Lodi, San Joaquin officials to tackle homelessness

The Lodi City Council and San Joaquin County Board of Supervisors will hold a joint meeting today to discuss the issue of homelessness in the county.

During the meeting, the San Joaquin County Homelessness Task Force will give an update on its work for 2017, and the City of Lodi will give an update on its effort to tackle the issue of homelessness in the city.

“Lodi has (been a) leader in regards to the homeless issue, and so what we’ve done here is try to collaborate amongst the various agencies that provide homeless services plus the county and the cities to make sure whatever resources are available are maximized,” said Supervisor Chuck Winn, who represents Lodi and serves on the county’s homelessness task force.

Identifying successful programs and collaboration between the cities, county and nonprofit resources has been the main goal of the county task force, he said.

“It’s also important that we coordinate amongst these various agencies and government entities to make sure that we know what’s going on, so we don’t have any gaps in services or duplication of services, which is obviously a waste of valuable resources,” Winn said.

According to Lodi City Manager Steve Schwabauer, the Lodi City Council is committed to doing all it can to address issues of homelessness in the city and county.

“They’ve shown their desire to do so through funding a community resources officer position and significant funding to both the Salvation Army, the Grace and Mercy Foundation and Lodi House over the years,” he said. “So the city has certainly shown that it’s dedicated to working to address homelessness. I’m sure we’d be glad to partner with the county on the appropriate basis.”

The meeting will include discussion of the board’s request that the City of Lodi adopt the county’s strategic priorities on homelessness, as

well as contribute to fund the proposed county homelessness coordinator position and the continuum of care, a multiagency planning body with the common goal of ending homelessness by coordinating housing and services funding for homeless families and individuals.

“We haven’t really had a lot of opportunity to evaluate exactly what it is the county is proposing because we’ve only seen anything about the proposal in the last few days,” Schwabauer said.

The proposed county coordinator would oversee all of the programs for homeless residents in San Joaquin County, to ensure that the county is providing necessary services, Winn said.

The coordinator would also work to address issues faced by or linked to the county’s homeless population as they arise.

“It’s kind of a two-pronged approach,” Winn said.

The hope is that all cities in the county would help fund the homelessness coordinator position, he said.

“Obviously the position of homelessness coordinator is going to cost some money. The county is willing to contribute a certain amount, and is asking the cities to also contribute a share, so that we can fund this position,” Winn said.

The collaborative investment among the various agencies, cities and county would ensure that whatever efforts they put forward

maximize limited resources and make progress toward reducing the issue countywide, Winn said. The county will mostly like contribute about $50,000 towards the position, he said.

According to Winn, addressing the issue in San Joaquin County is vital, because homelessness has become an epidemic throughout the state.

“(California houses) probably over 20 percent of the homeless population in the United States, and if you look at youth homelessness, we probably house about a third of the population,” Winn said. “So what we’re looking at is, how can we reduce the current situation to a point where we improve their situation, but also at the same time improve our communities?”

Rehabilitation for homeless residents after they are arrested and released from jail is something that Winn would like to explore moving forward.

When homeless citizens are arrested and taken to jail, they often serve their sentence — usually a few days — and are released, with no efforts to address their situation, Winn said.

“Other than being off the streets for a while and probably receiving some necessary care, we really haven’t changed anything,” Winn said.

Today’s meeting is set for 6 p.m. in the Board of Supervisors chambers, on the sixth floor of the county administration office, 44 N. San Joaquin St., Stockton.