The city/county 10 year plan on homelessness, available at www.communitycouncil.org/level-3/homeless-plan.html provides some details that indicate the plan is costing more money than it should.
The problem is in those details.
The housing first approach was developed by Pathways to Housing in New York, who uses a scattered site housing approach, leasing existing apartments and placing the homeless in them then delivering services to them.
This results in a very cost effective plan, which their website www.pathwaystohousing.org/html/overview.html describes: “Pathways can provide individual apartments with extensive support services for an annual cost of $22,500 per client”
Sacramento has also adopted this model, but for only part of their plan, and they can produce essentially the same services, which they call “Units Provided Through Leasing” (p.39 of their report) at $12,926.61 total annual cost per client. (A total cost of $2,818,000 for 218 individuals)
However under the other part of the plan Sacramento has adopted, which they call “Units Through Development” (p. 43 of the report) they anticipate costs, just for development of 75 units, at $18,500,000, with annual operating and service subsidies of $11,200,000 over 30 years for a total project cost of $29,700,000 and an annual cost of $99,000.00 per individual assuming 4 people per unit.
When you add in the neighborhood degradation of placing a 60-75 homeless housing unit in a neighborhood, and the emerging realization that concentrating social problems tends to create a reinforcement of existing social issues rather than an emergence of community norms which is found more often in leasing arrangements; it appears Sacramento might be going the wrong direction, at least on part of their plan.
The leasing approach should be adopted for the entire plan, which we have been consistently calling for.
County opens drive to curb homelessness
By Jocelyn Wiener - Bee Staff Writer
Published 12:00 am PST Wednesday, January 17, 2007
Sacramento County supervisors voted Tuesday to pay for 60 new housing units for the county's homeless mentally ill.
The vote represents two important first steps for the county -- the first local rollout of state Mental Health Services Act dollars and the first concrete step toward implementing the city and county's 10-year plan to end chronic homelessness.
The Board of Supervisors unanimously supported the allocation of $4 million of Mental Health Services Act dollars to the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency. The agency will use the money to build or renovate at least 60 units in coming years. The units will be for singles and families, and will include support services such as counseling and employment programs.
"This is the cornerstone, really, of our plan to try to end homelessness," said Supervisor Roger Dickinson, who helped develop the 10-year plan that was adopted by the city and county last year. "This is a very significant and important step in that direction."
In November 2004, California voters approved Proposition 63 -- also known as the Mental Health Services Act -- a 1 percent tax on millionaires that funds programs for the state's mentally ill.
Along with the $4 million allocated for housing Tuesday, county supervisors will consider $10 million in Mental Health Services Act dollars next month. That money will support a range of programs that serve the mentally ill, including a wellness center for Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders and a program to help mental health consumers transition out of hospitals or jails, said Ann Edwards-Buckley, director of mental health services for Sacramento County.
"This is a beginning," she said.
Edwards-Buckley expressed concern, though, that the good news locally could be dampened by a proposal by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to cut about $55 million in AB 2034 dollars designated for services to the homeless mentally ill.
