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County report finds strong street outreach but major rural gaps; commissioners extend outreach funding
Summary
A consultant found Alachua County’s street‑outreach teams achieve high placements despite being underfunded and unable to meet rural need; the board asked the Continuum of Care to return with an updated action plan and approved continuing outreach funding and coordination through regional partners.
A county‑commissioned assessment concluded Alachua County’s street outreach is operating at a high standard but lacks the scale and coordination to serve unsheltered people across the region, especially in four surrounding rural counties.
Claudia Tuck, director of Alachua County Community Support Services, introduced the National Alliance to End Homelessness assessment, saying the review drew on point‑in‑time counts, program outcomes and interviews with people with lived experience and providers. Senior technical assistance specialist Steve Sturtman told the board the county’s outreach work was “high fidelity to evidence‑based practices” and highlighted that outreach teams moved an unusually large share of people directly from the streets into placements.
"I just want a place to live," Sturtman quoted from a conversation with someone experiencing unsheltered homelessness, summarizing the human need behind the data.
Despite strong local performance, the report said funding and staffing are insufficient to meet the scale of unsheltered homelessness across the Continuum of Care; outreach was nearly absent in the mainly rural counties of Bradford, Gilchrist, Levy and Putnam, the consultant said. The team also found that rural homelessness is poorly captured in existing point‑in‑time and HMIS data, limiting planning and resource allocation.
The consultant recommended 15 actions, including expanding coordinated entry to rural counties, disaggregating HMIS data by demographic groups, creating shared performance metrics for outreach, formalizing landlord‑engagement strategies and establishing a CoC working group focused on unsheltered homelessness. The report urged scaling street outreach and aligning housing and rapid‑response programs with that scale.
John DeCarmine, executive director of Grace Marketplace, described his group’s outreach outcomes and staffing limits, saying the task force and county investments improved reach but that permanent supportive housing capacity remains a bottleneck. "Staffing will make a difference," DeCarmine told commissioners, noting limited slots for rapid rehousing and supportive housing.
During discussion Commissioners said they were impressed with local program outcomes and concerned about rural gaps. The board voted to accept the report, to ask the CoC to return in late winter with recommendations for revising its action plan and to pursue coordinated engagement workshops and joint meetings with regional counties to scale outreach. The board also approved continuing county contract funding for street outreach and coordination at a level discussed in the meeting (the county discussed a $350,000 funding figure and routing the contract through the task force for ending homelessness to improve coordination). County staff said the funding had been included as a placeholder in the FY25 budget and that formal contract details would be confirmed through staff processes.
Next steps include the CoC’s follow‑up presentation, county‑led stakeholder workshops to improve engagement and coordination, and continued efforts to expand permanent supportive housing capacity across the region.
