Homeless Data Update and Rapid Rehousing Grant

Vice Mayor Steve Kay thanks volunteers for their efforts to decrease homelessness during a press conference May 2, 2016.

I am pleased to share good news regarding our city’s progress in addressing issues of homelessness.  Working with numerous service providers, the newly-created Office of Homelessness Prevention and Intervention (OHPI), directed by Charlie Lanter, has helped reduce homelessness (people living on the streets, in a shelter or in transitional housing) by 26% since the program began in 2014.  Chronic homeless–defined as someone with a disability who has been homeless for greater than 1 year or has been homeless 4 or more times in 3 years for a period that totals 1 year or more–has decreased 50% since 2015. Veteran homelessness has achieved functional zero. Newly adopted best practices such as the Housing First Pilot Project, Mental Health Courts, and OneDoor Lexington are improving outcomes.

OHPI also coordinated the successful application for a $333,323 Federal Rapid Rehousing grant to be administered by Community Action Council. Rapid Rehousing refers to providing rental assistance to help families leave shelters and the streets for permanent housing.

I am heartened by the good work our community has done and continues to do to tackle the challenge of homelessness.  Thanks to the decades of dedicated and resilient work of countless activists, including most notably Debra Hensley who most recently helped move this issue forward as co-chair of the Mayor’s Commission on Homelessness, we have made and will continue to make our city more just for those most in need.