TO: Board of Supervisors
FROM: Ryan J Alsop, Napa County Executive Officer and Steve Potter, City of Napa City Manager
REPORT BY: Jennifer Palmer, Napa County Director of Housing & Homeless Services and Molly Rattigan, City of Napa Deputy City Manager
SUBJECT: Homeless Services Annual Report
RECOMMENDATION
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SPECIAL JOINT MEETING - BOARD OF SUPERVISORS & NAPA CITY COUNCIL
Receive an annual report on homeless services from the Director of Housing & Homeless Services for Napa County and Deputy City Manager for the City of Napa.
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BACKGROUND
System Overview - Historical and Current Context
Historically, the City of Napa (“City”) and County of Napa (“County”) have partnered with each other to address the needs of homeless individuals and families across the region. City funded outreach activities as well as fifty percent of year-round shelter operation costs for homeless individuals and families. County funded specialty mental health services for people with a serious mental illness, including outreach and engagement services, alcohol and drug recovery services for vulnerable individuals and families, as well as fifty percent of year-round shelter operation costs.
In 2016, the City and County launched a multi-year process to review and transform the local homelessness crisis response system to address the needs of persons experiencing homelessness more effectively. This work began by gathering community stakeholder feedback and completing a comprehensive analysis of the local homelessness crisis response system. This analysis led to the development of data-driven recommendations for innovative and strategies to transform the City and County’s homeless response system. With the help of national experts at the Corporation for Supportive Housing (CSH) and the National Alliance to End Homelessness (NAEH), the City and County undertook activities to retool its system-wide response to homelessness, including community stakeholder meetings, a comprehensive data analysis and the creation of a resource map to catalog federal, state and local funding resources available for housing and services to support individuals and families experiencing homelessness.
This analysis of the Napa Homeless Services System led to the development of the Recommendations Report. The Report encouraged the City and County to shift from a program approach to a systematic approach where resources are better leveraged, coordinated, and aligned across silos and sectors to ensure the experience of homelessness in Napa is prevented whenever possible or is otherwise a rare, brief, and non-recurring experience. The City and County are committed to ensuring that homeless housing and services do not operate as a set of independent and uncoordinated programs, instead coordinated across organizations and programs - working towards common system-wide goals.
The City and County also prioritize a Housing First approach emphasizing rapid exits from homelessness to permanent housing, building housing capacity, ensuring investments and decision-making are driven by data, and identifying new funding opportunities. The system focuses on early intervention and prevention as well as housing investment to reduce system “inflows” and improve system “outflows”. The goal is to reach a “functional zero” system flow: where services and resources are optimized to match or exceed demand.
In 2022, the City and County worked together with The Center for Common Concern, Inc (“Homebase”), a team of lawyers and public policy experts for homeless services consultation and technical assistance, and the Napa Continuum of Care (CoC) to update the existing Homeless Response Plan in compliance with Homeless Housing Assistance Program (HHAP) grant funding requirements. The resulting Strategic Plan to Address Homelessness (“Strategic Plan”) provides the homeless system of care and the greater Napa community with a shared context of how people are experiencing homelessness, detail strengths and gaps in the existing system of care and recommend goals and strategies to guide improvement efforts at the program, City, County, and community levels. It is meant to address the needs of the entire geography of Napa County, including all cities, incorporated areas, and unincorporated areas, and provide guidance for all stakeholders in the community. It represents input across all sectors and areas within the Napa community, including service providers, business leaders, City and County staff, and people with experiences of homelessness.
Through an analysis of community feedback, data and reports, the Strategic Plan establishes five main goals to address homelessness in Napa County:
1. Expand access to permanent housing, including permanent supportive housing, rapid rehousing and other housing opportunities for people experiencing or at-risk of experiencing homelessness.
2. Prevent households from becoming homeless for the first time and rapidly rehouse households newly experiencing homelessness.
3. Expand access to and quality of services for people experiencing homelessness in Napa County.
4. Build upon cross-system partnerships and collaborations to target and serve all people experiencing homelessness in Napa County.
5. Ensure Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging are core considerations in program development and that all members of the community have equal access to care.
These goals are not a community mandate, but a set of recommendations that are continuously adapted to address the dynamic and complex issue of homelessness locally. Achieving these goals requires on-going funding and cross-system alignment. City and County staff collaborate to develop complimentary CoC and State funding applications to maximize funding and impact targeting the Strategic Plan goals. The City prioritizes funding for a Diversion Program and continuation of Outreach Services. The County prioritizes funding for Housing-related investments including Rental Assistance, Tenancy Sustaining Services, Client Move-In Funds, Landlord Incentives and Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging training for the CoC.
City and County staff will jointly present a report on homeless services including review and discussion of current data, trends, program and services including the 2024 Point-In-Time (PIT) Count, the Napa City-County Continuum of Care (CoC) Strategic Plan to Address Homelessness and City and County joint efforts to ensure the experience of homelessness in Napa County is rare, brief and non-reoccurring.
FISCAL & STRATEGIC PLAN IMPACT
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Is there a Fiscal Impact? |
No |
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Is it Mandatory or Discretionary? |
Discretionary |
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Discretionary Justification: |
There is no mandate for the Board of Supervisors or City Council to receive an annual report jointly or separately on homeless services. |
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Future fiscal impact: |
This is a report only, no fiscal action is proposed |
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT
ENVIRONMENTAL DETERMINATION: The proposed action is not a project as defined by 14 California Code of Regulations 15378 (State CEQA Guidelines) and therefore CEQA is not applicable.