Item:
Title
Budget Ordinance Amendment No. 21BCC000002 - Moving $1,010,160 of General Fund COVID Reserve to Support a $540,000 Contract with the Carolina Duke Inn for COVID Related Shelter and $470,160 For Associated Expenses, And Approval of Contract Amendment with Carolina Duke Inn
Body
Date of BOCC Meeting: July 13, 2020
Request for Board Action:
Agenda Text
The Board is requested to approve moving $1,010,160 of General Fund COVID reserve to support a $540,000 contract with the Carolina Duke Inn for COVID related shelter and $470,160 for associated expenses and authorize the County Manager to execute the contract amendment with the Carolina Duke Inn.
In early April, the County Commissioners approved approximately $1.7 million to relocate the population of Urban Ministries of Durham (UMD) to the Marriott RTP hotel as a safer, non-congregate housing option to reduce the likelihood of the spread of COVID among our homeless population in the short-term. That contract expired on July 9th, and on July 8th UMD moved its residents out of the hotel. As part of the medium-term solution for the population UMD is helping to shelter, non-medically fragile residents were moved back to the downtown shelter in numbers that allow for appropriate social distancing, and several dozen medically fragile individuals were moved to the Carolina Duke Inn on Guess Rd.
The plan to move these individuals to the Carolina Duke Inn is outlined in the attached memo and was approved by the Multi-Agency Coordination (MAC) group on July 1. With this board action, a total of $1,010,160 will be moved from the funds set aside in the FY20-21 budget for COVID-related expenses to Emergency Management’s COVID fund center. $540,000 will be added to the County’s contract with the Carolina Duke Inn to cover the cost of up to forty (40) hotel rooms through the end of the calendar year for medically fragile homeless individuals.
The remaining $470,160 is for associated expenses noted in the attached memo, and much or all of these funds will flow through Urban Ministries of Durham. For now, the funds will be moved to Emergency Management’s COVID fund center but will not be encumbered until the appropriate contracts are ready for execution.
County staff continue to evaluate a number of other sources of funding which might offset some of the above anticipated costs. Staff also continue to evaluate several longer-term housing proposals received in response to the homeless housing RFP from earlier in June. It is possible that one or more of those options could be put into place before the end of the calendar year and might have the effect of reducing hotel expenditures by shifting funding towards increasing permanent homeless system capacity.
Alignment with Strategic Plan: Maintaining safe housing options for Durham’s homeless population is critical to Goal 2 of the Durham County Strategic Plan (Health and Well-Being for All)
Resource Persons: Drew Cummings, Chief of Staff and Human Services Branch Director (Emergency Operations Center) ; Jim Groves, Emergency Services Director
County Manager’s Recommendation: The County Manager recommends that the Board approve moving $1,010,160 of General Fund COVID reserve to support a $540,000 contract with the Carolina Duke Inn for COVID related shelter and $470,160 for associated expenses and authorize the County Manager to execute the contract amendment with the Carolina Duke Inn.
Signature
County Manager: ____________________________