The Official Plan to End Homelessness (2008)

Revised: December 2018

By Sarah Owens and Michael Livingston

 

[Originally posted under the title, "MWHITF, Agenda for Meeting 2."] 

Commissioner Carlson maintains that the goal of the task force is to put "meat on the bones" of the Marion-Polk Counties' 10-Year Plan to End Homelessness (dated October 2008).  So, we thought a quick review would be helpful.  From page 34 of the 10-year Plan:

The Plan was supposed to have been implemented/overseen by seven work groups, which were assigned goals and strategies.

     
Finally, the plan outlined "Next Steps", including the development of a "'Homeless Connect' project" (step 1) and a task force with a project manager (step 4).

As for step 1, there's been an annual "Homeless Connect" event in Salem since 2010 (see here and here), but it's just a one-day thing.  Maybe step 4 is partly satisfied by the 2016 creation of the Mid-Willamette Homeless Initiative Task Force, followed by the 2018 creation of a Homeless Initiative Programs Coordinator position.  Progress on the other steps is harder to measure.       

No doubt the 10-Year Plan was work to pull together.  However, it's not hard to imagine why it didn't get off the ground.  In addition to the goals, objectives and next steps being too general and not tied to benchmarks, responsibilities weren't assigned, and there were no cost estimates, deadlines or reporting requirements.  If anyone wants to put meat on the bones of this plan, they should first  put more bone on its bones.