SR-301-004 (25)~~ . .
City Council Report
~ City of
Santa Monica~
City Council Meeting: April 25, 2006
Agenda Item: ~C
To: Mayor and City Council
From: Barbara Stinchfield, Director, Community and Cultural Services
Subject: Agreement with Community Partners for the Expansion of the Chronic
Homeless Program
Recommended Action
It is recommended that City Council authorize the City Manager to negotiate and
execute a professional services agreement with Community Partners in the amount of
$189,000 for the expansion of the City's Chronic Homeless Program.
Executive Summary
The Community Priority to address homelessness adopted by the City Council in the FY
2005-06 Budget includes expanding the Chronic Homeless Program (CHP) as a priority.
To that end, Council approved an on-going budget enhancement of $256,554 to
implement the expansion in this year's Budget. City staff is recommending a
partnership with Community Partners to facilitate immediate program implementation.
Community Partners was selected because of their past positive relationships with the
City of Santa Monica and with the Westside Shelter and Hunger Coalition, to which all
CHP partner agencies are members. Over the next year, Community Partners will form
and support a new case management team and administer the operating budget for the
team through funds provided by the City of Santa Monica. The team will be advised by
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the City's existing collaborative of homeless service agencies currently participating in
the Chronic Homeless Program. The ultimate goal is to transfer responsibility for the
case management team to the local partner agencies.
Discussion
Backqround
The FY05-06 Community Priority to address homelessness includes expanding the
Chronic Homeless Program (CHP) to serve additional chronically homeless individuals
who have been in the community for a number of years. The City Council approved a
budget enhancement for this fiscal year of $178,560 in Federal HOME funds for rental
subsidies and $256,554 in General Funds for case management and other services.
The City atso applied for, and received, a grant from the U.S. Department of Housing
and Urban Development in the amount of $948,000 to provide additional rental subsidy
dollars for 30 chronically homeless persons - provided that each individual is housed
within 6months of program entry and that all 30 individuals are in housing within the 24-
month term of the initial grant.
The current inter-agency CHP collaborative - including OPCC, St. Joseph Center,
CLARE Foundation, New Directions, Step Up on Second, the Los Angeles County
Department of Mental Health and City divisions including Police, Fire, Human Services
and the Housing Authority - has already demonstrated the potential of efforts which
provide intensive case management to chronically homeless persons. Through the
agencies' efforts, participation in the CHP has tripled in the tast year, and the number
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placed in permanent housing has doubled (17 chronically homeless persons have been
placed, and remain, in permanent housing since July, 2004). The collaborative partners
achieved this success without additional resources, but through providing existing staff
from their agencies to support the project.
As the program continues to expand, however, an interdisciplinary team of individuals
fully dedicated to the program is necessary to provide the intensive case management
necessary to reach people with more complex barriers to service, move them more
rapidly into housing, and keep them housed. The proposed interdisciplinary tearr~ will
be hired by Community Partners and will be comprised of a Mental Health Specialist
(also the team leader), a Housing Placement Specialist and a Life Skills/Substance
Abuse Specialist. It is expected that some clients will challenge the team by resisting
change which is frightening and difficult for them. In such cases it will be incumbent on
the team to regroup and present other service options that the client will be more willing
to accept - no one will be released from the CHP because they're "too difficult" or "don't
make progress". The interdisciplinary team will bring services to the clients whenever
possible; and if needed, will physically escort clients to services that can only be
provided at a fixed location. This is key for clients who require services across a range
of systems: healthcare, mental health, public entitlements, etc.
In addition to being able to serve those with more complex barriers to service, a goal of
the interdisciplinary team will be to house CHP participations more rapidly. To date, the
CHP has been very successful in housing chronically homeless persons, but the
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average length of time between program entry and permanent housing is 7 months.
While impressive, 7 months is longer than the 6 month stabilization period allowed by
the HUD grant. In order to be able to move people into housing more rapidly, fully
dedicated interdisciplinary staff is needed to provide intensive, on-going, post-
placement services - a key component to a successful Housing First model. Currently,
the only Housing First model in operation in Santa Monica is the Safe Haven operated
by OPCC. The OPCC Safe Haven, which will be expanded upon the completion of the
Cloverfield site in Summer 2006, has staff on-site to provide intensive post-placement
services. CHP participants that are placed in other, scatter-site units throughout the
community, will need to receive their post-placement services from the interdisciplinary
team.
The interdisciplinary team will also be available to provide support to the existing CHP
case managers. This is particularly true for the Housing Placement Specialist, whose
role will be to coordinate housing options and work on preventing and proactively
resolving tenant-landlord issues for many CHP participants.
Alternatives
Staff began exploring ways to implement an interdisciplinary team of fully dedicated
case managers and discussed possible options with the current CHP partner agencies.
These included:
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• Placing the team with one of the partner agencies - This approach could create
an imbalance within the current collaborative structure, undermining what has
been a key element in the project's success.
• Placing one team member at each of three agencies - The complexity of working
out the details of such a collaborative management structure would delay
immediate program implementation and short-term outcomes for the project.
Immediate implementation and short-term outcomes are especially important
given the 24-month term of the HHAA grant. Also, the agencies themselves
would take on certain employee liabilities that were deemed problematic.
• Placing the team under the leadership of another entity familiar with the City and
homeless agency partners in the collaborative - The proposed partnership with
Community Partners will establish a workable interim management structure
which will facilitate immediate program implementation, while giving the existing
inter-agency CHP collaborative time to work out a management structure to
insure long-term program efficiency and viability. The ultimate goal is to return
responsibility for staffing and operating the case management team to the local
partner agencies. Community Partners is a familiar entity in that it also performs
the administrative functions on behalf of the Westside Shelter and Hunger
Coalition, to which the collaboration partners belong.
Community Partners will employ the new case management team members and will
administer the operating budget for the team through funds provided by the City of
Santa Monica. The existing Executive Committee of the CHP, comprised of the
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Executive Directors of partnering agencies and City staff, will serve as the advisory
group to Community Partners. The team's work will be coordinated with the existing
project by a Licensed Clinical Social Worker who currently coordinates case
management within the CHP.
Consultant Backqround
Community Partners is a non-profit organization that provides regulatory and legal
compliance, as well as financial and administrative support to incubate non-profit
programs and strategic community initiatives. They have partnered with the City on
several projects with positive results. Community Partners served as the past
administrative agent for the Pico Youth and Family Center through the Human Services
Division. They have been contracted by the Environmental Programs Division as the
administrative agent for the Sustainable Works program for the past three years.
Community Partners is also the current administrative agent for the Westside Shelter
and Hunger Coalition. Community Partners charges a 9% administrative fee for their
services.
Budget/Financial Impact:
The contract amount to be awarded to Community Partners is $189,000 for one year.
The budget includes approximately $113,960 in personnel costs, including the salary
and benefits for a full-time mental health technician; a full-time life skills/substance
abuse case manager; and a full-time housing placement specialist. Approximately
$58,087 in operations costs includes: lease of a van, gas and maintenance; office
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space; insurance; utilities; cell phone, fax and internet; office supplies; and $17,600 in
one-time equipment purchase and set-up. The project administration fee charged by
Community Partners (9%) is $16,953.
Funds are included in the FY2005/06 budget in the following accounts:
012627.561400 $167,328
012627.561502 21 672
$189,000
Prepared by:
Stacy Rowe - Human Services Administrator
Approved:
Forwarded to Council:
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Barbara Stinchfield, Director, P. m t Ewell ~
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Community and Cultural Services Ci anager
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