To: County of Sonoma Board of Supervisors and Board of Commissioners of the Community Development Commission
Department or Agency Name(s): Department of Health Services, Community Development Commission, and Human Services Department
Staff Name and Phone Number: Tina Rivera, 565-7876; Dave Kiff, 565-7504; Angela Struckmann, 565-6990
Vote Requirement: Majority
Supervisorial District(s): Countywide
Title:
Title
Interdepartmental Multi-Disciplinary Team Staffing Extensions
End
Recommended Action:
Recommended action
Adopt a personnel resolution amending the allocation lists for the departments of Health Services and Human Services, and the Sonoma County Community Development Commission to extend 10.00 full-time equivalent time-limited positions to June 30, 2023, as detailed in the attached resolution, effective May 3, 2022.
end
Executive Summary:
On March 10, 2020, the Board of Supervisors and the Commissioners of the Community Development Commission approved staff recommendation to expand the ACCESS Sonoma County Initiative to add a permanent Intensive Care Team to respond to homeless encampments. To support this expansion, a total of 10.00 full-time equivalent time-limited positions were approved for the Departments of Health Services (DHS) and Human Services and the Community Development Commission through June 30, 2022. All positions are embedded within the Interdepartmental Multi-Disciplinary Team (IMDT) in the Health Services department budget. This report requests approval to extend the 10.00 full-time equivalent time-limited positions through June 30, 2023, mainly financed with local sales tax Measure O. The expenditure extension recommendation is consistent with Measure O expenditure plan; <https://sonomacounty.ca.gov/health-and-human-services/health-services/divisions/behavioral-health/about-us/measure-o/expenditure-plan>. This report provides information on recent activities of the IMDT, including support for the requested position extensions.
Discussion:
California has a homelessness crisis. California has an estimated 151,000 people experiencing homelessness, accounting for almost half (47 percent) of the homeless population in the United States. In the 2018 Point in Time Homeless Count, Sonoma County was among the top three suburban counties in America for the number of people experiencing homelessness, with 2,996 counted as experiencing homelessness on a single day. The 2019 Homeless Count found an eleven percent increase over the 2018 count. Like other jurisdictions throughout California, high housing costs, low vacancy rates, and displacements due to the recent wildfire disasters are contributory factors to the high rates of homelessness in Sonoma County. The last homeless count report was issued in mid-2020, which saw a slight decrease in total homelessness down to 2,745 experiencing homelessness. A 2021 Count was not conducted due to COVID-19, but those figures were likely exacerbated due to the pandemic compounding recovery from earlier disasters. The most recent count was conducted in February 2022, results are expected to be available in July 2022.
Homelessness is a complex, dynamic, and all-consuming crisis for those experiencing it. Local jurisdictions like Sonoma County have provided most of the homeless assistance in our jurisdictions, relying in part on County General Fund and federal and state funding.
For the last two years, the state has made its largest one-time investments in combatting homelessness in state history. The Homeless Emergency Aid Program (HEAP) and the Homeless, Housing Assistance Program (HHAP) have in combination allocated $1.15 billion in flexible funds to local governments. Despite these investments, Sonoma County and other local jurisdictions are still faced with gaps in services, sheltering, and housing resources that are desperately needed to address the County’s homeless crisis.
Currently in Sonoma County there are approximately 3,000 individuals experiencing homelessness. Since 2011, the number of individuals experiencing homelessness in Sonoma County has been reduced by 1,500. Sonoma County, our cities, and non-profit partners have made some progress, including over the last three years successfully housing more than 3,000 individuals.
The Interdepartmental Multi-Disciplinary Team (IMDT) and ACCESS Sonoma Initiative have been a key component in the County’s response in addressing homelessness. The IMDT is a care coordination and advisory team of subject matter experts of frontline staff across departments and programs that develops integrated care plans through collaborative planning of individualized goal setting for participants. The IMDT Expansion team discussed here has been a key component of supporting the IMDT cohorts, specifically in the Homeless Encampment and Resource Team (HEART), conducting outreach and engagement into services at encampments in the County, as well as with the COVID cohort supporting those experiencing homelessness who are at increased risk of COVID or complications resulting from COVID. The IMDT Expansion team has staffed both cohorts, providing outreach, intensive case management, and housing referrals.
Since creation of the HEART team, the Expansion team has participated in and been deployed with HEART staff to 48 different encampments. In January 2021, improvements to tracking geographic data were implemented. Since then, 25 encampments have been supported across the jurisdictions in the County.
In support of the COVID cohort, IMDT Expansion staff have provided outreach, referral, and intensive case management for all staying at the Non Congregate Shelters (NCS) set up in response to COVID. This includes providing support in transitioning NCS guests to Project Homekey sites (Elderberry Commons and Mickey Zane Place), accessing Emergency Housing Vouchers (22 to date), Housing Authority Lottery along with other shelter and housing options. The COVID cohort, supported by IMDT Expansion staff, have supported over 550 people who have accessed NCS sites since they began operating in early 2020.
This report recommends extension of the ten current time-limited IMDT Expansion team position allocations. Position extensions have a time-limited term through June 30, 2023. Additional funding information is provided in the table below.
The Department of Health Services (DHS) and Community Development Commission (CDC) have recently increased outreach and collaboration with local jurisdictions, coordinating with the local city staff homeless subcommittee members and the City Managers meeting to develop possible shared staffing, program resources and similar efforts that will result in greater alignment of efforts to address homelessness. This includes participation in a redevelopment of the “front-end” of the system of care being coordinated by the CDC, in partnership with Homebase, aimed to align efforts across all the County jurisdictions while completing the region’s Homelessness Strategic Plan. This will include improving our front-end system components of street outreach, case conferencing, Coordinated Entry, a Countywide By Names List, and exits from institutional settings. DHS and IMDT are participating in these processes to ensure coordination and synchronicity of the IMDT efforts while reconfiguring these systems for effectiveness and efficiency.
Position Funding for Extended IMDT Positions:
|
Position |
Dept. |
FTEs |
FY 22-23 Cost ($)* |
Funding Source(s) |
|
Health Program Manager |
DHS |
1.00 |
$236,090 |
Measure O |
|
Behavioral Health Clinician |
DHS |
1.00 |
$214,742 |
Measure O |
|
AODS Counselor II |
DHS |
2.00 |
$377,577 |
Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment Block Grant (SABG) and Measure O |
|
Public Health Investigator |
DHS |
1.00 |
$171,344 |
Measure O |
|
Senior Eligibility Specialist |
HSD |
1.00 |
$145,669 |
Measure O |
|
Social Service Worker III |
HSD |
2.00 |
$364,317 |
Measure O |
|
Social Service Supervisor I |
HSD |
1.00 |
$177,386 |
Measure O |
|
Housing Negotiator-Inspector |
CDC |
1.00 |
$154,279 |
Measure O |
|
Totals |
|
10.00 |
$1,841,403 |
|
*Costs includes salary, benefits, and associated staff costs.
The DHS and CDC will bring an item to the Board on July 12, 2022 with a complete update on homelessness efforts that will include the latest reports from both departments, as well as collaborative efforts across jurisdictions, to address the homeless crisis in our community. The update will incorporate program data from the IMDT cohorts and the CDC/Continuum of Care program, as well as progress made on recent Board-approved initiatives such as Project Homekey, Safe Parking, developing the Homeless Strategic Plan, and related efforts to alleviate homelessness in Sonoma County.
Strategic Plan:
Implementation of this item will assist in achieving several goals and objectives of the Healthy and Safe Communities pillar of the Strategic Plan. Sonoma County has utilized the ACCESS Sonoma’s Interdepartmental Multi-Disciplinary Team (IMDT) technology, infrastructure, and its specialized cohorts of staff to effectively respond to and support those experiencing homelessness, conducting outreach, engagement and case management. This investment to support our impacted community is designed to, and proven effective at, streamlining access, improving service integration, and bolstering opportunities for coordination of care. In addition, this item will continue the County’s innovative responses to homelessness, by addressing gaps in services that have not supported the most vulnerable or otherwise un-inclined to accept traditional shelter services. The work presented here reflects both existing and future efforts of the IMDT. The IMDT is poised to implement these efforts, continuing progress in attaining the goals and objectives of the Strategic Plan.
This item directly supports the County’s Five-year Strategic Plan and is aligned with the following pillar, goal, and objective.
Pillar: Healthy and Safe Communities
Goal: Goal 1: Expand integrated system of care to address gaps in services to the County’s most vulnerable.
Objective: Objective 3: Create a “no wrong door” approach where clients who need services across multiple departments and programs are able to access the array of services needed regardless of where they enter the system.
Prior Board Actions:
On March 10, 2020 the Board of Supervisors and Board of Commissioners of the Community Development Commission approved a number of actions including A) approved staff’s recommendation to expand the ACCESS Sonoma County Initiative to add a permanent Intensive Care Team to respond to homeless encampments and B) adopted a resolution amending the allocation list for the departments of Health Services and Human Services, and the Community Development Commission adding 10.00 full-time limited term equivalent positions effective March 10, 2020.
Fiscal Summary
|
Expenditures |
FY 21-22 Adopted |
FY 22-23 Projected |
FY 23-24 Projected |
|
Budgeted Expenses |
|
1,841,403 |
|
|
Additional Appropriation Requested |
|
|
|
|
Total Expenditures |
0 |
1,841,403 |
0 |
|
Funding Sources |
|
|
|
|
General Fund/WA GF |
|
|
|
|
State/Federal |
|
197,294 |
|
|
Fees/Other |
|
|
|
|
Use of Fund Balance |
|
1,644,109 |
|
|
Contingencies |
|
|
|
|
Total Sources |
0 |
1,841,403 |
0 |
Narrative Explanation of Fiscal Impacts:
Funding for the requested position extensions with staff associated costs are $1,841,403, which will be included in the department’s supplemental FY 2022-23 budget request.
|
Staffing Impacts: |
|
|
|
|
Position Title (Payroll Classification) |
Monthly Salary Range (A-I Step) |
Additions (Number) |
Deletions (Number) |
|
IMDT Expansion |
|
|
|
|
Health Program Manager (DHS) |
$7,487.54 - $9,099.84 |
0.00 |
0.0 |
|
Behavioral Health Clinician (DHS) |
$6,791.84 - $8,254.56 |
0.00 |
0.0 |
|
AODS Counselor II (DHS) |
$5,765.67 - $7,009.24 |
0.00 |
0.0 |
|
Public Health Investigator (DHS) |
$4,991.70 - $6,068.30 |
0.00 |
0.0 |
|
Senior Eligibility Specialist (HSD) |
$5,151.71 - $6,261.36 |
0.00 |
0.0 |
|
Social Service Worker III (HSD) |
$5,454.34 - $6,631.82 |
0.00 |
0.0 |
|
Social Service Supervisor I (HSD) |
$6,504.86 - $7,904.97 |
0.00 |
0.0 |
|
Housing Negotiator/Inspector (CDC) |
$5,520.43- $6,711.83 |
0.00 |
0.0 |
Narrative Explanation of Staffing Impacts (If Required):
The majority of the 10.0 full-time equivalent time-limited IMDT Expansion positions being requested for extensions are currently filled. Should the Board not approve extending the IMDT Expansion positions, authority to implement layoff procedures will be requested in June as part of the FY 2022-2023 budget adoption process.
Attachments:
Attachment 1 - Personnel Resolution
Related Items “On File” with the Clerk of the Board:
None