No General Fund impact. All funds are provided to the County on a formula basis through the State of California. The State ESG funds are allocated to the State by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and then distributed to eligible local Administrative Entities. A portion of the funds (2.7 percent) are reserved for program administration in the County's Department of Conservation and Development.
The State of California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) administers the Emergency Solutions Grants (ESG) program with funding received from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). The ESG program provides funding to (1) engage homeless individuals and families living on the street; (2) improve the number and quality of emergency shelters for homeless individuals and families; (3) help operate these shelters; (4) provide essential services to shelter residents, (5) rapidly re-house homeless individuals and families, and (6) prevent families/individuals from becoming homeless.
Over the past two years, HCD has worked with a HUD technical assistance consultant and ESG stakeholders to redesign the State’s ESG program. The redesign is intended to accomplish the following:
• Align State ESG with local entities' ESG programs and HUD goals;
• Increase coordination of State ESG investments with local homelessness systems and investments;
• Invest in the most impactful activities based on key performance goals and outcomes;
• Shift from an intensive provider competition, in which local providers competed for State ESG funds with other local providers and providers throughout the State, to a much more local competition and where the administration of the program is streamlined;
• Improve geographic distribution of funding.
Under this program design, HCD established a dedicated Continuum of Care allocation and simplified process available to California communities that are able to administer ESG locally. Under this process, eligible local government entities can act as Administrative Entities (AE) of State ESG funds in furtherance of these goals. Beginning in 2016, HCD will distribute funding for Continuum of Care Service Areas (“or Service Areas”) through two allocations:
• Continuum of Care Allocation for Service Areas that contain a city or county that receives ESG directly from HUD; and the
• Balance of State Allocation for Service Areas that do not contain a city or county that receives ESG directly from HUD.
Contra Costa County's Department of Conservation and Development (DCD) receives ESG funds directly from HUD to administer the County's own ESG Program, so it is an eligible local government entity that can act as an AE of State ESG funds under the State's new program design. On March 30, 2016, HCD approved DCD as an AE to administer State ESG funds on behalf of the State for the County's Continuum of Care Service Area, which includes all of Contra Costa County, with emphasis toward households/residents of the cities of Antioch, Concord, Pittsburg, and Walnut Creek, as required by the State ESG regulations. The other cities in the County, including Richmond, are part of the Urban County and are therefore served the County's direct ESG grant.
As an approved AE, Contra Costa County will receive $578,558 of State ESG funds. A total of $562,937 will be available to eligible agencies/programs that serve and benefit homeless households/residents (including those that are victims of domestic violence and victims of human trafficking) or households/residents that are at risk of becoming homeless. An amount of $15,621 will be used by DCD for program administration (2.7 percent allowed by the State's regulations).
State ESG Timeline
In order for the County to receive the State ESG allocation, an authorizing resolution approved by the Board of Supervisors along with a list of the agencies/programs recommended to be awarded with these funds must be submitted to HCD by July 15, 2016. In order to meet this deadline, a Notice of Funding Availability/Request For Proposals (RFP) was e-mailed to a county-wide interested parties list and posted to the County's website on May 6, 2016. The RFP deadline was June 17, 2016. A total of 11 eligible applications were submitted by the June 17, 2016 deadline. County staff, along with a review sub-committee who are members of the County's Continuum of Care, reviewed the submitted applications and provided their recommendations to the County's Council on Homelessness to consider at its meeting held on July 7, 2016. The finalized list of recommendations must be submitted to HCD by July 15, 2016 for its approval. Once HCD approves the list of agencies to carry out activities using State ESG funds, the State will enter into a Standard Agreement with the County with the agreement having an expected effective date of October 1, 2016 through June 30, 2018 . DCD expects to receive State ESG funds an an annual basis, but enter into bi-annual contracts with the State given that ESG funds have a two-year period to be expended. Beginning in 2017, the amount of State ESG funds that is expected to be distributed to the County will be approximately $280,000 per year.
If the County does not submit the authorizing resolution to the State by the July 15, 2016 deadline, the County will not receive its $578,558 allocation of State ESG funds.
Most of the programs and activities that will be funded with State ESG funds will address at least one of the five community outcomes established in the Children's Report Card.