ORLANDO, Fla. — A big organization in Central Florida working to solve a persistent problem — homelessness — is looking for new leadership.

After three years at the helm, Central Florida Commission on Homelessness CEO Shelley Lauten is stepping down.

Lauten announced her resignation back in March and will remain CEO through June 30.

She said her goal was to make it to 1,000 days in leadership, generally the amount of time to "move the needle" in any organization.

"If you’re one paycheck away from losing your home, how good are you as an employee? How can our community expand jobs if we don’t have homes for those people?" she said of the mission.

Lauten said that she is proud of the work the organization has done, especially reflecting upon a 3-year pilot study based around the "Housing First" model.

"Most important to me: 95 percent of the people that we housed stayed housed for the duration," she said. "Some of these individuals had been on the streets of Central Florida for nearly 20 years."

When it comes to the economics of homelessness, Lauten said that it costs the community about $31,000 per year to keep someone on the street from medical costs like emergency room visits, to the use of the criminal justice system, with officers forced to make arrests for nuisance crimes like sleeping on streets or urinating in public.

But, by housing people first, the pilot study revealed a steady drop: $18,000.

"Not only is it the right thing to do, it’s the economic thing to do," she said. "If you give someone a home and help them medically, their survival rates increase and our cost for both housing and the criminal justice system plummet because people have a sense of worth and pride."

Years ago, Lauten had been approached about spearheading the fight against homelessness as her predecessor Andrae Bailey eyed his next career move. She recalled it was a trip to India which brought the concern home and ignited her passion.

"I came back and looked around our streets and said we don’t have the same, what we do have here is an effort to really make a difference on addressing chronic homelessness in Central Florida," she said. "And I need to be a part of that."

Now, as Lauten steps away from her work to spend some time with her family after years in public service, she said that building upon long-term investments and public-private partnerships should be her successor's top concern, with tackling the affordable housing crisis just behind.

"We need a 10-year plan on how we’re going to invest, so we make sure if we’re housing people, we have the resources we need to keep them housed," she said. "I think the next phase of leadership is, how do we expand what we’re doing."