Community Rebuilders Information

Community Rebuilders is a strengths-based, housing first, scattered-site housing agency operating in Kent County. Our mission is rebuilding hope through housing opportunities for families and individuals with support services during transitions. In 2017, Community Rebuilders led a successful community wide effort to end Veteran homelessness in Kent County. An effort that led to Kent County being the first county in the State of Michigan to be recognized by the United Stated Interagency Council on Homelessness for effectively ending Veteran homelessness. The process that led us here today was often criticized. Most of this criticism was focused on the methods we used, not the results we produced. What we did was innovate—innovation that was sometimes disruptive to current practices and beliefs. It was disruptive to existing processes of data collection, outreach efforts, and coordination of service delivery. It was also disruptive to lines of control and authority. We were, however, always focused on the possibility of making Veteran homelessness both rare and brief in our community. We have successfully reduced the length of time Veterans are homeless in our community. We have improved service delivery systems that reduce the trauma of homelessness and the damage it does to the lives of Veterans in our community. We must, as a community, take the lessons we have learned and direct future attention to aligning resources to continue to better serve all those who enter homelessness and continue to work to eliminate the experience of homelessness entirely.