This year — 2022 — marks 40 years for the Coalition, and we got our 40^th anniversary year off to a great start.

Last week was one of the busiest weeks for the Coalition in recent memory. Here's what we accomplished together.

• We led the annual Point-in-Time (“PIT”) Count. We coordinated 480 staff and volunteers across the more than 3,740 square miles of Harris, Fort Bend and Montgomery counties to survey people experiencing homelessness. The count is so important to gauge the success of our programs, to know where more help is needed — and to demonstrate to our community members experiencing homelessness that we care about them. We expect to publicly release the results of the 2022 Count in March.
• Read our press release about this year's Count here.

• Harris County Commissioners Court affirmed their commitment of $35 million for phase 2 of the Community COVID Housing Program (CCHP), on top of the $35 million the City of Houston plans to allocate. The County’s vote followed months and months of conversations and negotiations with City and County officials. Phase one has been a huge success: we have far surpassed our goal of housing 5,000 people and have already housed more than 7,000! (This includes people permanently housed in Permanent Supportive Housing and in Rapid Re-Housing as well as those prevented from falling into homelessness via Diversion.) In phase 2, with the funding from the County, City and State, we will house another 7,000 and continue to be a model for the rest of the country – officially, now that we are part of the national House America Initiative.
• Read our press release here.
• Watch a video featuring CCHP phase 1 clients here.
• Read the cover story from the Houston Chronicle here.

• Houston City Council approved the construction of the Housing Navigation Center. The navigation center will be an essential piece of the homeless response system — a place where unsheltered people can stay for a short time as we finalize their permanent housing arrangements. It will allow us to decommission many more encampments and do so more quickly.

Milestones that we met last week will allow us to help thousands of people experiencing homelessness over the next few years and were the culmination of countless hours of work from the Coalition staff and the partners and stakeholders of The Way Home.

We look forward to celebrating our 40th anniversary year with you throughout 2022 and continuing our shared work to make homelessness rare, brief, and non-recurring.