Housing Issues:

• Expand Section 8 vouchers reserved for homeless people

• Lobby for Public Housing to reserve or set aside units for homeless people

• Get Alcohol and Drug and Mental Health Boards to make housing a priority with services

• Work with housing organizations to create county-wide housing trust fund

• Expand Prevention services so that people do not lose their housing

• Encourage landlords to reserve units for very low income families and individuals

• Lobby Congress to Implement a National Housing Trust Fund as proposed by NLIHC

• Expand housing opportunities for the working poor to get into housing.

Self Development of People:

• Assure that homeless people have access to mainstream community services and there are not barriers to receiving services. (education, health care, libraries, etc.)

• Assist in the creation of a non-profit temporary labor organization

• Expand services to homeless people in need of transportation

• Develop a plan to address the needs of homeless youth especially those graduating from foster care by finding a Business or Religious leader to lead a planning effort.

• Complete a written plan to eliminate homelessness

Local Standards and Practices:

• Tie public funding to performance and outcomes

• Require annual performance goals by providers that lead to stability and share the results of performance standards for social services widely.

• Refocus services to provide better health care for homeless people including hospital care.

• Lobby local medical community to provide prescription drugs to homeless people

• Lobby for expanded medical outreach teams to social service community to better serve homeless people with medical barriers to stability

Entitlements for Homeless People

• Designate staff at Child support Enforcement to be the liaison to the homeless community

• Expand supportive housing efforts in the County

• Lobby for PRC funds for housing vouchers

• Encourage private developers to produce affordable permanent housing alternatives like SROs

• Lobby municipalities for properties with excessive delinquent taxes or code violations to be turned over directly to homeless organizations or directly to homeless people.

• Construct a support network for elderly people who become homeless to quickly get them into housing

• Support the designation of housing by the CDCs for people with AIDS

• Find resources to establishing a central bank to match homeless persons with housing

• All programs for homeless people should comply with state and federal disability laws to assure universal access

• Lobby for the reduction in paperwork that a homeless person has to complete in order to get services

• Get homeless people involved in the physical audits of all facilities

• Expand opportunities for child care for homeless people

• Increase homeless participation in management of homeless services

• Upon agreement by the courts and the custodial parent, child support payments should be forgiven to a homeless non-custodial parent even if the other parent went on welfare

• Monitor the changes within the homeless community post welfare

• Lobby for dental care for homeless people

• Broaden definition of mental health to get additional support services to homeless people

• Lobby state government for mental health parity with other health care expenses

• Lobby to have the coroner study and track the number of homeless people that die

• Support the creation of a cooperative to organize temporary labor employees

Long Range Plan:

• Encourage providers to meet regularly especially the directors.

• Lobby for expanded long term care for homeless people that cannot live independently.

• Educate homeless people on medical needs and prevention strategies

• Encourage foundation and private sector funding be made in coordination with the plan to eliminate homelessness and as part of the performance standards

• Lobby for uniform reporting requirements for state, local and federal agencies

• Develop an organization that would assure that the plan to eliminate homelessness were completed

• Convene public forums on workable housing models with state and national examples

• Lobby for a Change in state law regarding the three year time limit

• Get the Plain Dealer to make homelessness an issue that they focus on.

• Lobby urban municipalities to require a 1-for-1 replacement of all affordable low-income housing inventory losses

• Lobby that resources be concentrated on long term solutions and not Band-Aids.

• Develop a cost or doing nothing report to show the need for a plan to eliminate homelessness.

• Lobby for Human Rights Agenda developed in 2000 by STOP and Empowerment Coalition

• Provide better information of resources available to homeless people

• City of Cleveland designate a contact to assist homeless people with IDs.

• Lobby municipalities to exempt street papers from licensing laws.

• Support lawsuits in other jurisdictions over the licensing and restrictions placed on the distribution of street newspapers

• Support expanded oversight of the third party payee system.

• Oppose the creation of the Mental Health Courts as it is currently proposed.

• Oppose the forced medication of homeless people with a mental illness.