Concord takes multi-faceted approach to help the homeless

CONCORD, CA (June 26, 2024) — Earlier this month, Contra Costa County released its annual Point-in-Time Count data about homelessness in the region. I was pleased to see that the number of unsheltered individuals in Concord decreased by 28%, even though overall numbers throughout the county increased.

The decrease in Concord is welcome news, and I give credit to the work done by a bunch of folks who operate together and separately.

The county’s Coordinated Outreach, Response and Engagement (CORE) team works full-time in Concord. Their job is to interact with unsheltered individuals on the street, make referrals to supportive services and provide transportation to overnight shelters. The team delivers case management to ensure individuals experiencing homelessness are connected to the resources they need.

The percentage decline was also facilitated by the supportive services provided by a variety of community groups, including Rainbow Community Center, Veteran Ascension Housing and Grass Roots Outreach Warriors (GROW), along with individuals who have reached out.

I am also particularly proud of the success of our city’s rapid rehousing program run through Hope Solutions. Since we launched the program in 2022, we have been able to provide immediate housing to more than a dozen families who were experiencing homelessness.

These investments are consistent with the strategies that we identified in our recently approved Homeless Strategic Plan.

At our meeting on June 4, my City Council colleagues and I directed city staff to use the $5.2 million of one-time funds that we had previously set aside for homeless response to support the top six strategies recommended by the Homeless Strategic Plan Working Group.

The idea is to get support out on all the approaches and see which can be both sustained by the bidders and deliver results within our city. By using a request for proposal (RFP) approach, we are allowing organizations to propose their own methods for implementing the strategies we’ve identified.

To advise on the competitive grant process, we created an ad hoc committee that will be co-chaired by Dominic Aliano and Laura Hoffmeister to work on the specifics of the wording.

While we remain committed to serving our unsheltered population through interim transitional shelter, outreach and other services, we recognize that what is truly needed is more housing at all levels.

We all need to remember that there is not “A” homeless problem. There are many unsheltered people who have a whole series of individual dynamics that trap them in a cycle of homelessness, and we must build different paths and services out of those disabilities. With our limited funds, we are hoping to have a surge in successes by dealing with families first, then those who want to be helped and can be helped and make a network that can sustain itself from there.

There is progress, but we hope to build more momentum and put Concord in concord with our needy folks.

Send comments and questions to EdiBirsan@gmail.com