Making Homelessness A Thing Of The Past Task force highlights the work done and to be done to end homelessness

Making Homelessness A Thing Of The Past

Task force highlights the work done and to be done to end homelessness

At last count, there were over 3,000 individuals dealing with homelessness in Connecticut, a grave problem as winter approaches. It’s important to get that number to zero. That is why we have formed a Homelessness Prevention Task Force to develop best practices at the municipal level to combat and end homelessness across Connecticut.

A partnership with the CT Coalition to End Homelessness (CCEH), this initiative relies heavily on the experience and expertise of local municipal officials and CEOs. Under the co-chairs of Mayor Benjamin Blake of Milford and Mayor Erin Stewart of New Britain, the task force is working to develop the best practices and coordinated actions municipalities can take to combat homelessness.

Mayor Benjamin Blake of Milford and CCEH Executive Director Richard Cho

Matthew Ford Photo

The chief collaborator is CCEH. The task force is working on a model municipal resolution to be created with input from the task force members, with Executive Director Richard Cho and Madeline Ravich, Development Advisor and Director of the BE HOMEFUL Project, addressing the task force at the most recent meeting in November.

Once the model resolution is approved by the task force, the work will begin on reaching out to all towns and cities in Connecticut to encourage them to adopt the resolution.

In addition to this, the task force is working to finalize and approve a list of recommended actions municipalities can take to address homelessness. If this sounds familiar, it’s because the action-based program was modeled after the extremely popular and effective Sustainable CT program.

Actions will be based on feedback CCM received from a survey issued to our entire membership, as well as Social and Youth Services directors. The survey asked municipalities to highlight what successes they’ve had and what initiatives they are currently pursuing.

That is in large part because Connecticut towns and cities are already taking action on homelessness and have been extremely successful. In one recent episode of The Municipal Voice, Mayor Stewart noted that New Britain has maintained a rate of zero in chronic homelessness.

One other key find from the survey is that there have been a number of successful partnerships put in place between municipal staff and local non-profits, organizations and community groups, but localized barriers to providing services and a lack of resources were primary difficulties in addressing homelessness.

So one facet of the initiative will be to focus on increased coordination of resources and efforts to overcome localized and fiscal barriers. Another will be to identify those non-profits and organizations that have implemented successful tactics in combating homelessness in their communities.

As reported in the most recent Point-in-Time Count by the CCEH, there are 3,033 people who were homeless in shelters, sleeping outside or other places not meant for human habitation on a single night in Connecticut. The coalition reports a reduction in homelessness based on this one-night census measure since 2007 (the year of the first count).

The Homelessness Prevention Task Force was created with the vision that municipalities have been on the forefront of this issue and hold the ideas that could be the key to helping solve this crisis once and for all. Towns’ and cities’ focus and quality initiatives should be acknowledged and rewarded. But there is still work to be done, and the road map created by this Task Force will be the first step of many.