The Good: Our podcast episode this week revisits our tour of the free boutique at Our Place, the RISE run shelter for women and families, empowering people staying there on their road to being rehoused.
Our elected officials will say this is what we could do with the stipulations of the massive federal COVID money. They will also say it’s an ongoing process, we are learning as we go, we are short staffed, this is just the early phase of this project, we didn’t expect the number of unhoused to grow … How long will they keep saying this?
Probably for as long as its true. The key problems, lack of housing and inadequate staffing, have been repeatedly reported to the homeless commission and are being addressed. Covid has also been a factor, but hopefully is waning.
They didn't know how many unhoused are in the community or that there is almost nothing to rehouse people with bad credit, no credit and very little monthly money? Seems like a huge oversight.
Agree! As I understand it, the counting systems (HMIS annual and our local monthly "BFN" counts using "Build for Zero" were very much affected by Covid. As county staff were quoted in a recent article, the outreach to count people was very reduced.
true but many who work with the unhoused including Washoe County schools, and also advocates always knew Point in Time Counts were huge undercounts. Thanks for comments!
Looks to me like their suspicions were correct (or maybe impact of motel closures were yet fully felt).
However, data driven means gathering actual data, not suspicions. Numbers appear to me to be more realistic now, although not seeing as many homeless on the streets.
Our elected officials will say this is what we could do with the stipulations of the massive federal COVID money. They will also say it’s an ongoing process, we are learning as we go, we are short staffed, this is just the early phase of this project, we didn’t expect the number of unhoused to grow … How long will they keep saying this?
Probably for as long as its true. The key problems, lack of housing and inadequate staffing, have been repeatedly reported to the homeless commission and are being addressed. Covid has also been a factor, but hopefully is waning.
They didn't know how many unhoused are in the community or that there is almost nothing to rehouse people with bad credit, no credit and very little monthly money? Seems like a huge oversight.
Agree! As I understand it, the counting systems (HMIS annual and our local monthly "BFN" counts using "Build for Zero" were very much affected by Covid. As county staff were quoted in a recent article, the outreach to count people was very reduced.
true but many who work with the unhoused including Washoe County schools, and also advocates always knew Point in Time Counts were huge undercounts. Thanks for comments!
Looks to me like their suspicions were correct (or maybe impact of motel closures were yet fully felt).
However, data driven means gathering actual data, not suspicions. Numbers appear to me to be more realistic now, although not seeing as many homeless on the streets.