Fresno’s Mayor Ashley Swearengin and the Fresno Madera Continuum of Care” partners announce success addressing homelessness.
The HUD report, “The 2015 Point-in-Time Estimates of Homelessness,” seeks to measure the scope of homelessness over the course of one night in January. In Fresno, the Fresno Madera Continuum of Care coordinated the street count, which was conducted by a variety of agencies, non-profit organizations and homeless advocates.
The City of Fresno, the Fresno Housing Authority and other service providers such as the Fresno Madera Continuum of Care, WestCare, Fresno EOC, the Fresno County Department of Behavioral Health, the Veterans Administration, Marjaree Mason Center and Poverello House have taken a number of steps to address homelessness over the past few years – their approach is putting people in housing first – then working on the other issues.
Back in 2008, the mayor signed on to the “Housing First” program championed by HUD.
“We certainly arm wrestled with some local folks who thought that, that was going to take too long and if you can’t house everybody don’t house anyone.” Ashley Swearengin, Fresno Mayor.
The idea was fix them and then find housing but their new collaborative method is working, homelessness dropped 40% since last year in the City of Fresno.
A 34% decrease in Fresno and Madera County area.
Providing housing for homeless people of all ages and services such as HIV, mental health and substance abuse treatment, Fresno’s success has earned the City an invitation from the White House to take part in the 25 cities Initiative to end chronic and veterans homelessness by the end of 2015.
But why are there seemingly more people on the streets?
Preston Prince from the Fresno Housing Authority explains why: “I think ‘yes,’ there’s some perceptions based upon of homeless individuals maybe being located throughout the city more than where they used to be really concentrated solely in southwest Fresno, but the numbers really are showing we are making vast improvements.”
Prince says their focus is on aligning resources and coordinating access points to help people as fast as possible.
The Mayor says Fresnans have even raised over a million dollars to fill in gaps where grants and other money has fallen short.
Mayor Swearengin hopes by the end of this year, they’ll have eliminated veteran homelessness and be on the way to end chronic homelessness in Fresno.
Those efforts have resulted in Fresno establishing a national reputation for success in developing more effective services and resources, earning an invitation from the White House to take part in the 25 Cities Initiative to end chronic and veterans homelessness by the end of 2015.
