Effective Results in Continuum of Care Homeless Programs
Introduction
Homelessness is a chronic issue in the United States. Over the years, public, non-profit, and private organizations have provided resources in an attempt to combat and eradicate this social issue only to have been met with mixed results, until lately. Recently, organizations have begun to adjust their approaches to this issue and have developed a network of homeless care programs which have pooled their knowledge to collectively learn what does and does not work in fighting this problem. Programs that are successful in combating homelessness have learned that the underlying causes of homelessness, such as poverty, lack of affordable housing, substance abuse, and mental illness must be addressed concurrently or prior to tackling the homeless issue itself in order to achieve the desired results. Dealing with the various causes associated with homelessness has forced public administrators to effectively collaborate with other public, non-profit, and private organizations in order to provide the resources and services that no organization can singly
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The reason for this trend is because “...the public sector performs many functions that are of critical importance to the health of the private sector. Conversely, the other two sectors perform functions that are of critical importance to the mission of government agencies” (Starling, 2011, p. 14). This association is beneficial because more can be accomplished with a greater level of expertise while less resources are being used duplicating the same effort. The awareness that these benefits of interdependence exist, assumes that no one agency can provide all the necessary means to solve the task at