SAN RAFAEL CITY COUNCIL AGENDA REPORT

Transcription

1 Agenda Item No: 8.d Meeting Date: March 19, 2018 SAN RAFAEL CITY COUNCIL AGENDA REPORT Department: City Manager s Office Prepared by: Andrew Hening, Director of Homeless Planning & Outreach City Manager Approval: TOPIC: SUBJECT: COMMUNITY HOMELESS FUND RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING A THREE-YEAR ANNUAL CONTRIBUTION OF $36,091 TO THE MARIN COUNTY COUNCIL OF MAYORS & COUNCILMEMBERS COMMUNITY HOMELESS FUND RECOMMENDATION: ADOPT RESOLUTION BACKGROUND: According to the 2017 Marin County Homeless Point-in-Time Count, over 70% of the people experiencing homelessness in Marin County reside outside of San Rafael (see Exhibit 1). As a truly regional challenge, it is imperative that cities and towns throughout Marin County work together to increase the financial and operational capacity to address homelessness in our community. In 2014, the Marin County Council of Mayors & Councilmembers (MCCMC) created a dedicated subcommittee to discuss regional approaches to homelessness. Concurrent to the creation of this subcommittee, the Marin Organizing Committee (MOC) began meeting with local cities and towns to discuss the need for expanding the Rotating Emergency Shelter Team (REST) program for an additional two months every year. REST is a rotating winter shelter program operated by the St. Vincent de Paul Society of Marin and hosted at faith-based organizations throughout the county. Prior to Fiscal Year , REST operated for four months every year during the coldest and wettest months of winter. In an effort to take regional action, the MCCMC subcommittee recommended the creation of a three-year Community Homeless Fund that would fund the expansion of the REST program for an additional two months per year. As a regional program serving an immediate need for the ~ 70% of people experiencing homelessness in Marin who lack shelter, at the Fund s inception, REST was the top priority for the group. At the time of the proposal, the annual cost of the REST program (with expanded service) was projected to cost $360,000 per year. The MCCMC subcommittee felt that if the Community Homeless Fund could contribute half of that figure ($180,000), then the County of Marin the primary social service provider in Marin County should cover the other half. The committee developed a funding structure whereby $90,000 would be split FOR CITY CLERK ONLY File No: Council Meeting: Disposition:

2 SAN RAFAEL CITY COUNCIL AGENDA REPORT / Page: 2 evenly across every jurisdiction, and the other $90,000 would be split proportionally based on population size (see Exhibit 2). With this framework, the overall MCCMC body voted to approve the creation of the Community Homeless Fund. Exhibit 1: Regional Homeless Numbers by Jurisdiction (Source: 2017 Homeless Point-in-Time Count) Exhibit 2: Proposed Funding Breakdown for Community Homeless Fund

3 SAN RAFAEL CITY COUNCIL AGENDA REPORT / Page: 3 In Year 1 (Fiscal Year ), the REST program received the full $180,000 allocation from the Community Homeless Fund; however, in Year 2 (Fiscal Year ) and Year 3 (Fiscal Year ), the cost for providing the expanded REST capacity decreased, and the Community Homeless Fund only needed to provide $110,000 per year, leaving a $70,000 annual surplus (a $140,000 total surplus at the end of year three). Over the past two years, multiple independent community groups throughout Marin County started exploring the feasibility of creating a mobile shower program to provide basic hygiene services for people experiencing homelessness in historically under-served parts of the community. Thanks to a generous capital grant from the Marin Community Foundation ($120,000) and the operational leadership of the Downtown Streets Team, the effort gained significant momentum in To support this new regional program, the MCCMC homeless subcommittee reconvened and voted to allocate the remaining balance of the Community Homeless Fund to the first year of operational costs for the mobile showers ($140,000). The larger MCCMC body met at the end of 2017 and voted to approve the homeless subcommittee s recommendation. Discussions about the mobile shower effort have yet again galvanized the need for a regional approach to service provision in Marin, especially as concurrent efforts like Coordinated Entry have launched (Coordinated Entry is a new County-led effort to both right-size housing interventions and also prioritize high-needs people for permanent supportive housing). The mobile showers provide an additional outreach platform to get this vulnerable population into the broader system of care. Of note, after 10 years of hosting the REST program, local faith-based organizations have announced that this current REST season ( ) will be the last. Regional efforts are now shifting to prioritizing permanent housing. ANALYSIS: Given the positive impact of the first three years of the Community Homeless Fund, the MCCMC homeless subcommittee reconvened in January of 2018 to discuss the possibility of extending the Community Homeless Fund (Fund) with an additional three years of financial contributions from all of the cities and towns in Marin. The MCCMC homeless subcommittee has asked each jurisdiction, before the end of March, to bring this item to their City Council to discuss whether or not there is willingness to continue the Community Homeless Fund for an additional three years. The MCCMC homeless subcommittee will reconvene at the end of March, and depending on the direction from each City Council, the subcommittee will make a recommendation to the overall MCCMC body on whether or not there is support to continue (and thus administer) the fund. The Fund is one of the few opportunities for cities and towns across Marin to show that homelessness is a shared regional challenge. Community members in San Rafael routinely ask that the City make sure homelessness is addressed in an equitable way across the county, and the Community Homeless Fund is an excellent way for every city and town to demonstrate buy-in. By supporting both the expanded REST program and the mobile shower program during the first three-year funding cycle, the MCCMC homeless subcommittee has now established a track record of supporting regional solutions. The Fund is not simply adding capacity to existing services in San Rafael; it is creating capacity county-wide. The homeless subcommittee has yet to decide how the continued funding will be allocated, but there has been discussion about supporting the Marin Mobile Care mobile shower program. The City of San Rafael coordinates the Fund by collecting from each participating city and town and depositing the funds with the Marin Community Foundation (MCF). MCF holds the money in the fund, and the homeless subcommittee makes recommendations on how it will be spent, which the larger MCCMC body ultimately approves or denies.

4 SAN RAFAEL CITY COUNCIL AGENDA REPORT / Page: 4 FISCAL IMPACT: The annual cost of contributing to the Community Homeless Fund is $36,091. The three-year total cost is $108,273. If approved, the annual cost will be appropriated each year in the City s homeless program within the General Fund. OPTIONS: The City Council has the following options to consider on this matter: 1) Adopt the Resolution 2) Request changes to the Resolution 3) Reject the Resolution RECOMMENDED ACTION: Adopt the Resolution ATTACHMENTS: Resolution

5 RESOLUTION NO. RESOLUTION OF THE SAN RAFAEL CITY COUNCIL AUTHORIZING A THREE-YEAR ANNUAL CONTRIBUTION OF $36,091 TO THE MARIN COUNTY COUNCIL OF MAYORS & COUNCIL- MEMBERS COMMUNITY HOMELESS FUND WHEREAS, the City of San Rafael, a California charter city ( CITY ), seeks to provide support services to low-income persons and people experiencing homelessness in Marin County; and WHEREAS, CITY seeks to build partnerships with all of the cities and towns in Marin County in an effort to implement a regional response to homelessness; and WHEREAS, in 2015 the Marin County Council of Mayors & Councilmembers ( MCCMC ) created a Community Homeless Fund ( Fund ) to support regional solutions to homelessness such as the REST Program and the mobile shower program, and each city and town in Marin County contributed to the Fund at that time; and WHEREAS, because of the positive impact of the first three years of the Community Homeless Fund, the MCCMC homeless subcommittee reconvened in January of 2018 to discuss the possibility of extending the Fund with an additional three years of financial contributions from all of the cities and towns in Marin; and WHEREAS, it is anticipated that all other cities and towns in Marin County will approve additional contributions to the Fund over the next three years; NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the City Council of the City of San Rafael hereby authorizes the City Manager, on behalf of the City of San Rafael, to participate with the other Marin County cities and towns in the continuation of the Community Homeless Fund, with a payment to the Fund of $36,091 per year for three years. I, LINDSAY LARA, Clerk of the City of San Rafael, hereby certify that the foregoing resolution was duly and regularly introduced and adopted at a regular meeting of the City

6 Council of the City of San Rafael held on Monday the 19 th day of March, 2018, by the following vote, to wit: AYES: NOES: ABSENT: Councilmembers: Councilmembers: Councilmembers: LINDSAY LARA, Interim City Clerk