Marin County officials on Wednesday discussed a strategic refresh of the county'wide homelessness response and said a temporary rental-assistance program that had funds earmarked for rapid deployment is delayed because a primary outreach partner closed.

Staff told the Marin County Board of Supervisors that the Downtown Streets Team'— a partner the county relied on for outreach and program enrollment ' is closing, and the county is working to reassign or hire staff to fill that outreach role before the funds can be quickly disbursed. "That is the reason for the delay," a staff presenter said.

The workshop also covered broader system planning. Staff said the consultant-led request for proposals (RFP) planned as part of the strategic refresh will include significant outreach to cities and towns, nonprofit partners and multiple county departments so the final strategy reflects the countywide picture. "We can hold the work, but we don't own it on our own," staff said.

Behavioral-health officials provided a separate update on Care Court, the state-authorized process that can pair people with serious mental illness with court-supervised treatment. Dr. Todd Shermer, director of Behavioral Health and Recovery Services, told the board that "as of our last data pull which was late August we had 25 petitions filed for Care Court. That number is close to 30." He said about 11 of those cases had voluntary care agreements and that none had required an involuntary care plan so far; a majority of referrals have been people who are unhoused.

Supervisors pressed staff on prevention strategies and populations of focus. Several board members and speakers said Marin's homelessness population skews older compared with neighboring counties and asked for consolidated data. Staff said the county's 2024 point-in-time report included a first-ever special section on age demographics and offered to return with more detailed consolidated figures.

Board members and community partners also discussed programs that the county has piloted, including shallow rent subsidies and HomeMatch, a program that pairs households needing rooms with households that can offer them. Staff confirmed HomeMatch participates on county committees and that the county has small pilots for subsidies aimed at preventing homelessness or stabilizing people immediately after housing loss.

Public commenters urged a strong housing-first approach and emphasized wraparound services. A longtime outreach worker, identified in the record as Bobby, said some people decline housing offers because program rules or intrusive requirements feel like barriers: "...we're now doing housing first, which means that we'do not have to tell them we're going to change their lifestyle in order to get into any of the housing programs that we have," he said.

Other public commenters tied related services to prevention. Kelsey Lombardi, coordinator for the Marin County Child Care Commission, urged county staff to include childcare in prevention planning, noting past on-site childcare at Family Village as a model. Paul Fordham of Homeward Bound of Marin highlighted reductions in veteran homelessness, saying the county and partners have housed about 137 veterans since 2017 and urging the county to pick a next high-priority subpopulation for focused effort.

County staff also confirmed the next point-in-time count is scheduled for January 2026; early top-line results are expected in late spring or early summer 2026. Staff described the current prevention pilot as generally short-term (months on average) while acknowledging some clients may receive supports for a year or longer depending on need.

No formal motions or votes were recorded during the workshop; the meeting was convened as an information and planning session and included a public-comment period.

The board asked staff to return with more detailed demographic breakdowns, a timeline for the RFP outreach plan that includes cities and towns, and plans to replace the outreach capacity lost with Downtown Streets Team's closure so that earmarked rental-assistance dollars can be deployed before winter.