COVID-19 has put a spotlight on the deep racial inequalities in our world and we wanted to bring this issue to the forefront during our Vanguard City Summit. This convening will allow Vanguard Cities to ask questions and think more deeply about the intersection of race, caste, and homelessness in their own communities, and discuss ways to better address the issues related to race and caste in homelessness service provision, systems, and policy.

Housing First is a homeless assistance approach that offers permanent housing with supportive services. Many Vanguard Cities are working to expand housing-led approaches to homelessness including Housing First and this convening will focus on the implementation of Housing First, deploying support services, and how cities can scale up Housing First to end homelessness in their communities.

Many cities have drastically changed their systems due to COVID-19. This convening will focus on strategies to keep positive changes in cities post-pandemic and also have a discussion on ending homelessness with systems thinking. The convening will focus on lessons learned during the pandemic, positive systems changes, and what the road forward looks like regarding ending homelessness in a post-COVID-19 world. We will also talk about ways communities can re-orient systems using data to advance work to end homelessness.