Lee County officials pledged to end chronic and veteran homelessness by the end of 2016.
The county is joining a campaign made up of 69 U.S. communities.
The campaign is called “Zero: 2016.” The non-profit Community Solutions is leading the effort. They chose a small number of communities from across the country to participate.
The goal is to end veteran homelessness by 2015 and chronic homelessness a year later. The plan lines up with similar federal initiatives.
Executive Director of the Lee County Homeless Coalition Janet Bartos said the point is to figure out a way to make sure resources are available for those who need them.
“There is this new definition of zero. The definition is exactly that at any point in time the number of homeless persons will be no greater than our monthly housing placement rate,” she said.
Bartos said this will be accomplished by each community figuring out the number of people they need to house by 2016. They will then break that down to how many they should be housing per month.
Bartos said the effort will be bolstered by monthly phone calls with the rest of the communities.
Other Florida communities joining the campaign include Miami Dade, Jacksonville and Broward Counties.
