Homeless Strategy Office turns its focus to prevention and diversion

With a $2.1 million boost from the federal American Rescue Plan Act and City Council’s recent approval of a contract for navigation services, the Homeless Strategy Office is now better equipped to address housing barriers, HSO leader David Gray told the Public Health Committee Wednesday.

Gray briefed the Council committee on his department’s updated strategic plan goals regarding homelessness and housing, with emphasis on prevention and diversion services.

“We’re excited to be dedicating some energy towards homeless prevention and getting upstream of people’s experiences of homelessness instead of waiting for them to be homeless for so long that they’re now traumatized,” Gray said. “Just the cost and the amount of effort it takes to help people recover at that point is far more severe.”

The new funding from the American Rescue Plan Act is geared toward helping individuals and families in need of housing assistance, either by removing barriers that keep people from obtaining housing, or as incentives for local property owners to make housing units available for people on the brink of homelessness or who are currently unhoused, according to a city press release announcing the funding.

Application details are available through the city’s PartnerGrants database or on the city’s website. Applications for funding are due Oct. 3.

Council’s approval last week of a contract with Sunrise Community Church for a navigation system adds another tool to help the city achieve its homelessness prevention and diversion goals. The services will include a phone hotline and a web-based information system for people to access, with assistance from Sunrise staff. The 14-month contract, with up to four 12-month extension options, is at a cost of up to $4.4 million.

“One thing that we’re doing in parallel to that is entering into a research contract, not just to evaluate the effectiveness of the Sunrise work, but more importantly for us to understand what types of prevention interventions are most successful versus which ones maybe help somebody for a few months and then it leads them right back into homelessness,” Gray told the committee.

Another strategic goal of the Homeless Strategy Office is stability – tracking the success of individuals served by city-funded programs who enter permanent housing and do not experience homelessness again within two years of placement. The HSO’s initial target for this goal is 80 percent of people served by a city program.

“Since we’re on the front end of this new strategic plan, we just haven’t had the benefits of a two-year look-back to see if we are achieving this target or not,” Gray said.

Photo made available through a Creative Commons license.

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