Rare & Brief · Monthly Partner Update · June 2026
“I’ll show them my keys.”
After about six years in a tent, Rocky has keys to a Durham apartment of his own — and the Framework is ready for your feedback.
Download the PDFSent with this edition: Rocky’s story, the Strategic Framework, and its Companion. Where the newsletter below says “attached to this email,” those documents now live in this library.
Welcome · first edition
Welcome to the first edition of Rare & Brief — a monthly note from the HOPE Team on Durham’s work to make homelessness rare and brief: what’s moving, what we’re learning, and how to take part. We’re glad you’re here.
The opening word
For about six years, home for Rocky was a tent that, in his words, “wasn’t very helpful in the extreme temperatures.” This month he has a Durham apartment of his own — his pick, his lease, his name — fifteen days after the paperwork began. Behind those keys were the HEART Street Outreach team, a HOPE Team Housing Sprint, a landlord who said yes, and flexible assistance that covered his move-in costs. His full story, told in his own words and shared with his written consent, went out with this edition — ask him whether this work makes a difference, and he won’t reach for an argument.
The One Number · this month
These numbers come from this month’s lead story. “About six years” is Rocky’s own accounting, quoted as he told it; program records confirm 15 days from paperwork to move-in. He had been housed one week as of his June 11 interview. We publish what works and what doesn’t.
Progress toward Year 1 targets
| Population | Year 1 aim | Where we stand |
|---|---|---|
| Unsheltered | 30% reduction by June 30, 2027 | Housing Sprints are moving — this month’s lead story is one move-in from that pipeline. |
| Veterans | 30% reduction by June 30, 2027 | Tracked monthly from the by-name list; a population-specific sprint sits in the Year 1 calendar. |
| Youth & young adults | 50% reduction by June 30, 2027 | The smallest population of focus — and the first the system aims to carry to functional zero. |
| Families | 10% reduction by June 30, 2027 | Building on the February 2026 sprint, which housed 15 families against a goal of 10. |
The targets are ambitious; we hold them as commitments, not promises, and we will be honest about the pace.
What we learned this month
The Framework was built to be iterative, and we are using that design now. Its Year 1 targets are tied to a Year 1 funding target of $13 million, and we are currently assessing whether the targets will need to come down based on funding projections — while remaining as ambitious as we can in our goals. We would rather adjust a number in the open than quietly miss one. Whatever the assessment concludes, we will share it here, with the reasoning attached.
The sprints are teaching us smaller things too. Condensing intakes down to one wherever possible saves days of time, energy, and momentum — and spares the neighbor the confusion of telling their story twice. Doing as much of the work as possible in the field, rather than traveling with a neighbor between offices, helps the same way: bring the system to the person; don’t require the person to come to the system. And we are learning what communication channels this system needs — a topic we will keep learning about all year. This newsletter is part of that experiment.
From the tables: governance in motion
- Executive Table. Members: watch your inbox. An email is coming soon to start calendaring the year — agenda-setting, alignment, more structure for the Table, and your hopes and wishes for what it should become.
- Champions Table. We are in the process of creating the Champions Table — the body of civic, business, philanthropic, and institutional leaders who open doors the system cannot open for itself: units, dollars, influence, and public voice. The Framework asks more of Durham than government alone can deliver; this is the table where the rest of the community takes its seat.
- Lived Experience Table. We are in the process of forming the Lived Experience Table — the body that puts people who have lived homelessness at the center of how this system is designed, run, and judged. The people closest to the problem see what the rest of us miss; this Table turns that expertise from anecdote into standing instruction for the work.
- CoC Governing Board. The interlocal agreement establishing the new CoC Governing Board goes before City Council on June 15. This is the step that makes the Framework’s CoC governance real: one board, jointly chartered by the City and County, accountable for the homelessness response system as a whole rather than program by program.
Partner spotlight
“It was a great feeling of, you know, I can now move on with the rest of my life.”
— Rocky, on his first night in his own apartment · shared with his written consentLooking ahead · June & beyond
June 15 — City Council. Council votes tonight on the budget, which includes $3.9 million to advance the Strategic Framework. On the same agenda: two City-funded Framework contracts — landlord engagement and housing stabilization — putting those partners, each a key piece of the Framework, on a path to come online over the summer, alongside the interlocal agreement establishing the new CoC Governing Board. Tonight builds on a milestone earlier this month, when Council formally adopted the Framework in a unanimous vote.
And one invitation that has no date: if there is anyone you think we should meet — your staff, a community group, a potential donor, a landlord — the HOPE Team would be grateful for the introduction.
This month’s one ask: read the Strategic Framework and its Companion — the same substance you have seen in other venues, communicated and designed differently — and tell us what lands and what doesn’t. If you would rather talk it through, the HOPE Team will gladly walk through any piece of it with you.
Send feedback on the Framework Download the PDF