FORT MYERS, FLORIDA. Fort Myers and Lee County, Florida have long been known as the site for springtime baseball with two Major League teams having stadiums there. So it was only fitting that it should be a bright spring day when Fort Myers Mayor Jim Humphrey and Lee County Commissioner Bob Janes announced last week they will be forming a new team for the community— a partnership of city, county, and private sector leaders to develop the nation’s 300th jurisdictional 10-Year Plan to End Chronic Homelessness.

Mayor Humphrey and Commissioner Janes were joined by United States Interagency Council on Homelessness Executive Director Philip Mangano as they made their announcement at a meeting of key community stakeholders. The "lineup" included Greater Fort Myers Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Marietta Mudgett, Lee Memorial Health System President and CEO Jim Nathan and Chris Nesheim, Family Health Center CEO Lalai Hamric and VP Bob Johns, Lee County Human Services Director Karen Hawes and Ann Anwall, Lee Mental Health Director David Winters, United Way Executive Director Cliff Smith, Fort Myers Community Development Director Mellone Long, Fort Myers Housing Authority Director Marcus Goodson, Fort Myers News-Press Publisher Carol Hudler, Salvation Army General Manager Meg Geltner, South West Florida Addiction Services Executive Director Kevin Lewis and Board member Larry Hart, Community Cooperative Ministries Director Sarah Owens, Northern Trust President Sandy Robinson, Bonita Bay Group Government Affairs Director Margaret Emblidge, Lee County Library System representatives Madeline Plummer and Terri Crawford, and Sheriff’s Department officers Frank Taboadela, Bob Buissereth, and Matt Powell. The announcement was followed by a discussion of challenges and initiatives including Behavioral Health Core Services and a “community social service one stop center.”

Director Mangano commended Mayor Humphrey and Commissioner Janes for joining with mayors and county officials from 299 other communities who are using their jurisdictional leadership to exert political will on behalf of their homeless neighbors, and by committing to a 10-Year Plan process, are creating intergovernmental and intracommunity partnerships through which everyone can pull in the same direction to “go beyond charity to justice” in creating housing solutions for persons experiencing homelessness. Director Mangano, who had made a site visit to the library and the Lee Memorial Hospital Emergency Room with Mayor Humphrey and USICH Regional Coordinator Team Leader Michael German, discussed studies now going on in more than 60 10-Year Plan communities that uniformly “are demonstrating that the status quo response to street and shelter homelessness of ad hoc, uncoordinated crisis interventions is more expensive and less effective than solving chronic homelessness.” Lee Memorial Health Systems President and CEO Nathan confirmed that approximately 10 people had been identified as having been to the emergency room at least 100 times each in one year at an average cost of $1000 each time.

Director Mangano also spoke of the leadership of now U.S. Senator Mel Martinez, represented at the meeting by his Southwest Florida Regional Director Dick Keen, on the issue of homelessness. As the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development prior to his election to the U.S. Senate, Senator Martinez was an “indomitable champion for homeless people whose efforts helped revitalize the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness after a six year dormancy and whose legacy continues to live through the now 300 10-Year Plan efforts to end chronic homelessness underway across the nation and in the results those plans are producing,” said Director Mangano.

Pictured here is Mayor Humphrey at podium with Director Mangano. Pictured bottom are many of the stakeholders at the announcement. At the head of the table from right to left are Mayor Humphrey, Director Mangano, Commissioner Janes, and USICH Regional Coordinator Team Leader German.

DULUTH AND ELY, MINNESOTA. The jurisdictionally-based collaborative effort led by Duluth, MN Mayor Herb Bergson and St. Louis County Commissioner Steve O’Neil to develop a 10-Year Plan to End Homelessness came to fruition last week with the adoption of the plan, Heading Home St. Louis County, by the Duluth City Council and the St. Louis County Commissioners.

United States Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH) Executive Director Philip Mangano, who met with Mayor Bergson and Commissioner O’Neil in 2005 to encourage the development of a 10-Year Plan and attended the successful Project Homeless Connect in Duluth last year, supported adoption of the Plan in remarks to the Duluth City Council and at the County Commissioners meeting in Ely. Director Mangano also joined Mayor Bergson and Commissioner O’Neil at a press conference at which the mayor described the Heading Home plan as “what he hoped to see” when he formed the Citizen Action Committee on Homelessness in 2004. . . this plan will allow us to help our less fortunate citizens in a humane, dignified and respectful way, and do it from a governmental perspective that is both efficient and cost-effective.” In his remarks, Director Mangano congratulated and commended the city and county for joining together to “own the plan”, and noted the private sector participation in the plan’s development from the faith community, non-profits, the University of Minnesota Duluth, Salvation Army, United Way, St. Luke’s Hospital, the Veterans Workshop, and the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC).

Pictured top, Director Mangano addressing the Duluth City Council; middle, l-r, Director Mangano, Mayor Bergson, and 10-Year Plan co-chairs retired University of Minnesota Professor Joyce Kramer, Ph.D. and Commissioner O'Neil. Pictured bottom at the St. Louis County Commissioners meeting in Ely (note, meeting space is shared by Ely and Morse) l-r, USICH Regional Coordinator Daryl Hernandez, Commissioner Mike Forsom, 10-Year Plan Committee members Pat Grahek, Bunny Husten, and Edie Carr, Chairman of Board of Commissioners Bill Kron, Commissioner Steve O'Neil, Director Mangano, Commissioner Steve Rauker, Commissioner Dennis Fink, and 10-Year Plan Committee member Harlan Tardy.

GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN. United States Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH) Executive Director Philip Mangano welcomed Mayor James Schmitt and the Green Bay community into the National Partnership to End Chronic Homelessness last week. At the invitation of Mayor Schmitt, Director Mangano traveled to Green Bay to meet with the mayor, Brown County United Way President Gregg Hetue, and the mayor’s newly named 10-Year Plan co-chairs Baylake Bank Market President Charles Burnham and NEWCAP, Inc. Community Access Program Director Kathleen McMurray, to discuss the community’s 10- Year planning effort and to offer continuing technical assistance from USICH. Having driven by Lambeau Field, Director Mangano suggested that in the spirit of the late Vince Lombardi, the city's legendary football coach who led his team to championships by creating and executing game plans, so too the city's success in accomplishing the mission of ending homelessness will need to be driven by a plan to implement realistic strategies that invest in innovative initiatives to secure specific results.

The discussion included a tour of community homeless service providers including C.O.T.S. (Churches Providing Temporary Shelter), and the N.E.W Community Shelter that provides emergency shelter, 16 transitional apartments, and a health clinic funded in part through the federal Health Care for the Homeless program. The group also met with Salvation Army Majors Bob and Ruth Faye. Green Bay, located 102 miles north of Milwaukee and with a population just over 102,000, is the third largest city in Wisconsin. Director Mangano was accompanied by USICH Regional Coordinator Charlene Moran Flaherty.

Pictured, l-r, 10-Year Plan co-chair Burnham, Mayor Schmitt, Director Mangano, United Way President Heteu, and Plan co-chair McMurray.

SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH. This week tenants will begin moving into the 100-unit Sunrise Metro Apartments in West Salt Lake, Utah’s first permanent supportive housing project for persons experiencing chronic homelessness. The project is the flagship effort for the State of Utah and Salt Lake County 10-Year planning efforts to end chronic homelessness.

At the March 23rd ribbon cutting ceremony, which brought together federal, state, city, and county officials, and business and community leaders, Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson spoke of the “significant collaborations” that made the project possible and said, “The future holds great things. This will be viewed as a turning point. The model is no longer shelters. At the end the day, the most cost effective solution is housing first. This is the first in Utah of many hundreds of units that will end homelessness." A second 84-unit project is already under construction in South Salt Lake.

The nearly $12 million Sunrise project was developed by Housing Assistance Management Enterprise (HAME), a non-profit subsidiary of the Housing Authority of Salt Lake City. Construction was funded by a combination of tax credits, federal HUD Continuum of Care and VA funding, state Olene Walker Trust Fund monies, local funding from the county and the Redevelopment Agency of Salt Lake City, and private donations including $600,000 from the George S. and Delores Dores Eccles Foundation, and $558,000 from the Crusade for the Homeless philanthropy among others. Funding for operational costs include Section 8 vouchers, tenant rent of 30% of income, and VA, CoC, Crusade for Homeless, and state Pamela Atkinson Trust Fund monies. Professional case managers from Volunteers of America, the VA, the Road Home, and others will be located on site. The Olene Walker Housing Trust Fund is named for the former Lieutenant Governor who also served for a time as Governor after Governor Leavitt was appointed U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services. The Pamela Atkinson Homelessness Trust Fund is named in honor of a long time leading advocate for the homeless in the state.

Pictured here on the speaker dais l-r, with Mayor Anderson at the podium are Salt Lake City Director of Homeless programs Bill Nighswonger, state Department of Community and Culture Director and former Salt Lake Mayor Palmer DePaulis, Utah Office of Housing and Urban Development Director Dwight Peterson, VA Medical Center Acting Director George Walen, Housing Authority Executive Director Rosemary Kappes, and Utah Housing Corporation Multi-Family Finance VP Jonathan Hanks. USICH Regional Coordinator Charlene Moran Flaherty also spoke at the event.

At last month’s formal meeting of the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness in Washington, Utah Department of Community and Culture Homelessness Task Force Chair Lloyd Pendleton was invited to describe the effective collaboration between state and local government in Utah that is creating housing solutions for persons experiencing chronic homelessness. Mr. Pendleton described the evolution of the effort beginning with encouragement and technical assistance from the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness that led to the revamping of the existing state interagency council on homelessness in 2003 to a Cabinet level operation chaired by the Lieutenant Governor. Other initiatives have included development of a statewide HMIS system with participation by Utah’s 3 Continuums of Care; launch of a state 10-Year Plan in March 2005; engagement of local elected officials to create 12 Local Homeless Coordinating Committees covering the entire state with the intention that each of the Local Coordinating Committees create a 10-Year Plan to work in concert with the state-level effort; state resources for pilot Housing First efforts in the local areas; and more extensive investment through the state’s Housing and Homelessness Trust Funds and tax credits in partnerships that will bring to fruition 184 housing units for chronically homeless persons this year with at least one project to renovate an old hotel into 250 units identified for next year.

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA. In the same week that Fort Myers, FL Mayor Jim Humphrey and Lee County Commissioner Bob Janes committed to becoming the 300th jurisdictional 10-Year Plan effort (see related story), San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, whose city developed one of the earlier and most housing centric 10-Year Plans, announced a 38% reduction in homelessness since 2002. The San Francisco 10- Year Plan, Changing Direction, unveiled in June 2004 was developed by a 33 member council chaired by former Supervisor Angela Alioto who continues to chair the Implementation Committee. Pictured here is Ms. Alioto with Mayor Newsom (left) at the Plan unveiling.

Saying that "in the last three years, San Francisco has gone from having among the most pervasive homeless problems in the country to a city that is a national model in its effort to end chronic homelessness,” Mayor Newsom announced that the results of the January 2007 Point in Time Count show 2,771 people living on the streets, a 38% reduction in homelessness since 2002. “These numbers tell us that our Housing First policy is working – but they also make clear. . . that there remains work to be done,” he said.

Between 2004 and the end of January 2007, 5,224 individuals exited homelessness through the city’s various initiatives, including 2,907 homeless individuals placed in permanent supportive housing and another 1,864 homeless persons reunited with friends or family members in other parts of the country through the City’s Homeward Bound Program. As part of the count effort, San Francisco General Hospital reported 48 homeless patients, representing a decline of 47 percent since 2005.

This year’s Point in Time count was the most comprehensive ever undertaken by the city, covering the entire city including freeway on-ramps, underpasses and all 189 City parks, with the help of trained outreach professionals and more than 500 volunteers, double the number who assisted with the 2005 count.

The Mayor’s proposed budget would continue the priority on ending chronic homelessness including funding to:

• expand the number of homeless street outreach workers to provide city-wide coverage to transition the homeless from the street into housing
• increase the number of permanent supportive housing units through the City’s Housing First and Direct Access to Housing Programs
• open a One-Stop Employment Center for those recently housed
• establish a Community Justice Center, in partnership with the District Attorney and Superior Court, to engage quality of life violators in services and housing
• implement programs supported by this year’s record $19 million federal McKinney Homeless Assistance Grant

The City will also continue the Project Homeless Connect innovation initiated by Mayor Newsom in October 2004. San Francisco’s Project Homeless Connect model was recently recognized by the National Association of Counties (NACo) and Freddie Mac with both a 2007 Acts of Caring Award and the Acts of Caring Legacy Award for Excellence and Innovation. In 2005 the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness began disseminating Project Homeless Connect as a national best practice and to date over 100 communities across the nation have adopted it. At last month’s The Pursuit of Solutions: Second Annual National Summit on Innovation for Jurisdictional Leaders, USICH recognized the outstanding Connect replication efforts of Minneapolis/Hennepin County and Portland/Multnomah County with A Home for Every American Award. The next San Francisco Project Homeless Connect will be held April 11. View a list of upcoming Connect events around the nation.

WINSTON-SALEM, NORTH CAROLINA. Last week United States Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH) Executive Director Philip Mangano traveled to Winston-Salem at the invitation of the United Way of Forsyth County for a series of events intended to expand the engagement of business and community leaders in the community’s 10-Year Plan implementation. Developed by a Blue Ribbon Task Force on Homelessness appointed by Winston-Salem Mayor Allen Joines, the Winston Salem/Forsyth County 10-Year Plan to End Homelessness was adopted by city and county officials last year. The plan calls for a “housing first approach in developing and managing programs"; 600 units of permanent, service enriched housing for individuals and families, including 330 units targeted for persons experiencing long term homelessness; enhanced employment services; new collaborations; and “system enhancements to ensure that mainstream resources and homeless specific services are more effective.” As in many 10-Year Plan efforts around the country, the United Way is playing a leadership role in the community’s 10-Year Plan effort.

At events including a Tocqueville Forum attended by many of the community’s leading business donors and philanthropists, a reception for the 10-Year Plan Implementation Committee and its newly named Chair, BB&T Bank Senior Vice President and CFO Chris Henson, and as the keynote speaker for the United Way’s annual meeting where he was introduced by Mayor Allen Joines, Director Mangano discussed elements of successful 10-Year Plans including cost benefit analysis and model programs, and provided an overview of results being reported from 10-Year Plan implementation efforts in communities around the country.

Pictured here, top, Director Mangano speaking to the more than 200 United Way partner agencies and volunteers at the annual meeting. Also pictured is Director Mangano in discussion with 10-Year Plan Implementation Chair Henson, and Mayor Allen Joines (right).

On April 18 Winston-Salem/Forsyth County will join the growing list of over 100 communities nationwide to adopt the Project Homeless Connect innovation, originated in San Francisco by Mayor Gavin Newson, and being promoted nationally by USICH. Director Mangano was accompanied to Winston-Salem by USICH Regional Coordinator Eddie Woodhouse.

RALEIGH, NORTH CAROLINA. USICH Regional Coordinator Woodhouse joined community leaders in Raleigh, North Carolina for the 2007 Capital Area Homeless Veterans Stand Down where he was invited to "declare the Stand Down offcially open." Over 100 volunteers from 40 programs, agencies, and volunteer organizations were on hand to provide a variety of services to nearly 150 homeless veterans who registered for the event. Participant survey data from the day revealed an average age of 51 with 4 years of homelessness. 81% reported being honorably discharged from military service and 48% self-reported a disability. Among the community leaders onsite were Wake County Commissioner Joe Bryan, representatives from the offices of Senators Richard Burr and Elizabeth Dole, and the offices of Congressmen David Price, Brad Miller, and Bob Etheridge. The state’s mobile JobLink Center was made available for the day along with assistance provided by staff of the U.S. Department of Labor VETS program office.

Among those speaking at the Stand Down was Mr. Walter Morgan (pictured here), a Marine Corps Vietnam veteran who described his path into homelessness and the “second chance at life” he felt he received when he went to the South Wilmington Street Center in Raleigh in December 2005. Mr. Morgan described his participation in the SWSC transitional economic self-sufficiency program including a stay at their Incentive Housing Dormitory with onsite supportive services, and how last summer, with the assistance of SWSC’s housing specialist, he moved to his own apartment, is employed, and continues to receive some “aftercare” assistance.

EVERETT, WASHINGTON. When the City of Everett, Washington submitted its winning All-America City application to the National Civic League in 2002, it chose Cocoon House as one of the three required examples of outstanding community collaboration to overcome local challenges and as a model example of a program that was “tangibly improving” the lives of children and youth. Each year only 10 cities are selected for the All-America City designation, which has been referred to as “A Nobel Prize for Constructive Citizenship.” Cocoon House is a homeless prevention and assistance program for teens and young adults, ages 13 to 21. While providing a number of intervention services including emergency shelter, transitional housing, case management, and teen advocacy and outreach, it is its prevention effort, Project SAFE, that has gained recognition as an innovation by the juvenile court system and others.

Everett, Washington, a city of just under 100,000 located 25 miles north of Seattle, is the Snohomish County seat. Cocoon House was established when the North Everett Lions Club was approached to contribute $10,000 toward the purchase of a house which would be the first shelter for homeless youth in the county. The Lions Club went a step further and purchased a house which it leased to the Cocoon program for $10/month. Sarri Gilman who had sought the funding from the Lions Club became the program's director. Later when more space was needed, the Lions Club provided $50,000 to place a property in escrow for a year while Cocoon House raised the money to purchase and renovate the $1 million property. Today, Cocoon House receives federal funding including U.S. Department of Health and Human Services ' Administration for Children and Families funds and Department of Housing and Urban Development Continuum of Care monies, state and local funding including Snohomish County administered CDBG and ESG funding, and numerous private, foundation, and corporate grants.

After “fielding hundreds of calls over the years from parents and juvenile court judges in the community about 'what to do' with a teen in trouble," Cocoon House created Project SAFE in 2002 to work directly with parents and caretakers "before the teen runs away or is thrown out of the house." The core service of Project SAFE is providing parents with one-on- one access to Masters level therapists, which generally begins with a 90 minute phone consultation that can be supplemented with face to face sessions, parent support group participation, and Parent Training Workshops. The therapist works with parent(s) to develop an action plan that “confronts the issues that may be underlying their teen’s symptomatic behavior,” identifies other community resources the parent(s) can access; helps parents better manage their stress and improve communications; and monitors action plan progress. 369 parents were served by Project SAFE’s direct services last year. So effective has the Project SAFE effort been, that the local juvenile courts now refer families to the SAFE program prior to families filing an “At Risk Youth” petition with the courts. Another 20% of referrals to Project SAFE come from the school system.

Project SAFE offers Parent Training Workshops that include a 15-hour series of 10 sessions that focus on such things teen brain development, drug and alcohol prevention, teen depression, and understanding teen anger. Shorter 1.5 hour workshops demonstrate effecting parenting strategies and a 2 hour workshop is offered to help parents of preschoolers “recognize that how they parent their child now will set the stage for later teen behavior.” Approximately 600 families are served by the workshops annually.

WayOUT is a Project SAFE collaboration with the Snohomish County Department of Human Services and the Juvenile Court which provides monthly seminars of 12 hours over two days for parents and teens to attend together. Volunteers of America, Compass Health, ReDO theatre, and the Washington State University Cooperative Extension Service are among the community partners that assist with the WayOUT seminars.

Cocoon House helps train family service workers of other local agencies on the Project SAFE homelessness prevention approach, and actively participates in regional and state networks and forums including the Governor’s Juvenile Justice Advisory Committee for the State of Washington, the Northwest Network for Youth, Western States Youth Services Network, and the Washington Council for Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect. Expanding early intervention strategies to prevent youth homelessness, including working with parents of at risk teens, is one of the recommendations included in the Everett/Snohomish County 10-Year Plan, Everyone at Home Now, unveiled last year. Contact information for Cocoon House and its Executive Director, Lee Trevithick, who served on the community’s 10-Year Planning Task Force, is available on the Cocoon House website

WASHINGTON, DC. The Revised Continuing Appropriations Bill for FY 2007 signed by President Bush on February 15, provides $1.9 billion, an increase of nearly $207 million, for the Consolidated Health Centers program of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). These funds will complete the multi-year initiative announced by President Bush in his FY 2002 budget to create new or expanded health center access points in 1200 communities to significantly improve primary and preventative health care services, including mental health, substance abuse and oral health services, for low income uninsured and underserved and homeless populations. The FY 2007 funding will extend health care access to an estimated 1.2 million people. Programs under the Consolidated Health Centers umbrella, Community Health Centers, Health Care for the Homeless, Migrant Health Centers, and Primary Care Public Housing Health Centers, served over 14 million patients in FY 2005, 40 percent of whom had no insurance coverage.

The FY 2007 funding will also begin implementation of a new 5-year Presidential initiative targeted to creating access points in high poverty counties that currently do not have access to health center providers. Up to 120 of the estimated 300 awards to be made with the FY 07 funds will support the new initative. Last month HRSA announced the availability of $28 million for the new high poverty initiative including $4 million for planning grants and $24 million to establish new access points. Application deadline is May 16 for the planning grants and May 23 for the access point grants.The full grant announcements are available on www.grants.gov -- Funding Opportunity Number HRSA-07-066 for planning grants and HRSA-07-069 for access point grants.

Jurisdictions involved in 10-Year Plan efforts should be sure to include representatives of Health Care for the Homeless or other Consolidated Health Center programs as well as hospital administrators as stakeholders in the development and implementation of plans. Like many low income individuals, people who are homeless, and especially those experiencing chronic homelessness, have difficulty accessing primary health care services. In turn, deteriorating health reduces opportunities for employment and makes their continued homelessness more probable. A focus on improving the health status of homeless people will improve plan outcomes.

As many communities engaged in 10-Year Plan efforts have discovered through local cost studies, persons living long term on the streets and in shelters often ricochet repeatedly through emergency rooms and hospital stays at enormous expense to the community. At the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness-sponsored The Pursuit of Solutions: Second Annual National Summit on Innovation for Jurisdictional Leaders last month in Washington, DC., University of Pennsylvania researcher Dr. Dennis Culhane reviewed "Emerging Research on the Costs of Homelessness," including a USICH compilation of cost studies undertaken by 10-Year Plan communities. To view his Powerpoint presentation, including the matrix of 10- Year Plan community cost studies compiled by USICH, please visit our website at www.usich.gov.

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