This Special Issue of the e-newsletter highlights the actions of the National Association of Counties (NACo) during their annual conference to affirm the work being done in communities across the country to reduce and end homelessness.

KANSAS CITY, JULY 15, 2008. Earlier today the nation's county officials gathered in America's Heartland at their annual conference and endorsed and affirmed through resolution innovations that are reducing and ending chronic homelessness in communities across the nation. In endorsing innovative initiatives in 10 Year Plans, including Rapid Rehousing and Housing First strategies, NACo called on communities to adopt the national innovations that are making a difference on the streets and in the neighborhoods of our country. The NACo resolution, in endorsing 10 Year Plans, focused on homeless veterans, cost benefit analysis, Project Homeless Connect, and America's Road Home.

Five years ago to the day that NACo adopted a Policy Resolution supporting 10 Year Planning and encouraging counties to engage with the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness to create 10 Year Plans, today the county officials affirmed the progress being made and the innovations responsible for the decreased numbers.

Today's adopted Policy Resolution:
NACo Resolution Endorsing 10 Year Plans to End Chronic Homelessness
"Issue: Jurisdictionally-led, community-based 10 Year Plans to End the Homelessness of those who are the most disabled, most vulnerable and most expensive citizens.

"Proposed Policy: NACo strongly supports community- based 10 Year Plans to end homelessness, as also proposed in the statement of principles and actions of America's Road Home: A Ten Year Plan to End Homelessness, of the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness. Furthermore:

• NACo endorses the targeting of federal resources to housing first and rapid re-housing strategies and other innovations in 10 Year Plans that have demonstrated results towards reducing and ending homelessness;
• NACo supports additional federal funding for 10 Year Plans. Such federal programs and grants shall not create unfunded mandates;
• NACo endorses increased investments in solutions to veteran homelessness, and encourages both the Administration and the Congress to continue to increase the resources targeted to end the homelessness of veterans; and
• NACo endorses and encourages county officials to develop and implement 10 Year Plans to End Homelessness for their communities and adopt the national innovations identified through those Plans.

"Background: County officials in partnership with the U. S. Interagency Council on Homelessness are committed to preventing and ending homelessness in our nation's counties, a partnership of accountability and results. County officials and counties are on the front lines of the response to chronic homelessness. Ending chronic homelessness requires a partnership with all levels of government, the private sector, and all other community stakeholders. As a result of this partnership with county officials, other elected representatives, the private sector, and all other stakeholders, more than 335 counties and cities have committed to create and implement jurisdictionally- led, community-based, business-oriented 10 Year Plans to End Homelessness.

"America's Road Home Statement of Principles and Actions was developed by county commissioners, county executives, and mayors in partnership with the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness at a Summit in Denver. More than 335 county commissioners, county executives and mayors are signatories to America's Road Home Statement of Principles and Actions. These principles include:

1. End the homelessness of our most vulnerable and disabled citizens who reside on our streets and in our shelters, those experiencing chronic homelessness, especially including homeless veterans;
2. With the support of our partners work to shorten the time any person is homeless;
3. Accept jurisdictional responsibility for accountability and results in the broader partnership that includes other levels of government and the private sector for an issue that is visible, expensive, and unacceptable in our communities;
4. Affirm our jurisdictionally-led, community- based 10 Year Plans as the community's primary planning strategy to effect accountability and results in ending and preventing homelessness; and
5. Develop these plans to ensure that the measurable outcomes are sustainable and render lasting solutions to homelessness.

"Ten Year Plans have identified innovations, such as assertive community treatment, housing first and rapid re-housing, private-sector community champions, cost benefit analysis, ending the homelessness of ex-offenders, and Project Homeless Connect (PHC), that have been adopted by communities across the country. A number of communities implementing 10 Year Plans and adopting these innovations are seeing reductions in the number of people experiencing chronic homelessness living on their streets and languishing in emergency shelters, the first such reductions communities have seen in over 20 years. These reductions in chronic and street homelessness are improving the quality of life for all members of urban and rural communities, housed and homeless alike.

"NACo encourages and supports the increased involvement of county officials in creating Project Homeless Connect events and participating in the 2008 National Project Homeless Connect (NPHC) Week and throughout the year in proven strategies that end homelessness. County officials have organized PHC events specifically to engage homeless youth, homeless families, and persons experiencing chronic homelessness on community streets and in shelters. County officials have engaged business, academia, professional sports, and an expansive range of new public and private partners in executing PHC events.

"Some returning veterans face difficulties in their return related to psychological or physical challenges and disabilities, and become homeless. County officials are committed to supporting homeless veterans and assuring they have the housing and services they need to rebuild their lives. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) recently reported that, on any given night, there are 154,000 veterans who are homeless. This is a decrease from 250,000 veterans that were homeless the VA reported in the late 1990's, and from 195,000 veterans that were homeless the VA reported in 2006, which corresponds to the creation of permanent supported housing as the primary intervention.

"Fiscal/Urban/Rural Impact: Developing and implementing jurisdictionally-led, community based 10 Year Plans to End Homelessness has led to documented savings and substantial reductions of tax payer expenses in communities nationally. This is attributable to redirection of chronically homeless people away from costly public systems of care to more cost effective permanent supported housing. 10 Year Plans have also strengthened already existing local collaborative groups, whose purpose is to garner federal targeted homeless assistance resources, thereby positioning communities to be more competitive for future federal resources."

Pictured here is (left to right) Council Executive Director Philip Mangano with NACo President and Oakland County, Michigan Commissioner Eric Coleman and NACo Second Vice President and Gloucester County, Virginia Supervisors Chair Teresa Altemus, after Director Mangano briefed NACo's Human Services Steering Committee, chaired by Sacramento County Supervisor Roger Dickinson, on current national efforts to reduce homelessness, including 10 Year Plans, cost benefit analysis, and America's Road Home.

With the support of Wake County Commissioners Joe Bryan, Chair, and Lindy Brown, the North Carolina delegation overwhelmingly supported with their signatures the Principles and Actions called for in America's Road Home and joined with new signatories from across the nation to add more than 70 new county officials to the growing national support of America's Road Home. Both Commissioners Bryan and Brown are Charter Signatories of America's Road Home, having participated in the shaping and creation of the document at the Denver Summit in November 2007.

County Commissioners across the country have engaged and led 10 Year Plans investing their human resources in more cost effective initiatives, including Rapid Rehousing and Assertive Community Treatment teams. Counties are also on the frontlines of offering initiatives that create model jail diversion programs for non-violent offenders and new models for transitioning foster youth.

"We are indebted to the openness of NACo President Eric Coleman and NACo Legislative Director Ed Rosado and his team for the strength of the partnership between the Council and NACo," indicated United States Interagency Council on Homelessness Executive Director Philip Mangano. "The reaffirmation of that partnership through Resolution and support for America's Road Home signals the reframing of the issue of homelessness in an economic lens that speaks the vernacular of county leadership and responsibility."

"And, of course, we are again indebted to Wake County Commissioner Bryan and Sacramento County Supervisor Dickinson for the work they have done in their counties to reduce homelessness and for their continuing support at NACo."

Pictured here is Director Mangano with (right) Supervisor Dickinson and NACo's Associate Legislative Director Marilina Sanz.

email: usich@usich.gov

web: http://www.usich.gov