Camarillo City Council
AGENDA REPORT
Date: November 12, 2025
To: Honorable Mayor and City Councilmembers
From: Greg Ramirez, City Manager
Submitted by: Carmen Nichols, Assistant City Manager
Subject: Presentation of City of Camarillo Homelessness Strategic Plan
BACKGROUND
In 2024, the City of Camarillo hired LeSar Development Consultants (LDC) to develop a comprehensive Homelessness Strategic Plan. This effort builds upon the City's existing homelessness response initiatives, including Project H.O.P.E., the hotel voucher program, and recent awards of competitive state funding through the Homeless Housing, Assistance and Prevention Program (HHAP) and the Encampment Resolution Fund (ERF).
Like many California communities, Camarillo has experienced growth in homelessness over the past five years. The 2025 Point-in-Time Count identified 90 individuals experiencing homelessness in Camarillo, with 88% living unsheltered. While this represents a notable increase from 2020, the growth rate has stabilized significantly in the past year—from 2024 to 2025, the count increased by only 1%—demonstrating that the City's investments are showing impact.
The Strategic Plan was developed through a comprehensive process that included:
Analysis of quantitative data (Point-in-Time Counts, HMIS data, housing affordability data)
Community input sessions and surveys (174 total survey responses) Lived experience surveys (40 responses from individuals experiencing homelessness)
Focus groups and interviews with nearly 50 stakeholders including City staff, County partners, service providers, business leaders, faith-based organizations, and elected officials
The Homelessness Strategic Plan represents a comprehensive, data-informed, and community-driven framework for reducing homelessness in Camarillo. It builds upon the City's existing strengths while identifying clear pathways to expand capacity, increase
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housing production, prevent homelessness, and ultimately ensure that every Camarillo resident has access to stable housing.
DISCUSSION
Goals and Purpose
The Homelessness Strategic Plan establishes a clear, actionable roadmap for creating a durable system to address and prevent homelessness in Camarillo. The Plan's core purpose is to scale the City's response to match the size of the need, ensuring sufficient housing and services are available to address homelessness both today and tomorrow.
The Plan articulates a vision of a thriving Camarillo where every resident has access to a safe, stable home; where older adults can age in place; where workers can live near their jobs; where young adults can remain in their community; and where families can resolve housing crises quickly.
Core Outcome
The Plan establishes a measurable core outcome: by Year 5, Camarillo will reduce the number of residents experiencing homelessness by two-thirds through sustained annual increases in housing placements and strong prevention efforts that keep new inflows stable. This outcome reflects a realistic, data-driven approach to reducing homelessness through consistent, year-over-year progress. If Camarillo continues to house residents at a similar rate to what it has historically, and new inflow only modestly increases due to expanded investments in prevention, the total number of people experiencing homelessness will steadily decline as more residents are housed than enter homelessness each year.
Key Focus Areas
The Plan addresses two central imperatives:
1.Interim and permanent housing for Camarillo residents already experiencing homelessness – ensuring sufficient permanent housing opportunities, interim options, and targeted services to move people from homelessness to stability.
2.Permanent affordable housing to address upstream causes of homelessness and increased prevention efforts – producing more affordable homes, particularly for very low-income residents, and implementing prevention strategies so fewer households fall into homelessness.
Each of the 11 goals includes multiple strategies with actionable steps, key performance indicators to measure progress, implementation timelines spanning five years, and considerations for successful execution.
Strengths Identified
The planning process identified significant existing strengths in the City’s current homelessness response:
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Commitment to partnerships and collaboration with County agencies, nonprofits, and community organizations
Successful outreach through Project H.O.P.E.
Infrastructure and investments in hotel vouchers and affordable housing pipeline Successful competitive funding procurement
Strong political will and community support for solutions Opportunities for Growth
The Plan also identifies opportunities to strengthen the response:
Closing the affordable housing gap, particularly for extremely low-income and very low-income households
Establishing renewable local funding sources to reduce reliance on competitive state/federal grants
Expanding homelessness prevention programs
Strengthening regional coordination with the Continuum of Care and County partners
Building community understanding and support through ongoing education Strategic Framework
The Plan is organized into two strategic phases:
Phase One: Preparing the Landscape focuses on building the foundation for scaled response through six goals:
1. Establish scaled, renewable funding to meet the need
2. Reduce barriers to affordable housing
3. Expand local capacity
4. Strengthen regional partnerships
5. Increase citywide engagement and understanding
6. Utilize data-driven decision making
Phase Two: Working to Reduce Homelessness focuses on delivering housing and services at scale through five goals:
7. Develop permanent housing solutions
8. Bolster non-congregate interim housing opportunities
9. Prevent homelessness before it begins
10.Establish flexible funds
11.Strengthen workforce development for people experiencing or exiting homelessness
Organizational Considerations
The Plan recommends organizational enhancements to support implementation, including:
Creating a Housing Division for expansion of City capacity to meet recommended housing efforts
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Expanding dedicated City leadership for housing and homelessness initiatives Building specialized program staffing across system components (interim housing, prevention, permanent housing)
Leveraging contracted service providers for frontline service delivery where appropriate
Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Committee
On October 27, 2025, the Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness (PSEP) Committee received a presentation on the Homelessness Strategic Plan. The Committee's discussion focused on several key areas including data tracking mechanisms and performance metrics, understanding homelessness inflows and outflows within the community, strategies for community engagement and communications, and establishing regular opportunities for the City Council to stay informed on homelessness data and progress toward plan goals. Following the presentation, the Committee recommended moving the Plan forward for City Council review and ratification.
The Homelessness Strategic Plan does not request immediate fiscal action but acknowledges that sustained investment will be required to achieve the goals outlined.
The Plan identifies multiple potential revenue sources including:
Continued pursuit of competitive state and federal grants Access to Continuum of Care/County funding
Exploration of local renewable funding mechanisms
Leveraging of existing General Fund allocations
Current homelessness-related investments total approximately $10.4 million through FY 26-27, including $8 million in grant awards and $2.4 million in General Fund allocations.
Future fiscal impacts will be presented to Council as specific programs and initiatives are proposed for implementation.
FISCAL IMPACT
CEQA DETERMINATIONS
City staff has determined, in accordance with Section 15061(b)(3) of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) Guidelines, that the Homelessness Strategic Plan is not subject to CEQA review because it can be seen with certainty that there is no possibility that it may have a significant effect on the environment.
RECOMMENDATION
1. Adopt the Camarillo Homelessness Strategic Plan.
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ATTACHMENTS
1. City of Camarillo Homelessness Strategic Plan
REFERENCE MATERIALS – AVAILABLE FOR REVIEW AT CITY HALL None