svcommunityservices.org • Tax ID: 94-1713897
To: Kent Steffens, City Manager, City of Sunnyvale
Honorable Mayor Larry Klein, City of Sunnyvale
City Councilmembers, City of Sunnyvale
cc: Chris Richardson, Chief Program Officer, Downtown Streets Team Greg Pensinger, Director, Santa Clara County, Downtown Streets Team
From: Marie Bernard, Executive Director, Sunnyvale Community Services
Re: Request for emergency and supplemental funding for Downtown Streets Team Program
Date: February 24, 2022
I am writing with an urgent request for the WorkFirst Sunnyvale (WFS) Program.
The WFS program is a Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funded program that has operated by Sunnyvale Community Services and Downtown Streets Team for nearly a decade in our City. It is a workforce development program that provides homeless and/or extremely low- income individuals with job readiness training and supportive services. Every year, the program has met or exceeded our job training and job placement goals, while also providing street cleaning and beautifying our City and offering outreach and supportive services to homeless and/or extremely low-income individuals.
The WFS program was audited by the federal Housing and Urban Development Department (HUD) in 2014 and 2019. During these audits, the WFS program was able to address any and all of HUD’s documented areas for future improvements, and we successfully met our program goals each year. Despite these audits, HUD began a new investigation last year for the entire program history.
After months of the City’s as well as SCS’s and DST’s full cooperation and extensive documenting of the program, the WFS program was abruptly cut from federal funding by HUD as of February 1st.
These funding cuts were a total shock. Nevertheless, HUD has encouraged us to apply for new funding and we have already adjusted the program to fully comply with the HUD requirements in the next fiscal year, which we have done.
Immediate Need:
$170,000 in emergency funding for Downtown Streets Team (DST) from February 1 – June 30.
The cost is $34,000/month ($170,000).
NOTE: SCS has managed to fund its own staffing and administrative costs of $55,000 ($11,000/month) but is not able to fund DST’s costs through June 30th.
Without emergency funding, DST will need to announce tomorrow (February 25) that their entire Sunnyvale staff will be furloughed, and the Sunnyvale Streets Team (25 homeless individuals) will Attachment 1
svcommunityservices.org • Tax ID: 94-1713897
be cut off from all services. It will be difficult to restart this program even if new CDBG funding is secured next fiscal year.
What this emergency funding will support:
• Homeless Outreach throughout the City, in particular around Fair Oaks Park as well as other areas in Sunnyvale. DST does targeted outreach when requested by City staff (parks, public safety, public works, housing/human services) as well as the Valley Water District.
DST staff are constantly going out to encampments for a variety of reasons: they heard someone was sick, they heard a former Team Member they were looking for was there, they heard about a conflict that arose between residents, etc. These outreach activities may be considered by HUD to be outside of the CDBG project, but they are clearly needed and expected by the City and the community. All of this outreach will cease without emergency funding.
• TBRA Case Management for 11 households/25 household members. 8 Heads of Household were with DST prior to being added to TBRA and 3 Heads of Households were referred by HomeFirst who operate the North County Shelter in Sunnyvale. Without funding, there is no staff available to case manage these 11 low-income households for the remainder of the fiscal year.
• Manage weekly Dignity on Wheels in Sunnyvale (mobile showers and laundry) at Trinity Church in Sunnyvale, and the weekly meal for homeless individuals at that site. The WFS staff and team members will no longer manage this service without funding. • Point in Time (PIT) count: DST along with SCS met several times with County officials to advocate for resources for the PIT count in North County. DST staff and team members who are homeless volunteered for the PIT count happening February 23 – 24 (4:30 am start times). Our teams successfully covered ALL parts of Sunnyvale. We could not have surveyed all the Sunnyvale areas without the WFS program staff and team members. • DST Street Cleaning Teams: Currently there are 25 active Team Members and many other homeless individuals are on the waiting list. Team Members doing blight/trash reduction activities in different areas of Sunnyvale. Team members clean streets in downtown Sunnyvale as well as Fair Oaks Park and other neighborhoods, beautifying the City. This service will immediately cease without funding.
• DST Janitorial Teams: DST has contracts to clean at Our Daily Bread and at the North County Shelter in Sunnyvale. Without the DST program and staffing, these services will be cancelled.
• DST Job Placements in local businesses. Enterprise Cars, Home Depot, and many other local employers have hired team members. We know that local employers are looking for workers. The DST job readiness training and job placement work will cease without emergency funding.
• Most importantly... We are helping change over 70 lives in Sunnyvale for the better each year.
Attachment 1
svcommunityservices.org • Tax ID: 94-1713897
FY 2022-23 Need:
Pending approval of the CDBG funding application, we are requesting an estimated $150,000 in supplemental funding in FY 2022-23 (new fiscal year) to fill in essential services needed by Sunnyvale but that will not be covered by HUD. We will work with the City to hone that estimate to be as frugal as possible. WFS has already adjusted the job training and job placement program elements to fully comply with HUD requirements as cited in our proposal, and we are excited about introducing “Streets Team Enterprises” in the new fiscal year. But there are clear gaps in the allowable HUD funding for services that our City needs.
In closing...
We hope that the City will be able to immediately fund $170,000 in emergency funding for DST.
We also ask that the City also budget for an estimated $150,000 in the new fiscal year to augment the expected CDBG funding for the WorkFirst Sunnyvale Program. Without supplemental funding, many of the homeless services needed and expected in Sunnyvale on the list above will not be supported. That means that Sunnyvale departments will not be able to call upon DST to help in many situations to help the homeless in Sunnyvale.
Thank you for considering this urgent request for vital homeless services in Sunnyvale. Please let us know if you have any questions about this request or the WorkFirst Sunnyvale Program.
Attachment 1