Former United Way director hired to lead county's homelessness and housing division
On Monday Carl Borg visited an encampment on Clear Creek Trail in Silverdale with Jarrod Moran, coordinator of Kitsap County’s HEART team, or Homeless Encampment Action Response and Transition. Borg looked at the tents scattered throughout the clearing and expressed concern the site would be filled with mud during the rainy season.
Encountering homelessness isn't new for Borg, who's been president and CEO of United Way of Kitsap County for the past seven years. There he and the United Way staff and board have prioritized projects that address the homelessness crisis, as partners on the funding side for the Pendleton Place facility in Bremerton or Coffee Oasis plans to address youth homelessness.
But now, it's Borg's full-time job. On June 7 Kitsap County announced that Borg would be the new Housing and Homelessness Division program manager, replacing Kirsten Jewell, who left in April.
“I don’t have the humongous learning curve of having to learn Kitsap,” said Borg, adding that part of his job will be to “keep Kitsap from looking like King County.”
Borg, who in his position with United Way had highlighted the gap between Kitsap's average incomes and the rising costs for rent, supports a “housing first” approach. According to the National Alliance to End Homelessness, housing first is based on the belief that “that people need basic necessities like food and a place to live before attending to anything less critical, such as getting a job, budgeting properly, or attending to substance use issues.”
“It’s not a homeless problem, it’s a housing shortage,” said Borg.
The county's Housing and Homelessness Division manages grants to local organizations working on issues of housing and homelessness, administers the annual Point-In-Time count, and acts as the support for crisis response to issues of homelessness, including the HEART team's work with encampments.
When asked about the learning process over the initial week on the job, Borg joked, “The biggest thing is learning all the acronyms.”
This article originally appeared on Kitsap Sun: Carl Borg hired at Kitsap Homeless and Housing Manager
