100,000 Homes Campaign

1. 100,000 Homes Campaign United Way of the Greater Triangle Southeast Regional Conference May 2012

2. United Way of the Greater Triangle • Multi-county United Way as of 1998 • Research Triangle Park area of North Carolina • Wake (Raleigh), Durham (Durham) and Orange (Chapel Hill) County • Heavy county identity despite merger • Johnston County merged in 2010

3. UWGT Involvement in Homelessness • 2002 - Lead agency for regional Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services grant • 2004-2007 – Funded and developed 10 year plans to end homelessness in three counties • 2007-2011 – Funded Project Homeless Connects and pilot employment project targeting the chronically homeless • 2010 – 2011 – Assisted Wake County Human Services and Step-Up Ministry in accessing federal Department of Labor Funds for reemploying Homeless Veterans ($300,000 each year for two years) • 2010 – Served as evaluation contractor for initial DOL grant • 2011 – Secured contract from the State of NC to design evaluation of the State of North Carolina’s Homeless Prevention and Rapid Rehousing Project • 2011 – Planning for 100,000 Homes Campaign • 2012 – Registry week

4. 100,000 Homes Campaign • National movement to permanently house 100,000 of the country’s most vulnerable and chronically homeless people • Surveys those on the street or in shelters to create a by name registry prioritized on the basis of severe health risks and length of homelessness • Re-aligns existing resources to match to those prioritized by the survey • Administration of the Vulnerability Index – shifts the priority of housing to a public health related issue • Registry Week • www.100Khomes.org • “Housing the sickest, the quickest”

5. Rationale for involvement • United Way Worldwide is a supporter and endorsing partner • Reenergize our 10 year plans • Increase community awareness • Regional project has higher awareness impact • Engage volunteers in short term, one-time event

6. UWGT supported • Participated in weekly training conference calls and engaged the campaign’s East Coast organizer • Volunteer organizing committee made up primarily of service providers • Contracted with a community organizer to organize registry week • Sent three county lead service providers and the community organizer to registry week – strategic with regard to who we sent • Planned and implemented volunteer recruitment, training, and scheduling for registry week activities • Developed media plan and trained volunteer organizing committee • Incentives of McDonald Gift Cards • Regional data entry/reporting

7. County partners • Responsible for finding a training location • Identified a “hub” where teams of outreach volunteers could meet at 4 am • Recruited additional service providers and law enforcement for the outreach days • Educated service providers about the event and its outcomes • Identified those who would participate in the matching follow up activities.

8. Community challenges to the fidelity of the model • Frame of reference is Point In Time Count • Survey • 4 am – 7 am over three days • Volunteers interacting with those on the street • Law enforcement • Pictures • Informed consent • Housing

9. Regional planning, county implementation • Meeting of regional planning body • Monthly August – October 2011 then bi-monthly in December 2011 and January 2012 • Decided to do on top of the PIT count at the end of January 2012 • Focus was on volunteer recruitment and training, corporate sponsorship, data entry, and media plans • County based meetings • Monthly to plan logistics • Planning follow up of matching, housing, and volunteer engagement

10. Hiccups • Durham County withdrew from the project • Did not want to adjust their PIT survey • Transition in 10 Year Plan leadership/process • Wake County had rescheduled their Project Homeless Connect to coincide with PIT count • What do we do about housing? • No corporate sponsors emerged

11. Successful registry week • Two trainings the weekend before • Training curriculum • Team identification planning based on geography • Three days at 4 am • Engagement of EMS, Police and Sherriff • Engagement of 120 service providers and volunteers • Informed consent, pictures taken, surveys administered • 781 respondents – see our results • Media participation

12. Lessons • 4 am didn’t matterin rural camps • Consistent relationships mattered • Natural gathering places • Incentives worked • Law enforcement – engage early to ask them to think about camp sites outside of normal outreach; who do they have calls on? For what? Where do they go? • High profile event • High volunteer engagement activity • Not a systemic solution to the problem of homelessness- helps us prioritize within the current system we have

13. Afterwards • Reenergizing local communities • Continuing relationships between outreach workers and law enforcement • Matching process is going on by engaging diverse service providers in the conversation of the available housing • Four housed • Engagement of Triangle Apartment Association • Looking for common elements for those not eligible for housing • Criminal history is an emerging barrier • Identifying follow-up stories for media

14. Contact information • Stan Holt, VP of Regional Initiatives • 919-463-5023 • sholt@unitedwaytriangle.org