Center for Mental Health Services, ...
Sexual Abuse Among Homeless Adolescents: Prevalence, Correlates, and Sequelae
Jody M. Greene, Rebecca Sanchez, Jennifer Manlove, Elizabeth Terry-Humen, Sharon Vandivere, Richard Wertheimer, Stephanie Williams, ...
Sexual Abuse Among Homeless Adolescents: Prevalence, Correlates, and Sequelae
Jody M. Greene 2002 Over the past two decades, there has been increasing recognition that runaway and homeless youth constitute a ...
An experimental comparison of three types of case management for homeless mentally ill persons.
Gary A. Morse 1997 Three types of case management were compared to determine their relative effectiveness in helping people with ...
Preventing recurrent homelessness among mentally ill men: a critical time intervention after discharge from a shelter
Ezra Susser 1997 This study examined a strategy to prevent homelessness among individuals with severe mental illness by providing ...
Assertive community treatment for patients with co-occurring severe mental illness and substance abuse disorder: A clinical trial
Robert E. Drake 1998 Integrated mental health and substance abuse treatment within an assertive community treatment (ACT) approach ...
The Meaning of Computers to a Group of Men Who Are Homeless
Kathleen Swenson Miller, Stacey Bunch-Harrison, Brett Brumbaugh, Rekha Sankaran Kutty and Kathleen FitzGerald April 2005 The ...
Social Support, Drug Use, and Employment Among Low-Income Women
Victoria L. Brown and Micah A. Riley January 2005 This study examined social support and its association with employment, income, ...
Building Bridges to Self-Sufficiency: Improving Services for Low-Income Working Families
Jennifer Miller 2004 In 2001, MDRC and the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices began an extensive examination ...
Vocational outcomes among formerly homeless persons with severe mental illness in the ACCESS program
Judith A. Cook 2001 This study examined the vocational outcomes of 4,778 formerly homeless individuals with severe mental illness ...
Ethnographic findings from the Washington, DC vocational services study
Ernest Quimby 2001 Based on a 20-month period of participant observations and interviews of persons receiving services, employment ...
A randomized clinical trial of supported employment for inner-city patients with severe mental disorders
Robert E. Drake 1999 This study evaluated the effectiveness of two approaches to vocational services for persons with severe ...
Cost and Threshold Analysis of Housing as an HIV Prevention Intervention
David R. Holtgrave, Kate Briddell, Eugene Little, Arturo Valdivia Bendixen, Myrna Hooper, Daniel P. Kidder, Richard J. Wolitski, David ...
Accountability, Cost Effectiveness and Program Performance: Progress since '98
Dennis P. Culhane, Wayne D. Parker, Barbara Poppe, Kennen S. Gross and Ezra Sykes March 2007 In the report "Accountability, Cost ...
Costs and Effectiveness of Substance Abuse Treatments For Homeless Persons
Joseph E. Schumacher, Stephen T. Mennemeyer, Jesse B. Milby, Dennis Wallace and Kim Nolan June 2002 This study presents a cost ...
Housing costs for adults who are mentally ill and formerly homeless
Barbara Dickey 1997 The goal of this study was to evaluate the costs, under two different housing conditions, to the state mental ...
Cost-effectiveness evaluation of three approaches to case management
Nancy Wolff 1997 In this study the authors compared the cost-effectiveness of three approaches to case management for individuals ...
Cost-effectiveness of assertive community treatment
Anthony F. Lehman 1999 Homelessness is a major public health problem among persons with severe mental illness (SMI). ...
Risk Factors for Homelessness: Evidence from a Population-Based Study
Katherine H. Shelton, Pamela J. Taylor, Adrian Bonner and Marianne van den Bree April 2009 This study examined factors associated ...
Predictors of Homelessness Among Street Living Youth
Natasha Slesnick, Suzanne Bartle-Haring, Pushpanjali Dashora, Min Ju Kang and Erin Aukward April 2008 While few studies have ...
Promising Strategies to End Youth Homelessness
Family and Youth Services Bureau of the Administration for Children and Families 2007 When the Runaway and Homeless Youth Act was ...
Characteristics and Dynamics of Homeless Families with Children
Debra J. Rog, C. Scott Holupka and Lisa C. Patton Fall 2007 Westat, in collaboration with Vanderbilt University’s Center for ...
Characteristics of Individuals With Severe Mental Illness Who Use Emergency Services
Alexander S. Young, Matthew J. Chinman, Julie A. Cradock-O’Leary, Green Sullivan, Dennis Murata, Jim Mintz and Paul ...
Transitions through Homelessness and Factors That Predict Them
Robert G. Orwin, Chris K. Scott and Carlos Arieira March 2005 In this study, "Transitions through Homelessness and Factors That ...
Factors Influencing Homelessness in Women
Debra Gay Anderson 2004 The specific aims of the article were to: (i) compare childhood experiences of intimacy and autonomy ...
Determinants of Homelessness in Metropolitan Areas
Barrett A. Lee, Townsand Price-Spratlen, James W. Kanan July 2003 Why do rates of homelessness differ across metropolitan ...
Incidence and Prevalence of Homeless and Runaway Youth
Jody M. Greene, Rebecca Sanchez, Jennie Harris, Connie Cignetti, Don Akin, and Sara Wheeless May 2003 Homeless, runaway, and ...
Incidence and Prevalence of Homeless and Runaway Youth
Jody M. Greene 2003 Homeless, runaway, and throwaway youth (HRTY) constitute a high-risk population that urgently requires the ...
Emergency department use among the homeless
Margot B. Kushel 2002 This study examined factors associated with emergency department use among homeless and marginally housed ...
Barriers to employment and the "hard to serve": Implications for services, sanctions, and time limits
Sandra K. Danziger 2002 Falling welfare rolls in the US has focused attention on those remaining on the caseload, variously termed ...
Employment histories of homeless persons with mental illness
Susan A. Pickett-Schenk 2002 This study examined the work histories of 7,228 homeless persons with mental illness who were ...
Substance use and labor force participation among homeless adults
Cheryl Zlotnick 2002 This study measured the proportion of homeless adults in the labor force and examined the impact of substance ...
Pathways to Homelessness among the Mentally Ill
G. Sullivan 2000 Persons with mental illness are over-represented among the homeless relative to the general population, and ...
Work attitudes, employment barriers, and mental health symptoms in a sample of rural welfare recipients
Lorraine C. Taylor 2001 Most of the extant research on welfare reform has neglected to consider the experiences of families in ...
Event History Analysis of Antecedents to Running Away from Home and Being on the Street
Kevin A. Yoder 2001 Event history analysis was used to study the correlates of running away from home for the first time and ...
Childhood risk factors for homelessness among homeless adults
Paul Koegel 1995 This effort used data from the Course of Homelessness study and comparative secondary data on the general ...
National study of protective, preventive and reunification services delivered to children and their families
Department of Health and Human Services 1997 This report presents the findings of the 1994 National Study of Protective, ...
Homelessness in female-headed families: childhood and adult risk and protective factors
Ellen L. Bassuk 1997 This study was conducted to identify risk and protective factors for family homelessness, a case-control ...
Predictors of Homelessness among Families in New York City: From Shelter Request to Housing Stability
Marybeth Shinn 1998 This study examined predictors of entry into shelter and subsequent housing stability for a cohort of families ...
Resources for Accessing Technical Assistance
Services in Supportive Housing
Department of Health and Human Services, SAMHSA Services in Supportive Housing Program helps to prevent or reduce chronic ...
Children’s Bureau Training and Technical Assistance Network
http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb/tta/ Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families The ...
Community Mental Health Block Grant
http://mentalhealth.samhsa.gov/publications/allpubs/KEN95-0022/#types Department of Health and Human Services, SAMHSA The Center ...
Homeless Resource Center
http://homeless.samhsa.gov Department of Health and Human Services, SAMHSA The Homeless Resource Center provides three types of ...
Welfare Peer Technical Assistance Network
http://peerta.acf.hhs.gov/index.cfm?event=viewIndex&nav=H Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children ...
National Resource Center on Domestic Violence
http://www.nrcdv.org/ Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families The National Resource ...
Runaway and Homeless Youth
http://www.rhyttac.ou.edu/ Department of Health and Human Services, Adminstration for Children and Families The regional training ...
Child Care Technical Assistance Network (CCTAN)
http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/ccb/ta/cctan.htm Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and ...
Early Childhood Learning and Knowledge Center (ECLKC)
http://eclkc.ohs.acf.hhs.gov/hslc Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families Head Start is ...
Co-Occurring and Homeless Branch
http://chab.samhsa.gov Department of Health and Human Services, SAMHSA The Co-Occurring and Homeless Branch shares a vision of ...
Grants for the Benefit of Homeless Individuals (Treatment for Homeless)
Department of Health and Human Services, SAMHSA SAMSHA's HRC GBHI Training Page The Grants for the Benefit of Homeless ...
National Health Care for the Homeless Council
http://www.nhchc.org/hchgranteeresources.html Department of Health and Human Services, HRSA The National Health Care for the ...
Projects for Assistance in Transition from Homelessness (PATH)
http://pathprogram.samhsa.gov/Search.aspx?search=Technical+Assistance Department of Health and Human Services, SAMHSA The PATH ...
Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment Block Grant
Department of Health and Human Services, SAMHSA The Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment Block Grant (SAPTBG) is a formula block ...
Upcoming Events and Deadlines
National Runaway and Homeless Youth FYSB Grantee Conference
Videos and Webinars
SAMHSA Webinar on Homelessness Prevention
The longer someone has been homeless, the more difficult—and expensive—it becomes to restore stability. An April 2011 ...
