Hubs

The Homeless Response Hubs are collaborative multi-agency teams devoted to continuous improvement of the Homeless Response System, driven by quality data. Hub teams identify gaps and inconsistencies by working with a cross-sector team of service providers, municipalities, housing providers, people with lived experience, and others who interact with people experiencing homelessness. The Hubs operate within their geographic areas, in conjunction with Statewide efforts, through dedicated communication and collaboration. The Hub agencies facilitate a more direct and coordinated path to housing for individuals and families experiencing homelessness.  Using creative solutions, Hubs strive to solve homelessness by reaching and sustaining functional zero, ensuring that homelessness is short and infrequent.

There is a growing list of other agencies and providers being connected to the work, in order to ensure all aspects of the homeless response system are coordinated – e.g. General Assistance/municipalities, schools, police departments, corrections, health care providers, mental health providers, substance use programs, etc.

What is Built for Zero?

The hubs are part of a national effort called Built for Zero, which focuses on the homeless response system as a whole, bringing all partners together to solve homelessness. Using this framework, each of the 9 service hubs have the following goals:

• Creating a quality by-name list of everyone experiencing homelessness in each hub, including their specific needs and housing preferences
• Improving communication and coordination between providers
• Identifying barriers and gaps in the system
• Testing solutions for barriers
• Advocating for resources to fill the gaps
• Streamlining the system so that people who need assistance are quickly connected to the agency or resource that fits best

As a whole, the State set the following statewide long term targets:

By September 20, 2025

Reach quality data statewide for single adults, youth and families 

By June 30, 2025 

Reach Functional Zero statewide for Veterans

By June 30, 2026 

Reach Functional Zero statewide for Chronic homelessness

Reduce homelessness for All Single Adults by 25%

What is a Hub Coordinator?

The Hub Coordinator serves as neutral backbone support for the implementation and maintenance of Hub-level collaborative work and does not serve on behalf of any specific agency within the Hub. The position works with the Statewide Homeless Council, the Maine Continuum of Care, and MaineHousing to coordinate homeless planning efforts.

The Hub Coordinator works with providers to populate a By-Name Data Set (also By-Name List) of all people experiencing homelessness in the Hub Service Area. This data is used to get a more accurate count of people, assess their specific situations, and assisting them as quickly as possible. This will also provide better support to advocate for additional resources needed to make homelessness rare, brief, and one-time.

• Additionally, the Hub Coordinator responsibilities include:
• Convening and facilitating collaboration among providers in hub service area to identify resource needs and strategize solutions 
• Collaborating with providers to achieve quality data
• Implementing and managing Coordinated Entry processes for the Maine Continuum of Care (MCoC)
• Leading a continuous improvement process for hub activities
• Coordinating the Unsheltered annual Point in Time count for the MCoC