CoC Strategic Work Plan Online Learning Clinic - End Chronic, Veteran and Elderly Homelessness

Why does our CoC Strategic Work Plan have an entirely separate goal for these populations? On one level the answer is rather simple: Opening Doors, the national strategic plan to end homelessness and the HEARTH Act of 2009 prioritize these (at least, the first two, explicitly). However, that doesn’t really answer the question, because then the question is, why did Congress, expressing the will of the nation, as a whole, prioritize these groups?

Cindy J. Crain, MDHA President and CEO, with Dennis Culhane

Prioritizing these groups follows an idea called progressive engagement. Dennis Culhane, one of the leading scholars of the modern homelessness crisis, and his colleagues discuss this at length. This graph, from their article, is very helpful in understanding what this approach is all about:

(Courtesy of Culhane, Metraux and Byrne)

As we explain in our playbook, before the HEARTH Act, the experimentation with Rapid Rehousing during the Great Recession, and the advent of the Housing First movement, Continua of Care and their grantees often served clients on a “first come, first served” basis, using a “one-size fits all” approach. This often meant that we served those who figured out how to best access the system, not those who needed the most help, and that we made everyone we served go through the exact same programs. This left our services, for everyone, lacking.
 
Using a progressive engagement approach, we serve each person, according to their needs, prioritizing those who need the most help. Not surprisingly, most people don’t need a huge amount of help, and those who do, vary by their level of vulnerability and scope of need. The greater the vulnerability and scope of need, the greater and more urgent the need for help is, and the greater the cost of that help.
 
Typically, the chronically homeless, veterans and the elderly will fall into those groups that are on right hand side of the graph. This does not always mean that that more intensive investment will come from the core of the homeless response system. As Culhane and his colleagues explain, and as the graph itself indicates, these may be provided by mainstream services aligned with the homeless response system. This is what this goal in our plan emphasizes too, particularly in action items 4, 7 and 10.
 
Prioritizing veterans also makes sense from an ethical standpoint. Veterans have given, of themselves, to our nation. We, as a nation, recognize that we have a heightened obligation to them, and so allowing veteran homelessness to continue would be a moral failure.


(Courtesy of USICH)

As a nation, we have proved up to the task. As the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH) tells us: “A growing list of 50 communities, including the entire states of Connecticut, Delaware, and Virginia, have proven that ending Veteran homelessness is possible and sustainable… (C)ommunities across 26 different states have proven that we can drive down the number of Veterans experiencing homelessness to as close to zero as possible… The national data tell the same story… We've reduced Veteran homelessness by 47% in this country between 2011 and 2016—including a remarkable 17% reduction during 2015 alone—and achieved a 56% reduction in Veterans experiencing unsheltered homelessness.”
 
Congress had an additional reason to prioritize veterans. They recognized that the movement to end all homelessness would be met with skepticism. And, so, what if we could demonstrate that we could end the homelessness of a specific group? Would that not go a long way to proving that ending all homelessness was not a pipe dream?

And so, by making such strides towards ending veteran homelessness, we have shown, as a nation, that ending homelessness is a realistic goal, if evidence-based best practices and systems thinking are applied to the problem. Now that we have proven it possible, the moral imperative of our nation’s social contract compels us to apply these to all types of homelessness. All that separates us from this goal, of ending chronic, veteran and elderly homelessness, and the general goal of making all homelessness rare, brief and nonrecurring, is the will to do it.

CoC Strategic Work Plan Online Learning Clinic - Improve Access and Coordination of Services and Emergency Housing and Rapidly House Family Households with Children

Some of the most important systems change work in our Continuum of Care (CoC) is done on the committee level. The Family and Domestic Violence Services Committee’s work over the last few months is a great example of this. Back in August, the two committee co-chairs, Ellen Magnis, CEO of Family Gateway and Blake Fetterman, Executive Director of the Salvation Army Carr P. Collins Social Service Center, treated us, at the CoC General Assembly, to a fascinating progress report on how they are working through various elements of Goals III and IV of the CoC Strategic Work Plan.
 
In this installment of the CoC Strategic Work Plan Online Learning Clinic, we will zero in on specific points they discussed in this presentation. We encourage you to carefully review the entire PowerPoint presentation from Ellen and Blake’s progress report, as well as Goals III and IV, to understand the full context of the discussion.
 

Ellen Magnis

The first part of the presentation focuses on system mapping and alignment of rules and procedures of different shelters. Why is it important to map a system of care, especially to the level of specificity that Ellen and Blake exhibit on page 2 of their presentation? Why is it important to align the rules of different shelters? Simple: Without doing this work, there is no system; there is only an uncoordinated environment. That hurts those experiencing homelessness, and hampers the work of those trying to help them.

In an uncoordinated environment, the National Alliance to End Homelessness explains, “families with housing crises may end up going to multiple agencies that cannot serve them before they get to the one most appropriate for their needs.” And when each agency has different rules and procedures, this ends up, “slowing down families’ receipt of assistance.” Furthermore, “extra staff, time, and money are spent doing intake and assessment, taking time away from other, more housing-focused tasks, such as case management, housing location, and landlord negotiation.” This type of environment is detrimental to those who need our help the most, as, “research suggests that, in many systems, resources are being conferred on a small subset of families whose needs may primarily be economic, while those with more significant challenges (co-occurring disorders, complete lack of a social support system, etc.) are falling through the cracks.”

Laura Zeilinger

Indeed, as we have shared before, former Executive Director of USICH, Laura Zeilinger, argues that the essence of transforming homeless services into an effective homeless response system may be summed up in the right entity asking the right question: An effective homeless response system is one where individual programs no longer ask, "Will this person be successful in our program?" Rather, the system as a whole asks, “What solutions best match the needs of this person or household, and will end their homelessness quickly and permanently?"  
 
This focus on solutions rather than programs is what drives another important idea Ellen and Blake reiterate, the cardinal importance of diversion. As we explain in our playbook (pg. 8), “An effective homeless response system, counterintuitively perhaps, seeks to divert individuals from having to enter into or engage with the system. It recognizes that homelessness is not homogeneous, rather it is on a continuum. Many of those who seek our help have the capacity to self-resolve, with the help of mainstream resources, or ‘light touch’ one-time assistance.”
 
A recent excellent piece on the Austin Street Center website elaborates on this, and is worth quoting at length:
 
It’s easy to think that anyone who seeks services at a homeless shelter is actually homeless and in need of a safe place to stay for the night. However, according to Austin Street’s Executive Director, Daniel Roby, that’s not always the case, ‘Sometimes people come to us in shock, having just been kicked out of their apartment. They often haven’t had the time to think through what other options might be available to them. They are just thinking, ‘I need shelter tonight.’”
 
According to Director of Programs, Dustin Perkins, “Diversion allows us to have a comprehensive understanding of a person’s true needs. When you’re overwhelmed, when something traumatic has happened, sometimes it’s hard to see when you do really have options. We can help with that.”


Dustin Perkins

Diversion is better for the individual or family in crisis, and it is better for the system as a whole. After all, diverting an individual or family, who can self-resolve, eases the pressure on the limited resources of the system, allowing us to serve those who cannot self-resolve and cannot be diverted. This is why both Austin Street Center and Family Gateway have made significant investments in diversion.

By the end of this month, we will tackle the remaining two goals we have not covered yet in this Online Learning Clinic: End Chronic, Veteran and Elderly Homelessness and Drive Decision-making with HMIS Data. Stay tuned!

A Hard, Ongoing and Critical Conversation

On June 28, 2017 for the latest installment of our Hard Conversations series, MDHA, CitySquare, and the Dallas Public Library presented a book synopsis of Toxic Inequality: How America's Wealth Gap Destroys Mobility, Deepens the Racial Divide, and Threatens Our Future. 

The book synopsis was led by Randy Mayeux, renowned scholar and longtime book reviewer at CitySquare's Urban Engagement Book Club. Our good friends, Larry James and Rev. Dr. Michael Waters, joined Randy for the Q&A part of this exciting event, and expounded on how the lessons of Toxic Inequality can be applied to race, poverty and homelessness in Dallas.

This Hard Conversation was part of our ongoing effort to address Racism and Homelessness in Dallas, as part of our SPARC Dallas program, in partnership with the Center for Social Innovation, and with the support of United Way of Metropolitan Dallas’ Unite Dallas Relief Fund.

The importance of this effort was underlined by the National Alliance to End Homelessness’ invitation to Jeff Olivet and Marc Dones, of the Center for Social Innovation, to speak about this program, at the plenary on the second day of its recent annual conference, following an address by the U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Dr. Ben Carson.

Jeff and Marc also led a standing room only session at the conference, where they delved into the program in depth, and held a meeting, where we got to meet with those running the program in other cities. We have been meeting, in an online virtual learning community for a few months now, but this was the first chance we had to meet in person.

Out of recognition of the importance of combating Racism and Homelessness, the seventh goal of our CoC Strategic Work Plan is devoted to this. We look forward to continuing to make progress on this front. 

Introducing the Continuum of Care Strategic Work Plan 2017-2018

Last week, five of us at MDHA, led by Cindy J. Crain, President and CEO, attended the largest annual gathering in our field, the National Alliance to End Homelessness conference. This was my first time, but on one particular point, it confirmed what I knew already. Though every community is different, the modern homelessness crisis manifests in much the same way across the country. And, in much the same way, over the course of the last 10-15 years, we have learned how communities can make homelessness rare, brief and nonrecurring, by applying evidence-based data-driven solutions.

These are the same evidence-based data-driven solutions, laid out in Opening Doors, the national strategic plan to end homelessness, commissioned by Congress and the President. They have guided our work here in Dallas, since the beginning of 2015, and upon them our Continuum of Care (CoC) Strategic Work Plan 2015-2016 was built. Opening Doors envisions a homeless response system, which diverts those experiencing homelessness who can self-resolve and helps them do so, places those who cannot self-resolve into appropriate housing, is entirely oriented towards housing as the solution for homelessness, and practices full transparency, as a tool for learning and systems change.

 

In 2015-2016 MDHA made substantial progress in realizing its vision for such a system, and in 2017-2018, it is building on that. To that end, over the last few months, we engaged subject matter experts, board members, service providers, those experiencing homelessness and the community at large, to build our Continuum of Care (CoC) Strategic Work Plan 2017-2018. In its final form, approved by the MDHA CoC Board on July 21, 2017, it sets specific goals, measurable objectives, and reporting mechanisms. These will drive our work, the work of our partners and the work of our community, as we continue to work towards our ultimate goal, making the experience of homelessness rare, brief and nonrecurring, in Dallas and Collin Counties.

This North Texas Giving Day, Help End Homelessness

North Texas Giving Day is a very important day for us, at MDHA, in our effort to end homelessness. How much should you give to MDHA on September 14, 2017? Here are some suggestions. (You can donate multiples of these numbers too!)

$103.53. $103.53 allowed Jonathan to reconnect his electricity, and avoid a return to homelessness (and a miserable Christmas).

$120.75. $120.75 allowed Daniel and Karla to remain housed, Abraham to pursue a job, and Richard to become eligible for a housing voucher. No, not $120.75 each; $120.75 total.

$95, $149, $200. $95, $149, $200, respectively, allowed Kisha, Sarah and Laura to move from shelter into housing.

So, please, before you forget, copy and paste into your calendar for September 14, 2017:

North Texas Giving Day - Don't forget to give to MDHA!

http://northtexasgivingday.org/npo/metro-dallas-homeless-alliance

This link will take you straight to our North Texas Giving Day page.

Of course, if you don't want to wait, and prefer to donate to MDHA today, just go to our website, and click on Give to MDHA - www.mdhadallas.org/become-a-champion/ or send a check to 2816 Swiss Ave., Dallas, TX 75204.

They Couldn’t End Their Homelessness without It

British actor, Roger Daltrey, in one of the iconic American Express card commercials from 1985

How often do you find yourself without identification? The answer is, probably not that often. Most of us, in the words of the old American Express commercial, don’t leave home without it. This is why many find it surprising that over 10% of us do not have a government-issued photo ID. Not surprisingly, those without an ID tend to be poor, minorities, and/or elderly.  

Many of these same people manage to navigate life without an ID. However, ending a person’s homelessness can be challenging, if that person does not have some type of government issued identification, and cannot afford to get one. It seems that to paraphrase the same commercial, you can’t end your homelessness without it.

About six weeks ago, Daniel and Karla*, two neighbors who had experienced homelessness in the past, found themselves in a pickle. They were both living in permanent supportive housing, funded by a Federal grant. The agency which had received the grant ceased to operate, but our grantee, CitySquare, was prepared to keep the residents in housing. Daniel and Karla each had to present a government issued ID (at least a birth certificate), but neither of them had one. What were they to do?

About four weeks ago, Abraham was experiencing homelessness. He was determined to find a job, so he could become housed. He knew that he would need a government issued photo ID to get a job, and that to get the photo ID, he needed a birth certificate. He had obtained a birth certificate with the help of our partner, The Stewpot, but alas he could not find it. (It is difficult to keep all your documents and valuables in place, when you don’t have a home!) He would have to wait an entire year to be eligible for this help again. What was he to do?

Just three weeks ago, Richard was experiencing homelessness. CitySquare was helping him get everything in order, so he could apply for a Dallas Housing Authority voucher. He had a driver’s license, but it had expired. Without renewing his license, he would not be able to apply for a voucher. What was he to do?

Fortunately, about two years ago, through surveys of clients and service providers, MDHA had identified a variety of needs (beyond housing and supportive services), that Dallas’ homeless population faced, in their struggle to end their homelessness. One of these needs was critical documents, such as government issued identification. These needs may not be covered through existing federal, state and local government grants, that fund programs for the homeless.

Thus, with the help of United Way of Metropolitan Dallas, the MDHA Flex Fund was born. The idea was simple. A minor but impactful need, such as the lack of a birth certificate or photo ID, impedes a client from (making progress in) ending his or her homelessness. The Flex Fund pays for it. That’s all there is to it.

That is how we helped Daniel, Karla, Abraham and Richard. Their case managers submitted a simple one page form. The form asks for the client’s information, what the client needs (including cost and vendor), articulation of how this will help the client end his or her homelessness, and an explanation of why other resources (including the client’s) cannot provide (for) it.

A classic Shavon Moore selfie

Shavon Moore, MDHA’s Continuum of Care Resource Manager, reviewed each request, approved it, and provided payment directly to the vendor. In fact, as is often the case with critical documents, in Daniel, Karla and Abraham’s cases, Shavon could quickly order the documents and pay for them online. Once they arrived, the case managers picked them up from the MDHA Offices.

Research shows that ending a person’s homelessness, quickly and permanently, is not just the right thing to do; it is the most cost effective thing to do. How cost effective is it to end a person’s homelessness with the help of the Flex Fund, specifically? The numbers speak for themselves. The cost of helping Daniel and Karla remain housed, Abraham pursue a job, and Richard become eligible for a housing voucher was… $120.75. No, not $120.75 each; $120.75 total. Now, that is not a bad return on investment!

* All client names have been changed, to protect their privacy.

Becoming a Top Gun Homeless Response System

In the opening scene of Top Gun, we are introduced to the hero of the movie, known by the call sign Maverick, as he accomplishes an incredible feat, trolling an enemy pilot:

It is so quick, that it is difficult to see how Maverick did this. So, how did he?

“When two pilots faced off in a dogfight, the pilot who was able to observe the variables, orient his aircraft to the best possible position relative to his opponent, decide on the best course of action to engage his opponent, and act rapidly on that decision would win the fight.” (Mark Bonchek and Chris Fussell, Decision Making, Top Gun Style; Emphases mine – DSG.)

What the fictional Maverick uses is a conceptual decision making framework originated by the real larger than life character, U.S. Air Force Colonel John Boyd. This framework is known as the OODA Loop, because, as illustrated by Maverick, it involves four steps, Observe, Orient, Decide, Act. Boyd believed that this framework could be useful beyond the military, and it is seen as particularly helpful in competition in the business world. I believe, that it is applicable to our fight to end homelessness, too.

You can probably reflect on different situations, where you have engaged in decision making, and have used some or all the elements Maverick used. The extent to which you have been successful may have depended on your adherence to the OODA Loop framework.

You could, for instance, observe carefully, orient yourself to your situation very well, and even decide on the right course of action, but then due to various obstacles, not act. Conversely, my father’s admonition from when I was a child, still echoes in my head. To my pleading, “But I thought,” he would respond, “No, you didn’t think!” In those cases, I decided and then acted, without observing and orienting.

So, how does this apply to ending homelessness? If you think about our new MDHA Homeless Response System Community Dashboard, it gives us the perfect tool to make decisions in a way that would make Colonel Boyd proud. It allows us to observe all of the performance metrics or variables related to our number one job, as a homeless response system, housing the homeless. We can then orient ourselves into the best possible position, by drilling down into the data, and addressing three simple questions:

• How are we doing in housing the homeless?
• What is helping us house the homeless?
• What is impeding us from housing the homeless?

 

Once we have carefully observed and oriented ourselves, we can decide what corrective action we need to take to do a better job. Then, we follow through, and take that corrective action.

 

That the most important component in the real world is action, is a given. However, it is the Dashboard that allows our action to be much more well informed than ever before, and that is the true game-changer. The Dashboard allows our action to be guided by genuine data-driven evidence-informed decisions, born of careful observation and orientation.  With that, we can win this dogfight and defeat our foe, homelessness in Dallas and Collin Counties.

Help Us Make Someone’s Day!

The day we helped Solomon end his homelessness for about $200, was a great day.

The day we helped Paul end his homelessness for less than $70, was a special day.

And the day we helped Judith (and her little dog, Simon!) end her homelessness for less than $44, was a phenomenal day!

And these are three examples from just one of our programs – the MDHA Flex Fund.  

There is one really important day coming up, when you can help folks like Solomon, Paul and Judith (and her little dog, Simon!) end their homelessness:

North Texas Giving Day – September 22, 2016

So, please, before you forget, add this to your calendar for that day:

North Texas Giving Day - Don't forget to give to MDHA http://northtexasgivingday.org/npo/metro-dallas-homeless-alliance

This link will take you straight to our North Texas Giving Day page.

Of course, if you don’t want to wait, and prefer to donate to MDHA today, just go to our website, and click on Give to MDHA - www.mdhadallas.org/become-a-champion/ or send a check to: 2816 Swiss Ave., Dallas, TX 75204

With your help, we will continue to make someone’s day every day!

It's All about the People

Our new not so secret weapon, Lester Collins, Jr., with our veteran not so secret weapon, Freda Coleman, HMIS trainer extraordinaire (and expert selfie taker!)

We may talk about systems and solutions based research, results and data, but what really ends homelessness is people, doing the work, to build those systems and implement those solutions. This is the reason for MDHA's most recent hire, Lester Collins, Jr., in the newly created position of Continuum of Care (CoC) Performance Analyst. Lester possesses an array of skills earned as a clinician, chaplain, social science professor, and program manager of federal and state programs. He is a doctoral candidate at The University of Texas at Arlington (UTA), and helped conduct a 2012 UTA-DHA-MDHA collaborative study on homelessness. Simply put, the man breathes research, results and data! That said, Lester always keep in mind, "that any numbers I work with and policies and programs I work on, represent and affect real, living and breathing people, who deserve communities that are responsive to their needs."

If you accept the argument that what really makes up our system is people, what follows is that each person's best resource is... all the rest of the people in the system! One of the first things our Vice President, Rebecca Cox, noticed, when she joined MDHA a little over year ago (Congrats on the work anniversary, Rebecca!) was that the most important folks, the very lynch pins, without whom there is no system, Case Managers, were not familiar enough with their own colleagues. They are just so busy doing the work, helping those experiencing homelessness! With this in mind, she founded the Case Manager Networking Round Table, where these professionals are able to get together every month. Together they study an important subject that will help them, help those experiencing homelessness, while getting to know each other a little better. Then when they have a need or hit a roadblock in their work, they can call upon the variety of colleagues they now know, who do what they do, day in and day out.

Our CoC Assembly leaders, Edd Eason and Dustin Perkins, with the able help of our CoC Resource Manager, Shavon Moore, recently "imported" this idea to the recent meeting of the Assembly. This last meeting was spent not sitting in rows listening to reports and doing regular business, which is always important. Instead, as you can see in the picture below, seating this time was "family style", and the groups discussed specific questions regarding the NOFA and CoC Competition. However, an openly stated goal of this session was to allow participants to get to know each other, so they could draw on each other's help throughout this important process, and beyond. It was a fabulous session!

CoC Assembly hard at work

We depend on people in one more very important way. People, as individuals, and making up organizations and businesses, provide financial support, without which we could not do our work. This past month we were honored to receive two notable contributions: The Carl B. and Florence E. King Foundation contributed $15,000 to the MDHA Flex Fund, and the East Plano Islamic Center (EPIC) contributed $2,500 to MDHA's general fund. These contributions, show the Federal Government that our community is willing to "have skin in the game," and considers the former as a true partner. Let's make sure King and EPIC don't get "lonely" now! Join them in making your own contribution, as an individual, a business or an organization, and strike your own blow in the fight to end homelessness, in our home, Dallas and Collin Counties.

Give to MDHA Any Day and on #NTxGivingDay!

Your donations are essential to ending homelessness in our collective home, Dallas and Collin Counties. Check Our Wall of Champions, to see who has already joined the fight to end homelessness. Click here to make your donation online, or send a check to MDHA, 2816 Swiss Ave., Dallas, TX 75204. Help us take the fight to the next level!

Though any day is a good day to give to MDHA, North Texas Giving Day is a particularly good one. This year on September 22, 2016, make sure you give to MDHA. In fact, before you forget, take a moment to copy and paste this into your calendar for that day:

North Texas Giving Day - Don't forget to give to MDHA -

http://northtexasgivingday.org/npo/metro-dallas-homeless-alliance

This link will take you straight to our North Texas Giving Day page. Happy giving!

Cindy J. Crain, MDHA President and CEO Delivers State of the Homeless Address 2016

Yesterday, Tuesday, March 22, 2016 Cindy J. Crain, President and CEO of the Metro Dallas Homeless Alliance (MDHA) delivered her second annual State of the Homeless Address, with more than 300 people in attendance, at Goodwill Industries of Dallas. MDHA leads the development of the homeless response system that, in accordance with Opening Doors, the national strategic plan to end homelessness, will make homelessness in Dallas and Collin Counties rare, brief and nonrecurring.

Crain was introduced by Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings, the city’s former “homeless czar”, who shared remarks and pledged his support in word and deed to support MDHA’s efforts to end homelessness. Crain called on MDHA Board Member and homeless advocate, Ricky Redd to share some of his knowledge gained through lived experience as a person experiencing homelessness. Redd elicited tears as well as laughter, as he movingly spoke of what he learned and what are the most pressing needs of those experiencing homelessness. Crain’s address was followed by public comments and questions.

Ricky Redd

Crain opened with the purpose of the address: To review what we know, and how this will influence our decisions, to be honest about the challenges we deal with, and to welcome insights from the community on how we can make homelessness rare, brief and non-recurring.  The numbers she shared were sobering. The 2016 Point–in-Time Homeless Count conducted in late January, indicated an increase of 24% in the homeless population in Dallas and Collin Counties over the 2015 Count, going from 3,141 to 3,904 individuals. The number of chronically homeless individuals, i.e. those that have been homeless for 12 months and have a disability did not see significant change, dropping from 615 to 597. She presented elaborate graphs and charts, drilling down into this data by age, gender, race, ethnicity, sheltered vs. unsheltered and more.

Some of the most interesting data collected during the Count was from surveys, which the more than 700 volunteers in both counties administered to those they counted. One of the more sobering statistics was that of 358 unsheltered persons who were willing to share if they had experience in the criminal justice system, 75% had answered yes. This enforces the idea that with mass incarceration, we are creating a “prison to poverty and homelessness pipeline”. Of the 387 responses regarding health, 48% reported significant health conditions.

Cindy Crain

Crain discussed the lessons MDHA has accumulated from working with the residents of the Tent City under the I-45 Bridge, specifically highlighting the importance of increased professional street outreach and interagency collaboration, to help house as many people as possible.

Crain highlighted the tension between short term needs and long term housing solutions. She emphasized that the question, “What is your housing plan?” must become a mantra that pushes everyone towards housing, with services that support smooth transition and permanence in housing. She also reminded the assembled that true solutions lie in systemic and systematic changes, like Coordinated Assessment, a system through which all persons are assessed, using a common, uniform, objective and evidence based assessment tool, so they may be prioritized for service and matched with the services that will best help end their homelessness as quickly as possible. (MDHA is currently running a blog post series that explains how this federally required system will help end homelessness.)

In this context, Crain referenced MDHA’s partnership with PCCI, a nationally recognized leader in creating information systems that connect community based organizations with healthcare organizations to create an integrated community wide system of care. Together, MDHA and PCCI are creating a new Homeless Management Information System, customized to the needs of the Dallas community. With this new system, the community will have a far clearer picture of the nature and extent of homelessness and have the data necessary to optimize housing and services to make the experience of homelessness rare, brief, and non-recurring.

Crain ended her address emphasizing the need for all members of the community to work together. Without collaboration, cooperation and coordination of information and services, she stressed, we will keep more people homeless longer. By working together we, as a community, and each of us individually, can and must do better.

Crain’s PowerPoint presentation is available on the State of the Homeless Address 2016 page on MDHA website, and a full video recording of the proceedings will be available there later this week.