MDHA’s mission rests on the 2009 Homeless Emergency Assistance and Rapid Transition to Housing (HEARTH) Act, and Opening Doors, the national strategic plan to end homelessness, established under the Act.
MDHA has five main statutory roles:
- Facilitate $16 million of Federal Continuum of Care (CoC) funding annually, for homeless services programs;
- Administer the Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) that drives improvement of homeless services programs, currently serving about 9,750 persons;
- Maintain a count of persons experiencing homelessness;
- Maintain an inventory of housing and shelter beds for the homeless and formerly homeless;
- Develop and quarterback an effective unified homeless response system, where all homeless services programs work together to make homelessness rare, brief and nonrecurring.