The Initiative’s strategic partner, the NC Housing Coalition, collaborated for a second straight year with DHHS and the NC Coalition to End Homelessness to host Bringing it Home: Ending Homelessness in North Carolina.
Wake County Manager David Ellis opened the two-day workshop, with NC DHHS Secretary Mandy Cohen offering the conference keynote address to more than 300 attendees.
“There is much good work happening in the community,” Cohen attested in her opening remarks. “We need to knit together all the things community groups are doing, including housing, food, and transportation, with the health care system. By working together we can better help navigate folks to the right resources.”
Cohen shared the State Center for Health Statistics new interactive map, which has a series of overlays showing social determinants of health indicators in North Carolina. These indicators-the economic, social and neighborhood, and housing and transportation status of residents across the state-could help guide the conversation to help communities work more closely together to solve homelessness.
Day one featured experts discussing national best practices for the system-wide shift to increased community coordination and rapid rehousing. Participants engaged with state and local leaders on a variety of topics on day two, including ways to address the limited stock of affordable housing and a how to better understand the impacts of trauma on persistent homelessness.