Coalition seeks community input on 5-Year Plan to Reduce Homelessness

MONTEREY, Calif. (KION) The Coalition of Homeless Services Providers (CHSP) has released a draft of its 5-Year Plan to Reduce Homelessness, and now it is holding a meeting to get community input on it.

Early last year, CHSP said it partnered with the County of Monterey, County of San Benito and City of Salinas to write the plan. The goal is to reduce the homeless population in Monterey and San Benito Counties by 50% over the course of 5 years, and the draft follows three overarching strategies:

• Increase participation in homelessness solutions by leaders and key stakeholders from across the region
• Improve the performance of the homelessness response system
• Expand service-oriented responses to unsheltered homelessness

According to CHSP, there were 2,422 people experiencing homelessness in Monterey County as of a Point in Time count in January 2019. There were 282 people experiencing homelessness in San Benito County.

The plan includes six guiding principles, goals and measures to track progress and strategies for subpopulations- such as youth, undocumented residents and people experiencing chronic homelessness. It ends with a Year One Action Plan that lays out specific actions, who will lead them, where funding will come from and other details.

A virtual community meeting will be held on July 15 from 10:30 a.m. to 12 p.m. to discuss the draft. These are the Zoom meeting details:

Zoom Meeting Info
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85268341793?pwd=MzcrVEg4VnlUdkVmVXdULzFtU2JDUT09

Meeting ID: 852 6834 1793

Passcode: 131782

Read the full 5-Year Plan to Reduce Homelessness draft below.