Participate in the 2012 Homeless Count

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About ECHO

Location:

P.O. Box 301228, Austin, TX 78703, US

Mission Statement

The Ending Community Homelessness Coalition (ECHO) is dedicated to planning, prioritizing, and developing strategies to end homelessness in Austin/Travis County, Texas. The overall role of the ECHO is to identify specific strategies to end homelessness and to oversee ongoing planning efforts and implementation of the Plan to End Community Homelessness.

Description

Since 1994 the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development has, in effect, required each funding application to be submitted as a part of a single community-wide or regional plan. ECHO is Austin's HUD designated Continuum of Care (CoC) for Austin & Travis County. CoCs are most commonly organized around two main priorities, coordinating the housing and service systems in a community, and applying for funding from HUD's competitive McKinney-Vento Act programs. ECHO is charged with providing dynamic proactive leadership that engages policy makers and the community in ending homelessness. In order to accomplish this, ECHO engages in a variety of activities including:

• Identifying and supporting the Continuum of Care for homelessness;
• Coordinating the annual HUD Continuum of Care application;
• Conducting the annual homeless count;
• Providing outreach through the annual Homeless Resource Fair;
• Serving as the homeless planning entity for the community; and
• Advocating for homeless issues and solutions