REPORT/RECOMMENDATION TO THE BOARD OF SUPERVISORS
OF THE COUNTY OF SAN BERNARDINO
AND RECORD OF ACTION
November 17, 2020
FROM
lEONARD x. hERNANDEZ, Chief Executive Officer, County Administrative Office
SUBJECT
Title
San Bernardino County Homeless Strategic Plan
End
RECOMMENDATION(S)
Recommendation
Direct staff to develop an annually updated San Bernardino County Homeless Strategic Plan for approval by the Board of Supervisors in conjunction with the annual Homeless Point-In-Time Count Report.
(Presenter: CaSonya Thomas, Assistant Executive Officer, 387-4717)
Body
COUNTY AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER GOALS & OBJECTIVES
Promote the Countywide Vision.
Provide for the Safety, Health and Social Service Needs of County Residents.
Pursue County Goals and Objectives by Working with Other Agencies.
FINANCIAL IMPACT
This item does not impact Discretionary General Funding (Net County Cost). Adequate appropriation and revenue have been included in the Office of Homeless Services (OHS) 2020-21 budget for the development of an annual Homeless Strategic Plan for the County plan and will be included in future recommended budgets.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Homelessness continues to be an issue for many communities around the country. On October 20, 2020, the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH) released a new strategic plan to deal with the crisis. The USICH plan calls for addressing the root causes of homelessness and prioritizing trauma-informed care from a national perspective focusing on the importance of promoting self-sufficiency. USICH Chair and Assistant Secretary for the U.S. Department of Labor noted as part of the report the number of individuals experiencing homelessness has risen in spite of increased federal funding over the past five years.
San Bernardino County also experienced similar increases in homelessness over the past five years, as reported by the annual Point-In-Time Count (PITC), in spite of increased federal funding and new State of California (State) funding targeted to homeless communities. The County has been actively addressing homelessness since 1991, when a public hearing on homelessness was convened which resulted in the formation of the first Homeless Coalition. Since then, these efforts evolved into the formation of the San Bernardino County Homeless Partnership (Partnership). On September 25, 2007, the Board of Supervisors approved the formation of the Partnership. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) recognizes the Partnership as the local Continuum of Care (CoC) for the purpose of planning and allocating federal homeless Continuum of Care (CoC) funds to reduce homelessness within San Bernardino County. The County, by and through OHS, is the Collaborative Applicant on behalf of the CoC.
In order to increase the efficacy and expand the impact of the County’s housing and homeless programs, the preceding recommendation set forth above requests the County Administrative Office through the OHS in conjunction with the Department of Community Development and Housing to develop a countywide Homeless Strategic Plan. The Plan should identify data driven solutions to reduce the County’s homeless population by leveraging local, state, and federal resources. The Plan also should focus on the importance and dignity of work, trauma-informed care, innovative and community-oriented development of housing, homeless prevention, homeless targeted programming, addressing racial disparities and equity, alternatives to criminalization and marginalization, and contributing to local emergency readiness programs. It is further recommended that the Plan include the following elements:
• Asset Mapping: a complete inventory of all homeless funding sources and programs within the County and the CoC.
• Gap Analysis: the identification of program and housing project priorities through the analysis of PITC data, the Housing Inventory Count, regional needs for services and housing, and funding disparities for identified homeless populations. This analysis will provide detailed quantitative data regarding the homeless by sub-population (i.e. Veterans, unaccompanied women, etc.), city and unincorporated areas, and by supervisorial district. Priorities for services and housing, including outreach, wraparound services, and permanent supportive housing units, will be developed based upon the data discovery and analysis.
• Outcomes Measures: the development of indicators and measurements to evaluate the success of programs and projects based on the reduction of homelessness within subpopulations and the overall reduction of homelessness based on the PITC.
A County-sponsored Homeless Strategic Plan will add to the development of local policies to deal with homelessness and will lay the platform for effective change to occur. It will help guide the County as the HUD designated Collaborative Applicant for CoC funding and the State designated Administrative Entity for State funding and State CoC related funding to increase accountability, responsibilities of oversight, reporting, and monitoring of awarded funds, while simultaneously helping to reduce liabilities associated with various award funds. These efforts will complement the efforts made by the Partnership on behalf of the CoC. A well-thought-out plan will assist the County in prioritizing the use of State funds it receives to collaborate with the CoC, to enhance local efforts to intervene and reduce homelessness impactfully within our region.
PROCUREMENT
Not applicable.
REVIEW BY OTHERS
This item has been reviewed by County Counsel (Robert Messinger, Principal Assistant County Counsel, 387-5455) on November 13, 2020; Community Development and Housing (Dena Fuentes, Deputy Executive Officer, 387-4411) on November 10, 2020; Office of Homeless Services (Tom Hernandez, Chief of Homeless Services, 501-0611) on November 10, 2020; and Human Services (CaSonya Thomas, Assistant Executive Officer, 387-4717) on November 10, 2020.