On May 21, LSS deputy Director Sue Laliberte attended the momentous groundbreaking of the Sacramento Mutual Housing Association’s Highlands project, a 90-unit community across the street from McClellan Business Park (formerly McClellan Air Force Base) that will include 66 units of permanent housing and supportive services for the chronically homeless and the disabled.

Twenty-one of the units will be reserved for people receiving services from LSS, 33 for clients of Sacramento County’s Division of Mental Health and 12 for clients of local nonprofit The Effort. The rest of the units will be subsidized low-cost housing. LSS is providing the leadership for all three of these social service entities, and there will be other series providers, including the county. LSS’ support provides a case manager to help clients with substance abuse, mental illness, give financial coaching and help with job hunting.

“This is the first time we’ve provided housing with this much intensive social service,” says Holly Wunder-Stiles, project manager for Sacramento Mutual Housing Association (SMHA). “There will be people on staff 24 hours a day.”

A federal stimulus project funded by the Mental Health Services Act Housing Program, this groundbreaking was seven years in the making. The endeavor got off the ground after Laliberte got funding from Sacramento County’s Samaritan Initiative to provide health and supportive services to the chronically homeless. Construction of the housing complex is expected to be completed in fall 2011.

“This project stems from Sacramento County’s 10-year plan to end chronic homelessness,” says Wunder-Stiles. “In the past, there was transitional housing, and residents had to leave after two years.

“We selected LSS for this project because of their proven ability to serve this population.”