In November, Pathways DC participates in the annual Help the Homeless Walkathon sponsored by the Fannie Mae Corporation. Long partner and supporter of Pathways DC programming, the Fannie Mae Foundation holds the walkathon each year to help prevent and end homelessness. It is the largest of its kind, with thousands of Washington-area residents converging on the National Mall for a 5K walk that brings together city officials, business leaders, and organizations such as Pathways and the clients we serve. Each organization develops mini-walks to raise awareness and money throughout the DC area. In 2010, Pathways DC organized two mini-walks with the staff and patients of St Elizabeth’s Hospital for our second annaul mini-walk event, to support those in DC’s state mental hospital who are most vulnerable to homelessness.

Pathways to Housing DC announces the opening of Health Works! a program that will help end chronic homelessness by providing integrated mental health and health care services to people with severe psychiatric disabilities and addictions.

The Pathways’ Housing First program is an evidence-based practice that has ended years of homelessness for hundreds of DC’s most vulnerable individuals who were living on the streets or going in and out of shelters and jails. Pathways provides housing, mental health and addiction services but the population it serves also has complex health care needs. “The recent finding that the life expectancy of people with severe mental illness is 25 – 30 years less than the rest of us is very distressing” said Dr. Sam Tsemberis, Founder and CEO, “with proper medical care many of these untimely deaths are preventable”.

To address this problem, Pathways was just awarded a five-year, $2 million Treatment for the Homeless, Services in Supportive Housing grant from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). The goal of the Health Works! project is to end chronic homelessness for 450 persons with serious psychiatric disabilities by providing permanent supportive housing with integrated services for health and mental health needs.

Unity Healthcare, Inc. (Unity), DC’s premier provider of health services for people who are homeless is Pathways’ health services partner for the project. Unity currently operates medical homes in all eight wards in the District and serves people who are most vulnerable and least able to secure services: uninsured, working poor, homeless, and formerly incarcerated. Unity has 26 years of experience and last year alone served more than 81,300 DC residents. Unity’s mission and history make the agency a uniquely qualified partner. In this project Unity will provide a Nurse Practitioner who will be located at the Pathways’ site and also broker needed services at Unity’s clinics.

One of the more innovative aspects of this project is that Health Works! has hired Peer Health Workers to help deliver services and support. Peers are people with lived experience of homelessness and mental health problems who are in recovery. The peers will work closely with the Pathways ACT teams and the Unity Nurse Practitioner to provide comprehensive care for clients.

Since 1997, Washington DC's Downtown Business Improvement District (BID) has offered intensive street outreach in the urban core of the city. In 2006, the Downtown BID began collaborating with Pathways DC, creating a seamless continuum from street outreach to housing. First, the Downtown BID’s outreach program connects with chronically homeless individuals living on the streets. Downtown BID builds a relationship with these individuals, assessing their needs and connecting them with appropriate services, such as medical help and consultations about benefits, to things as simple and welcome as a hot shower, a place to do laundry, or a bus ride home. Homeless individuals who are seriously and persistently mentally ill are connected to Pathways for Housing First services.

Through this collaboration, the Downtown BID and Pathways DC have provided full street outreach and emergency assistance to hundreds of individuals.

Every January, the Downtown BID and Pathways DC conduct a point-in-time count of homeless individuals in the downtown area.  Between January 2008 and January 2009 there was a 40% reduction in the number of people sleeping on the street—a direct result of the city’s Housing First program and the hard work of the Pathways DC and Downtown BID partnership.