Home at Last
It is often said that the only solution to homelessness is housing. Five longtime Outreach Fort Collins clients are discovering for themselves how true that is.
Between December 2020 and February 2021, five of OFC’s highest frequency clients were able to access permanent housing solutions. Each client’s story is unique. Each has faced their own set of challenges. Each has shown their own resilience. Each has been supported by a unique combination of community partners. And now, each has the the opportunity to turn their housing into a home. Together, these five individuals represent over 50 years of chronic homelessness.
The role that Outreach Fort Collins played in each of these individual’s housing story is also unique. For each, trust and rapport was built over multiple years. Our relationships allowed OFC to offer persistent encouragement and professional support as they worked with different service providers to navigate the housing process. It also allowed OFC to advocate on their behalf. Since 2016, these five individuals represent a total of 958 OFC contacts, including 225 instances of offering resources and 34 program referrals. In 2020 alone, they represent 133 contacts with service providers to coordinate care on their behalf.
While Outreach Fort Collins is not primarily a housing agency, our team follows a housing first approach. A housing first approach priorities permanent housing solutions as the means to ending homelessness, knowing that housing provides a critical foundation for addressing additional personal needs, helping someone to go from surviving to thriving. OFC educates our clients (particularly individuals experiencing unsheltered homelessness) on the services that are available in our community and works to connect clients to housing opportunities, whether through our community’s Coordinated Entry System or individual housing strategies. Since 2016, OFC has supported 39 clients in accessing housing.
For each of these individuals, housing is not the end of their story. Rather, it is a chance for their story to be told a different way. Each has a chance to embrace new goals. Each has the opportunity to be supported in overcoming new obstacles. The transition from living on the streets to finding new stability in housing has its own set of challenges. But for each, the security of permanent housing provides the foundation for each individual to develop an improved quality of life.
As one client shared, “For the first time I feel safe.”