The Commission on Homelessness for Evansville and Vanderburgh County is collaborating with community stakeholders to implement a five-year strategic plan to alleviate homelessness in the region.
Destination: Home 2030 presents three main goals: reduce homelessness by 20% in Vanderburgh County and Evansville by 2030, reach functional zero status for chronic, veteran and family homelessness by 2030, and launch a public dashboard to track progress and promote transparency by the end of 2025.
Functional zero means the number of people entering homelessness is not greater than the number of people leaving homelessness in a given period.
Savannah Whicker, CEO at ECHO Housing and Community Development, believes the public dashboard will help reduce the number of unsheltered people living in places not meant for habitation.
“For example, we have a smaller shelter for single women and women with minor children. But how many beds do we have available week to week or month to month? Because if somebody is calling the same shelter over and over again, and they’re always full, then how do they know where to go? That’s one of the things we talked about—our public dashboard encompassing the number of open shelter beds to quickly place somebody in shelter,” said Whicker.
Since DH2030 was released in March, the Evansville Police Department has been working with the commission to increase law enforcement’s involvement in the plan’s execution. Crime Prevention Unit Commander Sgt. Joshua Brewer said he’s eager to see what can be accomplished with all invested parties coming to the table.
“It was recognized by the entire commission that, ‘Hey, law enforcement does have a critical role in our mental health system and in our program and what we’re trying to do.’ So we’re moving in the right direction with that,” said Brewer.
About DH2030
The commission’s first 10-year plan to end homelessness was created in 2002 and amended in 2012 and 2022. According to the new document, DH2030 is an “updated action plan that exists within the broader context of previous Destination Home planning efforts” and “seeks to provide an immediately actionable framework that supports local efforts to end homelessness through 2030.”
Whicker said Chris Metz, previous ECHO Housing executive director and former commission administrator, spearheaded the latest report based on the region’s Point-in-Time count—a federally mandated tally of people experiencing homelessness during one night in January—and feedback from homeless service providers.
The strategic plan was built on three foundations: shared vision, equity and collaboration. Whicker said part of the shared vision includes all involved entities speaking the same language.
“Everybody tracking data across the board together and collaborating on how somebody navigates the housing continuum, and what makes them successful. Are they experiencing referral fatigue? What systems within the housing continuum are more difficult for them to be stabilized within?” said Whicker.
DH2030’s five strategies, or pillars, are represented by individual committees, include prevention, unsheltered, mental health, shelter and housing.
“Looking at all the systems and organizations and individuals that intersect with each one of those foundational priorities. So who works in prevention? Who works in sheltered, unsheltered housing and mental health? And evaluating how strong that individual system is. Do they have enough funding? Do they have enough capacity?” said Whicker.
EPD and the E3 initiative
At EPD, several measures are in place to help reduce homelessness in Evansville, including the Crisis Intervention Team, Mental Health Division and Homeless Outreach Team, which was formed in 2019. Homeless Outreach partners with the commission, ECHO Housing and other agencies such as Aurora Evansville and Southwestern Behavioral Healthcare to tackle issues like mental illness and substance abuse.
Officer Mario Reid, EPD’s former mental health liaison, said the group that police encounter most often on patrol is what he calls “street homeless.”
“Those are individuals who are not engaging in any type of service at all, whether it be shelters, whether it be transitional, whether it be any other services that would get them off the street from day to day,” said Reid. “Individuals with serious mental illness and/or substance concerns.”
When addressing homelessness, officers follow the E3 initiative: education, encouragement and enforcement. Special Operations Commander Captain Jason Thomas said this framework helped the department clear some encampment locations that popped up last winter.
“Our response was not to go there and tear down their tents. We gave them written notice on a flyer that they had X amount of time to leave,” said Thomas. “But there was also outreach. We gave them alternatives for where they could go for shelter, food and any other help they might need. And then we came back, and most of them were gone.”
However, Mental Health Supervisor Sgt. Samuel SeDoris said the enforcement component of E3 must be used when accountability is needed.
“When we’re not holding somebody accountable, they’re never going to get better. Sometimes, we have to push it. We have to make that person spend the night in jail so that somebody can then go into the courts and petition, ‘Hey, we know that this person committed trespass or criminal mischief. This person, though, is a perfect applicant for veterans court or substance abuse court or mental health court,’” said SeDoris.
Making progress
Brewer said the commission meets quarterly to discuss DH2030, while the pillar committees congregate in between the main assemblies. The next commission meeting is on Nov. 13.
“What we’re finding is that a lot of the commission meetings give us just enough time to bring up issues and not be able to work on them. With the pillar meetings, we have work groups, and we can work towards goals. Then we can report quarterly at the full commission meeting what kind of progress we’ve made, what kind of setbacks we’ve seen or where we need some influence from the mayor to help us out or make some connections,” said Brewer.
Whicker said tracking progress and identifying outcomes of the strategic plan depend on different data streams managed by various entities, such as Aurora’s Coordinated Entry System, ECHO Housing’s Veterans By Name list and the state’s Homeless Management Information System data portal.
“Trying to streamline, where is all this data coming from, who is keeping track of the data and how updated is it?” said Whicker. “Strengthening engagement and bringing all the systems and services that may be a touch point for somebody experiencing homelessness to the table. And how can we best collaborate?”