County to begin tracking homeless population by name

San Diego County is a step nearer to creating an inventory that may identify all homeless individuals within the space following the Board of Supervisors’ settlement to fund it Tuesday.

Supervisor Terra Lawson-Remer mentioned the listing will deal with homeless individuals with larger dignity by referring to them as a reputation quite than a quantity and can assist service suppliers create individualized options for every particular person.

She and Supervisor Jim Desmond introduced the thought to the board final August on the suggestion of Interfaith Neighborhood Providers President and CEO Greg Anglea, who mentioned the listing would assist homeless service suppliers all through the county share data and monitor the progress of people.

Since then, county employees members have met with neighborhood organizations, service suppliers, native governments, individuals with lived expertise in homelessness and the Regional Activity Drive on Homelessness to discover the feasibility and value of a countywide by-name listing.

On Tuesday, the board authorized a contract with the Regional Activity Drive on Homelessness for $100,000 over the following two years to create the listing.

In September, the county Division of Homeless Options and Equitable Communities, Workplace of Homeless Options and the duty pressure met with representations from 10 cities, and an October assembly convened with greater than 50 individuals, together with members of nonprofits, community-based organizations, outreach staff and different organizations targeted on homeless options, in accordance with an replace supplied to supervisors Tuesday.

The replace didn’t listing which cities participated, however the plan as initially instructed by Anglea was to start with a pilot of only a few communities earlier than increasing it countywide in a 12 months or 18 months.

For instance of how a by-name listing may assist homeless individuals, the replace earlier than the board mentioned officers from one metropolis may meet with all companions working with homeless individuals of their jurisdiction to deal with assets out there to assist a person and guarantee progress is being made.

In one other instance, a number of jurisdiction may work collectively to deal with particular sub-populations, akin to seniors or individuals with critical psychological diseases of their space, to pool assets to deal with their distinctive wants.

It additionally is predicted to assist the well being and well-being of homeless individuals by offering details about them to those that may also help coordinate entry to companies and housing.

Anglea has mentioned a by-name listing additionally may very well be extra exact than the annual one-day rely of homeless individuals, such because the countywide one scheduled for Thursday, which depends on observing or estimating how many individuals are outside, in tents and in autos.

Underneath the contract authorized Tuesday, the Regional Activity Drive on Homelessness will create the by-name listing by working with jurisdictions and entities all through the county. Funding for the contract is included within the operational plan within the county Well being and Human Providers Company and can come from the American Rescue Plan Act, Homeless Providers Part.