Advocates of drastically changing how Shasta County deals with the homeless remain optimistic.
This, after plans to move toward a “housing-first” model received lukewarm receptions from both the Redding City Council and the Board of Supervisors. A presentation for the Shasta Lake City Council is scheduled for Tuesday.
Lawmakers appear reluctant to commit money to the initial phase, which involves better coordinating services and collecting more data.
Redding City Councilwoman Kristen Schreder is among the proponents.
“It costs about between $11,000 and $14,000 (annually) in our community to house someone with the support services, compared to what we calculated for on average, a chronic homeless person in our community costs $66,000 a year,” Schreder said.
An analysis conducted by advocates estimated that Shasta County spends more than $34 million annually on roughly 3,200 homeless people. That works out to just over $11,000 per person. Very little of that goes to food, shelter, counseling or job training. Instead, much of it goes to ambulance rides, emergency room visits, hospitalization and jail stays.
More than $12 million went to medical care. Lacking insurance, the homeless are typically denied care until ailments become life threatening and hugely expensive. At that point emergency rooms are required to provide treatment.
By comparison, about $14 million is spent on shelters, food, financial assistance, preventative medical care and mental health combined.
While Schreder doesn’t expect immediate embrace of the new approach, she remains confident.
“I think a lot of people in our community and I think people even who can make decisions recognize that it doesn’t, our situation doesn’t seem to be getting any better,” she said.