Goals

Goal One: Prevent Homelessness

The best way to end homelessness is to prevent it from occurring in the first place. Heading Home Hennepin facilitates strategies that will keep people in the housing they already have, prevent people from becoming homeless when they exit public institutions (such as jails, hospitals, and foster care), provide conflict resolution for families, and better assist refugees and immigrants so they do not cycle through our shelter system.

Goal Two: Outreach

Heading Home Hennepin calls for a 24/7 system of street outreach that will respond more effectively to people's individual needs and transition away from a criminal justice response to homelessness. This focus on outreach will increase valuable police time, reduce neighborhood livability problems, and move people off of the streets and into housing. Our outreach efforts will also center on increasing access to both primary health care and mental health care.

Goal Three: Housing

Affordable housing, coupled with support services, is critical to ending homelessness. We will develop 5,000 new housing opportunities over the next 10 years for men, women, children, and youth. We will ensure that people have access to the supports they need to remain stably housed.

Goal Four: Improve Service Delivery

For people to escape homelessness, it is necessary that they have access to the services they need. An essential aspect of Heading Home Hennepin is engagement in efforts to break down traditional barriers to services. Twice each year, Project Homeless Connect will continue to provide access to multiple services in one location. Two new Opportunities Centers are opening in 2010 in order to achieve this model of co-located service coordination on a daily basis. For veterans and people with multiple barriers we will provide service navigation to ensure they are connected to the most appropriate resources.

Goal Five: Build Self-Support

People must have access to resources to help them find and retain housing. We will develop additional opportunities for access to employment, education, and job training so that youth and adults are better able to lift themselves out of the homelessness cycle.

Goal Six: System Improvements

There is more we can do to ensure that the systems we already have in place are working as effectively as possible. Heading Home Hennepin calls for an examination of our current shelter system to improve its ability to serve all populations, an increase in truancy intervention and other assistance for homeless youth, and a broad collaboration with other local, state and federal partners in our efforts to bring an end homelessness.  

To read our plan in its entirety, click here.