THE INAUGURAL CASS CLAY INTERAGENCY COUNCIL ON HOMELESSNESS, July 16th, 2025: FMCEH EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR'S ADDRESS

I’ve been reminded more than once lately that, “The world is run by those who show up.” So first, thank you, all of you, for showing up today to our inaugural Cass Clay Interagency Council on Homelessness meeting.

It’s impossible for me to talk about homelessness without naming the unique moment we’re in as a community. I’ve said it before, and it’s still true: we are one of the rare communities standing at a fork in the road, with a real opportunity to intervene and choose a path that leads to transformation and stability, not decades of suffering and disrepair.

As we stand on this precipice of choice, the work of United to End Homelessness, and the decades of work by our community partners, have oriented us in the direction of transformation, of possibility, of hope, and care.

This Council of leaders, neighbors, and experts has been activated with the explicit purpose of continuing that work, providing a space for us to come together across organizations and sectors to do what none of us can do alone. End homelessness.

Ending homelessness is hard. It’s complex. It demands hard conversations, difficult decisions, and long-term commitment. But it is also possible.

And more than that: it’s necessary.

Because homelessness affects us all. Our families, our neighborhoods, our schools, our economy. It impacts the quality of life we all deserve to live.

Each of you has a seat at this table. Your voice, your experience, your expertise, all of it is essential.

Together, we can create a community where homelessness is rare, brief, and one-time.

And that vision is exactly what we’re here to build, starting today.

I know when you first begin to think about ending homelessness in concrete terms, it’s easy to focus on small steps, especially when the goal feels so big, and perhaps even impossible.

You may ask yourself: “How do we make this experience less painful? How do we make our systems more humane?”

But the more I listen to people who’ve experienced homelessness, really listen, the more I realize they aren’t asking us to make the experience more tolerable.

They are asking us to make it unnecessary.

They aren’t asking for guilt or pity.

They aren’t looking for a handout.

They are asking for a place to live.

And the more I pay attention, not just to stories, but to data, to outcomes, to what actually works, the more I understand: This isn’t just a crisis to manage, it’s a problem we can solve.

Ending homelessness isn’t an abstract idea. It’s a direction. It’s a strategy.
And the work starts here, with all of us.

Most of us have been trained to think homelessness is an intractable facet of American society. We’ve been told, directly or indirectly, that it’s the cost of capitalism. Or the natural consequence of addiction, mental illness, poverty. That it’s a moral failing, or a housing market quirk, or just too entrenched to fix.

We’ve been told it’s too big. Too messy. Too expensive. Too political.

But every day, communities across the country are proving those stories wrong. They are ending homelessness, for veterans, for families, for youth, for people with complex needs.

Not perfectly. Not instantly. But measurably. And permanently.

So, what does it mean to “end” homelessness?

Ending homelessness doesn’t mean no one ever loses housing again. Life will still happen. Jobs will be lost, people will be forced to flee from violence, and unexpected health crises will occur.

But when we say we want to end homelessness, we mean that homelessness becomes rare, brief, and one-time.

  • Rare: because the housing system is strong enough to prevent most entries.

  • Brief: because when someone does fall into homelessness, they are supported quickly.

  • One-time: because our systems are strong enough to prevent people from cycling back.

This is not an untested theory. It’s been done and it’s being done.

It’s alignment. It’s systems working together. It’s choosing to prioritize housing, not as a prize to be earned, but as the baseline condition necessary for any other progress.

Let me be clear: There is no solution to homelessness that does not involve housing.

Every other approach - punitive ordinances, endless assessments, forced compliance without stability - are a band-aid.

We cannot punish people out of homelessness.

We cannot coerce people into wellness.

We cannot build a better community by pushing the crisis further into the shadows.

So how do communities actually get there?

First, we have to understand: homelessness is structural. It’s a housing problem. And housing problems have housing solutions.

Ending homelessness doesn’t require fixing every social ill. It doesn’t require ending poverty first. Or mental illness. Or substance use. And it doesn’t require moral perfection from people who need help.

It requires communities to organize - boldly, consistently, and together - around what works.

So, what works?

  • Housing First: prioritizing permanent housing without conditions.

  • Shared, real-time data: so we know who’s experiencing homelessness and what they need.

  • By-name lists: actual names, not abstract numbers.

  • Cross-sector collaboration: housing, healthcare, behavioral health, justice systems, schools, city departments, all at the same table.

  • And most of all: a relentless focus on getting people housed and keeping them housed.

Successful communities are honest about the gaps, and bold about closing them. They prioritize coordination over competition - because no one agency, no one funder, no one sector ends homelessness alone. They stay grounded in the reality that housing is the first and most important step toward everything else, health, employment, recovery, connection.

And that can happen here. It is happening here.

We aren’t starting from scratch. Our community has a long history of caring. Some of the organizations in this room have been here for decades, even a century. That’s not proof that the problem is too entrenched to solve. That’s proof that we’ve always shown up for each other.

But care is not enough. We are not here to keep managing a crisis. We are here to end it.

We are here to make homelessness rare, brief, and one-time. Not just because it’s possible, but because it’s the right thing to do.

So, let’s talk about what’s at stake.

What’s at stake is the health and wellbeing of our neighbors. What’s at stake is the future of our children, who are growing up in shelters or couch surfing. What’s at stake is the safety of our streets, not from people who are unhoused, but from the chaos that comes from a society that accepts preventable suffering as normal.

And, when the stakes are this high, waiting for someone else to fix it isn’t an option. Because the truth is, no one else is coming to save us from this crisis.

There is no superhero swooping in to save the day. There is no magic wand, and there are no shortcuts.

If this crisis is going to end, it will be because we, right here, right now, choose to be the leaders, the problem solvers, the Council that makes it happen.

We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.

In a world full of crisis and complexity, this is something we can actually solve.

We get to be the people who said: Not here. Not in this city. Not on our watch. Not anymore.

So, let’s transform the system. Let’s center the people. Let’s align the resources. Let’s end homelessness… together.

This work is hard; the road may be long. But the vision is clear, and the future is ours to create.

I’m ready to get to work.

Chandler Esslinger