Homeless Outreach & Prevention
For a complete overview of the plan, please review the following documents:
Plan to End Chronic Homelessness in the San Diego Region
Plan to End Chronic Homelessness in the San Diego Region: Background Information - Committee Work Plans
Plan to End Chronic Homelessness in the San Diego Region: Appendicies
There are nearly 10,000 homeless people who reside on the streets of San Diego County. Of these, approximately 1,400 are chronically homeless, which means they are individuals who have experienced numerous periods of homelessness and have a disability (physical, mental or substance abuse). The chronically homeless, which are the most visible homeless population and are the most challenging to help, represent 15 percent of the overall homeless population, but consume a disproportionate amount of the available resources, including legal, medical, housing and emergency services.
United Way of San Diego County is dedicated to making sure that chronically homeless individuals in San Diego County have access to safe, decent, affordable housing and the necessary support services to help them. The federal government approached United Way more than three years ago to ask them to head up the creation of a 10-Year Plan to End Chronic Homelessness. In the future, federal funding will be strictly limited to communities that have developed and implemented this type of plan.
United Way recruited Dene Oliver from Oliver McMillan Companies to head up a leadership committee and subcommittees that included nearly 100 volunteers. These community leaders, service providers and homeless experts developed a plan that focuses on providing permanent housing and necessary support services in a results-oriented process to permanently solve the problem of chronic homelessness in our region. In addition, this plan, called Housing First – Housing Plus, calls for new strategies to prevent individuals and families from becoming homeless, and has proved successful in many cities across the United States. This innovative approach to helping this particularly difficult to serve segment of the homeless population is the region's best chance to end chronic homelessness.
Over a two-year period, the 10-year Plan to End Chronic Homelessness was developed, and it received unanimous approval from the San Diego City Council on October 23, 2006. The plan was also endorsed by 16 other jurisdictions throughout the county. Dene Oliver has agreed to lead the implementation of the plan and United Way will act as the fiscal agent for the plan. Members are being recruited as outlined in "The Plan" to serve on the implementation team to oversee the Housing First – Housing Plus plan. This team, made up of experts and advocates, will use the action steps and identified outcomes in the plan to create efficient and effective strategies to reach them. This team will also use its considerable expertise to leverage federal, state and local government dollars to help move the plan forward.
Conclusion
Changing community conditions calls for a new approach, as well as additional partners and resources. United Way of San Diego County, its staff and volunteer leadership are fully committed to Community Impact. United Way will focus its resources on funding specific, measurable and long-lasting positive changes in the community.
For more information, contact Sara Lantz, Community Impact Manager.
Synopsis of the Plan to End Chronic Homelessness
The core of the San Diego Plan focuses on two key elements. First, San Diego needs to develop a Housing First/Housing Plus model that has documented success in other communities. Second, strategies must be implemented that prevent individuals and families from becoming homeless.
Housing First/Housing Plus
For San Diego to make a paradigm shift in the way it assists the chronically homeless,
the Leadership Council identified five strategic planning areas that must be developed to enact an effective and lasting Housing First/Housing Plus model.
The five Strategic Planning Areas are:
1. Identify and Secure Sufficient Permanent Housing
2. Develop Housing Plus Wrap-around Services Model
3. Strengthen Intervention, Outreach, and Case Management
4. Implement a Systems-wide Data Collection, Evaluation, and Sharing Plan
5. Establish Regional Access and Intervention Centers
Prevention Plan
While the Housing First/Housing Plus model focuses primarily on the chronically homeless, renewed efforts should also be directed at preventing chronic homelessness. San Diego has more than 200 agencies and programs that serve the homeless. More often than not, services are initiated after the state of homelessness is reached. It is recommended that a Prevention Plan be implemented in tandem with the Housing First/Housing Plus model. Both initiatives overlap in many areas and should be viewed as complementary endeavors to ending chronic homelessness.
San Diego's prevention efforts should focus on the following five areas:
1. Strengthen Programs That Serve At-risk Populations
2. Improve Discharge Planning
3. Address Employment Issues
4. Address Tenant Landlord Issues
5. Develop Mental Health Courts
Plan to End Chronic Homelessness Timeline
August 2004: County and City of San Diego and United Way San Diego signed a Memorandum of Agreement for UW to convene a Leadership Council and develop a plan to end chronic homelessness in the San Diego Region.
October 2004-May 2004: Leadership Council (L/C) and 9 committees met to develop specific parts of the Plan. The committees were chaired by L/C members or subject area experts. The committees were: Data, Outcomes and Evaluation, Outreach, Early Intervention and Engagement, Creative Housing Solutions, Justice Systems, Implementation and Prevention. The sub-committees under Prevention were: Discharge Planning, Mainstream Resources, Employment, Services/ Programs Analysis
June-October 2004: Matrices distributed for public review and comment. Plan written and edited.
January 2005- March 2006: Public review and comments. Printed plans sent to over 50 stakeholder groups, all local officials, state officials representing San Diego and selected federal officials. Numerous presentations conducted, many meetings with individuals and groups.
June 14, 2006: Leadership Council presents draft Plan to the City of San Diego Public Services and Neighborhood Safety Committee. The Plan was accepted and the L/C was directed to start developing an Implementation process and proceed to the city council with a final plan
July- September 2006: An Implementation Ad-hoc Committee was formed and met several times. The purpose of the committee was twofold: to make recommendations on the types of organization to be represented on the Implementation Council and to recommend the title of the person who would be making the appointment to the Implementation Council.
October 2006: Final plan approved by the San Diego City Council.
November 2006: Start the development of the implementation Council.
January 2007: Start developing an implementation plan under the direction of the implementation Council.
