The Nashville-Davidson County Homelessness Planning Council released its first three-year strategic plan with a goal to reduce homelessness by 25% in three years.
The Homelessness Planning Council Strategic Community Plan outlines four main goals:
- Optimize All Resources: Nashville will expand and manage housing inventory and support services by leveraging government (local, state, and federal) resources as well as private and not-for-profit resources.
- Improve Data Collection and Use: Nashville will create a culture of data-driven housing and service delivery by incorporating quantitative and qualitative data for best evidence-based decisions.
- Enhance and Expand Formal Collaboration: Nashville will cultivate linkages, reduce barriers, and create effective collaborations that exponentially decrease homelessness.
- Develop Commitment through Engagement: Nashville will develop more effective communication plans and tools that are designed for community engagement, empowerment, and adoption of the overall strategic plan and philosophy to end homelessness.
Mayor David Briley said he was proud of the work the Homelessness Planning Council has achieved over the past year.
“I truly believe we can end homelessness in our city, and I’ve been working since day one to align the resources necessary to do just that,” said Mayor Briley. “This plan provides another vital piece of the foundation we need to prevent and end homelessness for all Nashvillians. I am grateful to the Homelessness Planning Council for their hard work designing this plan and putting it into motion.”
The Homelessness Planning Council was formed in July 2018 to serve as a unifying community board that brings Nashville nonprofits, government, business and faith-based community partners together to build an effective Housing Crisis Resolution System.
The focus of the past couple of years on building a unified strategy has already positively impacted several community outcomes including:
- A 10% increase in federal funding to local nonprofits from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for local nonprofits through its annual Continuum of Care competition;
- A $3.5-milion Youth Homelessness Demonstration Program grant;
- A $150,000 HUD grant to assist with data improvement through the Homeless Management Information System (HMIS); and
- A 14% reduction in street and shelter homelessness of the 2019 Point In Time count, a one-night count conducted in late January.
Paula Foster who chairs the Homelessness Planning Council said the 3-year Strategic Plan was the first community plan since 2005 when the city developed the 10-year plan to end chronic homelessness.
“We wanted to ensure that this is a community plan that invites all partners who serve people experiencing housing instability to be part of the solution,” Foster said. “This document is intended to be a living plan or road map that guides our community and sets clear outcome measures.”
The next step for the Homelessness Planning Council is to finalize an activation plan that outlines responsible parties to implement action steps and move the goals within the Strategic Plan forward.
The Homeless Impact Division of Metro Social Services serves as a leader in the community to build a systems approach to homelessness and as part of that function provides staff support for the Homelessness Planning Council.
“I am very excited to see that this plan is not a comprehensive wish list. Rather it focuses on building a sustainable foundation through resource evaluation, data improvement, and entering formal partnerships,” Judith Tackett, director of the Homeless Impact Division, said. “The plan also calls for role clarification, improved community engagement and ongoing communication, and most importantly for the development of strong outcome measures.”
Tackett said the key to success is to develop a system that is capable of showing what works to help people as quickly as possible. To do so, our community needs to be able to offer all types of interventions from prevention to shelter, transitional, Rapid Re-Housing and permanent housing.
“Bottom line, homelessness will end if our community is able to provide low-income housing with the right supports for people to truly be able to stabilize and address their needs,” Tackett said. “We know cookie-cutter, short-term approaches are not solving homelessness. It’s time to make our investments where we see real results for our neighbors who experience homelessness.”
Foster said a well implemented Strategic Community Plan will set the foundation for our city to identify the gaps and work on closing them.
“Ending homelessness is about people,” Foster said. “I believe we can build a system that leaves no Nashvillian behind.”