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Alameda Countywide homeless and Special Needs //ousinK Plan 3 A multi-dimensional problem requires multi-faceted solutions As the Sponsoring Agencies and community stakeholders who developed this plan, we recognize that safe, decent, and affordable housing benefits the entire community, not only the residents of such housing. Ending homelessness and greatly decreasing the risk for homelessness in Alameda County, among people living with serious and persistent mental illness and/or FIIV/AIDS, is a regional problem requiring regional solutions. "These households face multi-dimensional challenges, so what is needed are multi-faceted solutions that integrate county health, housing, criminal justice, and human service delivery systems to a degree not yet realized. With this plan, many jurisdictions, agencies, service delivery systems, funding sources, and sectors of our community are both pulling together in new, creative ways and building on past successes to prevent and end homelessness in Alameda County. For example, by utilizing multi-agency teams of public and private nonprofit organizations that deliver integrated services to residents, the Alameda Health, Housing and Integrated Services Network (HHISN) has demonstrated the effectiveness of affordable, long-term supportive housing in reducing systems-level costs, while improving client outcomes for homeless individuals living with multiple diagnoses. Similarly, Alameda County's strong HIV/AIDS housing and services programs, funded primarily by the Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS (HOPWA) program and Title [ of the Ryan White CART Act, will be enhanced through greater collaboration with homeless services and behavioral health care programs. These expanded partnerships will ultimately assist more people living with HIV/AIDS to achieve and maintain housing stability, increase access to care and services, and help prevent homelessness. As schools, faith-based and civic groups, and a broad array of community members learn more about issues affecting people with special needs in the county, new initiatives and ideas will emerge. Everyone can play a role in ending homelessness in Alameda County. Ending homelessness starts with preventing it Homelessness, highly unstable housing, and health crises harm the physical, mental, and/or economic health of individuals and families and should be prevented for these reasons alone. From a systems perspective, housing and service crisis responses are often more costly than prevention approaches. The National Alliance to End Homelessness refers to prevention as "closing the front door" on homelessness. While some emergency interventions will always be needed to respond to truly unforeseeable events, many of the circumstances that force people into homelessness are, in fact, foreseeable. Many of those who are homeless were discharged from institutions, such as jails, prisons, or hospitals, or they have aged out of the foster care system. For example, one in five homeless adults in Alameda County was in foster care or a group home when younger than 18. "There are high personal and financial costs associated with discharging people into homelessness rather than directly into appropriate housing. As the Sponsoring Agencies and stakeholders who developed this plan, we recognize that it is critical that housing and service systems throughout the county work well together to address complexities of timing, availability of options, and admission criteria in order to develop alternatives to discharging people into homelessness.