| Course | D408 Community Relations and Leadership |
|---|---|
| Task | Task 1 |
| Paper type | Community task force leadership plan |
| Length | About 1,500 words, 7 pages |
| Format | APA 7 |
| School | Western Governors University (WGU) |
| Program | BS Health and Human Services |
| Updated | September 2026 |
Free sample paper for D408 Task 1
Growing Old Without a Home: Leading a City Task Force on the Rise in Homelessness Among Adults Over 55, From Stakeholders to a Plan of Action
Student Name
Leavitt School of Health, Western Governors University
D408: Community Relations and Leadership, Task 1
Course Instructor
Month Day, Year
Growing Old Without a Home: Leading a City Task Force on the Rise in Homelessness Among Adults Over 55, From Stakeholders to a Plan of Action
The Community Dilemma
Castleton is a composite city of about 240,000 people. Its most recent point-in-time count found 1,080 people experiencing homelessness on a single January night, and the number aged 55 and older had risen from 170 to 290 in three years, faster than any other group. Shelter staff report more residents who use walkers, need help with medications or cannot climb into an upper bunk. The mayor has asked the director of the county's health and human services department to chair a task force that will explain the rise and propose what the city should do. This paper sets out how I would lead it.
The local pattern matches national data. On a single night in January 2024, more than 770,000 people were experiencing homelessness in the United States, an 18% increase from the year before (U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development [HUD], 2024). About 20% of adults experiencing homelessness are now 55 or older (Gande et al., 2026). In California's statewide study, nearly half of single adults experiencing homelessness were 50 or older, and 41% of that group had first become homeless at 50 or later (Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative, 2023). That last finding shapes the task force's work: many of Castleton's older residents are not long-term homeless, but people whose housing failed late in life.
Stakeholders and Why Each Belongs
A task force is only as useful as the knowledge and authority around its table. I would invite twelve members, each chosen for something the others cannot supply.
| Stakeholder | What they bring |
|---|---|
| Two older adults with lived experience of homelessness | Firsthand knowledge of how housing was lost and which services failed; credibility with people now unhoused |
| Continuum of Care lead agency | Homeless management data, the coordinated entry system and federal funding rules |
| Area agency on aging | In-home services, caregiver programs and benefits counseling for people over 60 |
| Public housing authority | Housing vouchers and the power to set aside units for older adults |
| Hospital discharge planning manager | Data on patients discharged with no address and the cost of repeat admissions |
| Community health center serving people who are homeless | Primary care, behavioral health and street medicine |
| Legal aid eviction attorney | Eviction court patterns and what prevents a filing from becoming a loss of housing |
| Faith coalition that runs two shelters | Shelter beds, volunteers and trust in several neighborhoods |
| Landlord association representative | What would make owners accept vouchers and older tenants |
| Downtown business district director | Business concerns and potential funding partners |
| Police homeless outreach sergeant | Street-level knowledge of encampments and crisis calls |
| City council member from the most affected ward | A link to budget and zoning decisions |
Two choices deserve explanation. People with lived experience hold two seats, not one, so that neither is left as a lone voice, and each receives a stipend and transportation so that participation is not a cost to them. The landlord and business representatives are included deliberately, even though their interests may differ from the service providers'. A plan that the owners of rental housing reject cannot be carried out, and it is better to hear their objections at the table than at a council hearing.
Leading the Group and Managing Conflict
I would use a collaborative leadership approach: set a shared goal, make the rules for decisions clear before any hard question arrives and spend my own authority mainly on protecting the process. At the first meeting, members would agree on a written charter covering the goal, meeting rules, how decisions are made (consensus where possible, with a two-thirds vote as a fallback) and how information about individuals will be kept confidential. Three conflicts are predictable, and each needs its own strategy.
The first is where new beds or housing should go. Service providers will want sites near transit and clinics, and business and neighborhood interests may resist sites near them. My strategy is to have the group agree on siting criteria, such as access to transit, health care and groceries, before any specific address is discussed. Arguing about criteria in the abstract is far easier than arguing about a street.
The second is philosophy. The faith coalition's shelters require sobriety, while the Continuum of Care follows a housing first approach that offers housing without preconditions. Rather than asking one side to concede, I would use interest-based negotiation: both want fewer older adults dying on the street, and both can support different programs for different people. The task force can recommend a range of options without forcing one model on every provider.
The third is unequal power. Agency directors are used to speaking in meetings; people with lived experience may not be. I would meet with the two lived-experience members before each session, ask them to speak early on each topic and name a co-chair from among them. If their views are heard only after the professionals have agreed, the task force will have wasted its most valuable seats.
Primary and Secondary Data
The task force needs to answer three questions: who is becoming homeless late in life and why, what happens to older adults once they are homeless, and which interventions would reach them in time. Existing records answer part of each question, and the task force's own data collection answers the rest.
Secondary data, already collected by others, come first because they are fast and inexpensive. The Continuum of Care's homeless management records can show, by age, how many people enter homelessness for the first time each month and where they came from. Eviction court filings, sorted by the age of the tenant where available, show how many older renters are at risk before they lose housing. Census data on rent burden among households headed by someone 62 or older show how many are one rent increase away from crisis. Hospital discharge records show how often older patients leave with no safe place to go.
Primary data, collected by the task force itself, fill the gaps those records cannot. Trained peer interviewers, including the lived-experience members, would conduct structured interviews with about 30 older adults in shelters and encampments to learn the events that led to their homelessness. Research on older adults has linked homelessness to individual factors such as psychiatric illness, relational factors such as the end of a marriage and structural factors such as the lack of affordable housing and income supports (Hoang et al., 2026); the interviews would show which of these matter most in Castleton. A short survey of shelter operators would measure how many beds are accessible to people with limited mobility, and a focus group with landlords would identify what keeps them from renting to older voucher holders.
Potential Plans of Action
Three plans respond to different stages of the problem, and the task force would weigh them against the needs its data reveal.
Plan one is prevention for older renters. Legal aid, the area agency on aging and the housing authority would build a fast route for tenants 55 and older who receive an eviction notice: legal representation, emergency rental assistance and a benefits check to confirm they receive everything they qualify for. This plan fits the large share of older adults whose homelessness begins late in life after a sudden economic or relational change (Hoang et al., 2026), and it costs far less per person than rehousing someone after they have lost a home.
Plan two is accessible beds for older adults leaving the hospital. The hospital, the community health center and the faith coalition would convert a wing of one shelter into medical respite beds with lower bunks, grab bars and daily nursing visits, so that older patients are not discharged to the street. This addresses the most immediate risk of harm but does not end anyone's homelessness.
Plan three is permanent supportive housing for older adults. The housing authority would set aside vouchers and units for people 55 and older, with services from the area agency on aging in the building. In a recent economic evaluation, providing stable housing to adults 55 and older experiencing homelessness saved lives and cost less than $100,000 per quality-adjusted life-year gained in every sensitivity analysis, a level usually considered cost-effective (Gande et al., 2026). It is the most complete answer but the slowest to build.
I would recommend that the task force launch plans one and two within the first year, because they can use existing funds and partners, and begin plan three at the same time through the housing authority, reporting progress to the council every quarter. The interview findings would decide how resources are divided between prevention and housing.
Conclusion
Castleton's rise in homelessness among older adults is not one problem but several: renters losing housing late in life, patients leaving hospitals with nowhere to go and a shortage of housing that suits aging bodies. No single agency owns all three. A task force that seats the right people, plans for its own disagreements and grounds its choices in data can move the city from concern to action, and the older residents who have lived the problem should help lead the way.
References
Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative. (2023). Toward a new understanding: The California Statewide Study of People Experiencing Homelessness. University of California, San Francisco. https://homelessness.ucsf.edu/resources/reports/toward-new-understanding-california-statewide-study-people-experiencing
Gande, V., Goldhaber-Fiebert, J. D., & Brandeau, M. L. (2026). Health and economic impacts of stable housing provision for older adults. JAMA Health Forum, 7(4), e260624. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamahealthforum.2026.0624
Hoang, P. M., Samra, R. A., van Ballegooie, C., Whaley, C. R. J., Huang, Y. Q., Ghosh, M., Duong, V., Kokorelias, K., Alston, J., & Rochon, P. (2026). Risk factors and circumstances associated with homelessness in older adults: A scoping review of quantitative and qualitative studies. The Gerontologist, 66(4), gnaf307. https://doi.org/10.1093/geront/gnaf307
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. (2024). The 2024 annual homelessness assessment report (AHAR) to Congress: Part 1: Point-in-time estimates of homelessness. https://www.huduser.gov/portal/sites/default/files/pdf/2024-AHAR-Part-1.pdf
What the D408 Task 1 instructions ask
The first D408 task asks you to plan how you would lead a group addressing a community problem. You will generally lay out the dilemma, identify stakeholders and justify each, explain your leadership approach and how you would manage conflict, identify data the group needs and propose plans of action. The community may be real or composite. Evaluators look for stakeholders chosen for knowledge and authority rather than listed by category, a leadership approach with specific practices, data sources matched to the questions the group must answer and plans that respond to what the data are likely to show. Some versions ask how you will communicate with the wider community.
How this D408 Task 1 example is built
The plan opens with the city's homelessness data and what makes older adults different. Stakeholders appear in a table with the reason each belongs, from the housing authority to hospital discharge planners, and the choice to include two people with lived experience is explained. The leadership section describes setting a shared goal, agreeing decision rules and handling conflict when agencies disagree about funding. The data section pairs each question with primary sources, such as interviews, and secondary sources, such as shelter records. Three plans address prevention, hospital discharge and permanent housing, and the conclusion connects them to the stages of the problem. The leadership section describes the first three meetings.
Where the D408 Task 1 rubric puts the marks
D408 Task 1 aspects are scored competent, approaching competence or not evident. The first aspect asks whether the community problem is described with real numbers. A stakeholders aspect rewards members chosen with clear reasons. A leadership aspect looks for a named approach with specific practices. A conflict aspect asks how disagreements would be managed. A data aspect wants primary and secondary sources matched to questions. A plans aspect looks for options that fit the problem. Evaluators expect research on homelessness and community leadership to support key claims, and they notice when people affected by the problem have a real voice. Evaluators notice when each data source is matched to one of the task force's questions, and when plans of action are presented as options to be chosen after the data are reviewed.
D408 Task 1 help: what sends it back
Leadership plans come back most often when stakeholders are listed without reasons. Explain what each brings and why the group needs them. Second, leadership is described with adjectives, such as collaborative and inclusive. Describe what you would actually do in meetings. Third, conflict management is a sentence. Name a likely conflict and how you would handle it. Fourth, data needs are vague. Match each question to a source. Finally, plans of action are sometimes chosen before the data. Present options and explain how the group would decide among them once the data are in. Give each stakeholder a clear role at the first meeting.
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D408 Task 1 questions, answered
How many stakeholders should a D408 task force include?
Enough to bring the knowledge and authority the problem needs, often ten to fifteen. The sample invites twelve and explains why each belongs. Larger groups need clearer decision rules.
What leadership approach fits D408 Task 1?
A collaborative approach with clear decision rules often suits community groups. The sample describes shared goals, agreed rules and a plan for handling disagreement. Name the approach and describe how you would run the first meeting.
Should D408 include people with lived experience?
Yes, when possible, with support so they can take part fully. The sample gives two seats with stipends to people who have experienced homelessness late in life.
Is the D408 city in the sample real?
No. Castleton and its count figures are fictional, used to show the method. The research on older adults experiencing homelessness cited in the plan is published. Real cities publish similar point-in-time counts each year.
Where can I find a free D408 Task 1 sample paper?
The full leadership plan, from the stakeholder seats to the three plans of action, appears above with commentary. Share your D408 task and dilemma, and a first tailored plan comes back to you free.