DURHAM, N.C. – This week, the City of Durham and County of Durham are announcing the launch of a partnership with the national nonprofit Community Solutions and its Built for Zero initiative to help reimagine Durham’s local strategy for addressing homelessness. Durham’s Strategic Plan to End Homelessness will rely on robust community and local stakeholder engagement, and marks a renewed commitment to building a more coordinated and effective system to make homelessness rare and brief in Durham.    

The initiative kicked off with a series of in-person listening sessions in July that brought together frontline service providers, individuals with lived experience of being unhoused, and community leaders from Durham’s healthcare, business, nonprofit, and government sectors who all play crucial parts in Durham's Continuum of Care. Members of the City of Durham’s Homeless Services Advisory Committee also participated in the discussions.  
 
During these sessions, the leaders outlined the greatest strengths of the systems previously and currently in place to address homelessness across the City and County, as well as the opportunities for improvement in coordination, accessibility, and long-term stability for those experiencing or at risk of homelessness.  

“Our commitment to ending homelessness in Durham requires collaboration at every level. This strategic planning effort—guided by a bold vision, community input, and expert leadership—will allow us to build a more coordinated and compassionate system to better serve our unhoused neighbors,” said Durham City Manager Bo Ferguson. “With the partnership of the County, Community Solutions, and leaders across Durham, we’re designing a future where everyone has a safe and stable place to call home.”  

“This initiative represents a critical step forward in how we address homelessness in Durham County,” said Durham County Manager Claudia Hager. “By bringing together diverse voices—from service providers to those with lived experience—we will work together to transform how we address homelessness in our community.”  

To guide the process, the City and County have established a leadership team in consultation with their partner, Community Solutions. This group represents a cross-section of community partners and will ensure diverse perspectives are represented throughout the first phase of this initiative. Members include: 
 

• Ian Lee Brown, Vice President/Chief Employee Experience Officer and Interim Associate Vice President for Community Health with Duke Health 
• Tasha Melvin, Executive Director of Families Moving Forward 
• Sheldon Mitchell, Executive Director of Urban Ministries of Durham 
• Ann Oshel, Senior Vice President of Community Health and Well-Being with Alliance Health 
• Russell Pierce, Executive Director of Housing for New Hope 
• Ryan Smith, Director of City of Durham's Community Safety Department 
• Samantha Smith, Management Analyst with Durham County’s Office of the County Manager 
• Tiffany Solomon and Rev. Renee Vaughan with the Homeless Services Advisory Committee 

Additional listening sessions held by the City and County are planned over the next several months to gather further input from residents, as well as community stakeholders and leaders.   

These feedback sessions mark just the beginning of the first phase of the new Strategic Plan. The goal of this initial phase is to gather and synthesize insights and ideas from community leaders and residents into a set of recommendations to present to City and County leadership by the end of the calendar year. Following phases of the initiative will be announced in the coming months and residents will be able to get updates through the webpage linked here.  

This effort is supported by funding from the City of Durham, Durham County, Duke University, and the AJ Fletcher Foundation. 
 
About Community Solutions 
Community Solutions is a nonprofit that leads Built for Zero, a movement of more than 100 cities and counties using data to radically change how they work and the impact they can achieve — and proving that it is possible to make homelessness rare and brief. A growing number of communities across the country are proving this is an achievable reality by reaching a milestone known as functional zero. 

About the City of Durham Community Safety Department 

The Community Safety Department aims to reduce harm, extend care, and increase stability for neighbors facing crises. Now in its fourth year, Community Safety is establishing a new division that complements its crisis response programs focused on stabilizing neighbors in crisis and helping them reach successful outcomes, with the Homeless Services team a key component of this new division. 
 
About the Durham County Office of the County Manager’s Homelessness Response 
To help achieve the goal of homelessness being “rare, brief, and one-time,” the County has liaisons working to end homelessness throughout Durham County, provides funding and resources to organizations serving those experiencing unsheltered homelessness and housing insecurity, seeks innovative policy solutions, and works to cultivate collaborative cross-sector relationships in the housing and homelessness space. 

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