The downward spiral began, said Londa Allen, with a problem furnace.

"It was throwing smoke back into the house," said Allen, who lived in the house in the 400 block of Locust Street with her husband, adult daughter and son. "Carbon monoxide was a problem." And there were other problems, like water behind the walls. Both she and her husband depend upon disability insurance; the money to fix the house just wasn't there.

"So we had to leave."

From there it was into rental housing; then a friend of their pastor allowed the Allens to move into a few rooms of his Mount Joy home. That lasted about three months.

Then it was on to the mission of Water Street Ministries for five months. While there, her daughter died of complications from her asthma.

Then, when it might have seemed things couldn't get any worse — they got better.

The mission, Allen said, called Tabor Community Services, which found the family a home. "We have our own place, we're off the street, we're warm," Allen said.

Ultimately, it's a success story — and one attributable, in part, to a new collaboration between providers, triggered by an ambitious plan issued last year that seeks to end homelessness in Lancaster County.

Fifteen months after the "Heading Home" partnership between local officials, social service providers and faith-based organizations issued its blueprint for changing the way homelessness is addressed here, shelters remain full, affordable housing is still in short supply. In some ways the faltering economy has made it even more difficult to "end homelessness" by getting people into permanent housing  — the major goal of the plan.

Yet headway is being made. Providers are working together in an unprecedented way. Dollars are being distributed differently; the county, in particular, has made a major commitment to the effort.

"It's really like turning a battleship," said Kay Moshier McDivitt, who works for the county as homeless adviser, a position created last January to help implement the plan. "For all these organizations involved, this is really shifting the way we do business and think about doing business."

But the bottom line, she said, is broad agreement on what might be the most important principle:

"Everybody does better in their own home."

Different thinking
It may sound like a no-brainer. But the focus both here and nationally has for a long time been services first — permanent housing later.

The rationale has been that the causes of homelessness — be it a lost job, mental illness, drug or alcohol addiction, domestic violence — must first be addressed before an individual is "ready" for permanent housing.

The Lancaster County Coalition to End Homelessness' 10-year plan turns that thinking all the way around.

Now, the focus is on getting those who are homeless into permanent housing before ensuring access to the type of social services many need to remain housed, like job training or counseling.

It's an approach endorsed by the National Alliance to End Homelessness, and many aspects of the local 10-year plan are drawn from a blueprint drawn up by the national organization in 2000. More than 230 states, cities and regions across the country have since formulated their own plans; McDivitt spoke at a U.S. congressional briefing on the subject of ending homelessness in December.

The plan requires not only the support of myriad social service and faith-based agencies that provide help to the homeless, but also of the private sector and government officials.

More than 110 people from Lancaster County are involved in the effort. For now, they're mostly talking: Six "action teams" have been formed to ensure that the objectives in the 10-year plan are accomplished.

"A lot of what has occurred up to today is a precursor for things to come," said Lisa Riggs, president of the James Street Improvement District and chair of the communications action. "The Action Team Chairs and the Leadership Council all understand that this is a 10-year effort, and that it's critical to get the foundation right."

Community response
Still, there have been tangible results.

The closing of the Crispus Attucks shelter last June, and the loss of its 20 beds, had initially been viewed by local social service providers as a disaster.

But in part as a result of the new connection forged by the coalition, the community responded. Water Street Ministries purchased 60 mats and opened the doors of its chapel to men at night. The need for case management at this "Community Emergency Shelter" was identified by the coalition's Chronically Homeless Action Team, said Tom Clingan, director of homelessness and affordable housing for United Way of Lancaster County. A case manager was hired in November; Water Street Ministries and United Way provide the funding.

New sources of funding and changes in the way money is allocated have also moved the coalition closer to its goals. "Stimulus" funds (via the federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act) became available with money targeted toward renters who have experienced a drop in income and are at risk of losing their housing. In October, United Way LINC (Lancaster Information Center) began screening callers and working with the Community Action Program and Tabor Community Services on this "Homeless Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing" program.

Since then more than 2,200 calls have been fielded, with 280 callers determined to be eligible and referred to CAP or Tabor. Of that number, 162 people in 57 households were provided with services, receiving rental assistance, financial help in paying utility bills or vouchers for hotel or motel rooms. The remainder were either deemed ineligible or were unwilling to adhere to the program requirements.

The program is scheduled to last three years, with $2.1 million in funding available.

The new spirit of collaboration may be allowing the coalition to get a better handle on the extent of the problem itself.

One day in late January volunteers canvassed the county  to count the homeless. They searched 24-hour parking lots and wooded areas, checked out rumors of a tent camp near the railroad tracks on the east side of Lancaster; they visited shelters. "We were hearing all sorts of things about people living in the woods or in cars," McDivitt said. "We really dug deep this year. We had a larger coalition engaging more people, creating lists and target areas with teams looking in more places. We went out to all these out-of-the-way campgrounds all around the county. We had a team down in the Southern End."

The final numbers aren't in yet, she said, but she expects a more complete,  picture this year, a result of "everything coming together under one umbrella, everyone talking to each other."

Housing needed
Yet challenges remain. A big one is a continued dearth of affordable housing, a situation actually made worse by the sour economy.

"There hasn't been much in the way of new [housing] starts," said Ray D'Agostino, executive director of the Lancaster Housing Opportunity Partnership —  it focuses on making homes more affordable for low- to middle-income county residents — and a member of the coalition's Permanent Housing Action Team.

Once "we get out on the other side of this economy," he said, there are more than 250 affordable housing units, homes and apartments, on the drawing board. In the meantime,  the county lags. D'Agostino pointed to a study recently published by the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia showing that Lancaster County ranks fourth in the state for the "greatest shortages of affordable and available housing units."

Ken Smith, of Community Basics, a nonprofit developer that builds affordable housing, and chairman of the Permanent Housing Action Team, noted that there's a difference between affordable housing and housing for people experiencing homelessness.

"We can set aside some of those units [in new affordable complexes] for people experiencing homelessness," he said, "but there's a lot less money available, so the ends just don't meet on some of these projects."

Still, Smith lauded efforts by the county to break the logjam. One resolution formulated by the coalition and endorsed by county commissioners stipulates that whenever the county issues funding for affordable housing projects, 10 percent of the units built are to be reserved for people who are homeless. "That's a very positive thing," Smith said.

Perhaps the greatest challenge lies in raising awareness of the problem. But  the coalition has had an effect: Many participants pointed to a meeting in Ephrata held by county Commissioner Scott Martin seeking support for 15 new affordable housing units in the community; local leaders, federal officials, the Ephrata/Akron Minsterium and others took part.

"People by and large in Lancaster County don't recognize the need," Smith said. "But they're beginning to."