Modesto residents can weigh in homeless plan at meeting, through online survey
The people behind a countywide plan to address homelessness will be gathering input from Modesto officials and residents Monday during a City Council workshop.
The Community System of Care — which consists of local governments, nonprofits and other homeless service providers — and the Stanislaus Homeless Alliance are working on developing the Regional Homeless Strategic Plan. The Bay Area consultant Homebase is working with the two groups in its development.
Modesto council members and residents will have the chance Monday to share their concerns, ideas and solutions regarding homelessness with those developing the plan.
The workshop starts at 3 p.m. and is being held over Zoom, the videoconferencing platform. More information — including how to attend and participate — is available at www.modestogov.com/749/City-Council-Agendas-Minutes and by clicking on the link for the meeting agenda.
There also is an online survey to gather input. The survey is in English and Spanish and can be found on Stanislaus County’s website, stancounty.com, and by clicking on the link for “Community Input Sought on Homeless Plan.”
Nora Breslin with Homebase said Thursday that nearly 600 people countywide already have taken the survey, which is expected to be available through early May. “We are getting more responses than we thought,” she said. “... That is really a great turnout.”
Breslin said Homebase representatives held similar meetings this year with Riverbank and Waterford officials and are in contact with Stanislaus County’s other cities to collect feedback. There also was a meeting with the Municipal Advisory Councils, which represent the county’s unincorporated communities.
Work on the plan started in the fall.
She said the goal is to gather input from throughout the county and all of its various constituents, including business owners, homeowners, renters, homeless service providers and homeless people in an effort to create a strategic plan that represents everyone.
For instance, Breslin said paper copies of the survey will be provided to homeless people at shelters who do not have access to the internet to ensure their input is included.
Roadmap for homeless solutions
She said the plan will not tell cities and other communities what they need to do but will reflect their concerns — including what they have identified as gaps and deficiencies in homeless services — and provide the system of care and homeless alliance with broad recommendations on how to address them.
She said the plan could be completed this summer.
“For too long we have addressed homelessness without a comprehensive plan to accommodate the varying and unique situations of our homeless neighbors,” said Brad Hawn, chairman of the Stanislaus Homeless Alliance, in a news release. “The real test will be holding ourselves accountable to the plan so we can measure our progress in reducing homelessness in our county.”
The alliance’s members include elected officials from throughout the county as well as from organizations that work on homelessness.
Hawn acknowledged in an interview he understands some residents want more concrete action in reducing homelessness and not another plan. But he said this plan is promising because it aims to achieve countywide input and buy-in and offer comprehensive recommendations to reduce homelessness.
“I don’t want it to sit on the shelf,” he said. “It will have quantifiable activities” that we can undertake.
This story was originally published April 4, 2021 at 5:26 AM.
