Homeless tents under the intersection of State Routes 4 and 5 in Stockton, Calif., on April 7, 2022. (Harika Maddala/ Bay City News)

The San Joaquin County Human Services Agency will be hosting a series of community meetings throughout May to request feedback on a regional approach to solving the homeless crisis.

The discussion will center on the county’s Coordinated Homelessness Action Plan, which the county and the city of Stockton began a year ago in partnership with the San Joaquin Homeless Services Continuum of Care, a program developed by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to promote community-wide coordination on ending homelessness.

The cities of Lathrop, Lodi, Manteca, Ripon and Tracy are also invited to participate in the plan, as well as other local agencies.

Community members are invited to attend and participate in discussions on critical topics such as encampment resolution strategies, homelessness prevention and diversion, operating expenses for existing shelters and temporary-stay programs, as well as affordable and safe housing options for very low-income individuals and families.

Attendees will learn about how Homeless Housing, Assistance and Prevention funds are being used and will be asked for input on how the funds can be effectively deployed. The HHAP fund is a block grant issued by the state to help communities create permanent housing, rental and move-in assistance, case management services and other eligible uses.

The first meeting was set for Wednesday from 10 a.m. to noon at 333 Civic Center Plaza, Room 203, Tracy. The rest of the schedule is as follows:

  • May 20, 3-5 p.m., 1212 N. California St., Stockton
  • May 22, 5-7 p.m., 525 N. Center St., Stockton
  • May 27, 3:30-5:30 p.m., 1001 W. Center St., Manteca
  • May 27, 5-7 p.m., 5758 Lorraine Ave., Stockton
  • May 28, 1-3 p.m., 125 S. Hutchins St., Lodi
  • May 29, 5-7 p.m., 734 Houston Ave., Stockton

Ruth Dusseault is an investigative reporter and multimedia journalist focused on environment and energy. Her position is supported by the California local news fellowship, a statewide initiative spearheaded by UC Berkeley aimed at supporting local news platforms. While a student at UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism (c’23), Ruth developed stories about the social and environmental circumstances of contaminated watersheds around the Great Lakes, Mississippi River and Florida’s Lake Okeechobee. Her thesis explored rights of nature laws in small rural communities. She is a former assistant professor and artist in residence at Georgia Tech’s School of Architecture, and uses photography, film and digital storytelling to report on the engineered systems that undergird modern life.