HomeMy WebLinkAboutCM Homelessness Update____________________________________________________________________________________ FOR CITY CLERK ONLY Council Meeting: December 20, 2021 Disposition: Accepted report Agenda Item No: 6.a Meeting Date: December 20, 2021 SAN RAFAEL CITY COUNCIL AGENDA REPORT Department: City Manager Prepared by: Marc Sabin, Homeless Program Manager City Manager Approval: ___________ TOPIC: HOMELESSNESS UPDATE SUBJECT: INFORMATIONAL REPORT ON STATUS OF HOMELESSNESS IN SAN RAFAEL RECOMMENDATION: Accept informational report and provide direction and/or comment to staff. BACKGROUND: The homelessness update that was presented to the City Council on June 7, 2021 serves as the comprehensive background to this informational update. In addition to the link, staff has attached the full staff report here so that it can easily be viewed together with this update. This informational report will pick up where the June 7, 2021 staff report left off and will provide an update on the specific elements of the three-track plan included in that report. While it is not possible to capture the breadth and depth of the attached comprehensive report in a small number of bullet points, the following are a few key dates to demonstrate some highlights of the past five years: •Spring 2016: Marin Homeless Outreach Team (HOT Program) launched - develops customized housing strategies across service providers for each person experiencing homelessness. •Mid-2017: Coordinated Entry System launched – moves customized strategy approach to a Countywide program. Uses objective measurements of vulnerability to determine housing prioritization. •Mid-2017: Marin Housing Authority pledges annual slots of Section 8 vouchers for referrals from Coordinated Entry. State releases new funding for “Whole Person Care” to provide resources to high utilizers of the healthcare system. “Housing First” is launched at scale, which is the underlying approach for Marin County’s system of care - including housing and case management. In Marin County, the primary provider of case management is through the Marin County Department of Health and Human Services and the Marin Housing Authority is the key player in providing housing. SAN RAFAEL CITY COUNCIL AGENDA REPORT / Page: 2 • 2017-present: Coordinated Entry system houses 427 people who had been experiencing chronic homelessness. • 2018-present: Community Homeless Fund supported by all Marin jurisdictions. • Fall 2020: City of San Rafael allocates $1.54M towards Marin’s first Project Homekey site at 3301 Kerner Boulevard. • Fall 2020: City of San Rafael allocates $750,000 towards Mill Street 2.0 permanent supportive housing and shelter site. • Summer 2021: Case Management regional expansion - City of San Rafael contributes $260,000 for case management services. • Summer 2021: Service Support Area (SSA) opens to focus supportive services to the encampment. ANALYSIS: The below is a brief update on each of the three-tracks recommended in the June 7, 2021 report. “Track 1 – Immediate. Facilitate using Project Roomkey and Project Homekey existing beds to house people and match them with case management.” As mentioned in the June 2021 staff report, there are currently 40 hotel room beds through Project Roomkey in San Rafael that the County of Marin is funding (and seeking full reimbursement through the State for the room cost) and are being operated by Catholic Charities. That program is funded to continue at least through January 2022. There are also beds that come available at our Project Homekey site in San Rafael on Kerner Boulevard that is being operated as a transitional facility while Homeward Bound’s new project on Mill Street is under construction. The “Mill Street 2.0” project, which was partially funded through the City of San Rafael’s Affordable Housing Trust Fund (AHTF), is expected to open and accept individuals in August 2022 and will include 32 permanent supportive housing units in addition to shelter beds. Once Homeward Bound moves back to their Mill Street site, the 3301 Kerner Boulevard site will undergo improvements to create 44 permanent supportive housing units. Partial funding for the 3301 Kerner Boulevard site was also funded through the City of San Rafael’s AHTF. In addition to the above, the Casa Buena Project Homekey site in Corte Madera is expected to open in March or April 2022. This will add another 18 units of permanent supportive housing for individuals experiencing homelessness. As an illustration, the following is a table of Project Roomkey, Project Homekey, or City of San Rafael Affordable Housing Trust Fund sites focused on housing for people experiencing homelessness. Site Type Approx.Units Roomkey Hotel Site – San Rafael Project Roomkey 40 3301 Kerner Boulevard – San Rafael Project Homekey and AHTF 44 Casa Buena – Corte Madera Project Homekey 18 S. Eliseo Drive – Larkspur Project Homekey 43 Mill Street 2.0 – San Rafael Affordable Housing Trust Fund 32 “Track 2 – Leverage one-time stimulus monies to supercharge our existing Coordinated Entry system while also mitigating current health and safety concerns (beginning June 2021, subject to ability to hire and operationalize case management capacity)” SAN RAFAEL CITY COUNCIL AGENDA REPORT / Page: 3 Staff’s recommendation on this Track was implemented by the San Rafael City Council through the allocation of $260,000 to support an increased program of housing-first case management regionally in Marin County. Over the past several months, each of the Marin cities and towns have decided to join in this regional effort to support additional case management in Marin. As stated in the June 2021 City Council report, this case management will allow local cities and towns to continue to support high-needs, chronically homeless individuals with transitioning into permanent housing. At the same time, it is also critical for the City to continue to address the immediate health and safety concerns among people experiencing unsheltered homelessness. This case management work is already underway, and many individuals experiencing homelessness who have been resistant to case management and unhoused for decades, are finally finding the stability they need to engage on the next step towards getting housed. As a second component to Track 2, staff recommended possible code amendments to restrict encampments in certain high fire risk areas and critical use facilities to address public health and safety hazards. The San Rafael City Council subsequently approved such code amendments as a part of the July 6, 2021 City Council meeting. Also as a part of staff’s Track 2 recommendation, staff suggested a program to “create a designated area for people experiencing homelessness where they can have access to clean camping facilities, restrooms, and storage.” This recommendation subsequently turned into the Service Support Area (SSA) in early July 2021, which is intended as a temporary solution to assist individuals experiencing homelessness. In the months leading up to July 2021, there were extensive encampments under US 101 in downtown San Rafael on Caltrans owned property. The City worked with Caltrans to relocate the encampments to the block between Fifth and Mission Avenues, so that it can be an area of focused, supportive services. The SSA is a collaborative approach with involvement from many local service providers who have a focus on homelessness. It creates a central, designated place for our community partners to provide services and they are doing so, some weekly and some multiple times per week. Examples of partners providing services include: the Downtown Streets Team, Ritter Center, Marin County Health and Human Services, Marin Humane Society, the CARE team, the Spahr Center, the Salvation Army, and members of the Marin Street Chaplaincy. Service providers have remarked to staff that the SSA allows them to reach more people and make greater impacts than if encampments were spread out over many locations. As part of the collaboration with Caltrans, the County of Marin, CHP, and multiple service organizations, the SSA located between Fifth and Mission in downtown San Rafael provides: • Full time security, 24x7 • Tents, cots, and sleeping bags • Three restrooms with on-going maintenance • Handwashing stations • Electrical outlets and phone charging stations • Garbage pick-up three times weekly • Regular outreach • Service referrals • Dedicated meeting space to meet with case managers/social workers • Weekly showers through Downtown Streets Team • Other quality of life amenities SAN RAFAEL CITY COUNCIL AGENDA REPORT / Page: 4 The SSA allows for the continuing of work with local partners to identify permanent paths to housing. Currently, there are 36 individuals living within the SSA and 23 that have been assigned a case manager since the program started. Individuals continue to be in a safe place where their social worker can work with them. The SSA is already getting people moved into housing options while community partners provide onsite services throughout the week. Eleven participants have been successfully housed in either permanent or transitional housing. The program continues to showcase its success through a significant reduction of police calls for service throughout the City and an increase in interest among potential residents applying to join the SSA (there is currently a 16-person waitlist). The primary on-going cost for the SSA is in the 24x7 security which is approximately $32,000 a month. Residents have reported a much greater degree of personal safety compared to when they were living outdoors without a security presence. Also, each person experiencing homelessness at the SSA has been offered a platform and a storage box to assist with weather preparedness. “Track 3 – Leverage new housing monies to create additional permanent supportive housing (beginning summer 2021)” As noted above, 3301 Kerner Boulevard was selected as an original Project Homekey site in the first round of the program. While there was not a Project Homekey 2.0 site recommended in the City of San Rafael through the County of Marin’s process, a site was identified in Larkspur. The County of Marin and the City of Larkspur, in partnership with Episcopal Community Services (ECS), identified a Project Homekey site at the former skilled nursing facility at 1251 S. Eliseo Drive. The property represents a unique opportunity to revitalize an underutilized parcel and increase capacity to serve vulnerable Marin residents experiencing homelessness. The property will be operated by ECS as a 43-unit, permanent supportive housing facility for single adults experiencing homelessness. Also of note, the City of San Rafael released a Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA) for the next round of affordable housing funding through our Affordable Housing Trust Fund. Responses are due on December 23, 2021. The City of San Rafael announced the availability of two million five hundred thousand dollars ($2,500,000) in funding available for the construction or the preservation of permanently affordable rental housing for seniors, families, and individuals and families with special needs including individuals and families formerly experiencing homelessness. Additional Updates • As of December 1, 2021, the City of San Rafael filled its vacant “Homeless Program Manager” position, continuing a commitment to dedicated staff on this topic that began in 2013 with the mental health liaison position and then in 2016 with the homeless program manager position. • The County of Marin has recently stood up a data dashboard to illustrate the impact of the coordinated entry system in Marin. • The Marin County Board of Supervisors, at their December 14th meeting, set aside $500,000 in matching funds to assist with support on homeless encampment strategies. The staff report listed potential proposals could include service for encampment security, camp management, and outreach or other services. The three tracks above are taking place concurrently. In addition to these items: • The City of San Rafael is in the process of submitting a grant to the State of California for Encampment Resolution Funding. The funding request is to provide services such as enhanced case management services for encampments. SAN RAFAEL CITY COUNCIL AGENDA REPORT / Page: 5 • San Rafael continues to advocate for additional support and housing at the County level. The City has seen the success of the SSA and believes that a similar program on County property would provide an ongoing option for interim shelter for unhoused individuals who are stabilizing before moving into housing. • Housing First has been the primary approach in Marin County to house the homeless population since 2016/17. The City is currently working with the Marin County Board of Supervisors to convene a Homelessness Summit in spring 2022 to consider additional tools and programs to address emerging issues. Lastly, staff would like to pass along the most recent update from Opening Doors which sends out a monthly update on the impact of Marin’s coordinated entry system. The most recent report, from November 30, 2021, contains the following data for Marin: Chronic Homelessness • Since October 1, 2017, 427 people have been housed who were experiencing chronic homelessness • 94.38% are still housed • In November of 2021, 10 more people were housed Veteran Homelessness • Since October 1, 2017, 59 homeless veterans were housed • In November of 2021, 5 more veterans moved into housing • There are approximately 28 homeless veterans in Marin Family Homelessness • Since June of 2020, 88 homeless families have been housed • In November of 2021, 5 more families were housed • There are approximately 31 unsheltered and 27 sheltered homeless families in Marin FISCAL IMPACT: There is no fiscal impact associated with this report. RECOMMENDATION: Accept informational report and provide direction to staff. ATTACHMENT: June 7, 2021 City Council staff report, “Informational Report on Status of Homelessness in San Rafael” ____________________________________________________________________________________ FOR CITY CLERK ONLY Council Meeting: June 7, 2021 Disposition: Accepted Report Agenda Item No: 8.a Meeting Date: June 7, 2021 SAN RAFAEL CITY COUNCIL AGENDA REPORT Department: City Manager Prepared by: Andrew Hening Director of Homeless Planning and Outreach City Manager Approval: ___________ TOPIC: HOMELESSNESS SUBJECT: INFORMATIONAL REPORT ON STATUS OF HOMELESSNESS IN SAN RAFAEL RECOMMENDATION: Accept Informational Report and provide direction to staff. BACKGROUND: In January 2017, according to a report from the Bay Area Economic Institute and McKinsey Consulting, Marin County had the seventh highest per capita rate of homelessness in the entire country. By January 2019, however, overall homelessness in Marin had fallen by 7%, long-term chronic homelessness had declined by 28%, and unsheltered homelessness in San Rafael had dropped by 30%. Over this same two-year period, approximately 80% of California counties saw increases in homelessness, including a 20% increase in San Mateo County, a 31% increase in Santa Clara County, and a 43% increase in both Alameda County and Contra Costa County. These results were not an accident. Beginning in the spring of 2016, the City of San Rafael, alongside the County of Marin and local nonprofit partners, began implementing a series of pilot programs that ultimately became county-wide strategies for transforming Marin’s homeless service system. The initial drive for change was spurred by community concerns about the impacts of homelessness in Downtown San Rafael, specifically issues like disruptive public intoxication and untreated mental illness. As the City, County, and local providers began to focus on these issues, it became clear that these behaviors were not being generated uniformly across every person experiencing homelessness. Instead, a small number of very vulnerable, physically and/or mentally ill people were generating a hugely outsized impact in the community. Ironically, our providers knew all these people by name. In some cases, they had been serving these individuals for decades. In short, although we didn’t have the language at the time, we realized our number one challenge was chronic homelessness. Chronic homelessness describes people who have experienced homelessness for at least a year — or repeatedly over a number of years — who also struggle with a disabling condition such as a serious SAN RAFAEL THE CITY WITH A MISSION SAN RAFAEL CITY COUNCIL AGENDA REPORT / Page: 2 mental illness, substance use disorder, trauma brain injury, and/or physical disability. Making up just 10-30% of the overall homelessness population at any given community, these individuals tend to generate significant public complaints, as well as substantial systemic costs. One study at that time, which focused specifically on homeless chronic inebriates, found that these high-needs individuals were costing the community $60,000+ per year in public services (e.g. emergency room visits, EMS transports, criminal justice interventions). Importantly, at the same time that people experiencing chronic homelessness are generating a significant community impact, these are also some of the most vulnerable people in the community, on average dying 20+ years earlier than their housed peers from treatable chronic illnesses. To begin to serve this population, a team of local leaders, co-led by the City of San Rafael, began visiting other Bay Area communities to learn more about how this group could be helped. During those field trips, we discovered an outreach program in San Mateo which had essentially ended chronic homelessness in their downtown. The San Mateo Police Department led the effort by convening every local service provider, creating a by-name-list of the most challenging individuals in their community, and then meeting every two weeks to develop and implement customized housing strategies for each person. This effort seemed promising, so the City, the County, and local partners launched the Marin Homeless Outreach Team (HOT) in early 2016 with an initial focus on Downtown San Rafael. In its first 18 months, HOT housed 23 of the most high-impact, long-term chronically homeless individuals in San Rafael. Because of the success, the League of California Cities named HOT a state- wide best practice for addressing homelessness. Based on HOT’s early success, our team started looking at ways to scale our impact. The tipping point was when we discovered Community Solution’s Built for Zero campaign (BfZ). BfZ is a national movement of over 80+ communities who are working to end chronic and veteran homelessness by using a shared methodology and data standards. To-date, with the help of the BfZ model: • 1 California community (Riverside City & County) has ended veteran homelessness • 3 communities nationally have ended chronic homelessness • 11 communities nationally have ended veteran homelessness • 44 communities nationally have driven a community-wide reduction in homelessness The BfZ methodology is predicated on: • Integrating the Local Team: Traditionally, homelessness response systems are deeply siloed. BfZ communities build integrated, multi-agency teams which take responsibility for getting to zero. • Real-Time Measurement: BfZ communities build privacy-protected, continuously updated, by- name lists of all those experiencing homelessness to track and respond to the problem in real time. • Rapid Cycle Testing: Homeless is too dynamic for ten-year plans. BfZ communities use the same iterative problem-solving skills that have revolutionized global health efforts like the fight against polio to test, evaluate and scale the highest impact strategies quickly. • Targeted Housing Investments: Many cities have ramped up affordable housing with no effect on homelessness. BfZ communities use real-time data to make targeted investments that yield reductions. Encouraged by the example of BfZ communities who were farther along in the process than we were (e.g. Montgomery County, Maryland, a suburban community outside of Washington, D.C. had reduced SAN RAFAEL CITY COUNCIL AGENDA REPORT / Page: 3 chronic homelessness by 50%; Bergen County, New Jersey, a suburban community outside of New York City had ended chronic homelessness), in October 2017 we officially launched our new countywide “Coordinated Entry System”. Coordinated Entry took the by-name-list concept we piloted in San Rafael with HOT and made it a countywide system. We shifted from subjectively determining who the most high-needs individuals were and instead moved to more objective measurements of vulnerability to determine housing prioritization. Of course, the by-name-list was just the first step – it was the organizing principle. To be successful, we needed more housing and services. Prior to the launch of Coordinated Entry, we had been reliant on one-off openings in existing supportive housing programs, as well as an occasional housing voucher from Marin Housing Authority (MHA). Impressed by our results, however, in the summer of 2017, MHA pledged annual slots on the Section 8 Waitlist for referrals from Coordinated Entry. This commitment, in turn, was contingent on the County of Marin providing sufficient supportive services to ensure these high-needs individuals were receiving sufficient assistance. Fortunately, at that same time, the State of California released new funding through “Whole Person Care”, which was designed to provide counties with the resources they needed to serve individuals who were high utilizers of the healthcare system. Because of the new vouchers and service dollars, our community was able to launch “Housing First” at scale. Housing First is an evidence-based best practice for housing people experiencing chronic homelessness. Historically, communities often make housing contingent on a person first getting sober, getting medicated, getting employed, and thriving in emergency housing. The result is that the most high-needs people are unable to meet these requirements, precisely because they are high-needs, and, thus, they never get housed. Housing First flips that notion on its head. It treats the lack of permanent housing as the paramount, foundational challenge. Once someone is back inside, then they can begin to work on their sobriety, employment, etc. Interestingly, the long-term retention rates in Housing First programs are in some cases 200% higher than the status quo of “treatment first”. Since October 2017, of the 330+ chronically homeless people we’ve housed, over 90% are still housed. For individuals who were homeless in San Rafael, based on data from the Police Department and Fire Department, we have observed a 54% reduction in EMS transports after people are housed and an 86% reduction in police interactions. Of note, thanks to the flexibility of the housing vouchers, the people who are being housed are finding units throughout the county, not simply in San Rafael, including in Mill Valley, Corte Madera, San Anselmo, Novato, and Inverness. In addition to the City’s strategic efforts around chronic homelessness, over the last five years there have also been a number of tactical changes that have also gone into effect in San Rafael to mitigate the impacts of homelessness in our community. • First and foremost is providing permanent housing. In 2020, Homeward Bound of Marin started construction on 32 new units of permanent supportive housing at their Mill Street Center. The City of San Rafael contributed $750,000 through the Affordable Housing Trust Fund. Additionally, in November of last year, the City Council approved allocating funding from the Affordable Housing Trust Fund in the amount of $1.54 million to support the County’s purchase of 3301 Kerner Boulevard through the State of California’s Project Homekey initiative. This will produce another 44 units of permanent supportive housing (3301 Kerner is currently being used as the temporary Mill Street Shelter as Homeward Bound finishes work at their current site). In total, the City of San Rafael has provided over $2.2 million in funding to these homelessness- related sites. Additionally, the City allocated $800,000 from the Affordable Housing Trust Fund to the 67-unit Vivalon (former Whistlestop) senior housing project downtown (Eden Housing) which will be 100% affordable units. SAN RAFAEL CITY COUNCIL AGENDA REPORT / Page: 4 • In 2017, based on a Memorandum of Understanding between the City of San Rafael and the Ritter Center, the Ritter Center stopped providing general mail services. The City now funds Ritter ($10,000 per year) to administer PO Boxes at the San Rafael Post Office on Bellam Blvd, and the Ritter Center is still able to provide mail for people who would otherwise be unable to utilize this service (e.g. clients with significant disabilities). • In 2018, based on the same Memorandum of Understanding, Ritter stopped providing shower services Downtown. This closure was coordinated with the launch of the Marin Mobile Care mobile showers, which are now operated by Downtown Streets Team in East San Rafael, Novato, Fairfax, and Sausalito. They are also approved to operate in Corte Madera and Larkspur. Given that over 70% of Marin’s homeless community is located outside of San Rafael, this service has been able to help people who otherwise would not have any such hygiene support. • Through continued leadership from the City, every city and town in Marin has been contributing to the Community Homeless Fund. Since 2018, the fund has been used to support the mobile shower program as an outreach platform for Coordinated Entry. With total annual funding of $180,000, San Rafael contributes $36,000 a year. The current three-year funding commitment ends after FY20-21; however, Marin Community Foundation has provided $180,000 to cover FY21-22. • The City continues to support the Downtown Streets Team, which is a work experience program designed to beautify the community while helping people experiencing homelessness regain the skills and confidence they need to reenter the workforce. After starting as a pilot in Downtown San Rafael in July 2013, the program is now operating city and countywide. The City is currently considering a new contract with Downtown Streets Team for FY21-22 and FY22-23, which would not exceed $100,000 per year. • The City continues to provide proactive outreach to the homeless community through the Police Department’s Special Operations Unit, which is led by Sgt. Carl Huber and includes San Rafael’s Mental Health Outreach Liaison Lynn Murphy (and comfort dog Blue). ANALYSIS: The last year has raised many new challenges and concerns in our community about homelessness, and it is yet again requiring a fresh look at the way the City and its partners address this complex issue. The conventional benchmark for evaluating homeless services is the Homeless Point-in-Time Count, which is conducted in every odd year in January. Because of COVID-19 public health guidelines, communities could opt out of conducting the PIT in 2021, and that’s what Marin County decided to do. However, in its place, the County coordinated a dedicated vehicle count. It is commonly believed that people who are living in their vehicles are more recently homeless (i.e. if a person loses their housing, they are more likely to transition to their vehicle, if they have one, than directly to the street). From 2019 to 2021, there was a 91% countywide increase in the number of people living in vehicles, including a 119% increase in San Rafael specifically (58 vehicles to 127). Of note, the number of people experiencing homelessness in San Rafael remains less than 30% of the countywide total population, yet again showing the countywide nature of this problem. Even while the number of people experiencing homelessness while living in their vehicles has risen substantially, the majority of the public feedback and commentary over the last year has arisen out of community frustration about growing encampments, most notably under the central San Rafael 101 viaduct and in Boyd Park, though staff is aware that there are encampments throughout the entire city. Despite their outsized visibility and impacts, encampments remain relatively rare overall. Based on the best data we have (the 2019 Homeless Point-in-Time Count), just 15% of people experiencing SAN RAFAEL CITY COUNCIL AGENDA REPORT / Page: 5 homelessness in Marin County reside in tent encampments. It’s also worth noting that, at least in San Rafael, it appears that upwards of 90% of people residing in encampments are in fact chronically homeless. Therefore, we again see a nexus with needing to provide support and services for the most vulnerable people in our community. One of the biggest challenges over the last 12 months is that a number of evolving factors have been impacting local communities’ ability to respond to these growing encampments, which has contributed to them growing in size and visibility: • Public Health Guidance: At the start of the pandemic, when very little was known about the COVID-19 virus, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) put out guidance to communities across the country regarding how to support people experiencing homelessness. Those guidelines specifically called out encampments. “If individual housing options are not available, allow people who are living unsheltered or in encampments to remain where they are. Clearing encampments can cause people to disperse throughout the community and break connections with service providers. This increases the potential for infectious disease spread.” • Legal Guidance: In recent years a court case called Martin v. Boise gradually worked its way through the federal courts, ultimately resulting in a decision by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals holding that it is unconstitutional to impose criminal penalties on people experiencing homelessness for sitting, sleeping, or lying outside on public property if there is not sufficient shelter for those individuals. The Supreme Court declined to take up the case, and the original 9th Circuit precedent remains in place. When the 9th Circuit ruling was appealed to the US Supreme Court, a key question was sleep. The original ruling centered around sleep being a basic human right. It is cruel to wake people up or move them along if they’re not doing anything wrong, especially if they have nowhere else to go. In the wake of this ruling, however, there is a serious question about the intersection of sleep and informal shelter. Are encampments – which essentially become permanent structures, a place for gathering during waking hours, and a location for storage and other personal belongings – the same thing as sleep? As Bay Area cities like Santa Cruz have been learning, over the past few months, as more litigation around encampments has been arising, rather than further refining the Martin v. Boise precedent, local judges have been focused on public health concerns (i.e. the CDC’s guidance). • Jurisdictional Boundaries: Both of these issues are further complicated by the intersection of public agency jurisdictional boundaries. For example, the San Rafael Viaduct Encampment is on State property controlled by Caltrans and monitored by the California Highway Patrol. Thus, the City must work with these agencies and navigate their interpretation of the factors above. Given this new environment, the City of San Rafael and its partners have been working to mitigate the impacts of these encampments while continuing to focus on our core strategy of permanently housing the most vulnerable people in our community. • City Elected Officials and staff have been meeting with Senator Mike McGuire, Caltrans, and the County of Marin since September to develop new approaches. • Nonprofit providers including Downtown Streets Team, Community Action Marin, and the Ritter Center have been conducting regular outreach, as well as Lynn Murphy, the City’s Mental Health Outreach Liaison. • All of this outreach is ultimately about housing. The County, City, and local service providers are meeting weekly to case-conference the individual housing needs of the people living in the city’s largest encampments. • The City’s Department of Public Works continues to assist with regular trash pickups. • Marin Sanitary is now servicing trashcans that have been deployed throughout the park and ride. SAN RAFAEL CITY COUNCIL AGENDA REPORT / Page: 6 • The City and County have deployed handwashing stations and bathrooms throughout the city. To put it plainly, the scale of these challenges is beyond anything the City of San Rafael on its own can respond to. Compared to the County of Marin, as well as other larger cities in the Bay Area and California, the City of San Rafael does not have funding or capacity to provide health, human, and social service functions on any acceptable scale. While the City has played a leadership role in helping to shape local policy around homelessness, the City is ultimately dependent on the resources of other partner agencies to fully implement these strategies. Fortunately, in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the State and Federal government are beginning to step up to offer unprecedented resources for local communities. For example, based on the State of California’s FY21-22 May Budget Revise, the State wants cities and counties to move away from strategies that just manage homelessness and instead focus on true systems-level solutions that prevent and end homelessness. New state funding in the coming year is expected to include: • $2.75 billion to cities and counties for additional Homekey acquisitions over two years, for a combined $3.5 billion in total Homekey funding • $1.75 billion to support shovel-ready affordable housing projects, and another $300 million for preservation of affordable housing units with expiring affordability covenants • $475 million to expand the CalWORKs Housing Support Program, which provides rental assistance, moving costs, and landlord recruitment activities to rapidly rehouse families • $150 million to support transitioning Project Roomkey participants into permanent housing • $50 million for an encampment strategy with grants to local governments to assist people in moving out of unsafe, unhealthy encampments At a federal level, in addition to significant state and local government stimulus funding, the Biden Administration recently announced the rollout of 70,000 new housing vouchers for people experiencing homelessness, over 100 of which will come to Marin. Given the urgency of the community’s concerns, the health and safety of the people currently living in encampments, and the impending infusion of new financial resources, staff is recommending a three phased approach: Phase 1 – Immediate. Facilitate using Project Roomkey and Project Homekey existing beds to house people and match them with case management. There are currently 40 hotel room beds through Project Roomkey in San Rafael that the County of Marin is funding (and seeking full reimbursement through the State for the room cost) and is being operated by Catholic Charities. There are also beds that come available at our Project Homekey site in San Rafael on Kerner Boulevard that is being operated as a transitional facility while Homeward Bound’s new project on Mill Street is under construction. The City would actively work with our homeless community to fill existing beds and also seek to expand the number of Project Roomkey beds through working with the County of Marin. As shown above, the State may be providing $150 million to support transitioning Project Roomkey participants into permanent housing. It is unclear yet if that would allow an expansion of additional hotel rooms and how much would be available in Marin County. Staff could return with a recommendation to use additional American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding if needed to facilitate a Project Roomkey expansion. SAN RAFAEL CITY COUNCIL AGENDA REPORT / Page: 7 Phase 2 – Leverage one-time stimulus monies to supercharge our existing Coordinated Entry system while also mitigating current health and safety concerns (beginning June 2021, subject to ability hire and operationalize case management capacity) As of May 2021, the number of people experiencing chronic homelessness throughout Marin County has dropped below 400 people. For people in this group, over the past few years the County has done an incredible job cobbling together different funding streams to create new case management capacity, most notably for medically fragile people. This new funding would create another subset of case management to help accelerate our progress (see Figure 1). In order to ensure stability for any person entering housing, staff is recommending new Housing First- level case management capacity be funded for a 3-5 year period. Housing First case management typically requires one case manager to not have a caseload larger than 17 clients. The approximate all- in cost for a housing first case manager (i.e. salary, benefits, management) is $100,000 per year. Staff is recommending that the cities and towns pool their resources to create such a program. Eight case managers, for example, would be able to provide services for 136 people throughout Marin County. Figure 1. This case management will allow local cities and towns to continue to support high-needs, chronically homeless individuals with transitioning back into permanent housing. At the same time, it is also critical for the City to continue to address the immediate health and safety concerns among people experiencing unsheltered homelessness. Countywide Chronic Homeless Community Existing County/ Whole Person Care Case Management New City/ Town Funded Case Management SAN RAFAEL CITY COUNCIL AGENDA REPORT / Page: 8 Therefore, at the same time that the City, County, and local partners are scaling up increased case management, staff recommends that the City immediately launch a pilot safe-camping program. Communities throughout the state and country have been launching similar programs that create a designated area for people experiencing homelessness where they can have access to clean camping facilities, restrooms, and storage. To address public health and safety hazards that are frequently associated with homeless encampments, City staff is studying possible City code amendments to restrict encampments in high fire risk areas and in certain critical use facilities. The Fire Chief already exercises his discretion under City codes to close City open space to public use and encampments during fire season due to extreme wildfire risk, but staff has noted a dramatic increase in fires and other hazardous activities or conditions stemming from encampments in other significant public use areas, such as City parking garages. Staff is looking at code amendments that would give City officials more power to restrict camping or related activities in such City facilities or in other highly sensitive public areas. Phase 3 – Leverage new housing monies to create additional permanent supportive housing (beginning summer 2021) The City of San Rafael has been a countywide leader on permanent supportive housing. As stated earlier, in 2020 Homeward Bound of Marin started construction on 32 new units of permanent supportive housing at their Mill Street Center. Additionally, in November of last year, the City Council approved allocating funding from the Affordable Housing Trust Fund to support the County’s purchase of 3301 Kerner Boulevard through the State of California’s Project Homekey initiative. This will produce another 44 units of permanent supportive housing. The City of San Rafael has also been a supporter of the State’s Project Roomkey program which provided funding (in our case, to the County of Marin) to rent hotel rooms for people experiencing homelessness and then provide services to seek more permanent housing. To the extent the State of California continues to provide Project Roomkey funding, the City supports participation with location(s) in San Rafael or other jurisdictions as it is one step towards getting people permanently housed. Also, as stated above, the State of California is planning to allocate billions of new dollars to a possible Homekey 2.0. To the extent possible, staff recommends that the City of San Rafael pursue a second Homekey 2.0 project in San Rafael, while simultaneously supporting other community partners in creating a broad and robust countywide portfolio. Homekey 1.0 created 63 new units of housing. There is no reason that Homekey 2.0 could not create, 100, 200, even 300 new units of housing. Given the expedited timing of Homekey and the requirement that units be occupied within 90 days of acquisition, even on an interim basis, Homekey 2.0 could create hundreds of new housing opportunities over the next 6-12 months. Notably, the County of Marin is expected to set aside an additional $5 million for Homekey 2.0 and supportive services for such projects. This will help make Homekey 2.0 a reality in Marin County. Based on Homekey’s flexibility, staff also recommends that the City and its partners consider innovative housing models, including tiny home villages, modular construction, pallet shelters, and other creative housing units. Many communities are pursuing these models for interim housing, but as we’ve found, the fastest way to end someone’s homelessness, particularly someone who is chronically homeless, is to create a permanent unit. SAN RAFAEL CITY COUNCIL AGENDA REPORT / Page: 9 In conclusion, the City of San Rafael’s new City Council is inheriting a strong foundation of strategies, tactics, and partnerships that have historically been driving measurable improvements to homelessness, and these proposed modifications could further accelerate our progress. FISCAL IMPACT: There is no fiscal impact associated with this report. RECOMMENDATION: Accept Informational Report and provide direction to staff.