Karen Jantzen knows what the Concord Coalition to End Homelessness does well.

Dozens of people are in the coalition’s resource center daily – waiting to take a shower, do laundry, check their mail or connect with a case manager.

The beginning of December marks the opening of the coalition’s emergency winter shelter, where 20 sets of bunk beds will be lined up side by side each night, providing a reprieve from the cold from 6 p.m. to 7 a.m. It’s the only low-barrier shelter in the area, meaning anyone can spend the night regardless of substance use or felony convictions.

Jantzen hopes that space will soon look different. The coalition is looking to build a new resource center as a part of its revised strategic plan.

“We’re going to work on continuing to deepen the services that we provide here at the Resource Center, just to make them more robust and look to really develop out our work with other providers in the community,” said Jantzen. “Being very intentional about our Resource Center and the services we provide.”

Jantzen envisions a one-stop shop where other providers would use the coalition’s resource center to host office hours.

The coalition’s strategic planning process lays the road map for the organization’s work over the next few years.

Staff conducted interviews with dozens of city leaders and stakeholders – from the police and fire departments to elected officials and housing developers – they looked at statistics from the national and city levels on homelessness and poverty and assessed the state of housing developments.

The first clear trend is obvious to most – the state, and nation, are in a housing shortage.

The second trend leaned into the strength of the coalition’s work – it serves as a central organization to advocate for people who are experiencing homelessness and engage different agencies to provide services.

“If you think about our name, we’re a coalition and that’s what coalitions are about,” said Jantzen.

Helping people access mental health and substance recovery resources – from treatment services to stable housing continues to be an ongoing challenge, and focus of the coalition’s work.

The coalition’s services aim to be twofold – first, helping people who are currently experiencing homelessness with immediate needs: nighttime shelter during winter months, getting on apartment waitlists and accessing benefits like Social Security. The second part is transitioning those living outside into housing: when an apartment is available, the coalition helps to make sure the person is ready to be a tenant, has all the paperwork completed to sign a lease and is able to access the unit as soon as possible.

“There are things that we can do in our services that we’re providing so that when an apartment does come up, people are ready to get into it,” she said. “Helping them to make that transition and be prepared to make that transition as best as they possibly can.”

The work goes hand in hand with an overarching goal to continue to challenge, and change, the public perception of homelessness in the area. Jantzen often sees a consensus on homelessness – it’s solvable and people want to and are willing to work towards this goal. Putting that into practice, though, is trickier.

“Everybody wants to solve the problem but no one wants to have it in their neighborhood,” she said. “It’s like, ‘yeah we should end this. Where are you going to do it?’”

To Jantzen, tackling the public perception piece is like launching a public health campaign – a multi-step approach rooted in education about homelessness and minimizing the stigma of those who are currently unhoused.

To some degree, solving homelessness in Concord is within the coalition’s purview. However, the other part recognizes that the issue falls within a larger context that is out of the organization’s immediate control: the state’s housing crisis.

A shortage of units creates a domino effect. Potential first-time homeowners aren’t moving out of apartments because market prices are too high. In turn, the cost of rent is inflated. Current zoning practices are restrictive, with large lot sizes and parking mandates deterring against the small start home model that was available in the 1960s and 1970s.

“How are we going to solve this housing shortage and get units built so we have a place for everybody that is safe, decent and affordable?” she said. “We don’t have a homelessness issue, we have a housing crisis.”

The Concord Coalition to End Homelessness needs volunteers for both evening and morning shifts at the emergency winter shelter. To sign up, visit this link: https://pointapp.org/orgs/5016

Michaela Towfighi can be reached at mtowfighi@cmonitor.com.