Title
Date: January 24, 2019
To: Honorable President and Members of the Social Service Human Relations Board
From: Ana Bagtas, Community Development Analyst
Re: Establishing a HEAP Ad Hoc Committee
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The City of Alameda has been allocated $756,524 in Homeless Emergency Aid Program (HEAP). At its January 15, 2019 meeting, the Alameda City Council provided comments on the projects and services proposed for HEAP and authorized the Interim City Manager (ICM) through staff to work with the Social Service Human Relations Board (Board) to finalize the plan and oversee implementation of HEAP. Staff recommends that the Board set-up an ad hoc committee that will work with staff to finalize the projects that will be funded under HEAP and develop an implementation plan.
BACKGROUND
Senate Bill (SB) 850, established the Homeless Emergency Aid Program in 2018, a $500 million block grant aimed at providing immediate emergency assistance to people experiencing homelessness in California. Alameda County has been allocated $16.2 million of HEAP funds, of which, the City of Alameda will be receiving $756,524. The County requires a 30% match in order to receive these funds.
On November 8, 2018, the City of Alameda submitted an allocation proposal to the County broken down to the following three HEAP-eligible service categories: 20% on Services, 10% on Rental Subsidies/Rental Assistance, and 70% on Capital Improvement. The Board approved the City’s HEAP proposal at its November 29, 2018 meeting and recommended its adoption by the City Council. On January 15, 2019, the Alameda City Council directed the Interim City Manager through staff to work with the Board to oversee the implementation of programs and services funded by HEAP.
DISCUSSION
With the ongoing engagement with the Homeless Outreach Team (HOT)/Collaboration Advancing Resources, Efforts, and Supports (CARES) for Alameda’s Homeless, the City’s Base Reuse and Community Development Department (BRCDD), as the coordinating agency providing backbone support to the team, has been tracking possible solutions to address homelessness in our community since early 2018. Given the short response time the County gave cities to submit a plan for the use of their HEAP allocation, BRCDD staff considered the projects and services HOT/CARES has identified these past several months. This enabled staff to develop a preliminary funding allocation proposal submitted to the County. After setting aside the 2.5% allowable for administration (total of $18,913.10) of the $756,524 of HEAP funds allocated to the City of Alameda, the remaining $737,610.90 has been distributed to the three HEAP-eligible categories as follows:
|
HEAP-Eligible Category |
Funding Allocation |
Percentage |
Possible Projects to be Funded |
|
Service |
$147,522.18 |
20% |
Develop a regional partnership with the Cities of Fremont, Hayward, San Leandro, and Union City to purchase a shared mobile hygiene unit and establish sanctioned car and RV parking areas |
|
Rental Assistance/ Rental Subsidy |
$73,761.09 |
10% |
Provide housing assistance and emergency motel vouchers |
|
Capital Improvement |
$516,327.63 |
70% |
Build public restrooms in the two mainstreet areas in the city |
The County provides flexibility in moving funds between the eligible categories and to change projects as cities see fit to ensure that local jurisdictions address homelessness in their communities in a meaningful way. This proposal was discussed with HOT/CARES on November 26, 2018. Members provided the following input:
• The funding allocation breakdown is consistent with other cities
• Align Alameda’s plan with the EveryOne Home Strategic Plan to End Homelessness in Alameda County
• Expand the Dine and Connect dinners
• Set aside funds to purchase shelter beds
• Establish sanctioned parking, but ongoing funding is needed
• Support the Alameda Wellness Center with capital funds
• Use HEAP to seed a larger infrastructure project
• Invest in ongoing Warming Shelter
• Provide support to the Housing Resource Center, especially around disaster planning and purchase of supplies in case of disasters
• Create an Ambassador program to improve outreach and engagement
• Establish a daytime drop-in center
• Establish a family reunification and housing problem-solving program
• Provide rental subsidies to those at-risk of homelessness
• Create a campaign to increase Section 8 rentals
The Board also discussed HEAP at its November 29, 2018 meeting and heard public comments. The following input was provided:
• Aligning the City’s use of the funds with EveryOne Home’s Strategic Plan for the Homeless should be considered;
• Building public restrooms in downtown areas is not good use of HEAP. While it is needed, the City should use other funds to pay for this project;
• Investing more in outreach and engagement and prevention strategies is needed; and
• Supporting the Alameda Wellness Center is needed.
Following the discussion, the Board approved the proposal submitted to the County and requested that staff agendize HEAP at its January or February meeting to allow members and the public to have more time to review the final projects that will be funded and provide feedback before they are implemented.
At the request of the business associations, staff met with the business community on January 15, 2019 to give them an opportunity to comment on the proposed HEAP projects and to hear their ideas to ameliorate the impact of the homeless on Alameda’s businesses. The following comments were made:
• Teach self-sufficiency
• Put money into mental health
• Create work programs/job training for the homeless
• Find out what each person needs and identify who wants help
• Homelessness is the new norm.
• Look at San Diego’s Lucky Duck foundation for a model on how businesses can be involved.
• Continued engagement is critical to build trust
• Love the showers idea (a lot of people responded favorably to this by a show of hands)
• No support for public restrooms in downtown areas
• Use the Children’s Museum behind Carnegie to provide services
• Safe parking needs to be evaluated with caution
• City needs to continuously educate the business community about what is happening
• Build on what we have by supporting already existing programs doing the work that have not been receiving funding
• Set aside funds for shelters
• Training for day labor-type of jobs
Staff presented to the City Council on January 15, 2019 and shared the feedback thus far from various stakeholders. The City Council provided its input on the various projects proposed, suggested other approaches and interventions for consideration, deliberated on the match requirement from the County, and advised caution and close evaluation of certain projects being proposed. At this meeting, the City Council directed the Interim City Manager, through staff, to work with the SSHRB to oversee the implementation of programs and services funded through HEAP.
To this end, staff is proposing that the Board establish an ad hoc committee for HEAP for the purposes of working collaboratively with staff to finalize the plan for HEAP and oversee the implementation of projects and services funded through this grant. The composition of the committee will be directed by the Board. The Board has created a similar ad hoc committee in the past when it developed the Homelessness Action Plan.
RECOMMENDATION
Staff recommends that the Board establish a SSHRB Ad Hoc Committee with no more than seven members with representatives from the SSHRB Homeless Action Plan Workgroup, HOT/CARES team, business community, and other individuals with expertise in homeless programs and services.