July 1, 2025
City Council
DATE: July 1, 2025
TO: Mayor Martinez and Members of the City Council
FROM:
Councilmember Doria Robinson
Councilmember Claudia Jimenez (co-sponsor)
Subject:
Establish a fair, open, and transparent RFP process to
allocate the annual budget line item for unhoused
services.
FINANCIAL IMPACT: The current $1.8M in unhoused services funding has already been approved and included in the FY 25 -26
budget. This agenda item would create an annual process that involves community in allocation of these existing funds.
PREVIOUS COUNCIL
ACTION:
May 23, 2023 - Richmond Homelessness Strategic Plan
was approved by City Council
STATEMENT OF THE
ISSUE:
The goal of this item is to create an ongoing, transparent, fair and inclusive process to allocate unhoused services funds to City initiatives and community-based projects
that clearly support the goals and action steps outlined in the City’s approved and adopted Homeless Strategic
Plan and explicitly includes community members, those
with lived experience and stakeholders in a bi-annual
review and annual allocation process.
AGENDA
REPORT
July 1, 2025
RECOMMENDED ACTION:
DIRECT staff to 1) develop, coordinate and facilitate a bi- annual community process for reviewing and providing
feedback and setting annual priorities for current city funded unhoused interventions; 2) Develop an RFP
process to govern the procurement process for the
allocation of unhoused services funds; 3) Develop
financial strategy to offer multi-year funding and increase annual funding for unhoused interventions, and 4) Return to City Council with related deliverables listed herein for council review, feedback and approval, by no later than November 4th, 2025, so that implementation can begin
by no later than January 31, 2026 - Councilmember Doria Robinson (510-620-6568), Councilmember Claudia
Jimenez (510-620-6565).
DISCUSSION:
Recently, while participating in a ride along with Officer Sousa, we approached and spoke to 3 men sitting on a planter near FoodsCo. Two were staying at the Rescue Mission and had no place to be during the day and they felt they could not hang out at the library all day. The third younger man was searching for a place to stay overnight and was afraid of losing their job due to lack of access to a shower. All three were interested in receiving services. But after reaching out to CORE and waiting nearly 3 hours for a response, these 3 men moved on before CORE was able to arrive from East County. They received no services, no support and will continue to drift, being reported for “loitering” and or “trespassing” with no alternatives.
This experience and many others make it clear that the City of Richmond’s unhoused services have too many gaps and there is a pronounced need to focus in and make a stronger effort to implement the strong recommendations outlined in the Homeless ness Strategic Plan already approved and adopted by the City Council. The City needs to increase current collaborative efforts by creating more ways for our local unhoused services nonprofits to work together with the City and Contra Costa County to identify and fill the gaps in service.
Action steps are listed below on how to utilize the Homelessness Strategic Plan to create a clear, direct, and supportive way for those with lived experience of being unhoused to offer feedback and suggestions on how to improve our unhoused services. There is also a need to host a public forum where our unhoused services providers as well as city staff can regularly report on their efforts and answer questions and receive feedback from the public.
July 1, 2025
Action Item 1: Develop, coord inate and facilitate a bi -annual community process for reviewing and providing feedback to current city funded unhoused interventions.
DIRECT staff to develop, coordinate and facilitate a bi-annual community process for reviewing the Homeless ness Strategic Plan, review the impact and outcomes of current City-funded unhoused interventions, and evaluate those current efforts for alignment with the Homelessness Strategic Plan. This process should actively outreach to and secure participation from individuals living in local surrounding neighborhoods as well as those with lived experience of being unhoused or experiencing housing instability and stakeholders. The goal is to ensure that community perspectives and feedback are integrated into the strategic planning effort, promote transparency, and increase public education and input on the City’s current efforts to address the housing crisis.
Action Item 2: Develop a R equest for Proposals (R FP) process to govern the procurement process for allocation of unhoused services funds.
DIRECT staff to develop an RFP process to govern the procurement process for services funded by the annual (or multi-year per Action Item 3 below ) unhoused services funds. The process should be transparent, fair and inclusive, support local efforts, uplift the humanity of the unhoused and create viable long -term pathways off of the streets and out of encampments that include but also go beyond emergency response;
Action Item 3: Develop financial strategy to offer multi-year funding and increase annual funding for unhoused interventions
DIRECT the City Manager and Finance staff to recommend a financial strategy to transition the annual line item so that it can support projects over a longer 2 - 3 year grant terms and possibly increase annual allocations to unhoused services.
This will allow for less interruption in services and enough time to make progress towards Strategic Plan goals and truly help our most vulnerable residents in their darkest times.
Action Item 4: Return to City Council with related deliverables listed herein for cou ncil review, feedback and approval, by no later than November 4th, 2025, so that implementation can begin by no later than January 31, 2026.
Return to council for council approval of 1) the bi -annual community process design, 2) the RFP language and proc ess and 3) a financial strategy recommendation to make it possible to fund RFPs for multi year projects and increase the allocation as needed over time by no later than November 4th, 2025, so that implementation can begin by no later than January 31, 2026.
DOCUMENTS ATTACHED:
July 1, 2025
Attachment - Richmond Homelessness Strategic Plan