Working together to end homelessness

---

Duluth, like virtually every community in the country, is seeing a dramatic increase in homelessness. When our current homeless response system was built, there were fewer people on the streets and homelessness tended to be a temporary condition: people were in and out of shelter in weeks or months. Unfortunately, due to our housing shortage and disinvestment in services for people living with disabilities, homelessness has now become a chronic condition for hundreds of people who are stuck relying on crowded shelters, living outside, or relying on unsafe and unsanitary alternatives. The traumatic consequences of this experience mean that even when people come up in housing lists, they are rarely able to transition smoothly from the streets or shelter into permanent, independent housing. 

Stepping On Up is a collaborative effort to address this backlog and re-imagine our homeless response systems to provide people with pathways off the streets and into long term housing. 

.