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HomeMy WebLinkAboutItem 8.1 Ctywide Homeless 2009 Counttil ~ ~ /~ f ~\- ~ -~ \~/w' CITY CLERK File # 520-40 AGENDA STATEMENT CITY COUNCIL MEETING DATE: August 18, 2009 SUBJECT: Presentation on the Alameda Countywide Homeless Count 2009. Report Prepared by John Lucero, Housing Specialist ATTACHMENTS: 1. Alameda County Homeless Count 2009-Key Trends. RECOMMENDATION: Staff recommends that the City Council receive the presentation and provide comments. ~~ FINANCIAL STATEMENT: None. PROJECT DESCRIPTION: Elaine de Coligny, Executive Director Everyone Home, will make a presentation on the Alameda Countywide Homeless Count 2009. This presentation is intended to inform the City Council on the data results from the Homeless Count 2009. Background The Everyone Home is a collaborative of community stakeholders, jurisdictions, and Alameda County government agencies formed to implement the Alameda Countywide Homeless and Special Needs Housing Plan (the "Everyone Home Plan"). The Everyone Home Plan identifies the following strategies: 1. Homeless to Housed - By January 2020, Alameda County will permanently house 15,000 homeless households; 2. Less Time Homeless -Reduce the average length of time a household spends homeless from months, even years, to weeks; and 3. Remain Housed - 85% of those who obtain permanent housing will maintain it for at least one year and 65% will maintain permanent housing for at least three years. The Everyone Home Plan was approved by the Alameda County Board of Supervisors, over ten cities in Alameda County, and endorsed by numerous community organizations over a three year period. The strategies of the plan have been implemented over the last two years. Part of the purpose of the Count was to see if the strategies were working and the current status of homelessness. COPY TO: Elaine de Coligny Page 1 of 3 ITEM NO. • I K: IStaff Reports- PC and CCI20091CCIHomeless Count 20091CCSRHomeless Count 818 09 (2).doc ..nt~ Alameda County receives Federal funding through the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Grant that requires apoint-in-time homeless Count during the last week in January, every two years. Currently, Alameda County receives approximately $20 million in Homeless Assistance Grant money. According to the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the point-in-time Count must capture all unsheltered homeless, homeless living in emergency shelters and transitional housing programs. The results are reported in the annual application to HUD in order to receive the Federal funding. Methodology The 2009 Homeless Count was conducted by Everyone Home. The Count was acommunity-wide effort started on January 27, 2009 to collect a comprehensive Count of the County's homeless population. Over 169 community volunteers conducted interviews at 27 randomly chosen sites throughout Alameda County. The Homeless Count 2009 was designed to produce point-in-time estimates of the prevalence of three mutually exclusive groups of households and persons in Alameda County: 1. Literally Homeless: those residing in shelters, transitional housing, on the street, or other places not meant for human habitation; 2. Housed Homeless: those relying on services such as hot meal sites, food pantries, and drop-in centers; and 3. Hidden Homeless: those residing on a temporary basis with friends or relatives (couch surfers), in motels, or are within 7 days of being evicted. The Count also yields an estimate of the number of people defined as chronically homeless as well as those restricted by one or more disabilities. Two types of data comprise the 2009 Count estimates: 1. Data from the Alameda County in-house Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) and program administrative data enumerating the number and characteristics of persons residing in shelters and transitional housing programs the night of January 27, 2009; and 2. Survey-based population estimates of the number and characteristics of unsheltered persons, persons iri temporary situations, and housed persons relying on services. Data Results Everyone Home held a press conference on July 8, 2009 to release the first figures from the January 2009 Homeless Count. Summaries of key trends are included as Attachment 1. Additional information, including more information by region within the County, is available on Everyone Home's website: www.EveryoneHome.org. The full report with all of the data from the Count will be available in the Fall of 2009. The key trends of the Homeless Count 2009 are: 1. Literally Homeless: decreased by 10% since 2007, from 4,838 to 4,341; 2. Housed Homeless: decreased by 18% since 2007 from 1,257 to 1,026; and 3. Hidden Homeless: increased 168% since 2003 from 1,134 to 3,042 people. Based on the key trends listed above, Everyone Home reports that the focus and strategies in the Everyone Home Plan, are working with a decrease in the number of Literally and Housed Homeless. Page 2 of 3 The Homeless Count was reported by service site regions, with Dublin, Livermore, and Pleasanton in the East Region service site. Therefore, a separate Count of homeless people in Dublin was not taken. The Homeless Count questionnaire was quite short. Interviewers did not ask where interviewees were from, but assigned them to the service location where they were interviewed. For example, someone interviewed at Open Heart Kitchen in Livermore (an East Region sample site) is reported for the East Region. Interviews were only held in Livermore for the East County Region. Below is a chart with the East Region Homeless Count: East Region Homeless Count Literally & Housed Hidden All Homeless Households Homeless Homeless HUD & Hidden Homeless (Total HUD Homeless) Families With Children 134 41 175 All-Adult 52 36 88 Total Persons 186 77 263 CONCLUSION: Staff continues to work in partnership with Everyone Home, to implement a Homeless Prevention and Rapid Re-housing Program that will debut in the Fall 2009. Funding for the Program is made possible from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. RECOMMENDATION: Staff recommends that the City Council receive the presentation and provide comments. Page 3 of 3 ~~; ~~~. ~~ Alarneda County Homeless Count 2009 D~ Everyone Home strategies working to decrease literally homeless; Recession causing spike in hidden homeless Literally Homeless People who are residing on the streets, places not meant for human habitation, in shelters or in transitional housing programs decreased 1Q% by 10% since 2007, from 4,838 to 4,341. less • Since 2003, the literally homeless population declined by 15%. than • Every region of the County showed a reduction of literally 20Q7 homeless families with minor children. • The total population remained fairly flat from 2003 - 2005, with major gains beginning in 2005, showing a 6% reduction in 2007, and a 10% reduction in 2009. Chronically Narrtele~S Countywide, 231 chronically homeless unaccompanied, disabled people moved off the streets and out of shelters into permanent 1g% supportive housing and other permanent housing since 2007 - a less reduction of 18%. The current chronically homeless population is than 1,026. 2007 • This year's decrease was the largest ever in the County, far exceeding the 3% reduction from 2005 to 2007. • Berkeley and Oakland both showed marked reductions. Hidden Homeless Since this data was last collected in 2003, the number of hidden homeless (living temporarily with a friend or relative, in a motel, or facing eviction within seven days) has increased by more than two Up and a half times. 1'~8% since • From January 2003 to January 2009, the point-in-time hidden ©33 homeless population increased from 1,134 to 3,042 people. • The hidden homeless population is three-quarters as large as the literally homeless population. July 8, 2009 ~ _ :: ~ Attachmerit~J~ LI~CI"~~~/ ~O~l"1CCSS • 2009 data depicts a continued trend of reducing the number of ° people literally homeless. 10 !° less • In general the trend also shows a reduction in households with and than. without children. 2.007 • The number of literally homeless children reduced by 33% since 2003 (from 1477 down to 994). Literally Homeless Comparisons r`~ _ ~ ~ ~i 2009; I ` 2007 I ', .y ~ O famd households with kids ~ 2005 ^ family households - no kids o all literally homeless 2003 ~ ~ A__ 0 1,000 2,000 3,000 4,000 5,000 6,000 Re~1Otlal ~c`~a • Families with children that are literally homeless showed decreases in every area of the County ranging from 6.5% reduction in Berkeley to a 43.4% reduction in the South and East combined portion of the County. • Compared to 2003, households without children make up an increasing proportion of the literally homeless. This was true in every area of the County except Berkeley. Reasons for she Decreases • Many emergency shelter programs now emphasize a "housing first" approach which prioritizes finding people permanent housing by the end of their shelter stays. • Affordable housing developers have built 125 units of permanent housing targeted to the homeless including Lorenzo Creek (32 units in Castro Valley), Madison at 14tH (20 units for transition age youth in Oakland), and Carmen Avenue (30 units in Livermore). See the permanent supportive housing handout for complete list. • Alameda Point Collaborative and others have converted dozens of transitional housing units to permanent affordable housing wherever possible. July 8, 2009 ;~ 5 f ' ~~ ~ ~~ ~ 1 ~ ~~ ~~~ U ~~E ANT Disabled, unaccompanied individuals who are living on the streets, in places not meant for human habitation, or in shelters and have been homeless for a year or more or have had four or more episodes of homelessness in the past three years. Chronic Homeless • A reduction in the number of people who are chronically homeless has been occurring since 2005, with a dramatic '18°I~ reduction between 2007 and 2009. Tess than • Chronically homeless people are 31 % of the literally homeless 20x7 population, up from 25% in 2003. • Nearly half of the "street homeless" sleeping outside or in places not meant for habitation are chronically homeless (46%). Number of Chronically Fbmeless People 1350 1300 --- .-~~ea-- 1250 ---- 1200 1150 _ -.__-- 1100 --- 1050 ~ ----- 1000 _ - 950 ' 2003 2005 Year 1z5z-- 1026 2007 2009 Year 2003 2005 2007 2009 Number of people 1280 1292 1257 1026 Percent change from prior year + 1 % - 3% - 18% Regional Data • Berkeley has seen the largest decrease in the number of chronically homeless disabled individuals - a 48% decrease (253 people)! Oakland has also realized a reduction in chronically homeless disabled individuals of 16% or 99 people. • Decreases in Berkeley and Oakland were offset by increases in South and East County(+12) and Mid- and Other-north County (+86). Reasons for the Decrease The intensive efforts of new programs to identify engage and serve the chronically homeless combine street outreach and direct access to permanent housing through vouchers funded by the Mental Health Services Act, Federal Shelter + Care, and Berkeley General Fund. For example: • Frequent Users Project, focused on high users of emergency health care in North County, includes 21 dedicated vouchers. • Full Service Partnerships support 270 vouchers for chronically homeless persons with serious mental illness throughout Alameda County. • Square One in Berkeley uses parking meter funds to create 10 housing vouchers. July 8, 2009 `-~ °~'" ~ ~ V t) SSNESS SUPPLE ~ T' Households with and without children who are living temporarily with _~ ' '~` ' friends, relatives, or in a motel who do not have the resources to move into housing and have been notified that the situation is short-term; or households who are facing eviction within 7 days. These people meet the newly expanded federal definition of homelessness, in the HEARTH act, authorized earlier this year. Hidden HOmeless • Children are the most dramatically increased hidden homeless ~~ subpopulation, a 290% increase from 278 to 1,085 since 2003. Up • Family size is the largest in hidden homeless with an average by of 4.4 people per household compared to 2.9 people per 16$!% household in the literally homeless population. since 2003 • Hidden homeless families have less than half the average monthly income as sheltered homeless families ($632 hidden homeless vs. $1,220 sheltered homeless). Hidden Homeless by Type of Person 398 1559 1085 p adults in families with children (246 households) ~, o children in families The hidden homeless population is 49% households with minor children and 51 % households without children. ^ adults in families without children (1154 households) Regional Dada • Oakland has the largest. number of additional hidden homeless people - up 252% to 2,132 people. This represents 70% of the countywide total hidden homeless persons. • Households without children were the largest increase of hidden homeless in the South, East, Mid and Other North areas of the County. Reason for the Increase Housing instability has increased dramatically because of the recession. Food banks, soup kitchens, and food stamp programs are all reporting increased demand, but as of January 2009, we had not yet seen the numbers of persons in shelters and on the streets go up. Research shows that people rarely go directly from their own housing straight to the streets or a shelter. They first double up with friends and family, stay in motels and campgrounds, work hard to get back on their feet - entering shelters or the streets only as a last resort. The hidden homeless will join the literally homeless unless we act swiftly and effectively to: • Provide well publicized, easily accessible housing resource centers, • Appropriately identify the neediest households likely to be literally homeless, • Rapidly deploy new and expanded prevention programs. July 8, 2009 H~ fl is t~ cai cur ultulr~ Efforts The 2009 Homeless Count proves that the strategies outlined in the Everyone Home Plan to end homelessness are working. We need to continue our investments in them. We must also address the spike in hidden homelessness with the same innovative, multi-jurisdictional, cross-sector collaborative approach that has helped hundreds of chronically homeless individuals and literally homeless families return to permanent housing. ~C}r1~IC1UC ~® Invest Irt Wh~~ varorkS Everyone Home and its partners will: • Support and expand direct access to housing and Housing First programs that are successful in getting homeless individuals and families off the streets and out of shelters. • Continue to build permanent supportive housing units. • Expand the number of permanent housing subsidies available. • Maintain a balanced approach to housing chronically homeless, singles and families so that we continue to see reductions in all areas. • Focus on ending homelessness rather than managing it. address hiddel~ ha elessl~ess wit6~ r~er~r federal resources Everyone Home and its partners will: • Implement the Everyone Home Prevention and Rapid Rehousing Program using new federal stimulus dollars. For more details go to www.everyonehome.org. • Use this new countywide Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Rehousing Program to improve and expand homelessness prevention activities so that they reach the hidden homeless and those most at risk of becoming literally homeless. • Rapidly re-house those who have become homeless. • Track outcomes and evaluate results. For more information about the Alameda County Homeless Count 2009 or the new Prevention and Rapid Rehousing Program visit our website at www.everyonehome.org. July 8, 2009