Outreach
The information and resources here are intended to support your efforts to implement effective housing-focused street outreach services in your community.
Housing-Focused Street Outreach Resources
Below you will find information and tools from a number of sources. Remember, you can also always search on the Homeless Hub and the Homelessness Learning Hub for further street outreach related information.
Keep checking back here as we will be regularly updating materials and adding further resources.
Role of Outreach and Other Outreach Information
- Core Elements of Effective Street Outreach to People Experiencing Homelessness – A Checklist (USICH, 2019)
- Role of Outreach in a Housing First Program – one-page diagram
- NAEH Homeless Street Outreach Video Series (2023)- See also NAEH Center for Learning – Street Outreach Training
- The Challenge of Outreach (2 min)
- First Contact and Establishing Trust (3 min)
- Safety for the Street Outreach Team (3 min)
- What Peers Bring to the Work (3 min)
- Involving People with Lived Experience (14 min)
- Webinars and Podcasts:
- Housing Focused Street Outreach Webinar Series (HUD, 2024) – this three-part webinar series provides an overview of the basics of housing-focused street outreach, highlights communities that are effectively addressing unsheltered homelessness using housing-focused street outreach models and provides clear guidance for shifting the focus of outreach to housing both on the ground and at the system level.
- Promoting Safety in Street Outreach (National Healthcare for Homelessness Council, 2022) – Recording and Presentation (PDF)
- Coordinating Outreach and Using Technology (CAEH Webinar, 2021) – Recording and Presentation (PDF) – Niagara Region and Kelowna share their efforts to coordinate and map outreach with the aid of locally developed apps.
- Lessons Learned from Outreach Workers (HUD webinar, 2021) – Recording and Transcript
OrgCode Resources
- What Makes Good Street Outreach in the Era of Coordinated Entry (blog, May 2021)
- Impactful Outreach (blog, February, 2021)
- Impactful Outreach Presentation (NAEH Conference, 2020)
- 5 Thoughts on Street Outreach to Housing (blog, April 2017)
Frameworks, Guidelines, Policies, Procedures & Tools
- Housing Focussed Street Outreach Framework (NAEH, 2025) – this 74-page guide is packed with the most up-to-date proven practices and strategies in housing-focused street outreach.
- Data Collection and Management for Street Outreach Providers (NAEH, 2025) – as a companion to the Housing Focussed Street Outreach Framework, this 20-page guide provides the “how-to” of street outreach data collection and management.
- Outreach Coverage and Coordination Tool (CAEH) – a Google Form you can copy and use to identify unsheltered homelessness coverage and coordination in your community.
- Assertive Outreach Good Practices Guidelines and Resources (Homelessness New South Wales, Australia, 2021) – includes a guidelines document, manual, and webinars
- Assertive Outreach Resource (Council of Homelessness Persons, Australia, 2019) – 10 page document explaining what is assertive outreach, why it is needed, 6 key elements, and concerns and practice tips
- Sample community policies and procedures:
- Northern Michigan Street Outreach Manual (2023) – 22 page guide to effective housing-focused street outreach.
- Sample Outreach Policies from US BFZ-C Communities: Central Virginia, Rockford (IL), Tucson (AZ)
- Street Outreach Program Standard Operating Procedures (Roanoke, Virginia, 2016)
- Homeless Outreach Program Framework (BC Housing, 2018)
Program Areas
Emergency Shelter | Diversion | Outreach | Housing Help and Landlords | Housing with Support | Prevention | Partnering with Other Systems | Peers and Lived Experience | Indigenous Resources