The Board of Lane County Commissioners this week discussed winter strategies for homeless services. They’re looking at how to better serve unsheltered youth in the community.
Commissioner Jay Bozievich says more than 100 youth were counted as unsheltered in Lane County in the latest tally. The board is considering converting a pod at the SERBU Youth Detention Center into a shelter.
“The difficulty is if we have to convert that from something that’s a detention facility to something that’s residential and whether we can get that done quickly enough to have an impact this winter. I would like to try and focus on that population of unhoused people that are underage because that’s a really vulnerable population.”
Bozievich says the board asked county staff to report on the cost of a winter shelter for homeless youth.
