By Khalida Sarwari
The Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors today unanimously approved a $1.2 million subsidized housing program for the chronically homeless.
The board’s approval will allow for the development of a 12-month pilot program that will provide 100 housing vouchers for homeless individuals and families.
“This voucher program is a part of the county’s effort to move beyond the band-aid approach, such as temporary shelters, to more permanent housing solutions,” said board President George Shirakawa.
County officials hope to implement the program by April 2012.
Jennifer Loving, executive director of Destination: Home, a program that aims to find permanent housing for the county’s most vulnerable homeless people, said the program is not only a humanitarian effort, it would also save taxpayer dollars.
“Studies across the country have shown that when people have permanent homes, they are less likely to cycle through expensive public systems like jails or hospital emergency rooms,” Loving said.
Candidates for the vouchers will be identified through the Housing 1000 campaign, which aims to move 1,000 homeless people into permanent housing by 2013.
For an individual to qualify for the program, he or she must have a disabling condition and have been continuously homeless for one year or longer or have had more than three episodes of homelessness over the last three years.
A disabling condition is defined as a physical disability, mental illness, severe depression, alcohol or drug abuse, chronic health problems, HIV or AIDS, tuberculosis, hepatitis C, trauma, or a developmental disability.
An additional 25 vouchers will be provided to individuals being released from state prison or county jail with AB 109 funding.
AB 109 is legislation that Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law last year to address overcrowding in state prisons by shifting prisoners from state prisons to county level jails and programs.
