The meeting, held in the Clearlake City Hall council chambers Monday, was attended by about 24 people from different community groups that offer services and support for particular populations in need.
Clearlake City Council member Joyce Overton called the summit last week to get the work started.
As one attendee pointed out, many people don't know where to start when looking for help. The effort is looking not only at getting the word out about what's available but in coordinating services to help meet the most needs possible.
Just how many homeless are to be found in Lake County isn't a clear number. Hedy Montoya of Catholic Charities' Middletown office said Monday that estimates range from between 1,100 and 1,600, with more to be added due to the foreclosure crisis, to as many as 6,500 people – 10 percent of the county's entire population – if different definitions are used.
Montoya said she's aware of people living in cars and even camping out on Boggs Mountain.
For its purposes, the ground defined homelessness as not having permanent housing, Montoya said.
Catholic Charities of Santa Rosa Executive Director Larry Lakes made the trip over to facilitate Monday's meeting with the group.
In summing up the meeting's discussion points, Lakes noted, “The group decided we wanted to do something this year.”
Lakes explained that there is stimulus funding, approved earlier this year, that can help keep people in their homes.
The funds – under the Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing Program, or HPRP – can help keep eligible applicants in their homes for as long as 18 months by paying rent or utilities, he said.
Sonoma County already has received $1.3 million, with the federal government wanting to see the money put quickly to use, he said.
Locally, four groups – Lake County Community Action Agency, Catholic Charities, Community Care and Lake Family Resource Center – have applied for more than $1 million in the HPRP funds, officials said at the meeting.
Lake County Community Action Agency Executive Director Georgina Lehne said they're expecting any day to hear if they've received the money.
Those funds, Lakes said, could help between 700 and 1,400 people.
Unlike some application processes, this one favors collaboration, and having the groups all seeking the funds is a benefit, Lakes said.
Lakes said those funds can be used over a two-year period. He said Sonoma County has offered to share its homeless data tracking system, which all counties receiving the funds are required to have as it helps get a continuum of care started. Sharing the system can save between $80,000 and $120,000, Lakes said.
As the group continues moving forward, Lakes advised them, “The most important thing you can continue to do is continue,” he said, nothing that sometimes people can fall away, leaving just a few standard bearers to push the effort forward.
“It's going to have to take the community to fix this,” he said.
Lakes said it's a “wonderful process” and added, “there could be help coming.”
Overton told the group that she wants to continue the “Warm for the Winter” campaign that she worked on last year, which gave blankets, coats and other warm clothing, along with tents to the local homeless, since a shelter facility wasn't available.
The group is pursuing several avenues for creating a shelter environment, which the county currently lacks. Those options include seeking out a vacant building or a church, trailers or vacant land for a possible new building, Lakes said.
Montoya told Lake County News after the meeting that she felt the group had made some head way in its quest to start the process and discover what they can do in the next 60 days, as winter approaches.
“It's a learning curve for all of us,” she said.
Montoya said the food piece of the puzzle already is in place, with groups like Catholic Charities already serving many of the community's most vulnerable members.
Catholic Charities serves 600 people a month from Middletown to Kelseyville, said Montoya.
“There's never enough food,” she said.
Overton said she was very pleased with the turnout. “I thought it went great,” she said afterwards.
The group has already scheduled additional meetings in the council chambers, including two on Tuesday, Sept. 29. The first, at 4 p.m., will be for food providers, while a 5 p.m. meeting for the group's leadership. Another general meeting will be held from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. Wednesday, Oct. 7.
Community members interested in being a part of the effort are welcome to attend.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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