Agencies Come Together County-Wide to End Homelessness
“An effective coordinated entry process is a critical component to our community’s efforts to meet the goals of ending homelessness,” stated Kristine Schwarz, Executive Director of New Beginnings Counseling Center and co-sponsor of the event, “Coordinated entry is a process that simplifies access to services, identifies and assesses people’s needs, and makes prioritization decisions based on their needs. We are making this training accessible and free-of-charge as an investment in agency staff, clients, and our community, so we can work together to effectively end homelessness in our county.”
Rob Fredericks, Executive Director and CEO for the Housing Authority of the City of Santa Barbara, and co-sponsor of the event, shared that “The only solution to homelessness is a home. If we are going to have a demonstrable impact on reducing homelessness, our community of housers and service providers must properly utilize tested tools like the Vulnerability Index Service Prioritization Decision Assistance Tool to better understand how we can meet the housing and service needs of those who are homeless. This is critically needed training and we are thankful to have Iain De Jong from Org Code to help us learn.”
The first day of the training will be offered at the Solvang Veterans’ Memorial Building in North County, while the second day will be offered at the Santa Barbara Veterans’ Memorial Building in South County, to more evenly split the length of travel for people from both areas of the county. The training is co-hosted and co-sponsored by the Housing Authority of the City of Santa Barbara and New Beginnings Counseling Center. The event is also sponsored by the County of Santa Barbara Community Services Department/HCD and the Santa Barbara County Americorps Partnership.
3 Comments
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Jul 02, 2017 11:34 PM"The solution to homelessness is a home" so if I become homeless on purpose I will finally get my own home! I'm quitting work tomorrow and letting my hair and nails grow long. Not.
How numb are the people that are "ending homelessness"? Like A-1499062959 we been ending it for years and it only keeps getting worse. When will people realize that institutions are the only way. I would say at least 70% or more of people homeless in the US have mental issues. What are we waiting for? We are only letting them down by allowing them live on the streets with no where to go and enabling them when we offer cash and a proposed free house. What good will a home do if they don't even know how to take care of themselves as it is? Open those abandoned buildings and let's get these people in a mental hospital where they can get real treatment. Should have done it yesterday.
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Jul 02, 2017 06:14 PMThe flop houses are too damn expensive..., they would need the National Guard to enforce the vagrancy laws, and the institutions are already here just not enough room.
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Jul 02, 2017 11:41 AMIt seems as if we've been "ending homelessness" for decades but the "homeless" keep increasing on our streets.
One might think that the main thing we've accomplished is funding a public bureaucracy that purports to accomplish this minimal result.
There must be a better way than continuing the same thing over and over.