News Seton Donates $50,000 to Ending Community Homelessness Coalition

Local 100 Homes Campaign, Registry Week Start Nov. 7

AUSTIN, Texas - (November 1, 2011) - Seton Healthcare Family has donated $50,000 to the Ending Community Homelessness Coalition (ECHO) to further their efforts to innovate and partner with local service providers to end chronic homelessness.

"Homelessness is a problem we see at all of our hospitals," said Alan Isaacson, vice president and chief operating officer, Seton Shoal Creek Hospital. "Many in the homeless community suffer from mental illness making it difficult to keep a steady job. Without consistent income, it is a struggle to obtain housing and maintain necessary medications. It is a terrible cycle that requires a new solution."

Today there are approximately 2,357 individuals living without housing in Travis County. ECHO has laid out their Plan to End Community Homelessness and is dedicated to engaging policy makers and the community to end homelessness by thinking differently about coordination of state, federal and local services.

ECHO is partnering with the 100,000 Homes Campaign, a national movement of communities working together to find permanent homes for 100,000 of the country's homeless by July 2013. The program is designed to fundamentally alter the response to chronic homelessness by giving communities concrete tools and connecting change agents with one another so no one has to innovate alone. To date, more than 70 US cities including New York, Seattle and Fort Worth have pledged to support the campaign.

ECHO's 100 Homes Campaign will move 100 individuals, those with an extended history of homelessness and significant barriers to self-sufficiency, into permanent housing. The first step is Austin Registry Week, beginning Nov. 7. More than 150 volunteers will take to the city's streets and homeless shelters to survey and identify Austin's most vulnerable homeless individuals and families.

Data compiled from these efforts will produce an assessment identifying the 100 most vulnerable individuals. The vulnerability assessment will be shared with community leaders and service providers to begin discussion and collaboration of new ways to bring together resources to serve these individuals' housing and medical needs.

"It's a trade-off. It's more costly to maintain homelessness through unnecessary incarceration and hospital stays, as well as extended shelter stays than to place people in permanent housing," said Ed McHorse, chair, board of directors, ECHO. "Through Seton's leading donation, ECHO will promote collaboration across the community to more smartly share resources to aid those most in need."
ECHO's charter is a strong fit for Seton's mission to care for and improve the health of Central Texans with a special concern for the poor and vulnerable.

For more information on ECHO or to donate or volunteer your time, visit austinecho.org.