BRIDGEPORT, W.Va. – (November 21, 2019): The West Virginia Coalition to End Homelessness, a non-profit working to end homelessness throughout West Virginia, today announced that it has been selected to receive a $1.5 million grant from the Day 1 Families Fund. "We are extremely excited to receive this generous grant from the Day 1 Families Fund, wh...

Around 2013, I wrote a Manifesto. I wrote it out of anger, at a time when I was done with other people, organizations, and entities constantly defining who we were as an organization and coming to wild and inaccurate conclusions about where we were headed. As naive as it was in hindsight, it was born of a time and place where we needed to put our f...

What is Housing a First? Why should I (or my agency follow it)? Where is proof that Housing First works? But, Michael...it's really hard to implement? Why should we change?

I genuinely hope that you take the time to real this blog if you've found yourself or your agency asking any of the above noted questions. 

Housing First is a very simple philosophy that is based on the idea that all humans deserve to have a safe place to call home. However, Housing First goes a little further in that it acknowledges that it is near damn impossible to gain stability while living outdoors, or even in shelters. 

A few months ago, I was invited to a homeless awareness event where people would be sleeping outdoors for the night in an effort to understand the plight of people experiencing homelessness. At this event, they would be giving out a prize for the “best makeshift shelter” and a prize for the best “street performance.” I was up front with this group and commended their desire to raise awareness about homelessness and the issues surrounding homelessness in West Virginia. Though their intentions were really good in that they were aiming to raise awareness about homelessness, homelessness is a traumatic event that should not be taken lightly.

It’s come to my attention that despite continued training, technical assistance, and guidance on Coordinated Access, Prioritization, and Centralized Intake, we still have quite a bit of confusion as to the purpose and function of prioritization. Therefore, I want to take some time to clarify some things in a simple, straightforward way: