The Trinity House (TTH) is a non-profit Transitional Housing program that was created to address the need for stable living environments for adults and their families who are suffering from or at risk of homelessness. TTH began with one home in Chula Vista, California, and has since expanded operations to include a Thrift Shop located in the National City area of San Diego. TTH has served approximately 350 adults and 250 children since its inception in July of 2005. This significant benchmark affords us the opportunity to review past successes and challenges and to plan for the future.

Family homelessness in the U.S. has increased 800 percent in the past 25 years and families with children (now totaling 40% of the homeless), represent the fastest growing segment of the homeless population. To that end, we have found that issues precipitating homelessness are not easily overcome.  Roughly 70 percent of the homeless in America are burdened with serious health concerns, physical or mental inabilities, or problems with substance abuse. For many, those concerns constitute the root causes of their homelessness. So, simply providing four walls and a roof is only a partial solution.  This serves as the basis of our approach, addressing the basic need of shelter, coupled with access to suitable healthcare, and invaluable supportive services. 

Homelessness has emerged as a significant problem in San Diego as it has been reported that there are more than 9,600 homeless in the San Diego Region.    Of those, approximately 1300 are considered “chronically homeless”.  A chronically homeless person is defined as “an unaccompanied homeless individual with a disabling condition who has either been continuously homeless for a year or more, OR has had at least 4 episodes of homelessness within the last 4 years”.  The shift within the homeless community is a “Housing First Housing Plus” model.  With this approach, individuals who are chronically homeless move directly into permanent housing.  HUD policies are encouraging this model and in response to this issue The City of San Diego drafted a plan to end chronic homelessness in San Diego by 2012. 

Housing First is a case management model developed to help individuals that are chronically homeless. However, by definition, "chronically homeless" excludes many subpopulations of the homeless, including, but not limited to, parents with or without disabilities who are homeless and who have children with them, unaccompanied individuals with disabilities who have not been homeless long enough to fit the federal definition, and unaccompanied individuals without disabilities.  TTH has examined how to best support homeless families and individuals who do not meet the definition of “Chronically Homeless” and are thus ineligible for support under the Housing First model and tend to fall through the cracks. 

We are committed to tailoring our operations to the changing needs of the times and adapting our programs to help families and individuals overcome increasingly challenging barriers.  Likewise, we will identify the appropriate skills needed among staff and volunteers and explore opportunities for expanding collaborations to meet the needs of those we serve.  We have been extremely succesful with our transitional housing programs and have overcome any community resistance.  We are exploring providing services to support special needs homeless populations including the mentally ill, those with HIV/Aids, victims of domestic violence, and those needing emergency short-term shelter. 

We plan to develop areas that will enable us to adjust to the shifting needs of those who are homeless.  Implementation of this plan will help us to stay on the cutting edge of the effort to end or seriously reduce homelessness in the San Diego Region.