The Mayor's Commission on Homelessness was established on May 17, 2005 to advise the City Council on policies and methods for addressing homelessness (Resolution No. 3203-05-2005). The Commission developed Directions Home, a 10-year plan for ending chronic homelessness, and the City Council enacted Directions Home and amended the City's Comprehensive Plan to incorporate it (Resolution No. 3628-06-2008). On January 10, 2012, the City Council repealed the resolution establishing the Commission and formally created a 21-member Fort Worth Advisory Commission on Ending Homelessness (FWACEH) (Ordinance No. 20039-01-2012). On March 3, 2015, the City Council re-established the FWACEH with a 15-member Commission and new guidelines for appointments and redefined duties (Ordinance No. 21669-03-2015). The FWACEH has promoted and encouraged community participation in efforts to end homelessness and provided recommendations to the City Council regarding policies, plans and methods for addressing homelessness.
The Continuum of Care (CoC) is the local planning body that includes organizations working on homelessness in Tarrant and Parker Counties and distributes approximately $12 million annually in Housing and Urban Development funding for activities addressing homelessness issues. On January 29, 2018, the CoC board unanimously voted to amend its charter. One key change was the addition of a leadership council of local elected officials consisting of the Fort Worth and Arlington Mayors, the Tarrant and Parker County Judges, and the Chair of the Mayor's Council of Tarrant County. This particular change was made to ensure that elected officials have more oversight of the homeless system which currently has multiple boards dealing with homelessness issues and overseeing various pools of funding. Some current FWACEH members will be appointed to ensure City representation on the re-organized CoC Board.
One of the first tasks of the CoC Board will be to create an area-wide strategic plan to end homelessness. This plan will effectively replace Directions Home as the guiding document for ending homelessness. In line with the intention of the amended CoC charter, Staff recommends that the FWACEH be dissolved because community homelessness planning will be done by the CoC Board.
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