Last week, CSH led a community planning Charrette to inform Chicago’s Plan 2.0 to End Homelessness for the Chicago Alliance to End Homelessness. Thirty-seven local and national experts discussed best practices and changes to consider as Chicago moves forward with the new plan. In attendance, and very eager to share their thoughts, were over 375 representatives from Chicago nonprofit organizations, consumers of homeless housing and service, and other key stakeholders.
Topics for the Charrette included prevention, youth, systems integration, employment, interim and permanent housing. CSH staff facilitated the process, provided expertise, caucused with experts, and then distilled the information into a final report of recommendations.
The topic of interim housing roused the most discussion, with debates over the appropriate length of time for clients to stay in interim housing and the time frame for measuring clients’ progress. Participants contributed valuable perspective and suggestions toward a solution to get Chicago closer to our goal of ending homelessness.
Local and national press covered the Charrette, including this piece in The New York Times. CSH is proud to have worked with Chicago on this important planning process, and we look forward to leading Charrettes in more places across the country in 2012.
