The San Diego County Board of Supervisors Tuesday unanimously approved a plan to improve services for severely mentally ill homeless people.
“Project One For All’s” aim is to create partnerships between providers of housing and mental health support.
Supervisor Greg Cox said the county will work with the region’s cities, organizations and agencies that work with the homeless, landlords and housing officials to get people, who could function better if they have access to services, off the streets.
More than 18 percent of the 8,500 or so transient people in the region are believed to have severe mental health problems, according to a 2015 census of the homeless population.
“These are the people who have basically lost the struggle with behavioral health issues, and are just about as down-and-out as human beings can possibly get,” Supervisor Greg Cox said. “They have a serious illness. These lost souls share our streets, but not our sense of reality.”
The supervisor said those with mental illnesses are the most expensive to deal with, because they frequently make visits to hospital emergency rooms, ride in ambulances or take up the time of law enforcement officers.
According to a staff report, Project One For All is modeled after Project 25, which worked to get the 25 most frequent users of public resources off the streets.
Project 25 — a collaboration between the county of San Diego, San Diego Housing Commission, United Way of San Diego County and St. Vincent de Paul — ended up serving 37 individuals, according to the report.
—City News Service
