The purpose of this staff report is to brief the City Council on:

1. Background data related to the unhoused in Union City, which includes the number of unhoused, number of encampments, and UCPD related calls;

2. Current and future sources of funding to address homelessness;  

4. City staff's recent application to the Alameda County Homeless Provider Incubator Fund;  

5.  Union City's multi-department Homeless Outreach and Engagement plan;

6. City staff's upcoming unhoused count (Point-in-Time) initiative, tentatively scheduled for Spring 2021

The Informational Report on Union City Homelessness is consistent with City Council Priority, Strategic Plan Goal C, Strategy 2 which involves the development of a multi-departmental approach to address homelessness through coordination with staff, community organizations and Alameda County. 

The purpose of this staff report is to brief the City Council on unhoused data within Union City, current and future sources of funding to address homelessness, staff’s application to the Alameda County Homeless Provider Incubator Fund to fund staff’s multi-department homeless outreach and engagement draft plan, and the upcoming unhoused count, coming this Spring 2021.

County-wide Programs for Unhoused Population

There has been a measurable and visible increase in the unhoused population in Union City in the last three years.  Union City contracts with 2-1-1, which is a county-wide service that connects callers with health and human services in their community. 2-1-1 identified 285 Union City residents as being homeless or in a housing crisis last fiscal year. Since the Shelter in Place Order through this October 2-1-1 served 124 individuals in Union City that identified as homeless or in a housing crisis (Attachment A - 2-1-1 Union City Report).

With the onset of the COVID-19 Shelter in Place order, Alameda County, in collaboration with Alameda County Health Care for the Homeless (ACHCH), Health Care Services Agency, Abode Services, and the State of California, initiated Project Roomkey to address the needs of people experiencing homelessness during this time. Project Roomkey has two programs. One program is Operation Comfort that provides isolation housing for symptomatic or COVID-19 infected people.  The other program is Operation Safer Ground that provides safe housing for people at high-risk due to age or underlying health conditions. 

Alameda County’s Operation Comfort sites are operating with dedicated hotel rooms/or trailers in Alameda, Berkeley, Fremont and Oakland; however, most of these sites are already close to full capacity and no new placements are being accepted. Two hotels in Southern Alameda County that are being used for Operation Safer Ground are at 100% occupancy.  The Springhill Suites in Newark has 119 rooms and 178 people are sheltered here.  In Fremont, the Islander Motel has 10 rooms and 10 individuals are sheltered here.

Project Homekey, is the second phase of the State’s initiative to address homelessness. Project Homekey is the state’s $600 million program for purchasing and rehabilitating housing, including hotels, motels, vacant apartment buildings and other properties, converting them into permanent, long-term housing for people experiencing or at risk of experiencing homelessness. Eight applications for Project Homekey sites within Alameda County have been accepted and approved by the California Department of Housing and Community Development. All eight sites are in Oakland.

City staff are anticipating a new surge in the unhoused population in Union City beginning this month as Project Roomkey starts to wind down and transition to Project Homekey. Project Homekey does not have the capacity to house all Project Roomkey participants. City staff will continue to monitor the data on the City’s unhoused population to ensure we are able to apply for funding based on an accurate unhoused population count and also target unhoused outreach efforts.

Homeless Data Reports within Union City

Data on the unhoused is taken every two years during the Point-in-Time homeless street count and shelter count to learn more about the individuals and families experiencing homelessness on a federal to local level. Alameda County and Union City have partnered with Everyone Home since 2017 to get an accurate count of our unhoused population. The latest data from the 2019 Point-in-Time Count indicates the City of Union City has 106 unhoused individuals, which is an increase of 165% since 2017 when were 40 unhoused individuals were identified.

In addition to partnering with Everyone Home, data is also collected by Union City Police Department (UCPD) and Community and Recreation Services (CRS). Homeless encampments are tracked by UCPD through a variety of steps. When UCPD receives a complaint about an encampment, an officer will confirm the location of the encampment, take photos of the encampment, provide a Homeless Resource Guide (Attachment B – UCPD Homeless Resource Guide) to homeless persons if contacted, and provide the Homeless Program Sergeant the location and photos of the encampment. UCPD has tracked 27 encampment locations from November 2019 to date. Currently, 14 out of the 27 encampment sites are no longer active. The unhoused can often be transitory; encampments that were previously vacated may become occupied by the same individual or other individuals.

UCPD works closely with Fremont Dispatch to gather data related to homeless calls for service. Homeless Person Contacts (HPC) calls have been tracked since March 2020 to present. From March through June there were 10 HPC calls, likely due to the Shelter in Place. UCPD has seen an uptick in calls starting in July to present as Shelter in Place Orders were lifted. On average UCPD receives 77 HPC calls per month. (Attachment C – UCPD HPC Call Chart).

The CAREavan program collects data on the total number of program participants, the average amount of vehicles per evening, and participant status. The CAREavan program has served a total of 302 adults and 149 children since its inception in 2016 (Attachment D – CAREavan Program Flyer). CAREavan program participant data is tracked in alignment with Everyone Home standards: age, gender, race and ethnicity, household breakdown, place of residence prior to homelessness and chronically homeless status from 2019 to present. Analysis from 2019 and 2020 CAREavan program participant data (Attachment E – CAREavan Graphs) illustrates, the program is comprised slightly more of single adults than families. The majority of participants are local – from Union City, Hayward, Fremont and Newark. The race and ethnicity breakdown are majority Hispanic/Latino and White.

The CAREavan program currently has 32 registered vehicles; however, of the registered vehicles the program averages 15 vehicles per evening. The current level of vehicles per evening is lower than normal, due to CAREavan staff enrolling 12 program participants into Operation Roomkey and Operation Safer Ground. CAREavan staff anticipate an increase in program participation with CAREavan as Alameda County’s Operation Safer Ground discharges guests this November.

Union City faces many challenges to address the multi-disciplined and highly complicated issue of homelessness.  A lack of designated funding and staffing prohibit the City from taking the important first steps to clearly define the problem.  The City has incomplete data on Union City’s unhoused population, which is a barrier to success to addressing homelessness in the community.  The city also lacks street outreach and case management staff to contact unhoused individuals and assist them into getting the services they need, and ultimately get the unhoused off the street or out of their vehicles and into housing. To address these barriers staff has applied to the Homeless Provider Incubator Fund to fund the newly drafted homeless outreach and engagement plan. To prevent an undercount and get accurate unhoused data, Union City is also partnering with Everyone Home for the next Point-in-Time Count, which is the scheduled in Spring 2021.  

Outside Funding to Support the Unhoused 

Most of the funding to address homelessness from the State and County go to jurisdictions with the highest number of unhoused individuals. A variety of funding sources are available to support the unhoused; however, Union City’s share of funding is often low – as it is based on census population data and the Point-in-Time Count number of unhoused.

*Pending City Council budget approval for FY21-22

Currently, Union City is using Homeless Emergency Aid Program (HEAP), CDBG, and CDBG Corona Virus (CDBG-CV) funds to address the unhoused in Union City, as noted above. The federal CARES Act has allocated supplemental CDBG-CV funds through the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to the state CDBG program. These funds can be used to prevent, prepare for, and respond to the Coronavirus. The City estimates that 50 Union City residents will be served by CAREavan in FY 2020-21 using CDBG funds.

The City also designated $188,000 in CDBG Program Funds (Resolution 5605-20) to assist residents that have been impacted by COVID-19 with the back payment of rent. The purpose of this program is to keep people housed.  It is more cost effective and beneficial to the health and wellbeing of individuals and families to stabilize a household and keep people in their homes.

HEAP funds for the CAREavan program will be exhausted in February 2021. CDBG Program Funds and CDBG-CV will be used in FY20-21 to fund the CAREavan Program and rental assistance. General Fund dollars may be needed to backfill the CAREavan program in future fiscal years if the City is unable to secure outside funding. City staff have identified the need to provide ongoing support to keep the CAREavan program operational and hope to increase the number of program participants within the program. Currently the CAREavan program has 55 adults and 18 children. Staff hopes to accommodate an additional 50 program participants; however, current funding levels do not support increasing CAREavan program participation and increasing street outreach and case management staff.

Staff have identified State funding – Permanent Local Housing Allocation Formula Program (PLHAFP) which has approximately $1,523,610 over the five-year period. PLHAFP fund can be used to assist  persons who are experiencing or at risk of homelessness, including, but not limited to, providing rapid rehousing, rental assistance, supportive/case management services that allow people to obtain and retain housing, operating and capital costs for navigation centers and emergency shelters, and the new construction, rehabilitation, and preservation of permanent and transitional housing. PLHAFP funding is non-competitive. The City will be submitting an application in December for the funds. Staff will be coming back to the City Council on December 8, 2020 with a Resolution authorizing the submittal of the application.  The staff report will identify how the City intends to use the funds.

Fremont staff has been in contact with City staff regarding PLHAFP funding to support the Fremont Navigation Center, which provides housing navigation to the Tri-City. The Fremont Navigation Center, which opened this August, provides a clean, safe, calm and flexible environment that allows homeless persons 18 years and older, to rebuild their lives and intensely focus on finding stable permanent housing. The Fremont Navigation Center provides up to six months of housing for 45 homeless adults, housing navigation and a variety of health services.  Partnering with Fremont to provide navigation services for our unhoused population could be one of the options that Union City explores.  Staff has also had discussions with Midpen Housing to potentially utilize some of the funds to provide rental subsidies for some of the units at Lazuli Landing; the recently approved 81-unit affordable housing project located on Mission Boulevard.  The funds may also be a potential funding source for the City’s CAREavan program.

Homeless Provider Incubator Fund Application

Future funding opportunities that City staff have applied for are Alameda County Homeless Housing Assistance and Prevention (HHAP) $210,000 (5-year grant period) and the Homeless Provider Incubator Fund $270,000 (2-year grant period). The HHAP and Homeless Provider Incubator Funds are both unsecured sources of funding. The Alameda County Housing and Community Development Department’s Homeless Provider Incubator Fund has an $800,000 overall program allotment. Each grantee can expect between $130,000 to $270,000. City staff have applied for $270,000 to expand the CAREavan program and support a proposed Homeless Outreach and Engagement Plan.

The majority of funding requested for the Homeless Provider Incubator Fund is to:

• Increase staff who will provide street outreach/case management to the unhoused at encampments and other areas not meant for human habitation throughout Union City.

• Increase staff to provide case management for CAREavan participants (to assist with housing placements, resume writing, assistance with job applications, and benefit enrollment).

• Increase CAREavan program capacity by serving an additional 50 people (adults and children).

Homeless Outreach and Engagement Plan Outline

As part of the application process for Homeless Provider Incubator Funds, City staff crafted a homeless outreach and engagement plan to address the need for direct contact with the unhoused to get them off the street, out of cars and RVs and ultimately into housing. To implement the plan, funding must be secured. The homeless outreach and engagement plan identifies the target population; target numbers to focus on; collaborations with other agencies; the supportive services to provide the target population; and defines the objectives of the purpose for the outreach and engagement. To accomplish the plan, street outreach staff that have experience working with the unhoused and experience in case management would need to be increased. One full-time street outreach workers salary and benefits is estimated at $60,000 annually. A lead street outreach worker salary and benefits are estimated at $80,000 annually. A part-time street outreach worker may cost $26 to $30 per hour with benefits.

The target population that the plan seeks to address are unhoused:

• Youth (14 to 18) and Transition Aged Youth (TAY 18 to 24)

• Families

• Adults (25-59)

• Seniors (60+)

• Veterans

• Chronically homeless (unhoused for a prolonged period – more than one year and/or on multiple occasions)

• Individuals with severe and persistent mental illness

• Individuals with disabilities

The target numbers aim to be both measurable and realistic:

• Union City Outreach will outreach with 100 individuals a year.

• Union City Outreach will have a caseload of 50 participants with a minimum of 4 contacts a month

• Union City Outreach will refer 15% of enrolled/outreached individuals to medial/mental health services

• Union City Outreach will connect 5% (1 in 20 individuals) of enrolled/outreached individuals to shelter, permanent supportive housing, and housing services.

Collaborations will occur with the creation of a multijurisdictional unhoused task force that meets monthly or quarterly to address issues with homelessness, overnight parking/RV parking, and ordinances related to homelessness and encampments. The multijurisdictional task force may include City departments (UCPD, CRS, YFS, and ECD), service providers (TVHC Union City Street Health Team, local religious groups, treatment facilities) and property owners (local businesses, Caltrans, BART, East Bay Regional Parks, Alameda County Water District).

Supportive services which build relationships with community partners to establish full wrap-around services to include:

• Medical referrals

• Mental health referrals

• Shelter referrals

• Homeless/Caring Court referrals

• Legal support

• Social Security Administration support

• General Assistance support – food stamps

• Hygiene/snack packs

• Backpacks/tents/sleeping bags (limited to one per year)

• Showers

• DMV low cost ID and Driver’s License referrals

• Housing

• Assessments (mental health/medical)

• Transportation (bus passes, BART, cab/UBER vouchers) 

• Inpatient/Outpatient Alcohol and Other Drugs (AOD) services

The purpose of outreach and engagement is to build rapport, establish relationships, establish strong resources, and support the overall needs of Union City’s unhoused individuals and families. Outreach and engagement will occur with individuals, at encampments, RV’s and vehicles sites, at parks, at BART, railroads, creeks, other places not meant for human habitation. Lastly, if the unhoused are on private property, engagement must occur with the business and/or property owner. Outreach and engagement with the unhoused is the initial step that supports the long-term goal of getting the unhoused into stable and permanent housing.

2021 Point-in-Time Count  

Union City must get an accurate count of its unhoused population, during the next scheduled Point- in-Time Count, tentatively scheduled for Spring 2021. To receive our fair share of funding and accurately address homelessness within the City, Union City needs accurate data. One may observe the unhoused in encampments, parks, cars and RVs, in parking lots, and throughout the business districts. However, for all the visible, unhoused population, we also have a population of youth that couch surf with friends and family on multiple occasions that may not be counted. City staff is cognizant that the unhoused population in Union City appears to be growing in numbers. To address this issue, a cross-departmental City staff team recently joined the 2021 Point-in-Time Count Project Management Team for local jurisdictions, led by Everyone Home. City staff will attend multiple meeting between November and December which includes the role of volunteers, survey development, a youth count design, and lastly the fieldwork plan (Attachment F – Everyone Count Planning Overview).

Staff would propose to work in conjunction with the Union City Human Relation Commission (HRC) HRC Ad Hoc Committee to explore new engagement opportunities and facilitate the upcoming count of the unhoused. City staff will engage again with CAREavan participants, who were paid in past years to help count the unhoused. Youth and Family Services will also be actively engaged in the youth count design and implementation. The Point-in-Time Count helps the City better understand the factors surrounding a person’s homelessness and point the way to tailored solutions.

This is an informational report and does not impact the General Fund. As noted, the City has funding for CAREavan through FY 20-21.  To implement the street outreach and engagement plan, staffing levels must be increased. The hiring of case management and street outreach staff to transition the unhoused into housing is dependent on securing future funding.

This is an informational report to provide the City Council with an update on:

1. Background data related to the unhoused in Union City, which includes the number of unhoused, number of encampments, and UCPD related calls;

2. Current and future sources of funding to address homelessness;  

4. City staff's recent application to the Alameda County Homeless Provider Incubator Fund;  

5.  Union City's multi-department Homeless Outreach and Engagement plan;

6. City staff's upcoming unhoused count (Point-in-Time) initiative, tentatively scheduled for Spring 2021

No action is required.

Sharon Petrehn, Management Analyst II

Sharon Petrehn, Management Analyst II

Sushil Swamy, Case Manager

Francisco Gomez, Housing Manager