On Thursday, Bringing Our Community Home, the organization coordinating Santa Barbara County’s 10-Year Plan to End Chronic Homelessness, will introduce top federal homelessness official Philip Mangano to business leaders and leaders from Santa Barbara’s homeless-related nonprofits and agencies.

At 10:30 a.m., Mangano, executive director of the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, will present a newly adopted national resolution, America’s Road Home Statement of Principles and Actions, for signature by mayors and council members from Santa Barbara, Goleta, Lompoc and Santa Maria and county supervisors, then tour three innovative housing sites in downtown Santa Barbara.

Mangano will begin the tour at noon at 617 Garden St., the site of the most recent of three “supportive housing” developments created in Santa Barbara designed to address root causes of homelessness.

Mangano was recently nominated as one of TIME Magazine’s “100 most influential people.” He has been recognized by mainstream and business media in the United States for his leadership on the issue of homelessness.

“We are honored to welcome Philip Mangano to Santa Barbara County,” said Roger Heroux, executive director of Bringing Our Community Home. “He is truly the most important leader in the history of the homeless advocacy and solutions. The10-year plan is an extraordinary achievement of countywide collaboration and dedication, and it is gratifying to have our community recognized as both an innovator and a contributor to the momentum of this nationwide movement.”

In just a little more than six months, Mangano has compiled 275 signatures from mayors, council members and county supervisors around the country.

Early in 2005, Santa Barbara County residents came together to form a plan to end the community’s chronic homelessness. The county’s Board of Supervisors, along with the mayors and city councils of five cities in the county, unanimously supported the drafting of the 10-year plan. More than 100 community members were involved in writing the document. The goal of the plan is to eradicate chronic homelessness in Santa Barbara County by 2017.

In 2008, Bringing Our Community Home was formed as the organization responsible for implementation of the 10-year plan, with initial funding including major support from The Fund for Santa Barbara, the Santa Barbara Foundation, the Hutton Foundation and the St. Francis Foundation.

Each year, more than 6,300 people within the Santa Barbara County region experience homelessness, and within the county, spending on homelessness now surpasses $36 million per year.

Marjorie Wass of SurfMedia Communications represents Bringing Our Community Home.