Marin County Health and Human Services officials presented a study session on the county’s homelessness system of care, reviewing progress since 2018, current operations and funding risks and asking the Board of Supervisors for guidance on priorities and a strategic refresh.

The presentation, delivered by Dr. Lisa Varhos, director of Health and Human Services, with Chief Strategy Officer Nikkor Tyler and Gary Nagariz, director of Homelessness and Coordinated Care, highlighted measurable results from prior initiatives (including the Whole Person Care pilot and the county’s Housing First adoption), described a suite of temporary rental supports used to respond to voucher shortfalls, and laid out a forthcoming process for a countywide “strategic refresh” and a proposed communications campaign.

County staff said the Whole Person Care pilot yielded local health-use reductions among participants (a 26% reduction in emergency‑room visits and an 18% reduction in hospitalizations) and helped create about 100 units of permanent supportive housing. Staff also said coordinated entry (launched in 2018) and other local efforts contributed to reductions in chronic homelessness. Marin Health and Human Services reported that roughly 3,263 people have been placed into housing since 2016 and that, for households receiving rapid rehousing, a 96% retention rate at six months was reported.

Why this matters: staff and board members said the system has demonstrable successes but faces new limits because several major grants end in the next two to four years and the Marin Housing Authority declared a Section 8 voucher shortfall in August 2024. Those funding shifts, staff said, risk slowing or reversing recent gains unless the county secures replacement funds or continues temporary rent‑support pilots.

What staff presented

- System approach: Varhos framed the county work around “housing first” principles and a collective‑impact model with cities, community‑based organizations and the housing authority. The system map staff displayed included prevention, rapid rehousing, outreach, housing‑focused shelter, coordinated care and permanent supportive housing.

- Results cited: staff said the county has increased housing inventory (scattered‑site and single‑site supportive units, including completed Homekey projects), used many types of vouchers and temporary rent supports, and moved people out of encampments: staff said 64% of Binford Road residents had exited to housing to date and cited other encampment progress (for example, 155 people sheltered or housed after work on resolved encampments named in the presentation).

- Voucher shortfall and temporary rent support: the Marin Housing Authority’s voucher shortfall has led the county and partners to pilot temporary rental subsidies (grants or time‑limited supports) to bridge people into housing while they await Section 8 vouchers. Staff described four pilots including temporary supports at a Homekey site (Sweeney Place) and ERAP pilots; staff said about 92 households remain on the emergency housing voucher list the county used during the pandemic and that the state’s pandemic supports have ended.

- Grants and timelines: staff identified about a dozen major grants that begin to expire this fiscal year through FY2028–2029, including a cluster of five Encampment Resolution Fund grants (about $18 million total, per the presentation) and five homelessness‑housing‑prevention grants (about $10 million total in the presentation). Staff said the state’s HAP funding rounds now require jurisdictions to show sustainable funding for existing interim or permanent housing before asking for new resources.

- Strategic refresh and communications: Health and Human Services staff said they will issue an RFP for an external consultant to lead a time‑limited strategic refresh of the county’s homelessness system of care and plan a countywide communications campaign with three phases: resident stories, system explanation and partner recognition. Staff said the campaign may use traditional outlets plus ferry‑terminal advertising and podcasts.

Public comment and community partners

Community providers and residents thanked the county and urged continued emphasis on prevention and partnerships. Christine Paquette, CEO of the Saint Vincent de Paul Society of Marin, asked the county to explicitly count philanthropic and volunteer contributions alongside government financing so the county can show the full scale of community support; Paquette said volunteers and private donations fund staff time and services beyond contracted work.

Jacqueline Jaffe, executive director of Adopt A Family of Marin, highlighted family homelessness work and called families a feasible subpopulation for targeted “functional zero” goals. Susan Sadowski, a member of the Commission on Aging, urged supplemental outreach beyond the point‑in‑time count to locate older adults not in visible encampments, particularly in rural parts of the county.

Brad Gross, executive director of the Richardson Bay Regional Agency, urged continued county support for RBRA’s temporary housing work, which he said has moved dozens of people off vessels and enabled environmental restoration in the bay.

Board response and next steps

Supervisors praised the presentation and asked staff to return with an RFP and concrete priorities for the strategic refresh. Multiple supervisors emphasized prevention as cost‑effective and urged clarity about the communications campaign’s intended audiences and measurable return on investment. Staff said procurement for the prevention pilot (a $3 million partnership with All Home and Marin Community Foundation) was underway and that an updated homelessness and coordinated care website is live at marinconty.gov to publish data and program updates.

Staff stressed that the study session was informational — not a board vote — and that the housing authority and other partners retain operational control of many program elements. As next steps, staff said they will: post the final data updates, complete the consultant RFP and return to the board with recommended priorities for the strategic refresh and the communications campaign schedule.

Ending

Health and Human Services framed the study session as the start of a time‑limited, facilitated process to refine investments and increase sustainability while preserving current gains. Board members and community partners left the session urging an emphasis on prevention and on meaningful resident and city‑partner engagement as the county moves into the refresh and RFP process.