Resources for People Experiencing Homelessness
Are you experiencing homelessness? If so, you are not alone. This year, almost 2 million people will find themselves without housing in the United States. Resources are available to help you with shelter, health care and other needs. This page can direct you to assistance in your community.
Housing
- Shelters & other homeless services
Online directory of local homeless service organizations and homeless & housing advocacy coalitions, listed by state from the National Coalition for the Homeless. - U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)
List of programs managed by local organizations that provide a range of services, including shelter, food, counseling, and jobs skills programs, to help you locate services in your area.
Medical
- Health Care for the Homeless Grantees
Look up Health Care for the Homeless (HCH) providers in every state and learn about the services that they provide. - Find a Health Center Tool[find-health-center class=”alignright”]
This will help you locate HRSA-supported health centers, where you may go to receive free or low-cost health care.- It is designed to be a simple-to-use tool: enter an address, city, or county and the tool finds health centers in the area near it. You can view the search results as a list only, or as a list with an accompanying map that shows where each health center is located. You can print the search results, email them to yourself or to someone else that you think may be interested, and get driving directions to any of the health centers you find. The Find a Health Center tool is also available as an app for both iPhone and Android.
Legal
- Legal Services Corporation
Find free and low-cost civil legal services in your state. - National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty
Information about housing, income, education, civil rights, homelessness and poverty in America.
Get Involved
- National Consumer Advisory Board (NCAB)
Visit NCAB’s site to see what you can do to help advise policymakers, service providers, and other stakeholders. You can apply to be a member online (for free), read the newsletter, and contact NCAB. - Are you a client of a Health Care for the Homeless Project? The National Health Care for the Homeless Council is committed to including clients of HCH projects on advisory and governing boards. For information about joining an consumer advisory board in your community, or working with other HCH client leaders throughout the country, contact NCAB.
Other Resources
Publications by and for people who are homeless: A street newspaper is a publication created to increase the public’s awareness of poverty and homeless issues, as well as to provide flexible employment opportunities for homeless people. Most street newspapers provide papers to homeless vendors for 20% to 40% of the cover price, which is usually $1. The self-employed vendor sells the papers on the street and keeps the money he or she makes. Street newspapers now operate in 47 cities throughout North America and in dozens of other cities in Europe, Africa, Australia and the Caribbean.
- International Network of Street Papers (INSP) – a network of 80 street paper members situated across 27 countries.
- International Homeless and Homelessness Directory – resources, research, information and services regarding homeless people and homelessness.