Mayor and Non-Profit Agencies Announce Major Achievement in Housing the Homeless

Mayor Sylvester Turner staff and The Way Home have exceeded their goal to house 500 chronically homeless individuals in six months.

More than two dozen homeless service agencies and hundreds of staff members placed 548 chronically homeless individuals into Permanent Supportive Housing Programs between March – August 2017. Hurricane Harvey delayed confirmation and announcement of the achievement.

Mayor Turner with Jose Quintero, a client of The Way Home

In March 2017, Mayor Turner announced a comprehensive and holistic approach to reducing homelessness, challenging the homeless response community to intensify efforts to permanently house the most vulnerable chronically homeless individuals on Houston’s streets.

“Any conversation around reducing homelessness must start and end with housing, for it is the permanent solution to homelessness,” said Mayor Sylvester Turner. “Houston continues to lead the nation in reducing homelessness, and while we recognize a great accomplishment today, we also recognize that there is still more to be done.”

At the center of this plan was The Way Home, the collaborative model comprised of more than 100 private nonprofits and public organizations that has reduced overall homelessness by 60% since 2011. The unprecedented collaboration of The Way Home partners paved the way for exceeding the goal even in the face of major setbacks such as historic flooding and a federal freeze on housing vouchers. The City of Houston stepped in to cover the housing subsidy loss.

“The Way Home partners are an incredible team that has adopted a ‘YES’ culture, so I am thrilled – but not surprised – that we exceeded Mayor Turner’s goal of housing 500 chronically homeless individuals,” said Marilyn Brown, President/CEO of the Coalition for the Homeless. “Hundreds of partner agency staff members spent countless hours on this project and their hard work deserves to be recognized. We also could not have done this without the partnership of Mayor Turner and the City of Houston; we are so thankful for their continued support of proven and permanent solutions to end homelessness.”

Since 2011, The Way Home has housed more than 11,000 individuals in permanent housing and provided voluntary supportive services to help those individuals maintain their housing.

Learn more at www.thewayhomehouston.org.