To: Board of Supervisors of Sonoma County and Board of Commissioners of the Sonoma County Community Development Commission
Department or Agency Name(s): Sonoma County Community Development Commission
Staff Name and Phone Number: Michael Gause, (707) 791-8140
Vote Requirement: Majority
Supervisorial District(s): Countywide
Title:
Title
Approval of a Homeless Action Plan Per State Requirements of Homelessness Housing Assistance and Prevention (HHAP) 3 Program
End
Recommended Action:
Recommended action
Approve the Draft Local Homeless Action Plan (HAP) and required data tables in order to receive State Homelessness Housing Assistance and Prevention (HHAP) Round #3 Program funds in collaboration with the Sonoma County Continuum of Care.
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Executive Summary:
The State of California Interagency Council on Homelessness (ICH) released a Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA) for State Homelessness Housing Assistance and Prevention (HHAP) Round 3 Program funding in February, 2022. The Sonoma County Continuum of Care (CoC) and County of Sonoma are eligible to receive a combined $8,539,024.26 in funding. Of this, $4,416,736.69 is available to the CoC, and $4,122,287.57 is available to the County of Sonoma. The CoC and County agreed to submit a joint application, due no later than June 30, 2022, for HHAP-3 funds in order to collaboratively support the system of care as a whole.
As part of the application, a local Homeless Action Plan (HAP) is due with the application and must be approved by State ICH in order to receive funds. Homebase, a nationally recognized technical assistance provider for solutions to address and end homelessness, was engaged in November 2021 to begin planning and completing the HAP, as well as develop a broader strategic plan to address homelessness after completion of the HAP. The CoC’s Strategic Planning Committee, comprised of jurisdictional and County stakeholders as well as homeless service providers, healthcare providers, and individuals with lived experience of homelessness, is currently working jointly with Homebase to complete the HAP by June 30, 2022.
The full HAP will be finalized in June 2022 and the draft is Attachment 1 accompanying this Item. The data tables and proposed outcomes in the plan are required to be publicly noticed and approved by the Continuum of Care Board as the primary applicant as well as shared with the Board of Supervisors and the County of Sonoma prior to submission of the HAP. The tables provide a broad overview of current system performance with baseline data from the California Homeless Data Integration System (HDIS), as well as proposed goals and outcomes from utilization of HHAP-3 funds. Approval of the data tables ensures a timely submission for the Homeless Action Plan and receipt of HHAP-3 funds for FY 2022-2023.
Discussion:
The State of California Interagency Council on Homelessness (ICH) released a third round of funding for the Homeless Housing, Assistance and Prevention (HHAP) Grant Program in February, 2022. The County of Sonoma and the Santa Rosa, Petaluma/Sonoma County Continuum of Care (CoC) are eligible to apply for a combined total of $8,539,024.26 through this block grant program. The funds are intended to support best practices focused on moving people experiencing homelessness into permanent housing by strategically pairing these funds with other local, state, and federal funds. As part of the application process, communities are required to complete a local homelessness action plan, including outcome goals, and to put this plan on an agenda at a regular meeting of the governing bodies.
To complete the action planning and goal setting portion of the application, the County of Sonoma and the CoC engaged Homebase, a neutral third-party consultant. Homebase conducted a needs and gaps analysis and launched a stakeholder engagement process to collect community priorities for outcome goals. The analysis included a review of local Point in Time Count (PIT), Housing Inventory Count (HIC), System Performance Measures (SPMs) and Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) data from the past several years. Stakeholder engagement is ongoing and seeks to bring together the voices of people with lived experience, local experts in the field, members of government at the local and County levels, and residents at large. Beginning in December 2021, the CoC Board’s Strategic Planning Committee met monthly to guide the analysis, review findings, and identify potential outcome goals and strategies.
ICH provided template tables to ensure all data elements required by statute to be included in the application are submitted. The draft tables that comprise the Homeless Action Plan are included in Attachment 1 for review and comment here, and include:
1) A Landscape Analysis summarizing the needs and demographics of people experiencing homelessness in Sonoma County (Table 1);
2) A Landscape Analysis of people being serviced by the Homeless System of Care, broken down by program type (e.g., Rapid Rehousing, Permanent Supportive Housing) (Table 2);
3) A Landscape Analysis of State, Federal, and Local funding known to be awarded at this time (Table 3);
4) Outcome Goals for 7 categories of outcomes pre-defined by the application requirements (Table 4); and
5) Strategies to Achieve Outcome Goals as identified by the community (Table 5).
The Plan has been reviewed by the Strategic Planning Committee of the CoC Board, the full CoC Board, and have been forwarded to the Board of Supervisors for review and comment. As encouraged by ICH, this local Homeless Action Plan is the first step in a year-long Strategic Planning Process. The landscape analysis and community level outcome goals will inform the full Homelessness Strategic Plan along with a more extensive stakeholder engagement process currently underway.
Proposed Outcomes Goals of the Homeless Action Plan:
#1a: Reducing the number of persons experiencing homelessness by increasing the number of people served by 15%.
#1b: Reducing the number of persons experiencing homelessness on a daily basis by reducing the unsheltered homelessness by 10%.
#2: Reducing the number of persons who become homeless for the first time by 3%.
#3: Increasing the number of people exiting homelessness into permanent housing by 10%.
#4: Reducing the length of time persons remain homeless by 20%.
#5: Reducing the number of persons who return to homelessness after exiting homelessness to permanent housing by 1%.
#6: Increasing successful placements from street outreach by 5%.
Strategies in the Homeless Action Plan:
#1: Increase crisis response outreach teams utilizing a collaborative approach between public safety, mental and behavioral health services, and homeless system of care.
#2: Increase the availability of safe parking locations across the county and provide housing focused case management and connections to coordinated entry
#3: Increase emergency shelter capacity including transitional housing, medical respite beds, and family shelter capacity.
#4: Shift coordinated entry system from current focus on emergency shelter placements to supporting placements into housing.
#5: Increase new Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH) unit capacity through project Homekey.
#6: Increase prevention and diversion projects.
Strategic Plan:
This item directly supports the County’s Five-year Strategic Plan and is aligned with the following pillar, goal, and objectives:
Pillar: Healthy and Safe Communities
Goal: Goal 4: Reduce the County’s overall homeless population by 10% each year by enhancing services through improved coordination and collaboration.
Objective: Objective 2: Partner with cities to build a strategic plan for homeless prevention and housing strategies by 2023; and Objective 5: Continue to collaborate with local partners, including the Continuum of Care, to advance planning and policies to address homelessness.
Prior Board Actions:
None
Fiscal Summary
|
Expenditures |
FY 21-22 Adopted |
FY 22-23 Projected |
FY 23-24 Projected |
|
Budgeted Expenses |
$38,941 |
$86,004 |
|
|
Additional Appropriation Requested |
|
|
|
|
Total Expenditures |
$38,941 |
$86,004 |
|
|
Funding Sources |
|
|
|
|
General Fund/WA GF |
|
|
|
|
State/Federal (State HHAP-3) |
$38,941 |
$86,004 |
|
|
Fees/Other |
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Use of Fund Balance |
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Contingencies |
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Total Sources |
$38,941 |
$86,004 |
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Narrative Explanation of Fiscal Impacts:
The professional services for phase one of the Strategic Plan/Homeless Action Plan were paid for from the Continuum of Care’s State of California Homeless Housing, Assistance and Prevention (HHAP) funds Round 1 and California Emergency Solutions and Housing (CESH) funds.
Phase two of the Local Homeless Action Plan is being paid from the State of California Homeless Housing, Assistance and Prevention (HHAP) funds, Round 3 ($86,004). The County’s HHAP-3 funds will contribute $43,002 and the CoC’s HHAP-3 funds will contribute $43,002. HHAP is an acceptable source for expenditures such as strategic planning.
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Staffing Impacts: |
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Position Title (Payroll Classification) |
Monthly Salary Range (A-I Step) |
Additions (Number) |
Deletions (Number) |
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Narrative Explanation of Staffing Impacts (If Required):
N/A
Attachments:
Attachment 1 - HHAP 3 Data Tables and Outcomes for Local Homeless Action Plan
Related Items “On File” with the Clerk of the Board:
None