Title
Recommendation to Review and Provide Feedback on Preliminary Goals and Strategies for the Homelessness Strategic Plan. (Community Development 256)
Body
To: Honorable Mayor and Members of the City Council
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
In January of 2021, staff began work on a new five-year Homelessness Strategic Plan to reduce and prevent homelessness in Alameda, and strengthen the physical health, mental health, and social service supports for our unhoused residents. In October of 2020, City Council asked staff to provide them with updates and opportunities for feedback on this process. In response to this request, and based on the evaluation and outreach completed thus far, staff is seeking feedback on a set of preliminary goals, strategies and action steps.
BACKGROUND
From 2017 to 2019, Alameda's unsheltered population rose by 13%, to 231 individuals. In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic left an even greater number of Alameda families and individuals at risk of, or directly experiencing, homelessness. The Alameda City Council has identified addressing homelessness as one of its priorities for 2020-2021.
After an update to City Council in October of 2020, work began on the new Homelessness Strategic Plan in January of 2021. The planning process is being led by Homebase, a nationally recognized expert on homelessness with extensive technical assistance and facilitation experience.
As part of Phase One of the strategic planning process, Homebase has completed an assessment of existing programs and systems in Alameda, and initiated the stakeholder engagement process. Stakeholder engagement at the time of the writing of this report has included a community kick-off meeting, the establishment and initial meetings of a Steering Committee (Exhibit 1: Steering Committee Roster), and interviews and focus groups with service providers, individual City Council members, members of the business community, and City of Alameda (City) staff.
DISCUSSION
Based on the evaluatio...
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