City Council
February 15, 2022
AGENDA REPORT
TO: Edward D. Reiskin FROM: Sara Bedford
City Administrator Director, Human Services
SUBJECT: Beach Street RV Safe Parking
Program Professional Services
Agreement
DATE: January 14, 2022
City Administrator Approval
Date: Jan 31, 2022
RECOMMENDATION
Staff Recommends The City Council Adopt a Resolution Authorizing the City Administrator to Award A Professional Services Agreement To Operation Dignity In An Amount Not To Exceed Two Hundred Thousand Dollars ($200,000) For Operation Of The Beach Street Safe RV Parking Site For A Grant Term Of July 1, 2021 Through June 30, 2022.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This resolution authorizes the City Administrator to enter into a one-year contract agreement with Operation Dignity for the usage of the City-leased site at 3499 Beach Street for RVs. The Beach Street RV Safe Parking site serves seventeen (17) West Oakland RV-dweller households, providing safe parking, hygiene services, connection to other services including health care, and light case management to the program participants.
BACKGROUND / LEGISLATIVE HISTORY
The City of Oakland has experienced a 47 percent increase in its homeless population based on the most recent Homeless Persons Point-In-Time (PIT) Count between 2017 and 2019. The majority of those experiencing homelessness live in encampments, vehicles, and places not meant for human habitation. Additionally, the 2019 PIT count found that 22% of 3,210 unsheltered individuals in Oakland were living in RVs.
Current data and trends suggest that number is expected to be significantly higher in 2022. The rise in people living in recreational vehicles (RVs) parked on Oakland streets is attributable to the current housing crisis in the City. Many Oakland residents living in the RVs endure unsafe and unsanitary conditions due to lack of facilities and resources available to those living in vehicles.
In 2018, the City and Caltrans identified an available parcel at 3499 Beach Street and Caltrans received approval from the California Transportation Commission on December 7, 2018 to enter
Edward D. Reiskin, City Administrator
Subject: Beach Street RV Safe Parking Program Professional Services Agreement Date: January 14, 2022 Page 2
City Council
February 15, 2022
into lease agreements with the City of Oakland for the use of said parcel. Authority to utilize the parcel at 3499 Beach Street as well as authority to execute the initial Professional Services Agreement with Operation Dignity for the program was provided in Resolution No. 87403 C.M.S. using Homeless Emergency Aid Program (HEAP) funding. The authority to utilize HEAP funding expired on June 30, 2021. Beach Street RV Safe Parking has been in continuous operation since September 1, 2019.
ANALYSIS AND POLICY ALTERNATIVES
In April 2021, Resolution No 88603 C.M.S., authorized the City Administrator to negotiate and enter into contracts with providers to operate and maintain Managed RV Sites for FY2021-22.
The Beach Street RV site was inadvertently left out of that legislation. The current legislation is to rectify that oversight and authorize funding for the Beach Street RV site as well.
RV Safe Parking programs support the City’s goals of holistic community safety and housing, economic, and cultural security. The City is currently supporting four managed Safe RV Parking sites with a total of 147 spaces serving approximately 294 people (estimate 2 people/RV). RV Safe Parking programs, like Beach Street, are just one component of a comprehensive strategy to end homelessness in Oakland. Unlike Community Cabins, homeless shelters, and transitional housing programs, these programs target those who are already living in their RVs on Oakland streets. For the 22% (as of 2019) of Oakland’s unsheltered population that live in an RV, these programs serve as a way of allowing self-choice and dignity while preserving their current housing and providing humane access to safety and sanitation. The Beach Street RV Safe Parking Site continues to provide a safe place for RV Dwellers to stay in their self-owned shelter of choice.
If this legislation is not adopted the Beach St RV Safe Parking program will close and 17 RV households will return to living on the streets of Oakland.
FISCAL IMPACT
Beach Street RV Safe Parking site will be funded in FY 21-22 with Measure Q funds which are available for this purpose in Fund (2244), Community Housing Services Organization (78411) project (1005349).
PUBLIC OUTREACH / INTEREST
This report did not require public outreach other than the posting of this report on the website.
COORDINATION
Coordination has occurred between the Human Services Department (HSD), Office of the City Attorney and Budget Bureau in preparation of this report and resolution.
Edward D. Reiskin, City Administrator
Subject: Beach Street RV Safe Parking Program Professional Services Agreement Date: January 14, 2022 Page 3
City Council
February 15, 2022
PAST PERFORMANCE, EVALUATION AND FOLLOW-UP
RV Safe Parking sites have been set-up throughout the City of Oakland to support RV Dwellers with safe parking and connection to resources. FY 20/21 resulted in the following outcomes. • 155 individuals were served in the RV Safe Parking sites including 96 (62 percent) who were chronically homeless
• 77 percent of clients self-reported a physical or mental health condition at the time of program entry.
• 30 percent of participants identified as Black or African American and 58% identified as white
• 21 people (13.5 percent) left the program during the fiscal year with 10% of exits going to permanent housing.
Beach Street RVSP site is the only RV site with over 70% of Black or African American identifying participants. In fiscal year 20/21 25 participants were served at Beach Street. Of those served, 15 remained at the site over a year. Two households exited to staying with friends and family temporarily and two households exited to permanent housing.
SUSTAINABLE OPPORTUNITIES
Economic: The purpose of this report is to provide information about one of the ways the City is attempting to eliminate and prevent homelessness.
Environmental: This program will decrease the number of recreational vehicles parked on the City of Oakland’s arterial, collector, and residential streets, which will assist with street cleaning city-wide and reduce waste from such vehicles impacting storm drains and water sources.
Race & Equity: Race & Equity: In Oakland, the drivers of homelessness fall most squarely on the backs of the African American community who, due to long standing structurally racist practices such as red lining and employment discrimination, are most vulnerable to losing their homes. Ending homelessness in Oakland must be defined by what works for African Americans first and foremost in order to reduce the racial disparities. These drivers of homelessness include:
• Structural racism
• Insufficient controls on the rental housing market that create vulnerability and housing instability for tenants
• Insufficient housing units that are affordable to households with the lowest incomes, including particularly those whose incomes are below 20 percent of Area Median Income (AMI)
• Systematic barriers that often prevent residents who are returning home from incarceration from living with family members and/or accessing both public and private rental housing and employment opportunities
In FY 2020-21, sixty-eight (68) percent of people served across Oakland’s entire system of homeless services were African American and the population at the Beach St RV site was 62 percent Black or African American. It is important to note that across all the RV Safe Parking sites in FY2020-21 only 29 percent of residents were African American and 57 percent white.
Edward D. Reiskin, City Administrator
Subject: Beach Street RV Safe Parking Program Professional Services Agreement Date: January 14, 2022 Page 4
City Council
February 15, 2022
This disproportionality is very concerning. More analysis is needed to understand if there is a difference in racial demographics among the RV dwelling population generally or why the RV encampments which were invited into the current sites (as their encampments were closed) were disproportionately white. The upcoming Point In Time count, scheduled for February 2022, will collect more detailed data on RV dwellers and will help answer these questions. This data analysis should inform more strategic targeting in the invitation zones for this intervention to ensure that African American residents are being served in numbers that are at least proportionate to their representation in the homeless community in Oakland.
ACTION REQUESTED OF THE CITY COUNCIL
Staff Recommends The City Council Adopt a Resolution Authorizing the City Administrator to Award A Professional Services Agreement To Operation Dignity In An Amount Not To Exceed Two Hundred Thousand Dollars ($200,000) For Operation Of The Beach Street Safe RV Parking Site For A Grant Term Of July 1, 2021 Through June 30, 2022.
For questions regarding this report, please contact Lara Tannenbaum, Community Homelessness Services Manager at 510-238-6187.
Respectfully submitted,
Sara Bedford
Director, Human Services Department
Reviewed by:
C’Mone Falls, Program Planner
Community Homelessness Services Division
Prepared by:
Michael L. Johnson, Program Analyst
Community Homelessness Services Division