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Consider approval of a recommendation to allocate up to $710,000 to Volunteers of America-Northern California/Northern Nevada and up to $708,232 to SHELTER Solano, Inc, over 3 years for the period of September 1, 2020 through June 30, 2023 from the Community Investment Fund, Deep Investments category, in Response to Request for Proposal #2020-03 - Homelessness Innovations; and Delegate authority to the County Administrator, with County Counsel concurrence, to sign the agreements and any future amendments which are administrative in nature and remain within budget
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Published Notice Required? Yes_______ No ___X___
Public Hearing Required? Yes_______ No ___X___
DEPARTMENTAL RECOMMENDATION:
The County Administrator’s Office recommends that the Board of Supervisors considers approval of a recommendation to allocate up to $710,000 to Volunteers of America-Northern California/Northern Nevada and up to $708,232 to SHELTER Solano, Inc, over 3 years for the period of September 1, 2020 through June 30, 2023 from the Community Investment Fund, Deep Investments category, in Response to Request for Proposal #2020-03 - Homelessness Innovations; and Delegate authority to the County Administrator, with County Counsel concurrence, to sign the agreements and any future amendments which are administrative in nature and remain within budget
SUMMARY:
On behalf of the Board of Supervisors, the County Administrator’s Office initiated a Human Services Needs Assessment (HSNA) to identify the greatest human services needs in the county. This effort resulted in the creation of a durable framework of desired outcomes with clearly defined indicators to support a process that directs limited county resources via a $2 million Community Investment Fund (CIF).
The CIF is a three-pronged approach to funding which includes Legacy Programs, Deep Investments and One-Time Investments. For the Deep Investments category, strategies were identified in each of the 3 highest priorities of the HSNA: Mental Health, Housing Affordability and Homelessness. The contracts presented to the Board today address the desired outcomes within the Homelessness Category.
This staff report brings forward a recommendation to fund two proposals submitted in response to Request for Proposal (RFP) 2020-03 to contribute to reducing unsheltered homelessness in Solano County.
FINANCIAL IMPACT:
The costs associated with preparing this agenda item are nominal and absorbed by the department’s FY2020/21 Preliminary Budget. The costs associated with the two contracts are included in the Board’s $2 million Community Investment Fund for FY2020/21-FY2022/23.
DISCUSSION:
In September 2018, the County Administrator’s Office recommended, and the Board of Supervisors endorsed, the development of a formal process to utilize qualitative and quantitative data to identify the highest needs in the county. The goal of the 3-step process was to create a durable framework of desired outcomes with clearly defined indicators and use the findings to:
1. Guide decision-making during the budget process toward priority outcomes
2. Leverage other county resources.
The Human Services Needs Assessment (HSNA) process was conducted by Applied Survey Research, a Bay Area research and evaluation firm, and was guided by a planning team that consisted of two Board of Supervisor members, Department Heads that engage in service delivery as part of their role and the County Administrator. The planning team reviewed extensive community data, conducted key informant interviews and considered data results from a community survey before recommending that the Board of Supervisors establish a Community Investment Fund to address the top human services needs in Solano County.
The top community needs that were identified in this process were:
Priority Need 1: Mental Health - Increase access to Solano County’s mental health system of care with dual strategies of increasing community understanding of how to access mental health services and increasing provider understanding of how to respond to residents with mental health needs.
Priority Need 2: Affordable Housing - Work with cities to increase the supply of affordable housing under the community goal of “reducing homelessness.”
Priority Need 3: Homelessness - Reduce homelessness with a strategy of strengthening capacity to address homelessness
Priority Needs 4-6: Early Education, Youth Development, Safe and Stable Environments for Children - While mental health, housing, and homelessness rose to the top priorities, early education, youth development, and safe and stable environments for children were also highly ranked in the prioritization.
Community Investment Fund:
In June 2019, the Board of Supervisors approved the recommendation from the planning team to create a Community Investment Fund (CIF). The CIF is a 3-pronged approach which includes:
1. Legacy Programs-3-year commitment to sustain programs funded by the Board to serve a specific population.
2. Deep Programming-3-year commitment to address the top 3 priority needs by implementing strategies that were selected as part of an outcomes framework to evaluate progress toward the selected needs over time.
3. One-Time Investments-Smaller annual grants to address the top 6 priority needs.
For the deep investments category, your Board allocated $1,300,000 annually divided as follows: $600,000 for the top priority of Mental Health, $200,000 for the second priority of Housing Affordability and $500,000 for the third priority of Homelessness.
Within the homelessness category, the County Administrator hired a housing and homelessness expert to help guide work in these areas. With his expertise, staff were able to support increasing capacity to reduce homelessness by issuing a Request for Proposals (RFP) to solicit for providers to reduce unsheltered homeless in Solano County.
In response to this RFP, 10 agencies attended the mandatory bidders conference to learn and ask questions about this funding opportunity. A total of 5 organizations submitted proposals that addressed reducing homelessness in the county, 4 of which met the minimum requirements of the RFP and were forwarded to the review panel for review and ranking.
Proposals Recommended for Funding:
The review panel for the homelessness grant RFP identified the top two grants for funding with the $500,000 available for homelessness grants in the Community Investment Fund. This staff report brings forward a recommendation to fund the top two eligible proposals submitted in response to Request for Proposal (RFP) 2020-03.
The top two proposals recommended for funding are:
1. Volunteers of America (VOA) - Up to $250,000 per year for three years to operate a rapid rehousing program, serving 20 unsheltered homeless individuals per year by assisting them to transition into permanent housing. Over the course of 3 years, 55 unsheltered homeless individuals will transition to permanent housing. The VOA program description is as follows:
“Volunteers of America is proposing to operate a Rapid ReHousing Program (RRH) targeting homeless residents residing in Solano County. The program's first goal is to prevent homelessness by diverting a household directly into temporary housing through working with the shelters and/or placing individuals into motels in Solano County. The second and primary goal of the program is to support clients to secure and retain permanent housing, including supporting clients to identify and leverage whatever they need from a service and financial standpoint to obtain and retain permanent housing, successfully. During the RRH component, funding will provide at least first month's rent and deposit, as well as additional rental assistance up to 3 months, as needed. During this time, clients will receive supportive case management and services through the VOA, Health and Social Services and other service providers with which VOA will partner/collaborate. The primary goal of the program is to obtain/retain permanent housing. Clients will be assisted with exploring various housing options based upon their unique needs, preferences, and financial resources.”
2. SHELTER Solano, Inc - Up to $250,000 per year for three years to purchase 8 shelter beds to increase capacity to serve homeless individuals. SHELTER Solano intends to temporarily shelter 24 individuals per year, serving 68 unsheltered homeless individuals over the course of the 3-year program. SHELTER Solano’s program description is as follows:
“SHELTER Solano, Inc. - a subsidiary of SHELTER, Inc. - provides emergency shelter accommodations for people facing homelessness in Solano County as well as the critical wraparound services that will help them stabilize their lives and obtain permanent housing. Services at the shelter, which include case management, linkages to mental health services, and housing navigation, address all three of the top pressing needs identified by the Community Investment Fund: mental health, housing, and homelessness. Funding from this grant will support access to eight (8) community shelter beds and accompanying wraparound services to people experiencing homelessness in Solano County over the 22-month grant term.”
In addition to recommending the Proposals for funding, the RFP review panel made recommendations for the final contract for SHELTER Solano, including excluding certain line items in the budget and using this contract as a launching point for integrating resources. Should the Board approve the allocation, staff will work with SHELTER Solano during contract negotiations to ensure these issues are resolved in the final contract.
The impact of funding these 2 proposals would result in strengthening our capacity to address homelessness by increasing the County’s ability to serve an additional 123 people over three years.
ALTERNATIVES:
The Board could choose not to approve the recommendation to allocate up to $1,418,232 from the Community Investment Fund to two agencies in response to Request for Proposal 2020-03 - Homelessness Innovation Grants; however, this is not recommended as the CIF was approved by the Board of Supervisors after being developed through a nine-month process with cross sector input to guide the board in decision making and the Board requested staff implement this CIF on its behalf.
Alternatively, the Board could choose to approve the recommendation to allocate $710,000 for three years to VOA and wait until after the presentation from SHELTER Solano currently scheduled for August 25, 2020 to decide on the three-year allocation to this agency.
OTHER AGENCY INVOLVEMENT:
First 5 Solano is administering the CIF on behalf of the County Administrator’s Office.
CAO RECOMMENDATION:
APPROVE DEPARTMENTAL RECOMMENDATION