The following is a guest post from Cathy ten Broeke, coordinator to End Homelessness for Minneapolis and Hennepin County.

For years, those of us working to end homelessness in our community have been longing for a true federal partner. That day may have come. Last month, the Obama administration announced that the President was signing into action the nation’s first ever strategic plan to end homelessness.

The plan, called Opening Doors: The Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness, was created by the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness with intensive input from stakeholders around the country. I have been fortunate over the last two years to sit on the National Leadership Council on Homelessness. We have been advising the Obama Administration on issues related to homelessness and I can say, with confidence, that in my 17 years of working on this issue, I have never seen our federal partners more engaged.

This plan has the commitment of nineteen federal agencies that have agreed to collaborate to end homelessness for families, individuals and youth within 10 years. This certainly gives me a bit of hope in what otherwise feels like very tough times for youth, families and individuals in our community.

This plan, of course, does not mean unlimited new resources. It does mean, however, that the federal government will be investing more in the strategies that prove to be most effective. In Minneapolis and Hennepin County, we have some of the most promising and effective practices in the country, so this is good news for us. It also means we must continue to be creative and results-driven. I have no doubt we will.

“Investing in the status quo is no longer acceptable,” writes Obama in the plan’s introduction. “Given the fiscal realities … our response has to be guided by what works. Investments can only be made in the most promising strategies.” Best practices include collaborations between state and local governments and the private sector. Partnerships with local businesses, nonprofits, faith groups and community volunteers are encouraged to mobilize every available resource.

The Federal Plan presents strategies building upon the lesson that mainstream housing, health, education and human service programs must be fully engaged and coordinated to prevent and end homelessness, including:

• Increasing leadership, collaboration and civic engagement, by providing and promoting collaborative leadership at all levels of government and across all sectors. Also, strengthening the capacity of public and private organizations by increasing knowledge about collaboration and successful interventions to prevent and end homelessness.

• Increasing access to stable and affordable housing by providing affordable housing and permanent supportive housing.

• Increasing economic security, expanding meaningful and sustainable employment and improving access to mainstream programs and services to reduce financial vulnerability to homelessness.

• Improving health and stability by linking health care with homeless assistance programs and housing, advancing stability for youth aging out of systems such as foster care and juvenile justice, and improving discharge planning for people who have frequent contact with hospitals and criminal justice systems.

• Retooling the homeless response system by transforming homeless services to crisis response systems that prevent homelessness and rapidly return people who experience homelessness to stable housing.

Certainly, how well this plan is implemented is more important than how well it was written. But to know that we continue to do our work, not in isolation, but as a part of a national coordinated strategy with the backing of the President of the United States…well, that helps.

Cathy ten Broeke is the Coordinator to End Homelessness for Minneapolis and Hennepin County, where she leads the planning and implementation of the County’s Ten-Year Plan to End Homelessness and directs Project Homeless Connect. Cathy is also Chair of The National Leadership Council on Homelessness, which advises the Obama Administration on best practices and policies related to homelessness and played an important role in the development of the first ever federal government plan to end homelessness, entitled Opening Doors: Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness.