Purpose
The three-year action plan is a “living document” that guides the Continuum of Care’s (CoC) collective work by setting clear, measurable, and achievable goals with specific strategies for policy and programmatic reform, effective analysis of need and performance, and a committed effort to realign resources. The action plan will continue to uphold the value that homelessness is solvable, as evidenced by a comprehensive crisis response system that ensures that homelessness is prevented, and when homelessness cannot be prevented, it should be a rare, brief and a nonrecurring experience. The plan is ambitious, but possible.
This action plan is the result of ongoing, collective processes led by Baltimore City’s CoC, inclusive of the original Journey Home plan, the CoC priorities established in 2017, and multiple efforts over the past two years that aimed to provide comprehensive analyses and specific recommendations. This plan has been developed and guided by key stakeholders and subject matter experts, including people with lived experience of homelessness.
Our CoC is still committed to the value that homelessness is solvable and that will continue to be our vision. This action plan serves as an incremental step towards that larger goal with the plan to increase capacity for larger, sustainable impact. The Board may design long-term planning mechanisms and activities to ensure that this action plan contributes to the vision of ensuring that homelessness is a rare, brief, and nonrecurring experience.
Letter from the Mayor
Coming soon.
Key Strategies
The action plan identifies a series of action items across four essential strategies:
Strategy 1
Increase the Supply of Affordable Housing
Increasing the supply of affordable housing is essential in our efforts to make homelessness rare, brief and nonrecurring and will yield the best and most cost-effective long-term results. The six interventions within this strategy present a robust, multi-pronged approach to expand opportunities for safe, decent, and affordable housing and supportive services to promote the highest level of independence and community integration for the range of individuals and families impacted by homelessness.
Strategy 2
Create a More Effective Homeless Response System
An effective homeless response system prevents homelessness when possible, and rapidly returns households experiencing homelessness to stable housing.
Strategy 3
Transform the Shelter System
Emergency shelters play a vital role in ending homelessness. Providing temporary, safe, and supportive environment to address barriers to housing strengthens our system and encourages households experiencing homelessness to seek the assistance needed to end their homelessness.
Strategy 4
Improve Access to Employment and Economic Opportunities
A comprehensive employment and income strategy and cross-sector solutions are necessary to support the goals of homeless jobseekers, eliminate barriers to employment and income stability, and assist families to obtain and sustain housing.
Strategy-Focused Outcomes
To be successful, this action plan must set specific and quantifiable benchmarks and deadlines that will promote community-wide commitment, foster accountability, and enable us to measure the efficacy of our strategies and their implementation. One high-level outcome will be assigned for each of the five key strategy areas, with the understanding that additional process and outcome measures will be established for each of the strategies and their corresponding interventions.