Traditionally, Lexington has contracted out much of its street outreach work to homelessness service organizations, such as the Hope Center and Community Action Council — handing jobs like case manager and peer support specialist over to those groups.
But as CivicLex's Adrian Bryan explains, the city will soon be asked to employ an "Encampment Coordinator" to tie lots of those services and providers together.
"Not only just coordinating new services and outreach efforts, but also managing encampment clearances, especially with House Bill 5 that was passed last year, that made homelessness illegal essentially," he says. "The city has much more of a burden to be doing more of these encampment clearance projects. So this position would be much more hands on in overseeing all these moving parts."
If approved as is, the new $80,000/yr. position would be placed within the city's Office of Homelessness Prevention and Intervention.