As the lead agency for the Okaloosa Walton Continuum of Care (CoC), we coordinate a network of service providers, local government, law enforcement, behavioral health agencies, hospitals, and affordable housing developers to ensure programs operate in alignment, meet immediate needs, reduce returns to homelessness, and uphold community accountability for measurable, long-term outcomes.
Our Philosophy
Our philosophy is housing focused and stability centered. We pair access to housing with supports that strengthen long-term stability, well-being, and opportunities for self-sufficiency.
Our CoC is committed to a housing-focused approach grounded in stability, personalized support, and strong partnerships with landlords and community organizations. These elements help ensure that people not only access housing quickly, but also have the tools and resources to maintain it long-term.
A housing-focused system is a proven, research-supported method for ending homelessness. It prioritizes helping individuals and families secure safe, stable housing as an essential first step. Once housed, people are far more successful in addressing health, employment, and personal challenges because they have the security of a home.
Our member agencies provide a coordinated range of wrap-around services designed to make homelessness in Okaloosa and Walton counties rare, brief, and nonrecurring.
- Meet Crisis Needs: Emergency shelter and street outreach programs make sure people experiencing homelessness have immediate access to safety, basic needs, and support.
- Find/Retain Housing: Partner agencies offer housing navigation, landlord engagement, and financial assistance to help people secure or keep their housing. Wrap-around services promote long-term housing stability.
- Stabilize: Rapid Rehousing and Permanent Supportive Housing programs combine rental assistance with individualized case management, benefits access, and connections to community resources that support lasting stability and well-being.
Through these coordinated efforts, our community works together to ensure that every person has access to safe, stable housing, supporting stronger and safer communities for all.
HHA Empowers the Community Through:
Assessment
We work to identify and bridge gaps in homeless services so that investments can be made in the areas of greatest need.
Resources
We secure resources for homeless service providers so they can meet the needs of families and individuals experiencing homelessness.
Best Practices
We foster leadership, collaboration, and best practices through monthly meeting and training materials.
Our Approach
Ending homelessness requires coordinated action across the entire community to ensure that resources are directed where they are most needed and used as efficiently as possible. HHA’s goal is to build a responsive crisis system for Okaloosa and Walton Counties that enables organizations to work together to help people exit homelessness quickly and connect them with the wrap-around supports that address the underlying issues placing them at risk. Our members collaborate to make homelessness rare, brief, and non-recurring.
We utilize a housing-focused, stability-centered approach to ending homelessness. This approach prioritizes rapid access to safe, stable housing as one of the foundational steps toward solving homelessness. Research consistently shows that individuals and families are more successful in addressing barriers when they have the security of a home. Our strategy emphasizes both preventing homelessness and rapidly rehousing those without housing, while connecting them with stabilization services that support long-term well-being and self-sufficiency.
Our members work together to make homelessness brief, rare, and non-recurring.
HHA coordinates the housing response system across our community, with different agencies contributing essential roles within this continuum. Outreach programs connect individuals experiencing homelessness with resources and support so they can begin their path back to housing. Prevention programs help families retain their homes and reduce the likelihood of future housing instability. Shelter programs provide a safe place to stay while households work toward permanent housing solutions. Rapid-rehousing programs help participants secure housing quickly and offer short-term financial assistance and supportive services to promote stability and long-term success. Permanent Supportive Housing programs provide ongoing housing paired with intensive, wrap-around, case management for individuals and families with the greatest barriers to maintaining housing.
Our Effectiveness
Every year, HHA evaluates the effectiveness of our Crisis Response system. This helps us assess whether our processes are working but also provides important details about which groups are most vulnerable so that resources can be prioritized accordingly. Looking at point-in-time (PIT) count data from the last five years, we can see that our housing focused, stability-centered approach is working! The number of people experiencing homelessness in our community is declining. This is true for veterans, families, and the chronically homeless.
In addition to looking at the overall number of people experiencing homelessness in our community, we also look at how effective the overall system is at moving people into permanent housing quickly. We evaluate their exit destinations, the time it takes to house them, and how many re-enter homelessness over the next two years.
2024 Performance Measures
669 Households
994 People Total
153 Days Homeless
Average Cumulative Days Homeless After Accessing Services
45% Housed
Percentage Exiting to Permanent Destinations
94% Stabilized
Percent of Households Served that Remain Housed