April 5, 2022
Community Development
DATE: April 5, 2022
TO: Mayor Butt and Members of the City Council
FROM:
Lina Velasco, Director of Community Development
Subject:
Encampment Resolution Grant
FINANCIAL IMPACT: The City was awarded a $4.8 million grant that would assist the City in providing services to support people living at the Castro Encampment onto paths to safe and
stable housing and result in sustainable restoration of this Bay Trail segment.
PREVIOUS COUNCIL
ACTION:
None
STATEMENT OF THE
ISSUE:
The City of Richmond applied for and was awarded an
Encampment Resolution Grant to assist in the sunsetting of the Castro Encampment. City staff is seeking Council authorization to accept and appropriate the $4.8 million in grant funding.
RECOMMENDED ACTION:
ACCEPT and APPROPRIATE a $4.8 million
Encampment Resolution Grant to provide services and
support people living in the Castro Encampment onto
paths to safe and stable housing and result in sustainable restoration of this public space, a segment of the San
Francisco Bay Trail – Community Development (Lina
Velasco 510-620-6706).
DISCUSSION:
In December 2021, the City applied for Encampment Resolution Funding (ERF) seeking resources from the State of California to fund a local demonstration project, which would provide services to address the immediate crisis of experiencing unsheltered homelessness in encampments; support people living in encampments onto paths to safe and stable housing; and result in sustainable restoration of public spaces to their AGENDA
REPORT
April 5, 2022
intended uses while safeguarding the needs of unhoused people seeking shelter.
Applications were required to focus on one encampment site. City staff selected the Castro Encampment for this funding application.
Successful grantees are to design a demonstration project that builds the capacity to provide relevant and responsive services to individuals experiencing homelessness in encampments. The project will support cross-systems collaboration and service strategies to help people experiencing homelessness transition out of encampments toward safe and stable housing pathways. Activities will also support efforts to restore encampment sites to their original state and intended purposes, but the activities must prioritize protecting the health, safety, and well-being of the individuals who had been living in the encampments.
Summary of Richmond’s Project
The ERF will include resources to hire an ERF Project Manager (.5 FTE), who will lead the Castro Site Care Team (SCT), which will include a Site Manager, Housing Navigators, a dedicated CORE team with social workers, and other providers working directly with encampment residents to triage and ensure services are timely, responsive, coordinated, trauma-informed, and achieving goals and objectives. The City will solicit bids from service providers to assist Castro residents in charting durable paths toward long-term housing and stability; address community concerns; and manage, sunset, and restore the site. The funding also includes a third-party evaluator to document and assess project implementation and service delivery to encampment residents.
The City is proposing a targeted, stepped approach to address the myriad needs of the people living at the Castro Encampment by augmenting existing strategies with evidence-based clinical case management and intensive social service and housing navigation support. In Contra Costa County, the most common reasons for homelessness are mental illness, chronic substance abuse, loss of employment, and physical illness. The City’s plan is built upon a foundation of input from many community stakeholders, including encampment residents, and is informed by past successes— and lessons—in working to sunset encampments with a Housing First approach.
Modeled on the County’s successful Homeless Disability Advocacy Program (HDAP) grant, the City has designed a two (2)-year plan that will empower unhoused residents at the Castro Encampment to progress toward physical and mental wellness, while being supported in developing their own paths to stable housing.
CONCLUSION:
The ERF is needed to help address the myriad needs of the people living at the Castro Encampment in a holistic Housing First approach.
DOCUMENTS ATTACHED:
Attachment 1 – Resolution