HOMELESS PEOPLE: OUR CUSTOMERS AND CONSUMERS

First, and foremost, homeless people themselves are at the top of the list. Even with attention on more resources, better ideas, stronger partnerships, and unprecedented results, our primary focus is on the lives of our homeless neighbors. They are vital partners in our national “conspiracy” to abolish a social wrong. The implemented innovations of Housing First and ACT Teams in all their forms have told us clearly that homeless people want a place to live. The old myth that they prefer to be out on the streets, living in doorways and encampments has retreated as more of our neighbors are offered housing and move right in.

Our most disabled and vulnerable citizens have demonstrated their preference all across our country- from San Francisco to Denver to St. Louis to Washington, D.C. The jingle in their pocket is no longer the spare change from unknown passersby, but a set of keys to their own places. As a recently housed veteran said at the National Alliance to End Homelessness Conference in July, “the Army, Navy, and Marines could all try, but they won’t take these keys away from me.”

Our initiatives, for and with our homeless neighbors, are part of the national movement to end a social wrong. We were never promised that it would be easy or quick or without struggle. There are voices of pessimism and cynicism that doubt our effort will succeed. But other voices promise us that our goal is inevitable. That homelessness will take its place alongside slavery, restricted suffrage, and segregation as moral wrongs that seemed intractably part of our social landscape and are now overcome.

We see the moral common sense of the future just as the abolitionists, suffragists, and civil rights activists did in their day. We know our children and grandchildren will live in a nation that fulfills the mission of the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness and the promise of our country—a Home for Every American.

The unprecedented political will and investment demonstrated across our country by more than 400 Mayors and County Executives, who have committed to 285 jurisdictionally-based, community-based, consumer centric 10-Year Plans to End Homelessness from San Juan, Puerto Rico to Lincoln County, Oregon to San Diego, California in the past four years, have signaled a mindset change across the nation. No longer content to manage the human tragedy and misery, jurisdictional CEOs are on board the train of abolition. Their intent is to rally their communities to end the disgrace.

Recent research and data from cities across the country—Portland, OR, Denver, Asheville, NC, Quincy, MA and many other—confirms that business-focused, cost benefit informed 10-Year Plans deliver on the results we seek-- fewer people on the streets and fewer experiencing chronic homelessness in shelters.

The partnership of the Council with Mayors, County Executives and Supervisors, and City Councillors has offered hope to public officials and homeless people. More than 30 cities are reporting decreases in street and chronic homelessness. That’s a good start. There is much more to be done.

Pictured here from top, Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin with Council Executive Director Philip Mangano and Council Regional Coordinator Michael German; Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper with Council Director Mangano at the Council's National Summit for Jurisdictional Leaders: Moving from Good to Better to Great in Sustaining 10-Year Plans to End Chronic Homelessness hosted by the City of Denver in May; San Juan, Puerto Rico Mayor Jorge Santini at the unveiling of his city's 10-Year Plan in February; and Members of the Board of Directors of the National Conference of Black Mayors with Council Coordinator German at their Leadership Institute in December.

In October, Michigan became the first state in the country to have every square mile covered by a 10- Year Plan to End Homelessness. 83 counties collaborated to create 60 plans with the support of the Governor and the state’s housing, human services, corrections, and community health directors. Washington State has made a similar commitment and those plans are being completed.

All across the country, Governors are committing their states and their Cabinets to alleviating homelessness. State 10-Year Plans developed by state interagency councils on homelessness, often encouraged by the work of the federally sponsored Policy Academies, have shaped policy and focused resources on state efforts from Massachusetts to Hawaii.

A tip of the hat to Governors.

Pictured here from top, Michigan State Housing Development Authority Director Michael DeVos, Council Regional Coordinator John O'Brien and Council Director Mangano at the unveiling of the 60 10-Year Plans at the Michigan Homeless Summit in October; Rhode Island Governor Donald Carcieri with Director Mangano at the Rhode Island Project Homeless Connect, during which Governor Carcieri announced a state 10-Year Plan; Nevada Governor Kenny Guinn meeting with Director Mangano and newly named members of the Governor's interagency council on homelessness in March; Kentucky Governor Ernie Fletcher at the April groundbreaking for the first of twelve planned Recovery Centers targeted to reducing the state's drug and homeless population, joined on his right by Kentucky Housing Corporation Chairman Don Ball and CEO Ben Cook and on his left, by Director Mangano and Father J. Edward Bradley of the Holy Name of Jesus Church.

Under the leadership of Council Chair and U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Alphonso Jackson, and in partnership with the Congress, the federal resources targeted to homeless people increased for the fifth consecutive year to record levels. Federal agencies created new initiatives to encourage better access to mainstream resources, including the Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) SOAR initiative in partnership with the Social Security Administration, to facilitate better access to Social Security for homeless people. Initiatives from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, HUD, and the U.S. Department of Labor offer immediate and better access and long term promise, especially for homeless veterans. The Administration’s commitment through the Domestic Policy Council and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has been substantive and tangible.

New research sponsored by HHS and HUD and being conducted independently will provide the basis for constellating better policy and investments for homeless families. A typology of homeless families, akin to similar research on homeless individuals that led to the Chronic Homelessness Initiative, is expected in the new year.

The Council will continue its inexorable efforts to ensure that every level of government is partnered with every element of the private and voluntary sectors and with homeless people in the creation of the National Partnership to End Homelessness. We are all shareholders in ending the moral and spiritual disgrace of homelessness in our country. We intend to accomplish that mission and keep the promise of a place to live to all our neighbors.

Pictured here, a formal meeting of the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness.

A tip of the hat to San Francisco’s Mayor and the City’s 10-Year Plan for offering the country (and now other countries) the initiative that welcomes homeless people back into their communities, Project Homeless Connect. The fusion of political and civic will in a one day-one stop has spread across the country with the facilitation of the Interagency Council. Begun just a couple years ago in one city, 39 cities joined in 2006 National Project Homeless Connect Week and another 30 will offer Connect events in the next few months. Since its inception, tens of thousands of homeless people have been engaged, welcomed, and offered a variety of services from benefit enrollment to job placement, from treatment to transportation, from housing to haircuts.

A tip of the hat to Portland, OR, Minneapolis, and Berkeley for innovating the innovation in including youth, families, pets, and others. In a further innovation, whole states will be creating a Project Homeless Connect Day beginning in January.

Pictured here from top, volunteers at the Hollywood, CA National Project Homeless Connect Week event; Rhode Island Coalition for the Homeless Executive Director Jim Ryczek and Director Mangano greeting homeless guests at the Connect event in Providence, RI; and volunteers at the Minneapolis, MN National Project Homeless Week event.

A tip of the hat to SONY/Columbia Pictures for creating and distributing this Will Smith movie that dispels the myths and stereotypes of homelessness, how it happens, and where it leads. The movie is based on the true life story of Chris Gardner who cared for his son during a bout of homelessness, and succeeded in moving beyond homelessness to owning a financial management firm.

More than thirty cities across the country, coordinated by the Council and extended the generosity of SONY/Columbia Pictures, sponsored pre-theatrical release “opinion leader” screenings to thousands across the country. The week of its release, “Pursuit” was the number one movie in the country.

Our hope is that Chris Gardner’s story not only dispels stereotypes, but is increasingly the story of homeless people in our country, ending their homelessness with the needed resources.

Increasingly across the country, historic homeless programs are reconsidering their mission and moving beyond emergency responses to partnering in the creation of permanent solutions. A tip of the hat to the Rhode Island shelter and St. Patrick's Center in St. Louis and many, many more programs that are embracing a mission which begins with the creation of permanent supportive housing. They’ve acknowledged that the central antidote to homelessness is a place to live and supports for the most vulnerable.

The National Alliance to End Homelessness continues to focus on the mission of its name and to provide leadership for many in the field and the National Coalition for the Homeless reminds us through its advocacy that the punitive response has never worked anywhere. The National Law Center brings legal support to homeless people. NAMI (National Alliance for the Mentally Ill) calls us to ensure that our mission to the most disabled is central and the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans reminds us of our duties and obligations to those who have served our country. The United Way, which has been such a stalwart partner in the creation of 10-Year Plans across the country, joins us in focusing on outcomes.

The work of the Council in facilitating an international dialogue has offered our nation’s efforts the best ideas from across the sea and to our north. England, Ireland, Scotland, Denmark, Holland, Canada, and other nations have benefited from our formal sessions focused on “the art of legitimate larceny.” We have benefited from their innovations including the “Rough Sleepers” initiative in England,“freak housing” in Denmark, native peoples efforts in Canada, and the commitments in several European countries, including Holland, Scotland, and Ireland, to join the United States in a commitment to end homelessness.

While the scale of the issue is much different here, the nature of the problem is quite similar. The Council has committed itself to the “rapid dissemination of innovation” through our city focus groups, state colloquies, and national jurisdictional summits. Those innovations have their origins in cities and states and federal agencies. And we have learned from other countries as well, both from governments and NGOs. Our commitment is to ensure that every state interagency council and every 10-Year Plan in our country has equal access to the best ideas, wherever they may come from, in creating the result of abolishing homelessness. We are part of a national and international “conspiracy”, a “breathing together” to end a social wrong.

A conspiracy that has created a new standard of expectation in this country. We now expect visible and quantifiable change on our streets, in our communities, and in the lives of homeless people. We are beginning to see that change in the work of our partners, both domestic and international. We are inspired continuously by the resilience and stamina of our homeless neighbors. For their sakes and our own, we intend to keep the promise. A Home for Every American.