Lake County to receive $1.5 million Encampment Resolution grant; supervisors to form ad hoc committee

Lake County Supervisor Sabatier announced that the county has been approved to receive a $1.5 million Encampment Resolution grant and recommended forming an ad hoc committee of the Continuum of Care to plan how to use the funds.

The grant, Sabatier said, can be applied to encampments of varying sizes — "it could be used for a single tent. It could be used for 3 tents" — and the county intends to put creation of an ad hoc committee on the next Continuum of Care (COC) agenda to begin planning distribution. "We just got approved. We got $1,500,000 that we are going to receive," she said.

Why it matters: the COC coordinates homelessness services and funding in Lake County; this new award provides a lump sum the county can direct to outreach, cleanup, shelter, or other encampment responses depending on local decisions. Sabatier said the timing is useful because the county recently completed a point-in-time count and "we know where people are," adding that she believes the grant could "impact up to 250 people."

At the meeting, Sabatier described the county’s prior understanding of the Encampment Resolution grant as aimed at larger, urban-style cleanups and said she learned through peer discussions that the grant can be applied to smaller groupings of tents or individual sites. She said the county will plan use locally through the COC ad hoc committee and that the county’s point-in-time data will inform targeting.

Sabatier also raised a separate funding concern, citing a media report that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) may face staffing and funding reductions. "I've seen... it could be up to 84% reduction in staffing in certain homeless programs," she said, and added that others have discussed a possible 50% workforce reduction at HUD. She said those reports have not yet produced formal notice to the county but that she will raise the issue during upcoming meetings in Washington, D.C.

The remarks at the meeting were limited to announcing the grant award and the intention to form an ad hoc committee. No formal vote or final allocation decisions were recorded on the transcript; Sabatier said she would place the committee formation on the COC agenda for the board and the COC to act on at a later meeting.

The county did not provide on the record at this meeting a breakdown of how the $1.5 million will be spent, a timetable for disbursement, or the full eligibility rules for the grant beyond the description that local officials may define what constitutes an encampment for the grant’s purposes. Those details will be developed in the ad hoc planning process and brought back to the COC or board for formal action.