SR-062408-1F~®
~;tyof City Council Report
Santa 6lonica
City Council Meeting: June 24 2008
Agenda Item: ~-~
To: Mayor and City Council
From: Timothy J. Jackman, Chief of Police
Subject: Joint Homeless Outreach Service Provider
Recommended Action
Staff recommends-that the City Council authorize the City Manager to negotiate and
execute a contract with The West Coast. Care Foundation, Inc., in an amount not to
exceed $250,000, to provide outreach services to homeless persons in conjunction with
the Police Department.
Executive Summary
The Santa Monica Police Department has established a joint outreach program in which
the Police Department works in conjunction with The West Coast Care Foundation to
administer direct intervention and outreach services to homeless persons in order to
help them into housing, shelter facilities, medical facilities, return them to their families
or other care givers, and to help them rebuild their lives. Immediate intervention efforts
have been focused on new arrivals and those people that have been homeless in Santa
Monica for relatively shorter periods of time to provide alternatives before they take up
permanent residency on the streets of Santa Monica. This intervention includes, but not
limited to, working with. the person's previous service providers and other resources
outside the city of Santa Monica.. Long term outreach efforts to Santa Monica's most
long-term, vulnerable homeless will focus on linking them to other established providers
within the City's continuum of care. Funds for this contract are available in the current
adopted budget.
Discussion
The Santa Monica Police Department (SMPD) participates in cooperative efforts with
other City departments, government agencies, private service providers, and
community-based groups to address homelessness and community concerns regarding
homelessness in Santa Monica. The Department, through its Homeless Liaison
Program (HLP), contributes to this collaborative process by conducting appropriate law
enforcement actions, while at the same time connecting homeless individuals with local
service providers that offer homeless clients with a variety of housing, rehabilitation,
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medical, psychiatric, and employment resources. While this collaborative model has
produced many successes through the years, overall effectiveness has been limited by
the fact that the HLP Team has been the City's primary source of contact with homeless
people on the street, requiring the team to perform both enforcement and. outreach
functions. This changed when the West Coast Care Foundation began operating in
Santa Monica.
The West Coast Care Foundation arrived in Santa Monica in 2006 with experience that
demonstrated that social service providers could successfully break through the
resistance to change associated with chronic homelessness by bringing consistent and
continual outreach directly to the streets where homeless people were living. West
Coast Care's philosophy is that intervention which delivers objective, honest, and
compassionate feedback to help homeless persons better .understand their situation,
could eventually overcome the self-defeating mindset that develops while living on the
streets without resources, hope, or strategies for success.
West Coast Care applied for funding from the Community Development Funding;
however, being recently transplanted to this area they had not established themselves
adequately in order to qualify for city funding. Using its own private funding sources,
West Coast Care began applying this philosophy in October 2006, initially concentrating
its services on homeless persons living on Santa Monica's South Beach and later
expanding its area of operation to Main Street, Palisades Park, Reed Park, and the
Third Street Promenade. West Coast Care's service providers conducted hundreds of
face=to-face interventions with Santa Monica's homeless each. day, ultimately attractirig
the attention of the HLP Team. The HLP Team began delegating outreach needs to
West Coast Care; allowing the HLP- Team to concentrate on necessary enforcement
activities.. Increased enforcement led to an associated increase in outreach, and a
symbiotic relationship developed between the HLP Team and West Coast Care in which
each was able to augment each other's missions.
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From October 2006 until the first quarter of 2008, West Coast Care made thousands of
contacts with people living on the streets of Santa Monica. Some of these people were
the chronically homeless who were resistant to service and change. West Coast Care
convinced some to accept services and housing and others to return to their families
and prior homes. Many were recent arrivals that had opted to remain homeless in
Santa Monica. West Coast Care worked with these people to convince them that there
were better options than living on the street and to help them rebuild their lives. In
many cases, West Coast Care outreach workers convinced homeless people that their
best resources were their own families. During the year and a half that West Coast
Care operated under its own funding, roughly 250 chronic and newly arrived homeless
people were permanently reunited with. their families in different parts of the country
using their own funds and the cities "Project Homecoming Program". This fits into our
current action plan by ensuring that other "communities" deal with their fair share of
homeless and the individual who decides to come to Santa Monica for any reason do
riot begin the process of "anchoring" themselves in our community.
When West Coast Care ran out of funding in early 2008, the efficacy of consistent
outreach oh the street had already been well established with the Santa Monica Police
Department. In order to continue providing this service, the Department seht out a
Request for Quote to local homeless service providers. West Coast Care was the only
service provider that responded. On March 17, 2008, West Coast Care entered into a
professional services agreement with the City, in an amount not to exceed $70,000, and
began providing service on March 18, 2008.
West Coast Care only provides "outreach" services and utilizes the cities "Project
Homecoming Program" to assist the homeless return home. This differs from other
providers in such that West Coast Care does not provide. long term counseling, shelter
-beds, assist with financial aid and all of the other services that are performed and keep
a homeless person in Sarita Monica.
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In the first seven weeks of its contract with the City, West Coast Care made
approximately 1500 contacts with homeless people on the streets of Santa Monica, in
the Santa Monica Jail, and at the .request of other city-funded homeless service
providers in the Santa Monica Continuum of Care. During this same period, West
Coast Care helped 48 homeless people find alternatives to living on Santa Monica
streets. Thirty four were returned to family and friends in various parts of the United
States and Canada, seven were placed into long term rehabilitation or treatment-
programs, and one requested to be transported o jail in Orange County in order to
straighten out his affairs so that he could rebuild his life.
Contractor/Cohsultant Selection
In March 2008, a Request for Proposals seeking qualified applicants to provide
collaborative outreach, in conjunction with the Police Department, to the homeless
population in the City of Santa Monica was issued. Eleven .Request for Proposals were
sent out and one proposal was submitted by The West Coast Care Foundation.
The West Coast Care Foundation is currently providing the services for the City.
Financial Impacts & Budget Actions
The contract amount to be awarded to The West Coast Care Foundation is $250,000.
Funds are included in the FY2008-09 budget at account number 01306.555010.
Prepared by:
Neela Patel; Senior Administrative Analyst -Police Budget
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Approved: Forwarded to Council
Reference Contract No.
8938 (CCS).