Coalition and city outline "equilibrium" homelessness plan, REI awards and new legal tools to address chronic street homelessness

City and nonprofit leaders presented an expanded homelessness response plan on June 16 that aims to reduce street homelessness through a coordinated mix of outreach, diversion, bridge and permanent housing resources, and by using recently enacted state legislation to increase involuntary-treatment options in narrowly defined clinical cases.

Kelly Young, CEO of the Coalition for the Homeless, described the plan’s operational goal: to create an "equilibrium" in the local system in which "everyone experiencing homelessness is rehoused through rapid resolution or entering an appropriate intervention within 90 days." Young said the coalition and partners recommend a ramp-up that relies on flexible local funding layered atop existing federal programs to reach that outcome.

City and county leaders and philanthropies, Young and others said, have identified an initial three-year price tag of about $210 million (roughly $70 million per year) to scale needed services and housing interventions. Presenters reported early funding commitments and pledges: the city has allocated about $23 million for an initial distribution over 24 months, Metro pledged $10 million, Houston First approximately $2.6 million, Harris County indicated an $8 million allocation to braid into county programs, and philanthropy is negotiating a potential major grant (staff mentioned a target philanthropic…