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 provided staff with specific direction regarding how to expend time and resources on the issue during the Board of Supervisors Homeless Policy Workshop in October 2014.
Specifically, the Board directed staff to focus resources on supporting a Housing First best practices approach to addressing homelessness in Yolo County, including:
- Ensuring the existence of a full continuum of services that utilize Housing First principles (including Prevention & Diversion; Rapid Re-Housing; Emergency Shelter; Transitional Housing; Permanent Supportive Housing; and Supportive Services)
- Aligning County resources to maximize the use of best practices (by funding programs that utilize best practices and using resources to fill gaps in the continuum of services)
- Providing support in community-wide efforts to move towards the Housing First best practices model (including providing analysis on problem areas and potential solutions, assisting with capacity building for partner agencies, and pursuing homeless funding opportunities for both the County and partner agencies)
Homeless Services Unit and Homeless Program Coordinator
In order to ensure that the vision of the Board is implemented in a seamless and efficient manner the Health and Human Services Agency is forming a Homeless Services Unit, which will be placed in the Adult and Aging Branch under the Intensive Recovery Services Division. A draft organizational chart that shows the intended relationships between the County Homeless Unit and the larger Yolo homeless system is provided in Attachment A. The Unit will be composed of four FTE, including:
- (1) Homeless Program Coordinator: Responsible for supervision over the Homeless Services Unit and advancing the Board’s vision regarding homeless services in Yolo County
- (1) Mental Health Specialist: Responsible for outreach and case management with people experiencing homelessness
- (1) Social Work Practitioner: Responsible for providing case management to participants in the new Homeless Diversion Program (also known as the Homeless Neighborhood Court)
- (1) West Sacramento Homeless Program Manager: Responsible for outreach and program management in the community of West Sacramento. This position is a City employee, but will receive supervision and support from the County Homeless Services Unit through an MOU with the City of West Sacramento
Countywide Homeless Activities
In addition to the creation of a County Homeless Services Unit, there are several important efforts underway throughout Yolo County that will help to advance the Board’s vision regarding homelessness.
1. Ensuring the existence of a full continuum of services that utilize Housing First principles.
Bridge to Housing
The temporary housing component of the Bridge to Housing Pilot Project ended on February 28, 2015, but the program participants continue to receive case management and housing support. A detailed outcomes summary is provided in Attachment B, but a few of the highlights are listed below:
- 47 of the 53 participants that completed the program are still engaged in services with their case manager, despite the fact that some of them are currently living on the streets again. This is an 89% retention rate.
- 53% of the program graduates (28 people) have secured permanent housing, and an additional 17% of participants have identified housing and are waiting to move in.
- Yolo County Housing extended voucher deadlines for the majority of our un-housed participants through the end of August, which means that those who have not yet identified housing still have 2 months to find something.
2. Aligning County resources to reflect best practices.
Graduate Student Report on Homeless Performance Measures
Staff has identified that the first step towards better aligning the use of County resources with Housing First best practices is to more accurately capture the performance of County homeless contracts and internal programs, particularly with regards to housing outcomes (such as the “number of clients exiting to permanent housing” and the “cost per exit to permanent housing”). If common outcomes were collected on all County homeless programs (internal and external), it would be easier to aggregate overall outcomes from County homeless spending, and ensure that quality programs are being offered to people experiencing homelessness.
A group of graduate students from the Sacramento State Masters in Public Policy and Administration (MPPA) program was asked to review the outcomes measures in our existing homeless contracts, and found that the contracts vary greatly in the type and quality of performance measures used. The student report recommended that the County take three actions to address performance measurement among its homeless contracts, including (1) establishing the electronic systems necessary to efficiently and effectively track performance, (2) requiring common housing performance measures across contracts, and (3) engaging and providing technical assistance to contract providers as changes occur.
In order to implement these recommendations a cross-departmental team will be formed to develop a plan and timeline for implementation.
3. Providing support in community-wide efforts to move towards best practices.
HPAC Coordinated Entry Working Group
The Homeless and Poverty Action Coalition (HPAC) has formed a working group to begin planning for implementation of a coordinated entry process for people in need of homeless services. Coordinated entry is critical component to any community wide homeless system, which ensures that assistance and resources are allocated as efficiently as possible. In a coordinated entry system, each system entry point for homeless services (or “front door”) uses the same assessment tool to understand the unique needs and circumstance of the person being served, and then makes decisions on which programs the person should be referred to based on a comprehensive understanding of each program’s specific requirements, target population and available beds.
The working group intends to develop a robust coordinated entry process over the upcoming year, with the County’s new Homeless Program Coordinator taking the lead on that effort. However, in order to meet grant funding requirements from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in the current homeless assistance funding round the group is also working to develop a less robust interim system, which will be used until the more comprehensive version is fully developed. The working group has already developed a simple universal assessment form, which it intends to begin using and vetting for issues over the next few months.
The most significant challenge to developing a robust coordinated entry system in Yolo is that the system will require an electronic database with the capability to collect information regarding persons experiencing homelessness in Yolo County, rank each household based on vulnerability, and offer shared access to the information for all homeless providers. The existing homeless database (the Homeless Management Information System (HMIS)) does not currently have the capability to meet this need.
Davis Homeless Summit
On June 17th the County and City of Davis jointly hosted a “Davis Homeless Summit” to initiate a collaborative conversation on homelessness in the Davis community. The Summit brought together local stakeholders from the City, County, non-profits, faith groups, law enforcement and the business community to discuss how a collaborative effort might support existing work on homelessness and better address gaps in service. The Summit was well attended by all stakeholder groups, and identified several priorities (including (1) increasing the availability of affordable housing and supportive services and (2) increasing awareness of existing services and referral options) as areas for future collaborations on addressing homelessness. The County and City are jointly working on forming two workgroups to begin developing plans for addressing these issues, including a housing group and an information/referrals group.
MPPA Thesis: Improving Continuum of Care Grant Application Scores
A graduate student in the Masters of Public Policy and Administration program at Sac State was recruited by staff to write a thesis regarding how Yolo County can improve scores on its Continuum of Care (CoC) grant applications. The CoC program is a competitive grant program offered by HUD to fund local homeless services. For the past two scoring rounds (in FYs 2012 and 2013) the Yolo County Homeless and Poverty Action Coalition has obtained scores below the national average, which puts the community at risk of losing funding for homeless programs. The thesis recommends eight actions that HPAC can take to improve its CoC scores, as described below. See Attachment C for a full summary of the thesis.
- Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) and Coordinated Entry System
- Fully implement the Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) and coordinated entry system
- Planning and Procedures
- Establish more detailed plans and procedures for addressing homelessness
- Develop plans to increase performance on HUD performance measures
- Apply for CoC planning funding
- Permanent Housing
- Identify alternative sources of funding to increase permanent housing
- Identify alternative funding for supportive services in existing CoC funded projects
- Determine if transitional housing projects should be replaced with permanent supportive housing or rapid re-housing projects
- CoC Application Detail
- Provide detailed descriptions in all application responses
HPAC has formed a working group to consider the recommendations in the thesis, and has already begun to address some of the shorter term recommendations for the current CoC funding round. Staff intends to continue working with HPAC on developing plans to address the larger and more long-term recommendations. |