City Adopts 5-Year Homelessness Solutions Strategic Plan

In November 2022, the City adopted a five-year strategic plan to address the critical concern of homelessness in Santa Rosa. The Homelessness Solutions Strategic Plan provides key strategies and actions to improve the City’s response to homelessness in alignment with the regional system of care, the Sonoma County Continuum of Care, with the ambitious goal of achieving “Functional Zero” homelessness in Santa Rosa by 2027. The Homelessness Solutions Strategic Plan outlines a set of strategies, five-year goals, and performance targets the City will implement to reduce homelessness and was developed in coordination with Sonoma County's 5 Year Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness. The Homelessness Solutions Implementation Plan (2023) – Prioritizes Year One action items aimed at implementing key strategies outlined in the Strategic Plan, including Tier 1 and Tier 2 priorities, regional initiatives, and a timeline to be updated monthly.  

To view the Homelessness Solutions Strategic Plan, Initial Assessment, and staff report and presentation, please use the following links:

• Homelessness Solutions Strategic Plan
• Homelessness Solutions Implementation Plan 2023
• Initial Assessment
• Staff Report and Presentation

Housing First Approach

The Homelessness Solutions Strategic Plan follows the Housing First approach to address homelessness in alignment with Federal, State and local policy, which the City adopted starting in 2017. Housing First is not housing only. Housing First includes a variety of services such as street outreach, emergency shelter, temporary housing, and supportive services aimed at moving people from homelessness into permanent housing.

Background on Plan Development

Work on the Homelessness Solutions Strategic Plan began in March 2022 and was prepared over the following eight months, starting with an assessment of existing systems and stakeholders, followed by drafting and delivering the final strategic plan. To provide technical assistance in developing the plan, the City engaged Focus Strategies, a national consulting firm based on the West Coast with over 16 years of experience helping communities improve efforts to end homelessness by using local data and national research to shape program and system design. Outreach was conducted to a wide range of stakeholder groups including sheltered and unsheltered community members who are experiencing homelessness, business and non-profit groups, and members of the greater Santa Rosa community. The information gathered was used to develop an understanding of the current state of the homelessness response in the city of Santa Rosa and to identify goals and strategies that were incorporated into the plan.