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Fairfield council prioritizes short-term shelter and prevention steps, directs staff to pursue Mission Samoa funding
Summary
After a detailed systems briefing, the council signaled support for short-term emergency-shelter capacity, rapid rehousing and prevention/diversion programs and asked staff to return with an implementation plan and funding proposal (including additional support for Mission Samoa).
Fairfield councilmembers signaled consensus to prioritize short-term solutions to local homelessness and to return with a plan to expand shelter capacity, rapid rehousing and prevention programs.
Homeless Services Manager Samantha Burrows told the council the city faces a large queue for housing assistance: “There are 300 Fairfield households on the coordinated entry housing queue,” and staff also reported a local shelter waiting list of 57 households, of which 37% are families. Burrows said outreach and recent investments have produced positive exits from street homelessness, but that the system is bottlenecked by lack of affordable permanent housing.
Burrows outlined short-term options including expanding emergency-shelter bed capacity, boosting transitional and rapid-rehousing pathways, and pursuing prevention/diversion dollars. She emphasized the trade-offs for staff capacity and grant administration tied to state and federal funding rules.
Local providers and pastors urged quicker use of one-time city funds to add capacity. Gene Ahu of Mission Samoa noted available empty beds at his facility and asked the council to consider increasing the per-bed funding to make more beds available. Pastor Sam Morris emphasized retention and prevention work, recounting recent cases where churches helped pay mortgage or utility bills to keep people housed. “We paid their entire mortgage or they would be on the streets,” Morris said, arguing that targeted prevention can be cost-effective compared with shelter and rehousing.
Councilmembers expressed preference for focusing on short-term solutions now — using available one-time funds to increase Mission Samoa’s capacity and to seed prevention programs that could be paired with reimbursable grants. The council asked staff to return with a concrete spending plan and grant strategy (including options for reimbursable prevention grants and modifications to Mission Samoa funding) for formal action at a future meeting.
