City updates commissioners on 'Familiar Faces' outreach, seeks partnerships for 24-hour space and family pilot

The city presented an update on the Familiar Faces program and the Familiar Families pilot, detailing outreach work, staffing needs, funding constraints and next steps for locating a 24-hour recuperative site.

Chris Michaels of the Office of Neighborhood Safety told the Housing & Redevelopment Authority the program has launched outreach and is onboarding life coaches, behavioral health staff and case managers to form an intensive care management team. “We have hosted and provided services to probably about 30, 35 familiar faces, in the terms of direct outreach,” Michaels said. She added the outreach effort has had broader reach: “Outreach has several touches of lots of people. Since the rollout of outreach we've probably had touches of over, like, 250 individuals.”

Michaels reported the program has facilitated about 20 housing placements to date and has roughly eight more individuals slated to move into housing by the end of the month. While permanent housing is the goal, staff said they also provide hotel vouchers during the interim: “Probably…