Building a Shared Path Forward from a Common Understanding
Join the hundreds of civic leaders who have received a free copy of our guide to visualizing "The Modern Homelessness Crisis."
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The Must-Watch Orientation
"A Civic Leader's Guide to Solving Homelessness" is our two-hour primer on the systemic issues driving "The Modern Homelessness Crisis," the predictable ways local communities have failed to effectively respond, and proven strategies and frameworks to rapidly drive change in any community.
Get Instant Access"The Modern Homelessness Crisis"
How We Got Here. How We Move Forward.
Welcome,
This website and community is intended to be the go-to resource for civic leaders working to end "The Modern Homelessness Crisis."
The information and tools that you will find here are rooted in two simple goals. First, as a sector and movement, we need a shared story and analysis of how we got here.
From this understanding, we must then adopt a common strategy and change management framework that aligns communities across the country in adopting proven best practices.
Seeing the System
Homelessness is often framed as a singular problem - it’s the cost of housing, it’s people lost in addiction, it’s bad choices. These explanations will always be insufficient because homelessness is a “systems” problem. It arises from the intersection of multiple related and reinforcing challenges. In other words, it’s being able to see the ways in which housing AND behavioral health AND individual circumstances can interact to make an episode of homelessness more or less likely to occur.
Guide to Seeing the System"The Modern Homelessness Crisis"
There have been many eras of homelessness throughout our nation’s history. Beginning in the late 1970s and early 1980s, we entered "The Modern Homelessness Crisis." This crisis has been primarily driven by two broken systems. First, it is the portfolio of socioeconomic policies that has made it much more likely for individual crises to result in episodes of homelessness. Second, it is about the relative ineffectiveness of the social service systems that have emerged in response.
1. Looking Back
"STEPS AHEAD"
From a place of deep understanding about what is driving this crisis, we are advocating for a new strategy called “STEPS AHEAD.” Our goal is for STEPS AHEAD to become the national organizing principle for addressing homelessness.
At its core, STEPS helps our sector visualize the optimal system design of homeless services, and AHEAD is a change management framework that helps communities implement best practices.
2. Moving ForwardResources to Accelerate Progress in Your Community
THIS WEBSITE
This website is full of blog posts, downloadable content, and other resources that provide shared context and actionable frameworks.
TRAINING
"A Civic Leader's Guide to Solving Homelessness" is the go-to orientation for leaders working to significantly accelerate progress on this issue.
Going Back to "Day One" ...
This website was born out of education and advocacy work led by Andrew Hening. Over the past 15 years, Andrew has provided front-line outreach in some of our nation’s largest homeless encampments, managed a growing workforce development nonprofit, served in an executive leadership role in local government, and ran his own consulting firm working with city and county government agencies on homelessness strategic planning, financial planning, and affordable housing development.
Andrew has held all of the roles and experienced all of the blindspots. The ideas and resources that you will find here are what he wishes he had known on "Day One."
Katie Rice, County Supervisor:
"Andrew has been critical in transforming our community’s approach to homelessness - the strategy, the partnerships, and the community conversation. If it weren’t for his leadership, we wouldn’t be seeing the reductions in homelessness that we’re now observing."
So You Want to Solve Homelessness? Start Here is now available as an audiobook.
“This well-researched book provides important historical context, systems-based analysis, and suggests policy and service outcomes, all in an easy-to-read and enjoyable prose.” - Customer Review
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