What Drives Us
What Drives Us
Everyone deserves to go home. We work to make that a reality by giving those individuals and families experiencing homelessness the care they need to get and stay healthy, and by advocating for affordable housing and livable incomes for all.
We are driven to do this work by:
Staggering rates of poverty + growing demand in the community
Nearly 19% of Marylanders live in poverty. As do 25% of residents and 33% of children in Baltimore City.
10s of 1,000s Marylanders and Baltimoreans have no place to call home.
In each of the last three years, we have cared for 24% more clients and logged 14% more client visits.
Until homelessness ceases to exist, we will be right here, fighting daily to make sure all of our neighbors get the health care, housing, jobs and dignity they deserve.
Unacceptable public policy
Homelessness as we know it today is the upshot of public policy decisions that took root in the 1970s and have been perpetuated since. Local and federal governments maintain more affordable housing is essential to ending homelessness. Yet in 2012 in the United States, there were 10.3 million renters (approx. 1 in 4) with extremely low incomes and just 5.8 million affordable rental units.
Those forced to sleep on the streets remain a stark and daily reminder of these flawed public policies:
One night, a woman who was 8 ½ months pregnant and had been turned away from a shelter slept on the front porch of the downtown Health Care for the Homeless clinic.
Unacceptable.
We are guided in our work by:
Our mission
We work to end homelessness through racially equitable health care, housing and advocacy in partnership with those of us who have experienced it.
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Our strategic plan
Developed by staff, clients and community members, our strategic plan gives definition and focus to our efforts to fulfill our mission. It guides our budget, directs our growth and provides the structure for our annual priority initiatives.
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Our performance improvement plan
Everyone deserves excellent care. Our performance improvement plan informs our efforts to deliver a high standard of care to all clients, regardless of the tremendous barriers posed by homelessness.
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Our advocacy agenda
Our advocacy agenda aligns our collective advocacy—with and on behalf of people experiencing and at risk of homelessness—with policies and laws that seek to ensure health care, affordable housing and livable incomes for all.
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Our core values
Rooted in the personal values of our staff, clients and community members, the Health Care for the Homeless core values are dignity, authenticity, hope, justice, passion and balance. They guide our work and our interactions with one another.
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Our commitment to our community
We are committed to working alongside our neighbors to end and prevent homelessness. By building a diverse community of social justice advocates, we ensure our work is strong and long lasting—and we couldn't do it without you.
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