Countdown To End Homelessness
The Charlotte City Council and the Mecklenburg Board of County Commissioners in 2007 jointly approved what was touted as an ambitious plan to end and prevent homelessness in 10 years.
That was three years ago and, to date, the plan has accomplished little, except for now laying the groundwork to form a new community-based leadership board to do in seven years what the original plan was supposed to accomplish in 10, but has apparently stalled in three.
That’s bad math, no matter how you look at it, but par for the course from the folks who brought us Whitewater and an Arena with a leaky roof. But I digress.
Councilmembers and commissioners both received updates this week on the 10-year plan to end homeless and both bodies seemed less than thrilled with what it has produced, or more accurately failed to produce to date.
“We’ve spent about two-and-a-half years with this 10-year plan on the books, and very little has been done with it,” said Mayor Anthony Foxx.
The same sentiment was shared a few nights later, when commissioners received their update.
To kick-start what has been a roundly disappointing effort, the Lee Institute was brought in last October to review the 10-year plan and make some recommendations for moving forward. In a stroke of brilliance, the Institute concluded that the plan’s leadership and accountability structure had not been fully implemented – which might explain why it’s apparently been sitting on a shelf for nearly three years.
The folks from the Lee Institute concluded that while there have been many fine groups formed over the last several years to help end homelessness, they’ve lacked adequate funding, staffing and coordination, and needed improved accountability metrics and a better focus on aligning support services with affordable housing.
The Lee Institute’s suggested plan is boldly aggressive: dissolve two existing boards and – wait for it – form another one.
The new 10-year plan that’s now an old three-year plan with seven more years left would do away with the existing boards of the Housing Trust Fund, which makes recommendations to the city council on affordable housing projects, and A Way Home, which has acted as the lead agency for coordinating and managing the 10-year plan to end homelessness.
A new board would be created consisting of 12 members, with three permanently designated members – the director of the Charlotte Neighborhood & Business Services, the director of Mecklenburg County Community Support Services; and the CEO of the Charlotte Housing Authority. The initial board chair would be appointed by the mayor and the remaining members would be appointed by the city (four members), the county (three members) and the Foundation For The Carolinas (two members).
The new board, naturally, will need to have a dedicated funding source to carry out its mission and, of course, an executive director and dedicated staff, but the Lee Institute has determined the current level of funding should be sufficient to cover the tab. So, no problem there because new government boards, agencies and programs never require new money.
The new board, in turn, would be tasked with reinvigorating the 10-year plan by “developing and implementing a comprehensive community approach” to prevent and end homelessness, given a two-year transitional period to get things up to speed, and fulfill the plan’s original goal of creating 2,500 new “supportive and service-enriched housing units”: total estimated cost, in 2006-dollars, between $75-$90 million.
The city council and board of commissioners would have to sign off on the Lee Institute’s recommendations, and both bodies seemed generally receptive to the presentations they received this week.
So, who knows? In four or six more months, the city and county might green light a new push to prevent and end homelessness in 10 years crammed into seven years because three years have already been largely squandered forming boards and holding summits.
Only time will tell – or not.
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