Community of One: Progress Towards Making Homelessness Rare, Brief and Nonrecurring

Virginia Beach Housing & Neighborhood Preservation is updating the Community of One strategic plan, in collaboration with the BEACH Community Partnership, and will provide recommendations to City Council for making homelessness rare, brief and nonrecurring, an initiative in the City’s FY 24-25 Focused Action Plan. The current Community of One plan was last updated in 2017.

Progress Since Community of One

In Virginia Beach, we have a systematic and coordinated approach that prioritizes assistance for the most vulnerable families and individuals experiencing homelessness or a housing crisis in our community. This collective effort illustrates a longstanding commitment between City, nonprofit and faith organizations that spans more than three decades, starting and continuing with the Winter Shelter program and formalized now through our homelessness coalition, BEACH Community Partnership.

The City's current strategic plan, Community of One, represents a shared vision to make homelessness rare, brief and nonrecurring in Virginia Beach. The plan outlined multiple objectives and action steps under seven core goals. Key accomplishments for each goal include:

• Goal 1: Transform Our Service System to Make Homelessness Rare, Brief, and Nonrecurring
  • Completed the Housing Resource Center in 2018—the first facility of its kind in South Hampton Roads to integrate and co-locate shelter, housing and ancillary homeless support services in one building
  • Expanded prevention services, which contributed to the prevention of approximately 2,288 households experiencing homelessness
• Goal 2: Make Family Homelessness Rare, Brief, and Nonrecurring
  • Expanded housing opportunities, which contributed to a 22.5%* decrease in the percentage of persons in families with minor children experiencing homelessness
• Goal 3: Make Chronic Homelessness Rare, Brief, and Nonrecurring
  • Prioritized housing opportunities for households that were chronically homeless, which contributed to an 11%* decrease in chronic homelessness
• Goal 4: Make Youth Homelessness Rare, Brief, and Nonrecurring
  • Expanded housing opportunities targeting homeless youth, which contributed to an almost a 53%* decrease in unaccompanied youth experiencing homelessness
• Goal 5: Maintain and Increase the Supply of Permanent, Accessible and Affordable Housing
  • Local nonprofit partners received increased Continuum of Care (CoC) funding through an annual community grant application process, which allowed the system to house 350 Virginia Beach households
  • Increased affordable housing opportunities through new and targeted vouchers for the homeless population, like the 65 Emergency Housing Vouchers funded through City American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds
• Goal 6: Increase Leadership, Collaboration, and Civic Engagement in Our Community Efforts
  • Added new service provider partners to our homelessness response system, including Brightview Health, Connect With a Wish, Senior Services of Southeastern Virginia and StandUp for Kids
• Goal 7: Develop and Maintain Sustainable Resources to Support Our Ongoing Community Effort
  • VB Home Now foundation has raised nearly $1.7 million in private donations and invested more than $800,000 towards programs and services that support households in Virginia Beach in obtaining or sustaining housing

* 2017 – 2023 Virginia Beach Point-in-Time Count

Share Your Thoughts on the Updated Plan, Community of One: All In

If you are interested in the issue of homelessness in Virginia Beach, you’re invited to learn more about our community effort and the draft plan at SpeakUpVB.com/COO-Input. The online survey will be available until 11:59 p.m. on March 3.

As an alternative to completing the survey online, residents may complete a paper version of the survey at any Virginia Beach Public Library.

Staff will present to City Council the proposed goals and strategies for the updated plan on March 12.

• Provide Input

SpeakUpVB.com
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