About The Way Home
Who We Are & What We Do
The Way Home is the collective effort to make homelessness rare, brief, and non-recurring in the Houston region.
The Way Home is the collective effort to prevent and end homelessness in the Houston region through permanent housing and supportive services. Also known as the local homeless response system, The Way Home is made up of more than 100 partners — including homeless service agencies, local governments, public housing authorities, the local Veterans Affairs office, and other nonprofits and community stakeholders — and encompasses Harris, Fort Bend, and Montgomery counties, Texas. The partners of The Way Home work together to make homelessness rare, brief, and non-recurring in our region.
The Coalition for the Homeless of Houston/Harris County, a 501c3, is the lead agency to The Way Home.
The Way Home is the name for our local Continuum of Care (CoC), TX-700. Learn more about CoCs here.
"First, we give them a key."
Partners of The Way Home know that permanent housing combined with supportive services is the key to ending homelessness for individuals and families. The Way Home’s programs are all based on a Housing First model. This means that we move people into permanent housing as quickly as possible and then provide them with supportive services (like case management, health care, substance use counseling, income coaching, and more) to help them remain stabilized in housing and improve their quality of life.
Steering Committee
The Way Home is governed by a Steering Committee, which is the lead decision-making body responsible for managing community planning, coordination, and evaluation to ensure that the homeless response system rapidly and permanently ends people’s homelessness.
This includes planning for the use of funding from the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development and coordinating these funds with other relevant resources in the jurisdiction.
Steering Committee Members
Officers:
- Chair: Barbie Brashear, Harris County Domestic Violence Coordinating Council
- Vice Chair: Barbie Robinson, Harris County Public Health
- Secretary: Dr. Martin Negron, Harris County Community Services Department
Fixed Position Representatives:
- Sara Rogers, City of Pasadena Community Development
- Carol Borrego, Fort Bend County Community Development
- Melissa Quijano, Harris County Housing Authority
- David Northern Sr., Houston Housing Authority
- Marc Eichenbaum, Houston Housing & Community Development
- Rebecca Ansley, Montgomery County Community Development
At-Large Representatives:
- Bob Eury, Philanthropy
- Alan Watkins, Houston Housing Collaborative
- Robert Birdow, Jr., Michael E. DeBakey Veteran Affairs Medical Center
- Dr. Evanthe Collins, The Harris Center
- Dr. Theresa Tran, UT Health
Provider Representatives:
- Preston Witt, Harmony House
Consumer Representatives:
- Gregory Dread, Lived Experience Advocacy
- Jamie Wright, Lived Experience Advocacy
- Kendall Easley, Collaborative Action for Youth (CA4Y)
Meetings
The Steering Committee conducts monthly meetings that are open to the public. To view meeting information, materials, archives, and more, visit The Way Home Partner Portal on the CFTH's website.
Lead Agency
The Coalition for the Homeless of Houston/Harris County serves as lead agency to The Way Home.
The lead agency is appointed by the Steering Committee. CFTH has been proud to serve as lead agency to The Way Home since 2011.
Service provider organizations work directly with people in crisis. The CFTH helps these partners by making sure we are collaborating with one another, using data to make sure that the right number and kinds of housing and service programs are being implemented, and that our community has the funding and other resources to implement these programs.
Contact Us
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Website powered by the Coalition for the Homeless of Houston/Harris County (CFTH), Lead Agency to The Way Home.