'Your Way Home Montgomery County' Summit Recognizes Homeless Progress

Montgomery County elected and public officials joined local philanthropic, nonprofit, business, and community partners today at the 4th Annual “Your Way Home Montgomery County” Summit at Montgomery County Community College, according to a press release from the county.

Your Way Home is Montgomery County’s coordinated housing crisis response system to end and prevent homelessness, the county said.

The Your Way Home public-private partnership aligns leadership, resources, and funding across sectors to achieve a shared vision of making homelessness rare, brief, and non-recurring. The summit commemorated the progress in ending and preventing homelessness in Montgomery County over the past year, as well as an exploration of the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead, organizers said.

Your Way Home is the recent recipient of a prestigious U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary’s Award for Public-Private Partnerships, presented in partnership with the Council on Foundations, according to press release.

Carolyn Mayinja, Interim Director of Montgomery County Housing and Community Development, and
Russell Johnson, President and CEO of HealthSpark Foundation, kicked off the summit providing the
welcome and opening remarks. Montgomery County Board of Commissioners Vice Chair Dr. Val
Arkoosh described Your Way Home as a powerful example of the county’s commitment to consumer-driven,
effective, and responsive human services, the county said.

Arkoosh said Your Way Home was empowering more families, children, seniors, veterans, and people with disabilities to get housing first, then services.

“We are focused on preventing homelessness before it starts by addressing the problem “upstream” where homelessness begins – by connecting more people to education, employment, and health opportunities,” said Arkoosh, in a statement.

The Summit’s keynote speaker, Steve Berg, Vice President for Programs and Policy at the National Alliance to End Homelessness, provided a national perspective on ending homelessness, the county noted.

Three members of the Your Way Home partnership received “Champion for Change” awards at the
Summit, including landlord, Bob Larkin, street outreach provider, Zach Costello of Resources for
Human Development, and funder, Meredith Huffman, Executive Director of the Genuardi Family
Foundation, the county said.