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Pasco County lays out homelessness strategy, highlights Pasco Hope shelter outcomes and new outreach measures
Summary
County staff described a 'rare, brief, non‑recurring' strategy, presented PIT count data and shelter outcomes, and proposed outreach, anti‑panhandling messaging and referral improvements to reduce visible encampments and expand rehousing capacity.
Pasco County on Jan. 13 presented a coordinated plan to address homelessness focused on making homelessness "rare, brief and non‑recurring," combining prevention, rapid re‑housing and wraparound services.
James Walters, the county’s newly hired program administrator for homelessness, said the county is shifting emphasis from a housing‑only approach to an outcomes‑oriented model that pairs housing with mental‑health, employment and case‑management supports. "If we don't support the unhoused population through capacity, through providing services, and address all of the circumstances that led to someone being unhoused, then we have failed them and solved nothing," Walters said.
County staff reported the 2025 point‑in‑time (PIT) count identified 638 people experiencing homelessness (down from 731 in 2024). Jennifer Watts of the Coalition for the Homeless confirmed the PIT count is HUD‑mandated and said the coalition is already capturing residency history on the survey to better understand how long people have lived in Pasco.
Catholic Charities’ Danielle Husband described Pasco Hope, the county‑supported shelter campus, as a low‑barrier operation that now serves seniors, families and people with chronic health needs. Husband said the shelter allows pets and operates two locations (Grand Boulevard and Youth Lane). "We've been able to rehouse in a year 49 individuals out of Grand Boulevard," she told the board, and reported a range of exits including permanent housing, assisted‑living placements and family reunifications.
Staff reviewed partially funded developments and programs intended to increase capacity: Saint Vincent de Paul’s 33 one‑bedroom units for chronically homeless individuals (expected spring/summer), Magnolia Oaks veteran housing phases, and a Steps to Recovery transitional project. Mary Theria, community development staff, outlined the county’s mix of federal CDBG/ESG, opioid settlement and general‑fund dollars supporting shelter acquisition, operations and tenant‑based assistance.
Workforce and reentry programs were highlighted as a prevention tool. Planning and economic development director David Engel said the Pasco reentry program and AM Skills training enrolled 638 people to date and retained 619, with an average post‑placement annual wage near $48,600 — steps that reduce the risk someone will become chronically unhoused.
On enforcement and outreach, sheriff’s office and code staff described a combined approach: expanded outreach teams to build rapport, targeted enforcement for repeat trespassing and dangerous use of rights‑of‑way, and an anti‑panhandling public‑education campaign designed to redirect charitable giving to a designated fiduciary to "dry up the well." The county also plans internal indicators and more frequent local counts to track progress between annual or biennial HUD point‑in‑time snapshots.
Where it stands: the board directed staff to continue building referral pathways, explore landlord incentive programs to increase placements, refine data collection cadence and report back on capacity gaps and implementation progress.
