10-YEAR PLAN TO END CHRONIC HOMELESSNESS IN REGION IS RELEASED TODAY

---NEWS RELEASE---

(October 9, 2007)--- Hartford has officially begun “Journey Home”--- the 10-year plan to end chronic homelessness in Hartford and the Capital region.  During the past year, more than 150 people have been working with the Mayor’s Commission to End Chronic Homelessness to develop and implement an action plan.  Today, that plan was announced at a news conference at McKinney Shelter, in Hartford’s Sheldon-Charter Oak neighborhood.

Mayor Eddie A. Perez says, “I applaud this monumental effort because this will help our 4,000 neighbors who spent time in emergency shelters this past year and the countless more who were turned away.  And it will also help Hartford continue to live up to its name of ‘The City of Hope and Opportunity.’  This plan is realistic and is goal-oriented.  Let the journey begin.”

The primary focus of this implementation plan includes reducing the frequency and duration of homelessness and moving more homeless into stable, permanent housing.  The four basic principles of the plan are:

1.       Focus on the causes, needs, and solutions of chronic homelessness

2.       Create awareness of existing services and streamline the access to these services

3.       Concentrate resources on programs that offer measureable results

4.       End homelessness in our region by 2015

Key elements of the plan include:

1.       Develop, design, and build more than 2100 supportive housing units (half in the city and half outside the city)

2.       Create and launch a prevention and rapid re-housing initiative

3.       Establish an integrated database and case management system

4.       Adopt Homeless Connect, a one day, one stop event designed to provide housing, services, and hospitality to people who are homeless

5.       Improve collaboration between service providers

6.       Create new innovative partnerships between government agencies, faith-based groups, non-profit and for-profit developers etc

7.       Increase economic opportunities for the homeless by improving access to workforce assistance

8.       Build community awareness of what homelessness is, as well as how and why it occurs

9.       Strengthen legislative efforts

10.   Establish an organizational structure