Homelessness Summit in Montco Touts County's Aggregate Approach
By Jim Melwert
BLUE BELL, Pa. (CBS) -- A program to end homelessness in Montgomery County, Pa. is getting national attention. Today, community and government leaders met to discuss the achievements of that program, called "Your Way Home Montgomery County."
The program was designed to bring together groups fighting homelessness, according to Montgomery County commissioner Josh Shapiro, to maximize the impact of public and private resources.
"By aggregating all of our services together, by getting all of the stakeholders around one table and working together, we've been able to centralize the calls, centralize our efforts, and get people rehoused as quickly as possible," he explained.
The organization says it assisted 520 people with a housing crisis in Montgomery County in 2014, ranging from assisting a person with a month's rent to helping someone from a shelter into long-term housing.
Shapiro says he's gotten calls from communities across the country asking about the program.