400 Homeless Residents Found In Three Mother Lode Counties

Sonora, CA — A survey organized by the Central Sierra Continuum of Care shows that Tuolumne, Calaveras and Amador Counties have combined 400 homeless residents.

Beetle Barbour, who is the Housing Resources Director for the Amador-Tuolumne Community Action Agency, says one of the main purposes of the project was to find out how many people are in need of services compared to the amount that is currently available.

The survey shows that Tuolumne County has 128 adults and 53 children, Calaveras County has 137 adults and 31 children, and Amador County has 42 adults and nine children. Barbour saysIn addition, there were another 141 children (between the three counties) whose lives are affected by the homelessness of their parents.” The children are either staying with friends or family, or have been placed in agencies.

Continuum of Care is an alliance of mental health and social service organizations between the three counties. Barbour believes that there may be many more homeless individuals than what was actually counted. The survey was conducted in one day´s time. She notes that many homeless residents may have shied away from the survey for different reasons.

Written by BJ Hansen