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Alameda Countywide Homeless and Special Needs Housing Plan 1 Introduction In Alameda County, an estimated 16,000 people experience homelessness over the course of a year. Many homeless youth and adults are living with mental illness, substance use issues, HIV/AIDS, and/or other disabilities. More than one in four homeless individuals countywide is a child younger than the age of 18. Homelessness is a symptom of a wide range of challenges and characteristics in people who happen to share the problem of lacking a permanent residence. The high cost of housing in Alameda County both increases homelessness here, and is itself a barrier to preventing and ending homelessness. According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition, Alameda County is one of the ten least affordable counties in the nation. Both homelessness and HIV/AIDS affect people of color disproportionately. In particular, African Americans constitute a higher proportion of people living with HIV/AIDS and people who are homeless than of the general population of Alameda County. Nationally, people of color have been shown to have less access to health care and worse health outcomes than Caucasians, due to factors such as poverty and racism. Homelessness is detrimental to physical and mental health, and leaves people vulnerable to violence and exploitation. Homelessness also deprives the community of the full participation of adults and children in school, at home, at work, and in the community. However, a number of local and national programs have demonstrated successful interventions to assist people in achieving and maintaining stable housing and improving their quality of life. A substantial body of research documents that the costs to tax payers of providing intensive and crisis services such as emergency rooms, medical and mental health hospitals, jails and prisons to chronically homeless, seriously disabled people primarily because they do not have stable housing are substantially higher than providing modest housing linked to appropriate support services. This plan addresses the housing needs of persons who are homeless today, and those who are among the most likely to be homeless tomorrow. The sponsors and stakeholders who developed this plan recognize that people who are chronically homeless on our streets form the most visible and seemingly intractable part of the homeless population. This plan outlines reorienting Alameda County's housing and service systems to reduce and end chronic homelessness over the coming decade. In addition, by creating safe, decent, and affordable housing options for extremely low- income people living with serious and persistent mental illness and/or HIV/AIDS who are inappropriately or precariously housed, Alameda County can prevent future homelessness. Without an effort of this magnitude to change Alameda County's housing and service delivery systems and to address the underlying causes of homelessness-not just react to its victims-the chronically homeless on the streets today will be replaced by those who become homeless tomorrow.