FORT WORTH, TEXAS. With a unanimous vote of the Fort Worth City Council, and the support of the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce, Downtown Fort Worth Inc. and others in the business community, the city adopted Directions Home - a 10 Year Plan fashioned by an expansive group of stakeholders. Tarrant County Commissioners voted last week to adopt the Plan.

"We might not be able to do everything we want to do this coming year, but it is important that we don't just talk the talk. We need to walk the walk and put up at least some money," Fort Worth Mayor Mike Moncrief said on passage of the resolution adopting the Plan. "I think everyone in this community knows that this is an issue of basic economics to make homelessness a rare occasion in our city." Mayor Moncrief noted that the plan will be less costly than paying for the homeless population's use of emergency health care, ambulance, and other first-responder services, and jail space. The Plan includes a budget analysis of more than 90 high, medium, and low cost action items, with both capital and operating costs estimated. The City will now seek the resources for priority items for 2009.

United States Interagency Council on Homelessness Executive Director Philip Mangano, who most recently addressed business partners convened by Downtown Fort Worth, welcomed the new Plan, noting: "When I saw the 'pilgrimage' that your city and county officials embarked on along with an expansive group of your community stakeholders to discover in other cities what was working to reduce homelessness, I knew that something special would come from your Ten Year Plan. And you've delivered!" Mayor Moncrief and Director Mangano are pictured here.

"During my first visit there the Mayor told me a secret about Fort Worth," Director Mangano noted. "He said that 'in Fort Worth we go slow to go fast.' I now understand that what 'slow' means there is to be thoughtful, partnered, and thorough."

The Plan emphasizes the role of partnership in achieving new goals: "With all facets of this community working together, we have been able to revitalize downtown, recover from a tornado, welcome and house refugees from a hurricane, build a motor speedway, a baseball park and a football stadium, dredge Lake Worth, move I-30 and begin to move a river. Working together, we can do this as well."

"Of all the things that have happened in our city since I became Mayor, this is the one of which I am the proudest," said Mayor Moncrief.

Acting on Mayor Moncrief's leadership, and with the support of business partners, Fort Worth established a Study Group to "pilgrimage" to other cities to see what's working as they developed their plan. Otis Thornton, Fort Worth's homeless coordinator, was instrumental to the initiative and noted that entities including Cook Children's Health Care System, JPS Health Network and the UNT Health Science Center have already become partners to the Plan. The Study Group is pictured here.

The Plan proposes to increase the supply of Permanent Supportive Housing to meet the need for over 1,000 additional tenancies, setting a goal of over 540 units in six years. The City has its own Housing Trust Fund with $570,000 earmarked for homeless housing, and the Housing Authority has committed 200 vouchers to the initiative. The Plan also proposes a new local form of Shelter + Care vouchers to accelerate the availability of housing. Fort Worth will commit to an annual Project Homeless Connect event, develop a Homeless Court, and focus on discharge planing by hiring a transition coordinator for the local jail.

BAKERSFIELD, CALIFORNIA. "A new perspective . . . a new approach . . . a new commitment," read the banner behind Bakersfield Mayor Harvey Hall as he announced the official adoption of the new Home First 10 Year Plan to End Chronic Homelessness in Bakersfield and Kern County. United States Interagency Council on Homelessness Executive Director Philip Mangano, invited to keynote the press event in Martin Luther King, Jr. Park, joined United Way President Miriam Krehbiel for the event. United Way closely partnered with the Mayor to forward the Plan, providing an exemplary partnership of the private sector with jurisdictional leadership. The speakers are pictured here.

"As Mayor of Bakersfield, finding a real solution to the pressing problem of homelessness in my community has been one of my priorities since I took office," said Mayor Hall. "I remember clearly accompanying Bakersfield Police and members of the Kern County Homeless Collaborative to the Kern River. That experience made a lasting impression on me. I became more determined than ever to find solutions to this problem."

Noted the Mayor: "We must address this issue, because the costs of doing nothing, or of continuing to maintain people endlessly in their homelessness are simply too high. This caring community of ours cannot tolerate the human costs - in terms of suffering, lost opportunities and wasted potential. We cannot turn away or simply push the homeless out of sight," adding: "Nor can we continue to bear the very real financial costs. The 10-Year Plan committee estimates - conservatively - that our community is already spending between $40,000 and $50,000 per year on each chronically homeless individual just to maintain them in homelessness . . . We are already paying a heavy price for homelessness. It is time to make smart, long-term investments to end chronic homelessness."

Mayor Hall noted that the Plan unveiling was timed to ensure Ms. Krehbiel's presence, and credited her strong leadership and commitment as essential to the Plan. Ms. Krehbiel will become President of the Topeka, Kansas United Way shortly.

Director Mangano underscored the local partnership: "Here in Bakersfield many who were working toward the same objective in individual agencies - whether in the public or private sectors - have partnered together to create a playbook, a new strategy to move beyond wishing and hoping, to move beyond conjecture and anecdote, to move beyond managing and maintenancing - to partner together to create a trajectory that will lead to getting the job done, the mission accomplished." He added: "And that begins with political leadership. Which means here in Bakersfield it begins with Mayor Hall, who years ago committed himself and extended his political will to initiate this 10 Year Plan."

The new Plan embraces Housing First as a key solution to ending chronic homelessness, proposes to create a Homeless Court, and focuses on prevention through discharge planning.

Council Regional Coordinator Ed Cabrera also participated.

WEYMOUTH, MASSACHUSETTS. Meeting in Weymouth City Hall, Weymouth Mayor Susan Kay, Quincy Mayor Thomas Koch, and Braintree Mayor Joe Sullivan committed to create a regional planning initiative to reduce and end homelessness in their communities. The Mayors were joined by United States Interagency Council on Homelessness Executive Director Philip Mangano who encouraged the Mayors to look at the leadership, innovations, investment, and results in the Quincy 10 Year Plan as a model of what can be achieved in the region.

Mayor Kay has a long interest in housing issues, and the new mayors have begun to work regionally on other issues of common concern. Dennis Harrington, Quincy Planning Director, will be the point person to facilitate the new collaboration among the mayors.

Pictured here at the meeting are (left to right): John Yazwinski, President and CEO, Father Bill's and Mainspring Coalition, Director Mangano, Mayor Koch, Mayor Sullivan, Mayor Kay, Peter Forman, President and CEO, South Shore Chamber of Commerce and Community Champion of the Quincy 10 Year Plan, John Boucher, President and CEO, South Shore Savings Bank, and Dennis Harrington, Director of Planning, City of Quincy.

Father Bill's/Mainspring Executive Director John Yazwinski heads the new organization created through the 2007 merger of two locally based non- profits. The two 20- year-old entities, first organized as emergency responses in their South Shore communities, merged to coordinate their strategies and increase their housing focus for individuals and families through 10 Year Planning partnerships that have achieved decreases in chronic homelessness, including through Housing First initiatives.

Council Regional Coordinator John O'Brien also participated.

Mayors Kay and Koch are some of the newest signatories Mayors to the America's Road Home Statement of Principles and Actions, the unprecedented 12-point agreement on ending homelessness now signed by more than 270 jurisdictional officials. Other recent signers include Warwick, RI Mayor Scott Avedisian, Lowell, MA Mayor Edward Caulfield, Taunton, Ma Mayor Charles Crowley, Orlando, FL Mayor Buddy Dyer, Bakersfield, CA Mayor Harvey Hall, Coos County, OR Commissioners John Griffith, Kevin Stufflebean, and Nikki Whitty, Deschutes County Commissioner Tammy Melton, and Benton County, WA Commissioner Claude Oliver.

INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA. Mayor Greg Ballard, recently elected as Indianapolis's 48th Mayor, welcomed United States Interagency Council on Homelessness Executive Director Philip Mangano to discuss city initiatives to prevent and end homelessness. In their conversation, they talked about the recalibration of the 10 Year Plan that was inaugurated under Mayor Bart Peterson as the first jurisdictionally owned Plan in the country. Additionally they discussed the recent installation of "The Box," a local adaptation of donation parking meters used in other cities to encourage local residents to strategically rather than randomly donate their resources to reduce and end homelessness. In the course of the meeting they also spoke of the economic impact of homelessness and the federal resources being sent to Indianapolis each year to reduce and end homelessness. Mayor Ballard and Director Mangano are pictured here in City Hall.

Director Mangano visited the emergency room of Wishard Hospital, where he met with Lisa Harris, M.D., CEO and Medical Director and Kim Harper, Vice President for Administration and (pictured here), and discussed the economic burden the hospital bears from frequent users of services. Dr. Harris convened a meeting with several emergency room nurses who indicated that they engaged and treated many homeless people repeatedly and further indicated that many homeless people use the emergency room as a respite from the weather. Dr. Harris and the nurses provided a very specific example of the local costs being incurred.

Local cost benefit analysis was published last year by the Indiana University School of Public and Environmental Affairs, Center for Health Policy. "Issues for Policymakers: Serving the Homeless Well Could Save Taxpayer Dollars" examined costs for 96 chronically homeless individuals who are intensive users of public services, including social services, public health services, and the criminal justice system. The data showed that over the 3.5-year study, the city of Indianapolis and Marion County spent $1.7 million for these individuals.

The Mayor announced in his April State of the City address that he would name a point person for the city's new reentry strategy for some of the 5,000 ex-offenders returning to Indianapolis annually.

In late December, the Indianapolis and Marion County Council voted to add an estimated $1.6 million to housing funds for the state and county through an increase in the real estate transaction recording fee. The Council voted in favor of the increase, which represents the first dedicated revenue stream for the City's housing trust fund which will receive 60 percent of projected revenues, with the balance going to the State's housing trust. The higher fee is expected to direct about $1 million per year toward the City's efforts to reduce homelessness and build more housing that is affordable for those in need.

In January, Lilly Endowment announced a $2.9 million grant to the United Way of Central Indiana for five homeless initiatives, including the Indianapolis Blueprint to End Homelessness, according to UWCI's President and CEO Ellen K. Annala. The Lilly Endowment funds will be used to:
- Develop sustainable, permanent support services for residents of 150 housing units. More than half of the Endowment grant - $1.6 million - will be used to reduce overall operating costs for the units, which will help generate an estimated $254,000 annually to pay for supportive services for residents.
- Conduct a feasibility study for an Engagement Center to serve an estimated 500 chronically homeless people and offer an alternative for people who are now incarcerated without treatment.
- Provide technical assistance to both new and existing service providers so they can use the most current and proven programs that focus on housing homeless people.
- Conduct a community awareness campaign in 2008 to encourage people to redirect "impulse giving" from panhandlers to service providers who use comprehensive approaches to ending homelessness.
- Move more families quickly to permanent housing and out of shelters, while providing short- term support services. Each year, 25 families will receive help tailored to their individual needs to maintain housing, using a coordinated case management system.
- Measure and evaluate the initiatives to assess their impact and track the housing inventory.

Council Regional Coordinator John O'Brien also participated.

With encouragement and technical assistance from the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness, Project Homeless Connect has now been adopted by more than 170 cities across the nation. Project Homeless Connect has another goal besides immediate access to quality of life resources and on-site housing and employment opportunities to end homelessness: Project Homeless Connect is intended to change how business is done in local communities when it comes to expediting outcomes, lowering barriers, removing obstacles, and increasing results.

Consistent with the Council's commitment to the rapid dissemination of what's working, Project Homeless Connect events have brought to light new solutions to old challenges shared across the country.

Project Homeless Connect's "under one roof" offerings for consumers and the "mobile hospitality" of volunteers who act as escorts and conductors for their homeless neighbors help lower their barriers and achieve results. Public and private sector resource providers work side-by- side in a new configuration, with a focus on problem - solving and results.

The innovation of Project Homeless Connect is equal parts welcoming homeless neighbors into the life of the community, changing the way resources are accessed, and achieving quantifiable results for people experiencing homelessness. In Minnesota, where state-level and statewide political will and partnership to end homelessness are in evidence, a new statewide report (compiled by the Wilder Center with the Minnesota Department of Human Services) on Project Homeless Connect shows just what is being achieved. The report demonstrates the value of data collection and results reporting linked to the event.
Here are the results, by the numbers:

• Project Homeless Connect Events in Minnesota in 2007 were held in St. Paul/Ramsey County, Fargo/Moorhead, Project Youth Connect in Minneapolis, Minneapolis/Hennepin County, Duluth/St. Louis County, Central Minnesota, and Faribault/Rice County
• 2007 events reached 4,390 guests, including nearly 800 families with children; the two largest events were held in Minneapolis (1,780 people) and St. Paul (1,081); the two smallest events were held in Fargo/Moorhead (311) and Faribault (82)
• Over 500 agencies and 1,200 volunteers participated in events throughout the state
• Half of the households accessing resources had not been receiving services from an agency participating in the state's Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) before coming to the event
• Around 487 households accessed services from an agency participating in HMIS in the 60 days following the event; 41 percent of those households had not previously been connected to services.
• Guests at Project Homeless Connect identified housing, employment, and dental care as the three top services sought.

Most popular giveaway items included: backpacks, bus cards, $5 Target gift cards, exit packs with hygiene products, homemade quilts, coats, gas cards, phone cards, thrift store coupons, and sleeping bags. Pictured here are consumers being welcomed at the recent St. Paul Project Homeless Connect, with Council Director Mangano and Mayor Chris Coleman.

Is your Project Homeless Connect event receiving technical assistance and best practices from the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness? Be sure to send your event details - date, site, key contact - to nphc@usich.gov so you hear from us with all the information you'll need to plan, partner, and produce results for your homeless neighbors!

Not a service fair . . . not an information and referral event . . .
An innovation: one-day, one- stop, consumer-focused!
It's a new way of doing business, focused on immediacy, hospitality, and results for homeless neighbors!
Learn the best of best practices: join the Council's upcoming national webcast by sending your PHC event details - date, site, key contact - to nphc@usich.gov and we'll contact you with webcast registration information!

WASHINGTON, DC. Washington, DC's street newspaper - Street Sense - inaugurated its annual journalism awards last week in the First Amendment Lounge of the National Press Club, taking its place alongside better known mainstream media as reporters and photographers were honored for their working in focusing on issues of poverty and homelessness in the nation's capital. United States Interagency Council on Homelessness Executive Director Philip Mangano, invited to deliver the issue- oriented keynote for the event, joined Washington Post columnist Courtland Milloy, who delivered the journalism keynote.

Street Sense Executive Director and Co- Founder Laura Thompson Osuri welcomed guests, who included consumers, reporters, vendors and supporters of Street Sense, along with awardees and colleagues. Ms. Osuri introduced the David Pike Excellence in Journalism Awards, inaugurated this year to recognize the contribution of the late Supreme Court reporter and Street Sense volunteer. "The goal of Street Sense is to bring to light topics related to poverty not often covered by the mainstream media," said Ms. Osuri, who was joined by co-founder Ted Henson. "However, we are thrilled when these topics do receive the media attention they deserve. My hope is that the David Pike Awards will encourage such attention to continue and grow."

"Street Sense newspaper demonstrates public service ingenuity in inaugurating the David Pike Excellence in Journalism Awards to foster awareness and change perception regarding poverty and homelessness," said Director Mangano. "The long moral arc of history bends toward justice, Dr. King taught us, and the Pike Awards acknowledge those whose work in the print media helps in the bending of that arc."

"Street Sense is in the great tradition, the historic legacy, the long story of journalistic intensity with a purpose," he indicated. "Not simply reportage, but writing with an intent. To expose, to reveal, to cajole - to put moral suasion and human faces on an issue that sometimes seems caught in the inertia of resignation. Just as the abolitionist newspapers of old, Street Sense reminds us that there is no detente with wrong," he stated. "The stories and participation of vendors and writers and poets in Street Sense remind us of the unique value of each person, homeless or housed. And it teaches us that the customer has much to offer."

Winners were chosen by a panel of journalists and homeless advocates who judged entries, including photography, feature stories and investigative reporting, on how well they educated the public on issues of poverty and homelessness. Susan Biddle of the Washington Post, Arthur Delaney of the Washington City Paper and Mary Otto, also of the Washington Post, were recognized for their work.

David Pike was a board member and volunteer of Street Sense who passed away in November 2007. He joined Street Sense in 2005 after retiring from a 40-year career in journalism. As a reporter, his primary beat was the Supreme Court and he worked for U.S. News and World Report and the Washington Star.

Founded in 2003, Street Sense is a Washington, D.C.- based biweekly newspaper with a mission to raise public awareness on the issues of homelessness and poverty in the city and to create economic opportunities for people experiencing homelessness. The newspaper features news, features, editorials, poems and art about poverty issues contributed by homeless or formerly homeless people, advocates and professional writers interested in social issues. Homeless and formerly homeless individuals use the paper as a stepping stone off the streets; these vendors pay 25 cents for each paper to cover publishing costs and sell each paper for $1, making an average of $40 a day.

Pictured here are (left to right): Laura Thompson Osuri, Executive Director of Street Sense; Mary Otto, reporter for the Washington Post; Courtland Milloy, Washington Post columnist; and Arthur Delaney, writer for the Washington City Paper and news writer for ABCNews, Washington bureau.

Council National Team Leader Michael German also participated.

WASHINGTON, DC. According to a new report from the United States Department of Health and Human Services Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), mental health and substance abuse problems affect every local community throughout America but present locally in unique and sometimes surprising ways revealed by new data from over 340 localities.

The SAMHSA report measures and analyzes 23 substance abuse and mental health-related behavior levels in 345 substate regions representing all 50 states and the District of Columbia. In most states, the substate regions are defined in terms of counties or groups of counties. In a few states, these areas are defined in terms of census tracts. The results were based on the combined data from the 2004 to 2006 National Surveys on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) and involved responses from 203,870 people age 12 or older throughout the United States.

"The findings reveal that the nation's substance abuse and the mental health problems are fundamentally local in character and might be addressed directly most effectively at that level," said SAMHSA Administrator Terry Cline, Ph.D. "This report provides local public health authorities sharper insight into the nature and scope of the substance abuse and mental health problems affecting their communities."

SAMHSA has also recently released an updated guide to finding local substance abuse treatment programs. National Directory of Drug and Alcohol Abuse Treatment Programs 2008 provides information on thousands of alcohol and drug treatment programs located in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and five U.S. territories.

This SAMHSA National Directory includes public and private facilities that are licensed, certified, or otherwise approved by substance abuse agencies in each state. A nationwide inventory of substance abuse and alcoholism treatment programs and facilities, the National Directory is organized and presented in a state-by-state format for quick reference by health care providers, social workers, managed care organizations, and the general public. This latest SAMHSA directory provides information on more than 11,000 community substance abuse treatment programs.

The directory gives important information on levels of care and types of facilities, including those with programs for adolescents, persons with co-occurring substance abuse and mental disorders, individuals living with HIV/AIDS, and pregnant women. In addition, the SAMHSA directory includes information on forms of payment accepted, special language services available with select providers, and whether methadone or buprenorphine therapy is offered.

The updated directory complements SAMHSA's internet-based Substance Abuse Treatment Facility Locator. The online service, which is updated regularly and may contain more current information, provides searchable road maps to the nearest treatment facilities, complete addresses, phone numbers and specific information on services available. The electronic, searchable version of SAMHSA's updated National Directory of Drug and Alcohol Abuse Treatment Programs is available on the Web at http://FindTreatment.samhsa.gov/

WASHINGTON, DC. At the most recent Full Council meeting in March 2008, United States Department of Labor Assistant Secretary for Veterans Employment and Training Services (VETS) Charles Ciccolella (pictured here) reported on results from the collaborative effort of DOL through its Job Corps program to reach and recruit foster care youth. According to Assistant Secretary Ciccolella, the Job Corps Foster Care Recruiting initiative has significantly increased the numbers of youth who are served who were identified as foster care, runaways, or homeless individuals, from about 240 in 2001, to 2,000 in 2006. The Assistant Secretary noted that United States Interagency Council on Homelessness Executive Director Philip Mangano had encouraged the initiative, which secures a residential training placement for young adults.

The Job Corps is the nation's largest and oldest federally-funded job training and education program for "at promise" youth ages 16 through 24. With 122 centers nationwide, the program enrolls approximately 60,000 new youth each year in more than 100 career areas including the culinary arts.

This week, Job Corps culinary trainees from 14 centers are competing in Philadelphia for the "iron chef" title. Eighty aspiring chefs are taking part in the 20th Annual Culinary Arts Expo at the Art Institute of Philadelphia. Sixteen teams representing 14 Job Corps centers in Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky and the District of Columbia are competing for the "iron chef" title, professional culinary tools, and a chance to demonstrate how to prepare the winning meal on a local television show.

Each team has three hours to prepare a 9-person meal, create a decorative centerpiece, and make a presentation to a panel of professional judges. Teams are judged on food preparation and knowledge, taste, sanitation and overall presentation. This year's judges include representatives of Chefs for Humanity, an alliance of culinary professionals and educators working with U.S. and global organizations to provide nutrition education, hunger relief and emergency aid to reduce hunger across the world.

Co-hosted by the culinary chefs and students from the Wilmington Job Corps Center in Wilmington, Delaware, the event marks the launch of a partnership between Job Corps and Chefs for Humanity, through which Chefs for Humanity will train Job Corps culinary students across the Northeast Region as Every Kid C.A.N. (Culinary Awareness Now) educators. The training will equip the students to deliver a curriculum to their local communities. Chefs for Humanity developed the program to support families in making better food choices by learning to prepare easy, nutritious and accessible meals at home.

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