Emergency shelter and rapid rehousing: how to get help

Losing your home is frightening, even more so if you have your children with you or just arrived in the country. This guide is for you if you have nowhere to sleep, will lose your housing in the next few days or are helping someone in that situation. It explains what HUDDepartment of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)HUD (the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development) is the federal department that runs housing and community development assistance programs and works to ensure fair and equal housing opportunity. The Federal Housing Administration (FHA), which insures mortgages made by private lenders, is part of HUD. HUD funds local public housing agencies (PHAs) that run public housing and Section 8 vouchers. It also approves housing counseling agencies across the country, and you can file a housing discrimination complaint with its Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity (FHEO).See the full definitionClose’s homeless programs pay for, how to reach the front door in your area, what 211 does and what the rules on immigration status say today.

If you will lose your housing within that time, you count as homeless for ESG

14 days³

Of rent, the largest deposit rapid rehousing can pay

2 months⁶

Of rental assistance, at most, in a 3-year period

24 months⁷

Two HUD programs that pay for the help

Two HUD programs fund shelters and help for people who are homeless. You do not ask for them by name, but knowing them helps you understand what you can be offered.

Emergency Solutions Grants (ESG). They can pay for five things: street outreach (people who go out to find those sleeping outside), emergency shelter, prevention so you do not lose your housing, rapid rehousing and the data system programs use.¹ In a shelter, ESG can pay to run and renovate the building and for essential services such as case management, child care, job help, legal services, mental health, substance use treatment and transportation.²

The Continuum of Care (CoC). This is the local homeless services network. Its funds can pay for permanent housing, which includes permanent supportive housing and rapid rehousing; transitional housing; supportive services only; the data system; and, in some cases, prevention. In its rapid rehousing, participants must meet with a case manager at least once a month, except in violence cases protected by law.⁸

Shelter, prevention or rapid rehousing

Tonight

Emergency shelter

• A safe place to sleep while another way out is found
• Services such as case management, child care and transportation
• A family may not be turned away because of the age of a child under 18

Before you lose your housing

Prevention

• Rental help and services so you do not have to go to a shelter
• For income below 30% of the area's median family income
• Only what you need to regain stability

To leave the shelter soon

Rapid rehousing

• Help to move as quickly as possible into permanent housing
• Can pay the deposit, the move, utilities and part of the rent
• With a written, legally binding lease

Your area's coordinated entry decides which one fits based on what you need.

Who counts as homeless

The ESG rules define homelessness in several ways. They include someone with no fixed, regular and adequate place to spend the night, such as someone sleeping in a car, on the street or in a shelter; someone who will lose their housing within 14 days of asking for help and has nowhere to go and no resources to find another place; certain unaccompanied youth under 25 and families with children; and someone fleeing domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault or stalking.³

If you still have housing but are at risk of losing it, there is prevention. It can give you rental help and services so you do not have to go to a shelter. It is for households with annual income below 30% of the area’s median family income, and only to the extent you need the help to regain stability.⁴ If you already got a notice to leave, also read What to do if you get an eviction notice and If you can’t pay your rent.

The front door: 211 and coordinated entry

Every area has a shared front door. By rule, each Continuum of Care must have a centralized or coordinated assessment system that does an initial, comprehensive assessment of what each person or family needs in housing and services.⁹ When that system exists, ESG-funded programs in the area must use it. The exception is victim service providers, which may choose not to use it.¹⁰

You have two simple ways to reach that door:

• 211. You dial 211 from your phone. They give you referrals for housing, homeless services and help with utilities, and every call is confidential. The 211 site is also in Spanish.¹²
• HUD’s Find Shelter. You pick a category (shelter, food, clinics or clothing), enter your location and search. You can also search for a Continuum of Care provider in your community.¹¹

From the first call to a home of your own

1. 1. Dial 211 or search Find Shelter

   Today

   Ask for a shelter for tonight and how to reach coordinated entry.¹²

2. 2. You get an assessment

   At coordinated entry

   They ask what you need in housing and services to connect you with the right program.⁹

3. 3. Shelter or prevention

   Depending on your case

   If you have no housing, shelter; if you still have it, prevention can help you keep it.⁴

4. 4. You search for housing with help

   With your case manager

   Rapid rehousing can pay for the search, the application, the deposit and the move.⁶

5. 5. You sign your lease

   When you move

   It must be a written lease, with rent within HUD's limits.⁷

6. 6. You meet with your case manager

   At least once a month in the CoC

   They help you keep the housing when the assistance ends.⁸

What rapid rehousing can pay for

Rapid rehousing helps a homeless person or family move as quickly as possible into permanent housing and stay stable there.⁵ With ESG funds, it can pay the application fee, a security depositsecurity depositA security deposit is money you pay the landlord when you start renting as security that you will follow the lease: pay the rent and take care of the home. The money still belongs to you. The landlord holds it and, when you move out, must return it minus the charges the law allows, such as past-due rent or damage beyond normal wear and tear. You should not be charged for damage that was already there when you moved in. The maximum amount and the deadline to return it depend on your state's law and sometimes your city's.See the full definitionClose of no more than 2 months’ rent, last month’s rent, utility deposits and payments, and moving costs. It can also provide services: housing search, case management, mediation with the landlord, legal services and help repairing your credit.⁶

Rental assistance has limits. Short-term is up to 3 months, and medium-term is more than 3 and no more than 24 months. In total, up to 24 months can be given in any 3-year period. The rent may not exceed HUD’s Fair Market Rentfair market rent (FMR)The fair market rent (FMR) is the rent HUD estimates every year for each area and each unit size, including the cost of utilities (except telephone). It is neither the lowest nor the highest rent: by rule it is set at the 40th percentile, the dollar amount below which 40% of the area's standard-quality rental units rent. HUD uses it to set the payment standards of the Housing Choice Voucher program (Section 8) and for other programs; on aquitucasa we use it as the benchmark for what renting costs in your county and for the wage needed to pay it.See the full definitionClose and must be reasonable for the area. And you must have a written, legally binding leaseleaseA lease, or rental agreement, is the contract in which the owner or landlord gives you the right to live in and use a property for a set period of time in exchange for payment, usually rent. While the lease lasts you have possession, but the landlord still owns the property. The lease says how much you pay and when, who handles maintenance and how the agreement can end. Your rights as a tenant are usually spelled out in the lease and in your state and local laws. Before complaining to the landlord, it helps to read the lease and make sure you are also following the rules you agreed to.See the full definitionClose.⁷

Example with real numbers

A family leaving the shelter with rapid rehousing

An example in words, not a real case, of how the help can be used.

Where they are now

In an emergency shelter, with two children

What the program aims for

That they move soon into their own apartment

What the help can pay

The application, the deposit (up to 2 months' rent), the move and part of the rent

The rent limit

No more than HUD's Fair Market Rent for the area

What the family signs

A written, legally binding lease

How long rental help lasts

Up to 24 months in a 3-year period, as the program decides

The rules in the example come from the ESG rule.⁷ Use the budget tool to plan how you will pay the rent when the help ends.

Run it with your numbersFamily budget

Families with children and people fleeing violence

If you have your children with you, one rule protects you. In an ESG-funded shelter that takes families with children, the age of a child under 18 may not be used to turn your family away.² If a shelter tells you your teenage son cannot come in with you, ask 211 for another shelter in the network.

If you are fleeing domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault or stalking, you count as homeless for ESG.³ Victim service providers may choose not to use coordinated entry.¹⁰ Our VAWA protections guide explains your housing rights. If you are a veteran, our HUD-VASH guide explains help from VA.

What the rules on immigration status say today

This subject is changing, so here is only what the official documents say.

A federal welfare reform law (PRWORA) says aliens who are not “qualified aliensqualified alien"Qualified alien" is a term in a federal law, 8 U.S.C. 1641, used to decide who may apply for or receive certain federal public benefits. The law defines it with a list of categories. They include lawful permanent residents, people granted asylum, refugees, certain people paroled into the country for at least one year, people whose deportation is being withheld, Cuban and Haitian entrants and, in certain cases, people subjected to battery or extreme cruelty. The same law has exceptions and other conditions, so the definition alone does not say whether a person can receive a benefit.See the full definitionClose” are not eligible for a “Federal public benefit.” The same law has exceptions, including short-term in-kind emergency relief and services such as short-term shelter specified by the Attorney General that are necessary to protect life or safety. In a Federal Register notice, HUD said it considers ESG and the Continuum of Care subject to that law’s eligibility and verification rules. In the same notice, HUD acknowledges that nonprofit charitable organizations are not required to verify eligibility, and says it would issue new guidance on how to verify.¹³

Later, a federal district court in Rhode Island declared several agencies’ notices on that law unlawful, including HUD’s, and ordered them set aside and vacated. It also barred the agencies from enforcing them by other means against the states that sued. The order makes clear HUD can adopt new rules if it first asks the public for comment.¹⁴

What does that mean for you? That the rules may change and may differ by program and by state. Do not hold back from asking for shelter out of fear. Ask the program which documents it requires and why. If you are denied help because of your status, get free legal aid: LSC has a finder by address or city.¹⁵ For any question about your immigration case, talk only to a lawyer or an accredited representativeDOJ-accredited representativeAn accredited representative is a non-attorney whom the U.S. Department of Justice, through its Recognition and Accreditation Program, authorizes to represent people in immigration matters before DHS and, with full accreditation, before the immigration courts. They may only do so through a recognized organization, which must be a non-profit, federally tax-exempt entity. It is the safe way to get low-cost immigration help: the Department of Justice publishes the official roster by state. Anyone who is not on that roster and is not a lawyer is not authorized to represent you.See the full definitionClose; notarios and consultants cannot give you legal advice.¹⁶ Our guide to public charge and housing explains another topic many families worry about.

If this is you

You have your children and nowhere to sleep

Dial 211; an ESG-funded shelter may not turn your family away because of the age of a child under 18.²

You will be forced out of your housing in a few days

If you will lose it within 14 days and have nowhere to go, you count as homeless for ESG.³

You still have housing but cannot keep up

Ask about prevention: rental help for income below 30% of the area's median family income.⁴

You are fleeing violence at home

You count as homeless, and victim service providers may choose not to use coordinated entry.¹⁰

You are afraid you will be asked for papers

A court vacated HUD's notice on this and the rules may change; ask what they require and get legal aid.¹⁴

Mistakes that can cost you

• Mistake: Waiting until you are on the street to ask for help.

  Instead: Call 211 as soon as you know you will lose your housing; prevention is for before.⁴

• Mistake: Going from shelter to shelter without going through coordinated entry.

  Instead: Ask to be assessed at coordinated entry: it is the door to the area's programs.⁹

• Mistake: Splitting up from your teenager because a shelter asked you to.

  Instead: The age of a child under 18 may not be used to turn your family away.²

• Mistake: Making a verbal rental deal with the landlord.

  Instead: With ESG help you need a written, legally binding lease.⁷

• Mistake: Not asking for shelter out of fear about your status.

  Instead: Ask what they require and why, and get legal aid if you are denied help.¹⁵

• Mistake: Paying someone who promises you a spot in a program.

  Instead: 211 and coordinated entry are free; no one can sell you a spot.¹²

What to do today and this week

1. Dial 211 and ask for a shelter for tonight or help to keep your housing.¹²
2. If you would rather search yourself, use HUD’s Find Shelter with your location.¹¹
3. Ask to be assessed at your area’s coordinated entry.⁹
4. Keep your eviction notice, your ID if you have one and your family’s medicines.
5. If you are denied help or do not understand why, find legal aid with the LSC finder.¹⁵
6. Once you have housing, work out with your case manager how you will pay the rent when the help ends.⁷