Homelessness is a significant issue in Yolo County, with the most recent homeless census (conducted in January 2015) identifying 498 people experiencing homelessness in Yolo on a single night. The Board of Supervisors has expressed an ongoing interest in addressing homelessness and identified, in its 2016-2019 Strategic Plan, a priority focus area to "develop and implement strategies to reduce homelessness". Staff works to achieve the vision of the Board relating to addressing homeless through the use of three distinct strategies, including:
- Growing funding for homeless services.
- Developing a robust Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) and coordinated entry system.
- Establishing a full continuum of housing and services for the homeless that utilizes Housing First best practices.
Staff provides bi-annual updates to the Board on efforts to address homelessness in Yolo County, and the last update was completed in January 2016. Since the last update the County Homeless Team has focused on strengthening and expanding homeless services through the efforts described below. Additional information on progress made towards the Board’s vision of reducing homelessness can be found in Attachment A, the Homeless Services Team Work Plan for FY 15/16.
GROW FUNDING
Currently there is not sufficient funding for homeless services in Yolo County to adequately address the scope of the problem. A significant portion of County staff time is dedicated to pursuing new funding opportunities (and maintaining existing funding sources) to address this issue. In FY 15/16 members of the Homeless Team were the primary coordinators and/or authors of several large funding proposals relating to homeless services.
| FY 15/16 Grant Log |
| Grant |
Role |
Type |
Applied For |
Received |
| Community Services Block Grant (CSBG) |
Coordinator |
Renewal |
$316,481.23
(1-Year Period) |
$316,481.23 |
| Cooperative Agreements to Benefit Homeless Individuals (CABHI) |
Author |
New |
$2,399,328.57
(3-Year Period) |
$2,399,328.57 |
| Continuum of Care (CoC) |
Coordinator,
Author
|
Renewal |
$619,583
(1-Year Period) |
$474,575 |
| Emergency Food and Shelter Program (EFSP) |
Coordinator |
Renewal |
$111,237
(1-Year Period) |
$111,237 |
| Emergency Solutions Grant (ESG) |
Coordinator,
Author |
Renewal |
$454,396
(2-Year Period) |
TBD |
| Partnership Health Plan of California (PHC) Innovation Grant |
Author |
New |
$499,123.30
(2-Year Period) |
$499,123.30 |
| Projects for Assistance in Transition from Homelessness (PATH) |
Coordinator,
Author |
Renewal |
$32,134
(1-Year Period) |
$32,134 |
List of Funding Opportunities
This year the Homeless Team also began to develop a comprehensive list of funding opportunities for homeless projects. The list will include detailed information (such as due date, funder, eligible entities, match requirements and purpose) about any recurring funding opportunities that might be used to fund homeless services. The list is expected to be completed in early FY 16/17, and will be made publicly available on the County’s website. The list will be updated as needed to reflect changing funding opportunities.
Inventory of Homeless Spending - FY 16/17
Each year the Homeless Coordinator develops an inventory of County spending on the issue of homelessness. The inventory for FY 16/17 is provided in Attachment C. The County has seen a $1.5M increase in annual spending on homeless services since fiscal year (FY) 14/15. The County spent $3M on homeless services in FY 14/15, $4.3M in FY 15/16 and a projected $5.5M in FY 16/17.
DEVELOP A ROBUST HOMELESS MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEM AND COORDINATED ENTRY SYSTEM
In FY 15/16 the Homeless Team focused on strengthening the local HMIS, which is the first crucial step towards establishing a homeless coordinated entry system in Yolo County. HMIS is a local information technology system used to collect client-level data on people experiencing homelessness, as well as data on the provision of housing and services. The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) requires that each local community operate a HMIS software system that complies with specific data standards. For several years, Yolo has been using an HMIS system that is operated by a partner agency in Sacramento County called Sacramento Steps Forward (SSF). The existing system has numerous capacity challenges that need to be addressed in order to meet the evolving requirements from HUD.
In FY 15/16 the Homeless Team made significant progress towards improving the capacity of the system, though a lot of additional work is still required. In December 2015, the County hired a Homeless Analyst, whose primary responsibility is to work directly with local providers and SSF to expand the existing system, ensure compliance with HUD requirements, and produce quality data reports for grant and reporting purposes. Since the Analyst was hired the team has accomplished several key milestones towards a fully functioning HMIS, including:
- Establishing an MOU that outlines the responsibilities of the County and other partners with regards to HMIS
- Establishing quarterly HPAC Data Subcommittee meetings to make decisions regarding the HMIS system
- Opening the HMIS system so that client information can be shared across providers for improved case coordination
- Assisting providers with data quality issues for improved outcomes reporting
- Expanding the use of HMIS to additional homeless programs to improve consistency across providers and improve the comprehensiveness of the system-level outcomes produced by the system
ESTABLISH A CONTINUUM OF HOUSING AND SERVICES
The Homeless Team has worked with local homeless providers to develop and implement several new projects intended to improve the availability of services for the most vulnerable people experiencing homelessness in Yolo County.
Bridge to Health and Housing
In December 2015, Yolo HHSA submitted a proposal for a social innovation grant from Partnership HealthPlan of California (PHC) to improve the health and well-being of medically vulnerable people experiencing homelessness through the Bridge to Health and Housing Project (B2HH). The proposal involved a collaboration of Fourth and Hope, Sutter Davis Hospital, Yolo Community Care Continuum, Yolo County HHSA and Woodland Memorial Hospital that aims to accomplish three goals, including:
- Identifying the most medically vulnerable people experiencing homelessness in Yolo County.
- Diverting people experiencing homelessness with medical issues from the local emergency rooms into appropriate primary care settings.
- Improving the overall well-being of medically vulnerable people experiencing homelessness by targeting four social determinants of health: housing stability; physical health; behavioral health and self-sufficiency.In March 2016, Yolo HHSA was awarded $499,125 to fund the two-year project, and operations began in June 2016. The project includes three components aimed at better serving the medically vulnerable including (1) identification, assessment and triage, (2) case management, and (3) housing navigation.
Identification, Assessment and Triage: The outreach triage component of the project will utilize three full-time Outreach Workers/Case Managers to assist with identifying, assessing, and providing services to the target population.
Case Management: The case management component of the project will provide intensive services and emphasize whole person care by focusing on strengthening four target areas for each client, including (1) housing stability, (2) physical health, (3) behavioral health, and (4) self-sufficiency.
Housing Navigation: The Housing Navigation component of the project will provide assistance with permanent housing placements for clients on the case management caseload. The Navigator will consider the medical needs of each client when securing placements, such as proximity to medical care, presence of service dogs and mobility requirements.
Extended Hope
In July 2016 the County learned that the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMSHA) has awarded the Yolo County Health and Human Services Agency (HHSA) a Cooperative Agreements to Benefit Homeless Individuals (CABHI) grant in the amount of $2,399,328 ($799,776 annually over a three-year period) to provide intensive wraparound care to people experiencing homelessness with co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders (CODs) through the Extended Hope project. Extended Hope is a collaborative effort between Fourth and Hope, Yolo County HHSA and Sacramento Steps Forward (SSF).
Fourth and Hope will act as the primary service provider for the three-year project, and will work to advance client recovery through use of a two-year integrated treatment approach that involves three key components including (1) identification, assessment and triage, (2) intensive case management and treatment, and (3) housing navigation and permanent placement.
The Extended Hope project marks a significant expansion of services available to residents of Yolo County who are experiencing homelessness by creating a full intensive services team at Fourth and Hope, including 11 new full-time positions. The additional positions will include one clinical program manager, two outreach workers, two case managers, four peer support recovery specialists, one housing navigator and one employment specialist.
Extended Hope will also fund critical infrastructure development related to the local Homeless Management Information System (HMIS), which is essential in local efforts to collect effective data on the scope of homelessness in Yolo County and the outcomes of service programs. Sacramento Steps Forward is the operator of the local HMIS, and will be able to provide additional infrastructure development and backend programming through funding from the Extended Hope grant.
Homeless Neighborhood Court (H-NHC)
The homeless branch of the Neighborhood Court is a unique diversion program designed to assist homeless individuals that have committed a minor offense(s) (misdemeanor). Rather than charging a case for prosecution, the District Attorney’s Office refers certain misdemeanors to the H-NHC, where community volunteer panelists apply the principles of restorative justice to reach an appropriate solution and case plan that addresses the real impact these offenses have on the community. The goal of the case plan is to cover four essential need areas, including (1) housing, (2) physical health, (3) behavioral health, and (4) self-sufficiency. A Social Worker Practitioner and Paralegal work alongside homeless clients through a case plan for up to 6 months. The Homeless Team partnered with the DA’s Office on development of the project during the first half of the fiscal year, and the project was fully implemented in all Yolo jurisdictions beginning in January 2016.
I See You Art Engagement for People Experiencing Homelessness
Yolo Arts, Yolo HHSA, the Yolo County Library and other local homeless providers began discussions regarding the I See You Project in August 2015. Yolo Arts agreed to act as the lead on the project, and submitted a funding application to the James Irvine Foundation in October 2015. In December 2015, the partners received word that the project was funded in the amount of $68,000 over a 24-month period.
The project seeks to (1) increase the engagement of people experiencing homelessness in the arts, and (2) increase the visibility and understanding of homelessness among the general community. YoloArts hired professional artists to conduct free weekly art workshops (over a 10-week period) for people experiencing homelessness in each of Yolo’s major cities. YoloArts will hold a public exhibition following each 10-week course, and will develop an online gallery of the art work created. Services will be provided on-site during and following the workshops by HHSA and other local homeless providers. The first phase of implementation began at the Davis County Library in mid-June 2016. Phase II will be held in West Sacramento beginning in Fall 2016, and Phase III will be held in Woodland beginning in Winter 2017.
New Pathways Short-Term Supported Housing
New Pathways is a partnership of the City of Davis, County of Yolo, Davis Community Meals (DCM), Yolo Community Care Continuum (YCCC) and Yolo Housing to provide short-term housing and intensive services to the most vulnerable individuals experiencing chronic homelessness in Davis. The project aims to permanently house the most vulnerable individuals experiencing chronic homelessness in Davis, as well as to improve their physical and behavioral health, increase income, and reduce involvement with the criminal justice and emergency healthcare systems.
The partners began working to develop the project in Fall 2015, and funding for the project was approved by the City and County in December 2015. The project began operating in February 2016 and has been approved for continued funding through FY 16/17.
West Sacramento Encampment Outreach
The West Sacramento Police Department (WSPD) and Yolo HHSA have partnered on multiple occasions since Winter 2016 to conduct joint outreach to homeless encampments within the boundaries of the City of West Sacramento. WSPD identifies high priority encampments based on call volume and works with the Homeless Coordinator to schedule outreach. Officers from WSPD conduct outreach alongside several HHSA staff (including mental health professionals and public benefits specialists) with the goals of (1) assisting HHSA staff to build relationships with people experiencing homelessness who are unlikely to seek services independently, (2) connecting people experiencing homelessness to appropriate services, and (3) relocating encampments causing a high risk to public safety.
West Sacramento Multi-Disciplinary Meetings
At the request of the local providers, the Coordinator began facilitating a monthly homeless multi-disciplinary meeting of West Sacramento homeless providers in December 2015. The meeting is attended by representatives from a range of homeless providers who provide outreach, case management, crisis intervention, eligibility screening for public benefits and housing services. The meetings are used to share program updates from local providers and to coordinate the provision of services for shared cases.
Woodland Bridge to Housing 2.0
The County of Yolo and City of Woodland began discussions in FY 15/16 regarding a potential partnership that would provide two project components, including (1) identification and assessment of the unsheltered homeless population in Woodland through the addition of a half-time outreach worker at Fourth and Hope, and (2) the development of an interim housing project that utilizes a Housing First model (similar to New Pathways Supported Housing in Davis and Bridge to Housing in West Sacramento) to serve approximately 10-15 chronically homeless individuals at a time. The Yolo County Board of Supervisors and Woodland City Council each approved an allocation of approximately $100,000 in FY 16/17 to fund the project. The part-time outreach worker was hired and began providing services in June 2016, and staff from the involved agencies will be working to develop a project proposal for the housing component of the project in the beginning of FY 16/17.
NEXT STEPS
The Homeless Team’s intended next steps are outlined in its FY 16/17 Work Plan (Attachment B). Several of the highest priority activities include:
- Applying for several new funding sources to address service gaps and expand the local continuum of housing and services
- Facilitate a comprehensive community planning process to develop a local homeless coordinated entry system
- Partner with the City of Woodland to develop an interim housing project to serve chronically homeless individuals in Woodland
- Assist with updating the Yolo County 10-Year Plan to End Homelessness to more accurately reflect best practices and the current needs of the local homeless system
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