June 21, 2022
City Council
DATE: June 21, 2022
TO: Mayor Butt and Members of the City Council
FROM:
Councilmembers Gayle McLaughlin and Melvin Willis
Subject:
Collaborative approach between Safe Organized Spaces
Richmond (SOS), the Richmond Rotary Club Housing
First Initiative, and various related partners to assist the unhoused.
FINANCIAL IMPACT: Cost of implementing this collaboration with various partners will be approximately $2,399,100. Staff has
stated there are sufficient and appropriate funds available and will be identifying distinct funding sources when the contracts come back to City Council.
PREVIOUS COUNCIL
ACTION:
SOS (with Rebuilding Together East Bay North as fiscal
sponsor) is currently contracted by the City of Richmond with said contract due to expire in July 2022. This
contract is funded as part of the Reimagining Public
Safety initiatives. The Rotary Club Housing First program is a relatively new program initiated by Mayor Butt funded currently by the Mayor’s Office Golf Tournament Fund.
STATEMENT OF THE
ISSUE:
There is a need to collaborate on providing opportunities for our unhoused population in Richmond. There is a
natural fit for collaboration to service the various needs of the unhoused community while providing them with safe
spaces for interim housing and access to permanent
housing.
AGENDA
REPORT
June 21, 2022
RECOMMENDED ACTION:
DIRECT staff to create two contracts that outline a
collaborative approach between Safe Organized Spaces
Richmond (SOS), the Richmond Rotary Club Housing
First Initiative, and various related partners and bring back the contracts to the City Council for approval before the August break. The fiscal sponsor for both contracts will be the Richmond Community Foundation –
Councilmembers Gayle McLaughlin and Melvin Willis
(510) 620-6581.
DISCUSSION:
Richmond’s unhoused population has doubled during COVID, and these numbers will continue to grow in the coming months. Immediate and longer-term remedies are critically needed. Multiple approaches must address the ongoing housing crisis and growing number of unhoused individuals and families. A collaboration between Safe Organized Spaces (SOS) Richmond and the Richmond Rotary Club’s Housing First Initiative, along with other partner organizations, is a positive step toward creating a “Community of Care” that provides alternatives to unsafe curbside living.
Overwhelmingly, Richmond residents who are currently unhoused have informed council members that they want to secure stable housing as their goal. Clearly, as demonstrated by ongoing abatements of unsupported homeless encampments, it is also essential that existing encampment conditions are improved, and interim off-street housing remedies made available.
This agenda report provides a basic description of the proposed collaborative work of SOS’ mobile encampment services and Richmond Rotary’s Housing First program, and their integrated partners. The emerging collaborative of Unhoused Interventions will invest in institutionalizing a creative set of approaches that demonstrate a model for collective impact on homelessness in Richmond and inform the city’s new strategic planning process.
The collaboration represents an essential and holistic model for Unhoused Interventions with a two-edged strategy of complementary approaches and shared resources:
“Streets Team and Safe Spaces” will continue an existing city-funded strategy for mitigating unsafe encampments and developing safe off-street interim housing in neighborhoods. The collaborative team is led by Safe Organized Spaces Richmond and program partners, such as Rebuilding Together East Bay North, Collaborising, Tacos And Roses, Faith In Action, Housing Consortium of the East Bay, NeighborAid, La Familia Family Services, Rising Sun Center For Opportunity, and others.
“Housing First and Services” will deepen this recent initiative for tracking vulnerable households into immediate housing pathways. The collaborative team
June 21, 2022
is led by Richmond Rotary Club and its program partners, such as the Richmond Community Foundation (RCF) and its SparkPoint program, Greater Richmond Interfaith Program (GRIP), and others.
Individual group responsibilities will be identified for each of the partners in this overall teamwork approach. It is important to put political differences aside in this effort to truly address the needs of our unhoused residents in ways that advance the community’s diverse interests. Together, we will more efficiently and comprehensively develop pathways to secure housing and sustainable lives.
Basic budgets are outlined in this agenda item. City staff will create the contracts with SOS and Richmond Rotary that spells out responsibilities for each organization and its partner groups, based on this agenda report and subsequent conversations with the organizations involved.
The overall team will also work with Contra Costa County Health, Housing and Homeless (H3) Services to connect unhoused residents to various programs and services that the County provides.
Additionally, the City of Richmond needs to provide some truly affordable housing, so as people get on their feet, they can transition to and sustain long-term permanent housing. This priority goes beyond the scope of what this item addresses, but it is important to encourage us all (city staff and elected officials) to work simultaneously on truly affordable housing solutions that will more permanently provide secure housing opportunities.
Safe Organized Spaces Richmond
SOS Richmond, with its fiscal sponsor Rebuilding Together East Bay North (RTEBN), is in contract with the City of Richmond. This $983,975 contract was executed in September 2021 and is set to expire in July 2022. Six activities are currently provided by SOS:
1. Cleanup of encampment trash and adjacent illegal dumping;
2. Delivery of mobile showers to encampment and neighboring locations;
3. Additional portable amenities deployed to encampments, such as trash storage, toilets and drinking water;
4. Workforce development for encampment residents who volunteer and subsequently become employed;
5. Local engagement that focuses on safety, problem-solving, and personal welfare; and,
6. Development and support to near-future interim housing locations, such as in off- street parking lots of faith organizations in neighborhoods across Richmond.
Twenty-three unhoused individuals are actively employed at an average of 22 hours per week as they improve their own wellness, work toward full-time employment, attainment
June 21, 2022
of housing and improved self-sufficiency. This diverse team operates three teams: the Streets Team for trash reduction and to improve safety and stability at encampments and neighborhoods overall; Shower Power for mobile showers and improved dignity and health; and Mobile Amenities for deepened engagement as basic needs are met.
They support a neighborhood-based change model that builds relationship and trust with unhoused and housed neighbors alike to evolve acceptance for new strategies of homelessness intervention. This work involves building cooperation with public agencies and engagement with neighborhood anchors, and it seeks to build collaboration with other community-based organizations.
Richmond Rotary Club Housing First Initiative
The Richmond Rotary Club’s Housing First Initiative started in January 2022 by the Mayor of Richmond in collaboration with the Richmond Rotary Club to transition people from homeless encampments into housing for a year. Since that time the initiative has placed seven families or individuals in apartments or house-shares with a full year rent paid in advance.
Mayor Tom Butt, a Rotary member, arranged payment for this program through the Mayor’s Community Fund which is administered by the Richmond Community Foundation. Volunteers from Rotary screened applicants, recruited landlords, arranged payments, collected donations of furniture and household goods, and arranged follow- up social services from public agencies. Rotary Club members are well-connected and play an advocacy role so that participants can access all available services needed to transition to self-sufficiency.
That fund is currently running out and more funding is needed. One goal of the program is to build self-sufficiency for the families when they leave the program. Additional funding would pay for housing placements and to develop a more robust process for providing support for the families. It has been difficult for Rotary to provide follow-up services such as access to appropriate government support programs, financial counseling, mental health services, job readiness training, and job placement. Such services are needed to ensure that while a one-year rent guarantee can provide a platform of security and safety for transitioning out of homelessness. Much more support is needed to ensure that families do not fall back into homelessness after the rent subsidy is over.
The Housing First program has established a working relationship with SOS, which helps to identify appropriate families ready to be relocated through the Housing First program and to prepare such families for self-sufficiency. An integral collaboration with SOS Richmond would help to provide a more efficient and comprehensive approach to the Housing First program.
June 21, 2022
Collaboration between SOS Richmond and Rotary Club Housing First An integration of these two community-based efforts, SOS Richmond and the Rotary Club’s Housing First Initiative, will improve support to vulnerable families and individuals in the environments where they currently live and will expedite access to housing.
Currently there is no such direct pathway to housing for unhoused residents of Richmond.
SOS will continue its encampment-based work and will identify appropriate unhoused families and individuals for the Housing First program and provide workforce development, when needed, for unhoused families transitioning through Housing First (HF), as well provide additional services as appropriate to those families participating in the HF program. The Housing First program will coordinate with SOS as needed to successfully house appropriate families and members of the unhoused community.
This collaboration will have Richmond Community Foundation (RCF) as fiscal agent.
Staff will outline separate program deliverables for SOS and the Housing First Program, along with sub-contracts for partner organizations.
Two main contracts will be needed. One contract will be the extension of the SOS contract through June 30, 2023, with RCF as the new fiscal sponsor. Expanded deliverables and budgetary needs will be outlined. The other contract will be for Rotary Club Housing First program through June 30, 2023, also with RCF as the fiscal sponsor and deliverables outlined.
Rough Budgets
To continue its work, SOS Richmond needs funding reallocation for year two of this work with a budget of $1,429,000 for FY ’22/’23 (this includes remaining funds from prior contract and funding for program partners):
$108,000 Program Administration
$260,000 Operational Management (currently/formerly unhoused) $276,000 Program Expenses (non-staff)
$470,000 Streets Team employees (unhoused)
$315,000 Program Partners (e.g. Rebuilding Together East Bay North, Collaborising, Tacos and Roses, Faith In Action, NeighborAid, La Familia Family Services, and Rising Sun Center For Opportunity)
Total = $1,429,000
The Rotary Club’s Housing First Initiative seeks $752,000 to expand its program (this includes funding for Rydin-specific needs and program partners):
June 21, 2022
$100,000 Program management and outreach to landlords. Rotary will set up 1 year agreements (for full year rent paid in advance through this program and free to unhoused residents) between participating landlords and appropriate unhoused families. Funds will be distributed through the Richmond Community Foundation (RCF).
Additional agreements between landlord and unhoused families will provide responsibilities to be upheld by both landlord and the household. $252,000 1-year rent for 14 families at $18,000 per household
$150,000 Rydin Rd-specific Housing First funds
$150,000 Rydin ongoing operations and navigation toward encampment resolution (expanding upon on the current work of Housing Consortium of the East Bay)
$100,000 Housing and resource navigation and case management services with Greater Richmond Interfaith Program (GRIP) and other partners Total = $752,000
Overall Collaboration Total
$1,429,000 SOS and partners’ expenses
$ 752,000 Housing First expenses
TOTAL = $2,181,000 plus 10% RCF Fiscal sponsor fee ($218,100) $ 2,399,100 = OVERALL TOTAL
DOCUMENTS ATTACHED:
None