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On Monday, December 18, City of Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner announced that The Way Home partners had exceeded their goal to house 500 chronically homeless individuals in six months.
More than two dozen homeless service organizations and hundreds of staff members moved 548 chronically homeless individuals into Permanent Supportive Housing between March – August 2017. In March, Mayor Turner announced a comprehensive and holistic approach to reducing homelessness, challenging The Way Home to intensify efforts to permanently house the most vulnerable chronically homeless individuals on Houston’s streets.
The Way Home played a pivotal role in Mayor Turner’s plan. Through a Housing First strategy, The Way Home has housed more than 11,000 individuals in permanent housing since 2012, and reduced overall homelessness by 60% since 2011. The unprecedented collaboration of the more than 100 partners of The Way Home paved the way for exceeding the goal – even in the face of major setbacks such as historic flooding from Hurricane Harvey and a federal freeze on housing vouchers. The City of Houston stepped in to cover the housing subsidy loss.
“The Way Home partners are an incredible team that has adopted a ‘YES’ culture, so I am thrilled – but not surprised – that we exceeded Mayor Turner’s goal of housing 500 chronically homeless individuals,” said Marilyn Brown, President/CEO of the Coalition for the Homeless (the Coalition serves as lead agency to The Way Home). “Hundreds of partner agency staff members spent countless hours on this project and their hard work deserves to be recognized. We also could not have done this without the partnership of Mayor Turner and the City of Houston; we are so thankful for their continued support of proven and permanent solutions to end homelessness.”