The Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors today unanimously approved a $1.2 million subsidized housing program for the chronically homeless.
         
The board's approval will allow for the development of a 12-month pilot program that will provide 100 housing vouchers for homeless individuals and families.

"This voucher program is a part of the county's effort to move beyond the band-aid approach, such as temporary shelters, to more permanent housing solutions," said board President George Shirakawa.

The program, slated to be implemented in April, will be particularly helpful in cities like Gilroy, which has over 400 homeless people, according to Jan Bernstein Chargin, chairwoman for the Gilroy Compassion Center.  

“We know that [number’s] an under-count, because we know that a lot of homeless aren’t visible—they’re staying in cars, they’re staying in garages, in rural areas,” she said.

The vouchers would help Gilroy’s homeless overcome obstacles making it difficult to find housing, like the money needed for a deposit, according to City of Gilroy Council Member Dion Bracco, who also serves on the board of the Gilroy Compassion Center.

“We have a lot of homeless who have a job, but it doesn't save enough for the deposit to get into a house, and they have no references. They have no telephone or address, so when they fill out an application, it’s not very appealing,” he said. “The housing vouchers would move these people up to the top of the list, and they’d be able to get housing because they’d have the vouchers, and would be able to build references so they can be productive members of society again.”

The vouchers would also allow compassion center staff to focus on individuals who need help in other areas, Bracco said, and would free up space at The National Guard Armory, which provides shelter in the evening, but only through the winter months.

“If you place 10 families, they wont be gong to the shelter anymore or any of the other agencies trying to get help, so that frees up the agencies for someone else who’s more in need,” he said. “For every person we can take off the homeless role, that leaves resources to spread else where.”

Jennifer Loving, executive director of Destination: Home, a program that aims to find permanent housing for the county's most vulnerable homeless people, said the program is not only a humanitarian effort, but would also save taxpayer dollars.

"Studies across the country have shown that when people have permanent homes, they are less likely to cycle through expensive public systems like jails or hospital emergency rooms," Loving said.

Candidates for the vouchers will be identified through the Housing 1000 campaign, which aims to move 1,000 homeless people into permanent housing by 2013.

Berstein Chargin said she plans on working with the organization to ensure that homeless individuals in the southern part of the county aren't left out.

“We’re definitely concerned that these vouchers will be available to people in South County,” she said. “We'll be working with the Housing One Thousand to make sure that South County people will be added to the database and considered for vouchers.”         

An additional 25 vouchers will be provided to individuals being released from state prison or county jail with AB 109 funding. AB 109 is legislation that Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law last year to address overcrowding in state prisons by shifting prisoners from state prisons to county level jails and programs.

For an individual to qualify for the program, he or she must have a disabling condition and have been continually homeless for one year or longer or have had more than three episodes of homelessness over the last three years.
        
A disabling condition is defined as a physical disability, mental illness, severe depression, alcohol or drug abuse, chronic health problems, HIV or AIDS, tuberculosis, hepatitis C, trauma, or a developmental disability.

—The Bay City News contributed to this report.