The Downtown Pathways Project closed out its first quarter with momentum: all four of our primary goals were met.
The Fair Market Rent study is underway, with 50% of the necessary funding committed. Our communications strategy, including a website, a newsletter, and the public launch of Pathways, is complete. We’ve identified and modeled locations for expanded housing, and providers have shared key insights about the people they serve to help shape what comes next.
That foundation sets us up for an ambitious summer.
Due August 8: What We’re Working on This Quarter
- Understanding who we serve. Before we can help people well, we need to understand them clearly. Partners have done an excellent job of building the by-name-list for individuals experiencing chronic homelessness and it has helped us make big leaps in helping them get stably housed. This quarter we will be conducting a comprehensive assessment of those served by the Downtown Pathways Project including their housing situations, barriers, and existing provider relationships. This work will help us build individualized, cross-sector plans and communicate more clearly with the broader community about who we’re serving, what the gaps are, and what we need to do next.
- Securing a site for additional housing with complex care. More than 100 individuals in our community are very high utilizers of emergency healthcare, shelter, and public services. They are unlikely to sustain stable housing without significant behavioral health and wraparound support. Degage Ministries is working to secure a signed agreement on a preferred site for a second Permanent Supportive Housing location with complex care services to ease pressure on emergency rooms, shelters, and jails simultaneously.
- Building a coordinated partner network. The organizations doing this work are strong individually. The Team of Teams approach — proven in complex multi-stakeholder operations — shows that shared consciousness, common purpose, and empowered execution allow networks of organizations to outperform any single agency working alone. 100 in 100 and Pathways has helped leadership teams build trust and establish cross-organizational working norms, but we see a need to enhance this within and across the teams providing direct services. A written work plan and consistent meeting cadence will replace implicit assumptions with explicit operating norms, producing the foundation for trust and the integration that case-level work depends on.
- Making our progress visible. A public scorecard for the project with agreed-upon metrics will be tracked and shared on the Pathways website. Trust is built through transparency, and the community deserves to see how this work is progressing.
| - Telling the story clearly. Homelessness response is complex, and it’s easy for important work to get lost in that complexity. The selection of a dedicated partner to help us better communicate progress and obstacles will improve funders, neighbors, and community leaders’ understanding of what we’re doing and how they can engage.
- Connecting care across providers and systems. Kent County has excellent hospitals, clinics, housing providers, and shelters. What’s often missing is coordination between them at the individual level. Our Cross-Sector Case Conferencing pilot is already underway at Heartside Landings, and we are looking to expand to other providers and outreach partners. The goal: develop shared care plans for individuals whose needs cross multiple systems to improve outcomes.
Want to get the nerdy specifics from our EOS-style “rock doc?” Click here.
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