Monday, Jun. 29, 2009
Supervisors move to consolidate help for homeless people in San Luis Obispo County
Supervisors OK a plan to hire a coordinator to meld the existing programs that offer aid; a critic calls the plan 'bureaucratic baloney'
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closeThe county Board of Supervisors has moved forward on a plan to hire a homeless coordinator who will mesh the many existing programs that aid the homeless and create greater efficiency in helping people who are down on their luck.
The county is putting up $70,000 toward the cost of the half-time executive director and is seeking the rest from other agencies, cities and community organizations such as hospitals.
If one is hired, the executive director would have fund-raising as a key job duty, supervisors said. Having an anti-homeless program in place will help bring in federal dollars, they said.
A local nonprofit organization would be put in charge of hiring the director, rather than the county.
The supervisors also established the Homeless Services Oversight Council as an advisory body and told the county clerk to publish a notice inviting interested county citizens to become members.
The moves came despite protests that the county should not be spending money to create “a new bureaucracy,” as attorney Jim Duenow of San Luis Obispo put it.
He predicted “fighting over scarce dollars. It sounds like bureaucratic baloney.”
Jerri Walsh of the Homeless Advisory Council said the money could be better spent on existing programs and asked what front-line workers think.
But Supervisor Jim Patterson said the goal is collaboration, not competition. Carol Hatley of the San Luis Obispo Housing Authority added that the homeless problem “needs cohesive leadership.”
If, at the end of two years, cities and the county are dissatisfied with the results of the council or the executive director, “they may choose not to continue supporting it financially, and the county could choose to dissolve the (council) as a county- sanctioned advisory committee,” according to Dana Lilley, supervising planner.
“We do not think that scenario will occur,” Lilley said in an e-mail, “but time will tell.”
In January 2009, the total number of homeless individuals counted in the county, including children in school, was 3,829, according to Morgan Torell of the county’s housing and economic development division.
Of those counted, she said, 64 percent — 2,457 — were adults and 36 percent — 1,372 — were children under the age of 18.
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