Blogging about homelessness—what about the county?
As Pam pointed out in her comment to my first blog post, what about the county’s responsibility? County government is the social-services provider of last resort, charged by law with looking out for the health and well-being of citizens who can’t otherwise take care of themselves. In 2005, the county board of supervisors signed an agreement to support the region-wide Plan to End Chronic Homelessness, which at that point was yet to be drafted. But, when it came time to look at a completed plan, supervisors balked. So far, out of all the local governments in San Diego County, only Santee and the county have declined to sign off on the plan (Santee claims to have no homeless people within city limits). What about the county board of supervisors? A year ago I asked them about it. Here’s an excerpt from that story:
CityBeat contacted each of the county supervisors to ask whether they consider it their responsibility to help fund the city’s homeless shelter and also to find out when they’d be voting on the plan. Pam Slater-Price and Greg Cox didn’t respond at all; Supervisor Dianne Jacob didn’t respond to the question about the homeless plan but did say that operating shelters are “the discretion of each of the region’s cities…. The county is already partnering with cities for program costs and cities need to do their part.” (Indeed, the county Department of Health and Human Services sends counselors and a public-health nurse over to the city’s winter shelter.)
A spokesperson for Supervisor Bill Horn told CityBeat to direct the question about the chronic-homelessness plan to Supervisor Ron Roberts, chair of the board. Roberts did not respond by press time, despite repeated calls to his office.
San Diego City Councilmember Toni Atkins, who’s recently been in touch with Roberts (whose district includes downtown San Diego), said she’s not sure why the supervisors haven’t docketed the plan for consideration.
“I find it curious that the county has taken a pass on supporting the plan,” she said in an e-mail. “This should be a countywide effort…. It only makes sense.”
The week before Thanksgiving, at the meeting of the San Diego Association of Governments (a group that comprises representatives from each local government), Doug Sawyer, CEO of the United Way of San Diego County, gave a presentation on the Plan to End Chronic Homelessness, and pointed out that the county had yet to sign on. Supervisor Greg Cox is a SANDAG member, yet no one asked him directly what was up. I e-mailed San Diego City Councilmember Jim Madaffer (also a SANDAG member) about it later. “The County was certainly the elephant in the room at SANDAG when it comes to their responsibilities,” he replied.
