Goal is to end homelessness by 2020!
Action needed now to achieve this goal!
It is simply unacceptable for individuals, children, families and our nation’s Veterans to be faced with homelessness in this country.
President Obama June 18, 2009
As we stated in our June 22, 2010, post on the release of Opening Doors: Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness, the plan has a timeframe and clear, measurable national goals; these will help to drive an organized and committed federal response.
What we need now is action. Communities in New Jersey that are able to show real progress are those that have not only created a plan, but harnessed the political will and public support necessary to commit real resources to implementation. These communities in the Garden State now have a federal partner to stand alongside local stakeholders in the effort to prevent and end homelessness. Together, we can turn this plan into real action and end homelessness.
The United States Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH) has released a PowerPoint they used at the NAEH National Conference to End Homelessness that provides an overview of the plan. We do encourage everyone to read the full plan. Click here to read the full copy of Opening Doors.
Click here to view the PowerPoint.
Opening Doors assumes that the size of the homeless population as counted in January 2009 reflects the baseline at the time of the plan’s release and that progress begins immediately after the release of the plan in summer 2010. In 2009, NJ counted 12,035 homeless persons including 4,117 children under the age of 18.
A total of 889 adults met the HUD definition of chronically homeless when counted on January 28, 2009. To read the full report prepared by CSH click here.
The Plan is focused on four key goals: (1) Finish the job of ending chronic homelessness in five years; (2) Prevent and end homelessness among Veterans in five years; (3) Prevent and end homelessness for families, youth, and children in ten years; and (4) Set a path to ending all types of homelessness.
The Plan proposes a set of strategies that call upon the federal government to work in partnership with state and local governments, as well as the private sector to employ cost effective, comprehensive solutions to end homelessness.
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