SWEET HOME - The Sweet Home City Council on Tuesday voted 3-1 in support of a 10-year plan to end homelessness in Linn and Benton counties.

Councilor Greg Mahler voted against it because he disagreed with the language in the resolution, which he said seemed to call for more homeless shelters.

Albany Councilor Sharon Konopa and Linn County Commissioner Roger Nyquist, who both spoke to the council, said this is not the case.

"Up until now, the trend in Oregon has been to build more shelters and that has not been a solution," Konopa said. Instead, the idea is to focus on services which will help get people back into their own homes, not to aid them in continuing a homeless lifestyle, she said.

The 10-year plan to combat homelessness is a project in the works.

Konopa said the plan first identifies how many homeless there are, what the gaps in service are, and what is going to be done to change it.

Specific life-skills training could include housekeeping, money management and healthy choices such as quitting smoking and seeking help for mental illness.

"Whatever past practice has brought them into homelessness, that's what we need to address," she said.

Community Services Consortium is facilitating the effort in both counties, part of a federally sponsored national effort to address homelessness at the community level.

CSC director Martha Lyon said homelessness is more than people seen living on the street. There is an entire spectrum and it includes those you do not see, people who go from one temporary housing situation to the next.

"Some people make inappropriate or not positive alliances to make sure they or their children have a place to stay," she said.

Nyquist said outside funding will be sought and he and Konopa hope to have a final version of the plan to area city councils early next year.

Local jurisdictions do not have access to federal grant money unless they have 10-year plans, he said.

One part of the plan is to create a database which area homeless shelters can access to track the movements of people who show up asking for aid. This would allow workers to tell if someone is town-hopping from one service to the next, as opposed to legitimately trying to rebuild his affairs.

"In about half of these cases, addiction is an issue," Nyquist said. "They've been able to get the vouchers to continue that lifestyle."

The language in Sweet Home's resolution declared "a willingness to keep the issue of homelessness and housing high on our agenda as well as to push for resources and solutions."

The resolution does not commit the city to any financial obligations.

AnneMarie Knepper contributed to this report.