New hope for area’s homeless

Improved services help more people find permanent housing

Area residents might still consider homelessness a critical issue, but some officials say services are improving and they’re hopeful for the future.

Emergency homeless shelter 14Forward serves between 120 and 150 people per year, Yuba County Homeless Project Manager Chaya Galicia said. Of those, about 25 to 30 percent are able to move into permanent housing.

“The whole trust issue is still a big thing,” Galicia said. “We’re working to help people out of a situation they’ve been in for many years and that change is not going to happen overnight.”

But she sees that percentage as a success and reflective of the hard work by staff members. She said 14Forward and the Life Building Center (which opened last September) have helped Yuba-sutter agencies come out from their silos to work together in addressing area homelessness.

“It’s been incredible the way all agencies have been working together to streamline access to people,” she said. “That’s been a really important piece that we’ve been missing.”

Galicia said a Yuba County outreach team goes down to the river bottoms weekly to make connections and try to offer services. While there are definitely still encampments, Galicia said the numbers have been drastically reduced.

“Sometimes it’s hard to see from a community member’s viewpoint,” she said, “but when you’re doing work and getting