New Orleans announced in early January it has been the first major city in the country to fulfill a goal from the Obama administration in 2010: ending veteran homelessness.
But despite dedicated efforts across the country to fulfill the goal by the end of 2015, and a renewed push a year ago after Michelle Obama’s announcement of the Mayors Challenge to End Veteran Homelessness, there’s been no standard or official definition of what “eliminating veteran homelessness” really means.
For Zero: 2016, a national campaign to end chronic and veteran homelessness by the end of 2016, “zero” means that at any point in time, the number of people experiencing homelessness won’t be greater than the community’s ability to put them in permanent housing.
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Beth Sandor, director of Zero: 2016, said her organization recognized early which it needed a specific concept of exactly what it was working toward.
New Orleans was one of more than 70 communities selected for the program, along with its news release about reaching the goal, defined ending veteran homelessness as “ensuring every homeless veteran who can be located is placed in permanent housing or in temporary housing with an identified permanent housing placement” within Thirty days.
That doesn’t mean that no veteran will ever again fall into homelessness in New Orleans, said Baylee Crone, executive director of the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans. But now, there is a system in place to locate permanent housing for all veterans quickly, she said.
The philosophy of “housing first” requires moving the homeless into permanent housing quickly – and regularly requires lowering barriers to admittance to that housing. For example, where people could have previously been required to finish a drug or alcohol treatment plan prior to being placed in permanent housing, now they could be placed in housing and given a case manager for access to the treatment as well as other services at a later time.
Though the approach is “not perfect the slightest bit,” studies have shown it works, Crone said.
The key for communities and outreach teams is always to know every person on the streets or in a shelter, Crone and Sandor said.
“If you don’t know their name and needs, you’ll not know what you need to get them into permanent housing,” Sandor said.
And the fact that New Orleans has hit the objective “is a game-changer,” Sandor said.
“It is actually a proof point,” she said, “an amazing example of what’s possible with good leadership, with the introduction of best practices, of knowing every single person’s name, of not quitting until we are there.”
New Orleans’ achievement is also ideal for other communities that could be trying to find their own definition of zero, Crone said, as well as those interested in best practices approaches to track their progress.
The city took the number of homeless veterans from a point-in-time count last year, 193, as its place to start, and it was able to house 127 of them in 6 months, she said. However the work is not over: Organizations there must continue to connect people with the resources they have to get back on their feet.
“Ending veteran homelessness isn’t a set point in time,” Crone said.
Nick & Cindy Davis, both veterans have a strong passion for this issue. If you are interested in helping out. You can always contact us at 813-300-7116 or simply click here and we will be in touch shortly.