2025 Michigan's Summit on Ending Homelessness

What started as community-level action plans in 2006, aimed at increasing access to affordable housing and driving self-sufficiency, has evolved into a statewide infrastructure known as the Michigan Campaign to End Homelessness (MCTEH). One of the premier events coordinated via the MCTEH is the annual Summit on Ending Homelessness. It is intended to provide a forum for federal, state, and local government, service providers, funders, and people with lived experience to share best practices in ending homelessness. This two-day event allows time for networking and collaboration for case managers and administrators alike who are diligently working to improve the welfare of people in Michigan who are living in poverty and homelessness.

This year's 2025 Homeless Summit focus is "Strength in Unity: Navigating Change Together" and in that spirit the Michigan Campaign to End Homelessness is proud to collaborate and partner with the Michigan Network for Youth and Families. MNYF's mission is to strengthen Michigan youth in need, their families, and communities by providing quality support, information, training, and advocacy for our members. Please join us in congratulating MNYF on 50 years of serving and supporting their youth.

Tonier works tirelessly to raise the awareness about trauma informed care around the world. She has trained providers in all fifty states. Tonier is an advocate and educator, speaking all over the world on trauma, addiction, incarceration, homelessness, substance abuse and mental health. Her work has been used as a model in other countries for the establishment of their trauma informed care protocols.

Tonier was the former team leader for the National Center for Trauma Informed Care, with the National Association of State Mental Health Program Director. Currently she works to create international leaders in the field of Trauma Informed Care. She hosts an annual national conference to update and enlighten providers on current best practices. Tonier’s methods have proven to be effective, resulting in numerous awards for her work. She has been honored by two governors, a mayor and a state attorney with proclamations naming days after her, because of her help to transform their city and state.

Tonier is the C.E.O. and Founder of Tonier Cain International, Founder and President of Neen Cares, Inc. A 501 C 3, Founder and Co-C.E.O. of M.E.T.-R Integrated Health, Global, as well as the Founder and C.E.O. of Purposeful Entertainment Production Company.

She is an award-winning Film Producer that is the Creator and Producer of the Upcoming TV Show “Restoration”, Executive Producer of the Film “Walking Thru Bullets”, subject and Co-Producer of the Award-Winning Film “Healing Neen”, along with being featured in the Documentary “Behind Closed Doors: Trauma Survivors in the Psychiatric System” and advising on the film “Like Any Other Kid”.

Tonier is an author and serves as a Citygate Network Board Member. Her commitment to advocating for those who are often forgotten hasn’t gone without recognition. She has been featured in many articles including December’s 2014 Ebony Magazine and appeared on over seventeen talks shows. Tonier Cain uses her life experiences to make a difference for trauma survivors.

As a strategist and project manager and advisor, Susan Williams brings 16 years of nonprofit experience, with an unwavering commitment to equity for individuals impacted by homelessness and poverty. In her talk, "A Time for Intentionality," Susan will share her powerful conviction: that true, lasting change in the sector is never accidental. It demands a proactive shift in our responses, a refusal to accept the status quo, and a relentless focus on treating everyone with acknowledged worth, justice, and strong support.

Susan's expertise is not only academic—backed by advanced degrees in health administration and business, and a project management certification that underpins her strong risk mitigation and strategic planning capabilities—but also profoundly personal. She transparently shares that she obtained her own degrees while experiencing periods of homelessness, lending unparalleled insight and empathy to her work.

Believing deeply in collaborative solutions, Susan actively partners with agencies to enhance vital programs and systems. Her pioneering efforts include ensuring people with lived experience (PWLE) are integrated into all decision-making spaces with equal voice, balanced power, and proper compensation. She has also been instrumental in creating strategic programs that build the capacity and opportunities for PWLE to secure permanent, thriving positions within the homelessness service sector. Susan's ultimate goal is to empower individuals to achieve independence, not just from homelessness, but from the very systems that inadvertently limit their potential, fostering their ability to build self-sustaining communities.

Monique Price (she/her), affectionately known in her community as The Trailblazer, is a fierce and forward-thinking leader rooted in purpose and possibility. A proud, mompreneur, to one of her greater blessings her son Jeremiah.

Monique is a seasoned strategist with more than 15 years of experience in racial equity, systems transformation, supportive housing, and community capacity building. She is the visionary behind The Trailblazer Network, LLC, a platform dedicated to helping others “maximize their minutes by optimizing their gifts.”

Monique also serves as Senior Manager of Community Engagement & Transformational Learning at ARC4Justice, where she leads with integrity and boldness to center racial equity and lived expertise in systems-change work. She was a key contributor to the development of the Connecticut Race Equity Framework for Housing and Homelessness, and has provided training and technical assistance across a broad landscape of providers and partners.

Monique’s leadership legacy includes serving as a Success Coach Consultant for the Obama Foundation’s Hartford Community Leadership Corps and as the fourth Co-Chair of the Connecticut Balance of State Continuum of Care, where she helped catalyze collaborative change in housing and homelessness policy.

Her earlier work focused on youth development, behavioral interventions, and underage drinking prevention initiatives with the Boys & Girls Clubs of Hartford, Inc. and the CT Department of Transportation. She is deeply committed to transformational learning and servant leadership, continuously working to co-create intergenerational tables that elevate BIPOC voices and shift power for lasting impact.

Monique holds a Master of Science in Counseling with a specialization in Higher Education from Central Connecticut State University and a Bachelor of Science in Communication from Eastern Connecticut State University. She lives by the mantra: “Reframe your fears to fuel your purpose.”

A gifted speaker, author, and educator, Monique is not only a leader—she is a movement in motion, committed to lighting the path for others and building a just future, one bold step at a time.

2025 Planning Committee

Allison Green, Michigan Coalition Against Homelessness
Amina Mohamed-Saleh, Michigan State Housing Development Authority
Ashia Wilson, PWLE
Cassie Smith, Department of Military and Veterans Affairs
Heather VanDenburg, Macomb County Rotating Emergency Shelter Team
Benjamin Moe, Michigan Network for Youth and Families
Catherine Distelrath, Corporation for Supportive Housing
Daniel Klink, Jackson-Hillsdale-Lenawee Community Action Agency
Dashamir Pettway, PWLE
Hannah DeCiantis, Michigan Blue Cross Complete
Lynn Hendges, Michigan Department of Health and Human Services
Lynn Nee, Michigan Department of Health and Human Services
Michelle Edwards, Michigan State Housing Development Authority
Molly Ford, Michigan State Housing Development Authority
Paige Beasley, Corporation for Supportive Housing
Sarah Boucher, Northwest Michigan Community Action Agency
Rod DesJardin, Michigan Department of Health and Human Services
Sarah Hughes, Northwest Michigan Community Action Agency
Susan Williams, Beyond Common Consulting

2025 Content Committee

Allison Green, Michigan Coalition Against Homelessness
Amina Mohamed-Saleh, Michigan State Housing Development Authority
Benjamin Moe, Michigan Network for Youth and Families
David Permaloff, Common Ground
Heather Vandenburg, Macomb County Rotating Emergency Shelter Team
Jennifer McNeely, Michigan State Housing Development Authority
Jim Perlaki, REACH-Traverse Place
Joseph Rusher, Lighthouse
Kaveiririru Murangi, HUD
Susan Williams, Beyond Common Consulting

2025 Michigan's Summit on Ending Homelessness

Keynote Plenaries

Thank you to all those that helped make the Summit possible!