Why We Are Housing-Focused

At its core, this means getting people a roof over their heads as quickly as possible, and then addressing the issues that contributed to their lack of housing.

It should be obvious that any attempt to alleviate homelessness must include housing. Yet housing alone is not always the answer.

When people have lived on the streets for years, they have likely endured long-term sleep deprivation, inadequate hydration and poor nutrition. Many times, they’ve been beaten up, hit by cars, or developed chronic health problems. Any mental health issue they may have had at the outset has likely been seriously exacerbated, and their ability to navigate the search for housing and manage their finances has nearly always been compromised.

We believe in providing a place where people can recover, address their challenges, and work with case managers to access a variety of services, opportunities and education. Housing-focused is a homeless-assistance approach that prioritizes providing stable housing to people experiencing homelessness, giving them the opportunity to sleep without fear of being attacked, be sheltered from severe weather, and have an address they can use to apply for employment and services. This not only improves their quality of life; it also improves the quality of life for the community by reducing the number of people living on its streets. This approach is guided by the belief that people need basic necessities like food and a safe place to sleep before attending to anything less critical, such as getting a job, or budgeting properly. Additionally, unlike mass temporary shelters, a housing-focused approach is much more likely to result in people remaining housed for the long-term and improving their life.

What we do is not a housing free-for-all. Citizens cannot merely refuse to get a job, sit on a sidewalk, and qualify for a free apartment. In fact, this has never been the way things worked here.

Instead, we help people with housing and services only to the point where they can take care of themselves. For some, such as victims of domestic violence, that means several months of rental subsidies and access to mental-health counseling and legal support until they can get back on their feet. For others, such as veterans with missing limbs or traumatic brain injuries, it’s possible they may never be able to return to work full-time and will need some level of support indefinitely. We believe this is the right and humane thing to do.

Overall, about 20% of people experiencing homelessness have chronic disabling conditions — including those with cancer, heart disease and serious mental illness — making full-time employment a challenge. But the remaining 80% work to increase their income and support themselves and their families.

Overwhelming evidence has found that this approach is successful in helping people to remain housed — and that it’s actually cheaper than alternatives. So why are there more people living on our streets in recent years? Because, since 2021, the number of people becoming homeless for the first time has skyrocketed alongside the growing unaffordability of housing. People are flooding into the system far faster than they can be airlifted out.

It’s not the rescue system that’s broken — it’s the housing market that no longer has enough units for workers earning less that $48,692 a year.

The steps

Coordinated Entry System

  • CES is a person-centered process designed to provide the most appropriate housing intervention for each individual or family experiencing homelessness.

  • Ensures all homeless individuals are known by name.

  • Increases seamless connections between agencies.

  • Prioritizes clients based upon greatest needed, allowing for more efficient use of community resources.

  • Includes hubs (ongoing locations and temporary pop-up sites) and diversion practices

  • Special processes for veterans, youth and victims of crime (domestic violence and human trafficking)

Prevent, Diversion, Shelter.

Prevention & Diversion

Help with rent, utilities, family reunification and creative housing solutions.

Shelter
Emergency
Transitional – Up to three years of housing with case management for youth.
Bridge – temporary hotels

Supportive Housing.

Supportive Housing - 

  • Long-term affordable housing combined with services.

  • Only for chronically homeless individuals with disabilities.

  • Supportive Housing has been proven to be a cost-effective solution to ending homelessness, as participants enrolled in the program have less interaction with high-cost crisis systems, such as jails and hospitals.

For supportive housing forms, click here.

Rapid Rehousing -

  • Supportive housing and time-limited rental assistance.

  • For families and individuals, including people with limited or no income and survivors of domestic violence and human trafficking.

  • Research demonstrates that those who receive rapid re-housing assistance are homeless for shorter periods of time than those assisted with shelter or transitional housing.

For RRH forms, click here.