Our Work

Targeted Street Homelessness Strategies

We reduce street homelessness through coordinated strategies that get results--bringing relief and remedy.

Transforming unsheltered response

Solving Street Homelessness

Clutch supports communities to fundamentally transform their response to street homelessness. Through our cutting-edge framework, we help reduce unsheltered homelessness, resolve street sleeping, build homeless system capacity to meet the scale of need, and sustain efforts to achieve lasting results.

Pathways off the Streets

Launch a focused initiative to connect individuals sleeping outside in an urban area to housing
Equip shelters to bring more people inside
Create new system partnerships to ensure those with severe mental health needs get the care they need

Partnering For Public Safety

Coordinate mental health, outreach, and law enforcement teams to provide immediate relief on the ground
Target highly visibly downtown areas with high populations of unhoused individuals, many service providers, and existing management districts
Leverage new partners including downtown partnerships and law enforcement to close areas to outdoor sleeping

Transforming Unsheltered Response

The Deep Dive

Strategy 1:

Targeted Housing Surge

We use a Direct to Housing Encampment Response model to systematically get those in encampments or sleeping outside in the urban core off the streets and reconnected to housing. Multi-disciplinary teams lead an expedited process to connect individuals with stable housing and services, while additional law enforcement and public safety partners coordinate to close sites to future sleeping.

Learn more about Direct to Housing Encampment Response.

Strategy 2:

Equip Shelters to Bring More People Inside

Shelters work best when they rapidly help people exit homelessness and maintain capacity so that no one has to sleep outside. Clutch partners with communities to streamline their shelter operations, design new intake procedures, and provide rapid resolutions to individuals who are new to homelessness. This allows communities to draw new boundaries on street sleeping and ensures shelters function as an effective bridge out of homelessness.

Strategy 3:

Close Downtowns to Street Sleeping

Communities are building from encampment by encampment closures to closing entire zones like downtowns to street sleeping. Clutch works with communities to ensure that local shelters have targeted beds available, and coordinate on the ground street response teams to engage and require compliance with local health and safety ordinances.

Strategy 4:

Create Pathways to Higher Levels of Care

A small percentage of those living on the streets need access to higher levels of care to stabilize. Clutch stands up lasting partnerships between behavioral health authorities, homelessness response systems, and crisis responders to ensure that these individuals get the support they need—and that a long-term plan is in place before they exit care, preventing a return to the streets.

Learn more