LOS ANGELES, July 12, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- More than 300 non-profit, government, philanthropic and business leaders convened today to assess new data on chronic and veteran homelessness in Los Angeles County, outline new strategies, and agree on the resources needed to end homelessness for these populations. Barbara Poppe, Executive Director of the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, urged the Home For Good partners to stay the course and remain relentlessly focused on data analysis and systems change. The event marked the halfway point of Home For Good's five-year plan to end chronic and veteran homelessness in L.A. County by 2016 - one of the nation's largest, most collaborative efforts to combat the most extreme form of poverty.
The discussion centered on new data showing that, during the next two-and-a-half years, L.A. County will need to house approximately 53,000 chronically homeless individuals and homeless veterans. Home For Good leadership called on its many partners to dedicate resources - such as subsidies, housing stock, and individual services - in order to effectively meet the community's projected needs. Building on the success of its new Coordinated Entry System, the group vowed to double the number of chronic and veteran homeless individuals housed each month by the end of the next 100 days, a significant jump in the speed with which the community will move toward its goals.
Signaling a renewed funding commitment, the Home For Good Funders Collaborative announced that it will leverage, for the second year in a row, more than $100 million in public and private funding toward ending chronic and veteran homelessness.
National leaders in homelessness who spoke at the convening, in addition to Poppe, included: Dr. Tommy Sowers, Assistant Secretary, Public & Intergovernmental Affairs, V.A.; and Mark Johnston, Assistant Secretary (Acting), Community Planning & Development, HUD. Steve Hilton, President and CEO of the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, accepted an award on behalf of the foundation for its extraordinary leadership and financial contributions toward ending homelessness.
About United Way of Greater Los Angeles
United Way of Greater Los Angeles is a nonprofit organization that creates pathways out of poverty by helping homeless people move into housing, providing students with the support they need to graduate high school prepared for college and the workforce, and helping hard-working families become financially stable. United Way identifies the root causes of poverty and works strategically to solve them by building alliances across all sectors, funding targeted programs and advocating for change. For more information, visit www.unitedwayla.org.
SOURCE United Way of Greater Los Angeles
