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Governor Gavin Newsom announced that the San Mateo County will receive $14.1 million to launch a plan to provide housing and services to people now living in small encampments scattered from south San Francisco to Menlo Park.
The grant, along with local and other funds, will help move people into permanent supportive housing and temporary housing.
Available assistance will include behavioral health and substance abuse treatment, mental health counseling, medical care and case management services.
?This grant we received today is expected to serve hundreds of our most difficult unsheltered people living in 26 encampments, some with up to 15 people living under bridges, under streams and along highways. "Are we determined to house these people?" said Mike Callagy, county executive director, during a virtual press conference hosted by the Governor's Office.
“Many of these people live in tents and cardboard boxes; Just think about what they suffered during the recent storms,” said Callagy. “They are some of the most vulnerable people we have in this community and this grant will help us address those people.”
The county reported that, in conjunction with the grant awarded, efforts will focus on more than 200 people who now live along transportation corridors that include Highway 1 on the coast, Highways 92 and 101, El Camino Real, Interstates 280 and 380 and others.
And, the county specified, these are primarily the shelter for "chronic" homeless people, that is, people who have been homeless for more than a year (or repeatedly) and at the same time experience a disabling condition such as an illness. severe mental illness, a substance use disorder, and/or a physical disability.
The county grant was among $192 million in homeless assistance for cities and counties announced by the Governor's Office, getting the $14.1 million it had requested.
"People want these tents and encampments removed, but they want them removed in a compassionate and thoughtful way," Newsom said. “This is a program that works.”
For his part, Warren Slocum, president of the Board of Supervisors, said that "this is the type of action that we know is necessary, it will help end homelessness in San Mateo County."
?Homelessness is a crisis decades in the making,? Slocum said. “It is not a crisis that we can take decades to remedy.”
The immediate goal will be to "bring more services to the countryside than ever before," according to the County's grant application. This includes teams of community workers, many with experience of experiencing homelessness, to meet people wherever they are.
Among the strategies are eliminating the requirement that individuals and families in encampments seeking assistance must go to one of the eight major service agencies to apply for homeless services and housing.
The scope aligns with the county's collective goal of achieving ?functional zero,? for homeless homeless people. That means ensuring that all county residents experiencing homelessness can be safely housed in emergency shelter or temporary or permanent housing.
Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, the county has added 146 permanent supportive housing units and 409 individual units.
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