San Diego County supervisors will consider a proposal to declare homelessness a public health crisis on Tuesday. This is a move aimed at increasing the community’s response to the increasing number of people living without shelter.

County Chair Nathan Fletcher and Supervisor Nora Vargas said the first proclamation focused attention on the mental and physical health of homeless people, and the county is working with all 18 cities to work toward solutions. I said I was.

“The reality is that the county government has not been involved in the game at all for far too long,” Fletcher said at a press conference Monday morning outside the county administrative center. “They weren’t actively involved in helping our community address the problem of homelessness, but that has changed.”

Fletcher and Vargas said the designation will make the homeless a top priority in the county. However, the county does not qualify for additional funding.

A countywide homeless count taken in February found 8,427 people were homeless and more than half were living without shelter. shelters have been opened, but there are often very few beds available.

The declaration is important because it focuses on addressing the health issues facing so many homeless people, regulators said. Data from the Regional Task Force on Homelessness show that 14% of homeless people have chronic health conditions, 18% have mental health conditions, 12% have physical disabilities, 13% have substance use disorders, and about 25% are 55 years old. It turns out that’s all.

Homeless people are also twice as likely to have diabetes and almost twice as likely to have high blood pressure and heart attacks. The homeless community was hit hard by his hepatitis A epidemic in 2017 and last year’s shigella epidemic.

Going forward, Vargas said he hopes the county will create an online dashboard that tracks the region’s progress towards homelessness solutions and allows cities to access grants.

“We have many community partners who are already doing great work, but this gives us the opportunity to come together and improve our work in a way that has never been done before through a local lens. I will,” she said.

Among the elected officials who joined Fletcher and Vargas were Lemon Grove Mayor Raquel Vazquez, San Diego City Councilman Stephen Whitburn, and Imperial Beach Rep. Paloma Aguirre.

Tamera Kohler, president and CEO of the Regional Task Force on Homelessness, also attended the event and said healthcare is helping to end homelessness.

“This work tackling the homeless is about people,” she said. “I know too many people spent the night on the street or in their cars instead of in their own beds last night. Unfortunately, more people are in shelters than we have seen in a long time. increase.”

Shortly after the press conference with Fletcher and Vargas, county supervisors Joel Anderson and Terra Lawson Reamer joined Kohler at the Gary and Mary West Senior Wellness Center a few blocks away Tuesday. Discussed the details of a rental subsidy program to be submitted to the Board at increase.

A year ago, Serving Seniors released its Senior Homeless Needs Assessment and found that more than half of those interviewed said an extra $300 a month would improve rent stability.

In February, the Supervisory Board instructed the Chief Administrative Officer to return to the Board with a plan to develop a grant program in response to this report. In a proposal submitted to the board on Tuesday, he would set aside $2.9 million through the 2024-25 fiscal year to provide 220 seniors with $500 a month and also receive light case management services.

Eligible beneficiaries, selected later, include householders aged 55 and over with incomes below 50% of the regional median income and with severe rent burdens. That means 50% of your income goes towards housing costs. The income of the head of household aged 60 or over must be below her 30% of the regional median income.

Paul Downey, president and CEO of Serving Seniors, also at the Gary and Mary West Wellness Center, said the relatively modest investment in keeping seniors home can provide shelter if they become homeless. said to be far less than the cost of doing so.

“This is a big problem in solving the homeless problem of the elderly,” he said.

Anderson also said the program is a cost-effective approach to helping older people, and said it’s important to help people avoid homelessness as much as possible.

According to Kohler, the latest number of homeless people in the county says about a quarter are over the age of 55, and half say they are homeless for the first time.

The oldest, an 87-year-old man who lived in a car and became homeless for financial reasons following a health crisis, she said.

According to Lawson-Remer, the grant program is the first in the county to focus on seniors.

“While gas and housing costs are rising for all of us, seniors with fixed incomes are seeing rents rise and are no longer able to live in the homes they have spent decades in.” she said.

At the end of the pilot program, Lawson-Remer said the county’s new assessment agency will investigate the results and may be scaled up to help more people.