King County, Washington like many communities across the country, is halfway into its 10-Year Plan to End Homelessness. While they have achieved many goals, they also realized that five years into implementation, the environment has changed. To kick-off the intensive, one week charrette, the CSH Consulting Group, in coordination with Committee to End Homelessness and its Steering Committee, engaged providers, advocates, staff from all levels of government, homeless and formerly homeless persons, and local and national experts in two days of dialogue. CSH Board member and Executive Director of the King County Housing Authority, Stephen Norman, played a key role as a Steering Committee member and expert panelist.
CSH staff facilitated the process, provided expertise, caucused with experts, and then distilled the information into a report. One week following the kick off, the report was presented and accepted at the Interagency Council and implementation planning began.
“This was my first time participating in a charrette process. I enjoyed the process and hearing the different perspectives. It was an incredibly effective approach to arriving at conclusions that would have taken a bi-weekly study group much longer to reach,” said Dannette Smith, Director, City of Seattle Human Services Department.