Approval of a Resolution establishing the Savannah-Chatham County Interagency Council on Homelessness/Continuum of Care (CoC). The Savannah-Chatham County Continuum of Care is a year-round planning body of representative stakeholders in the community’s work toward ending homelessness. As part of that responsibility, the CoC sets the local process for applying, reviewing and prioritizing project applications for funding each year in the Continuum of Care Program Competition. 

The City of Savannah has been participating in a public-private Homelessness Working Group, which has been meeting and researching best practices to determine a better structure within the CoC to increase coordination among the various agencies addressing homelessness in Savannah-Chatham County. That Working Group has proposed the establishment of an Interagency Council on Homelessness (ICH) to serve as the CoC Board for the purpose of facilitating interagency and cross-sector coordination in planning, policymaking, program development, system performance monitoring, budget planning and coordination of federal homeless assistance resources on behalf of the CoC.

This new Savannah-Chatham County Interagency Council on Homelessness/Continuum of Care will be broadly representative of the public and private homeless service sectors, including homeless client/consumer interests. Participatng governments will have 10 seats on the Board of the ICH/CoC, and shall be comprised of the executive directors/managers of participating agencies with responsibility for administering and managing critical public services which impact the lives of persons experiencing homelessness.

The proposed Resolution directs the City Manager to provide administrative support for the Board of the ICH/CoC, which will be provided by the newly established Senior Policy Adviser for Homelessness. This appointment will ensure homelessness remains a priority and receives the daily attention required to address homeless needs, identify gaps in service, and implement solutions to ensure homelessness is rare, brief and non-recurring.

Approval