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FAMILY AND HUMAN SERVICES COMMITTEE

Meeting Date:	02/22/2017
Subject: CDBG Funds to Provide Homeless Street Outreach Services
Submitted For:	FAMILY & HUMAN SERVICES COMMITTEE
Department:	County Administrator
Referral No.:	20
Referral Name:	Public Service Portion of the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG)
Presenter:	Gabriel Lemus, CDBG Program Manager	Contact:	Enid Mendoza, (925) 335-1039

Information

Referral History:

On February 11, 1997, the Board of Supervisors referred to the Family and Human Services Committee (F&HS) the subject of the Public Service Portion of the Community Services Block Grant (CDBG) Program. Therefore, the Department of Conservation and Development reports to F&HS at least annually regarding recommendations for funding allocations in the Public Services category and Emergency Solutions Grant funding recommendations.

Referral Update:

On April 11, 2016, the Department of Conservation and Development reported to F&HS on the CDBG Program Public Service Portion funding recommendations for fiscal year 16/17 and to the Board of Supervisors on May 10, 2016. Although at that time, there were two agencies funded by CDBG funds under the Public Service Category providing street outreach services and other related services to the homeless population of the County, those two agencies were ceasing the provisions of those services effective June 30, 2016. Given that street outreach services to the homeless population of the County is a critical need and is a high priority within the CDBG Consolidated Plan, County CDBG confirmed that they would issue a Request for Proposal (RFP) for these services sometime during the first two quarters of the 2016/17 fiscal year. The department has issued a RFP and is returning to F&HS to report back on their selection of Contra Costa County Health Services (CCC-HSD).

CCC-HSD proposes to serve a total of approximately 700 homeless persons in the County, of which 225 (or 32 percent) will be from the CDBG Urban County area (the Urban County area is comprised of all incorporated cities and unincorporated areas of the County, except for the incorporated Cities of Antioch, Concord, Pittsburg, and Walnut Creek). The total County CDBG cost to fund this program equates to approximately a $99.00 per client cost. Now that the CCC-HSD's new Coordinated Entry system is underway, the department will be the lead entity providing oversight to the CORE Homeless Street Outreach Program, which is comprised with day and evening/weekend homeless street outreach teams. This will ensure that all homeless outreach operates with the same protocol, with warm hand-offs between the teams, and will give jurisdictions an accurate and unduplicated count of persons served by the combined team and programmatic effort. At this time, there are two day teams which are staffed by CCC-HSD, with one peer outreach worker on each team. The daytime teams and supervision are being funded by a combination of State Emergency Solutions Grant (ESG) funds and other sources, such as Mental Health Services Act (MHSA) funds and other County funds. Night/weekend homeless outreach is overseen by CCC-HSD but the actual evening/weekend service teams are provided through a sub-contract that CCC-HSD has with Anka Behavioral Health, the non-profit agency which was the winner of the County's Coordinated Entry Request for Proposal process for evening outreach.

Please see the attached memo for additional information.

Recommendation(s)/Next Step(s):

Approve the recommendation of the Department of Conservation and Development to allocate $22,224 of fiscal year 2016/17 Community Development Block Grant funds to the Contra Costa County Health Services Department to support the operation of the Coordinated Outreach Referral and Engagement (CORE) Homeless Street Outreach Program.

Fiscal Impact (if any):

No General Fund impact. All funds are provided to the County on a formula basis through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance Number: Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Program - 14.218

Attachments
Memo to F&HS on Homeless Outreach Services