HOPE Team · July–October 2025

The First 100 Days of HOPE

Building a stronger system to make homelessness rare and brief in Durham, through partnership and purpose.

City of Durham · Durham County · Durham Community Safety Department

On July 1, 2025, Durham’s homelessness services team moved into the Community Safety Department and became the Housing Opportunities and Pathways Engagement team — HOPE. This report covers what happened in the hundred days that followed.

The work is organized against five areas drawn from Community Solutions’ national model for backbone agencies, which is how the team assesses its own effectiveness as lead agency of the Durham Continuum of Care: leadership structure and community partnerships; quality data systems; resource alignment and strategic partnerships; a culture of improvement; and operational support. Each section below lists what was accomplished and what comes next.

I. Leadership structure and community partnerships

What was done

• Direct and consistent relationships. Direct connections were established between Community Safety Department leadership and homelessness services providers, with regular quarterly check-ins, ad-hoc meetings, and multiple channels for information to move.
• Communications. Internal and external communications were expanded — timely updates on national and local developments, guidance to providers, and office hours on a range of topics.
• Team structure. The team reintroduced itself as HOPE rather than Homeless Services and restructured internally. That has already produced faster contract payment processing and more staff support to HSAC.
• Provider Appreciation Day. In August the team held its first annual provider appreciation luncheon.
• New CoC members. CoC membership was expanded to bring in additional voices and perspectives.

What comes next

• Establish an Executive Table. Community Safety meets with executive directors individually, but there is no space for them to meet collectively.
• Develop spaces where front-line and managerial staff can build trust, not only perform operational duties.
• Take an active role in translating the strategic framework into action as it is drafted.

II. Quality data systems

What was done

• Four learning reports were brought to HSAC and its sub-committees, covering coordinated entry practices and evaluations, PIT Count trends over time, and by-name list and case conferencing processes.
• Reports circulated as drafts. Each was brought to multiple audiences before it was final, so that provider feedback could change it.
• New HMIS reports were stood up with NCCEH, covering how many people are currently experiencing homelessness and monthly inflow and outflow, divisible by sub-population.
• A public-facing dashboard was drafted with NCCEH, displaying counts, demographics, and inflow and outflow trends.
• By-name data is now pulled differently, producing more accurate and timely lists for case conferencing.

What comes next

• Test Community Solutions’ data quality scorecards as a supplement to — not a replacement for — the current scorecards.
• Complete the public-facing dashboard draft and circulate it to providers and HSAC for feedback.
• Produce a learning report on housing inventory.

III. Resource alignment and strategic partnerships

The ability to make homelessness rare and brief depends on shared vision about where resources go. Across the Continuum of Care and the philanthropic, healthcare, faith, and business communities, there was general agreement that Durham needed a City and County wide plan. This quarter’s work went into starting one.

What was done

• The planning process launched in July. Duke and the A.J. Fletcher Foundation both contributed to the launch.
• A Core Leadership Team was formed, with service providers, Duke Health, Alliance Health, community members with lived experience, City and County staff, and HSAC members.
• An Advisory Group was formed to support the Core Leadership Team, drawing on health system, business, philanthropic, housing, and service provider leaders.
• Listening sessions were held with front-line staff, people with lived experience, service providers, health care leaders, philanthropy, HSAC members, and local business owners.
• Prior work was folded in — Durham’s Housing Taskforce, and the surveys and focus groups conducted with unsheltered neighbors over the previous year.

What comes next

• Draft the five-year strategic vision for making homelessness rare and brief, establishing a long-term goal, short-term milestones, key performance indicators, and strategies for immediate and sustained impact.
• Host multiple opportunities for different groups to give input on that vision.
• Develop a six-month workplan to implement it.

IV. A culture of improvement

Making homelessness rare and brief will not be a linear process, which means the team has to keep revisiting its own practices as well as the system’s.

What was done

• A backbone assessment tool — the Community Solutions Backbone Assessment Model — was adopted, and will be used quarterly.
• Three months on case conferencing. The team studied its by-name list and case conferencing processes, produced a report, reviewed national practice, and gathered feedback from meeting participants.
• Listening on White Flag. Partners named several ways the team could play a more productive role; practices were changed in response.
• Funding competition support was reworked to include early pre-application processes, scorecards aligned with application questions, and peer application reviews.
• A pulse survey was developed with Community Solutions so that providers and CoC members can give feedback on the lead agency. It is still in review.

What comes next

• Examine how well the team’s communication pathways actually work — listservs, website, and other channels.
• Build a centralized housing inventory repository with Housing and Neighborhood Services, the Durham Housing Authority, and providers, with Housing for New Hope’s landlord engagement work as a key input.
• Streamline contracting and invoicing to reduce administrative burden on providers.

V. Operational support

What was done

• HSAC support was restructured: an orientation was introduced, sub-committees were given yearly roadmaps, committee roles were clarified against the governance charter, and all chair positions were filled.
• White Flag planning gained a coordination function, with weekly meetings among partners. Several changes followed, including a centralized after-hours call line.
• Faith communities were engaged, including partnership with Durham CAN and DCIA to launch the 100 Days of Warmth campaign.
• State ESG. Durham received the maximum funding for which it was eligible. Six providers applied — a large number for Durham — and three were funded.
• Case conferencing was re-engineered in response to provider feedback on the by-name list learning report. Three to four times as many neighbors are now discussed, with concrete action steps assigned, as were discussed a month earlier.

What comes next

• Translate the strategic planning process’s governance recommendations into specific action items.
• Prepare budget recommendations to City leadership as planning enters its second phase.
• Build a centralized calendar of meetings, funding deadlines, trainings, and coordination efforts.