Solutions

NEW YORK—Today, KNO Clothing and the 100,000 Homes Campaign launched a formal partnership to help end homelessness in communities across the country. The socially responsible fashion company will combine efforts with the non-profit campaign to help move 100,000 of America’s most vulnerable, long-term homeless people into permanent housing by July of 2013.

Today's New York Times included an editorial praising our partners in Los Angeles for a bold new plan to target veterans homelessness.

The program, known as Vets to Home Project 60, is made up of a broad coalition of city agencies and service providers and seeks to apply the housing first model to homeless veterans.

You can read the editorial below.

Special congratulations to the Campaign team in Santa Monica!

December capped off an incredible 2010 for the 100,000 Homes Campaign and its effort to house 100,000 of America’s most vulnerable homeless by July of 2013.

Since our last update, the Campaign has added three new partner communities to reach 67. Participating communities have also reported close to 500 new permanent housing placements, raising the Campaign’s total reported number housed to 7,176 total. In the six months since its formal launch, the Campaign has officially doubled in size and more than 2,000 homeless people have been placed in permanent housing.

Over the holidays, the Campaign made its second appearance in the New York Times, and we didn't want you to miss it!

After David Bornstein's first column lauded the Campaign's successes, readers wrote in to ask for more information about how the Campaign works. Did people really stay housed, they wondered? How many get jobs, quit drugs or go back to school? Isn't this whole thing a bit too good to be true?

Communication is a central tenet of this Campaign. For too long, self-erected barriers have separated advocates for the homeless from one another and homeless individuals from permanent housing. By bringing people together to share their knowledge and ideas, we can end homelessness quickly and cost effectively. No one should have to innovate alone.

Our Campaign partners in Seattle have applied this basic principle to the funding process with spectacular results.

Homelessness is a healthcare issue. That's what the Campaign's Vulnerability Index® is all about.

Homeless individuals are much more likely to die from preventable or manageable conditions, and permanent housing can often be the best form of treatment.

Every once in a while, we read something so poignant and compelling that we've just got to repost it here. That's how we feel about this Poverty Insights piece-- a call from three respected California faith leaders to support the new plan to end chronic and veteran homelessness in Los Angeles.

Wondering about last weekend's national staff meeting in Las Vegas? Don't miss this post! 

Joel John Roberts is a tireless fighter for ending homelessness in the L.A. area. He's also a member of the Campaign's national leadership team and a huge inspiration to the field. He recently shared the following reflections on last weekend's national staff meeting in Las Vegas:

Registry Week means waking up early— really early.  But in Melbourne, a rash of empty campsites has volunteers waking up even sooner than usual to find the homeless before they head out for the day.

In most Campaign communities, Registry Week volunteers commit to getting out of bed around three in the morning and hitting the streets by four. It’s never pleasant, but early rising is a critical part of ensuring that teams arrive at local sleeping spots before their homeless neighbors leave.