Shasta supervisors approve veterans homelessness plan, add substance‑use counselor funded by opioid settlement

The Shasta County Board of Supervisors on Wednesday approved a budget amendment and salary resolution to add a drug-and-alcohol counselor to the county Health and Human Services Agency (HHSA) to support a new veterans homelessness plan.

The vote was 5-0 after a presentation from Christy Coleman, interim agency director for Health and Human Services, and Troy Payne, the county Veteran Service Officer, who described a networked approach pairing the Veterans Service Office (VSO) with local veteran organizations such as Our Hero’s Dreams and Nation’s Finest.

Coleman said the plan starts with a call to the Veterans Service Office and then routes each veteran to the local agency best positioned to meet immediate needs. "The VSO will do an intake form and will be able to try to verify the veteran status," Coleman said. "Based on the needs of the veteran, the VSO will reach out to a local veteran agency." Payne added, "This has been a labor of love. This collaboration that we're putting together ... has been prepared by veterans for veterans."

Why it matters: County leaders and veteran organizations said the approach focuses limited county resources where they believe they will do the most immediate good: identifying veterans, vetting eligibility, providing urgent care or short-term shelter, and then connecting people to longer-term housing supports such as HUD VASH vouchers, rapid rehousing or transitional housing. The…