Marin County launches program to prevent homelessness

Marin County has launched a two-year initiative aimed at preventing homelessness by giving financial help to residents considered at highest risk of losing their housing. The county’s Department of Health and Human Services will pay Bay Area Community Services (BACS), an Oakland nonprofit, $742,000 to run the program. BACS will partner with All Home, and together they will build a “technology platform” to score assistance applications. The $2 million-plus effort includes $1 million from Marin Community Foundation, $1 million from All Home, and $258,000 from the county. The contract targets 340 households, but the county withheld the risk-weighting formula as proprietary.