Title
Recommendation to Authorize the City Manager to Execute a First Amendment to the Winter Warming Shelter Agreement with Christ Episcopal Church to Increase the Funding Amount by $53,385 for a Total Agreement Amount Not-to-Exceed $123,385 in order to Increase the Warming Shelter Schedule to Seven Days per Week and Continue to Operate through April 30, 2023. (Community Development 10061831)
Body
To: Honorable Mayor and Members of the City Council
From: Jennifer Ott, City Manager
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Staff is recommending that the City Council authorize the City Manager to execute a First Amendment to the Winter Warming Shelter Agreement (Agreement) with Christ Episcopal Church (Christ Church) (Exhibit 1) to increase the funding amount by $53,385 for a total amount not to exceed $123,385. Christ Church opened its warming shelter on December 23, 2022. The warming shelter was originally scheduled to be open three nights per week on Monday, Wednesday and Friday evenings through April 30, 2023. During the month of January, the weather was particularly cold and rainy, prompting the City of Alameda (City), at the direction of the City Manager, and with the support of Christ Church, and the operator, Housing Consortium of the East Bay (HCEB), to arrange for extra days of operation that kept the warming shelter open every day through January 31, 2023. Christ Church subsequently requested that the shelter remain open every day through April 30, 2023 and offered $9,000 toward this effort, in addition to their original $20,000 donation. This donation plus additional funding from the City in the amount of $53,385 will serve to reimburse the costs for the additional days in January and provide for the Warming Shelter to be open seven days every week through April. This will fund a total of 67 additional days.
BACKGROUND
The City Council identified addressing homelessness as one of its key priorities. The Road Home: A Five-Year Plan to Prevent and Respond to Homelessness in Alameda, was approved by the City Council on October 5, 2021, and guides the City’s response to the most vulnerable citizens, including the following strategies:
• Strategy 2.2 of The Road Home recommends providing low-barrier, housing-focused temporary housing; and
• Strategy 2.3 recommends expanding outreach and supportive services to unsheltered households. By providing winter warming shelter services, the City provides low-barrier shelter to the most vulnerable members of the Alameda community and creates opportunities to connect unhoused individuals to housing resources and supportive services.
The warming shelter basic services include dinner, breakfast, showers, toiletries and new clothing. Guests are allowed to bring and store some belongings and pets are permitted. Christ Church, HCEB, and Village of Love work collaboratively with community-based organizations and volunteers to leverage resources to serve guests. The provision of essential shelter, clothing, and food during the inclement winter months provides a dignified setting for the most vulnerable in the community to begin to receive services and form relationships with community-based organizations.
In Fiscal Year 2021-22, the Warming Shelter operated for a total cost of $70,000. The City funded $50,000 in an agreement with Christ Church, which hosts and manages the Warming Shelter operations and provided the additional $20,000. The Warming Shelter opened on December 31, 2021 and closed on April 21, 2022. It served the unhoused population on Monday and Thursday evenings, as well as nights when the weather forecast was 50 percent or greater chance of rain and/or a temperature of 42 degrees or below. A total of 24 unduplicated individuals were served for 137 total units of service. Of the 24 individuals served, five achieved a housing outcome or were linked to housing services, one obtained employment, one obtained valid California identification, and one reconnected with their family.
DISCUSSION
Inclement weather in the winter and spring seasons bring untenable conditions to the lives of those living without shelter. This was particularly true with this winter’s multiple back-to-back storms.
Importantly, the warming shelter is a first step in the continuum of care for the City’s unhoused residents. At shelter intake, each willing person is entered into Alameda County’s Homeless Management Information System (HMIS), which serves as the conduit for individuals to receive expanded social services, including housing navigation. Individuals entered into HMIS will potentially be eligible for a room at Dignity Village, which is projected to be open for occupancy in the spring of 2023.
This higher cost of this year’s Agreement both provides consistent daily shelter and services through April for Alameda’s most at-risk residents and also includes expenses for an improved guest experience. This includes the purchase of cots for guests instead of using yoga mats, the opening of the warming shelter one hour earlier, allowing guests to stay longer in the mornings during inclement weather, and an additional person to support warming shelter’s guests overnight. Cost increases have also resulted from salaries being paid to the operator’s staff this year that are higher than previously, making them more competitive, which is necessary given labor shortages and inflation, as well as additional utility costs.
ALTERNATIVES
• Authorize the City Manager, to execute a First Amendment to the Agreement with Christ Church to increase the funding amount by $53,385 for a total amount not-to-exceed cost of $123,385.
• Not authorize the Agreement Amendment which will result in the Warming Shelter continuing to operate three days each week on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and closing earlier in March.
• Direct staff to authorize only an additional $14,898 which will fund the additional days already expended in January and result in the Warming Shelter continuing to operate three days each week and closing at the end of April.
• Provide alternative or additional direction to staff regarding the warming shelter.
FINANCIAL IMPACT
Funds are available in the City Manager’s Fiscal Year 2022-23 General Fund Operating Budget to fund this requested $53,385 increase through a First Amendment to the Agreement. The original contract is funded from Permanent Local Housing Assistance funds. Staff will be tracking the extra days of warming shelter usage for possible reimbursement from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. No additional budget appropriations are needed.
MUNICIPAL CODE/POLICY DOCUMENT CROSS REFERENCE
This action is consistent with the Social Services Human Relations Board Charter and Ordinance authority “to improve social services in the community” (Alameda Municipal Code Section 2-11.5) and the Report on Homelessness Policies and Programs. This action is consistent with Goal 2 of “The Road Home: A Five-Year Strategic Plan to Prevent and Respond to Homelessness in Alameda.”
ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW
This action does not constitute a “project” as defined in California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) Guidelines Section 15378 and therefore no further CEQA analysis is required.
CLIMATE IMPACT
The Social Vulnerability Assessment section of the Climate Action and Resiliency Plan states:
“adaptation strategies should consider how [the homeless] will receive emergency communications and how they will be sheltered. Proper, safe housing for all is an adaptation and resilience strategy. Planning strategies should always consider these vulnerable populations in adaptation efforts.”
Warming shelter will provide safe, warm, and needed shelter for the unhoused in Alameda during inclement weather while providing basic human services during their stay at the warming shelter.
RECOMMENDATION
Authorize the City Manager, to execute a First Amendment to the Winter Warming Shelter Agreement with Christ Episcopal Church to increase the funding amount by $53,385 for a total agreement amount not to exceed $123,385.
Respectfully Submitted,
Lisa Nelson Maxwell, Community Development Director
By,
Lois Butler, Economic Development and Community Services Manager
Marcie Soslau Johnson, Social Services Manager
Financial Impact section reviewed,
Margaret O’Brien, Finance Director
Exhibits:
1. First Amendment
2. Original Agreement