When I was trying to navigate contracts and funding for my situation, I was shocked by the number of roadblocks. The way medical services and housing opportunities intersect and are mishandled by the county and government was truly mind-blowing.

I kept running into so many obstacles, it felt like everything was designed to make my questions impossible to answer. It wasn’t necessarily that people didn’t want to know, but most of the people I asked, even management, didn’t know the procedures, policies, where to find updated laws, or what the statutes were. Because of my diagnosis and various factors, including dyslexia, which impacted my learning at a young age and gave me insecurities about pursuing further education, I need to visually see information to process it properly. I’m now trying to compile the helpful information into one central spot for others to reference—and for myself as well. I was attending these meetings, trying to come across as articulate and knowledgeable to people who had already dismissed me, so being prepared and organized has become my main focus.

Housing and Urban Development (HUD) website defines the continuum of care program as-is a community-wide initiative to end homelessness by coordinating nonprofit providers, state and local governments, and other partners to plan and provide housing and services for individuals and families experiencing homelessness. The program funds efforts to provide housing, promote access to mainstream services, encourage community-wide planning, and improve data collection to strategically address homelessness at a local level.

Where this seems to fail, at least from my perspective and situation, is the numerous promises of transparency and efficiency from the team around me, especially since they are capable of communicating so freely. My experience of struggling to get referrals or suffering during crises should not have happened so consistently. Every time I asked a question, there was either pushback or no response to my calls, leaving me in a constant state of fight-or-flight anxiety because I couldn’t get the information I needed. At the very least, relieving my stress and reassuring me shouldn’t have been too much to ask. For context, I’m referring to the highest level of care available in Monterey County, which is a subcontractor of the county, as well as Monterey County's behavioral health department.

No one seems to know how or when they are dismissive, because it was too much of a liability for them to be honest with me. At least in California, I’ve realized that everything, including mental health and housing for the homeless with SUD/SMH disabilities, is treated as a business. Admitting they had dropped the ball and then using tactics to play off my mental health when I desperately needed help took priority over maintaining a cohesive narrative for the board of directors and stakeholders. I am in permanent supportive housing, but there is significant resistance to being transparent about how I was placed, which agency handled it, which grants were used, and what rules apply to me. When I brought up policies, procedures, and the data used to leverage funding that I’ve been researching, it was deemed unacceptable. I looked into how my rent was calculated after it was increased by 416% with just 30 days' notice, and I was told they don’t have to follow HUD regulations.

FACT:

Medical records are not the property of the patient; they belong to the clinic or doctor's office where they are seen. Paper medical records are only archived for 5 years in California, while electronic records are accessible indefinitely. If a patient has signed a consent form permitting the use of their information, that information can be used multiple times for research, statistics, or demographic data for planning or funding purposes.

Reading this information for the third time, I’ve noticed things I didn’t see before, but I have to mention how incredibly difficult it is. With only a high school education and beauty school background, trying to read and comprehend legal documents ranging from 1 to 1200 pages is overwhelming. This is why continuous care includes having a social worker to help mediate and explain these things, as it takes a lot of time to go through, Google every sentence, and understand the codes and their revisions. It’s a challenge to fully grasp the information and feel confident in understanding it.

^^ Take a look at the demographical information, and you tell me that placement is solely determined by need & priority of needs.

For context my information that would be used in charts :

Hispanic/One More Race
Non Bi-nary
Chronically Homeless with out children
Severely Mentally Ill
Chronic Substance Use
Victim of Domestic Violence

To be cotuinued…..

Coc

A LITTLE MORE Personal