Plan to End Homelessness

Ashley Bans – August 5, 2018

A 10-year plan to end homelessness in Oregon was created in 2008 by the Ending Homelessness Advisory Council as a recommendation to Governor Kulongoski. The guiding principles of the 10-year plan are; support local community efforts that respectfully empower individuals and families, prevent and reduce homelessness across all homeless groups. provide choice, quality, minimum standards and affordable temporary and permanent housing, heighten awareness and understanding of the relevance of homelessness issues, keep people in their homes by using support packages and find the right home the first time, deliver evidence and outcome-based services and through partnership working, consult with service providers and users, and listen, learn and improve. They provide homeless demographics which includes a lot of statistics regarding sheltered and unsheltered in the U.S. and Oregon, homeless persons as a percent of total population U.S. and Oregon, chronic homelessness, poverty thresholds, nationwide family status of homeless, age of children in homeless families, and so many other categories. For more information, please visit https://www.oregon.gov/ohcs/pdfs/report-ehac-10-year-action-plan.pdf . 

            The 10-year plan to end homelessness also talks about the specific things that cause homelessness. Insufficient income and low-paying jobs, housing burden, lack of affordable housing, discontinuing or lack of services, and budget reduction are some of the main causes behind homelessness. They list many other factors contributing to homelessness that are preventable. I believe we have the power to help decrease the number of people that are experiencing homelessness if we came up with a better plan. There are so many services and shelters open for homeless people, but I don’t think many of them know about it. Is there a way we could spread the message? Let me know your thoughts and opinions on this topic in the comment section below.