Destination home: a ten year journey to end homelessness in Evansville and Vanderburgh County

              agreements will be developed with service providers to utilize the assessment tool and provide training in its use and application.
STRATEGY 2:
Establish an Oversight Initiative that Develops and Coordinates Resources Required to Prevent Homelessness that Includes Rent and Mortgage Assistance, Legal Assistance and Other Supportive Services.
The first step in achieving this strategy is to identify where and how public and private funds are being used in local homeless pre¬ vention efforts. A survey of the 2004 oper¬ ating budgets of local organizations for spe¬ cific homeless programs showed just over $175,000 was allocated for prevention serv¬ ices out of a total of over $6,135,000. (Hayes, 2004)
In their 1992 report on the prevention of homelessness, the National Alliance to End Homelessness (NAEH) states:
Prevention holds hope as a sensible and cost effective way to stop the growth of homelessness. Given scarce public and pri¬ vate resources, the continual entry and re¬ entry of people into the homeless popula¬ tion makes it difficult to move beyond an emergency response to the problem. Were we to stop this flow, we could more effec¬ tively provide assistance to those who are currently homeless and begin to reduce the size of the homeless population. Only when this is done will the end of homelessness truly be in sight. (http://www.endhomeless- ness.org/pub/prevention/prevention.htm)
At present, CAPE and Outreach Ministries receive specific homeless prevention money through Emergency Shelter Grant (ESQ) funds that provide financial assistance for rent arrearages in order to prevent eviction. In order to strategically allocate both finan¬ cial and human capital investment in ending
homelessness, we must clearly identify the types of assistance that effectively close the front door to homelessness and determine whether our efforts reflect those priorities.
We do not want to overlook the role that other community agencies play in providing financial assistance to the low income of our community These programs assist a variety of clients in need regardless of their housing status. These programs serve many poten¬ tially at-risk clients and episodes of home¬ lessness may be prevented, but the inter¬ vention is not specifically categorized as homeless prevention.
The NAEH report goes on to state:
It is generally agreed that a truly success¬ ful prevention effort would address emer¬ gency intervention, stabilization for those most at risk, and, most broadly, the creation of an infrastructure of housing, income, and support services which would keep people from reaching the brink of homelessness. (1992)
Once the services that best serve Evansville's at-risk population are identified, community-wide, comprehensive services will be coordinated in order to reduce dupli¬ cation of services and effectively meet as many needs as possible.
To help fund these efforts, we will seek to identify, secure, and mobilize appropriate federal, state, and local resources that are specifically suited for prevention services.
STRATEGY 3:
Develop a "Housing First" Program for 750 Households.
This program will be targeted to those assessed to be at the highest risk for home¬ lessness and demonstrate the potential to benefit from this level of intervention. This program will include intensive case man¬ agement and rental subsidy.
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