Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing Program

On February 17, 2009, President Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, which included $1.5 billion for a Homelessness Prevention Fund. Funding for this program, called the Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing Program (HPRP), was distributed based on the formula used for the Emergency Shelter Grants Program.

For additional information on the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), please visit HUD's ARRA page, or www.Recovery.gov.

Switch among the tabs to view other HPRP-related information.

HPRP ended nationwide on September 30, 2012.
Federal HPRP funds are no longer available.

Promising Practices & Success Stories

HPRP marks the first time that such a large amount of federal funds has been available for homelessness prevention at the national level. Since the beginning of the program, communities across the country have worked to prevent and end homelessness for over one million people, including families and individuals (see the HPRP Year 1 Summary). Homelessness prevention and rapid re-housing are key strategies of Opening Doors: Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness and are components of the Homeless Emergency Assistance and Rapid Transition to Housing (HEARTH) Act. While HPRP in name will come to an end in 2012, the activities will be eligible under the new Emergency Solutions Grants (ESG) Program. Learning what has been instrumental to foster success in other communities can be key as communities continue to incorporate prevention and rapid re-housing activities into their continuum. This page contains community and program-level promising practices and individual success stories submitted by HPRP programs across the country.

Submit a Story

HUD encourages communities to submit examples of how they have used HPRP to effect change in their communities and homeless continuum, and to positively impact residents’ lives. To submit your story, please use the Promising Practices and Success Stories Template.

Find a Story

To see stories highlighting community or program-level systems change, successful targeting strategies, or examples of how HPRP has helped communities to decrease their homeless or shelter population, look under Promising Practices. Stories highlighting individual or family HPRP success stories can be found by looking under Individual Success Stories.

Read our most recent stories below, or use the links on the right navigation bar to look for stories by topic. To clear your topic selection criteria, click the Clear Search button below.

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San Antonio Uses HPRP to Emphasize Financial Literacy

With HPRP, the city saw an opportunity to develop and implement a new and comprehensive financial literacy program for homeless and at-risk people that coupled financial education with housing assistance. San Antonio and its partners found that this approach has the potential to improve families' long-term well-being, because program participants acquired the tools and renewed perspective needed to maintain self-sufficiency and to be better prepared for unexpected crises. Although the continuation of these efforts post-HPRP will be smaller in scope, the city's goal remains the same: to build the financial capacity and self-sufficiency of its citizens with the highest need.
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State of Michigan Uses Data to Increase and Analyze Success

The State of Michigan embraced the challenge of HPRP to prioritize those with the most imminent need. The State created a risk assessment matrix based on research to identify individuals and families facing the greatest risk of housing loss or insecurity, which HPRP subgrantees incorporated into their intake process. In addition, Michigan performed follow-up analysis to learn that only 6.5% of those who received financial assistance for rapid re-housing returned to homelessness within 2 years.
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HPRP Case Studies in Community Change

Seven communities show the way the Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-housing Program is promoting community change and transformation of local homeless assistance.
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