Title
Resolution to Endorse Alameda County’s Home Together 2026 Implementation Plan
Staff Report
SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Staff recommends the City Council endorse Alameda County’s Home Together 2026 Implementation Plan (Home Together 2026).
BACKGROUND
Home Together 2026 is a five-year homelessness response community-wide plan for Alameda County which lays out the goals, strategies, and investments needed to dramatically reduce homelessness by 2026 and reverse racial disparities in homelessness through fully centering equity.
Analysis
The County of Alameda’s Home Together 2026 Implementation Plan (the Plan) is a community-wide plan which lays out the goals, strategies and investments needed to dramatically reduce homelessness by 2026 and reverse racial disparities in homelessness through fully centering equity. The Plan’s overarching goals and time frame align with Vision 2026, Alameda County’s comprehensive effort to set a course for the next decade that anticipates community challenges and maximizes the County’s ability to meet residents’ needs in a rapidly changing world. One of the primary objectives of Vision 2026 is to “ensure the availability of diverse and affordable housing for all residents with the goal of eliminating homelessness in Alameda County.”
Home Together 2026 builds upon many sources and efforts, particularly the 2020 Centering Racial Equity in Homeless System Design report (CRE) prepared by community partners and informed by system modeling and extensive interviews and focus groups with persons of color who have experienced homelessness. The CRE process modeled what an optimal system to respond to all homelessness and reduce racial disparities would look like and what gaps need to be filled. Home Together 2026 is also responsive to requirements laid out in the California Comeback Plan to draw down key State housing and health funding. It is informed by and consistent with other local and regional efforts, including the All Home Regional Action Plan, as well as Plan Bay Area 2050.
On any given night over 8,000 people experience homelessness in Alameda County, a number that grows to approximately 15,000 people over the course of a year. More than 90% of homeless households in Alameda County are adults without minor children, including nearly 10% who are between the ages of 18 and 24.
The homeless population does not reflect the demographics of the county. Much like the overall Nation, dramatic racial disparities exist in Alameda County, in which African Americans experience homelessness at more than four times their representation in the population (47% vs. 11%) and Native Americans, multiracial people and Hawaiian Native/Pacific Islanders are all vastly overrepresented in homelessness, among those newly homeless and in the rates at which they return to homelessness even after getting into housing.
These disparities call out the need to invest both more and differently in creating program models and pathways that meet the needs of those overrepresented. Specific populations such as transition age youth, veterans, seniors, survivors of intimate partner violence, people with mental health needs and people with previous involvement in the criminal justice system have additional risks and vulnerabilities leading to homelessness and require responses to their needs and plans for targeted resources to address them.
A systemwide needs analysis, conducted in 2019-2020 and updated in 2021, points to significant gaps in the current system in the type and availability of housing resources. Today, only an estimated 36% of those in need can be supported by local resources or are able to find housing or leave homelessness on their own. Each year, thousands of people remain homeless and each year new people who become homeless join them. Without significant effort and investment, homelessness will continue to grow.
Importantly, focus groups and research on racial equity strategies informed the modeling and the proposed pathways to ensure the deep disparities in the system are addressed through new investments at every level. These investments include creating extensive new program models and pathways out of homelessness, using affordable housing dedicated for people experiencing homelessness, permanent supportive sousing (PSH) for people who need more supports, targeted behavioral health services, improved and expanded homelessness prevention, transitional housing for youth and shallow and flexible rental assistance to fill gaps for people with limited incomes in addition to expanding current program models such as Rapid Rehousing and PSH.
The 2021 planning update explored different scenarios related to levels of anticipated new homelessness and of investment to determine the gaps in the current system and what it will take to fill them. The community selected to sponsor a scenario approach that seeks to reduce new entries to homelessness by preventing it when possible, and to create a more robust response system with enough resources at the end of five years to provide a housing exit to every person who does become homeless.
Overall, more than 24,000 additional housing exits are needed over five years to reach a point at which the numbers of people who become homeless in a year and the numbers who leave homelessness in that time are in balance. These 24,000 interventions include everything from short-term prevention to permanent subsidies and housing with services, depending on the needs of the households.
In addition to the significant need for housing, because of the high rate of unsheltered homelessness (an estimated 79% people experiencing homelessness in Alameda County are unsheltered) the Plan includes a significant increase in shelter in the first two years, followed by a slow decline in shelter as more housing resources become available and less shelter is needed. Some of the planned added shelter will be able to be converted to much needed housing in later years, as has been demonstrated by successful Project Roomkey to Project Homekey transitions, creating permanent housing by renovating hotels used as shelters during the pandemic. By Year 5 the amount of shelter needed on an ongoing basis is expected to be slightly less than what is available today if all housing resources are in place.
The total cost of increasing the shelter and housing inventory for the entire county over the coming five years to fully meet the need would be $2.5 billion. This includes roughly $430 million for additional shelter, $1.68 billion for permanent housing such as dedicated affordable housing and permanent supportive housing, and $388 million for prevention, rapid rehousing and shallow (more limited) subsidies within the homelessness response system. This does not include the one-time development costs for new buildings, but covers operations and services, and subsidies to help people rent existing housing. Similar to their proportion of the homeless population, the new investments are roughly 10% ($194 million) for inventory and resources for households with minor children, and 90% ($2.3 billion) for the inventory and resources to serve adult only households, including transition age youth.
To reach these goals while decreasing racial disparities, the Home Together Plan recommends specific action steps in four categories:
1) Prevent Homelessness for Alameda County Residents
a. Address racial disparities in mainstream/upstream systems to prevent disproportionate inflow of African Americans into homelessness
b. Focus resources for prevention on people most likely to lose their homes
c. Rapidly resolve episodes of homelessness through Housing Problem Solving
d. Prevent racially disproportionate returns to homelessness
2) Connect People to Shelter and Needed Resources
a. Provide neighborhood-based access where people are most likely to lose housing
b. Lower programmatic barriers to crisis services such as prevention, problem solving, and shelter
c. Prevent discharge from mainstream systems to homelessness
d. Significantly increase the availability of shelter, especially non-congregate models, to serve
vulnerable adults and families with children and to reduce unsheltered homelessness.
e. Provide accessible behavioral health services to people with serious mental illness or substance use needs and who are unsheltered, in shelter, or in supportive housing programs.
3) Increase Housing Solutions
a. Add units and subsidies for permanent supportive housing
b. Create units with more intensive health services for seniors and medically fragile residents
c. Create dedicated affordable housing subsidies for people who do not need intensive services
d. Create shallow subsidies for those who need more limited assistance
e. Add new slots of rapid rehousing for those who can take over their full rent given time
f. Ensure new housing funding is distributed according to need
g. Reduce entry barriers to housing and ensure racial equity in referrals and placements.
4) Strengthen Coordination, Communication and Capacity
a. Use data to improve outcomes and track racial equity impacts
b. Improve messaging and information availability
c. Build infrastructure to support new and expanded programs
Taken together, the significant increase in investment and the creation of new models and pathways out of homelessness will lead to decreases in new homelessness, improved racial equity in outcomes, shorter time being homeless, and a reduced rate at which people return to homelessness. Specific measurable targets for reducing homelessness altogether, and for achieving greater equity in results, are included in the plan.
Alameda County will adopt this plan and vision at a time when the future is uncertain. New resources, both one-time and ongoing, received in 2021 and anticipated in the future provide the foundation for achieving this plan, but alone are not enough to realize its vision. The response to COVID-19 has shown that the community can pull together and can work at speeds not seen before, a strong foundation to build from. However, continuing challenges including uncertainties from COVID-19, unpredictable housing markets, future State, Federal and local budgets, and an overtaxed public and non-profit sector with significant capacity needs. All these challenges require continuing the current level of unprecedented collaboration and coordination and building on the progress made to unify the community response and build an aligned response system centered in racial equity.
To receive future Alameda County funding made available through Alameda County, the City of San Leandro must endorse the Home Together 2026 Implementation Plan.
Current City Council Goal
• Support and implement programs, activities and strengthen communication that enhances the quality of life and wellness, celebrates the arts and diversity and promotes civic pride.
Fiscal Impacts
In order to receive future funding made available through Alameda County, the City of San Leandro must endorse the Home Together 2026 Implementation Plan.
Attachment
• DRAFT Home Together 2026 Implementation Plan
PREPARED BY: Kirsten “Kurry” Foley, Acting Director, Human Services Department