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American Planning Association - Opportunity and Empowerment

The HUD Secretary's Opportunity & Empowerment Award honors excellence in community planning that has led to measurable benefits in terms of increased economic development, employment, education, or housing choice and mobility for low- and moderate-income residents. The award stresses tangible results and recognizes the planning discipline as an important community resource. It emphasizes how creative housing, economic development, and private investments are used in, or in tandem with, a comprehensive community development plan.




American Planning Association - Opportunity and Empowerment

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Homeless Solutions Community 10-Year Plan
The award was presented at the National Planning Awards luncheon as part of the American Planning Association’s 2016 National Planning Conference in Phoenix, Arizona.
 

City of Dayton and Montgomery County, Ohio

The City of Dayton and Montgomery County, Ohio’s Homeless Solutions Community 10-Year Plan is the recipient of the 2016 HUD Secretary's Opportunity & Empowerment Award. The award was presented at the National Planning Awards luncheon as part of the American Planning Association’s 2016 National Planning Conference in Phoenix, Arizona.

The Homeless Solutions Community 10-Year Plan was recognized for its creative, coordinated, and collaborative approach to tackling the moral and economic challenges of homelessness. The plan, which identified four key principles — poverty reduction, housing, prevention, and multi-system response — shifted the focus from managing chronic homelessness to ending it. By promoting a more cohesive, coordinated homeless system implementing a set of agreed upon community strategies, the plan has changed the shape of homelessness assistance in Dayton and Montgomery County.

Since the plan was formally adopted, there has been a 79 percent decrease in the number of people experiencing chronic homelessness in the region. The plan has also been used as a model to shape other community initiatives on substance abuse, ex-offender reentry, and poverty reduction.