Santa Clara County's Collaborative on Housing and Homeless Issues has its membership drawn from over 100 County, City, and private agencies that provide services to the unhoused residents of our community.
Strategic Planning
For many years the County, Cities, nonprofit organizations, the faith community, and concerned citizens have worked together to meet the needs for shelter, housing, financial assistance, and supportive services. It is this "continuum of care" system of housing and services that the Collaborative seeks to develop. The Santa Clara Countywide Five Year Homelessness Continuum of Care Plan, developed by the Collaborative, seeks to create a comprehensive and coordinated system of affordable housing and supportive services for the prevention, reduction, and eventual end of homelessness. The Plan provides a common blueprint to guide the County, the Cities, service providers, the faith community, the business sector, philanthropy, and the broader community in realizing the vision of a community in which everyone's housing and life needs are met. In addition, the Collaborative is working with Santa Clara County on its 10-Year Plan to End Chronic Homelessness - “Keys to Housing.”
10-Year Plan
The 10-Year Plan incorporates a strong Plan Implementation Oversight design, mechanisms for measuring and publishing success and for garnering the financial resources which will be required to end homelessness.
Woven throughout this plan are strategies which acknowledge that our success in ending long-term homelessness requires the participation of all of the community. Business, labor, philanthropy, government, non-profits, faith-based organizations, unhoused people, neighborhood associations, housing developers, funders, citizens and real estate associations -- all have a role to play.
Collaboration
In order to be effective, the Continuum of Care must be integrated and coordinated so that when unhoused residents make contact with one agency in the system, they can be linked across agencies with the full range of housing and services they need to stabilize their lives and maximize their self-sufficiency. The Collaborative also utilizes two Internet-based systems developed by Community Technology Alliance that provides accurate and up-to-date information about service and housing availability is essential. HelpSCC provides information about homeless services, including housing, support services, and employment resources. HousingSCC offers a list of subsidized housing in Santa Clara County. These resources are accessible to anyone with Internet access - outreach workers, case managers, homeless people, and the general public. The Shelter Bed Hotline (1-800-7Shelter) provides information about shelter bed availability on a daily basis. The Collaborative also provides a voicemail system to assist the homeless, or near homeless, in interacting with others to obtain housing and employment.
HMIS
Key to the success of collaboration in Santa Clara County is the Homeless Management Information System. The Collaborative is implementing HMIS which will facilitate more effective collection and sharing of information between agencies, to identify needs and gaps in delivering services to unhoused and at-risk residents of our community. The system will streamline emergency shelter and supportive service delivery to the unhoused, while reducing duplication of effort and technology by staff at agencies that serve this population. HMIS will allow staff at agencies that provide services to the unhoused computerized access to real-time information about bed availability, as well as basic information about the clients seeking services. Clients will no longer need to repeat the basic information about their needs and requirements. HMIS will give a clear and correct picture of the unhoused community and information needed to fill any gaps in service.
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