Central City Concern Receives National Award

National Alliance to End Homelessness Honors Pioneers in 
Innovation and Excellence at Annual Awards Ceremony 

2017 Honorees Include: Oxford Street Shelter (Portland, ME); 
Central City Concern (Portland, OR); and the County of Los Angeles 
October 10, 2017, Washington, D.C. -- The National Alliance to End Homelessness today announced recipients for the 2017 Innovation and Excellence Awards. The Alliance's Annual Awards Ceremony honors those individuals and organizations making extraordinary efforts to end homelessness in their communities, and recognizes their impact in advancing the mission to end homelessness nationwide. This year's ceremony will take place on Thursday, October 26 at the Newseum in Washington, D.C. 

Of the countless local and national leaders worthy of recognition, the Alliance has chosen the following awardees: 

Oxford Street Shelter 
Portland, ME 
Oxford Street Shelter is honored for the "Long Term Stayers" initiative. In the face of state budget cuts and overwhelming shelter capacity issues, this effort was conceived as a means of better identifying, prioritizing, and housing those individuals who had spent the most cumulative nights in emergency shelter. In the program's first two years, 125 people -- representing a combined 150 years of shelter stays -- have been successfully housed. As a result, the Long Term Stayers initiative has decreased the total number of people seeking shelter on a given night, reduced the total number of bed nights used, eliminated the need for multiple overflow shelters, reduced the rate of returns to homelessness, and built broad community will towards ending long-term homelessness in Portland. 

Central City Concern 
Portland, OR 
Central City Concern is honored its outstanding legacy in the mission to end homelessness in Portland, OR. Under the leadership of Mr. Ed Blackburn, Central City Concern has become a national model for integrated services for people experiencing homelessness. The organization annually provides housing for 3,500 people, health services for more than 8,300 individuals, and job services for 950 people. Blackburn's highly collaborative approach has also served as an effective case study for sharing best practices and leveraging success to benefit communities across the nation. 

The County of Los Angeles 
Los Angeles, CA 
The County of Los Angeles is honored for the LA County Homelessness Initiative. Through an exhaustively transparent and inclusive process -- including countless policy summits, public meetings, and focus groups -- the Homelessness Initiative collected broad-based community input on how to focus the County's efforts to end homelessness. To secure the funds for these efforts, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors adopted an ordinance to authorize a quarter-cent countywide special sales tax. The ballot measure, known as Measure H, passed with support from nearly 70 percent of voters. Measure H is expected to generate $355 million in annual revenue over the next 10 years to prevent and combat homelessness. In the next five years, it will provide an opportunity to help an estimated 45,000 individuals and families to escape homelessness, and prevent homelessness for an additional 30,000. 
"Ending homelessness in any community demands a relentless focus on innovation and pursuit of excellence," said Nan Roman, President and CEO of the Alliance. "This year's awardees demonstrate the power and potential to create lasting change and put us on the road to ending homelessness. We are delighted to recognize their outstanding efforts." 

About the National Alliance to End Homelessness: 
The National Alliance to End Homelessness is a nonprofit, non-partisan, organization committed to preventing and ending homelessness in the United States. As a leading voice on the issue of homelessness, the Alliance analyzes policy and develops pragmatic, cost-effective policy solutions; works collaboratively with the public, private, and nonprofit sectors to build state and local capacity; and provides data and research to policymakers and elected officials in order to inform policy debates and educate the public and opinion leaders nationwide.