[Archived] Alexandria City Council Endorses Plan to End Chronic Homelessness

City Press Release


	City of Alexandria, Virginia Office of the City Manager Alexandria City Hall 301 King Street, Suite 3500 Alexandria, Virginia 22314-3211 www.alexandriava.gov Telephone: 703.838.4300 Fax : 703.838.6343

For Immediate Release
March 14, 2005
PIO 076-05/bg

Alexandria City Council Endorses
Plan to End Chronic Homelessness

The Alexandria City Council has endorsed the Ten Year Plan to End Chronic Homelessness in Alexandria and approved including the Plan in the five year Consolidated Plan for Housing and Community Development. The Council voted at its meeting on March 8 to adopt the plan developed by the Alexandria Homeless Services Coordinating Committee (HSCC) using a format developed by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development.

“First and foremost, our goal is to prevent homelessness,” said Alexandria Mayor William D. Euille. A January 2004 “Point-in-Time” count of the homeless in Alexandria found 414 persons in Alexandria who were considered to be homeless. Of this total, 93 or 22 percent of Alexandria's homeless population were determined to be chronically homeless. Another 35 people, all with either a disability or severe mental illness or a dual diagnosis, were housed in supportive housing units.

The goals of the Alexandria plan are a mixture of new initiatives and ongoing activities. New initiatives include:
- Developing single room occupancy style housing to provide affordable housing and accessible sservices for low income wage earners and disabled adults.
- Supporting the Alexandria Community Health Care Center in competing for a health care for a homeless grant to improve the populations access to comprehensive health care services.

Examples of ongoing initiatives include:
- Establishing a Homeless Management Information System to coordinate service delivery and analyze outcomes.
- Preventing homelessness through effective discharge planning and continuation of local programming to prevent evictions.
- Developing permanent housing solutions for the homeless including projects such as the Safe Haven designed for the chronic homeless
- Increasing the availability of employment and training for the chronic homeless
- Reducing barriers to services by the homeless and maximizing the use of existing mainstream resources to reduce and eliminate homelessness.

For more information, call the Department of Human services at 703.838.0901 or 703.838.4455 for the Community Services Board.