Partnering with the Office of the Governor of California to bring together four counties around our Encampment 100-Day Challenge.
The Frontline of Innovation
CALIFORNIA – As winter weather becomes colder and wetter, efforts are underway to address the problem of homeless encampments throughout California. RE!NSTITUTE is excited to collaborate with Governor Gavin Newsom’s Administration in bringing together four California counties for a 100-Day Challenge to improve pathways for vulnerable populations to secure safe and sustainable housing.
"We worked with over 100 communities around the country on housing and homelessness. Californians have seen fires, floods, and a pandemic. It’s a time during which the unsheltered are the most vulnerable" said RE!NSTITUTE CEO Sean Whitten.
For the past two years RRI has been working in partnership with the California Homeless Coordinating and Financing Council (HCFC) on solutions to the myriad of issues facing the homeless population in California, including natural disasters, as well as the COVID-19 pandemic.
“During the pandemic, everyone would say ‘stay home,’ but where was home for our unsheltered neighbors,” Whitten adds.
Executive Director of HCFC, Julie Lo, adds, "In California, three-quarters of people experiencing homelessness are experiencing it in an unsheltered setting.”
The Encampment 100-Day Challenge brings together participants who serve as frontline workers in San Bernardino, Santa Cruz, Merced, and Sacramento counties to collaborate, innovate, and execute ambitious goals that shape and improve the housing and homelessness systems responses that serve Californians experiencing homelessness. The challenge comes on the heels of RE!NSTITUTE’S California cohorts 1-3, which have taken place in cities and counties in California also addressing the issues of homelessness unique to each community.
Organizers hope the success of the initiative will develop innovative practices that other counties and advocates for individuals experiencing homelessness can utilize in other parts of the state.
"In California, three-quarters of people experiencing homelessness are experiencing it in an unsheltered setting.”
Julie Lo, Executive Director California Interagency Council on Homelessness
Political Will Drives Change
"We can't get anything done without political will and support to expand and replicate this in other parts of the state," said Tom Hernandez of San Bernardino County, one of the encampment cohort participants. Four more major workshops are slated to take place over the next 100 days, continuing into 2022.
Speaking at the 100-Day Challenge launch, Secretary Lourdes Castro Ramírez California’s Secretary of Business, Consumer Services & Housing (BSCH), which oversees HCFC, lauded the launch of the effort as designed to “inspire & empower frontline teams to set ambitious goals and implement solutions” to improve the condition of individuals experiencing unsheltered homelessness.
RE!NSTITUTE’S 100-Day Challenge on encampments is in partnership with the State of California and demonstrates Governor Newsom’s commitment to allocate resources for those experiencing homelessness.
ABOUT RE!NSTITUTE
RE!NSTITUTE is a non-profit organization that unleashes the power of front-line teams to create transformative impact on complex societal issues. RE!NSTITUTE 100-Day Challenges inspire those closest to the problem to set unreasonable goals, and harness the intense levels of innovation, collaboration, and execution required to achieve them. This choreography places teams at the forefront, and supports leaders in leveraging these initial goals into sustained, long term impact. RE!NSTITUTE has emerged as a pioneer in applying this method with governments and communities around the world - including work in homelessness, integrated healthcare, and criminal justice systems.