The cooler weather and bustle of fall has many Arizonans planning to invite family and friends home for seasonal celebrations.

But what about local individuals and families without permanent housing?

In May 2013, we calculated that 1,622 chronically homeless individuals and vulnerable families in Maricopa County needed homes. Our goal is to bring that number to zero by December 2015.

Ambitious? Yes. But with the right team and plan, we can ensure each has a home by December 2015.

100 Days to Reach Success

We are part of a community-wide team of 20 stakeholders including Valley of the Sun United Way, the city of Phoenix, Maricopa County Human Services Department and others that are working to create and implement ongoing 100 day plans to create long-term systemic change.

We are utilizing data, aligning existing mainstream resources, targeting new funders and making strategic investments to reach lofty goals each 100 days.

Count Down To Zero

This past May our community was also selected as one of only ten communities nationwide to participate in the Dedicating Opportunities to End Homelessness Initiative by the Federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH).

Our participation in this initiative as well as the strong foundation created with local Housing First and Permanent Supportive Housing programs, has allowed us to leap forward in our COUNT DOWN to ZERO chronically homeless individuals and families by the end of December 2015.

What have we accomplished during our first 100 days? 184 individuals and 20 families now have homes!

What’s next? We’ve already started on our next 100-day plan and you can help:

• Subscribe to the Partnership to End Chronic Homelessness newsletter by emailing endchronichomelessness@vsuw.org.
• Volunteer for the next Project Connect. Register now.
• Attend the Continuum of Care to End Homelessness Meeting on November 18.
• Register for the Arizona Coalition to End Homelessness Conference on October 29-30.

January 14 is our next 100 Day Deadline.

Join us.

Together we will Get to Zero.

Amy Schwabenlender, Vice President of Community Impact for Valley of the Sun United Way; Jodi Liggett, Senior Policy Advisor for the city of Phoenix and Ursula Strephans, Assistant Director of Community Development for the Maricopa County Human Services Department are co-leads for the effort to get to functional zero on chronic individual and vulnerable family homelessness in Maricopa County.