10 Year Plan to End Homelessness
A 10 Year Plan to End Homelessness is a community-based Plan that shifts a community’s focus from managing homelessness to ending it.
There are four core elements of a Plan to End Homelessness:
- Plan for outcomes. In order to end homelessness you need a Plan. Successful community Plans are evidence-based; have measurable and ambitious outcomes and key milestones; are learning, living and adaptive documents; cover the Ten Essentials; and critically, are the product of an inclusive community process that engages key players in the local homeless system, including people with lived experience.
- Close the front door. The most cost effective way to end homelessness for people is to stop it before it begins with effective prevention.
- Open the back door. For the vast majority of homeless Canadians, homelessness is a short-term phenomenon. A small but significant minority become trapped in homelessness or cycle in and out of homelessness throughout their lives. There are effective initiatives that move people from homelessness to a stable home. These need to be a cornerstone of Plans to End Homelessness.
- Build the infrastructure. While systems can be changed to prevent and shorten the experience of homelessness, ultimately people will continue to be threatened with instability until the supply of affordable housing is increased; incomes of people living in poverty are sufficient to meet their basic needs; and, disadvantaged people receive the support services they need.
10 Year Plans began in the United States with the National Alliance to End Homelessness. They were first introduced in Canada in the province of Alberta. 10 Year Plans are now in place in more than 240 U.S. communities and a growing number of Canadian cities.
Canadian Plans to End Homelessness
U.S. Plans to End Homelessness
National Alliance to End Homelessness: Community Plans