A nearly $5 million price tag shouldn’t scare city commissioners away from a proposed plan to deal with homeless problems in the city, members of the city’s Task Force on Homeless Services said Wednesday.

Task force members tried to make clear to city commissioners at a study session that the task force never expected the city to fully fund the $4.7 million program. Task force members said they envision much of the money for a $2.5 million shelter to come from private donations. They said they also believe there are substantial grant and federal dollars available to fund other services in the plan. But they did ask city commissioners to formally endorse the plan.

“We will never get funding (from outside sources) if this commission doesn’t say this is a good plan for the community,” said Shirley Martin-Smith, a member of the task force.

Commissioners agreed to put the plan on a future agenda for formal adoption but said people should not take that to mean that the city would be committed to be the sole funder for all the proposals.