Blog: Homelessness Ends Here

In 2000, the National Alliance to End Homelessness unveiled the aptly titled, "A Plan, Not a Dream: How to End Homelessness in Ten Years." The 10-Year Plan, as it came to be called, presented a fresh, comprehensive and multi-system approach to ending homelessness. It utilized data, leveraged existing support systems, promoted outreach and focused on housing. It integrated all we knew about the most promising and proven practices to end homelessness. Now, 10 years after the launch, we pause to take stock of our progress.

Over the past 20 years, our nation has seen the creation of an entire generation of frequent users of public services, helping fuel the state budget crises we now see in nearly every state in the country. In recent years, communities around the country have been experimenting with ways to put an end to the "institutional circuit" for these frequent users of public systems, and with one innovative stone, kill the two birds of promoting individual stability and restoring fiscal sanity.

This video from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation highlights the work of the Sound Families Initiative and its partners, which have helped provide transitional housing and support services to more than 1,500 families and 2,500 children in Washington since 2000.

With the support of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Corporation for Supportive Housing has developed the Keeping Families Together pilot in New York City to demonstrate the impact of supportive housing on families who are chronically homeless and child welfare-involved. The following update provides specific examples of how the KFT initiative is helping to create thriving and stable families.

Much has been written, seen and heard about Katrina and its aftermath – including the devastation and human suffering caused by this catastrophe, as well as successful redevelopment initiatives in New Orleans and other localities. However, there is still very little public awareness of this extraordinary effort by Louisiana citizens – including government officials, non-profit groups, and PSH advocates – as well as national partners such as the Technical Assistance Collaborative (TAC), to create the nation’s first comprehensive Permanent Supportive Housing program in the United States.

According to author Atul Gawande, “Betterment is a perpetual labor.” Gawande's observations have relevance for any field of endeavor and they certainly ring true to those of us wrestling with the challenge of ending homelessness.

A summary of tweets from the Funders Together twitter feed. Follow us at @FundersTogether for real-time updates!

A summary of tweets from the Funders Together twitter feed. Follow us at @FundersTogether for real-time updates!

The Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) today released a study by the Economic Roundtable that provides even more evidence that providing permanent supportive housing for the chronically homeless can ultimately provide public cost savings. These savings have been documented in research in cities across the nation, with the early work being done by Dennis Culhane and colleagues on New York.

In an address he gave on April 9 of this year, President Obama assured American soldiers that, "When you come home to America, America will be there for you." Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki affirmed the President's promise when he vowed to end veterans homelessness in five years. It's a goal as noble as the men and women it honors; and one that should be taken very, very seriously.