December 19, 2023
Community Development
DATE: December 19, 2023
TO: Mayor Martinez and Members of the City Council
FROM:
Lina Velasco, Director of Community Development
Jesus M. Morales, Housing Manager
Subject:
Way2Love Contract Amendment
FINANCIAL IMPACT: This contract will be paid for using the Encampment Resolution funds received from the California Interagency Council on Homelessness (Account String 15061219-
400201-26G25)
PREVIOUS COUNCIL
ACTION:
November 15, 2022
STATEMENT OF THE
ISSUE:
The City of Richmond was awarded an Encampment
Resolution Funding (ERF) Round 2 award to connect at
least 115 unhoused city residents with urgently needed
services and pathways to housing to resolve
encampments along Interstates 80 and 580 and the
Richmond Greenway. Way2Love, Inc. was awarded
project manager services contract on November 15,
2022. Given their recent success at Castro, City staff is seeking to amend their current contract to extend their work to manage the ERF Round 2 project and to bring on
additional staff to provide housing navigation, case
management, and employment support services for
clients.
AGENDA
REPORT
December 19, 2023
RECOMMENDED ACTION:
APPROVE a contract amendment No. 2 with Way2Love,
Inc., to increase the contract amount by $2,774,543.26, for a new total contract amount not to exceed
$3,019,543.26, to provide project management, housing
navigation, case management, and employment support
services for the City’s Encampment Resolution Funding
(ERF) Round 2 project, for a term extended through June 30, 2025, to be funded by the City’s ERF Round 2 award
– Community Development Department (Lina Velasco
510-620-6841/Jesus Morales 510-621-1220).
DISCUSSION:
In February 2023, the Community Development Department submitted an Encampment Resolution Funding (ERF) Round 2 application seeking resources from the State of California to fund a second local demonstration project to connect at least 115 unhoused city residents, living in encampments, along Interstates 80 and 580 and the Richmond Greenway, with urgently needed services and pathways to housing.
Richmond is one of six cities that received a second ERF award (ERF-R-2). The use of the City’s first ERF award was focused at resolving the Castro Vehicle Encampment and restoring the site to its original Bay Trail use.
In November 2022, Way2Love, Inc. was selected to provide project management services for the Encampment Resolution Funding project focused on the Castro Encampment. Given the success of the Castro project, City staff is seeking to amend Way2Love, Inc.’s current contract by $2,774,543.26, for a new total amount not to exceed $3,019,543.26, to extend their work to manage the ERF Round 2 project and to bring on additional staff to provide housing navigation, case management, and employment support services for clients.
Way2Love, Inc. will provide a team of experienced professionals, including housing locators, housing navigators, employment specialists, on-call clinicians, case managers, and program directors. All positions would be funded for an 18-month period. The following positions will be part of this contract to provide wrap-around services:
1 Project Manager
2 Navigators
Part time Program Manager
1 Housing/Resource Navigator
Part-time (.5 FTE) on-call Nurse/licensed Clinician
Part-time (.5 FTE) Employment specialist
.75 FTE Tenant Case Manager/Resource Director
.75 FTE Administrative/Records person
.75 FTE Director of Housing Development/Landlord Outreach
December 19, 2023
The scope also includes a budget for providing storage, furniture, and travel for residents associated with their housing pathways. The scope also includes administration of $500,000 of Housing Trust funds for rental assistance to clients and approximately $250,0000 of flex funds to provide housing support services for clients.
Summary of Richmond’s ERF Round 2 Project
Richmond’s plan is designed to help an especially vulnerable and transient population— people living in tents, lean-tos, and on the ground along the city’s major transit corridors, including Interstates 80 and 580. Staff from Richmond’s Housing Division worked with Caltrans to identify eight critical locations beneath overpasses and in the land patches formed by curving freeway entrances and exits where people continuously return. The City will focus its efforts to support people now living in these dangerous locations to stabilize their lives and move into safe housing. The target encampments are along Central Avenue, Marina Bay Pkwy., Cutting Blvd., Macdonald Ave., San Pablo Dam Rd., and Castro Street, where people living in vehicles are already receiving support services through a previous grant.
The project is designed to achieve real change for individuals experiencing homelessness in Richmond, not to just “clear sites.” It was selected for funding by the California Interagency Council on Homelessness (Cal ICH) because of its commitment to provide people in encampments with holistic, compassionate case management to address long-term health and housing needs. A nine-person Rapid Rehousing Team with expertise in street outreach, clinical care, housing navigation, social services, and employment will go to the sites, meet the people living in them, learn about their needs, and work to connect the residents to life-changing resources. Encampment residents will develop plans to move from the streets onto durable paths to stability, with support over three years.
Alignment with Homelessness Strategic Plan
The proposed project will assist in implementing certain short-term action steps identified in the City’s recently adopted Homelessness Strategic Plan. Specifically, the following short-term action steps will be implemented through this project:
1.4 - Expand case management and other care-related individualized services directly in encampments to build connections for unsheltered individuals to have access to an expanded array of opportunities and resources for personal development, wellness and health, financial means to secure and sustain housing, and ongoing supports for long-term stabilization; and, 3.1 - Establish a flexible fund for financial assistance for diversion and housing focused problem solving, including time-limited or one-off expenses.
This project will provide resources to hire professionals to provide wrap-around services to make housing offers, connect clients to services, and to connect unhoused residents
December 19, 2023
to the Continuum of Care services. The ERF Round 2 award will also help fund other services such as case managers and housing navigators to connect unhoused residents to stable housing. The grant award also includes flex funds that could be used to provide unhoused program participants to obtain assistance in getting document-ready (e.g., obtaining copies of birth certificates, identification cards, social security cards, etc.) for housing, completing vehicle repairs, food support, and rental assistance.
CONCLUSION:
Given the success of the Castro project, City staff is seeking to amend the Way2Love, Inc. contract to extend their work to manage the ERF Round 2 project and to bring on additional staff to provide housing navigation, case management, and employment support services for clients. This will also alleviate City staff of managing multiple contracts.
DOCUMENTS ATTACHED:
Attachment 1 – Amendment No. 2 to the Contract
Attachment 2 – Original Contract with Amendment No. 1