Title
Item 4-A Exhibit 1: Staff Report
Body
Date: April 25, 2019
To: Honorable President and Members of the Social Service Human Relations Board
From: Ana Bagtas, Community Development Analyst
Re: Recommendation for City Council to adopt EveryOne Home’s Plan to End Homelessness: 2018 Strategic Update
BACKGROUND
EveryOne Home is the collective impact organization that addresses and aims to end homelessness in Alameda County, uniting the efforts of city and county government partners, nonprofit service providers, homeless consumers, and community members. In 2006, EveryOne Home released the original countywide strategic plan to end homelessness, which was subsequently adopted by the County Board of Supervisors and all 14 local jurisdictions.
In 2018, EveryOne Home undertook a year-long and inclusive community process to update the plan to better reflect the current realities of the Bay Area’s housing market, identify resource needs, and set goals to tackle the homeless challenges in the county. This work resulted in the development of the report titled Plan to End Homelessness: 2018 Strategic Update. EveryOne Home presented this updated plan to the Social Service Human Relations Board (“Board”) at its November 29, 2018 Special Meeting.
DISCUSSION
In 2018, EveryOne Home undertook a countywide process to update its strategic plan that was originally developed more than a decade ago. The Plan to End Homelessness: 2018 Strategic Update (Attachment B) provides an analysis of the countywide homelessness data to determine the extent of needs of the homeless across Alameda County and the size and cost of interventions to address those needs.
Some of the highlights of the report include:
• Over the course of a given year, more than 12,000 people experience homelessness in Alameda County. For every person who exits homelessness, two new people enter it. If trends continue, this rate will increase the homeless population by 1,500 annually.
• The homeless population is disproportionately African-American, reflecting ongoing equity disparities in housing markets and systemic social policies.
• The overarching goal of the report is to reduce the Alameda County’s homeless count. For the next five years to 2023, reduce the number of people becoming homeless for the first time annually by 500, while simultaneously increasing the number of homeless people returning to permanent homes by 500 annually.
• The best way to address the crisis of unsheltered homelessness in Alameda County is not to build more shelter, but rather to reduce the number of people needing shelter by expanding affordable housing stock and increasing the system’s capacity to create “flow” of people from the streets and into housing.
• The system must add 2,800 units of permanent supportive housing and another 4,000 subsidized permanent housing units dedicated to extremely low-income people experiencing homelessness to address the county’s homelessness in a meaningful way.
• To this end, the report suggests that, “Government Agencies can ensure funding is aligned with strategies and redirect unspent resources to expand housing and prevention.”
Aligning local efforts to address homelessness with the County’s strategies is important. The City of Alameda’s 2017 Homelessness Report identifies programs and policies that are congruent to the EveryOne Home plan. Input from community stakeholders on the possible uses of the City of Alameda’s Homeless Emergency Aid Program allocation of $756,524 specifically identified coordinating efforts with the County and other entities that are addressing homeless issues.
RECOMMENDATION
The City of Alameda is a member of the Alameda County [Continuum of Care] and works with the County and other Alameda County jurisdictions to address the housing needs of unsheltered and sheltered, very low- and low-income residents in a coordinated and comprehensive manner. As such, staff proposes that the Board make a recommendation to the Alameda City Council to pass a resolution to adopt EveryOne Home’s Plan to End Homelessness: 2018 Strategic Update.