SR-301-004 (30)~' ~r . .
City Counc~l Report
~ City of
Santa Monica
City Council Meeting: November 28, 2006
Agenda Item: ~
To: Mayor and City Council
From: Barbara Stinchfield, Director of Community and Cultural Services
Subject: Amendment to Contract with The Urban Institute for a Program and
System Evaluation of Santa Monica's Homeless Continuum of Care
Recommended Action
Staff recommends that the City Council authorize an Amendment to contract 8582
(CCS) with The Urban Institute for a program and system evaluation of Santa Monica's
homeless continuum of care, increasing the contract from an amount not to exceed
$126,000 to an amount not to exceed $136,000.
Executive Summary
The Urban Institute has been authorized to conduct a system-wide evaluation of Santa
Monica's homeless continuum of care to produce a description of the current homeless
service delivery system and recommendations for a refined vision of service delivery
and action steps over the next five years. Staff is requesting authorization to amend
contract 8582 (CCS) with The Urban Institute to an amount not to exceed $136,000 to
provide for additional direct project costs incurred by the evaluators. The added
$10,000 will be used for additional quantitative data analysis and travel expenses
related to on-site presentations of findings to be conducted with City Council, City staff,
service providers, and community residents.
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Discussion
Backqround
The Community Priority addressing the impacts of homelessness on the community
adopted by City Council in the FY2005-06 and FY2006-07 Budgets includes a system-
wide evaluation of Santa Monica's continuum of care as an element of the related work
plan. On April 25, 2006, the City Council awarded contract 8582 (CCS) to The Urban
Institute to conduct a program and system evaluation of Santa Monica's homeless
continuum of care. This is the first time the City's homeless delivery system is being
independently and comprehensively evaluated since its inception in the 1980s.
The outcome of the evaluation has been articulated as:
1) Refining the strategy for homeless service provision and the effective
management of resources;
2) Results-oriented recommendations against which the effectiveness of the
programs and the system can be measured;
3) Recommendations for specific action steps to be carried out within the next five
years; and
4) Recommendations for increasing and/or reallocating resources to carry out the
action steps.
The evaluation timeline has been set at nine months so sufficient progress will be made
in time to inform grant funding decisions for the 2007-2010 Community Development
Program. To date, the principle evaluators have conducted approximately 50 interviews
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and focus groups with stakeholders including community leaders, City staff, homeless
service providers and homeless and formerly homeless persons. Quantitative data has
been extracted from the City's homeless management information system, ClientTrack,
and gathered from local homeless service agencies who receive City funding. This
information is being compiled and analyzed to produce a description of the current
homeless service delivery system and recommendations for a refined vision of service
delivery in Santa Monica and action steps over the next five years.
Staff is requesting authorization to amend contract 8582 with The Urban Institute. The
requested amendment will add $10,000 to the project to cover the direct cost of
additional data analysis to determine the validity and the completeness of the data in
ClientTrack and one additional trip from Washington D.C. to Santa Monica, for a total of
three trips during December 2006 and January 2007 to make presentations to City
Council, City staff, service providers and the community.
Budqet/Financial Impact
The funds for the contract amendment of $10,000 for The Urban Institute (Contract
#8582) are available in account 012627PY.555060.
Prepared by: Danielle Noble, Sr. Administrative Analyst - Homeless Services
Approved: Forwar !'e to C ncil:
~ G~C-~c~-
Barbara Stinchfield P. mont Ewell
Director, Community & Cultural Services Ci Manager
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