Clutch Consulting Group

We’re excited to launch our new website which showcases our rehousing innovations across the United States. We step up to build systems that solve big, complex social problems, take decisive action, meet the moment, and create real impact on homelessness. Check it out to learn more about our work: https://lnkd.in/g_rQvYrH

We're looking forward to Mandy Chapman Semple's keynote at Urban Land Institute's Homeless to Housed Symposium, where she'll be speaking about innovations in rehousing and charting new ways for how the real estate sector can partner with homelessness response systems.

Cleveland is making progress on its "Home for Every Neighbor" initiative, housing 47 people experiencing unsheltered homelessness. “Individuals’ specific needs were not being met by the current systems in place, which is the reason why my Administration stepped up to take on a more active role in addressing this issue," said Mayor Justin Bibb of Cleveland. The city redoubled its efforts to end unsheltered homelessness, leading alongside long-time system partners in homelessness response to bring more capacity and resources to the table.

“It's just barrier after barrier that...people have been facing for years. So our question is, how do we bring the entire homeless response system to this encampment?” said Hannah Sims, who leads this initiative for Housing Forward. Dallas has seen a 24% decrease in unsheltered homelessness, thanks to a new strategy focused on moving people from encampments into long-term housing. KERA – North Texas Public Broadcasting journalists spent almost a year reporting on a homeless encampment under an East Dallas overpass as it was closed and its residents moved into long-term housing, and they've shared they discovered in the series "A New Way Home." Watch to see how the process helped people in the encampment get on path to wellness and stability, and meet the outreach workers who put in long hours to build trust and break down barriers.

Housing Forward, the City of Dallas, and Downtown Dallas, Inc. began work in July to house 107 people, closing the three major encampments in Dallas' downtown. Read more about the stories of some of the people like Booker Campbell that were housed in this herculean effort in the The Dallas Morning News.

Cities across the country are using Direct to Housing Encampment Response to streamline the path to housing for people living outside. Officials in Bristol, CT initially planned to clear an encampment site, but changed course to provide housing to the people living there in partnership with Journey Home, Inc., which had been trained in the method by Clutch. "This work also shows that with the proper resources and partnerships that we can solve homelessness, we can figure out this complex issue and ensure that we don’t have anyone needing to sleep on the street or in an uninhabitable location," commented Journey Home strategy director Sarah Pavone.

“We have to be very aggressive and have a sense of urgency to make sure that no one, no one in our city is living in a tent on our streets,” said Cleveland Mayor Justin M. Bibb. The City of Cleveland and its partners launched A Home for Every Neighbor this summer, an initiative to expedite the housing process for unsheltered residents. In its first month, the city found permanent housing for 12 unsheltered people who were considered to be the city’s most vulnerable. The City of Cleveland and its partners are planning to house an additional 43 people over the next couple of weeks and all 150 people experiencing unsheltered homelessness by November.

“We have...a 91% acceptance rate for individuals accepting housing. So it's really not the case in most cases that people don't want resources, and they don't want housing. They do." Oklahoma City's Key to Home partnership, made up of more than 40 organizations in a public-private collaboration, is bringing a Housing First approach to encampment response, as they seek to house 500 chronically unsheltered people by the end of 2025. City staffer "Warren said the process of encampment rehousing is about getting someone directly into housing from the streets, instead of helping them into a temporary shelter first. 'We go into an encampment and start doing outreach and building that rapport, and the landlord engagement specialists simultaneously are out scouring across the community to find units...it's a multifaceted community approach [with] a lot of different providers playing a very unique role,' she said."

Dallas isn't all hat and no cattle--the city is showing that big results are possible on unsheltered homelessness. On the heels of a 24% decrease in unsheltered homelessness Housing Forward and the All Neighbors Coalition are scaling their Street to Home initiative to continue to house people directly from encampments, in order to decrease the number of people living outside by 50% by 2026. “We have proven since 2021 that we have the recipe for making progress on reducing homelessness. What it’s going to take is continuing our pace," said system leader, Sarah Kahn.

"The only solution to homelessness is getting people housed." The City of New Orleans and its partners have housed more than 150 people formerly experiencing unsheltered homelessness, closing six encampments in the city. At this site at Tchoupitoulas and Calliope Streets, the collaborative initiative Home for Good New Orleans, housed 42 people, allowing the city and partners to manage the space for other public uses. https://lnkd.in/g2EN6wmT