San Juan County Local Homeless Coordinating Council

Local Homeless Councils provide the foundation for community wide systems and are instrumental in determining gaps, priorities and funding for the community wide homeless response system. LHCs are defined in the state by a county or group of counties – often aligned with the Associations of Governments (AOGs). The state of Utah hosts 13 Local Homeless Councils within 3 Continuums of Care. The Mountainland and Salt Lake regions act as both a CoC and an LHC – the Balance of State (BoS) has 11 LHCs.

What is an LHCC:

LHCC stands for Local Homeless Coordinating Council. LHCC’s are the designated local oversight bodies in each county that are responsible for:

Developing a common vision and agenda for reducing homelessness in their respective regions
Developing a spending plan that coordinates the funding supplied to local stakeholders
Monitoring the progress toward achieving state and local goals
LHCC's Provide the foundation for community wide system coordination
LHCCs were designed to be tailored to each local community's needs, geography, and resources.

LHCC Responsibilities

Holding local meetings (open to all stakeholders) on at least a quarterly basis to address local needs and strategic plans, including funding opportunities. LHCC's will also address the BOS CoC’s strategic planning priorities.
Conducting outreach into the community to make sure LHCC's is representative and inclusive of all stakeholders
Role of LHCC's
- To empower elements of the community - or the community as a whole - to take control of its homeless response system, and future.
- To bring about more effective and efficient delivery of homelessness and related programs and eliminate any unnecessary duplication of effort.
- Creating cohesive and comprehensive intervention and planning. Rather than duplicating efforts, organizations can split up or coordinate responsibilities in ways that afford more participants access to programs and to plan and launch community-wide initiatives.
- In addition to addressing immediately pressing issues or promoting or providing services, Local Homeless Coalitions can serve to unify efforts around long-term efforts.
- Coordinate funding to support the community efforts of providing services, identifying needs and planning for the future