Lake County Homeless Coalition Aims To House 55 People By Sept. 1

LAKE COUNTY, CA — A Lake County homeless coalition is striving to house 55 people by Sept. 1 as part of the Rapid Results Institute's 100-day challenge for California cities and counties to fight homelessness.

By taking part in the challenge, Lake County Continuum of Care said its working to accelerate its efforts to prevent and end youth homelessness in communities. Lake County, Long Beach and Monterey and Mendocino Counties comprise RRI’s third cohort of California jurisdictions.

According to the county, its 100-day goal not only includes housing a significant number of unhoused people, but also setting sub-goals in order to achieve the initial 100-day goal. These sub-goals vary according to the needs of each community, and include housing marginalized youth with a lens on LGBTQIA, racial equity, housing those community members that are unhoused over the age of 55, securing job opportunities and strengthening the infrastructure of existing systems to better deal with this rising epidemic.

The Lake County Continuum of Care is striving to “connect 55 people experiencing homelessness to safe and stable housing.” Emphasis has been placed on ensuring historically underserved populations have the opportunity to benefit from this program.

Since the project began May 24, the 100-day challenge team has helped house 22 Lake County community members.

“Twenty-two lives have been meaningfully transformed as a result of our team’s efforts, and that is truly remarkable,” states Todd Metcalf, Director of Lake County Behavioral Health Services. “Redwood Community Services, Adventist Health, the Lake County Department of Health Services and so many people in Lake County’s communities have been tremendous partners to our agency throughout this effort, and we sincerely appreciate the dynamic presence each brings to our Continuum of Care.”

“There is still work to be done,” continued Metcalf, “and we are working hard to realize our goal!”

Over 3,600 youth and young adults have been housed during the course of RRI's 100-day challenges throughout California.