Our Work

Targeted Street Homelessness Strategies

We reduce street homelessness through coordinated strategies that make urban spaces safer and more functional.

Targeted Transformation

Unlocking Progress on Street Homelessness

Street homelessness is both a social and spatial challenge.

Communities feel like they lack the right tools to reduce street homelessness, instead relying on costly, half-measures that don't get results like:

Sweeps and camping bans that push people from one site to another, but don't get long-term results.
Well-intended services that help individuals but don’t manage inflow, leaving streets unchanged.

Our approach brings the pieces together—ending encampments, making shelters more efficient, managing downtown spaces, and connecting individuals with high needs with the care they need—so progress is visible and lasting.

Immediate Pathways off the Streets

Launch a targeted housing surge focused on individuals living or sleeping outside in an urban area
Equip shelters to bring more people inside
Create new system partnerships to ensure those with severe mental illness get the care they need

Managing 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 downtowns 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 for good. Multi-disciplinary teams lead an expedited process to connect individuals with stable housing and services; 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. Clutch partners with communities to streamline shelter operations and create flow to open immediate space for people currently on the streets. 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 areas 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 Mental Healthcare

A small percentage of those living on the streets need access to higher levels of behavioral health 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 is in place before they exit care, preventing a return to the streets.

Our Expertise in Action