Nevada County officials are sticking with their Homeless Action Plan, despite recent effectiveness concerns about plans around the state from Governor Newsom. Newsom briefly froze a third round of funding for counties but has now released, including around two million dollars for Nevada County. Housing and Community Services Director Mike Dent updated the Board of Supervisors at its meeting earlier this week. He said the number of first-time homeless has risen from 135 in 2019 to 200 this year. But he says the number of unsheltered has dropped from 251 to 243…

click to listen to Mike Dent

Meanwhile, Supervisor Heidi Hall said there needs to be more clarity on the causes for the spike in first-time homeless…

click to listen to Heidi Hall

Dent also did mention some success in increasing access to homeless services. It’s climbed from 409 to 550. But the county was unable to reduce the number of people returning to homelessness. The goal was to reduce it 13-percent, but it was four-percent.