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HOPE lO-Year Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness in San Mateo County The financial costs of homelessness are also . Having a concrete plan in place will allow San substantial. Study after study documents the Mateo County to maximize existing resources enormous costs of homelessness to society and and acquire new ones. While this plan puts to communities when a significant portion of the forth many recommendations about how our population does not have a stable place to live. In community can "work smarter" and make New York City, it costs an average of $40,000 per more effective use of existing resources, it year to provide emergency also recognizes that the goals cannot be services to each homeless accomplished without substantial new The HOPE Plan is a person (including the costs investments. By developing a strategic plan, the blueprint for action. It is of emergency room visits community is better positioned to tap into state a roadmap to a desired and in-patient hospital stays, and federal resources, as well as to secure local result: the end of home- crisis mental health and private and public sector investment. lessness in San Mateo substance abuse treatment, County. and criminal justice interventions) . c. How This Plan is Different From Other Plans San Mateo County joins a growing statewide and nation-wide movement to establish long-range Housing Solutions plans to end homelessness. The HOPE plan is There is growing evidence indicating that the vast being developed now because the HOPE planners recognize: majority of homeless people can move directly from the street or shelters into housing, provided that . Homelessness and highly unstable housing housing is affordable, does not have time limits, and situations create great harm - both for the offers tenants the support services they need to people who experience it and for the entire gain and maintain stability. Although emergency community. People cannot thrive without a shelters and services are important interventions, safe and secure place to call home. In addition particularly when affordable housing units are to the human costs of homelessness, the in short supply, an emergency shelter bed does financial costs are straining the community's not end homelessness for anyone. Therefore, the publicly funded service systems. Social HOPE Plan recommends the creation of permanent services, hospitals, emergency rooms, jails, housing (meaning housing that does not have time law enforcement, mental health services, limits) that homeless people and people at-risk detoxification programs, the 911 system and of homelessness can afford, and which is linked others spend substantial resources caring for to the services they need. Additionally, the Plan people who are in crisis due to a lack of stable recommends that homeless people move into housing. permanent affordable or supportive housing as quickly as possible. . Ending homelessness requires a new way of doing things. To implement solutions Homeless Prevention that actually end homelessness requires a community-wide commitment to use human Ending homelessness in San Mateo County starts and financial resources more effectively. This with prevention. Many people become homeless will require an unprecedented degree of when they are discharged from institutions, such coordination and cooperation among all sectors as jails, hospitals, or emergency rooms, or are of the community, including city and county leaving the foster care system. Providing these government, businesses, the faith community, individuals with re-entry planning to help them service and housing providers, concerned secure affordable housing in the community and citizens and homeless people themselves. This the services they need to sustain that housing Plan provides the framework for aligning prior to the time of discharge will significantly and synchronizing the efforts of all these reduce the incidence of homelessness. stakeholders towards a unified purpose. 2