Cecilia Muņoz, Assistant to the President and Director of the Domestic Policy Council, commented that the downward trend across all populations is the result of relentless focus on the task.  "I regularly bring this work out as an example of the government setting high marks and meeting them because we know how to end homelessness," Ms. Muņoz said. "We can do what many people think is impossible. But it's not impossible and we have the metrics to show for it."

From left:  Labor Secretary Thomas E. Perez, HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan, VA Secretary Eric Shinseki, USICH Executive Director Barbara Poppe, and USICH Deputy Director Laura Zeilinger

The Council elected new officers to serve in 2014. Shaun Donovan, the Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development was elected Chair and Thomas Perez, Secretary of the Department of Labor, was elected Vice Chair. In handing the role off to Secretary Donovan, Secretary Eric K. Shinseki reflected on the work of the Council at the end of his term as Chair and praised Secretary Donovan's leadership.  Secretary Donovan then recalled the first Council meeting he attended with Secretary Shinseki. 

"I'll never forget the very first meeting that we had together," said Secretary Donovan to Secretary Shinseki. "I left that meeting thinking this is a man on a mission and I was right. Thank you for the inspiration that you provided to all of us and to me personally. I know you are going to be just as focused on ending homelessness in the next three years and that gives me some comfort. I look forward to continuing to partner with you in the year to come and beyond."

READ MORE ABOUT LAST WEEK'S COUNCIL MEETING AND THE BRIEFING ON YOUTH HOMELESSNESS FROM COMMUNITY EXPERTS.

It is essential that communities strengthen their strategies to count and survey all populations experiencing homelessness through their Point in Time counts. Important resources that every community should consider include:

• Notice for Housing Inventory Count (HIC) and Point-in-Time (PIT) Data Collection for Continuum of Care (CoC) Program and the Emergency Solutions Grants (ESG) Program - This HUD document provides information to CoCs on what information to collect in order to successfully complete their 2014 Housing Inventory Count HIC and PIT counts.

• Mobilize volunteers through the Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service and MLKday.gov - The Corporation for National and Community Service has again partnered with HUD and USICH to promote opportunities for volunteers to engage in the PIT count. The MLKday.gov site provides background information about the PIT count, and helps connect interested volunteers with CoCs seeking volunteers for their PIT count activities. CoCs looking for volunteers should list their PIT count on the MLKday.gov site.

• Webinar Series from the Youth Count! Initiative - Webinars providing guidance to communities developed through the interagency Youth Count! initiative to develop promising strategies for counting unaccompanied youth who are experiencing homelessness.

• The Urban Institute's Youth Count! Process Study - Report documenting strategies implemented by communities participating in the Youth Count! initiative, including the Promising Practices section starting on page 56 of the report.

• Tips to Engage lesbian, gay, bisexual, trangender, and questioning (LGBTQ) youth - Suggestions from the Forty to None Project for how communities can engage  LGBTQ youth through the PIT count, including stickers to convey that count locations are safe, affirming places for LGBTQ youth to be.

Communities should make use of these tools to ensure that in 2014, everyone experiencing homelessness counts!

Communities across the country are using USICH's Federal Framework to End Youth Homelessness to develop systemic and client-level responses to end youth homelessness.  The headline article in this issue discusses efforts in Seattle/King County, Washington and Cleveland, Ohio, recently shared with the Council. Many other communities across the country are also taking steps to end youth homelessness, and using the Framework to guide their efforts.

The framework focuses on two key strategies: getting to better data and building capacity for better service delivery. These strategies serve as the foundation for our efforts to achieve four core outcomes for youth: stable housing, education/employment, well-being, and permanent connections. 

On the data strategy, several communities are using experience from Youth Count! in 2013, and the subsequent report from the Urban Institute that highlighted promising practices from the study sites, communities are planning their 2014 Point-in-Time (PIT) counts to achieve more confident estimates of youth homelessness in their community. 

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