REPORT TO COUNCIL
SUBJECT
Title
Action on the Approval of an Agreement for Services with Homebase and Establishment of the Homelessness Taskforce
Report
COUNCIL PILLAR
Promote and Enhance Economic, Housing and Transportation Development
BACKGROUND
At the November 16th, 2021 Council meeting, the City Council directed staff to form an Ad Hoc Homelessness Taskforce and to engage Homebase as the Taskforce facilitator.
The intended purpose for a City Taskforce on Homelessness is to allow community residents and stakeholders to come together in the near-term to identify and recommend potential strategies the City may wish to pursue to address the needs of Santa Clara’s unhoused population. Membership would be informal so that a wide variety of people might participate and brainstorm possible approaches. The Taskforce structure and limited duration would allow more frequent meetings over the near-term as part of a focused effort.
Homebase Assistance
To support city implementation activities aligned with the county-wide Community Plan to End Homelessness, the County of Santa Clara Office of Supportive Housing has offered cities up to 10 hours of technical assistance from Homebase, the County's contractor that supported development and implementation of the county-wide plan. Homebase is a nationally recognized expert on homelessness and a skilled technical assistance provider, based in San Francisco, CA. Homebase is a mission-driven nonprofit organization known for their ability to successfully build community capacity to end homelessness and to foster thriving, inclusive communities. As technical assistance providers in Santa Clara County, Homebase is deeply familiar with the County and facilitated the development of the Community Plan to End Homelessness while working with individual cities in the County, including the City of Santa Clara, on alignment with plan goals and implementation.
The proposed scope of work with Homebase includes the following:
1. Facilitate monthly Homelessness Taskforce meetings
2. Plan and prepare meeting agendas and relevant materials
3. Provide Community Education and Engagement
4. Identify Draft Goals, Policies, Programs and Quantified Objectives
5. Conclude Taskforce and prepare a Draft City Plan to End Homelessness
DISCUSSION
Community engagement is an integral part of the City’s Homelessness strategy and important to produce viable solutions that are supported by the community and various stakeholders in Santa Clara. The intended purpose for a City Taskforce on Homelessness is to allow community residents and stakeholders to come together in the near-term to identify and recommend potential strategies that the City may wish to pursue to address the needs of Santa Clara’s unhoused population. Staff is recommending that the Homelessness Taskforce be advisory and non-voting, and be time limited to six months ending no later than November 31, 2022. This structure will provide more flexibility in the near-term for the formation and conduct of the Taskforce. The Homelessness Taskforce meetings will be publicly noticed and open to the public.
In partnership with Homebase, the end goal of the Homelessness Taskforce will be to advise on the production of a City Plan to End Homelessness (Plan) over a 6-12-month process. The Taskforce will serve a near-term objective and delay the formation of the City’s Housing Commission until after the completion of the Taskforce work. The Taskforce will serve only a limited or single purpose, is not perpetual, and will be dissolved when this specific task is completed, thus, the Task Force is not subject to Brown Act requirements. When the Plan is completed, the Housing Commission will be formed and assume ongoing jurisdiction over these issues and will then be subject to the Brown Act. Task Force outreach meetings will be open to the public.
Homebase proposes to work with the City of Santa Clara to convene a Housing Taskforce to advise on the preparation of a City Plan to End Homelessness, grounded in evidence-based practices, lessons learned, and input from members of the community including but not limited to unhoused residents, service providers, and community members at large. The Plan will be developed through an inclusive, community-based planning process with an equity lens that aligns with the Santa Clara County Community Plan to End Homelessness and addresses the unique challenges and opportunities of the City.
The proposed scope of work with Homebase would include the following three phases.
Phase I: Homelessness Taskforce Facilitation
Homebase will support the development of the Homelessness Taskforce, including a Kick-Off meeting and subsequent monthly meetings. The Homelessness Taskforce will advise the strategic planning process with facilitative support from the Homebase team. It is essential for the Taskforce to consist of stakeholders with a range of perspectives and experience, which may include unhoused individuals or members of the community with lived experience of homelessness, individuals with experience providing services to the unhoused, and other stakeholders identified by the City.
Since the study session, staff has reviewed the initial proposal, reviewed the Council perspectives, and coordinated with local subject matter experts to identify a list of specific candidates for the Taskforce for Council approval.
A. Taskforce Composition
City staff recommends that the Taskforce comprise of representatives from the following stakeholders:
• Destination Home (1)
• Bill Wilson Center (1)
• Abode Services (1)
• HomeFirst (1)
• Santa Clara County Office of Supportive Housing (1)
• Community Representatives (7)
Staff recommends that Homebase appoint the Community Representatives and use best efforts to attain a representative from each of the six Santa Clara Council districts and one at-large member of the City. Homebase appointments shall reflect a diverse range of experiences, knowledge, expertise, and representation balancing between people with lived experiences, business owners, renters, and homeowners. Staff encourages Council to refer potential Community Representatives to Homebase.
The Taskforce is envisioned to comprise of 5 stakeholder members and 7 Community Representatives, for a total of 12 members.
B. Homebase Facilitation
Homebase will attend and facilitate monthly meetings via a virtual platform with logistical and subject matter support from City Staff. Staff will also help the taskforce understand capacity and resource constraints to ensure the group is moving towards feasible and achievable solutions. A Kick-Off meeting, open to the public, will be held to introduce members, to develop a shared vision and goals for the project, and to communicate clear limits on staff, resource, and consultant capacity. At that time, the Homebase team will present existing materials such as the County strategic plan and the implementation outline to bring all members up to speed on plan development. During the initial phases of this project, the Taskforce will be a forum for discussion of persistent challenges and emerging opportunities for critical investment. The Taskforce will also review and approve Homebase’s Planning Process and Stakeholder Engagement Plan to establish a guiding vision and goals for the planning process and advise on the development of the Plan.
In preparation for Homelessness Taskforce meetings, the Homebase team will develop all agendas, announcements, and meeting materials and will coordinate with City staff to ensure they are posted on the City website for the public. The meeting schedule will be determined by Homebase. Meeting preparation may require research on topics of interest to the Taskforce as they develop strategies and policy solutions, information on established and emerging best practices, and successful strategies employed by other communities. Homebase will serve as a neutral facilitator, providing information and support as needed while enabling robust discussion among stakeholders on the Taskforce.
Phase II: Community Education and Engagement
Homebase will gather information and data to develop a baseline understanding of the City of Santa Clara’s strengths, needs, and gaps in relation to homelessness. Homebase will carry out an environmental scan that identifies existing housing and homelessness needs and constraints in the City as well as existing policies and programs that reduce and prevent homelessness and meet the housing needs of the future unhoused or near-unhoused. This assessment will consider both the need for new programs as well as improvements to the operation of existing housing and services. Homebase will review and analyze initiatives underway in the city, county, and region (including the implementation of the Santa Clara County Community Plan to End Homelessness) to ensure that the City’s plan is informed by and aligned with the work that has already begun. Homebase will facilitate a comprehensive community engagement process that ensures that planning and recommendation development is based on concrete information about local needs and resources.
Community Kick-Off Event and Planning Workshop
Homebase proposes to initiate community engagement with a community kick-off event and workshop. This event would be an open (most likely virtual) meeting aimed at achieving early engagement and buy-in from key stakeholders, and the session would be scheduled to ensure broad participation and attendance. The event will be organized with the goal of inviting everyone with any interest in contributing to the planning process, including City officials and staff, housing and service providers, representatives from schools, law enforcement, healthcare and other adjacent systems, business and community leaders, unhoused residents and individuals with lived experience of homelessness, and community members at-large. This event will be structured to both build community-wide support for the planning process and gather initial information to guide planning. As such, meeting participants will receive information about homelessness in the City and general information on best practices and will have the opportunity to provide early feedback about needs, gaps, and existing service system performance.
Phase III: Goals, Policies, Programs, and Quantified Objectives
Homebase will analyze the information gathered during the environmental scan and stakeholder engagement processes to develop a set of findings and recommendations that identify goals, policies, programs, and quantified objectives to include in the City Plan to End Homelessness to ensure an effective response to the housing and homelessness needs and constraints in Santa Clara. Homebase will compile a draft of these findings and recommendations and seek input from the Homelessness Taskforce on the potential mission, goals, objectives, and strategies to guide the City in addressing homelessness.
The Homebase team will work with the Homelessness Taskforce to identify how each priority area for action and related goals, objectives, and strategy recommendations align with strategies and goals outlined in the Santa Clara County Plan. Identified goals and strategies will support County and regional efforts without duplication in order to support a collective impact on homelessness.
Based on the environmental scan, input from community stakeholders, City staff, and the Homelessness Taskforce, and identified goals, policies, programs, and objectives,
the Homebase team will develop a draft strategic plan. The Plan draft will include:
• Information from the environmental scan and community engagement activities, identifying strengths, unmet needs, and opportunities;
• Priority areas for action, as defined by the Housing Taskforce and other stakeholders;
• Goals, objectives, and recommendations for each priority area of action;
• Identification of City actions that support County and regional efforts without duplication; and
• Support for implementation
A draft document will be provided to City staff and the Homelessness Taskforce at a concluding Taskforce meeting, along with a summary document outlining key elements of the Plan. This summary document will be a clear, concise outline of the Plan that can be used to share information about the draft Plan with community stakeholders. City staff will review and refine the plan before presenting it to the City Council by late 2022. Ultimately, the Draft City Plan to End Homelessness may result in additional programmatic recommendations to Council for services that may require additional funding. The City Council will consider the plan and decide how to allocate funding and staff time toward plan implementation.
ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW
This is an information report only and no action is being taken by the City Council and no environmental review under the California Environmental Quality Act (“CEQA”) is required at this time.
FISCAL IMPACT
The cost of the Agreement for Services with Homebase is $75,000. On December 14th, 2021, as part of the FY 2020/21 Year-End Budget Report (RTC 21-930), the Council appropriated $75,000 to fund the City’s Homelessness Taskforce from the General Fund. No additional budget action is required.
COORDINATION
This report has been coordinated with the City Attorney’s Office and the Finance Department.
PUBLIC CONTACT
Public contact was made by posting the Council agenda on the City’s official-notice bulletin board outside City Hall Council Chambers. A complete agenda packet is available on the City’s website and in the City Clerk’s Office at least 72 hours prior to a Regular Meeting and 24 hours prior to a Special Meeting. A hard copy of any agenda report may be requested by contacting the City Clerk’s Office at (408) 615-2220, email clerk@santaclaraca.gov <mailto:clerk@santaclaraca.gov>.
RECOMMENDATION
Recommendation
Approve the Agreement for Services with Homebase in an amount not to exceed $75,000 and Establish the Homelessness Taskforce to support the preparation of the City Plan to End Homelessness.
Staff
Reviewed by: Andrew Crabtree, Community Development Director
Approved by: Deanna J. Santana, City Manager
ATTACHMENTS
1. Homebase Facilitation Proposal
2. Agreement for Services with Homebase