Blueprint to End Homelessness / Ten-Year Plan

Staff:           Chuck Kieffer, WHA

Fiduciary:      Washtenaw Housing Alliance

Homepage:    www.whalliance.org/blueprint/implementation.html

On September 21, 2004, this community launched A Home for Everyone: A Blueprint to End Homelessness along with an Implementation Guide for the first three years of the plan. In this guide, the community lists sixteen strategy areas, workgroup conveners, community champions and a charter outlining the groups priorities.

Four goals drive our community's commitment to ending homelessness:

• Prevention
• Housing WITH Services
• Reform the System of Care
• Engage the Community

Based upon these goals and the role of the WHA as the overseer of Blueprint implementation, a number of workgroups were formed to focus on the required action areas.  Each workgroup is convened by a local expert and championed by an enthusiastic community leader.

Originally, seventeen strategy workgroups were formed to address priority areas of work and planning.  In 2006, the seventeen WHA workgroups were consolidated from separate entities to seven coordinated and focused groups.  This convergence is indicative of the ever-changing role required of the WHA and also represents our efforts to adapt to these evolving needs.