A letter from Lisa Tepper Bates

A letter from Lisa Tepper Bates

Hello friends,These are challenging times in Connecticut, with the state facing unprecedented budget deficits. For those of us seeking to end homelessness, the argument for resources is clear: it costs us more to let homelessness persist than it does to end it! That is the message that you helped us send to our legislators at Homelessness and Housing Advocacy Days, March 2 and 3. Together, we reached over 120 legislators and aides, sharing your stories and successes.

Those successes are many - including CT's confirmation by the federal government as only the second state to end all veteran homelessness, and the great work of our communities to build momentum toward ending chronic homelessness in our Zero: 2016 effort by the end of this year.

Despite the challenges, you are doing better work than ever - making every dollar count, coordinating your efforts to avoid duplication, focusing on housing the highest need, most vulnerable and highest cost population. This is an important story to tell, backed up by your data, about the important return on investment for resources to end homelessness. We will keep telling it in Hartford, seeking to defend the resources you need to get the job done.
Thank you for all you do every day!
Best regards,
Lisa

Victory for Zero: 2016 Initiative:

Governor Malloy announced Thursday, February 18th at the State Armory thatConnecticut has ended homelessness among the state's veteran population.

The Zero: 2016 initiative is part of a national effort to end veteran homelessness and chronic homelessness, the long-term homelessness of people living with disabilities, by the end of 2016. Connecticut is one of only four states accepted into the effort through its Reaching Home Campaign, the statewide campaign for preventing and ending homelessness in Connecticut.

Connecticut has housed 766 veterans in the last year to reach this milestone.Through extensive efforts to identify and reach out to veterans experiencing homelessness, and expedite the path for each one to appropriate housing, Connecticut has ensured that veterans are able to move from homeless to housed in under 80 days."Ending veteran homelessness," as defined by the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, means that Connecticut has successfully developed a system whereby every veteran who experiences homelessness will be quickly identified and provided appropriate supports and housing.

To read more, click here. For the CCEH/Reaching Home flier "What it Means to End Homelessness in Connecticut," a tool to help you explain our goals and the system we are building, click here.

2016 Homelessness & Housing Advocacy Days at the Legislative Office Building

On March 2nd and 3rd, more than 250 homeless services providers and client advocates from all over the state came to Hartford to discuss the impact of homelessness on their area and their work to end homelessness in Connecticut. 2016 was the best Advocacy Days yet! Together, we reached 123 legislators and aides with our message to stay the course and continue to invest in ending homelessness in Connecticut.

Our efforts are working, as the data shows, and cuts to our resources would reverberate across communities -- increasing the burden to hospitals, first responders, and others in these tough fiscal times when they can ill afford higher demand on their services. Frontline providers are the heart, soul, and engine of this progress! Together, we are making dramatic progress, and we are on track through our Zero: 2016 initiative to end chronic homelessness by the end of 2016.

Thank you to all the providers, advocates, and legislators who took the time to come together in Hartford and discuss Connecticut's efforts to end homelessness. Together, we are achieving results we could only have hoped for a few years ago -- reducing the total numbers homeless in a year, reducing chronic homelessness, and reducing first-time episodes and returns to homelessness. Please look out for advocacy alerts and requests for your help to reach out to legislators to keep sending our message: efforts to end homelessness in Connecticut are working -- stay the course on state investments -- given the resources we need, we can get to Zero on chronic homelessness in 2016!

Lessons from the Field & Training Recap: Diversion Training with Ed Boyte
Retooling Connecticut homeless services to embrace Housing First and modernize to end homelessness is not an easy transition. Shelter Diversion is one of the simplest, but most challenging, ways of reducing demand for shelter services and helping people transition to or stay in permanent housing.

About a hundred city & state employees, shelter providers, managers, directors, and more from across Connecticut came together to attend a one of the two full day training or five day train-the-trainer programs on Diversion taught by Ed Boyte of the Cleveland Mediation Center of Ohio.

Shelter Diversion is a method of finding cost-effective alternative to homelessness through changing incentives and seeking to resolve conflicts to keep people permanently housed. For some individuals, this can look like utility assistance, for others it could be family mediation to reconnect individuals to their support networks. Diversion emphasizes a strength-based interviewing style, which focuses on the abilities and skills an individual can draw upon to prevent or end their homelessness, as well as active listening by providers to look for ways around clients losing their housing or entering the shelter system.

For many families, a one-time and low-investment solution can prevent them from ever becoming homeless. While a minority of those seeking immediate access to emergency shelter can be diverted, typically between 20 and 30 percent, those who are diverted do not become homeless again. And some 80 percent or more do not return to the shelter system.

You can learn more about shelter diversion and how you can make this strategy part of your shelter or services by clicking here. Information on further trainings in diversion techniques and implementation will also be available shortly. If you are interested in being part of or hosting a diversion training for your area, please contact Sarah Chess, Training and Communications Coordinator, at schess@cceh.org.