The Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) administers the Commonwealth of Virginia’s homeless assistance resources (state and federal) through the Virginia Homeless Solutions Program (VHSP). These resources include approximately $14.6 million in state and federal annual funding:

• To reduce the number of individuals/households who become homeless;
• To shorten the length of time an individual or household is homeless; and
• To reduce the number of individuals/households that return to homelessness

In the spring of 2014, DHCD released a competitive grant application that combined state and federal funding sources (HUD Emergency Solutions Grant and Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS/HIV along with State General Funds for homeless assistance and homeless prevention). In order to apply and receive these funds, communities were required to submit community-based applications that outlined a local spending plan where specific activities and grantees were identified. DHCD continued to contract with individual organizations but these individual projects make up each community’s homeless crisis response system.

With this new community-based approach to funding and other statewide training and best practice initiatives, Virginia has made substantial progress toward the aforementioned goals. Each year during the last ten days in January, Virginia participates in a national point-in-time (PIT) count to identify the number of homeless persons who are sheltered and unsheltered. This count provides a 24- hour snapshot of those who are homeless in Virginia. Since 2010, the Department of Housing and Community Development has been collecting, aggregating, and analyzing state level PIT data to inform grant making, best practices, and trends across the Commonwealth of Virginia.

The 2015 PIT count ( ) on January 28, identified 7,001 persons (adults and children) who were homeless. Since 2010, there has been a 23 percent decrease in the number of homeless persons, a 22.6 percent decrease in households with children, and a 30 percent decrease in chronic homeless identified during the PIT count. In addition, since 2012 there has been a 31 percent decrease in veteran homelessness.

The Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) directly addresses the problems associated with homelessness by administering the Virginia Housing Solutions Program that is comprised of several core funding sources. During the 2014-15 program year DHCD administered the following:

• Child Care for Homeless Children Program (CCHCP)

* A $300,000 block grant to provide child care for homeless children

* 154 children received child care through the program

• Virginia Housing Solutions Program (VHSP)

* A $13.7 million grant comprised of State General Funds and HUD Emergency Solution Grant funds

* Eligible activities include homeless prevention, rapid re-housing, emergency shelter, Homeless Management Information System (HMIS), coordinated access/intake, and Continuum of Care (CoC) planning

• Housing Opportunities to Persons with AIDS/HIV (HOPWA)

* $675,366 in federal funds through HUD

* Funding was distributed through seven project sponsors across the state to serve 457 households with HIV/AIDS through housing subsidy assistance

* 365 households received supportive services, including case management, transportation, and food assistance

This report serves as a means to report overall conditions and progress made related to the administration of the State’s homelessness programs in compliance with HB 1400, Budget Item 103 C of Virginia Acts of Assembly, 2015 Session:

DHCD must report to the Chairman of the Senate Finance (SFC) and House Appropriations Committees (HAC) and the Director of DPB on the activities and accomplishments of homeless programs. Programs subject to the report include emergency shelter beds, transitional housing units, SRO units, HIP and other activities including the number of persons served, program costs and the provision of in-kind services.