Due to a lack of Congressional support for needed resources, we will not reach our national goal to end chronic homelessness in 2015. However, if Congress acts to fund the President’s fiscal year 2015 Budget requests to create 37,000 new units of permanent supportive housing, we can finally bring the national inventory of permanent supportive housing to a scale that will end chronic homelessness in 2016 and prevent its recurrence.

While ending chronic homelessness in 2016 is a year later than we had originally planned in Opening Doors, this timeline reflects our ongoing commitment to act with urgency, while adjusting for the fact that the resources requested by the President in previous years were not funded by Congress.

There are communities that can achieve this goal in 2015, and all communities can continue to accelerate their efforts. Even with full support from Congress, we will only reach our goal if communities remain focused on implementing the strategies of Opening Doors and driving as much progress as possible by the end of 2015.

Since the launch of Opening Doors, our understanding of what works has further solidified, and we’ve seen tremendous progress. Your input is essential to the ongoing success of Opening Doors. Please share and vote for the ideas you think would have the greatest impact in an amendment to Opening Doors.

Please consider these questions when crafting your feedback and voting for the feedback you think is most valuable. And please use the Opening Doors Amendment 2014 Participation Guide for more information on what strategies are currently included in Opening Doors. Find it here: http://bit.ly/USICH2014

1. How will amending the Opening Doors goal to end chronic homelessness from 2015 to 2016 affect your community’s/organizations’ efforts?

2. Does Opening Doors fully explain the strategies needed to end chronic homelessness in 2016 or are there strategies for which additional information is needed?

3. Are there other areas of the Plan you feel would benefit from updated information or the incorporation of additional strategies?

Thank you!