National Alliance to End Homelessness

Veterans, families and youth are among the 2 million Americans who experience homelessness each year. We're ending homelessness by helping local communities improve their programs, educating opinion leaders, advancing research and improving policy.

Why do we exist?

The National Alliance to End Homelessness (the Alliance) exists to prevent and end homelessness in the United States.  On any given night, over 650,000 people are homeless in America.  This includes families, veterans, children, youth and single adults.  The Alliance aims to end homelessness by:

• Building knowledge.  We use research and data to discover what works to end homelessness and develop knowledge about these solutions.  Our research arm, the Homelessness Research Institute (HRI), leads this work. 

• Improving policy.  Based upon this knowledge, the Alliance educates opinion leaders and policymakers about what works and tries to build strong policy in support of solutions (with emphasis on federal policy).

• Building Capacity.  To help communities improve their homelessness assistance programs, our Center for Capacity Building provides training and technical assistance to service providers in local communities. 

What have you accomplished?

The National Alliance to End Homelessness has contributed to the reduction of people experiencing homelessness across the nation.  Over the last five years, homelessness has declined dramatically.  The most progress has been made among chronically homeless people, those who have been homeless for an extended period of time and often have a physical or mental disability.

The Alliance is working with organizations across the country to help the families and individuals behind these numbers; families like Robyn’s.  Robyn and her three young children were living in a shelter in Washington, DC at the beginning of 2010.  With assistance from a local nonprofit organization the family was able to move into their own apartment in May.  Robyn’s family was also assigned a case manager to help them get back on their feet.  The case manager provided Robyn with employment assistance, helping her develop a resume and apply for jobs.  In September, Robyn secured a job as a part-time line cook at Trinity University.  Her excellence on the job led to a promotion to full-time line cook. 

Robyn loves her job as a cook. Now that she has secured full-time employment, she is considering going to college as well.   Robyn is thankful for the support that she was given when times were hard.   She is now able to pay the rent on her apartment and support her family. 

Robyn’s story is just one example out of the many people helped by the Alliance’s commitment to helping local communities successfully serve people at risk of and experiencing homelessness.

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