Camarillo City Council
AGENDA REPORT
Date: January 28, 2026
To: Honorable Mayor and City Councilmembers
From: Greg Ramirez, City Manager
Submitted by: Carmen Nichols, Assistant City Manager
Subject: Revised Draft – Camarillo Homelessness Strategic Plan
BACKGROUND
Housing Element Foundation
The City's 6th Cycle Housing Element (2021-2029), adopted in April 2023, established the foundation for this strategic planning effort. Program 17 of the Housing Element specifically committed the City to developing a comprehensive Homelessness Strategic Plan to address emergency and transitional housing needs for residents experiencing homelessness. This commitment reflected the City's recognition that addressing homelessness requires a coordinated, data-driven approach that complements broader housing production efforts.
Development of the Strategic Plan
In 2024, the City of Camarillo engaged LeSar Development Consultants (LDC) to develop a comprehensive Homelessness Strategic Plan. This effort built upon the City's existing homelessness response initiatives, including Project H.O.P.E., the motel voucher program, and recent awards of competitive state funding through the Homeless Housing, Assistance and Prevention Program (HHAP), and Encampment Resolution Funds (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 200% 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 beginning to show impact.
The Strategic Plan was developed through a comprehensive process that included:
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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, representing nearly 50% of the 2024 PIT Count) Focus groups and interviews with nearly 50 stakeholders including City staff, County partners, service providers, business leaders, faith-based organizations, and elected officials
Committee and Council Review Process
On October 27, 2025, the Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness (PSEP) Committee received a presentation on the Draft Homelessness Strategic Plan. The Committee's discussion focused on 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 discussion, the Committee recommended moving the Plan forward for City Council review and consideration.
On November 12, 2025, the City Council received a presentation on the Draft Plan and provided extensive feedback regarding the document's nature, scope, integration with other City planning efforts, and specific policy recommendations.
Staff carefully considered Council feedback and made substantial revisions to the document, which are highlighted in red text throughout the Revised Draft Plan.
On November 17, 2025, the PSEP Committee reconvened to review the feedback received from the City Council. Following that meeting, staff and the consultants incorporated the revisions into the Draft Plan and provided a new Draft to the PSEP Committee for their review. The Committee reviewed the revisions and recommended that the plan move forward for City Council consideration.
DISCUSSION
Overview of Revisions
The Revised Homelessness Strategic Plan reflects a comprehensive effort to integrate City Council feedback, enhancing the data-driven, community-informed foundation of the document. The revisions fundamentally reframe the Plan's nature and structure to ensure it serves as an advisory resource rather than a prescriptive mandate, while maintaining its value as a strategic guide for homelessness response efforts. Six major categories of revisions have been incorporated throughout the document.
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1. Establishing the Plan as an Aspirational Framework
The most significant revision addresses the overall nature and intent of the document. A comprehensive "Note to Readers" section has been added at the beginning of the Plan to explicitly establish it as a guiding framework that provides direction without creating obligations or mandates. This section clarifies that strategies represent informed recommendations rather than requirements, that timelines serve as logical guideposts rather than deadlines, and that the Plan does not supersede existing City policy or Council direction.
Throughout the document, language was systematically revised to reflect this advisory nature. Directive terminology has been replaced with conditional phrasing that acknowledges the many factors including funding availability, regional partnerships, market conditions, and community readiness, that will influence actual implementation.
The Executive Summary now explicitly states that the City may modify or forgo plan actions based on circumstances, reinforcing the flexible, adaptable nature of the framework.
2. Integration with General Plan and Housing Element
The revised Plan strengthens its explicit connections to the City's ongoing General Plan update and adopted Housing Element. The opening sections now clearly state that the Plan aligns with and builds upon existing planning documents, and that recommendations may be revisited and incorporated into future planning cycles only when consistent with broader City priorities and statutory requirements.
Goal 2, which addresses barriers to affordable housing, was comprehensively revised with particular attention to land-use and zoning recommendations. The section title has been modified to reflect a more exploratory approach, and all action steps have been reframed to emphasize consideration and analysis rather than predetermined outcomes.
Timelines indicate that review will occur in alignment with Housing Element programs and that comprehensive zoning updates will be analyzed as part of the General Plan update process, with implementation contingent on consistency with that comprehensive planning effort.
3. Refocusing Funding Strategies on External Sources
The funding section was restructured to shift emphasis toward external funding opportunities. Goal 1 has been retitled to focus on maximizing state, federal, and regional funding sources. The previous strategy addressing local revenue sources was removed from the goals section and relocated to an appendix where it serves as reference information only.
The revised Goal 1 now concentrates exclusively on two strategies: applying for competitive state and federal grants and accessing Continuum of Care and County funding available to cities. The appendix that contains information about various local Camarillo Homelessness Strategic Plan
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tools and resource strategies explicitly frames these options as mechanisms the City may consider if external funding proves insufficient, without suggesting immediate action or study.
4. Aligning Organizational Recommendations with Budget Processes Recommendations regarding organizational structure and staffing have been revised to tie any potential changes to the City's established annual budget development process.
New language emphasizes that the City will assess the need for additional positions, including their scope, timing, and funding sources, through the comprehensive budget study that occurs as part of normal fiscal planning.
The organizational structure diagrams presented in the appendices now include explanatory text clarifying that these represent suggested approaches and vision rather than immediate directives. Additional context has been provided to explain the potential benefits of organizational changes while making clear that any such modifications would be subject to thorough analysis and Council approval through established processes.
5. Conditioning Program Implementation on Funding and Feasibility Recommendations for specific program implementation, particularly those involving master leasing arrangements and permanent supportive housing development, were revised to include explicit conditional language tied to funding availability. Action steps now consistently reference the need to secure grant funding before launching programs and include language directing feasibility assessments rather than immediate implementation.
Additional consideration notes have been incorporated to acknowledge program costs, coordination requirements, and the need for strategic implementation based on available resources. This ensures that program recommendations are understood as opportunities to pursue when conditions are favorable rather than immediate mandates.
6. Refining Trauma-Informed Language
The section addressing engagement challenges has been retitled and substantially revised to present a more nuanced, trauma-informed perspective. The revised content acknowledges that engagement challenges are real and complex while explaining how behaviors that may appear as resistance often reflect trauma responses, safety concerns, or program design mismatches rather than unwillingness to accept help.
Language has been refined throughout to strengthen clarity and compassion while maintaining a research-based, evidence-informed approach. The revisions emphasize that trust-building, consistent engagement, and person-centered program design lead to better outcomes.
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Plan Structure and Core Outcome
The revised Plan maintains its comprehensive two-phase structure that addresses both immediate needs and long-term prevention. Phase One focuses on preparing the landscape through building system capacity, while Phase Two concentrates on direct service delivery to reduce homelessness. This structure reflects the evidence-based understanding that homelessness is predominantly driven by economic factors and requires both immediate intervention and upstream prevention.
The Plan establishes a clear, measurable core outcome targeting a two-thirds reduction in residents experiencing homelessness by Year 5 through sustained increases in housing placements and strong prevention efforts that stabilize new inflows. This outcome is grounded in current baseline data and supported by detailed modeling that demonstrates how maintaining steady rehousing rates while managing inflow increases through prevention can achieve the stated goal.
Implementation and Funding Approach
The Revised Draft Strategic Plan does not commit the City to immediate fiscal action. The clarifications made in response to Council feedback reinforce that implementation of any strategy is contingent on funding availability and feasibility analysis, organizational changes will be evaluated through the annual budget process. The City will continue to pursue external funding sources as the primary strategy, and any local investment strategies would require separate Council consideration and approval.
FISCAL IMPACT
There is no immediate fiscal impact as a result of this action.
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 Draft Camarillo Homelessness Strategic Plan
ATTACHMENTS
1. Revised Draft – Camarillo Homelessness Strategic Plan REFERENCE MATERIALS – AVAILABLE FOR REVIEW AT CITY HALL None