The Base Closure Community Redevelopment and Homeless Assistance Act of 1994 (Redevelopment Act), which amended the BRAC statute, established the homeless assistance process for properties on military bases approved for closure after October 25, 1994. The key participants in the current process include DOD’s Office of Economic Adjustment, the military departments, HUD, the LRAs, and the homeless assistance providers. Because DOD and HUD both have significant roles under the BRAC statute, they jointly promulgated the regulations governing BRAC homeless assistance. As a result, DOD and HUD collaborate in providing guidance on the BRAC homeless assistance process. DOD Office of Economic Adjustment. Within DOD, the Office of Economic Adjustment—a field activity under the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics— assists communities by providing technical and financial assistance in planning and carrying out adjustment strategies in response to significant defense actions including base closures. The Office of Economic Adjustment has been delegated authority by the Secretary of Defense to recognize the LRA for each base closed under BRAC. It also provides planning-grant funds to those LRAs for which it determines base closure will cause direct and significant adverse consequences. An Office of Economic Adjustment project manager is to be assigned to each of these bases as a facilitator and catalyst to the community’s planning process. Military Departments. The Secretary of Defense delegated to the Secretaries of the military departments—Army, Navy, and Air Force— the disposal authority for bases closed under BRAC, including the authority to manage surplus-property disposals such as homeless assistance conveyances. Each military department assigns a project manager to its bases closed under BRAC. HUD. At HUD headquarters, the Office of Community Planning and Development, Office of Special Needs Assistance Programs, carries out HUD’s BRAC process responsibilities. HUD field offices provide technical assistance to LRAs and homeless assistance providers throughout the planning process. HUD’s role is to review the redevelopment plan and homeless assistance submission that the LRA submits to HUD and DOD. HUD may also negotiate and consult with the LRA before or during its preparation of its plan. LRAs. The LRA is any authority or instrumentality established by state or local government and recognized by the Secretary of Defense through the Office of Economic Adjustment as the entity responsible for developing the redevelopment plan or for directing implementation of the redevelopment plan. LRAs are required to perform certain steps to allow the community input during its deliberations. The communities in the vicinity of a base are defined by BRAC regulation as the political jurisdiction or jurisdictions, other than the state, that include the LRA for the base. Homeless assistance providers. Homeless assistance providers, also called “representatives of the homeless,” may include state or local government agencies or private nonprofit organizations that provide or propose to provide assistance to homeless persons and families. Homeless assistance providers seek buildings and properties that may provide supportive services, job and skills training, employment programs, shelter, transitional housing, permanent housing, food and clothing banks, treatment facilities, or other activities that meet an identified need of the homeless or fill a gap in the local Continuum of Care. Under the BRAC statute as revised by the Redevelopment Act and its implementing regulations, LRAs are required to accept and consider notices of interest from homeless assistance providers. In this process, the LRA prepares a redevelopment plan after consulting with homeless assistance providers and other community groups affected by the base closure, and HUD assesses the plan to determine whether it appropriately balances the needs of the community for economic and other development with the needs of the homeless. Subsequent to HUD approval and other procedural steps, DOD may transfer properties for homeless assistance purposes. Figure 1 shows the homeless assistance process for BRAC surplus property under the Redevelopment Act. Pursuant to the BRAC statute as amended by the Redevelopment Act, the military departments are required to determine whether other DOD components or federal agencies have a use for property at the BRAC base, then notify the LRAs of any surplus property available for reuse and publish that information in the Federal Register. The LRA then must advertise the surplus property availability in a newspaper of general circulation within the vicinity of the base. The advertisement must include the period, required to be between 90 and 180 days following the advertisement, during which it will receive notices of interest from homeless assistance providers. The LRA must also conduct outreach with homeless assistance providers, including holding a workshop and tour of the properties. When the LRA completes its outreach process, it has up to 270 days to generate a redevelopment plan and a homeless assistance submission. The LRA must consider the notices of interest and determine which, if any, to support with some combination of buildings, property, or funding. If the LRA decides to support a notice of interest, it develops legally binding agreements to implement no-cost homeless assistance, which may differ substantially from the initial notice. The LRA then submits these agreements as part of the homeless assistance submission to HUD and the military department. If HUD approves the base redevelopment plan, including the homeless assistance submission, it will notify the LRA and the military department. The military department—which during the redevelopment planning conducts an environmental impact analysis of the base prior to disposal— is required to give the redevelopment plan, including the homeless assistance recommendations, substantial deference in making property disposal decisions. Once the military department completes its environmental impact analysis and makes its record of decision, it transfers surplus buildings and properties in accordance with the record of decision, and may transfer properties for homeless assistance either to the LRA or directly to the homeless assistance providers. Pursuant to the BRAC statute and its implementing regulations, LRAs may convey to homeless assistance providers on-base property or buildings, off-base property or buildings, or funding in lieu of property. An on-base conveyance may include undeveloped land, buildings to be demolished in order to develop new structures, or entire buildings or space within a building to provide assistance to those experiencing homelessness. Such conveyances must be for no cost. Additionally, the legally binding agreements must include a provision that, if a homeless assistance provider ceases to provide services to the homeless, the property will revert to the LRA. If this were to occur, the LRA must take appropriate action to secure, to the maximum extent practicable, another qualified homeless assistance provider to use the property to assist the homeless. If the LRA is unable to find a qualified provider to use the property, it will own the property without any further requirement to use the property to assist the homeless. As part of the planning process, the LRA may propose alternative properties off base or financial assistance if those options would be more compatible with the LRA’s proposed redevelopment plan for the base. Off-base properties or buildings may include undeveloped land or excess buildings owned by the local government. Funding may originate from bonds, a percentage of sales from on-base property to private developers, or through the issuance of forgivable loans, among other options. In these cases where the LRA is providing off-base property or funding, the legally binding agreements do not need to include a provision that the conveyance revert to the LRA if a homeless assistance provider ceases to provide services to the homeless. Thirty-nine of the 125 bases closed as a result of BRAC 2005 that had surplus property provided a variety of homeless assistance in response to notices of interest submitted by homeless assistance providers. An additional 12 bases’ LRAs received notices of interest that did not result in a legally binding agreement, the reasons for which varied. However, neither HUD nor DOD require that the status of conveyances be tracked after legally binding agreements are reached, which limits the departments’ ability to assess the homeless assistance program’s effectiveness. Of the 125 bases with surplus property closed during BRAC 2005, 39 received notices of interest from homeless assistance providers that were approved for assistance with 75 homeless assistance providers, 12 bases received notices of interest that did not result in any assistance, and 74 Figure 2 shows the geographic bases received no notices of interest.distribution of the properties. The 39 bases’ LRAs that provided assistance did so in a variety of ways, as seen in figure 3, below. On-Base Property. Twenty-two bases’ LRAs provided assistance through on-base property conveyances, granting specific existing property to homeless assistance providers. This property included nearly 50 parcels of both vacated military surplus buildings and plots of undeveloped land. For instance, at General Mitchell Air Reserve Station in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, a homeless assistance provider requested a 56,000 square foot warehouse on the base for emergency food storage and office space. The provider was selected to receive homeless assistance and HUD approved the redevelopment plan in December 2008. The warehouse was conveyed to the provider in July 2010. Off-Base Property. Three bases’ LRAs provided assistance through off-base property conveyances, granting either a specific existing building, a new building to be constructed, or a piece of undeveloped land at a location that was not part of the former base. For example, according to the homeless assistance provider, the LRA at the Schroeder Hall U.S. Army Reserve Center in Long Beach, California, granted a 10-year no-cost lease of off-base property to the provider, with an option to purchase the property for a nominal fee at the conclusion of the lease. The site is located near the former base, and will house a psychiatric clinic for mentally ill people experiencing homelessness. Funding. Seven bases’ LRAs provided assistance through funding. The assistance provided totaled over $29 million.