For Immediate Release: Friday, January 26, 2018
Montgomery County Councilmember George Leventhal to
Hold Community Meeting
on the State of Homelessness in Montgomery County
with Homeless Service Providers
Community discussion about homelessness scheduled for
Jan. 29 at 7 p.m. at the Silver Spring Civic Building
ROCKVILLE, Md., January 26, 2018—Montgomery County Councilmember George Leventhal, who serves as chair of the Council’s Health and Human Services Committee, will host a community discussion on the State of Homelessness in Montgomery County on Monday, January 29 from 7-8:30 p.m. at the Silver Spring Civic Building. Uma Ahluwalia, Director of the County’s Department of Health and Human Services; John Mendez, Interim Executive Director of Bethesda Cares; Christine Hong, Director of Homeless Services for Interfaith Works; Susie Sinclair-Smith, Executive Director, Montgomery County Coalition for the Homeless; and Jackie Coyle, Executive Director of Shepherd’s Table; will join Councilmember Leventhal for this community meeting and dialogue. The State of Homelessness in Montgomery County will feature a presentation by Councilmember Leventhal on homelessness research and will be followed by a question and answer session with panelists covering the County’s homeless outreach efforts and the County’s “Inside (not Outside)” initiative, which has the goal of housing every identified chronically homeless person in the County.
“I appreciate being invited by the Silver Spring Citizens Advisory Board to lead a community dialogue on the state of homelessness in Montgomery County,” said Councilmember Leventhal who recently earned his Ph.D. in Public Policy from the University of Maryland with his doctoral dissertation The Stubborn Persistence of Homelessness. “The County has made tremendous strides in recent years in housing our most vulnerable neighbors, but residents rarely get to see the positive impact that our efforts are having. I look forward to sharing the progress we’ve made at this meeting, and hearing from the public about what they are seeing and experiencing in their own neighborhoods.”
The 2017 Annual Point-in-Time (PIT) Count of Persons Experiencing Homelessness found 894 individuals experiencing homelessness in the County, which was a decline of nine percent from the 2016. This year’s PIT count is scheduled for January 24.
Montgomery County uses a public-private partnership model to prevent and end homelessness. The Montgomery County Homeless Continuum of Care (CoC) includes state and local government agencies, non-profit service providers, landlords and other stakeholders who are committed to eliminating homelessness. Montgomery County is focused on making homelessness “rare, brief and nonrecurring” by offering homeless prevention, diversion, street outreach, temporary shelter, shallow and deep housing subsidies and supportive services.
The County also follows the Housing First model and aligns assistance programs with the principles of low barrier access to housing and services, consumer choice, community integration and housing orientation. This reflects a shift away from the “housing readiness” model and towards a model where housing comes first and wraparound support services are offered to maintain housing stability.
The County achieved the goal of ending veteran homelessness by December 2015 as measured by the U.S. Mayors Challenge to End Homelessness and the Zero:2016 Campaign.
During the County’s fiscal year 2017 budget, the top priority for CoC was ending chronic homelessness by December 31, 2017. This effort is known as the “Inside (not Outside)” campaign.
The public is encouraged to attend the January 29 discussion on the State of Homelessness in Montgomery County at the Silver Spring Civic Building, which is located at One Veterans Place in Silver Spring. Plenty of parking is available at the Town Square Garage at 801 Ellsworth Drive. The closest Metro stop is the Silver Spring Station.
For further information about the State of Homelessness in Montgomery County, contact Councilmember Leventhal’s office at 240-777-7821 or email: Councilmember.Leventhal@montgomerycoutnymd.gov .
# # # Release ID: 18-026