Approach

Selection of Strategies and Target Populations

Between January and June 2012, the Mayor’s staff visited best practice cities, interviewed national experts, met with over 90 local housing and services providers, and conducted interviews and focus groups with homeless citizens. The Unsheltered No More team partnered with local universities to analyze existing local homeless population needs and gaps in housing and services.

In April 2012, Mayor Reed hosted a series of Community Conversations with over 80 leaders from the faith, business, philanthropic, government, and non-profit sectors to generate and discuss ideas for addressing homelessness. These sessions directly informed the selection of Unsheltered No More‘s strategies and target populations.

Building Strategies for Success

We are working with our service provider community to develop a coordinated outreach strategy focused on reaching the most vulnerable, chronically homeless people—those with the highest risk of death if they remain on the street.

We are working to develop a coordinated process of intake, assessment, and triage to ensure that homeless people are matched to housing and social services based on their particular needs and with an eye toward collective impact.

Solutions to homelessness are about more than a roof. We’re working to expand permanent supportive housing for chronically homeless households and to develop a model for providing temporary rehousing assistance—in the form of a rental subsidy along with services to support a return to self-sufficiency—to those experiencing episodic homelessness.

Chronically homeless individuals consume a disproportionate amount of public resources, often cycling in and out of emergency rooms and through the criminal justice system. Prioritizing permanent housing resources for the most vulnerable helps save lives andconserves public resources.

Criminal backgrounds represent a barrier to housing and financial stability. We are working to ensure that the criminal justice system supports efforts to reduce street homeless — by creating opportunities for expungement of criminal records and by using the criminal justice system as a point of entry for individuals to gain access to social services.

Implementation Milestones

May 15-August 23, 2012: Veterans Initiative kicks off with the 100-Day Challenge
November-December 2012: Pilot project to test registry methodology and strategies for rehousing chronically and episodically homeless citizens
January 2013: Atlanta Homeless Registry (Jan. 18-19, 2013)
February 2013: Chronic and Episodic initiatives launch and community partners begin housing people from the Registry using a coordinated community process
March 9-June 17, 2013: Chronic & Veterans 100-Day Challenge & 100 Jobs Campaign for Rapid Re-Housing

Mayor Reed welcomes participants at the kickoff Community Conversation in April 2012. Mayor Reed’s welcome is followed by an address by national poverty expert, Donna Beegle.