The SECU Commons- a supportive housing community for homeless families and youth aging out of foster care.
Community Commitment to Ending Homelessness
We, the community of WSFC commit to develop and sustain a system of care that will end veteran homelessness by 12/31/15 and chronic homelessness by 12/31/16 and all homelessness by 12/31/20 by providing on-going support and development so that individuals and families connect with appropriate resources that enable them to live self-sufficient self-determined lives.
Ending Chronic Homelessness
In 2006, the City of Winston-Salem and Forsyth County adopted the Ten Year Plan to End Chronic Homelessness. The bold vision of this plan was: Winston-Salem/Forsyth County, with the full support of the community and homeless service providers, will provide effective solutions and accessible services to eliminate chronic homelessness and improve the system’s effectiveness for all persons experiencing a housing crisis. In order to achieve this vision, the City of Winston-Salem and Forsyth County created the joint Ten Year Plan Commission (TYP). With the partnership of United Way of Forsyth County, Kate B. Reynolds Charitable Trust, and the Winston-Salem Foundation, they have supported dedicated staff for the implementation of this vision. At the time our community set the goal to end chronic homelessness we had identified over 200 people experiencing chronic homelessness in our community. Since this time, we have made significant improvements to the system of care for people experiencing homelessness which have resulted in our being on the brink of ending chronic homelessness.
As of October 2016, we have 16 chronically homeless people who still need to be matched to permanent housing. To get to this result has taken significant re-alignment of resources and policy across all agencies serving people who are homeless in our community. We are committed to continuing this system improvement until we reach our goal of ending chronic homelessness by reaching functional zero.
