ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — Orange County Mayor Teresa Jacobs and other local leaders said they’re working on a new plan to reduce the homeless population.
Jacobs recently returned from a trip to Salt Lake City to learn about a new approach city leaders there are using to fight homelessness.
The mayor and 68 others saw firsthand what goes into Salt Lake City’s 13-year practice of rehousing the homeless in permanent housing.
“We were able to see on the ground what happens. We were able to meet with the people who actually do the work, go to the facilities where that work is done,” said Linda Landman-Gonzalez of the Commission on Homelessness.
Salt Lake City leaders said they’ve reduced homelessness by 70 percent.
Jacobs and other regional officials are even more convinced they could do it in Orange County.
“Their solutions, the things they’re working on, the things that they’ve tried, that ‘we wish we hadn’t done this, wish we’d done it that way,’ all of those are really helpful, said Jacobs.
Reports released last week say one in 50 central Florida families will experience homelessness during a year. That’s not including the chronically homeless and homeless veterans.
“It won’t take us nearly as long because we can look at what they’ve done and what’s worked, and follow that,” Jacobs said.
Jacobs said leaders will meet in a few weeks to discuss a plan to mirror Salt Lake City’s.
WFTV
