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Homelessness is a solvable problem; research and twenty years of experience have proven that to be true. Communities who have developed and implemented Ten-Year Plans have seen reductions in homelessness by creating more humane and more economical systems to serve people experiencing homelessness.

For example:

• Portland, Oregon experienced a 70 percent drop in the number of chronically homeless people living on the street in the first two years of its plan.
• Sacramento housed 756 homeless people in the first eighteen months of its plan.

 A community that has “ended homelessness” has set up a system of cost-effective housing and services that:

• Prevents people from losing their housing, to the extent possible
• Re-houses people who do lose their housing, and Stabilizes people so that they do not lose their housing again.

The purpose of Connecting the Dots is to create a roadmap for service providers, local government, and all community stakeholders to implement in order to find solutions for preventing and ending homelessness.

Connecting the Dots is intended to refocus current efforts and provide best practices for developing new programs. The Continuum has a vision that Connecting the Dots will be used as a practical guide for goal setting, establishing local priorities, allocating funding, and developing new programs that work to eradicate homelessness.

Connecting the Dots includes feasible implementation steps and resources that can be utilized by organizations and jurisdictions within Kings and Tulare Counties, to work towards a more complete continuum of services and housing for individuals experiencing homelessness. 

The goals of the Connecting the Dots plan include: 

• Create and implement action steps to reduce and prevent future homelessness;
• Form and/or expand the collaborations needed to successfully develop new housing units and connect homeless individuals with services;
• Capitalize on existing resources and leverage new sources of funding in order to be efficient in addressing the needs of at-risk and homeless community members;
• Expand the capacity of local agencies by utilizing existing best practices and educating on the effectiveness of a Housing First model
• Be proactive in our approach to addressing homelessness.