Published: 1 years 251 days ago
Sacramento County no longer wants to coordinate the area's homeless
programs and plans to turn over that task to a new organization to be
made up of government and private stakeholders.
The county will be out of money for homeless services by the end of
February, officials said, and is scrambling to come up with funds to
operate programs through 2011.
In the meantime, it is pushing forward with a plan to form a nonprofit
group or joint powers authority that would pursue government grants,
raise money in the private sector and distribute millions of dollars
to agencies that serve the homeless.
The approach could save money and deliver services more efficiently,
said some of those involved in the planning process.
Officials from the county Department of Human Assistance will present
their plan to the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday, and they want to
embark on the project immediately. The new organization could be
running by next June, they said.
"The current system is not sustainable. We need a public and private
partnership with as many stakeholders as we can get," said Anne Moore,
Mayor Kevin Johnson's homeless liaison. Johnson has declared the
homeless issue one of his priorities.
"We need to build a strong infrastructure that will extend far into
the future with the ultimate goal of ending homelessness," said Moore.
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