What Makes Sunrise Work?
Sunrise creates a fully-integrated model of care along with our partners that includes humanitarian aid, mental health care, physical healthcare, harm reduction, substance abuse care, housing interventions, benefits enrollment and more. What's different about how Sunrise does it? It's all under one roof and its all integrated together. It works like people work.
Our Secret Sauce
Sunrise's approach brings consistent, high-quality care to every individual we encounter while being flexible enough to allow us to customize interventions for each person's unique needs. During a client’s risk assessment, Sunrise staff are trained to affirm each person as the expert in their own life. With Sunrise’s large internal and external referral network, Sunrise staff diligently walk alongside clients as they explore their options and take the next right step in their journey.
Our Approach
Austin’s homelessness response system has been siloed for years. While one group may have served food, another organization did Coordinated Assessments and another group provided housing. Sunrise recognized through our many years of work in this system that the siloed model itself was responsible for clients falling through the cracks. In 2022, Sunrise expanded our programming to create the first holistic and fully integrated model of care. The Sunrise Hub provides every kind of service in the system under one roof and fully intersects with the Sunrise Hotline, Sunrise Mobile, and Sunrise Housing programs. Sunrise can now walk alongside a client through their entire homeless experience ensuring there are no cracks, no places to fall through and maximizing their opportunities for success.
Our Process
Sunrise's multi-access-point system allows clients to receive the same standard of care and referral options no matter where they enter our programs. Whether they're referred to Sunrise Housing, visit the Sunrise Hub, call the Sunrise Hotline, or encounter the Sunrise Mobile outreach team, clients will receive the same level of care and support. While other groups may do outreach or serve food, Sunrise does it all with a holistic, all-inclusive approach that allows us to prepare and successfully place clients into housing opportunities in our community. This approach creates our community-wide safety net to ensure clients don't fall through the cracks.
Why is Homelessness such a complex issue in Austin?
The issue of homelessness in Austin is much larger than any one cause. Rather, it is a complex issue with many complex causes. We believe that means that any proposed solutions must be as complex or more complex than the problems that caused it. By delving into that complexity rather than over-simplifying the causes or solutions, we get a much clearer picture of reality.
Austin's homelessness issues are in some ways caused by what they are caused by in many cities: gentrification, systemic racism, lack of access to medical & mental healthcare, the breakdown of family, substance abuse, lack of affordable housing, lack of a social safety net, domestic violence, the foster care system, re-entry from incarceration and more. In addition, Austin's particular challenges have been historic racial divides, quickly-booming population growth, a separation of humanitarian aid from housing programs, a lack of shelters, location of shelters to business district & university and more. Additionally, the disconnected efforts of public & private entities, especially faith-based entities has created much duplication and the lack of a cohesive or efficient approach as a community. The political reality of living in a very left-leaning city in a very right-leaning state means political solutions are often problematic.
Is it hopeless? We don't think so.
Sunrise's efforts from the beginning have been about being holistic. Bringing whole-person solutions to the whole-person trauma of homelessness is what we are known for, but we also advocate for policies that breakdown siloed community responses. Hope and momentum are built by multi-disciplinary approaches, cross-agency partnerships, faith-based community involvement, integration of humanitarian aid & healthcare with housing efforts and leveraging the criminal justice community to help create positive change in the lives of those we serve.
What is a coordinated assessment?
Travis County created a vulnerability index tool to prioritize individuals and families most in need of housing services. The Coordinated Assessment is administered by trained and licensed Sunrise staff. Once assessed, households are referred to the programs they qualify for and join the Austin Prioritization Index (API), the equity-centered prioritization tool.
The API, developed specifically with racial and gender identity equity lenses, is the culmination of nearly two years of work by the Equity Task Group and members of the Homelessness Response System (HRS) Leadership Council. The API is a series of questions used during the Coordinated Entry process to determine the kind of housing intervention a person needs, prioritizing those who are most vulnerable to the risk of death while experiencing homelessness.
In 2022, Sunrise completed more than 3,400 Coordinated Assessments in Travis County which totals more than all other service providers combined.