Supervisors hear report on regional effort to address homelessness

Published May 10, 2022

Addressing homelessness in mid and south Placer County is the focus of an ongoing regional effort, and today the Board of Supervisors heard a report detailing potential strategies, which emerged through facilitated discussions over several months between city and county leaders. 

 MIG, Inc., a recognized leader in community social policy and planning, facilitated the regional discussions and presented the Placer Homelessness Response Emerging Strategies Phase 1 Report during today’s board meeting.

 The report identifies over a dozen potential strategies to mitigate homelessness impacts, including exploring the need for an emergency shelter in south Placer, expanding partnerships between law enforcement and social services for outreach and response, implementing regionally compatible ordinances and law enforcement practices, exploring the potential for a sobering center with support services and evaluating the possibility of expanding interim and permanent supportive housing.

 “This is an excellent report with a number of reasonable options that will enable us to protect our unsheltered and also help our residents to feel safer,” said District 5 Supervisor and Board Chair Cindy Gustafson. “We need to continue our leadership with this regional effort because the trends are indicating we will see more unsheltered. It’s critical for us to be proactive, innovative and prepared.” 

The potential strategies were developed by a regional working group of stakeholders and the ideas were then advanced to an ad hoc committee made up of two elected leaders from the county and each of its five cities and town in the region. Over the last two months, MIG has made several informal presentations to share the report with town and city councils in Placer County. 

Reaching consensus was not a priority for phase 1 of the regional effort as the leadership wanted to ensure residents had an opportunity to participate in the process. Phase 2, which will be rolled out this summer, will include community outreach, the distribution of a large-scale survey and the convening of a representative planning group to dig into the details and finalize a plan.  

 “I look forward to the second phase of this effort and working with our city partners,” said District 1 Supervisor Bonnie Gore. “We may not always agree but I am thankful for the partnerships and hopeful that we can come to a consensus on some solutions. I also want to highlight to our residents that this is an issue we have been working on for 20 years and that is why Placer County experiences the lowest rate of homelessness in Northern California.” 

 Today’s presentation comes on the heels of a recent state grant of $23.5 million to convert the Hampton Inn and Suites in Roseville into 82 units of permanent supportive housing for people experiencing homelessness in Placer County. This brings the total inventory to 683 beds in the county’s housing continuum of care, ranging from emergency shelter to permanent housing.