Speaker numbers apply only to this recording. Names come from transcript evidence. “Possibly” marks uncertain attribution.
On October 15, 2026, from 1:30 to 4:30 p.m., the Montgomery County Council Health and Human Services (HHS) Committee met in the Council Hearing Room in Rockville, Maryland, to review services to end and prevent homelessness and the Continuum of Care. Chair Laurie-Anne Sayles presided, joined by Councilmembers Dawn Luedtke and Andrew Friedson, with Councilmember Kate Stewart and Councilmember Kristin Mink also participating. DHHS staff and community partners were acknowledged for the county's homelessness work. No formal votes were taken.
Two one. Good afternoon, everyone. I am Councilmember at large, Lori Ann Sales and Chair of the Health and Human Services Committee. I am joined by my two colleagues, Councilmember Don Ludke and Councilmember Andrew Friedson. And we have our GO committee chair, Councilmember Stewart, joining us. And we may have a few other council members who are also passionate about homelessness and ensuring that our residents have a place to sleep who want to call Montgomery County home. And so today's discussion builds on my visits to temporary shelters with Chief Hong and Ms. Tara Clemens Johnson in December as I transitioned into the role of chair for Health and Human Services. And my participation in this year's point in time account. Those experiences reinforce the importance of listening directly to residents and frontline staff who have joined us as well. There is meaningful progress to recognize the 2026 point in time count, identified 1,120 people experiencing homelessness, a 26% decrease from last year, including a 47% reduction in people in families. I want to thank our staff and community partner for the work behind those gains. But at the same time, chronic homelessness did increase 14%. Severe weather likely contributed to an undercount of people sleeping outside, and the June count identified 174 unsheltered residents. Our shelters have also operated near or above capacity, making readiness for the November start of hypothermia season, especially urgent. Federal funding uncertainty adds another serious concern. Six existing continuum of care projects face approximately almost 5 million in funding risk, potentially affecting over 500 households. We need to understand the contingency plan when decisions must be made and what council actions may be needed to prevent disruptions. Our focus today will be on protecting our progress, closing gaps in outreach and shelter access and helping more residents achieve lasting housing stability. As Sharp expands to individuals on October 19th, I want to understand what is working, where barriers remain, how we will measure success, and what action this committee needs to take. So I will turn first to Miss Tara Clemens Johnson to introduce the packet, followed by Chief Hong for the departmental update. Good afternoon. Thank you so much, Chair Sales. And hello to members of the committee and also Councilmember Stewart. I'll just quickly go over the packet as I believe Chair Sales really highlighted a lot of the items that I included, and I want to thank you to the staff of staff team for providing the information. I do want to highlight a regular update that was not included in the staff packet is on the Sharp program and the rental assistance program, just between us and the staff. We weren't able to timely get that information into the packet. It is, however, in the PowerPoint that council that Chair Hong is Chief Hong, gosh, is going to present today. And we can go through and update the packet to make sure that information lives on as people refer back to the packets. Again, like I said, I won't highlight much other than on page three and four. I don't recall that we've ever talked about it, is that the Ceph team in coordination with the Street Outreach team did a mid-year count in June. And so I think that was kind of a bit more updated and reflective of what's going on in turn of the count of homelessness. And I'm sure Chief Hong will talk about that. And then just highlighting what's happening with the continuum of care program nationally. The changes about that are regarding that program are very impactful. And we know that the council has been very dedicated to the um to the staff, the programs that are happening through SEF and really making sure that there are services for those who are unsheltered and those that are impermanent supportive housing and rapid rehousing programming. So there is a significant threat to that funding. So we will talk about that. Just since we are sitting here today, their agenda for October 20th will be uploaded later today. And it will also include the introduction of two supplementals for DHHS regarding homeless services. One is on custodial services, recognizing the cleanliness of uh shelters and the need to increase that. It needs to happen seven days a week, and we are just really facing a deficit in that program right now. And the other one is related to women's shelter, growing the number of beds available for um unsheltered women in the county, so they are facing delays. But we will talk about that at a committee at a future committee work session. And um, like I said, they'll be introduced on the 20th. We'll do public hearing on November 10th, and a uh committee work session will follow. So I will end there unless there's any questions. All right, thank you, Ms.