Birmingham's Plan to End Chronic Homelessness: 2007-2017
Birmingham's Plan to End Chronic Homelessness: 2007-2017 is a 35-page document drafted by the Birmingham Department of Community Development and the Mayor's Commission to Prevent and End Chronic Homelessness with the assistance of Training & Development Associates.
It was developed through a series of meetings, focus groups and public hearings which took place in early 2007. The final document was adopted by the Commission on May 4, 2007 and submitted to Mayor Bernard Kincaid by co-chairs Norm Davis and Mona Fouad on May 23
The document details the status of chronic and cyclic homelessness in Birmingham in the context of national and local policies, costs, and statistics. It describes the network of services and providers currently available in the city and proposes a plan of action for tackling the most entrenched problems which lead to homelessness and keep individuals trapped in cycles of poverty.
The five key goals of the action plan include:
- Expanding new housing options for chronically-homeless people
- Providing improved access to support services for vulnerable people in housing
- Reforming policies that create or preserve homelessness
- Instituting productive policies for people leaving homelessness
- Mobilizing community awareness and participation
The document goes on to suggest specific programs and policies that could contribute to those goals and sets an ambitious schedule for implementation, including the designation of key players and measures to determine success.
According to Reverend Lawton Higgs Sr of the Church of the Reconciler, efforts to implement the 10-year plan stalled during 2008. In 2023 long-serving Birmingham City Council member Valerie Abbott mused that the plan, "sits on a shelf, covered in dust or maybe burning in a landfill." (a reference to the Moody landfill fire).
References
- "House it going?" (May 10, 2007) Birmingham Weekly
- Garrison, Greg (May 4, 2008) "Railroad Park disrupts homeless; police overreact, activists say." The Birmingham News
- Johnson, Roy S. (January 12, 2023) "Roy S. Johnson: For one man, Birmingham’s tiny house initiative for unhoused evokes tears, memories." AL.com