By Bridget Doherty
Hamilton County Commission
Hamilton County Commissioners have unanimously passed a resolution allocating $600,000 from the Health and Hospitalization Levy to provide temporary emergency shelter hotel and motel rooms for people experiencing homelessness to comply with social distancing guidance by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. Strategies to End Homelessness will distribute the funding to shelters to purchase the hotel and motel rooms for Hamilton County residents who are experiencing homelessness. This funding is estimated to provide up to 330 rooms for about 45 days and will alleviate crowding in the shelters so they can accomplish social distancing.
Kevin Finn, president of Strategies to End Homelessness, said during the virtual commission meeting, “We are appreciative of the fact that the county is willing to move quickly. There are a lot of moving parts right now. We always see an uptick in family homelessness when school gets out for summer. We do believe we are seeing a summer surge now because school is effectively out for summer.”
Commissioners are expected to vote on additional federal funds from the CARES Act in the amount of $500,000 to bring the total contribution to $1.1 million.