Since launching
All Routes Home: Ending Homelessness in Rural America in August of this year, HUD has been working with communities and partners across the nation to better understand homelessness in rural areas. There is still a lot to learn about how communities find solutions to unique rural challenges and how HUD and its partners can be part of the solution. While there are many challenges rural communities face, there are creative solutions as well. HUD is committed to providing more case studies and resources highlighting promising practices.
One area that HUD wanted to highlight is governance. While Continuums of Care (CoCs) with multiple jurisdictions – many of which are rural – have different local governance structures, HUD noticed that a general pattern exists for how to successfully govern this kind of CoC. HUD recently published
How to Govern Geographically Diverse CoCs: Leading by Providing a Regional Voice, a resource that outlines how a CoC that encompasses several jurisdictions can effectively govern them. This resource specifically focuses on balancing local autonomy and central leadership, addresses key components of how to fund this kind of governance structure, and covers how to engage people experiencing homelessness in these situations.
