With the structures identified by this Ten Year Plan in place in 2014, we believe stories like Jane Doe's (click here) will have a different outcome. Jane's risk of homelessness will be identified early, and that knowledge will result in her placement in permanent housing with supportive case management services to help her gain the skills necessary for self-sufficiency.

Jane and her two children will not have endured the emotional and social impact of losing their housing. Jane felt like a failure the day she became homeless, but she is now taking advantage of the opportunities for growth provided by her life in transitional housing.

It has been a long process, though. She has spent two months in an emergency shelter and another year in transitional housing. In 2014, Jane and her family will be moved into permanent housing more quickly. She will be empowered to rebuild her life and create a bright future for her children from the security of housing she can afford and maintain.

The Task Force has committed itself to the bold task of designing a map that takes Jane and all of our community to Destination: Home. The map points to preventing homelessness through raising incomes, through better access to training and temporary assistance, and through quality, affordable housing.   We have researched and sought input regarding the best practices models to effectively and quickly open the back door of homelessness to a future in permanent, supportive housing.

It can be done. And our hope is that as we work together and apply the strategies presented in the Ten-Year Plan, Evansville and Vanderburgh County in 2014 will be a community with an economic and social infrastructure that empowers all its residents to arrive at their destination of home.

It is the hope of the Task Force to End Homelessness that we have inspired you to see the bridges that we believe are not only possible but vital to the stability of this community.

We also hope we have inspired you to learn more about the solutions to homelessness that are within the grasp of this community.

With that knowledge, we hope you will take action to build on the foundation of this plan.

We understand that this plan is only the starting point, and that our journey to ending homelessness will be complicated and challenging.

We will be tempted to revert to our "old ways". Yet, we commit to making the vision of ending homelessness in our community a reality.