Ten Year Plan
Individuals and families not reaching self-sufficiency levels has long been a problem in the United States. In the 1980s, large numbers of individuals experiencing homelessness began turning up on Guilford County's streets and the streets of other major U.S. counties and cities.
Initial responses to this new problem developed randomly. Organizations began setting up ad hoc soup kitchens, overnight shelters, and/or medical care. Most presumed that homelessness was a temporary problem, and that if individuals and families were provided with access to shelter and food, they would quickly regain their footing. However, this wasn't the case and the problem worsened. In the 1990s, in response to the increasing numbers of individuals experiencing homelessness, organizations began developing more comprehensive approaches to solving homelessness. Ways of thinking began to shift and now most believed that homelessness was primarily caused by specific problems, such as drug addiction, alcoholism, or mental illness. These problems needed to be "fixed" before an individual could maintain a permanent housing situation.
As a result, systems were developed which required individuals and families to pass through a series of steps designed to make them "housing ready." Unfortunately, in too many cases, these tedious steps didn't work either. In some cases individuals continued to cycle through the homeless service system. Therefore the number of individuals and families experiencing homelessness continued to remain stubbornly high.
This well meaning "housing ready" attempt did not take into consideration that individuals and families enduring homelessness are diverse in their backgrounds, including the factors that led them to become homeless and their patterns of usage of homeless services. In addition, the lack of partnerships and nonexistent spirit of cooperation between agencies created a system in which information was not shared, resources were not maximized, and the vulnerable population that most needed the services was being dramatically affected in very negative ways.
The experiences of the last thirty years led us to the conclusion that we needed a paradigm shift in the provision of homeless services-from managing the problem of homelessness with emergency shelters, soup kitchens and other temporary assistance to ending homelessness through fostering teamwork and enabling system coordination. Some communities across the United States were having extensive success in reducing homelessness numbers by taking a business plan approach through the creation of Ten Year Plans to End Homelessness. In the plans, one could find strategies, objectives, action steps, benchmarks, financial analyses, etc. The federal government and communities across the nation quickly began to catch on and develop their own ten year plans to end homelessness. On June 4, 2007, Guilford County unveiled its Ten Year Plan to End Chronic Homelessness to the public, becoming the 210th community nationwide to develop such a plan.
Locally, in many ways, our Ten Year Plan has exceeded our goals, objectives and outcomes. In the brief time we have been executing the Ten Year Plan, we are better at counting those experiencing homelessness, targeting our services and maximizing the impact of the funds we allocate via our partnerships with the homeless providers in Guilford County. We are more focused than ever on sustainability and partnerships, and are strategically evaluating where we want to be in the next five years by resetting our benchmarks based on the progress of the first quarter of the plan.
We are frequently asked how the economy has impacted our efforts. It is clear to our partners that there could never have been a more important time to have a plan in place to ensure that every man, woman and child has a safe alternative to living life on the streets.
To learn more visit the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness
Guilford County Ten Year Plan Executive Summary
Opening Doors: Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness
2011 Update on Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness
