New Supportive Housing Campaign Kicks Off

Understanding that having a stable place to live is the first step to recovery from a mental disorder, the San Diego County Health and Human Services Agency (HHSA) today launched an education campaign that aims to erase stigma and housing discrimination against people with a mental illness.

The Housing Matters campaign also hopes to reduce homelessness by placing people with a mental disorder in supportive housing where they can receive treatment for their illness and get services to help them address other underlying problems that contributed to their being on the streets.

“Having a permanent place to live is the first step for the recovery process to begin,” said Nick Macchione, HHSA Director. “Having supportive housing allows people with a mental illness to receive medical and mental health treatment, as well as social services to help them thrive.”

Mental illness is a major cause of homelessness. There are about 8,500 homeless people in the San Diego region; about 25 percent of them suffer from a mental disorder. Often, people with mental illness face discrimination when looking for a place to live.

Starting today, radio, television and print ads highlighting the benefits of supportive housing will appear throughout the region. Funding for the campaign, which will run through June 2015, comes from the Mental Health Services Act or Prop. 63, a millionaires’ tax that specifically designates funds for mental health services. The measure was approved by California voters in 2004.

Supportive housing is a community-based service model that, in addition to housing and mental health services, also offers training and assists people to get jobs. While in supportive housing, clients tend to take better care of themselves which may include the discontinuation of alcohol/drug abuse.

Studies have shown that a chronically homeless individual could use as much as $42,000 in public services and emergency care each year. In supportive housing, the cost for treating that individual drops to about $16,000 or less.

“Mental illnesses can be treated,” said Dr. Piedad García, Director of HHSA’s Adult and Older Adult Mental Health Services. “We need to get homeless people into supportive housing so that they can get the treatment they need.”

For more information about the Housing Matters campaign, visit www.HousingMattersSD.org.

National Honors Bestowed on San Diego Sheriff's Sergeant

He takes no nonsense from anybody, not even the Mexican Mafia. His commitment to serve and protect the public from gang threats makes Sgt. William “Brian” Hout an outstanding member of the Sheriff’s Department.

On October 26^th, Sgt. Hout received an Honorable Mention during the “Police Officer of the Year” convention in Florida. Parade Magazine and the International Association of Chiefs honor the finest in law enforcement every year.

Sgt. Hout was recognized for his work with the FBI’s Violent Crimes Task Force Gang Group. He took part in 13 major gang or drug investigations including Operations Keys to the City. Sgt. Hout says the operation targeted the “worst of the worst.” He took the dangerous job of setting up undercover surveillance to track the activities of suspected killers, kidnappers and drug traffickers as well as members of the Mexican Mafia and a gang that was pulling off crimes behind bars. 

Sheriff Bill Gore called Sgt. Hout “one of the best and the brightest” of the department.  

Probation Partnership Wins National Award

The STAR/PAL Program, a partnership between the San Diego County Probation and San Diego Police, was the recipient of a national grant from MetLife.

Chef Jeff's Inspirational Story

Chef Jeff Henderson recently paid a visit to Camp Barrett in Alpine and offered some words of encouragement, inspiration and some fantastic cooking.

ROV's New Mail Ballot System

The San Diego County Registrar of Voters is using a new mail ballot system that can process up to 24,000 return mail ballot envelopes per hour. The new Pitney Bowes Relia-Vote Mail Balloting System is over 56 feet long and fills an entire room at the Registrar of Voters office. Almost 50% of county voters now vote by mail, and this machine greatly reduces the time needed to sort the ever-increasing number of ballots.

HHSA Program Helps Prevent Childhood Lead Poisoning

HHSA's Childhood Lead Prevention Program teamed up with several community partners to offer free lead testing during National Lead Prevention Week. The event was held at Cherokee Point Elementary School in City Heights. More than 300 children were tested throughout the day.

The County’s Health and Human Services Agency’s (HHSA) Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Program began an early prevention initiative in 2004 to provide services to children with lower lead levels. Since then, the number of children with elevated levels of lead in their blood has decreased by 61 percent. The only sure way to know a child is lead poisoned is to have the child tested. More than 49,000 children in San Diego County were tested in 2009.

“Early detection of lead poisoning is critical,” said Supervisor Ron Roberts, District 4, San Diego County Board of Supervisors. “Lead is a silent attacker that can cause severe developmental problems in children and chronic exposure to even low levels of lead can have serious consequences.”

“Lead poisoning is preventable,” said Nick Macchione, Director of HHSA. “Many people have the perception that the danger of lead poisoning has gone away since the lead in paint was removed beginning in 1979. But some San Diego County residents live in housing built prior to that year and paint is still the number one source of lead poisoning in our children, followed by home remedies and pottery.”

For more information about lead poisoning, visit www.sdlead.org or call 619-515-6694.

HHSA's Kitty Roche Earns Statewide Honor

Kitty Roche, a Public Health Nurse Manager in the Health and Human Services Agency was the recipient of the Senator Daniel Boatwright Award presented at the California State Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) Conference.

The award is California’s highest honor for individuals working in SIDS. Roche was honored for her many contributions to Californians touched by SIDS. The recongnition specifically mentioned her role in creating the letter sent to hospitals promoting the importance of safe sleep instructions to new parents before taking their baby home.

Roche is a member of the California State SIDS Advisory Council.

County Offers Tire Recycling Days

Residents of Lakeside, Ramona and the surrounding unincorporated areas in San Diego County can recycle their used passenger tires for free at separate "Tire Amnesty-Day" events on Oct. 23 and Nov. 6.

Since the State banned disposal of whole tires at landfills in California in 1993, the County of San Diego has offered amnesty days and public education for recycling and disposal of tires funded partially through state grants.

County Tests Mobile Alert System

Local agencies are coordinating with the County Office of Emergency Services to participate in the first test of the Commercial Mobile Alert System, or CMAS, a national system which uses new technology to automatically send text messages with emergency information to cell phones.

County Debuts New Operations Center

The County of San Diego Board of Supervisors debuted two new 150,000-square-feet, four-story office buildings today at its County Operations Center, which is being redeveloped to replace a cluster of outdated and inefficient buildings. The new buildings were designed and constructed to Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold standards.

“These new buildings are wonderful examples of environmentally-friendly architectural design and will be at the new gateway to the campus,” said Chairwoman Pam Slater-Price.

This $188.5 million first phase of the COC development construction project includes the two office buildings, a new central plant, utility infrastructure, and a multi-level parking structure with more than 1,800 parking spaces, which will be complete in February. 

Nine County departments and their 1,100 employees will start moving into the buildings this weekend. The departments include: General Services, Library, Aging & Independence Services, Sheriff, Purchasing & Contracting, Public Works, Auditor, Environmental Health and Parks & Recreation.

“Co-locating many of these departments allows the County to operate more efficiently,” said Vice-Chairman Bill Horn.

Supervisor Ron Roberts, a former architect, said, “For decades to come now, the new County Operations Center will provide the public with better accessibility to key services.”

The environmental design extends to the landscaping.

“In this third year of drought, the design team selected low-water-consumption and low-maintenance plants and groundcover, which serves as an attractive example to the public,” said Supervisor Dianne Jacob.

“This project created hundreds of construction jobs and will ultimately save taxpayers money by replacing aging, inefficient buildings with a modern, energy-saving campus,” said Supervisor Greg Cox.

The next phase of construction will involve the two buildings that mirror the ones that debuted today and a 15,000-square-foot conference center.