Committee to End Homelessness announces new name, four-year plan
Published 12:26 pm Thursday, October 1, 2015
From a press release:
The Committee to End Homelessness in King County (CEH) has a new name – All Home – a new web site, and most importantly, a new plan to tackle the problem of homelessness, one that is based on lessons learned and proven strategies designed to achieve All Home’s ambitious goal of making the experience of homelessness rare, brief, and one-time for those who experience it.
“Homelessness is our community’s biggest crisis,” Mark Putnam, Executive Director of All Home said in a press release. “We learned a lot over the last decade of implementing ‘The 10-Year Plan to End Homelessness,’ and during that time nearly 40,000 people have exited homelessness for stable housing in King County. Over 6,300 units of homeless housing were added, bringing us up to third-best in the country for amount of housing units dedicated for the homeless. Yet more people become homeless each day, so we now need more commitment community-wide to address the causes of homeless, including rising housing costs, high poverty rates, and an inadequate State and Federal safety net.”
All Home, the new name, is intended to better convey the organization’s commitment to building a community-wide partnership to respond to the crisis of homelessness and address its root causes.
“All Home’s new, more inclusive plan calls for engaging business leaders, faith organizations, local landlords, and others in our community to create safe and affordable housing – along with the health services, job training and other supports that help people achieve and maintain stability,” said King County Executive Dow Constantine. “King County is proud to continue as a partner.”
“We chose our new name, All Home, to evoke perhaps the most important lessons we’ve learned over ten years of work: that it takes a community-wide effort – all of us acting together and doing our part – to tackle the problem of homelessness. And further, our name exemplifies our absolute commitment to the proposition that homelessness is solvable, and that if we unify behind the proven strategies outlined in All Home’s four-year strategic plan, all people can have a home,” said Lainey Sickinger, co-chair of All Home’s new Coordinating Board and President of Renton Ecumenical Association of Churches.
The name change and organizational re-launch comes as All Home begins implementing a new four-year strategic plan that builds on the successes, and lessons learned, over the last decade of effort. The goal of the plan is to make the experience of homelessness in King County rare, brief and one-time, and to reduce disparate impact on people of color.
“Homelessness is not somebody else’s problem. It’s your problem, and my problem,” said Paul Lambros, Executive Director of Plymouth Housing Group and the other co-chair of All Home’s Coordinating Board. “All Home is focused on engaging various sectors of our community in the fight against homelessness, including non-profits, government, business leaders, landlords, congregations, and others. We can solve the puzzle of homelessness if we work collectively, and All Home is committed to making that happen.”
All Home is hosted by King County and led by people experiencing homelessness, local government, nonprofits, faith and business leaders, and philanthropy.
Support for All Home’s approach is growing across the region.
“Real Change is proud to recognize All Home Executive Director Mark Putnam with our 2015 ‘Change Agent’ award for visionary leadership. We see that All Home hears the urgent voices of homeless people and is building a more unified movement for change” said Tim Harris, the Founding Director of Real Change.
For more information or to read the new plan, visit http://allhomekc.org/
