Economic Security
Economic Security
OUR WORK
Addressing Homelessness Across the United States
Homelessness has long been among America’s most significant social challenges, and the coronavirus pandemic has only made it more acute.
To effectively respond to the crisis of homelessness, the federal government needs meaningful and actionable data on the scope and trajectory of the problem. However, the transient nature of homelessness makes it inherently difficult to measure. Abt pioneered methodologies now considered standard to quantify the extent of homelessness across the United States. Since 2007, the U.S. Congress has relied upon our organization to produce the Annual Homeless Assessment Report, or AHAR.
What is clear is that homelessness is on the rise, increasing nationwide for the fourth year in a row. The number of people living outdoors rose by 7 percent from 2019 to 2020, and the number of unsheltered veterans increased by 6 percent. The number of unsheltered families with children increased for the first time since data collection began.
Arming the Local Response with Data Using Stella
In 2020, Abt broke new ground in its leadership on addressing homelessness. We released Stella, an analytical tool that helps local and regional planning bodies—known as Continuums of Care, or CoCs—better understand and address homelessness in their communities. Stella’s dynamic visualizations illustrate how individuals and households move through each community’s homelessness response system, highlighting performance gaps or disparities. Abt is now developing an enhancement to Stella, which will enable communities to model and compare the performance and costs of different solutions to homelessness in their area.
Creating Insights to inform National, State, and Local Responses to Homelessness
For nearly 50 years, Abt has led studies on what works—and what does not work—in fighting homelessness. Since we know Black families are disproportionately affected by homelessness, we studied how well the prominent Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) program works for Black families experiencing homelessness compared with white families. Our research found that the intervention works just as well for Black families as it does for white families. While factors that predict moving out of homelessness do differ by race, for all families, access to a voucher reduces returns to homelessness, doubling up, and moving. These results reinforce the promise of the HCV program to help alleviate the effects of severe poverty and provide housing opportunities that support both Black and white families, without exacerbating racial disparities.
We also studied whether states are using a key federal grants program available to them to assist families currently or at risk of experiencing homelessness. Our results indicate that most states do not specifically target their Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) funds to identify or assist families at risk of becoming homeless.
Physical manifestations of the homelessness crisis can be found in most urban areas, and homeless encampments are appearing in numbers not seen in almost a century. We conducted the first-ever federal study of encampments to further understand what they are, why they form, how cities are responding to them, and what those responses cost. In interviews with encampment residents, outreach workers, and city agencies, we found a lack of affordable housing and shortcomings in local shelter systems are driving most people to encampments. We collected cost data in four of the nine cities in the study and found that the cities spent between $3.3 and $8.5 million in 2019 on encampment-related activities ranging from outreach to encampment clearance, closure, and prevention. Our study offers data to help local practitioners and policymakers understand the existing strategies for responding to encampments and to ensure dignity and well-being for those most vulnerable among us.
Public Health and Homelessness—Driving an Integrated Frontline Community Response
For more than 20 years, Abt has provided direct technical assistance (TA) and capacity building to communities fighting homelessness. With the onset of COVID-19, we targeted our support to help states and local Continuums of Care (CoCs) develop strategies to both slow the spread of COVID-19 among people experiencing homelessness and ensure that stimulus response funding is leveraged in strategic, equitable ways. Since March 2020, we have collaborated with federal partners from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to develop guidance and provide direct support for local CoCs, states, public health agencies, and emergency response officials to ensure their vaccine distribution efforts prioritized people experiencing homelessness who are aging or medically vulnerable to infection, as well as communities of color who are disproportionately affected by homelessness and by the pandemic. In advocating for this, the Abt team, composed of experts in homelessness and health, has helped to develop dozens of HUD TA products; facilitated over 100 webinars, workshops, and virtual events; and provided direct TA to 50 communities and states across the country. This work has highlighted the vital importance of integrating the homelessness response with a robust public health response.
UN Sustainable Development Goals
UN Global Compact Principles
Impact
Results We Generated
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Pioneered now-standard method to quantify extent of homelessness
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>50 communities supported to integrate public health response with homelessness response
QUESTIONS WE ADDRESSED
Client & Project
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Administration for Children and Families (ACF)
How TANF Agencies Support Families Experiencing Homelessness
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the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)
Exploring Homelessness Among People Living in Encampment and Associated Costs
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Improving Egyptian Farmers’ Livelihoods with Innovative Finance
Proximity to lucrative international markets, along with good growing conditions, would appear to provide an ideal situation for smallholder horticulture farmers in Upper Egypt and the Delta. Yet poor farming practices, lack of knowledge about farming as a business, and a reluctance by financial institutions to support agricultural lending combine to keep many farmers in poverty.
Lack of access to financing can particularly hinder farmers and processors from meeting buyer demand and expanding their businesses. Since 2018, Abt has transformed the lives of more than 40,000 smallholder farmers in the region by bringing farmers and buyers together, building capacity and mentoring activities, and partnering with nine financial institutions to launch innovative agriculture financial services for smallholder farmers and producers.
Farmers learned state-of-the-art cultivation techniques for horticultural products such as potatoes and green beans, how to judge seed quality, and how to make inexpensive organic fertilizer from agricultural waste. They also gained knowledge and skills to manage their income and expenses, prepare agricultural feasibility studies, and assess financial services and products.
At the same time, Abt facilitated linkages between smallholder farmers and high-end markets—exporters, processors, and input suppliers—resulting in forward and input supply contracts, which have made these farmers lower-risk clients for lenders. Crucially, Abt has also worked with financial institutions over the last two years. The team has provided on-the job-training, field visits, and workshops for financial institutions’ top management to develop demand-driven agri-loan products for smallholder farmers and establish procedures to mitigate agri-loan risk, especially during COVID-19. Smallholder farmers who received agri-loans were able to purchase better inputs to improve crop quality and increase productivity, which consequently increased their sales and income. Farmers were able to both pay back the loans they received and have more to reinvest in land, family expenses, or business expansion.
UN Sustainable Development Goals
UN Global Compact Principles
Impact
Results We Generated
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Facilitated $17.6 million in sales of horticultural products from smallholder farmers to international and domestic buyers
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Created 2,200 sustainable full-time-equivalent jobs on- and off-farm
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Enabled 9 financial institutions in distributing 1,174 loans to smallholder farmers, valued at $1,543,629
Client & Project
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U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)
Feed the Future Egypt Rural Agribusiness Strengthening Project (ERAS)
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Adolescent Girls and Young Women Rewrite Their Future
Girls and young women who drop out of school in Uganda rarely return to graduate, severely limiting their opportunities and often contributing to early marriage, poor health outcomes, and poverty.
Abt is expanding livelihood opportunities, improving nutrition outcomes, and strengthening local governance through an integrated program that increases the resilience of vulnerable communities in Uganda. Through the program, Abt is engaging thousands of adolescent girls and young women in year-long training and mentorship activities to help them build a better future and advance gender equality and social inclusion.
At the first Voice, Choice, and Control camp, 1,029 graduates learned how take control of their lives, be assertive, and make decisions that build their resilience and give them a chance at a better livelihood. An additional 1,141 participants are currently in the program. Participants build their self-confidence and communication skills to learn how to speak up. They learn about different business ideas and are connected to inspirational businesswomen from their communities for continued mentorship after the camp ends. Most camp graduates have started businesses such as tailoring, baking, and mask making, while others are engaged in agriculture.
Abt has also linked 25 participants to government programs that have provided a total of UGX8,000,000 in loans and grants. Some participants have returned to school or taken up leadership within their communities, including serving as clan head—traditionally a role occupied by men—and running for political office. Graduates of Voice, Choice, and Control have demonstrated to their communities that they, too, can run businesses, save money to better overcome unexpected financial shocks, and rewrite their future.
UN Sustainable Development Goals
UN Global Compact Principles
Impact
Results We Generated
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1,029 adolescent girls and young women graduated the Voice, Choice, and Control camp with life skills
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856 adolescent girls and young women took up new opportunities in leadership and income generation
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UGX8,000,000 accessed by 25 adolescent girls and young women through loans and grants for businesses
Client & Project
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U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)
Integrated Community Agriculture and Nutrition Activity (ICAN)
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OUR PEOPLE AND OPERATIONS
Supporting Our Staff Through COVID-19
As COVID-19 began sweeping across the world, Abt moved quickly to minimize the financial effects on our staff. We rolled out a series of benefit adjustments and other policies to protect our team members and support them working from home effectively.
We negotiated with our life and disability insurance carrier to allow employees to qualify for coverage even if their work hours fell below the former eligibility threshold of 30 hours per week and provided stipends to U.S.-based staff for work-related supplies or equipment. In April 2020, we introduced a formal leave-donation policy to assist employees who may require additional time off to address personal or family needs. Employees can now access or voluntarily donate vacation time through three leave banks covering: Medical Emergency, Major Disaster, and General Leave.
Additionally, Abt elected to adopt all the voluntary provisions allowed under the CARES Act for relaxing normal limits on loans and withdrawals from the 401(k) plan to give employees who were affected by COVID-19 the greatest amount of flexibility.
UN Sustainable Development Goals
UN Global Compact Principles
Global Reporting Initiative Index
Financial Health and Mission Impact
Even as supporting our staff through the pandemic took center stage, maintaining the overall financial health of the company in the face of uncertainty continued to be a top priority.
Our ability to deliver on our mission is singularly dependent on being able to invest in innovative and robust solutions and developing our people. The strong financial position we have cultivated allowed us to weather the unprecedented challenges presented by COVID-19. We were able to maintain delivery of our projects with virtually no interruption. We accomplished this near-seamless transition thanks to the previous investments made in state-of-the-art virtual collaboration technology, robust telecommuting processes, and the remarkable agility and resilience of our staff.
OUR COMMUNITIES
Strengthening Communities' Economic Resilience
The COVID-19 crisis continues to endanger the communities where we live and work, with rising numbers of people experiencing homelessness and food insecurity.
During the early stages of the pandemic, Abt announced a match for donations made to help those who were suffering as a result of the COVID-19-related economic downturn. Staff gave generously, and $35,000 of Abt’s match went to Feeding America, which works directly with many of the food banks in areas where our offices are located. Another $23,250 of Abt’s match went to GiveDirectly’s Project 100, which aims to give $1,000 directly to 100,000 families for urgent needs beyond food, including social services and rent.
Many other employee-led efforts fueled an Abt community response to COVID-19. A team of employees participated in the Ride For Food, raising funds for Food Link in Eastern Massachusetts. Employees also participated in the Linkages for Learning drive—donating over $3,000 worth of school supplies in Montgomery County, Maryland, alone.
It would have been easier biking in a group, but knowing that other people were out there on their own as well gave me the little extra push I needed to keep on pedaling.
UN Sustainable Development Goals
Impact
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$35K donated to Feeding America
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$23K donated to GiveDirectly's Project
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1,200 hours volunteered
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100 supplies donated to Linkages for Learning
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200+ toys donated to Toys for Tots via virtual boxes
