Orange County NC Website
10 <br /> 1 - 32%women <br /> 2 - 68%men <br /> 3 - 33%mental illness <br /> 4 - 48% drug and/or alcohol addiction <br /> 5 <br /> 6 Other context: <br /> 7 - Research showed there was a growing trend in homelessness. There had been some success, but it <br /> 8 had stagnated. The visibility of the homeless problem seemed to be cyclical. Temporary shelters <br /> 9 got people off the street, which is important, but didn't solve the problem of chronic homelessness. <br /> 10 - Housing First approach provided more support. To really address chronic homelessness takes time, <br /> 11 effort and leadership—not easy to pull off. <br /> 12 - With temporary shelters, the visibility wasn't as pronounced and pressure was eased up on. <br /> 13 - Shelters were funded by beds being occupied, not having empty beds. Other providers were also. If <br /> 14 you changed the mandate for keeping beds empty, there's no funding for that. Even showing up for <br /> 15 Coalition meetings weren't funded—had to volunteer to that. <br /> 16 - Whole system tends to gravitate toward the easy to do stuff. If you want to end homelessness, have <br /> 17 to figure out how to break the vicious cycle. <br /> 18 <br /> 19 As a result of the work in systems thinking, homelessness didn't end,but did lessen. The group process <br /> 20 the Homeless Coalition used focused on: <br /> 21 - Reducing and reframing shelter use <br /> 22 - Sharing a vision of Housing First <br /> 23 - Investing in affordable housing with support services <br /> 24 - Asking the question: how are we implicated in this? <br /> 25 Outcomes <br /> 26 - Homeless Coalition coalesced around a plan and the plan was funded <br /> 27 - Homeless Coalition voted unanimously to reallocate HUD funding from one service provider's <br /> 28 transitional housing program to permanent supportive housing program run by another provider <br /> 29 <br /> 30 Quantitative results: In the plan's first six years of operation (2007-2012), which included the <br /> 31 economic collapse of 2008, the county reported the following results: <br /> 32 Homelessness decreased by 14% (from 1658 to 1419) <br /> 33 DESPITE a 34%increase in unemployment and 7%increase in evictions <br /> 34 <br /> 35 Deepening Our Understanding of Problems: The Iceberg <br /> 36 Mr. Goodman then invited participants to apply The Iceberg Framework to better understand <br /> 37 their issue of food insecurity. Participants were instructed to work in their small groups to <br /> 38 answer: <br /> 39 - Why do we have this issue or challenge? <br /> 40 - Identify the underlying Structure (Brainstorm list of factors or drivers) <br /> 41 - Why has it persisted this long? <br /> 42 - What are the barriers to improvement? <br /> 43 Remember: NOT WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT OR HOW TO FIX IT YET <br /> 44 <br /> 45 Why are segments of the population more food insecure/lack access than others despite a <br /> 46 variety of interventions by several agencies/County Government? <br />