DATE: March 19, 2024
TO: Board of Supervisors
SUBMITTED BY: Sanja Bugay, Director, Department of Social Services
Paul Nerland, County Administrative Officer
SUBJECT: Local Homelessness Action Plan and MOU for Homeless Housing Assistance and Prevention Round 5 Grant Program
RECOMMENDED ACTION(S):
TITLE
1. Conduct public hearing to receive testimony on the Local Homelessness Action plan for the Fresno Madera Continuum of Care services area;
2. Approve the Local Homelessness Action Plan, including the use of Homeless Housing Assistance and Prevention Grant funding allocated to the County of Fresno and the Fresno Madera Continuum of Care;
3. Authorize the Department of Social Services to submit a joint application on behalf of the County of Fresno and the Fresno Madera Continuum of Care for the Homeless Housing Assistance and Prevention Program Round 5 Grant funding administered by the California Business, Consumer Services and Housing Agency; and
4. Authorize the Board Chairman to execute the Homeless Housing Assistance and Prevention Program Round 5 Regional Memorandum of Understanding, on behalf of the County of Fresno and the Fresno Madera Continuum of Care.
REPORT
There is no additional Net County Cost associated with the recommended actions. Approval of the recommended actions are required to submit a joint Homeless Housing Assistance and Prevention Program Round 5 (HHAP-5) application on behalf of the County and the Fresno Madera Continuum of Care (FMCoC) to the California Business, Consumer Services and Housing Agency (BCSH). The Department of Social Services (Department) will serve as the Administrative Entity for the combined funding allocation. This item is countywide.
ALTERNATIVE ACTION(S):
Should your Board elect not to approve the recommended actions, the County would forfeit approximately $11.7 million (combined allocation) in HHAP-5 funding available to assist people experiencing homelessness in the community.
FISCAL IMPACT:
There is no increase in Net County Cost associated with the recommended actions. If the recommended actions are approved, the Department will apply for $11,720,018 in HHAP-5 funding allocated to the County of Fresno and the FMCoC. The maximum of 7% ($820,401) from the total allocation, will be retained by the County for the Department’s administrative costs. A required 10% ($1,172,002) of the total allocation must be set aside for youth homeless services. Sufficient appropriations and estimated revenues are included in the departments Org 5610 FY-2023-24 Adopted Budgeted and will be included in the subsequent budget requests. The Department anticipates no disruption in service delivery due to potential funding delays in the Governor’s proposed FY 23-24 State budget.
DISCUSSION:
HHAP-5 is a $1 billion grant program authorized by Section 17 of AB 129 (Chapter 40 Statues of 2023; Health and Safety Code) signed into law by Gavin Newsom on July 10, 2023. The program is designed to develop a unified response to homelessness and provide support to local jurisdictions to continue to build on regional collaboration developed through previous rounds of BCSH funding. The non-competitive funding is available to continuums of care, counties, tribal governments, and cities with populations over 300,000. Recipients from overlapping jurisdictions (i.e., CoC large city, and/or county) are required to collaborate in addressing regional homelessness needs as summarized in the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU).
On November 29, 2022 your Board conducted a public hearing to solicit community input and approved the proposed local homelessness action plan for use of HHAP-4 funds allocated to the County and the FMCoC. The landscape analysis and action plan developed for HHAP-4 have been updated for the HHAP-5 application.
Although the FMCoC’s HHAP-5 allocation will be redirected to the County to be administered by the Department, services provided with HHAP-5 funds must be carried out in alignment with the joint action plan developed in coordination with the regional recipients. In addition to collaborating on the local homelessness action plan, eligible applicants must apply as part of a region; therefore, the County will be included as part of a single application in conjunction with the FMCoC, the City of Fresno, and the County of Madera.
The HHAP-5 local homelessness plan must be presented for public comment at regular meetings of the jurisdictions governing bodies. Comments from the public and recommendations from your Board on the local homelessness action plan will be incorporated as timelines permit and will be utilized for the planning process for other upcoming funding. As a requirement of receiving HHAP-5 funds, applicants were required to collaborate and engage in a public stakeholder process to develop a coordinated action plan, this includes feedback from the community. Meetings were held in Fresno, Madera, Selma, Mendota, and two cross-jurisdictional virtual meetings, at which representation from each jurisdiction was present to answer questions. Participants then voted on which program activities would be most beneficial to their communities. The data was collected and taken into consideration when developing the funding plan for HHAP-5 dollars.
A planning group consisting of the City of Fresno, FMCoC, and Counties of Madera and Fresno completed an updated assessment of the local homelessness response system which informed the proposed local homelessness action plan (Attachment A). The plan supports a continuum of services consistent with the seven homelessness priorities supported by your Board in March 2022 and the planning process for previous rounds of HHAP funding. The proposed local homelessness action plan will support the following services:
• rapid rehousing services and housing case management,
• emergency shelter and case management,
• street outreach,
• diversion services to quickly connect households seeking shelter services with permanent housing, and
• services tailored to homeless youth ages 18 - 24, including emergency shelter and rapid rehousing for housing relocation and stabilization services.
The HHAP-5 Regional MOU is required as part of the application and must be signed by each participating applicant committing to participate in and comply with the Local Homelessness Action Plan. The Local Homelessness Action Plan outlines each jurisdictions’ roles and responsibilities, System Performance Measures, key actions to improve performance, key actions to ensure racial and gender equity, key actions to reduce exits to homelessness from institutional settings, the utilizations of funding programs to end homelessness, and plans on connecting individuals to support services. The MOU was signed by the County of Madera on February 20, 2024; the City of Fresno on March 7, 2024, and was approved by the FMCoC on March 14, 2024.
The full HHAP-5 application must be submitted by March 27, 2024. Upon receipt of the completed application, BCSDH will issue the HHAP-5 Standard Agreement, which will be brought to your Board for approval. Agreements or amendments for services supported by the HHAP-5 grant will be brought before your Board for approval at a future date, as appropriate.
REFERENCE MATERIAL:
BAI #9, November 29, 2022
ATTACHMENTS INCLUDED AND/OR ON FILE:
Attachment A - HHAP-5 Local Homelessness Action Plan
Attachment B - HHAP-5 Regional MOU
HHAP-5 Presentation
CAO ANALYST:
Amina Flores-Becker