Concord council to look at hiring homeless coordinator
CONCORD, CA – At the Tuesday, Aug. 10, meeting, the City Council will consider a proposal to hire a community resource coordinator to manage efforts now in place to service the homeless.
These components include the Concord Police Department, the county CORE (Coordinated Outreach, Referral and Engagement) team and the Mental Health Emergency Response team, along with other county, non-profit and faith-based organizations. This new person would also be the city’s liaison to the county.
In the past, Council member Carlyn Obringer has said that the county had all the money for homelessness, not the city of Concord. And, Mayor Tim McGallian has said that he did not think that the city had the resources or the responsibilities to provide homeless services. However, as a member of the Housing & Economic Development (HED) Committee, McGallian voted last month to bring the proposal to the full council.
Gathering data
One of the key issues in coordinating services is that no one knows exactly how many people are homeless in Concord. Council member Edi Birsan, who chairs HED, said he wants specific information on the Concord homeless, person by person. Details would include how long they have been homeless, if they are able to work, if they have family nearby and if they would use a shelter bed if available.
“I’ll be asking for volunteers to contact me so that we can interview the homeless and get more hard-core data and feed it into CORE,” he told the Pioneer.
With this information, Birsan said, the city could create a “target list” of homeless individuals who would seem open to being housed to bring about “success stories.”
At the July 28 HED meeting, Jaime Jenett of the Contra Costa County Council on Homelessness reported that the county’s most urgent need is more beds in permanent supportive housing sites. She said there is only currently space for about one in 20 who want such a place to live.
Jenett said the homeless need more than a place to sleep at night. Most would benefit from services to help them with finances, health issues, looking for a job and, ultimately, to find permanent housing and to no longer be dependent on county or city services.
Multiple strategies
The essence of the meeting was an agreement that the city needs multiple strategies using various resources, including the private sector. That would include faith-based organizations, non-profits and other volunteer or service groups.
One option discussed was finding space where homeless in vehicles could safely park overnight and with basic services, such as bathrooms. There was also talk about building tiny homes or structures with very small rooms, known as single-occupancy resident housing.
Before adjourning, the committee agreed to schedule a meeting focusing on landlord harassment and possibly other issues involved with housing insecurity. Birsan later told the Pioneer the meeting is tentatively scheduled for Sept. 24.
Staff writer Bev Britton contributed to this article.