Homelessness Coalition

About the Homelessness Coalition

The Coalition unites 75+ organizations—including health and human service providers, private sector partners, and faith-based organizations—with a shared vision: ensuring everyone in Lancaster County has a safe and stable place to call home. Through service coordination, advocacy, public education, and community organizing, we work collaboratively to eradicate homelessness and build lasting housing solutions throughout Lancaster City and County.

Our Role in Action for Homelessness

LCHC is the lead agency for PA-510 -responsible for the oversight of all Lancaster County Continuum of Care (CoC) policies, procedures, and project funding decisions. LCHC is the collaborative applicant for the CoC Program Competition, the Homelessness Management Information System (HMIS) lead, and the Coordinated Entry lead agency for PA-510.

What is a Continuum of Care?

A Continuum of Care (CoC) is a regional or local planning body that coordinates housing and service funding for homeless families and individuals. Composed of representatives of organizations including but not limited to nonprofit homeless service providers, victim service providers, faith-based organizations, organizations that serve homeless and formerly homeless veterans, and formerly homeless persons to the extent these groups are represented within the geographic area and are available to participate.

The CoC works to coordinate community-based processes related to the experience of homelessness and collaboratively to build a system of housing and services to address the needs of those at-risk of or currently experiencing homelessness. The CoC provides data and information to establish local priorities for system planning and evaluations of system-wide outcomes with the goal of making homelessness rare, brief, and non-recurring.

The staff working within the Office for the Coalition and supporting the COC and LCHC has the primary focus of bringing together the network of partners to deliver a consistent level of quality services to clients in Lancaster County. If you would like to be a part of the CoC, please email [email protected].

Programs Supported by the LCHC

Through collaboration and compassion, the Coalition manages and supports partners through our network a wide range of programs designed to meet immediate needs while addressing long-term solutions. These initiatives ensure that everyone in Lancaster County has the opportunity for safe, stable housing, and the support needed to thrive.

• Street Outreach
• Coordinated Entry
• Emergency Shelter
• Day Center/Day Shelter
• Crisis Housing
• Pathways
• Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH)
• Homelessness Prevention and Diversion
• Special Projects Defined by HUD