Metro Atlanta’s Battle with Homelessness  

 

St. Luke’s Episcopal Church
435 Peachtree Street NE
Atlanta, GA 30308

Tuesday, March 6, 2018, 9:30 a.m. – 11:45 a.m.

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Fifteen years after Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin asked United Way of Metropolitan Atlanta to convene what would become the Regional Commission on Homelessness – which subsequently crafted and implemented the Blueprint to End Homelessness, the City had its watershed moment last year.

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Under the leadership of Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed, the City accepted a challenge from United Way’s Regional Commission on Homelessness by agreeing to match private funding up to $25 million creating a $50 million fund to be invested in alignment with the community’s Clear Path Strategic Plan to make homelessness in Atlanta rare, brief and non-recurring.

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Success to date has been made possible by steadfast support of the foundation community, the private sector and the collaboration of regional governments and especially the work of housing and service providers.

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The new investment will: create 500 new units of permanent supportive housing for chronically homeless individuals; secure housing for 300 homeless families who will be rapidly rehoused in permanent units; prevent 100 families from entering homelessness; create 264 new emergency shelter beds; and create 254 new housing interventions for homeless youth.

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How do we leverage this success to address the growing need in the region? Documented increases in suburban poverty, fewer safety net programs and the nation’s third highest eviction rate is a recipe for increased homelessness.  The regional answer may be found in further deployment of the Continuum of Care model.

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In 1994, HUD began to require each community to submit a single, comprehensive “Continuum of Care (CoC)” application – rather than allowing applications from individual providers. Fast forward to today, metro Atlanta is served by five CoCs  – a regional or local planning body that coordinates housing and services funding for homeless families and individuals.

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Join us for the March 6 Atlanta Regional Housing Forum as we learn about the state of homelessness in our region, the challenges faced by CoCs and their myriad of providers, how essential elements of the ‘housing first’ strategy and rapid rehousing are being met – and what more is needed to claim victory over homelessness. You’ll hear about a few Atlanta real estate developers who saw a need and created the Atlanta Real Estate Collaborative to help leverage available assets and are now, with the pro bono assistance of RentPath, have created smart technology to match needs with available units.

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Our presenters will include:

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Bill Bolling, Food Well Alliance, Moderator

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Jack Hardin, Regional Commission on Homelessness

Cathryn Marchman, Partners for HOME 

Matt Hurd, Open Doors 

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Carol Collard, Caring Works

Jimiyu Evans, Project Community Connections, Inc.

Darlene Schultz, 3Keys, Inc.

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