LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Louisville Metro Government leaders met this week to propose solutions for the city’s homeless population. Metro government's ultimate goal is to help transition residents who are unsheltered from the streets into stable housing with a new four-part plan.

“[We want] to be able to address our houseless citizens and to be able to provide for them in the most compassionate way, a place to live where we feel that everyone deserves that right,” said Vincent James, chief of community building with Louisville Metro Government.

The session revolved around the city’s development of a four-phase plan to address homelessness, spearheaded by LMG Chief of Community Building Vincent James and facilitated by the Office for Performance Improvement.

The four-phase plan includes immediate, intermediate and long-term solutions:

• A pilot initiative to establish and manage an area that would provide a Safe Outdoor Space, including supportive wrap-around services designed to help people experiencing homelessness to find more sustainable housing;
• A transitional housing effort, potentially in a hotel/motel setting, offering a quick transition to indoor housing within a safe, supportive, and client-centered environment;
• More permanent supportive housing options, developed in partnership with service providers, and;
• Increased funding for affordable housing

“We broke it up into phases because we wanted to address it from a holistic perspective, realizing here we've been thinking about the challenges that we face with our houseless citizens and what can we do and also recognizing we have many different partners and advocates in the community, how do we also address their concerns," James said. "In doing so we were able to put together this phase approach that we feel is going to be very successful for our city."

The Office of Resilience and Community Services even toured other cities to gather research and incorporate best practices to employ in their community.

“One of the things we know is that this is definitely not a new issue, but how are cities really trying to tackle this human problem, this human challenge that we have to address," James said. "So in doing so she went to a couple of cities, Denver being one of several cities they had visited, contacted and spoken with their leadership team that is addressing the issue of our houseless citizens."

Louisville Metro Government will also resume clearing out homeless camps located on public property, serving three weeks notices based on health and safety concerns.

“The last 15 months in some of these camps have got progressively worse. The health conditions are really the main concern that we have at this point," James said. "We are in the process now of doing assessments and really the 21 day notice is an opportunity for the city, for advocates, for support services to come in and be able to provide the necessary services."

City leaders have begun developing the four-phase plan. They're currently looking for sites for the transitional housing effort, including a hotel-motel-type setting.

For more information about unsheltered homeless initiatives visit the Office of Resilience and Community Services' website.