Community meets to work on Concord’s Homeless Plan
CONCORD, CA (Nov. 10, 2023) — November is Homeless Awareness Month. The January 2023 Point in Time Count released this summer showed the number of unsheltered people in Concord increased from 160 to 241 over last year.
While almost all cities face this challenge, we recognize its impact in Concord and are working on more strategies to address it.
Challenges include that 65% of the homeless self-report that their homelessness is the result of a substance use disorder or mental health condition. With various state laws that decriminalized and established voluntary treatment for such, it can be difficult to have them voluntarily connect to resources and organizations that can help them. However, we know that just doing nothing is not the solution.
We have set aside one-time funds of $5.4 million to address homelessness, $2.4 million from the voter-approved Measure V sales tax and the balance from federal aid from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA).
Developing a strategic plan
In March, we launched an effort to develop a strategic plan with the guidance of a community working group, which has met monthly since March and shared its progress several times this year with the City Council at public meetings. We discussed goals at the Nov. 7 council meeting.
We are also hosting community meetings to seek your feedback at 6 p.m. Nov. 15 via Zoom and in person at 6 p.m. Nov. 16 at the Senior Center, 2727 Parkside Circle. A Homeless Strategic Plan meeting will be held at 6 p.m. Nov 27 at the Senior Center.
The council will hear the draft plan at a public meeting on Jan. 23. The next step is to prioritize and develop strategies to implement the plan, including identification of potential ongoing funding sources.
This fiscal year, we have invested $500,562 to programs that provide services – such as Contra Costa Crisis Center, Community Outreach Teams, Food Bank, Rapid Rehousing Program, Trinity Center Day Program and RotaCare Mobile Health Clinic.
Encampments
We recognize that encampments are one of the unfortunate challenges with homelessness. Where there are public safety issues, our teams are often able to clean those up in partnership with the CORE outreach team that offers services to the homeless.
If you need to report an encampment that you believe is a public safety issue, we encourage you to use our Concord Connect mobile app.
Homelessness is clearly one of the largest challenges facing our community, and many people are working hard to develop effective, compassionate solutions. I encourage you to join our community meetings, attend a working group meeting or council meeting. You can also email your comments to HomelessStrategicPlan@cityofconcord.org.
With Thanksgiving coming up, please consider volunteering or helping with many of our community organizations that provide food and meals for those less fortunate. They include the Food Bank, Meals on Wheels, Salvation Army, Monument Crisis Center and local churches that provide food pantries and meal services. The Food Bank also has collection barrels year-round at local library branches and will have ones in some major grocery stores soon. Check www.foodbankccs.org for locations.
Weapons station progress, plus tree lighting
Another current City Council effort is the Concord Naval Weapons Station base reuse project. We selected Brookfield as the Master Developer on Aug. 26. They will be providing an update on their preliminary outreach and draft Term Sheet of what their vision is during the City Council’s public meeting on Nov. 14.
At our Jan. 16 public meeting, we hope to adopt the Term Sheet. This type of contract will allow them to move forward in the community planning and environmental review process. We expect this to take one to two years.
Meanwhile, mark your calendar for the Concord Tree Lighting event, 5:30-8 p.m. Dec. 1 at Todos Santos Plaza.
Direct your questions and comments to the mayor at 925-671-3158 or Laura.Hoffmeister@cityofconcord.org.