The Stewart B. McKinney Homeless Assistance Act (P.L. 100-77, July 1987) was the first comprehensive federal law designed to assist the homeless. Although the McKinney Act authorized a number of direct assistance programs to provide shelter and support services for the homeless, it did not consolidate the funding for or administration of these programs. It did, however, establish the Interagency Council on the Homeless to promote coordination. Originally, the Council was authorized by the Congress as an independent council with its own funding, full-time executive director, and staff. Its members were the heads of 12 Cabinet departments (or their designees), the heads of several other designated agencies, and the heads of other federal entities as determined by the Council. In 1994, however, because of congressional concern that the Council was not effectively coordinating a streamlined federal approach to homelessness, funds were not appropriated for the Council and it became a voluntary working group under the President’s Domestic Policy Council. The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) currently staffs the Council with a part-time executive director, two professional staff, and one clerical staff and provides administrative funding. Entitlements, such as for the Food Stamp Program, are under the control of authorizing committees and, under the appropriations process, are mandatory. A direct payment is financial assistance that the federal government provides directly to recipients who satisfy federal eligibility requirements, without placing any restrictions on how the recipients spend the money. According to the Office of Management and Budget’s Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance, formula grants are federal funds typically allocated to a state or one of its subdivisions in accordance with a distribution formula prescribed by law or administrative regulation, for activities of a continuing nature not confined to a specific project. Project grants are provided for a fixed or known period for a specific project or for the delivery of specific services or products. Nonprofit organizations and other entities usually apply directly to agencies to receive funding for these specific types of services. The Results Act establishes a formal process for holding federal agencies accountable for their programs’ performance. It requires these agencies to develop (1) long-term (generally 5-year) strategic plans, the first of which were due to the Congress by September 30, 1997, and (2) annual performance plans, the first of which covered fiscal year 1999 and were submitted to the Congress in the spring of 1998. The annual performance plans are to (1) identify annual performance goals and measures for each of an agency’s program activities, including those that cut across agency lines; (2) discuss the strategies and resources needed to achieve annual performance goals; and (3) explain what procedures the agency will use to verify and validate its performance data. The Office of Management and Budget oversees the efforts of federal agencies under the Results Act. Eight federal agencies administer 50 programs and other resources that can assist homeless people. Both targeted and nontargeted programs provide an array of services to the homeless, such as housing, health care, job training, and transportation. In some instances, different programs may offer the same types of services. Some of the targeted programs are available to the general homeless population, while others are reserved for specific groups within this population, such as children and youth or veterans. Similarly, some of the nontargeted programs are available to the low-income population as a whole, while others are designed exclusively for certain low-income groups, such as youth or veterans. Eight federal agencies—the departments of Agriculture (USDA), Health and Human Services (HHS), HUD, Education, Labor, and Veterans Affairs (VA) and two independent agencies, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Social Security Administration (SSA)—administer 50 programs that can serve homeless people. In some cases, multiple agencies operate programs that provide similar services. For example, six agencies operate programs that offer food and nutrition services, five agencies administer education programs (or programs that have an educational component), and four agencies administer housing assistance programs that can serve homeless people. As table 1 shows, 16 of the 50 programs we identified are targeted, or designed exclusively for homeless people. Thirty-four programs are nontargeted, or designed for a broader group of people with low incomes and/or special needs, such as disabilities or HIV/AIDS. While this broader group may include homeless people, information on the number served is generally not available. Because eligibility for the nontargeted programs is based on income or other criteria unrelated to homelessness, the programs generally do not—and are not required to—track data on the number of homeless persons served. A few nontargeted programs are, however, beginning to collect such data. For example, USDA’s Summer Food Service Program tracks the average number of children who receive meals at shelters for the homeless during the summer, and HUD’s Housing Opportunities for Persons With AIDS (HOPWA) program collects data on the number of homeless people served. A chart of the 50 programs and their eligible services appears in appendix I, while detailed information about the programs appears in appendix II. In addition, federal agencies and advocacy groups identified other resources and activities that can assist the homeless. While these activities are also important, we did not include them in our list of 50 programs. Some of the activities require little or no extra resources. For example, the Department of Energy provides insulation to qualifying homeless shelter dwellings, and USDA’s Rural Housing Service, HUD, and VA make foreclosed properties available to nonprofit organizations for housing homeless people. More information on these resources and activities is included in appendix III. As table 2 indicates, both targeted and nontargeted programs can offer a variety of services that often appear similar. For example, four agencies administer 23 different programs (11 targeted and 12 nontargeted) that provide some type of housing assistance, including emergency shelter, transitional housing, and other housing assistance. Similarly, six agencies administer 26 programs (11 targeted and 15 nontargeted) that deliver food and nutrition services. For example, USDA provides food and nutrition services ranging from funding for school lunches and breakfasts to food stamps, while FEMA funds the distribution of groceries to food pantries and food banks. Of the 50 programs, 10 (5 targeted and 5 nontargeted) provide assistance to prevent homelessness. For example, FEMA’s targeted Emergency Food and Shelter Program and HHS’ nontargeted Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program can provide rental assistance to prevent evictions, which could lead to homelessness. HUD’s nontargeted HOPWA program also provides short-term assistance to cover rent, mortgage and/or utility payments to prevent homelessness. However, the existence of programs that offer similar services does not necessarily mean that there is duplication because the particular services provided by each program may differ. For example, USDA’s Homeless Children Nutrition Program focuses on providing food services throughout the year to homeless children in emergency shelters, while VA’s Domiciliary Care for Homeless Veterans program provides food only to veterans who are involved with that program at a given time. Some of the targeted programs are available to the general homeless population, while others are reserved for specific groups within this population. Similarly, some of the nontargeted programs are available to the low-income population as a whole, while others are designed exclusively for certain low-income groups. As table 3 indicates, four of the targeted programs, including HUD’s Supportive Housing Program and FEMA’s Emergency Food and Shelter Program, serve the homeless population as a whole. Five targeted programs, such as Education’s Education for Homeless Children and Youth program, serve only homeless children and youth, and four other targeted programs, such as VA’s Domiciliary Care for Homeless Veterans program, serve only homeless veterans. Similarly, 14 nontargeted programs, including HHS’ Community Services Block Grant and USDA’s Emergency Food Assistance Program, are available to all qualifying low-income people, while 8 programs, such as HHS’ Head Start program, provide benefits only to low-income children and youth, and 1 program, Labor’s Veterans Employment Program, provides benefits only to veterans, including those who are homeless. In addition, of the 16 different programs under which homeless people may be eligible to receive one type of service—primary health care—7 programs are available either to all homeless people or to broad groups of low-income people. Programs available to broad groups of low-income people include HHS’ Medicaid, Community Health Centers, and Social Services Block Grant programs. However, 9 of the 16 programs are available only to groups with special needs, such as runaway youth or veterans. Additional information on groups served through these programs can be found in appendix IV. In fiscal year 1997, $1.2 billion in obligations was reported for programs targeted to the homeless, and about $215 billion in obligations was reported for nontargeted programs. While the funding for targeted programs must be used to assist homeless people, information on how much of the funding for nontargeted programs is used for this purpose is not generally available. Some of the funding for nontargeted programs is provided through formula grants or direct payments, while the funding for targeted programs is likely to be provided through project grants. Both formula and project grants present advantages and disadvantages in serving homeless people. In fiscal year 1997, the federal government reported obligations of over $1.2 billion for programs targeted to the homeless. Over three-fourths of the funding for the targeted programs, such as the Health Care for the Homeless and Supportive Housing programs, is provided through project grants, which are allocated to service providers. Most of the remainder for targeted programs is allocated to states and local governments through formula grants. Of the amount spent for targeted programs, about 70 percent was for programs administered by HUD.