Fremont City Council Meeting: 05/03/22 07:00 PM
3300 Capitol Avenue Div/Dept: Human Services Department Fremont, CA 94538 Category: Plans, Policies and Studies
SCHEDULED
Sponsors:
STAFF REPORT (ID # 4575) DOC ID: 4575
Updated: 4/29/2022 8:44 AM by Alberto Quintanilla Page 1 RESOLUTION ENDORSING HOME TOGETHER 2026 COMMUNITY PLAN - Adopt Resolution Endorsing Alameda County's Home Together 2026 Community Plan to End Homelessness
Contact Persons:
Name: Laurie Flores Suzanne Shenfil
Title: Homeless Services Manager Director
Div/Dept: Human Services Department Human Services Department Phone: 510-574-2040 510-574-2051
E-Mail: [email protected] [email protected]
Executive Summary: Over the past decade, Alameda County and its cities have seen a dramatic increase in homelessness, including a staggering 222% increase in unsheltered homelessness. On any given night over 8,000 people experience homelessness in Alameda County, a number that grows to 15,000 over the course of the year. These numbers have likely increased after the devastating economic impacts of COVID. More than 90% of homeless households in Alameda County are adults without minor children, including nearly 10% who are between the ages of 18 and 24.
The Home Together 2026 Community Plan (the Plan) is a community-wide plan for Alameda County which lays out the goals, strategies and investments needed to dramatically reduce homelessness by 2026 and reverse racial disparities in homelessness through fully centering racial equity. While only 11% of the County population identifies as Black, 47% of the homeless population does, more than four times the rate. In Fremont while African Americans represent only 3% of the City’s population, they represent 20% of our homeless population, more than six time the rate.
The plan also includes a needs analysis identifying the gap in the current system of homeless services in the type and availability of housing resources. Today, only an estimated 36% of those in need can be supported by local resources or are able to find housing or leave homelessness on their own. Each year thousands remain homeless as new people join them. Without a significant coordinated effort and investment, homelessness will continue to grow.
In 2021, the State passed the largest single investment in homelessness in its history, at $12 billion. This investment is intended to provide resources, which will lead to measurable, visible results in the reduction of homelessness statewide. The Home Together Community Plan is the blueprint for transforming Alameda County’s needs analysis, informed by City- level information and data, into an Action Plan to draw down and leverage significant new State funding. Using the systems modeling in the Home Together Community Plan, the total cost to fully meet and reduce homelessness in Alameda County is $2.5 billion over 5 years. With this estimated level of investment, the goal is that for every new household that experiences homelessness, there is a resource path to get them out of homelessness and into housing within an average of 90 days.
Staff Report (ID # 4575) Meeting of May 3, 2022
Updated: 4/29/2022 8:44 AM by Alberto Quintanilla Page 2 To secure the resources needed to implement the plan, the County and cities will need to partner to find new sources of funding and to lobby both the State and Federal government for increased resources at the local level. Alameda County cities, including Fremont, are being asked to ‘sign on’ and endorse The Home Together Community Plan. The Cities of Berkeley, Pleasanton and Livermore have already endorsed the plan and other Cities have it agendized for endorsement.
BACKGROUND: Beginning in 2019, with Federal technical assistance, the County, Continuum of Care (CoC) and Cities collaborated to perform a detailed analysis of the county-wide homeless system data and to meet extensively with people experiencing homelessness. The goal was to understand specifically what was needed to end homelessness, and what it would cost—and to hear directly from the people with lived experience about what works and what doesn’t.
Contained within the Home Together 2026 Community Plan is a framework which serves as blueprint for how Cities and the County can move forward in partnership to tackle this growing problem. It positions the County as the lead, and the final decision maker on County funding—but it gives City programs the direction they need to be competitive for this funding.
The overall goal with this framework is two-fold:
1) To ensure we minimize any disruptions in service or loss of current bed capacity.
2) To invest smartly in our system. The public is running out of patience and sympathy for street homelessness and demands results. This framework helps ensure that funding is awarded to programs that can deliver measurable results.
The framework does not “commit” the County to funding anything - rather simply to prioritize high-performing city programs for funding consideration. If a program is not performing and or is not eligible for funding under this framework, the Cities and the County would work together to minimize returning anyone to the streets if a program needed to close.
The Plan also demonstrates that significant new investments are needed in the nonprofit and government staff who perform this work. They are spread thin, working long hours, some with limited pay. The Plan indicates new resource and programs are only as good as the dedicated staff who translate them into action.
DISCUSSION/ANALYSIS: While Cities and the County have added significant new shelter, housing, and homeless prevention resources over the past 5 years, the Home Together 2026 Community Plan analyses show that without significant additional investments, our homeless population will continue to grow at an exponential rate.
Countywide, 24,000 additional “housing pathways,” (i.e., specific interventions) are needed to meet the varied needs of people on the streets.
Using the systems modeling in the Plan, the total cost to fully meet these needs, and significantly reduce homelessness, is $2.5 billion over 5 years. With this level of investment, it is hoped that for every new household that experiences homelessness there Staff Report (ID # 4575) Meeting of May 3, 2022
Updated: 4/29/2022 8:44 AM by Alberto Quintanilla Page 3 is a resource path to get them out of homelessness and into housing within an average of 90 days. These investments include:
• Prevention of Homelessness: $388M to add resources to rapidly rehouse those who have recently fallen into homelessness and do not need significant supportive services, and to target homeless prevention assistance to those who are most likely to wind up on the streets. This includes rapid rehousing and shallow (more limited) subsidies within the housing response system. This does not include the one-time development cost for new buildings but covers operations and services and the subsidies to help people rent existing housing. Prevention also addresses racial disparities and prevents disproportionate returns to homelessness.
• Connect People to Shelter and Needed Resources: $430M to add new shelter beds (non-congregant), removing barriers to existing beds (allowing pets or removing curfews, for example), and providing more needed access for those with serious mental illness and substance use through the creation of more treatment programs for unsheltered, sheltered and in those in supportive housing programs.
• Increase Dedicated Housing Solutions: $1.68B for new permanent housing units earmarked for homeless and increased spending to subsidize our existing housing units.
Existing and Potential Resources Needed to Execute Plan:
State Funding: The State of California recently made the largest single investment ever in homelessness, $12 billion. In January, Fremont applied for $40 million in State Homekey funding for 156 units of permanent, supportive housing for the chronically homeless.
County Funding: Alameda County voters also recently passed Measure W, a half-cent sales tax increase that is expected to generate up to $150M annually. This is a general tax, and while not set aside specifically for homelessness, the Board of Supervisors could set aside portions of it for strategic homeless investments.
City Funding: In FY 2020/21 the City spent approximately $2.2 million in the General Fund towards homeless projects and services, which was just over 1% of the City’s $213 million General Fund budget for the year. This does not include County, State and Federal funding sources leveraged by the City, or City funding for affordable housing at higher affordability levels. If the City’s Homekey application is successful, the City may make an additional investment of up to $9.3 million for the operation of the project.
Over the past 5 years, collectively, the County and its Cities have dramatically increased spending on homelessness. We now spend $183 million per year collectively. Despite these efforts, resources still fall short of the Home Together Plan’s estimate of $2.5 billion (over 5 years) needed to fully meet and reduce homelessness.
New local revenues will need to be raised and spending will need to be targeted, only to those programs that are proven to work. City and County representatives, in partnership, will also need to find new sources of external funding and continue to lobby both the State and Federal government for increased resources at the local level.
Staff Report (ID # 4575) Meeting of May 3, 2022
Updated: 4/29/2022 8:44 AM by Alberto Quintanilla Page 4 FISCAL IMPACT: There is no immediate fiscal impact for the City in the endorsement of the Home Together 2026 Community Plan, however the plan presents opportunities for future funding from the State and Federal Government by working in collaboration with other cities and the county. In order to be eligible for County passthrough funding for homelessness, including the State of California Homeless Housing Assistance, and Prevention (HHAP) funding, the County expects that Cities endorse this plan.
ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW: N/A
ATTACHMENTS: None.
LINKS: None.
ATTACHMENTS:
• Draft Resolution Endorsing the Home Together 2026 Community Implementation Plan
RECOMMENDATION: Adopt a resolution endorsing Alameda County’s Home Together 2026 Community Plan, a community-wide plan for Alameda County which lays out the goals, strategies and investments needed to dramatically reduce homelessness-and reduce racial disparities in the homeless population by 2026.