- New resolution affirms 10 Year Plans, urges adoption of innovations achieving results, calls for special focus on veterans, encourages counties to participate in National Project Homeless Connect Week
- Number of county and mayoral signatories to America's Road Home Statement of Principles and Actions now top 350
 Jackson County/Kansas City, MO. July 15. Meeting in the American heartland for the 2008 NACo Annual Conference and Exposition, the nation’s county officials endorsed and affirmed through a Resolution innovations that are reducing and ending chronic homelessness in communities throughout the nation.
Five years ago to the day that NACo first adopted a Policy Resolution supporting 10 Year Planning and encouraging counties to engage with the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness to create 10 Year Plans, county officials affirmed with a new resolution the progress being made and the innovations responsible for the decreased numbers. Reaffirming support for 10 Year Plans and with special focus on homeless veterans, cost benefit analysis, Project Homeless Connect, and America’s Road Home, the NACo Resolution adopted today endorses innovative initiatives in 10 Year Plans, including Rapid Rehousing and Housing First strategies, and calls on communities to adopt these and other innovations that are making a difference on the streets and in the neighborhoods of our country.
Read Full Text of NACo Resolution.
 At the conference United States Interagency Council on Homelessness Executive Director Philip Mangano was invited to address the Human Services and Education Steering Committee chaired by Sacramento Supervisor Roger Dickinson. Director Mangano reported on the progress of the national effort that now includes 345 city and county 10 Year Plans, an increasing number of cost benefit studies, and the bipartisan development by a representative group of mayors and county officials in partnership with the Council of the America’s Road Home Statement of Principles and Actions at a Denver Summit in November 2007. Director Mangano is pictured here with Supervisor Dickinson and NACo’s Associate Legislative Director Marilina Sanz. Sacramento is one of an increasing number of examples across the country of cities and counties partnering to develop regional plans. A public 1st Year Report Card on the Sacramento City and County 10 Year Plan was highlighted in the Council’s recent “20 in 20” Innovation series for its effectiveness in improving public accountability and community education.
Encouraged by Wake County, NC Commission Chair Joe Bryan and Commissioner Lindy Brown who both had participated in the shaping and creation of the America’s Road Home document at the Denver Summit, North Carolina county officials at the conference overwhelmingly supported with their signatures the Principles and Actions called for in America’s Road Home and joined others from across the nation to add more than 70 county officials to the growing national support for America’s Road Home which now includes more than 350 jurisdictional leaders.
 “We are indebted to the openness of NACo President Eric Coleman and NACo Legislative Director Ed Rosado and his team for the strength of the partnership between the Council and NACo," indicated United States Interagency Council on Homelessness Executive Director Philip Mangano. "The reaffirmation of that partnership through Resolution and support for America's Road Home signals the reframing of the issue of homelessness in an economic lens that speaks the vernacular of county leadership and responsibility."
"And, of course, we are again indebted to Wake County Commissioner Bryan and Sacramento County Supervisor Dickinson for the work they have done in their counties to reduce homelessness and for their continuing support at NACo."
NACo Conference Included Sessions on Foster Care Youth, Re-entry
Improving outcomes for young people aging out of the foster care system was the special Presidential Initiative of outgoing NACo 2007-2008 President, Oakland, MI Commissioner Eric Coleman. Throughout the year, NACo in partnership with the Pew Charitable Trusts worked to “raise awareness among county officials about the plight of young adults aging out of foster care, identify promising county practices that support them as they transition to independent adulthood, and enlist county officials in a call to action to take a leadership role in their communities to improve outcomes for foster youth.” Improving outcomes for foster care youth is among the topics addressed in Promising Strategies to End Youth Homelessness, a congressionally-mandated report prepared by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Children and Families in consultation with the Council. Recent legislation passed by the U.S. House of Representatives and awaiting Senate action, Fostering Connections to Success Act (H.R. 6307), would among other provisions allow states to extend federal foster care payments for youth up to age 21.
The 2008 meeting continued NACo’s special focus on jail diversion and re-entry issues with a presentation on “Reentry for Safer Counties: The Door to a Jail Need Not be a Revolving One.” Conference participants were also offered an opportunity to visit a nearby health center site operated by Swope Health Center, a federally-qualified health center (FQHC) and community mental health center (CMHC), Through its various outpatient sites, the Swope Health Center serves over 45,000 homeless and low to moderate income residents of five counties in Missouri and Kansas, 90% of patients seen have incomes below the poverty level. As reported in the Council’s July 11 e-newsletter, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) has released a new report on the results of the Administration's 5-year national expansion initiative for community health centers. Health Centers: America's Primary Care Safety Net Reflections on Success, 2002-2007
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