The Regional Continuum of Care Council (RCCC) is a community-based association focused on ending homelessness in San Diego and charged with overseeing millions of dollars in federal funding under the Homeless Emergency Assistance and Rapid Transition to Housing (HEARTH) Act through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Continuum of Care (CoC) program.
This coordinating body consists of representatives from the 18 cities within San Diego County, nonprofit service providers and other interested parties who seek to identify gaps in homeless services, establish funding priorities and pursue an overall systemic approach to addressing homelessness. The mission of the RCCC is three-fold: End homelessness for all individuals and families throughout the region; address the underlying causes of homelessness; and lessen the negative impact of homelessness on individuals, families and communities.
First commissioned in 1998, the RCCC has been working together with stakeholders on strategic planning and coordination of resources to overcome homelessness in our region for over 15 years. In 2013, the RCCC began a transformation to formalize the structures needed for the regional CoC, including seating an inaugural Governance Board to make funding and policy decisions and establish regional best practices. The board is made up of members, including SDWP CEO Peter Callstrom, who show a vested interest in helping to relieve homelessness in San Diego. Its first order of business was to create a transparent local scoring process to allocate over 18 million dollars in program funding, which has already led to a shift to prioritizing permanent supportive housing in the community.
“Ending homelessness requires systems change and collective action, and the creation of the RCCC governance model was a huge step in this direction,” says San Diego City Council President and RCCC Governance Board Chair Todd Gloria. “The new RCCC Board is a collaborative partnership spearheaded by the City, County, business and philanthropic leaders, service providers, and community stakeholders. After closely examining what is working to solve this problem around the country, we are working together to realign our homeless programs and resources to support best practices like the Housing First model, permanent supportive housing, and a regionalized coordinated assessment and housing placement system to get our most vulnerable neighbors off the streets permanently.”
RCCC is asking for volunteers to help end homelessness and promote the creation of more affordable housing in San Diego by joining one of its volunteer advisory committees. To apply, visit cocsandiego.com/advisory-committees.
For more information on RCCC, visit cocsandiego.com.