the effort failed<\/a> amid a citywide deficit. That\u2019s left the outreach team relying on a one-time state grant worth $750,000 that should last, at most, through next summer. The group had almost twice as much money the previous fiscal year when the city helped finance the initiative.\u00a0\u201cUnless ongoing funding is identified by the middle of the fiscal year, the program will begin ramping down operations,\u201d Scott Marshall, a spokesperson for the San Diego Housing Commission, wrote in an email.<\/p>\nOfficials are already considering cutting the team\u2019s size and reducing how much direct aid is available to homeless residents. The process of closing the entire operation could begin as soon as January.<\/p>\n
The Multi-Disciplinary Outreach Team is run by the nonprofit People Assisting The Homeless, or PATH. (Father Joe\u2019s Villages also provides health care to participants.) Each member of the team assists only five or six homeless residents at a time, a small caseload that lets outreach workers spend concentrated hours with people before and after they\u2019re housed.<\/p>\n
Last year, the group helped 36 individuals, most of whom had long been homeless, according to PATH. Many on the street feel they\u2019ve been ignored or mistreated by other support systems, so staffers often first focus on more basic needs, like clean water or wound care. In 2024, the team provided some form of service 1,167 times, PATH said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s little baby steps,\u201d Angie Striepling, director of housing initiatives at PATH San Diego, said in an interview before the cuts were announced. You \u201ctry to connect and try to connect and try to connect.\u201d Striepling shared a story of one woman sleeping outside who, for unclear reasons, would barely speak. After months of visits (and gifts of fresh coffee) the woman finally expressed interest in staying at a shelter, and leaders were ecstatic about where that might lead.<\/p>\n
Yet the shift to living indoors can be tricky.\u00a0\u201cMy clients, when they finally get into shelter, they don\u2019t sleep in the bed,\u201d said Jenna Halseth, another member of the team. \u201cThey sleep under the bed because they\u2019ve been on the street so long.\u201d<\/p>\n
The group got 11 residents into permanent housing last year while another individual was connected to a temporary home. \u201cIt\u2019s a big transition,\u201d added Halseth, who spends much of her time helping people adapt to their new environment. But regular follow-ups appear to be paying off: PATH leaders said around 85% of those who\u2019ve gotten housing stayed housed.<\/p>\n
If the team does end, the mayor\u2019s office is hopeful that other outreach and service groups can pick up at least some of the slack. San Diego\u2019s \u201clarger Coordinated Street Outreach Program will continue delivering life-changing opportunities,\u201d spokesperson Matt Hoffman wrote in an email. Forty outreach workers are part of that initiative.<\/p>\n
In addition, the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department has what\u2019s called a Resource Access Program to aid those frequently dialing 911 and San Diego police created an Intervention Services Team to focus on people struggling with mental health or addiction.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Being \u201chomeless\u201d can mean many things. The term encompasses families unable to make ends meet, veterans struggling to…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":77945,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,1582,276,728,50,3549,3550,7264,7289,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-77944","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-local-news","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-san-diego","14":"tag-san-diego-county","15":"tag-sandiego","16":"tag-top-stories-sdut","17":"tag-united-states","18":"tag-united-states-of-america","19":"tag-unitedstates","20":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","21":"tag-us","22":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114885510095399739","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77944","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77944"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77944\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77945"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}