Your Participation in the Point-in-Time Count is Crucial to Ending the Crisis of Homelessness

As I prepare to join our regional coordinator Katy Miller to participate in the One Night Count of people experiencing homelessness in Seattle / King County later this week, others from USICH and across the administration are also participating in similar efforts around the country. I wanted to take this opportunity to express my sincere appreciation for the incredibly hard work of leaders who are organizing these critical counts, and to the thousands of dedicated volunteers who have committed to going out, in the middle of winter, to identify their neighbors who are experiencing the crisis of homelessness. It is a crisis we must end — for everyone in our country.

Together, we have made tremendous progress since 2010, when we launched Opening Doors, the federal strategic plan to prevent and end homelessness, including that there are now communities across the country that are effectively ending Veteran homelessness. These communities are proving that we can end homelessness — not only for Veterans, but also for families, for single adults, for youth, for children, for people with disabilities, for everyone.

But clearly there is still a great deal of work left to be done. And that’s why I, the team here at USICH, and the entire administration recognizes that your work over the days ahead is crucial.

Because of your efforts, we will know more about our neighbors experiencing homelessness, so that we can target the resources we have as effectively as we can.

Because of your efforts, we will know more about our progress, so that we can learn from successes and better replicate them.

Because of your efforts, we will know more about the challenges we still face, and we can develop stronger strategies to overcome them.

Providing everyone with the opportunity of a safe, stable place to call home has been at the very center of our shared efforts to end homelessness. Today, you are helping us make sure that vision is attainable for everyone.

We know how to end homelessness in America. I know that, together, we can make it happen. Thank you again for being such an important part of the solution.