Program Speaker-Janna Nichols from the 5Cities Homeless Coalition

Executive Director, Janna Nichols spoke to out club about the homeless issue that faces south county, most particularly, Five Cities area. There are many homeless people in our area facing issues of drug addiction, specifically Heroin, and Psychiatric challenges.

The Coalition has partnered with St Pat's and St Barnabas for clothing for the homeless. There are at least 40 kids at the present time that are homeless in the Lucia Mar school district. It seems as though most of the efforts to build a community center are focused in the Grover Beach area, as it has the largest inventory of affordable housing as well.

One in 6 go hungry in SLO county, well over 40% of homeless are mentally ill. THe focus on the Coalition right now is to build a community center to provide classes and education to those that 'want' to be helped.