MOUNT HOLLY — As part of a three-prong overhaul of its social services, Burlington County has sharpened its focus on helping the homeless.

County officials have unveiled a plan to improve the coordination, integration and information management of its homelessness services —goals similar to the revamped visions for workforce investment and at-risk youth initiatives, both recently announced by the Burlington County Board of Freeholders.

The overarching goal described Wednesday is to help the homeless population secure sustainable situations, rather than relying on motels and shelters — a bleak existence that’s more of a quick fix than a permanent cure. A hallmark of the plan will be the implementation of a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development-endorsed concept known as “rapid rehousing,” in which clients bypass motels and move directly into permanent housing and receive case management services to become self-sufficient.

“In our county, we have made it our priority to end the vicious cycle that has far too many children growing up in motels, forced to switch school districts each time they relocate and lacking the support and stability necessary for success,” Freeholder Director Bruce Garganio said Wednesday.

The county currently serves 12,200 people without permanent housing, supported by $21.3 million in state and federal funding and services offered through 20 providers. In addition to emergency, transitional and permanent housing, the county operates Code Blue shelters when the winter temperatures hover around the freezing mark.

A rapid rehousing pilot program is planned for 2015 and will help 60 families, Anna Payanzo, director of the county’s Department of Human Services said Wednesday. The next step is for the county to issue a request for proposals for an independent agency that would provide emergency-assistance clients with case management services such as self-sufficiency plans, permanent housing transitions and income potential analysis. The case manager would conduct monthly data tracking on follow up with the client at two-, six- and 12-month intervals, according to a presentation by Payanzo.

To that end, the county has held several meetings with state Department of Human Services officials to discuss shifting a portion emergency housing funding to case management services, Payanzo said.

“In all cases (clients) will be connected to a case manager who is going to work with them to help them understand where their income potential lies and to successfully secure that income and to be successfully housed long term, within months as opposed to years, and to be sustained in that self-sufficient placement long term,” Payanzo said.

Homelessness is a “pretty significant issue,” Payanzo said.

The topic was spotlighted in July with the release of the Monarch Housing Associates report that pegged the county as home to one of the state’s top four homeless populations. According to a “point in time count” of the homeless on Jan. 28, Burlington County had 1,660 homeless individuals in 931 households, or 12 percent of the state total, comparable to 1,691 in Union (12 percent), 1,655 in Essex (12 percent) and 1,405 in Middlesex (10 percent).

Around the same time, homelessness advocates rallied around an ill-fated plan for a shelter in Lumberton. The nonprofit Citizens Serving the Helpless later withdrew the plan due to funding issues.

Amid public questions from the public, the freeholders have cited the successes of the board’s 10-year plan to address homelessness.

Since implemented in 2012, the milestones have included a comprehensive reorganization of the Human Services department; the establishment of 44 new units of permanent housing through federal HOME Investment Partnership funds; and the use of grant funds to support housing counseling, homeowner preservation and first-time homebuyer programs. More recently the county established bylaws to better define the roles of the planning body that governs its homelessness services.