The Concord City Council on Tuesday will discuss how to implement a homeless strategic plan.
In August, the council officially supported the idea for this fiscal year and forming a working group to come up with recommendations for the plan. Staff and the city’s Housing and Economic Development Committee put together a report for the council outlining some recommendations, including appointing seven members to the working group, which the council will discuss.
The city would interview and appoint five potential members in January. Two other members would come from the council.
In January 2022, the city conducted a survey of residents, asking questions about satisfaction with the city, its quality of life, and its most serious issues. More than 51 percent of respondents said homelessness was the city’s most serious problem.
The council set aside $2.4 million of one-time general funds at its mid-year budget update in March to explore the issue, then in April set the development and adoption of a homeless strategic plan as a priority for fiscal year 2022-23.
In September, the council allocated an additional $3 million of American Rescue Plan Act funds, for a total of $5.4 million of one-time funding available for projects and priorities established in the strategic plan. Thie funds will also be used to fund a consultant to help with the plan, according to a staff report.
The report also says the plan will assess the needs of Concord’s unsheltered population, using data and fact-based information. Under the council’s direction, it will incorporate strong community engagement including residents, businesses, individuals with lived experience, service providers, and faith-based groups.
The group will work directly with staff and the consulting team to guide the development of the plan, assess current services, challenges, costs, unmet needs, system gaps, and overview of federal and state resources. It will also develop “a vision, goals, and objectives with measurable performance targets.”
The council will have input on the plan at various stages and be its approving body.
The group’s work is anticipated to take nine to 12 months. Of the group’s five non council members, it’s recommended one have experience of being homeless, one representing a nonprofit homeless services provider, one who’s a substance abuse and/or mental health professional, one Concord resident and property owner, and one representative from the city’s business community or owner of commercial property in Concord.
The Concord City Council meets at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at the city hall council chamber, 1950 Parkside, Dr. The meeting can be joined on Zoom at http://bit.ly/3W7Cp0H or by going to www.cityofconcord.org.
Nothing takes a year, that’s another year of homeless taking over all the public spaces and the crime that comes along with it. Get your act together.
Oh my, going to be so many lunches, travel days and site visits, etc, etc, etc.
A one way ticket out of town.These people don’t want help.Stop wasting tax payers money.
have you ever thought that maybe they refuse to get help because they’re mentally unwell? no sane mentallly stable person would ever want to be homeless or at least almost all. pushing them around to different cities doesn’t solve the problem if anything that’s what has made this problem worse
.. more action… less talk
$5.4M in funds that could be directed to improving the quality of life for residents through better transportation infrastructure, park amenities, sports facilities, children’s programs etc. will be directed to a homeless service provider and a consultant to create a strategic plan for homelessness. All we’ll get is a committee and a plan. What are the measurable performance targets?
I read that over 2 million shopping carts are stolen every year. Guess who’s paying for the loss?
Quit wasting taxpayers money putting these people in motels and apartments without a plan to minimize or eliminate the cause of the problem (ie treatment for mental illness and/or drug addiction). Otherwise all you end up doing is relocating the problem and creating a perpetual money pit for taxpayers.
Should put in a call to newsom, given his vast experience on the subject,
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newsom was member of SF Board of Supervisors, 1997 – 2004.
Press conference 30 June 2004, new Mayor gavin newsom pledged, in ten years the worst of San Francisco’s homeless problem would be gone.
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Before newsom became governor in 2019, he was Lieutenant Governor from 2011 – 2019.
All those years of experience, 1997 to . . . . . ?
Ya know in 25 years you’d think he might have gotten a clue about dealing with homelessness problem, mental health issues and substance abuse. Having a “group” means finger pointing will take place upon failure.
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Between CA’ legislation and spending 10s of millions of dollars conning voters into passing Propositions consequences for addiction and criminal acts are now all but non existent in this state. Cities are already starting at a huge disadvantage.
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Have 40 + years observing chemical dependency, until a person hits their bottom chances of lasting sobriety are slim to none.
The strategy should be to send them to DC. Heck, gov nuisance, when mayor, used to bus them from SF to Reno.
I hear Delaware is a nice destination. Will that be a window or an aisle?
There is only one or two practical solutions. Find a secluded lot and build military type barracks or military type tents, build a cafeteria, toilets and showers. You either go there or jail for being a vagrant. In the long run that is cheaper. The other thing is send them back from where they came from. Allowing them to pitch a tent anywhere is just plain cowardly. Arresting all of the drug dealers would also work. How hard would it be to spot a drug dealer dealing to the homeless. Then we have the court system. Never mind just let them camp anywhere.
And, don’t forget that they need to work in shifts to keep the area clean and contribute to society in some meaningful way.
I do hope this program helps get the unsheltered homeless off the street and into shelter including the drug rehab and mental health support most of them need. The status quo has got to go, as they say.
The county needs to play a big role here, and it was not even mentioned in this summary. It really is contra costa county’s job to provide for shelter housing and mental health care services. They have a muti-billion dollar budget, doctors and hospitals. Concord has crumbling roads, parks in poor repair, increasing property crime, and deteriorating housing stock.
I hope this new team engages the county board of supervisors early on to get them to step up to their responsibility.
Yo mike
It’s not Contra Costa Counties job to house these people. What the hell are you smoking?
The greater problem, as I see it, is that the government is not capable of helping anyone or anything.
The government’s solutions are usually a once size fits all program that simply doesn’t work for anyone.
Let the nonprofits and religious organizations do the work of fundraising and providing services.
Keep the government out of this endless and costly money pit.
Nothing is free, everyone needs to pay their own way, including the homeless.
When the government steps in, you know things will not get done. They are only in the business of funneling funds. Never to actually fix a problem.
$2.4 million to explore the issue? I’ll “explore” it for them for free.
There is only one solution to the homeless problem. The 90-95% who are addicts and/or mentally ill need to be put into treatment facilities appropriate for their condition. We can build them if need be. Some might need to remain their permanently, some will recover and return to society.
The 5-10% who aren’t mentally ill or addicted can get a job and get off the streets. Problem solved.
City, County, State… “they” do not want a solution. Never have. A true solution for homeless drug addicts and mentally ill would put too many tax supported government employees out of work. The only thing “they” want is their own financial self preservation, at any expense! Lives of others mean very little to “them.” Instead of that party boat of extending their childhood by going to college for a degree in “social services,” they could have done better for society if they had grown up and gone into the building trades and constructed more mental hospitals. Vote for people who really DO want the sick off the streets and out of our parks. Vote NO on ALL new taxes or extensions of (LMAO) Temporary taxes.
Nothing has been done for the last 35 years, not going to happen now either. Use the money to build small houses, not for worthless programs.
The canals between Chuck-E-Cheese and Waterworld are an eyesore for the city. The city NEEDS to go their with police, arrest all of the tweakers/criminals who have moved in from God knows where (Likely out-of-state) and clean up the graffiti inside and out. The trash that is going into the delta is an issue that I don’t think it talked about or fair to animals.