Thank you for attending our special preview impact screening of
BEYOND THE BRIDGE: A SOLUTION TO HOMELESSNESS

We drove over 40K miles from coast to coast visiting 12 cities to answer this one question: “How can America solve its homelessness crisis?” We were not only looking for great ideas on new ways to engage people experiencing homelessness, we wanted to find a formula that every community can use to end their homelessness crisis.

Behind The Scenes episode 5: Housing First Partners Conference

We found the blueprint we were looking for.

Below is an outline of the first steps every community must take if they are serious about solving their homeless crisis:

  • The Mayor, County Executive, City Manager – whichever the top executive(s) in a community goes by – has to decide to end homelessness rather than manage it. This top executive(s) has to realize that they and their administration are the ones who have to lead the effort to end homelessness, like any other crisis that would befall their city.
  • The top executive then has to convene all the stakeholders in their community that homelessness touches either directly or indirectly – hospital administrator(s), mental healthcare administrator(s), police chief, sheriff, homeless service provider executives, business leaders, prosecutor and top judge, faith based leaders, philanthropy leaders, etc. At that convening the top executive(s) must announce their intention to repair or create a new homeless response system that is constructed to end homelessness – not manage it from year to year.
  • The top executive then must have someone in place to carry on the process while remaining present on the issue, or they must take it upon themself to form a working group with representatives from all of the above stakeholders. This working group will be responsible for identifying the places where the current system is failing, create ways to fix the fail spots, or simply build a new homeless response system from scratch.
  • The repaired or new homeless response system model then has to be presented to the overall convening of stakeholders. The top executive(s) have to be there to sign off on the new system and assure, though resistance to change will be inevitable, that this new system is what will be implemented and how the community will now approach addressing their homelessness crisis.

The new model must have these elements to be successful:

  • A single homeless response system with a shared mission that all stakeholders must work cooperatively within.
  • Federal, state, local, and philanthropy dollars combine to fund the system vs. funding individual organizations – the system administrators will then well fund the providers.
  • A system of accountability that includes representatives from all stakeholder groups meeting once a week for 12 to18 months to make sure the system is hitting all of its homeless count reduction targets will be instituted – this way adjustments can be made in real time before it is too late.

The most important feature of a functional, successful homeless response system:

The system must be placed upon a foundation of Permanent Housing with supportive services where needed as the primary response to homelessness. Shelter is an emergency piece of the system where people should not have to stay more than three months before they are housed.