EAST PALO ALTO
CITY COUNCIL
STAFF REPORT
DATE: September 5, 2023
TO: Honorable Mayor and Members of the City Council
VIA: Melvin E. Gaines, City Manager
BY: Amy Chen, Community & Economic Development Director Natasha Raiburn, Rent Stabilization Program Administrator SUBJECT: Approval of Agreements for Anti-Displacement Rental Assistance Recommendation
Adopt a resolution:
1. Authorizing the City Manager to award and enter into a one-year agreement for distribution of anti-displacement rental assistance, in a form approved by the City Attorney, with Samaritan House for an amount not to exceed $100,000; and;
2. Appropriating $30,000 for the rental assistance program from the General Fund Reserve in addition to the $70,000 allocation approved by the Council during the FY23-24 budget adoption hearing
Alignment with City Council Strategic Plan
This recommendation is primarily aligned with:
Promote Housing, Economic and Workforce Development
Background
On October 16, 2018, the City Council approved the City’s five-year Affordable Housing Strategy (Strategy). A key item included in the Strategy was issuance of a Request for Proposals (RFP) to identify an organization(s) using General Funds from Measure O revenue to provide anti-displacement services for renters in the community. Measure O is a general tax with the objective of funding affordable housing, anti-displacement, and homelessness activities, and the generated revenue is included in the General Fund.
On July 5, 2022, staff outlined to the City Council a proposal to continue providing communitybased anti-displacement services, and the City Council authorized $310,000 for, and directed staff to issue an RFP for, Anti-Displacement Services with direction to ensure accountability by defining clear deliverables, performance metrics, regular reporting requirements, and staffing plans. The City issued the RFP on August 1, 2022, with the following requested services based on the identified community needs: legal services, tenant outreach, tenant empowerment & leadership development, case management, and direct rental & financial assistance.
The City received proposals for anti-displacement services from Community Legal Services in East Palo Alto (CLSEPA), Nuestra Casa, and Youth United for Community Action (YUCA) for legal services (eviction defense and other support), tenant advocacy and education, and financial assistance. Despite the City requesting Direct Rental and Financial Services in the RFP, none of the respondents proposed to administer a rent relief program. Staff believes the respondents would assist tenants in applying for rent relief and related financial assistance, but may not have had the capacity to directly administer funds. Thus, the City Council only appropriated $280,000 of the $310,000 they authorized for Anti-Displacement Services. The remaining $30,000 remained unencumbered.
On November 1, 2022, the City Council executed agreements for anti-displacement services with Community Legal Services in East Palo Alto (CLSEPA), Nuestra Casa, and Youth United for Community Action (YUCA) for legal services (eviction defense and other support), tenant advocacy and education, and financial assistance. The contracts total amount was $280,000.
On June 20, 2023, the City Council allocated $70,000 from the General Fund to be used for direct rental assistance. The $30,000 was reallocated from the original proposed budgets of Nuestra Casa and YUCA to CLSEPA to serve additional tenants in need of unlawful detainer assistance. Due to limited capacity CLSEPA did not accept the additional funds and increased scope of work. The allocation by City Council of $70,000 along with the remaining $30,000 from the 2022 Anti-Displacement budgeted funds that were not attached to the executed contracts, totaling to $100,000 were made available to support a new RFP to be issued for the Direct Rental and Financial Services.
On July 17, 2023, the City issued the RFP with the following requested services:
Direct Rental and Financial Assistance: Work with City staff to develop and administer a rent relief program with funds available from the City or other sources. Respondents were requested to highlight how they will target outreach to residents who may benefit from these services, how they will reduce barriers to accessing the funds, and how they will rapidly respond to rental and financial assistance. Examples of direct rental and financial assistance include:
a. Rent or utility payments;
b. First month, last month, and deposit/rental assistance; c. Short-term rental subsidies;
d. Homelessness prevention subsidies;
e. Moving or relocation assistance;
f. Furniture assistance for new move-ins; and
g. Shadow debt payment.
On August 7, 2023, the City received proposals from CLSEPA and Samaritan House. The City evaluated the proposals were and interviewed the respondents on August 11, 2023.Staff has returned to Council to present the RFP results and make a recommendation to award a contract to one respondent.
Analysis
The following summarizes the Scope & Cost of Services proposed by each respondent.
1. CLSEPA
The CLSEPA proposal totals $350,039 for year one of the agreement and proposes to distribute rental assistance to 60 East Palo Alto households throughout the contract year.
Existing CLSEPA staff will be assigned to approve and distribute rental assistance. During the interview process CLSEPA clarified that should the requested $350,039 be reduced to the budgeted $100,000 approximately 15-20 households would be assisted as approximately $17,000 would go to staff costs and there was also an overhead fee of 10%. This means that approximately $73,000 would be utilized towards rental assistance.
2. Samaritan House
The Samaritan House proposal totals $100,000, the amount the City budgeted, and proposes to distribute rental assistance to approximately 30-45 unduplicated households with approximately $1900-$3000 for each household. By having the rental assistance be a one-time assistance it will allow funding to reach additional households. Samaritan House proposed that $12,000 would go to staff costs. There was no proposed overhead fee, which leaves the remaining $88,000 to be utilized towards rental assistance.
Based on the above evaluation, staff suggests the City enter into an agreement with Samaritan House for Direct Rental and Financial Assistance.
Next Steps
Staff recommends that the City Council: authorize the City Manager to enter into an agreement, in a form approved by the City Attorney, with Samaritan House for an amount not to exceed $100,000.
The agreement will require the Respondent to submit quarterly progress reports to the City as well as a close-out report when all funds are expended. The quarterly reports will track the measurable outcomes that have been communicated to the Respondents. These reports will be used to ensure that Respondents will maintain on track in achieving the defined objectives and scope of services during the reporting year. Staff will utilize the same report template that was presented at the November 1, 2022, City Council meeting1.
Through the required quarterly progress reports, City staff will monitor the delivery of services to confirm conformance with the terms and performance metrics in the agreements. Samaritan House has accepted the general exemplar agreement and thus City staff expects to have the agreements that are discussed in this staff report executed within 1-2 months, with services to commence immediately thereafter.
Fiscal Impact
1 11/01/2022 City Council Meeting - http://eastpaloalto.iqm2.com/Citizens/Detail_Meeting.aspx?ID=1823 Staff recommends appropriating $30,000 for the rental assistance program from the General Fund Reserve. The rest of funds ($70,000) are included in the FY23-24 General Fund budgets.
Public Notice
The public was provided notice by making the agenda and report available on the City’s website and on a bulletin board located at City Hall: 2415 University Avenue, East Palo Alto.
Environmental
The proposed action does not constitute a “project” with the meaning of the California Environmental Quality Act (“CEQA”) pursuant to CEQA Guidelines sections 15378(b)(4) and (5) in that it is a governmental fiscal, organizational or administrative activity that will not result in direct or indirect changes in the environment.
Attachments
1. Resolution