Item:
Title
Discussion of Mid-Year Allocation for Street Outreach Collaboration with the City of Durham (20min)
Body
Date of BOCC Meeting: November 4, 2019
Request for Board Action:
Agenda Text
The Board is requested to discuss the possibility of a mid-year allocation of $69,000 to revive street outreach to the homeless through a partnership with the City of Durham and one or more local service providers.
Street outreach to the unsheltered homeless was provided for many years by Housing for New Hope (H4NH), first with state funds and then with discretionary funds from Alliance Behavioral Healthcare (ABH). ABH, facing steep funding cuts from the state, defunded street outreach at H4NH in early FY19-20. Many conversations have taken place since then regarding the future of this essential piece of our homeless continuum of services. The basics of a proposal were brought to the Joint City-County Committee meeting on October 8th, 2019, and a more developed proposal is being brought forward today for Commissioners’ consideration.
The current proposal is for the County to contribute $69,000 through the City for the remainder of FY19-20 to a service provider who can provide an expanded suite of street outreach services, including helping with the homeless in our libraries, training emergency shelter staff, serving as the Encampment Lead Agency, and also continuing the kind of street outreach that was being done before. Further, staff would work with City staff to develop a two-year interlocal agreement for continuation of this work through the end of FY21-22. This interlocal would be brought back for discussion and approval before the end of FY19-20, as the associated, full-year service costs (not to exceed $215,000) would need to be built into the FY20-21 budget.
Alignment with Strategic Plan: Improving our continuum of services for the homeless improves outcomes in Goal areas 1-4 of the Durham County Strategic Plan.
Resource Persons: Hanaleah Hoberman, Senior Homeless Project Manager (City of Durham Dept. of Community Development); Drew Cummings, Chief of Staff
County Manager’s Recommendation: The County Manager recommends that the Board discuss the possibility of a mid-year allocation of $69,000 to revive street outreach to the homeless through a partnership with the City of Durham and one or more local service providers.
Signature
County Manager: ____________________________