It’s been quite a while since we took a whole department from one of our business groups and moved it to a different group. We don’t fiddle with our org chart just to fiddle with it.
So when we announced recently we’re shifting Housing and Community Development to the Health and Human Services Agency, it’s not something we did lightly. It’s a strategic move, an alignment of resources to support a significant shift in how we take on a couple of the most daunting issues the San Diego region faces: homelessness and mental health.
I know homelessness is an issue many of you care about. Hundreds of you have joined the annual Point-In-Time counts of the homeless population the last few years. We’re all frustrated and saddened by the numbers of people living on our streets. It’s heartbreaking when you think that each one you see is someone’s son or brother, someone’s sister, cousin or friend.
The fact that they’re all individuals and unique is part of what compounds the difficulty of addressing homelessness. But a significant number do have one thing in common: they suffer from mental illness. We spent the past month raising awareness among employees about mental health and talking about its prevalence.
Our Health and Human Services Agency provides a tremendous amount of resources for people facing mental health challenges. That includes an array of services to help homeless people with mental illness.
But our Board of Supervisors, in setting our priorities, wants to see us do more. In the proposed 2016-2017 budget for next year, we’re increasing the dollars we devote to this vulnerable population.
We’re also taking the approach many communities are now turning to as they grapple with homelessness. It’s known as “housing first.” The idea is to get homeless people into permanent housing as quickly as possible, then back that up with the support services they need, such as treatment or help getting a job.
It’s not like we’re just now getting the connection of housing to mental health issues. About five years ago, we launched the Housing Matters campaign to promote what’s called supportive housing – a place to stay coupled with comprehensive services.
But now we are stepping up the commitment with an effort called Health, Housing and Human Services, or H3 for short. The title puts “housing” right in the middle of “health and human services,” and that’s exactly what we’re doing organizationally: getting our housing department embedded with HHSA and its mental health services. This will make the interaction between those activities more seamless.
Let me make a key point here. Like many serious challenges we face, homelessness is a regional issue that is rooted within cities but has tentacles that impact us all. That is why the County of San Diego is taking a more active role in assisting cities, business, non-profit organizations, and other agencies to maximize our collective resources. Our main focus will be homeless people with serious mental illness.
There are so many moving parts, we need someone to make sure they’re all working together. We’re handing that duty to a new Director of Integrative Services. That will be David Estrella. He spent years leading Housing and Community Development and the Community Services Group, has established strong relationships with organizations we’ll work with, and just holds tremendous passion for helping people in need.
If I can sum up these moves in a couple words – they just make sense. Re-organizing always takes a little adjustment, but if there’s one thing I see every day here, it’s how we pull together for common goals. And while we have some changes, they’re all being made to help us better reach our highest priority: a region that’s healthy, safe and thriving. Nothing’s changed about that!
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