Our incredible progress has proven that Opening Doors is the right plan and that it works. Since its launch in 2010 we've changed the trajectory of homelessness in America. Opening Doors works because we developed the plan together. All told, more than 750 stakeholders authored the Plan. 

To capitalize on the momentum of successes we've experienced as a nation, USICH is considering amending Opening Doors to include critical new information we've gained from our progress.  The amendment would incorporate new strategies and insights gained from our work at the federal, state and local level.

Please lend us your expertise by weighing in on the following areas under consideration.

1. Retooling the Homeless Crises Response System
2. The Goal to Prevent and End Chronic Homelessness
3. The Role of Health Care in the Effort to Prevent and End Homelessness
4. Using Data, Setting Goals, and Defining What It Means to End Homelessness

This Participation Guide: http://bit.ly/USICH2014 shows which strategies are currently in Opening Doors and will assist you in sharing your ideas and voting for others.

We request your input by August 8, 2014. 

Across the country, growing numbers of public housing authorities (PHAs) have become integral to their community's efforts to prevent and end homelessness. This willingness to partner and engage in collaborative planning is critical to both local and national success in ending homelessness. The USICH PHA Guidebook provides guidance and best practices that PHAs can use to strengthen their collaborative efforts. Using Opening Doors as its blueprint, the Council of Large Public Housing Authorities (CLPHA) also provides an important reference with case studies on how agencies are meeting the individual goals of ending homeless in the United States. Last month, USICH Executive Director Laura Zeilinger was honored to address at CLPHA's Summer Meeting in Los Angeles. Later this month, Laura is pleased to have the opportunity to address at the National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials (NAHRO) annual summer conference in Tampa. 

Fresh from the 25 Cities work session on coordinated entry systems, a group of community leaders invited USICH to Baltimore to delve a little more deeply into the issue of youth homelessness.  We were asked to use the Youth Framework as a lens to discuss what it will take to ensure the resources and partnerships exist to end youth homelessness in Baltimore.

Adrienne Breidenstine leads the Special Populations group. The Special Populations group is currently evaluating existing capacity and resources to address youth homelessness and identifying how to create a strategic approach that will, hopefully, align with the Youth Framework.

For Baltimore, the vision is that homelessness will be a rare and brief for children and youth experiencing homelessness. "Now is the time for us to harness our community's energy and commitment to the cause and translate it into action," said Breidenstine.

Baltimore brings a breadth of experience and opportunity to the table. The city boasts advocacy agencies that have partnered with state legislators that represent both sides of the aisle, including Mary Washington and Edward Reilly, to develop and pass legislation that can clear the way for youth to access higher education, support a pilot initiative to conduct targeted counts of unaccompanied youth, and create a joint committee in the General Assembly and an Interagency Council on Homelessness. Baltimore also enjoys a strong network of agencies with people who have built relationships and share a passion to end homelessness, which has led to creative housing and services directed toward youth...

Read the rest of Amy Sawyer's blog.

Elizabeth Burman

USICH Welcomes New Program Assistant

Elizabeth Burman joined USICH as a program assistant supporting the Policy team.

Elizabeth holds a Master's degree in Public Administration with a focus in Social Policy from Syracuse University's Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. Prior to joining us at USICH, Elizabeth served as an AmeriCorps member in an emergency shelter for homeless and runaway youth in Rochester, NY, and worked with an international adolescent transitional living program in London.

Communities Come Together to Discuss Coordinated Entry 

by Amy L. Sawyer

How to Talk about Housing First

by Matthew Doherty

Eric Grumdahl USICH Policy Director

At the core of USICH's mission is creating effective partnerships. My thinking about what is possible in partnerships is shaped by the work I did prior to coming to Washington. Before joining USICH, I worked in a Midwestern metropolitan county human services agency with a broad mandate that included child welfare, behavior health and other social services, economic assistance programs, juvenile justice, public health, and the programs and policy efforts I led on homelessness and housing. Having this broad spectrum of services under shared leadership created lots of opportunity for partnership, and we benefitted in particular from leadership in our child welfare department that was especially attuned to the needs of youth and families in the child welfare system for whom housing was a critical ingredient to stability.

Our approach was to make our agency's housing resources, in partnership with our local public housing agencies, available as needed on a case-by-case basis to the families and youth that our child welfare system served. These resources included anything from assistance with housing searches, negotiation with landlords, flexible funding to cover things like security deposits, and a limited supply of rental assistance. To do this, we had to braid together state, local, and Federal dollars around each individual youth or family.  

Read more.

New Housing First Fact Sheet

USICH, with assistance from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, published a new fact sheet to help service providers understand how Housing First can fit into a permanent supportive housing framework.