Board Orders Formation of Committee to Find Solutions for Long-Term Homelessness

IMAGE: A man asks for money alongside a freeway off-ramp in Banning, Calif. on April 27, 2016. CREDIT: Renee Schiavone

--

By PAUL YOUNG, City News Service:

Riverside County supervisors voted Tuesday to form a multi-agency task force to develop a "systematic approach" for reducing homelessness countywide.

Supervisor Kevin Jeffries introduced the proposal based on feedback his office received following efforts to remove itinerants from locations in the First District where they were exposed to flood danger during El Nino-related winter storms.

Jeffries said it became clear that it was time for a working group composed of both social welfare and frontline law enforcement agencies to come up with viable solutions for placing homeless individuals and families in long- term housing.

"The homeless we have today are not going to find jobs because of a number of issues," the supervisor said, pointing out that the economy was no longer a major factor. "There are people who need to be intimately involved in this process -- code enforcement officers, probation, police and sheriff."

Department of Public Social Services Director Susan von Zabern told the Board of Supervisors that a task force with representatives from 60 public and private agencies was already focused on creating policies that could further reduce homelessness. But Jeffries said the group lacked a meaningful law enforcement presence, and was therefore short of opinions from the very individuals who deal most with the dispossessed.

Supervisor Chuck Washington liked the idea of more frontline involvment, saying county, state and national entities had been "putting a lot of resources into homeless issues without really solving them."

Washington noted that one of the policies formally approved by the board Tuesday was the "Stepping Up Initiative," which mandates expanding efforts to place mentally ill inmates in treatment programs to lessen the likelihood of ongoing patterns of criminal behavior.

Jeffries said the task force should aim to "bring all of the resources together for a more systematic approach for triaging homeless individuals and families."

County CEO Jay Orr was directed to report back in 90 days on progress structuring the task force and putting it into effect.