County moves safety net workshop back to original date

After postponing its eagerly anticipated safety-net workshop a couple weeks ago, the county of Sacramento moved it again—back to its original April 9 date.

Hopefully the schizophrenic scheduling doesn’t shed community interest. The 2 p.m. workshop inside the board of supervisors chambers promises to draw representatives from a wide range of money-gutted groups—including Child Protective Services officials, affordable-housing activists, the homeless community’s continuum of care operatives and beyond.

The headline presentation will come from Bob Erlenbusch, executive director of the still-new Sacramento Regional Coaltion to End Homelessness. Erlenbusch shook up county officials in January with a comprehensive look at homeless deaths over the past decade. The report his fledgling organization co-authored with Sacramento Steps Forward shed light on the 501 homeless people who died in Sacramento County between 2002 and 2013, averaging out to about a death a week.

Erlenbusch told SN&R that many deaths occurred along transit corridors, suggesting this is where outreach should be targeted.

Sacramento Steps Forward will also be represented at the meeting, in the hopes of eking more financial support from the county. Since taking over the county’s role in coordinating homeless resources, Steps Forward has struggled with fronting payments to local service providers while waiting for federal reimbursements.

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