CITY OF FORT BRAGG
Incorporated August 5, 1889
416 N. Franklin Street
Fort Bragg, CA 95437
August 24, 2026
Mental Health Treatment Act Citizens Oversight Committee [email protected]
Mendocino County Board of Supervisors
County of Mendocino
501 Low Gap Road
Ukiah, CA 95482
Measure B Committee, and Honorable Supervisors,
We write in support of funding the proposed new Community Outreach Response and Engagement (CORE) 2.0 program. In Fort Bragg, we have seen firsthand the effectiveness of a proactive, preventative, and mobile approach to serving individuals experiencing homelessness through our Care Response Unit (CRU), which is composed of trained social service liaisons, under the aegis of the Fort Bragg Police Department.
Similar to our CRU program, CORE 2.0 focuses on prevention, early intervention, field-based engagement, housing stabilization, and coordination to appropriate services. The model is designed to reach individuals before challenges escalate into chronic homelessness, repeated hospitalization, incarceration, or other forms of crisis-system involvement.
CORE 2.0 is a coordinated behavioral health and homeless stabilization model. The program provides field-based outreach and intensive support to individuals experiencing, or at risk of, homelessness, who have behavioral health needs, substance use disorders, or co-occurring conditions. CORE 2.0 emphasizes intervening early to prevent housing loss, behavioral health deterioration, chronic homelessness, hospitalization, and incarceration.
Services include housing navigation and stabilization, eviction prevention, behavioral health engagement, care coordination, benefits assistance, treatment linkage, and discharge planning. The model matches housing and support services to each individual's assessed needs, stability, safety, and level of functioning rather than using a one-size-fits-all approach.
This model has worked very well in the City of Fort Bragg, and we support its implementation and funding elsewhere in the County.
Sincerely,
Jason Godeke, Mayor
on behalf of
Vice Mayor Marcia Rafanan, Councilmembers Lindy Peters, Tess Albin-Smith, and Scott Hockett