Clark County receives national recognition for homeless program success

Event set for October 30 to announce results of one-year efforts 

Vancouver, WA – October 12, 2009 – (RealEstateRama) — Clark County’s Homeless Engagement Collaboration (CHEC) project has been awarded the 2009 National Association for County Community and Economic Development (NACCED) Award of Excellence in the category of Homeless Coordination/Assistance.

NACCED is a nonprofit national organization composed of county government agencies that administer community development, economic development, and affordable housing programs.

The award was presented at NACCED’s 34th Annual Community and Economic Development Conference and Training October 3 in Chicago. The award marks the second consecutive year that Clark County has won an award for innovative programs that address hardest to serve populations. Last year the county won an award for its partnership wit the Bridges to Housing program.

CHEC employs a housing-first model to hard-to-serve individuals living on the streets or in encampments and for individuals re-entering the community from jail and/or hospitals.

The innovative CHEC program is assisting individuals living in homeless encampments and individuals reentering the community obtain immediate housing.

The CHEC program is expanding the housing capacity through landlord outreach and education. In the first year, I0I individuals who were homeless received housing through CHEC (49 individuals were living in uninhabitable areas, 52 re-entered from jail or hospitals).

According to the Clark County I0-year plan, in the 2007 one-day count, 1,392 people were homeless in Clark County. Of those people counted in 2007, close to 30 percent were unsheltered – on the streets, in parks, sleeping in cars, or doubled up with family or with friends. This plan identified providing ‘Housing First’ and assistance to individuals ‘re-entering’ the community as high priorities.

In the fall of 2007, the Clark County Department of Community Services (DCS) submitted an application for funding to the Homeless Grant Assistance Program (HGAP).

The proposal entitled, “Clark Homeless Engagement Collaboration” was designed to address the needs of the most vulnerable segment of the homeless population in Clark County— those living on the street and in encampments, those with mental health and or substance abuse disorders, and individuals coming from jail and state hospitals.

During CHEC’s inaugural year, significant advancements have been made in Clark County’s ability to support homeless individuals to find and maintain housing. Additionally, new relationships have been formed and policies and practices implemented to improve the efficiency and efficacy of services provided to residents of Clark County who have very low incomes. Individuals and families are now housed, new rental units for individuals with very low incomes have been identified and are under contract, and collaboration between formal and informal stakeholders has occurred.

The CHEC Outreach Team’s collaborative efforts during the first year of the project have been effective. The group was responsible for working directly with residents in the encampments to target chronically homeless individuals identified by the Vancouver Police Department and SHARE, Inc. to move into housing. The number of encampments in Clark County have been reduced. All of the individuals who have received housing had moved from an encampment to housing provided through CHEC. Ten encampment sites have been identified and residents have been targeted for CHEC services.

A presentation discussing results from the first year of efforts will be held Friday, October 30, 10 a.m. to noon at the Vancouver Police Department’s West Precinct Community Meeting Room, 2800 Stapleton Road, Vancouver.

The presentation will be led by Joe Marrone, Public Policy Institute for Community Inclusion (ICI), University of Massachusetts, Boston. ICI was retained to evaluate the grant project.

In addition to discussing evaluation results, partner agencies will be introduced and beneficiaries of the program will speak about their success stories.

For more information, please contact Melodie Pazolt, Consumer and Stakeholder Affairs Manager, at (360) 397-2130 or melodie.pazolt (at) clark.wa (dot) gov.

Contact:

Melodie Pazolt, Community Services
Phone: (360) 397-2130
Fax: (360) 397-6028
melodie.pazolt (at) clark.wa (dot) gov

Geoff Knapp, Community Services
Phone: (360) 397-2130
Fax: (360) 397-6028
geoff.knapp (at) clark.wa (dot) gov