Housing First Erie
Combatting Chronic Homelessness
To address the increasingly complex needs around homelessness, a robust collection of community leaders joined together to launch Housing First Erie. This is public-private partnership is dedicated to addressing chronic homelessness in Erie County by:
- Developing housing for the 150 people experiencing chronic homelessness in Erie County, including building a new single-site with 50 units and acquiring 100 scattered-site units across the county.
- Launch an Integrated Care Team to serve the 150 people by addressing their health and social service needs.
- Raise $20M in private and public support to fundraise the budget needs of this initiative.
Each year, the good work of the Erie Home Team, City, and County partner to house around 400 households. But still there are roughly 150 people that are not being housed. These people are experiencing ‘chronic homelessness’, spending at least a year being homeless and having deep clinical needs for supportive services.
Housing First Erie is supported by a governing board, co-chaired by Karen Bilowith, President & CEO of Erie Community Foundation and Charles “Boo” Hagerty, President of Hamot Health Foundation.
