October 2007

Vol. 3, No. 5 October 2007

In This Issue

Destination: Home on the web

Spotlight on--

Champions for Ending Homelessness

Homeless Youth

Upcoming Events

Commission on Homelessness

Affordable Housing Task Force

Permanent Supportive Housing

3rd Anniversary Celebration

Spotlight on ...
Dorothea MacGregor

Family Shelter

Operated by Pigeon Township Trustee, the Dorothea MacGregor Family Shelter, is an emergency shelter designed for homeless families with children that are in Vanderburgh County via burn outs, evictions, or other catastrophic occurrences.

Guests at the shelter must be eligible for public housing and must not be sanctioned by the Division of Family Resources.

CURRENT NEEDS:

pillows, blankets, plates, drinking glasses, pots & pans, silverware, personal care items, clothing for all ages & sizes

For more information,

contact the

Pigeon Township Trustee

at 812.435.5388

visit the

Dorothea MacGregor Family Shelter

webpage

Quick Links...

	Destination: Home
	Commission on Homelessness
	Homeless Services
	Champions
	Homeless facts & figures
	Bridges
	PlaySpaces
	Homeless Youth Council
	Homeless Veterans

UPCOMING
MEETINGS & EVENTS

	Simon Evening of Giving - Sun., Nov. 18 Eastland Mall 6:30 - 9:30 p.m. - fund-raising event with great deals by retailers; $10. TICKETS REQUIRED & AVAILABLE from these homeless service providers: Aurora, Life Choices Maternity & Youth Home, & Reflecting Waters (Ruth's House)
	Destination: Home 3rd Anniversary Celebration - Thu., Dec. 13 10:00 am Evansville Vanderburgh Public Library--Central Library, Browning Events Room
	Homeless Memorial Service, Thu., Dec. 20 10:00 am at Trinity United Methodist Church, 216 SE 3rd St., Evansville

Affordable Housing
Task Force

In order to focus on finding a dedicated source of revenue for the Evansville Housing Trust Fund and in response to a call to action on this issue through the "Open the Door Wider" campaign of CAJE (Congregations Acting for Justice & Empowerment), the Affordable Housing Task Force was formed.

The Task Force has been meeting regularly in order to investigate possible revenue sources and to design policies related to the application of the Housing Trust Fund monies.

The group's report is expected in November.

Local News Coverage of the

May 3rd CAJE Rally:

Fox 7 WTVW

Evansville Courier & Press

Thank you for your ongoing interest in the progress of implementing our community's 10-year plan to end and prevent homelessness!

Send your friends and colleagues to Destination: Home's home on the Internet to sign up for e-newsletters, like this "Destination:Home Update," Housing Matters! activities, PlaySpaces progress, Volunteer Opportunities, and others related to projects and strategies of the ten-year plan.

Simply, type an e-mail address into the "Sign up for our E-mail newsletters" button at the left of each page and click "Go."

Click for Destination: Home Update archives

Welcome to the Destination: Home Update!

With these Updates, we hope to encourage you with news of local progress on the strategies of the ten-year plan, educate you with information re: projects, services, homeless issues, and inspire you with news of other activities around the country!

Champions for Ending Homelessness

New Commitments
to the Spirit & Philosophy

of Destination: Home

We welcome recent endorsements from these "Champions" for ending homelessness:

	City Councilman Stephen R. Melcher
	Chamber of Commerce of Southwest Indiana
	Youth Resources of Southwestern Indiana

We continue to actively solicit endorsements, both from organizations and individuals. Click here to print an endorsement form. Please send in your endorsement if you support the spirit and philosophy of Destination:Home.

Homeless Youth

After forming in January, the Homeless Youth Council has met regularly to research the extent of the problem of youth homelessness in our community, the services available and needed, and effective models in other communities.

The Council has been working toward creating recommendations to present to the Commission on Homelessness by January.

Along the way, the Homeless Youth Council was influential in encouraging the creation of an Interim Study Committee on Missing and Homeless Children at the state level. (Click on the name of the committee to access its webpage where agendas and minutes are available.)

Three Evansville area legislators participated in that committee: Representative Dennis Avery (chair), Representative Suzanne Crouch, and Senator Venita Becker (vice-chair). All three were present at the recent meeting during which the Committee voted to address four potential bills related to the following issues surrounding youth homelessness:

	Defining "homeless youth" in line with McKinney-Vento definition used by the Dept. of Education
	Extending the period for parental notification by a youth shelters from 24 to 72 hours
	Creating a means for "unattached" 16-18 year olds who cannot obtain parental consent to obtain services such as food, hygiene items, and shelter
	Training of schools' homeless liaisons by the Dept. of Education
	Providing tutoring for homeless children and foster children if it is determined that it is needed
	Creation of an information clearinghouse through the Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority for collection and dissemination of data regarding homeless youth

Read the final report.

For more information on the Homeless Youth Council, visit www.destination-home.info/hyc.htm

Next meeting: Mon., Nov. 19 - 12:00 Old National Bank, downtown Evansville, Room 209 (email to RSVP so a security badge is reserved for you)

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Commission on Homelessness
focuses on Homeless Veterans

The joint city-county Commission on Homelessness oversees the implementation of Destination: Home.

The recent Commission meeting was held on Thurs., Nov. 8, 2007 in Mayor Weinzapfel's conference room, with County Commissioner Troy Tornatta, serving as the chair.

This meeting included a special segment on homeless veterans and was followed by a media conference to announce the release of a new report from the National Alliance to End Homelessness entitled Vital Mission: Ending Homelessness among Veterans. (See press release.) For more information on homeless veterans and local solutions that are part of Destination: Home, visit www.destination-home.info/veterans.htm

For more information, click on Commission on Homelessness.

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Permanent Supportive Housing -- What is it? How Can It Help Here?

Some strategies in Destination: Home call for creating permanent supportive housing here in order to help stabilize households that are homeless or at-risk of becoming homeless:

Close the Front Door-

Strategy 3: Develop a "Housing First" Program for 750 Households (short-term services)

Open the Back Door -

Strategy 1: Develop a "Housing First" Program for Those in Emergency Shelter that Includes Subsidy & Transitional Case Management for up to 250 Households (short-term services)

Build the Infrastructure - Housing:

Strategy 1: Develop 500 units of Supportive Single Room Occupancy (SRO) Housing (long-term services)

Strategy 2: Develop a Program to Move 1,000 Currently Low-Income Renters into Home Ownership Through Assessment, Training & Down-payment Assistance (short-term services)

What is Permanent Supportive Housing?

"Supportive housing is a successful, cost-effective combination of affordable housing with services that helps people live more stable, productive lives. Supportive housing works well for people who face the most complex challenges-individuals and families who are not only homeless, but who also have very low incomes and serious, persistent issues that may include substance use, mental illness, and HIV/AIDS." (Corporation for Supportive Housing)

This concept is quite new to Evansville and Vanderburgh County. Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH) is not a program with a time limit that then asks tenants to move. Individuals or families who are homeless may access decent, affordable "Housing First" with services for as long as needed.

Some PSH will be in scattered, single-family homes with services as simple as a temporary rent-subsidy and/or short-term case management. While other PSH may be several apartments under one roof with services offered through offices on-site. The latter model has worked best for households that need long-term services in order to maintain stable housing.

Permanent Supportive Housing Works!

	No one wants to be homeless.
	Supportive housing helps people live more stable & productive lives.
	Supportive housing is permanent housing.
	Supportive housing is cost-effective.

"Without a stable place to live and a support system to help them address their underlying problems, most homeless people bounce from one emergency system to the next--from the streets to shelters to public hospitals to psychiatric institutions and detox centers and back to the streets--endlessly. The extremely high cost of this cycle of homelessness, in human and economic terms, can be seen in the lives of people like Frank, a formerly homeless veteran from Chicago." (Cycle link made available by the Corporation for Supportive Housing)

(For an example of Permanent Supportive Housing, see the Home at Last? feature from NOW on PBS, which featured Pathways to Housing's permanent supportive housing work.)

You're Invited to Celebrate!

Mailing Volunteer

Thurs., Dec. 13, 2007 10:00 a.m.

Evansville Vanderburgh Public Library - Central

Browning Events Room

Join the Commission on Homelessness and other community partners in celebrating the accomplishments of Destination: Home over its first three years of implementation! Learn what's ahead!

For more information or to RSVP, call 428-3246 or email info@destination-home.info

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