Connecticut Coalition to End Homelessness
77 Buckingham Street, Hartford CT 061061 P (860) 721-78761 F (860) 257-11481 www.cceh.org
What Is A Ten Year Plan to Prevent & End Homelessness?
A ten year plan is meant to transform your community's homeless assistance system and how you (the community) responds to someone facing a housing crisis or addresses the needs of someone who is currently homeless. A ten year plan sets clear numeric goals, timetables, and identifies funding and implementing bodies to ensure you move from planning to action. A ten year plan is effective because it is developed and driven by people like you who have a vested interest in the community; including businesses, government, non-profits, faith-based, and civic organizations, individual resident's, and people who are currently or formerly homeless. In the ten year plan, you outline a wide range of strategies depending on the gaps and needs you have identified in your community, including: • creating and using data systems; • preventing homelessness - both emergency prevention and looking at risk factors such as utility costs, employment or childcare barriers;
• outreach to homeless people to get them back into housing;
• shortening the time that people spend homeless by using strategies to re house people quickly; • creating permanent housing options for homeless people; • and, once homeless people become housed, linking them to services and to programs that will help them boost their income and increase their ability to afford housing in the future.
Ten Year Plans to Prevent & End Homelessness are part of a national movement introduced through the National Alliance to End Homelessness, Conference of Mayors, and the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness to address home less ness on a state and local level. Nationally, over 300 communities have developed and are implementing plans. In Connecticut, there are currently 9 Ten Year Plans in various stages of implementation.
Think Change
Be Change
Lead Change
.AaH
Connecticut Coalition to End Homelessness 77 Buckingham Street, Hartford CT 061 061 P(860) 721-78761 F (860) 257-1148 1www.cceh.org
Community Snapshot Homelessness in Meriden and Wallingford According to the most recent annual report from the Department of Social Services, between October 2006 and September 2007: 1 • 665 clients were served in Meriden's homeless shelter (Shelter Now), including 68 families with 147 children • Children between the ages of birth and 5 years of age made up 12% of all homeless clients served • 45% of all adults were high school graduates • 42% of adults stated that family/friend eviction or family breakup was the primary reason for their homelessness • 35% of adults stated that substance abuse or mental illness was a contributing factor to their homelessness During that same time period at Wallingford's emergency shelter (Wallingford Shelter): • 93 clients were served at the Wallingford Emergency Shelter • 48% of all clients were between the ages of 21-25 • 44% of adults were high school graduates • 63% of adults stated that their reason for homelessness was a family/friend eviction • 67% of adults stated that unemployment was a factor in their homelessness • 46% of adults stated that substance abuse was a factor in their homelessness
Many more remain at risk of homeless ness In addition to the hundreds of people who experience homelessness each day in the Meriden and Wallingford community, there are many more who are living right on the edge of becoming homeless. •
• •
•
•
•
In Wallingford, there were over 800 applications for fuel assistance during 2007. In both Meriden and Wallingford, there were a combined 1586 utility mediations in just six months in 2007, with 20% of those mediations originating in Wallingford In Meriden and Wallingford, there was a 5% increase in the total number of WIC
applications for 2007, with a total of over 2,500 people
Statewide, an individual must earn $21.11 an hour 40hr/week to afford a modest two bedroom apartment at fair market rent including utilities. In the Meriden-Wallingford area, that figure rises to $21.96 an hour, or $45,680 per year2 Statewide from June 2007 to June 2008, the percentage of mortgages in foreclosure has nearly doubled to 3.1 %. A recent report by the Hartford Courant, cited that in Wallingford there were 242 foreclosures, and an additional 741 in Meriden The top 5 types of calls into the 2-1-1 Infoline for Wallingford during 2008 were: HelplineslWarmlines, Utility Assistance, General Information, Food Stamps and Food Pantries The top 5 types of calls into the 2-1-1 Infoline for Meriden during 2008 were: Utility Assistance, General Information, Food Pantries, Homeless Shelter, and Temporary Financial Assistance
1 Department of Social Services. Annual Homeless Demographic Report for FFY 2007, October 2006 September 2007 2 National Low Income Housing Coalition, "Out of Reach Report, 2007-2008" 2008