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CC:HA - Approval of the Updated Plan to Prevent and Combat Homelessness
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Meeting Date: July 9, 2018
Contact Person/Dept: Tevis Barnes/ CDD Housing
Phone Number: (310) 253-5782
Fiscal Impact: Yes [X] No [] General Fund: Yes [] No [X]
Public Hearing: [] Action Item: [X] Attachments: [X]
Commission Action Required: Yes [] No [] Date:
Public Notification: (E-Mail) Meetings and Agendas - City Council (07/03/18); Committee on Homelessness (6/26/2018); Upward Bound House (6/26/18); St. Joseph Center (6/26/18); County of Los Angeles Julian Dixon Library (6/27/18); and Culver City Chamber of Commerce (6/22/18)
Department Approval: Sol Blumenfeld, Community Development Director (06/29/18)
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RECOMMENDATION:
Staff recommends the City Council and Culver City Housing Authority (Authority) Board approve the updated Plan to Prevent and Combat Homelessness.
BACKGROUND:
On February 9, 2016, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors approved a comprehensive plan to combat homelessness which included the 47 strategies divided into 6 focus area which include: 1) Prevent Homelessness, 2) Subsidize Housing, 3) Increase Income, 4) Provide Case Management and Services, 5) Create a Coordinated System, 6) Increase Affordable/Homeless Housing.
In support of the Los Angeles County Homeless Initiative, the City Council adopted Resolution No. 2016-R113 on November 28, 2017. In accordance with this Resolution, Culver City partnered with Los Angeles County to combat homelessness. At its regular meeting of February 13, 2017, the City Council also took a position in support of Measure H, the Los Angeles County quarter cent sales tax increase to fund homeless services and prevention.
On July 28, 2017, the Home for Good Funders Collaborative released a Request for Proposals (RFP) in partnership with the Los Angeles County Homeless Initiative making available up to $70,000 in one-time funding to support local communities in developing and/or updating local homeless plans that will serve as a local community’s road map in preventing and combating homelessness locally and regionally.
The Authority Board, at its regular meeting on September 11, 2017, approved the submission of a grant application in the amount of $50,000 for the County of Los Angeles Homeless Planning Grant. On October 23, 2017, after an extensive review process conducted in collaboration between the Home for Good Funders Collaborative and Los Angeles County Homeless Initiative, the Authority was selected for a homeless planning grant award of $50,000. The Authority Board approved entering into a contract with the County of Los Angeles on March 13, 2018.
DISCUSSION:
The purpose of the Homeless Planning Grant is to support the Authority in engaging a diverse group of internal city departments and external community partners to update and enhance our current homelessness strategies. The current Short-term and Long-term Strategies to Address Homelessness were adopted over 12 years ago in 2004 and must be revised to assure they reflect the City’s responsibilities in addressing homeless residents’ needs.
LeSar Development Consultants
Letters of Solicitation were transmitted to various entities with a strong understanding of the Culver City community specializing in community organizing and building on March 22, 2018. A total of three consulting firms responded. From the results of an interview conducted on April 23, 2018 with Housing staff and the Committee on Homelessness (COH) Homeless Initiative Subcommittee, and the positive feedback from professional references provided, LeSar Development Consultants (LDC) was selected to enter into a professional services agreement with the Authority for the update of the City’s homeless strategies.
Founded in 2005 by Jennifer LeSar, LDC is a social innovation firm that provides clients with creative solutions to foster the growth of healthy, thriving, and vibrant communities. LeSar Development Consultants specialize in working with diverse stakeholders to address complex public policy issues, such as housing affordability and homelessness, workforce and economic development, transportation, and community development.
LDC’s experience working with government partners to address homelessness, specifically with developing homeless plans, spans nearly a decade. In 2009, LDC worked with the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) to create a 10-year plan for the City of Los Angeles, and in 2010 created a five-year plan to end homelessness in Downtown San Diego. Since then, LDC has been involved in various aspects of planning to address homelessness, including the development of a regional Coordinated Entry System Plan and System Performance Monitoring Plan for the San Diego Continuum of Care (CoC).
In addition, LDC is also currently working with the San Gabriel Valley Council of Governments (SGVCOG) in assisting 17 cities throughout the sub-region in creating individualized homeless plans for each jurisdiction. -
Homelessness Plan Process
To develop of the updated Plan to Prevent and Combat Homelessness (Plan), LDC working with Housing staff and the COH Homeless Initiative Subcommittee employed a four-phase process which is detailed below.
Phase 1 - Initial Research, Kick-off and Planning
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• Conduct background research on Culver City and its past and current efforts to address homelessness, including a basic needs assessment, gaps analysis, and asset map. Review all data include Point-In-Time Counts, housing market data, and any past reports/public documents. |
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• Kick off call with City team (including the COH Homeless Initiative Subcommittee) to discuss current status of homelessness, City-specific objectives and preliminary goals for the plan, and key steps in the planning process, including the process of gathering stakeholder feedback. Define and determine key points of contact with the City for ongoing communication, and get tentative meeting schedule dates calendared. |
Phase 2 - Stakeholder Outreach, Input and Summarization of Key Themes
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• With City team, create agenda for stakeholder outreach meetings. |
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• With City team, draft outreach meeting questions and interview questions. |
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• Facilitate three stakeholder outreach meetings including one targeted to currently homeless households. |
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• Conduct five one-on-one interviews with key stakeholders identified by the City. |
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• Summarize input gathered through stakeholder outreach meetings and interviews into themes and create document. |
Phase 3 - Draft Updated Strategies, Review Process and Submission of Final Plan
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• Facilitate half-day Plan visioning session with City team to identify specific components of plan including goals, actions, policy changes, metrics, ownership, and connections to County Homeless Initiative |
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• Draft Plan Update using approved Homelessness Plan template. The upated Plan will include: 1. City-specific objectives and goals. 2. Findings from the needs assessment, gaps analysis, and asset mapping. 3. Key strategies and an implementation plan, including City employees or other stakeholders leading plan implementation. 4. Description of collaborative structures and partnerships, including linkages to LA County homelessness initiatives and Coordinated Entry System. 5. Federal, State and local funding opportunities. 6. Summary of the City’s interest in the development of shelters, shared housing, and affordable or permanent. |
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• Submit draft Plan Udate for review. The review will include the City and other stakeholders identified by city. • Incorporate all input from two rounds of review and complete final Plan. Submit |
Phase 4 - Presentation to Key Stakeholders
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• Conduct/facilitate two community meetings to present the Plan to educate community members and allow for questions/answers |
Community Engagement
Culver City’s homelessness Plan is built on the City’s existing efforts to prevent and combat homelessness, its long-term goals to continue addressing the needs of its homeless and unstably housed residents, a review of existing resources and opportunities, and input from a variety of stakeholders. This is a three-year plan that serves as a roadmap to establish the City’s approach to addressing homelessness over the long-term.
An essential component of the process to create the Plan was community engagement. Stakeholders were asked to provide feedback on the challenges of homelessness within the City as well as to provide input regarding possible strategies, many of which were integrated into the plan’s goals and actions. Community engagement meetings were held on the evening of June 7th at City Hall and on Saturday, June 16th at the Culver City Senior Center. A combined total of 60 persons attended these meetings. More focused group meetings were held with the COH, which included staff representatives from the Culver City Police and Fire Departments, St. Joseph Center and Upward Bound House, Culver City Chamber of Commerce, the Los Angeles County Julian Dixon Library and the Park, Recreation and Community Services Department and Code Enforcement Division during the month of June. Summaries of challenges as well as strategies from each input session are detailed in Appendixes A and B of the Plan.
The Plan was also presented to the Council Ad Hoc Housing and Homelessness Subcommittee on June 27, 2018. The Plan was well received and supported overall, with concerns expressed surrounding prioritization of the goals and how effectively the goals can be achieved.
Goals and Supporting Actions
The following seven goals were identified and prioritized through the planning process.
Goal 1: Increase bridge housing options and the number of people served.
Goal 2: Expand homelessness prevention programming.
Goal 3: Increase access to affordable and supportive housing across the city.
Goal 4: Enhance data tracking and homeless outreach activities among City staff and
service providers.
Goal 5: Expand community education efforts around homelessness and raise
awareness about available resources and best practices.
Goal 6: Create local programs to increase workforce training and job opportunities.
Goal 7: Enhance local and regional coordination.
Detailed in the Plan are each goal and supporting actions to achieve it. Each action includes applicable policy changes, measurement of progress, and ownership of the goal/action, leveraged City resources, and timeline. The COH working in concert with Housing Division staff is responsible for overseeing the goals and actions described in the Plan and reporting on progress, as well as modifying or adding new goals and actions over time given opportunities and available resources. At a minimum, the Plan will be reviewed on an annual basis, and Housing staff and the COH will report Plan progress to the City Council.
FISCAL IMPACT:
On March 12, 2018 Council discussed Affordable Housing Programs and Incentives. These programs and incentives focused on the following areas of concentration:
1. Land Use Planning/Policies and Zoning
2. Housing Types
3. Taxation and Financial Incentives
4. Neighborhood Revitalization and Housing Preservation
5. Homeless Prevention
6. On-Going Programs
The budget included approximately $23 million in funding over the next 6 fiscal years to create 79 units of affordable housing and serve over 3000 persons. The budget chart below is taken from the Affordable Housing Program and Incentives presented to Council on March 12th, 2018 and outlines programming and funding in the amount of $4.3 million that will assist in preventing and combating homelessness. There vast majority of funding to support the Plan will come from the federal Section 8 Rental Assistance Program and the Low and Moderate Income Housing Asset Fund. In addition, staff will explore additional County and State funding to support the implementation of the Plan.
Annual Funding and Activities Related to Preventing and Combating Homelessness
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Entity |
Activity |
Resource |
FY 17/18 Funding |
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Culver City Housing Authority |
Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher program |
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) |
$1,400,000 |
|
Culver City Housing Authority |
Rental Assistance Program for elderly and disabled households |
General Fund |
$202,644 |
|
Culver City Housing Authority |
Utility/rent catch-up grants for tenants and landlord incentives, including signing bonus, security deposits, and up to one month rent for vacancy loss and damages |
Low- and Moderate-Income Housing Asset Fund |
$35,000 |
|
Culver City Housing Authority |
Rapid rehousing program with County of Los Angeles; city provides up to $1,000 per month to assist households with rent for up to 18 months |
Low- and Moderate-Income Housing Asset Fund |
$30,000 |
|
St. Joseph Center |
Homeless outreach, rapid rehousing, case management for individuals and families; motel vouchers |
Low- and Moderate-Income Housing Asset Fund |
$123,441 |
|
Upward Bound House |
Emergency shelter, case management and rapid rehousing for families |
Low- and Moderate-Income Housing Asset Fund |
$130,000 |
|
Neighborhood Preservation Program |
Provides rehabilitation reimbursement grants for owners leasing to HCV tenants for 24 months, as well as to low- and moderate-income residents with deferred maintenance work on their homes |
Low- and Moderate-Income Housing Asset Fund |
$60,000 |
|
Mixed Use Affordable Housing Program |
Provides financial assistance for the development of affordable units under the Mixed Use Affordable Program |
Low- and Moderate-Income Housing Asset Fund |
$2,000,000 |
|
Affordable Housing Studies |
Conduct studies of various sites throughout the City for potential use for affordable housing opportunities such as Safe Parking Program, Weather Activated Regional Emergency Shelter, Motel Conversion, Storage Containers |
Low- and Moderate-Income Housing Asset Fund |
$350,000 |
|
Total |
$4,331,085 |
ATTACHMENTS:
1. Updated Plan to Prevent and Combat Homelessness
2. 2004 Short and Long Term Strategies to Address Homelessness
MOTION:
That the City Council and Authority Board:
Approve the updated Plan to Prevent and Combat Homelessness.