A state program called Project Roomkey offered grants to temporarily house homeless individuals. Now some of those individuals in Shasta County will move into permanent homes.
Five houses, four in the city of Shasta Lake and one in Anderson, will soon be used for the five-year pilot program that will house up to fifteen people. Shasta County is providing $2.2 million for the program through a grant the county received from the state program, Project Homekey.
Project Homekey is intended to move chronically ill and older homeless individuals into permanent housing. Another state program, Project Roomkey, offers temporary motel rooms to vulnerable homeless individuals living in congregate shelters.
Shasta County nonprofit Hill Country Health and Wellness Center will run the program and lease the homes. Coordinators have chosen seven people to move in by Jan. 20.
The remaining individuals are still being chosen. According to survey data from the 2020 point-in-time count, there are 816 people homeless in Shasta County.
Lynn Dorroh, CEO of Hill Country Health and Wellness Center, hopes this program can serve as a model to house more people in the future.
“This is an opportunity for us to learn how to manage that kind of housing, which has some additional issues because people have to learn how to get along with each other,” she said.
Hill Country Health and Wellness Center also plans to take precautions to prevent individuals who move in together from spreading COVID-19. The Shasta County Board of Supervisors will hear a presentation and weigh in on the project during its Jan. 5 meeting.