Addressing Homelessness

In Tuesday’s evening meeting the Board of Supervisors took time to address homelessness in Shasta County. 

The Board approved a letter of support for the AT-HOME initiative created by the California State Association of Counties (CSAC), and received a presentation from HHSA Director Laura Burch regarding the ongoing Martin Luther King Jr. Park/Mercy Canyon outreach efforts to housing-insecure individuals.  

These outreach efforts aim to identify issues contributing to homelessness, remove the barrier of lack of transportation to HHSA Offices, and to connect individuals with the resources they need. 

Since January outreach efforts have been very effective, taking place on 4 separate Saturdays for a total of 34.5 hours. In that time, 18 people have connected with HHSA staff, 10 have been enrolled in housing, and 8 in temporary housing. 11 of those have also been assisted with applying for MediCal and cal-fresh services. Those served included veterans, victims of domestic violence, victims of human trafficking, some that are currently working and some that are actively looking for work. 

AT-HOME was developed to analyze barriers to addressing homelessness and to tailor solutions to the unique needs of each community. 

The plan recognizes that local officials have a deep understanding of the needs and challenges of their communities and are best equipped to develop solutions that work for their residents. The hope is to gain support for AT-HOME from California cities and counties and effectively impact policy at the state level. This would give greater freedom to local agencies to use State allocated funds at their own discretion to serve their communities, instead of implementing blanket solutions which may work in some CA cities, but not others.