To: Board of Commissioners; Community Development Commission
Department or Agency Name(s): Community Development Commission
Staff Name and Phone Number: Barbie Robinson, 565-4777
Vote Requirement: Majority
Supervisorial District(s): 5th District
Title:
Title
County of Sonoma and City of Santa Rosa Agreement to Fund Operations at the Samuel L. Jones Hall Homeless Shelter
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Recommended Action:
Recommended action
Authorize the Executive Director of the Community Development Commission (Commission) to execute a contract with the City of Santa Rosa to provide $165,000 in previously budgeted Commission’s County General Fund for funding operations at the Samuel L. Jones Hall Homeless Shelter and to provide $90,000 in previously budgeted Transient Occupancy Tax (TOT) / Measure L funds for rapid re-housing to expedite placements in permanent housing for program participants, for a one-year period beginning July 1, 2020 and ending June 30, 2021. Total contract: $255,000. (Fifth District)
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Executive Summary:
The contracts with the City of Santa Rosa contain direct awards of funds that were included in the FY 2020-21 Recommended Budget presented to the Board of Commissioners on June 11th, 2020. The Community Development Commission (Commission) is seeking authority to enter into contract for directly awarded funds. Approval of this item will authorize the Interim Executive Director of the Commission to execute contracts with the City of Santa Rosa for continued operations of Samuel L. Jones Hall Homeless Shelter in FY 2020-21. The direct awards in these contracts represent ongoing commitments that are in the process of full discussion and planned renegotiation over the coming twelve months, in order to be brought into full compliance with the Board’s contracting principles for Safety Net programs.
Discussion:
Shared Funding of the Samuel L. Jones Hall Homeless Shelter
On October 25, 2005, the Sonoma County Board of Commissioners entered into an agreement with the City of Santa Rosa to provide $100,000 annually in operating support to the Samuel Jones Hall homeless shelter, and extended that agreement several times, through June 30, 2017. In FY 2014-15, the Board added $65,000 in Transient Occupancy Tax funding to provide operating support for a winter shelter expansion, and renewed this agreement in FY 2015-16 and FY 2016-17. In FY 2017-18, the City initiated a Homeless Encampment Assistance Pilot and made a programmatic change, opening the same Winter Expansion beds year-round, to accommodate people coming from City-prioritized encampments. The Board of Commissioners agreed to provide $90,000 in TOT / Measure L dollars to create Rapid Re-Housing resources for participants in the pilot in FY 2017-18, FY 2018-19, and FY 2019-20.
For FY 2020-21 Samuel Jones Hall will operate on a $1,349,331 budget, of which the County of Sonoma’s $255,000 contribution is now 19%. The Community Foundation Sonoma County will provide $77,700 (6%) and the City has appropriated $1,016,631(75% of the total budget). The County of Sonoma FY 2020-21 Budget appropriated funds for this purpose, as shown in the table below. Expenses that were previously funded from Reinvestment and Revitalization are now funded from TOT /Measure L.
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Samuel L. Jones Hall Homeless Shelter operations |
Rapid Rehousing for participants at Samuel L. Jones Hall |
TOTAL |
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Transient Occupancy Tax / Measure L |
|
$90,000 |
$90,000 |
|
General Fund |
$165,000 |
|
$165,000 |
|
TOTAL |
$165,000 |
$90,000 |
$255,000 |
The $165,000 in County General Fund originally allocated for a Winter Expansion is now for Emergency Shelter Operations as these beds are now used year-round. For FY 2017-18, the County provided $90,000 of TOT /Measure L funding to help persons served through the City’s Encampment Program to exit homelessness. Funds were allocated for this purpose by the County both for FY 2018-19, and again in FY 2019-20.
The Samuel Jones Hall Shelter is now the largest shelter in Sonoma County, with 157 year-round beds serving 368 single adults every year. Capacity is normally over 200 per year, but has been reduced due to COVID-19 social distancing measures. Samuel Jones Hall was the first shelter in the County to revamp its program and staffing to serve the most vulnerable homeless persons first. Participants largely come from the streets of Santa Rosa, but hail from all parts of Sonoma County.
As the effort launched to redesign the homeless system of care and the establishment of HOME Sonoma County, the City and the Commission agreed future funding of Samuel Jones Hall operations should be evaluated along with the entire county’s needs before a new multi-year contract was developed. Thus, recent operations have been funded under single-year contracts. County funds are still needed to operate this critical system infrastructure, but the cost-sharing arrangement that persisted for more than a decade is in the process of being fully discussed and renegotiated in light of the many changes over this period. Last year, the City and Commission agreed to review the role of this core infrastructure in 2019-2020 with the goal of developing a multi-year agreement again beginning July 1, 2020 that is fully consistent with the Board’s contracting principles for Safety Net Departments. Staff are currently preparing a strategic plan for HOME Sonoma County that will facilitate this change.
Prior Board Actions:
8/6/2019, Item 2 - Authorized funding agreement for continued funding of the City of Santa Rosa’s Samuel Jones Hall for FY 2019-20
7/10/2018, Item 49 - Authorized funding agreement for continued funding of the City of Santa Rosa’s Samuel Jones Hall for FY 2018-19.
Fiscal Summary
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Expenditures |
FY20-21 Recommended |
FY21-22 Projected |
FY 22-23 Projected |
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Budgeted Expenses |
255,000 |
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Additional Appropriation Requested |
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Total Expenditures |
255,000 |
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Funding Sources |
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General Fund/WA GF |
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State/Federal |
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TOT/Measure L |
255,000 |
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Use of Fund Balance |
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Contingencies |
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Total Sources |
255,000 |
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Narrative Explanation of Fiscal Impacts:
Funding for this contract will come from Transient Occupancy Tax /Measure L in the amount of $90,000 and County General Fund in the amount of $165,000. Appropriations were included in the FY 2020-21 recommended budget.
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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):
None
Attachments:
1. Contract with City of Santa Rosa
Related Items “On File” with the Clerk of the Board:
N/A