At a workshop Wednesday in Ukiah, local agencies learned how to apply for a pot of funding for homeless services that typically gets scooped up by larger cities.
“In the past two years, we haven’t got a dime of the (Emergency Solutions Grant) funding north of Marin County,” said state Sen. Mike McGuire, (D– Healdsburg), referring to $20 million that is set aside for agencies serving the state’s estimated 144,000 homeless residents by California’s department of Housing and Community Development.
“Mendocino County has the second-highest population of homeless in the nation per capita,” said McGuire, who represents all of the North Coast counties, including Mendocino, Humboldt, Lake and Sonoma, to explain why it’s particularly important that his district receive some of the ESG funding. The grant previously helped the Ford Street Project operate its homeless shelter, and the loss of that funding contributed to closure of the Buddy Eller Center.
Of the nearly 150,000 homeless residents in California, “about 32,000 are considered to be chronically homeless, and each of those chronically homeless is estimated to cost the taxpayers $100,000 a year in emergency room visits, jail stays, mental health treatment and other services,” he added.
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