Thinking Like a System
Much is afoot across communities trying to arrange homeless and housing services into alignment with a coordinated access and common assessment approach. Maybe this work is happening because people...
View ArticleAll a Matter of Perspective
To the pessimist, a breath mint is empty calories. To the optimist, it means fresh breath. It is all a matter of perspective. Ending homelessness is all a matter of perspective too. All too...
View ArticleI’ll Take that as a Compliment Because I am Okay with That
A buddy of mine on the west coast was recently talking to the office of an elected official about a speaking engagement I had there in late 2012. The response in an email, “The [community] reaction...
View ArticleSuccess is Not an Accident
When the movement started towards communities developing 10 Year Plans to End Homelessness, I was skeptical. Not because I didn’t think having Plans was a good idea. They harnessed a lot of great...
View ArticleWellness and Recovery in Housing Support – Part 1 of 4
I have a very personal connection to wellness and recovery as it relates to mental illness. If you haven’t read my older blog on living with depression, you can read it here. Or if you want to watch my...
View ArticleWhen Clients Die
When working with vulnerable populations, one of the unfortunate realities is that some clients will die. Death is part of life. Even when exercising professional boundaries, there is a bond formed...
View ArticleWhen to Let Clients Go
In this blog I want to explore the transition of clients from being part of the active caseload in a time-limited housing support program to the point where they no longer need their housing case...
View ArticleWhat Does it Mean when Government Endorses a Housing First Approach?
More and more I am seeing different orders of government – municipalities, states, provinces, federal – slip the words “housing first” or “Housing First” into their documents, policy briefs and...
View ArticleYour Organization’s Identity Crisis
Instead of reading this blog, if you’d rather watch it as a rant on YouTube, click here. Does your organization know what it is? Because the more I travel the more I find there are many organizations...
View ArticleWhy We Need to Think and Act Like a System if We Want to End Homelessness,...
“Systems-thinking” isn’t just the flavor du jour. It isn’t a fancy way of talking about organizations working cooperatively or in partnership with one another. It is critical for addressing complexity...
View Article10 Things I Learned this Year: Part One
I get around – in a good way. There were only two 7-day consecutive stretches since 2013 started that I was home. In every other week I was somewhere else one or more days, and when you add it all up,...
View ArticleAny Approach to Ending Homelessness Needs Shelters to be Awesome
Ending homelessness is not anti-shelter. In fact, in many instances ending homelessness starts with shelter. Let me put this in a system context. First of all, your community (or your organization if...
View Article
