Erie's homeless problem has moved out of the shadows and into full view in recent years.  While that's not new, Housing First Erie's specific goal to address it is.

According to Karen Bilowith president of the Erie Community Foundation, "The number one goal for Housing First Erie is to find permanent housing for 150 of our community's most vulnerable and unhoused individuals and it's fairly simple in terms of that's the end goal," she said.

Those behind "Housing First Erie" say that a lot of great work goes on in the Erie area daily to help the homeless, with organizations offering temporary shelter and support services for issues like mental health and substance abuse.  But their data shows 150 people with the greatest needs are not being served.

So a long list of partners on "Housing First Erie's" project team, including Erie Community Foundation and Hamot Health Foundation plan to develop new permanent housing.

"We will have a single site which will house up to 50 individuals and then 100 individuals will be housed across the community in what we call scattered sites so individual homes or maybe multi units," Bilowith said.

And when people are safely housed, the plan it to help with other issues that may have accompanied homelessness -- such as illness, mental health issues or drug and alcohol abuse disorders. UPMC Western Behavioral Health at Safe Harbor will take the lead in providing those wrap around services. "So their mobile care managers will meet these folks where they are and help them to get the care of the service that they need even if it's driving them, or serving them right in their apartments," said Charles "Boo" Hagerty, president of Hamot Health Foundation.  "It's a very unique model, it's a very new model to the area, but it's a model that is battle tested nationally," he added.

Hagerty said data shows homeless people who need hospital care at UPMC Hamot end up staying longer, with no where to go when they're released. "When we heard about a model that has assertive services delivered to the person where they live we said this is the model we have to embrace it makes sense."