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Home My WebLink AboutCM Homelessness Update____________________________________________________________________________________ FOR CITY CLERK ONLY File No: 9-2-67 Council Meeting: 2/5/2018 Disposition: Accepted Report Agenda Item No: 6.a Meeting Date: February 5, 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: HOMELESSNESS UPDATE SUBJECT: INFORMATIONAL REPORT ON HOMELESS INITIATIVES RECOMMENDATION: Staff recommends that the City Council accept the Report. BACKGROUND: In March of 2016, the City of San Rafael hired a Director of Homeless Planning & Outreach to bring strategic and tactical focus to the City’s efforts to end homelessness. Building on 2016’s momentum, in 2017 the City of San Rafael and our partners took major, concrete steps towards ending homelessness and improving the quality of life in our community. ANALYSIS: To start off the year, on January 27, 2017, almost 100 community volunteers were deployed across the entire county for the bi-annual Homeless Point-in-Time Count. The results were mixed – homelessness overall was down, but chronic homeless was up. Fortunately, over the past year our community has been laser- focused on ending chronic homelessness. As a quick reminder, chronic homelessness is long-term homelessness accompanied by a disabling condition like schizophrenia and/or substance abuse and/or a traumatic brain injury. Though people experiencing chronic homelessness are usually just 20% of the homeless community, they account for approximately 80% of our challenges (e.g. costs, community complaints). In pivoting our system to focus on chronic homelessness, we: Launched Coordinated Entry - After 12 months of hard work, on October 1st our community partners officially launched “Coordinated Entry.” Coordinated Entry is a national best practice for both right- sizing housing interventions and identifying and prioritizing the most vulnerable, chronically homeless for long-term, supportive housing. Since October 1st local providers like Homeward Bound and the Marin Housing Authority have housed 12 of the hardest-to-serve people in our community. The Homeless Outreach Team (HOT), which is led by the St. Vincent de Paul Society of Marin, is now focused on working with the top 20 hardest-to-serve people on the Coordinated Entry housing queue. SAN RAFAEL CITY COUNCIL AGENDA REPORT / Page: 2 New Housing AND Service Capacity - When you provide people experiencing chronic homelessness with housing AND services, they can have great outcomes. The following changes in Police contacts for the original HOT pilot group demonstrate the impact of “Housing First” (i.e. placing people in housing directly from the streets and then wrapping them in supportive services). Everyone in grey has been housed: In July of 2017 the Marin Housing Authority committed 50 housing vouchers for chronically homeless people coming through Coordinated Entry. If successful, more housing vouchers can be committed in the future. To match this housing capacity, the County of Marin’s Health and Human Services Department has committed high-intensity support services through a new program called “Whole Person Care.” Recruited 82 New Landlords - Conventional wisdom would suggest it is impossible to find housing opportunities in Marin County, especially for people with very low-incomes. Fortunately, the Marin Housing Authority through its “Landlord Partnership Program” completely shattered that stereotype in 2017 by recruiting 82 landlords to accept housing vouchers. The Landlord Partnership Program has employed a variety of tactics including: establishing a 24/7 landlord assistance, setting aside loss prevention funds, ensuring competitive market rates, and hiring new staff with private sector property management experience. National Support - When it comes to homelessness, it can often feel like San Rafael is in this alone, but the reality is that homelessness is a national crisis. From San Rafael to Madison, WI to Chattanooga, TN to Richmond, VA, communities across the country have been joining Community Solution’s national “Built for Zero” campaign. Thanks to funding from the County of Marin’s Health and Human Services Department, representatives the City of San Rafael, the County of Marin, the Ritter Center, Homeward Bound, and St. Vincent’s have been taking part since April. Not only is it a chance to break down silos by SAN RAFAEL CITY COUNCIL AGENDA REPORT / Page: 3 deepening relationships, our community has benefited tremendously from new best practices for Coordinated Entry, Housing First, and data tracking. In addition to our long-term, strategic efforts to end chronic homelessness, the City of San Rafael has also achieved a number of immediate, tactical wins in 2017. Changes at the Ritter Center - Since the summer of 2016, the City of San Rafael and the Ritter Center have been working together to de-concentrate services in our Downtown. In 2017 we moved Ritter’s mail services (serving 500+ people) out of Downtown, we acquired mobile shower units (Downtown Streets Team launched a pilot mobile shower program at the end of January), and Ritter has moved its administrative staff out of Downtown, vacating “the annex” building that is across the street from the yellow Victorian house. A huge thank you goes to Ritter’s new CEO Linda Tavaszi. Downtown Foot Patrol - The Police Department’s Downtown Foot Patrol, including our Mental Health Outreach Liaison Lynn Murphy, has continued to provide outstanding, on-the-street engagement with high needs individuals in Downtown and the surrounding parks and neighborhoods. According to Joanne Webster, the CEO of the San Rafael Chamber of Commerce, “The Chamber is hearing that it is making a huge difference in Downtown San Rafael.” Health & Safety Coordinating Committee - Homelessness is one of those extremely difficult and complex issues that touches multiple City departments at any given time – Police, Fire, Community Services, the Library, Public Works, Community Development, Parking Services, etc. This summer the City re-launched the “Health and Safety Coordinating Committee” at the suggestion of Code Enforcement Officer Larry Salvisberg as a way to bring together multiple departments to quickly tackle cross-departmental challenges. The group is currently being chaired by the Director of Homeless Planning, with partnership among all of the departments listed above. Successes to-date include: SAN RAFAEL CITY COUNCIL AGENDA REPORT / Page: 4 - Installing anti-loitering signage at the Coleman overpass pedestrian bridge - Coordinating efforts around illegal dumping - Addressing loitering and blight at the Albert J. Boro Community Center - Removing wall behind KFC that had led to loitering and encampments - Organizing and supervising the deployment of the Downtown Streets Team - Installing fencing around un-leased property at Fifth Avenue and B Street - Working with the Canalways property owner to address encampments - Creating and spearheading a business-requested taskforce to focus on the 4th and Lincoln area Panhandling – In September of 2016, working in partnership with the Downtown Streets Team, the City launched the “Put Your Change to Work” purple meter campaign in Downtown. The goal of this program was to address the underlying cause of panhandling – the fact that community members continue to give money on the street, thus creating an economic incentive for people to continue to panhandle. The program leveraged this insight to basically say “We encourage giving and generosity within the community, but please be mindful not to give on the street and instead ‘give inside’ to local organizations.” The initiative received positive press and TV coverage for San Rafael from three local news channels, over $3,000 in change has been collected, and the Downtown Streets Team has secured an additional $30,000+ in business sponsorships. The initial pilot area was 4th Street in Downtown. Since installing the meters, there has been a significant decrease in panhandling, with the exception of some notable individuals like the gentleman who dresses in monastic or military outfits (he’s housed), and through follow up surveying to the Downtown businesses, there is support to expand the program beyond Downtown. To provide an opportunity for more local organizations to be involved, the Director of Homeless Planning & Outreach convened a working group with St. Vincent de Paul, Ritter Center, Downtown Streets Team, and Homeward Bound to develop new signage. This new signage will be posted at multiple locations along 3rd Street east of 101, in Downtown, at freeway off ramps, and at bus stops throughout the community. SAN RAFAEL CITY COUNCIL AGENDA REPORT / Page: 5 SAN RAFAEL CITY COUNCIL AGENDA REPORT / Page: 6 COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT: Throughout the year, the Director of Homeless Planning & Outreach has been in regular communication with the community, including through: Homeowners Association Meetings, community events, small group discussions with concerned residents, Rotaries, and business groups. The Director has also done a number of update presentations in other communities outside of San Rafael to rally support for more geographic equity on this issue, and he was honored by earning the #1 spot on Emerging Local Government Leaders’ (ELGL) Traeger List of local government influencers around the country. The Homeless Initiatives Newsletter now has a readership of close to 3,000 people (up from 1,000 in 2016). FISCAL IMPACT: There are no direct budget implications in this report. The Director of Homeless Planning & Outreach will provide a full update on the Homeless Initiatives Budget later in the spring when the FY18-19 Homeless Goals & Objectives are established. OPTIONS: The City Council has the following options to consider on this matter: 1) Accept Report. 2) Request changes to the Report. 3) Reject the Report. RECOMMENDED ACTION: Accept Report. STAFF REPORT APPROVAL ROUTING SLIP Staff Report Author: Andrew Hening Date of Meeting: 02/05/2018 Department: City Manager Topic: Homelessness Update Subject: Informational Report on Homelessness Initiatives Type: (check all that apply) ☐ Consent Calendar ☐ Public Hearing ☐ Discussion Item ☐ Resolution ☐ Ordinance ☐ Professional Services Agreement ☒ Informational Report *If PSA, City Attorney approval is required prior to start of staff report approval process Was agenda item publicly noticed? ☐ Yes ☐No Date noticed: ☐Mailed ☐Site posted ☐Marin IJ Due Date Responsibility Description Completed Date Initial / Comment DEPARTMENT REVIEW FRIDAY noon Director Director approves staff report is ready for ACM, City Attorney & Finance review. 1/19/2018 ☒ AH CONTENT REVIEW MONDAY morning Assistant City Manager City Attorney Finance ACM, City Attorney & Finance will review items, make edits using track changes and ask questions using comments. Items will be returned to the author by end of day Wednesday. Click here to enter a date. 1/22/2018 Click here to enter a date. ☐ ☒ LG ☐ DEPARTMENT REVISIONS WEDNESDAY noon Author Author revises the report based on comments receives and produces a final version (all track changes and comments removed) by Friday at noon. 1/29/2018 ☒ AH ACM, CITY ATTORNEY, FINANCE FINAL APPROVAL MONDAY morning Assistant City Manager City Attorney ACM, City Attorney & Finance will check to see their comments were adequately addressed and sign-off for the City Manager to conduct the Click here to enter a date. Click here to enter a date. ☐ ☐ Finance final review. Click here to enter a date. ☐ TUES noon City Manager Final review and approval Click here to enter a date. ☐