SAN DIEGO — San Diego County leaders are considering analytic technology to tackle the homelessness crisis. On Tuesday, the Board of Supervisors will consider a proposal that includes technology that will help predict who will become homeless.
Major League Baseball teams use a similar technology to win games. They use data to predict how players will perform by analyzing pitching, hitting and fielding. The county is hoping to use a similar technology to predict who is on the cusp of homelessness.
"Someone may owe the county money, they may have been arrested, they may have come to our psych hospital. A combination of these factors points to them as being at a higher risk of becoming homeless," said San Diego Board of Supervisors Chair Nathan Fletcher.
The county says it already has a lot of data and would use it to find who is most at risk.
"I think it's really great the county is thinking about this," said Joanne Standlee, the executive director of Housing 4 the Homeless.
Standlee believes the intention is good but says other methods might work better.
"We are so short in actual services and things that we can offer to people. Make that more robust. People are reaching out all the time," she said.
The county also announced a new app that would be used by county employees who often interact with the homeless such as park rangers and librarians.
"Might not be dedicated homeless outreach folks, but they do encounter them and how do we help them get that information and data into our county system to engage with these folks," Fletcher said.
If a librarian spoke with someone experiencing homelessness, the librarian could pin the library and log information about the person to help connect them with services.
The plan includes a creating a homeless prevention unit within the Office of Homelessness Solutions to help with direct outreach to those in need.
The new homeless prevention efforts will go before the board of supervisors Tuesday for approval. If approved, the county's chief administrative officer will have 180 days to develop an analytics plan, which will also need board approval.
Fletcher's office says Los Angeles County approved a similar predictive analysis to prevent homelessness in 2020.
WATCH RELATED: Record number of homeless San Diegans lost their lives in past 2 years (Sep. 2022).
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