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"Instead of serving homeless people endlessly, our mission is to end their homelessness."
- Philip F. Mangano, United States Interagency Council on Homelessness Executive Director
"This is the beginning of a new way to address homelessness . . . Project Homeless Connect is a one-day, one-stop shop to deliver real services to people experiencing real homelessness in our community. But this is also about a commitment to move from simply managing homelessness towards really ending homelessness."
- Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak
• Project Homeless Connect is a one-day, one-stop event sponsored by Mayors and other community leaders and designed to provide housing, services, and hospitality directly to people experiencing homelessness in a convenient one-stop model.
• From its origins in San Francisco, Project Homeless Connect has been identified by the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH) as an innovation that mobilizes civic will to end homelessness. Communities replicate this model to move people more quickly toward housing and stability and to further the goals of their 10-Year Plans to end homelessness.
• More than 300 events in over 170 communities in less than three years are evidence of the rapid adoption of this innovation. Cities and counties of every size from coast to coast have engaged in Project Homeless Connect events.
"No sooner had southeastern Connecticut's 1-year plan to fight homelessness been unveiled, a project took place that showed how well it can work . . . Project Homeless Connecticut did what the 10-year plan has set out to do, bringing government agencies, businesses and volunteers together to provide help. The plan was initiated under the auspices of the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness."
- The Day (Connecticut) - 12/11/2006
• Project Homeless Connect is similar in spirit and substance to the successful one-stop service centers organized by volunteers in communities across the country to assist Hurricane Katrina evacuees and to the service model provided by Stand Downs.
"An array of social services was made available . . . but the underlying idea was to get as many as possible on a track to self-sufficiency and, ultimately, into a home."
- Knoxville News Sentinel 12/9/05
• Project Homeless Connect events vary in size, content and frequency in each community, but share a common intent - to remedy the homelessness of their neighbors. Events catalyze community involvement, generating new partnership, commitment, and investment to end homelessness. Project Homeless Connect gives people and organizations who have never been involved in homelessness before a way to make a difference.
"Project Homeless Connect began small in San Francisco, and went national . . . more than 6,000 homeless people in 21 cities from Nashua, N.H., to Hollywood had been fed, massaged and helped into welfare services or housing."
- Kevin Fagan, San Francisco Chronicle 12/9/05
Visit the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness web site at www.usich.gov for more National Project Homeless Connect information and tools:
• 2007 National Project Homeless Connect Calendar
• National Project Homeless Connect Logo
• Project Homeless Connect Event Forms
• 2005-6 National Event Photo Album . . . . and more
"Project Homeless Connect, a national initiative to help the homeless at one-stop events, for the first time brought together more than 35 local nonprofits, businesses, government agencies and churches that offer services. . . ..
- Missoula Independent, 12/14/2006
THE NATIONAL PARTNERSHIP
The Bush Administration has established the goal of ending chronic homelessness in the United States. The United States Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH), whose membership consists of 20 federal agencies, coordinates the federal government's response to homelessness through the creation of a national partnership that starts at the White House and extends to the streets. The national partnership involves every level of government and every element of the private sector as well as homeless citizens.
With the support of the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness, Mayors and County Executives in more than 300 cities and counties have committed to 10-Year Plans to End Chronic Homelessness. Fifty-three states and territories have created State Interagency Councils on Homelessness. For more information, visit www.usich.gov
News about Project Homeless Connect
