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4 Alameda Countywide homeless and Special Needs housing Plan In addition to discharge planning, homelessness prevention strategies include benefits advocacy, to ensure people receive benefits such as SSI for which they are eligible, short-term rental assistance for emergencies, and employment training and job placement. Ending homelessness requires connecting housing and services In Alameda County, a formerly homeless woman with a disability described housing without services, or services without housing as "trying to make a cake without the eggs." With access to housing assistance and linked services, she is now living stably in her own home for the first time in her adult life. I'or many people, particularly those with disabilities, neither housing assistance nor services alone is effective, but together they can have remarkable results. Housing and services, whether preventative, or provided over the short- or long-term, must be physically accessible and convenient to public transportation, so that additional barriers are not created. Ending homelessness requires learning from successful innovations We are committed to improving the effectiveness and efticiency of existing delivery systems and implementing new approaches. Realizing this vision requires maintaining the housing and services Alameda County has now. Many aspects of the existing housing and service delivery systems have value and can be strengthened through closer coordination to maximize positive outcomes for the low-income, multiply challenged populations they serve. At the same time, we are encouraged and energized by the movement nationally toward developing new, integrated approaches that have been proven to increase housing stability, decrease risk of homelessness, and increase access to services for people who are homeless, living with H(V/AIDS, have a mental illness and/or other disabilities. These approaches bring together multiple systems, combine services and housing in new ways, and emphasize the importance of permanent housing options that are affordable to households with extremely low incomes. Alameda County community-based organizations and the government agencies that fund them have developed effective, innovative, and nationally recognized approaches to serving people who are homeless, living with HIV/AIDS, and/or mental illness, including 2,300 units of permanent supportive housing now dedicated to the plan's three target populations. Examples include the HOPWA-funded Project Independence Program; the F[ealth, Housing, and Integrated Service Network (HHISN); and Berkeley Mental Health's AB 2034 program serving homeless, mentally ill adults.