Officials laud, launch new '211' info line

By: GIG CONAUGHTON - Staff Writer | Saturday, July 2, 2005 10:10 PM PDT ∞

SAN DIEGO ---- San Diego County has a new "211" hotline that will give people a free "one-stop" number to reach hundreds of health and social service agencies, a number that could radically improve communication during disasters and take pressure off overburdened "911" emergency lines.

But there could be a hitch. Officials have scrounged up the $1.8 million they need to run the service for the next year. But there isn't a secure long-term funding source for the system, and managers aren't sure where they'll get the cash needed beyond the first year.

The new line, which has been operated part time since February for tests, was officially pushed into its 24-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week mode Thursday.

Sara Matta, executive director of 211 San Diego, and others said people will be able to call the number from any regular telephone line to get information on a confidential basis about most public services from live operators who, among them, speak 140 languages.

Cellular phone users must call a 10-digit number: (858) 300-1-211.

The new three-digit line replaces the 10-digit "INFO LINE" of San Diego County, which Matta said has lost funding and seen fewer calls in recent decades.

Officials said trained operators with access to government databases can assist with a number of situations, including a panicky parent looking for help with sick children, people looking for information about housing, families that need help with aging parents, and those seeking drug and alcohol counseling or vocational training.

They can also help people looking for jobs, point crime victims to services to help them, link people to suicide prevention counselors, dole out information about flu and children's vaccinations, and direct people who want to volunteer to the appropriate agencies.

Since the line was put into part-time use in February to work out kinks, it has had sporadic problems with long waits and "technical glitches." But Penny Abell, chairwoman of the 211 San Diego Coalition, said the average wait time is now less than one minute, and the goal "is to never exceed two minutes."

Funding still a question

As excited as officials were about the new line last week, they also confessed they're still looking for money to keep it up and running beyond its first year.

Matta and county Supervisor Greg Cox, who has championed the 211 line since 2003, said local agencies and governments had pitched in to cover the new line's $1.8 million first-year operating costs.

Cox said the First 5 Commission of San Diego County, the county's chapter of a statewide commission aimed at nurturing children, came up with half of the $1.8 million budget. The county kicked in $325,000, San Diego Gas & Electric Co. contributed $150,000, and the United Way put in $100,000.

Matta said the remaining $325,000 was contributed by a variety of foundations and individual donations.

But Matta said no one is quite sure where next year's funding would come from.

"This is a leap of faith, it really is," she said with a smile at an opening celebration last week.

Ironically, funding could become trickier if the line proves to be as successful as Matta, Cox and other officials think it will be.

Matta said that's because the more calls the 211 line takes, the more people it will have to add to its 35-member staff to handle the increase in calls.

Matta said the INFO LINE handled about 80,000 calls last year. Abell said he expects the 211 line to triple that number, and that traffic could reach 300,000 calls. That would increase the budget crunch for the new line.

"That's the Catch-22," Matta said. "We think we're going to need at least an additional $1 million a year. Not this year, but as we grow."

She said studies of 211 systems across the country indicate they need about "$1 per head of the population of a community" to cover operational costs. That means San Diego County's population could quickly require a $3 million-a-year 211 budget.

"We kind of hope that it takes us a while to grow up to that," Matta said, adding that she and others worry about demand growing so high that wait times spike.

Cox said there could be $1.5 million in federal money up for approval in Washington for San Diego County's line. But the federal money would require matching state funding, and California is still swimming in debt.

Disaster aid

Law enforcement officials raved about the new information line, which they said will give callers a central number to get information about evacuation routes and put disaster victims in touch with aid organizations, volunteers and sources for temporary shelter.

Perhaps even more importantly, law enforcement officials said, the new line could take pressure off 911 emergency lines ---- which are routinely clogged with callers looking for general information, rather than emergency help, when disasters occur.

When 911 lines are jammed, people calling in real emergencies ---- such as heart attacks, or criminal attacks ---- cannot get through, they said.

"A lot of people call 911 during emergencies for issues that aren't emergencies," said San Diego County Sheriff Bill Kolender last week.

"This 211 line will allow them to have somebody with them who will be able to tell them what to do and where to go," he added. "And it will give us the opportunity to handle 911 emergency calls because the lines won't be clogged."

Contact staff writer Gig Conaughton at (760) 739-6696 or gconaughton@nctimes.com.

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