COMMITMENT • INTEGRITY • LEADERSHIP	View full PDF report View Selected Abbreviations
Homelessness in California State Government and the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority Need to Strengthen Their Efforts to Address Homelessness Report Number: 2017-112

Response to the Survey From —
Richmond, Contra Costa County CoC

 

HUD provides two lists of California Continuum of Care (CoC) key contacts: one for Northern California and one for Southern California.
You can find these lists at https://www.hud.gov/states/california/homeless/continuumcare.

1. Enter the CoC number for which you are completing the survey.
   
   CA-505
2. Enter the CoC name for which you are completing the survey.

   Richmond, Contra Costa County CoC

   
   

3. Enter the organization within the CoC that you represent.

   Contra Costa Health Services: Health, Housing and Homeless Services Division

4. What type of organization do you represent?.
Joint Powers Authority
County government agency
City government agency
Non-profit
Other (please specify)





5. How many staff (full-time equivalents) does your organization employ?

   20

6. Does your organization provide homeless services directly for clients?
   No Yes (If so, what types of homeless service programs does your organization provide?)
   
   

   Emergency Shelter, Permanent Supportive Housing, Outreach Teams, Transitional Housing for Transition Aged Youth, Respite Shelter, Homeless Court

7. Are you a direct recipient on your CoC's HUD application?
   No 
   Yes
8. Approximately what percentage of the funding your organization administers is from HUD for the CoC program?
   

   16

9. If not your organization, is there another organization in your CoC that administers the majority of homeless services funding?
   Not applicable. My organization administers the majority of homeless services funding.
   No. There is not one organization in my CoC that administers the majority of homeless services funding.
   If yes, what is that organization?
   
   

10. Does your CoC conduct an unsheltered Point-in-Time (PIT) count annually? (Including those years not required by HUD)
    No (Skip to questions 17-19, and resume the survey on question 20.) 
    Yes (Continue on questions 11-16, and resume the survey on question 20.)
11. In which year did your CoC begin conducting an annual unsheltered PIT count?
    

    2015

12. Why did your CoC decide to conduct an annual unsheltered PIT count?
    
    

    To provide data to inform planning efforts.

13. What funding sources do you use to conduct the annual unsheltered PIT count? (Check all that apply.)
    City funding
    County funding
    HUD planning funding
    Private funding
    Other (please specify)
    
    

14. How did your CoC facilitate the annual unsheltered PIT count?
    (For example, did you increase the number of volunteers, or find additional funding?)
    
    

    Increased volunteers, increased political support, reallocated resources to do the count annually.

15. Did your organization have any challenges in implementing an annual unsheltered PIT count?
    No.
    Yes. If so, what were they and how did you overcome them?
    
    

    By the time the process is finished for one PIT count, including writing the PIT report, it's almost time to start planning for the next one if they're happening annually. Doing an annual PIT requires an investment of staff time, a reallocation of resources and re-ordering of priorities.

16. How has conducting an annual unsheltered PIT count affected your CoC's operations and/or outcomes? If you have any data or analyses, please share specific metrics.
    
    

    Annual unsheltered PIT counts help inform services and understanding of trends and changes in demographics. One outcome is greater confidence in our data. The more frequent data collection allows us to see trends and respond more quickly than we would with an every-other year unsheltered count.

17. Why does your CoC not conduct an annual unsheltered PIT count? (Check * all that apply)
    
    Lack of funding
    Lack of volunteers
    Lack of internal capacity
    HUD does not require an annual count
    Annual variations in numbers are not enough to justify the expense of a count every year.
    Other (please specify)
     
    

18. Please elaborate on the reasons why your CoC does not conduct an annual unsheltered PIT count.
    
    
    
    
19. What would cause your CoC to conduct an unsheltered PIT count in the years not required by HUD?
    
    
    
    
    
20. What sources does your organization use to fund the HUD-required PIT count of unsheltered homeless? (Check all that apply)
    
    City funding
    County funding
    HUD planning funds
    Private funding
    Other (please specify)
     
    

21. How much did your CoC's 2017 PIT count cost?
    
    This is difficult to measure because most costs are in-kind. In addition to costs for transit passes and printed materials, our biggest cost was hours spent by our CoC Coordinator, CORE outreach teams, HMIS lead and her team. In addition, we utilized approximately 350 volunteer and other staff hours.
22. How many people did your CoC require to conduct its 2017 PIT count? (Staff, volunteers, and others)
    
    

    100

23. How many of those identified in Question 22 were volunteers?
    
    

    55

24. Does your CoC recruit volunteers for its unsheltered PIT count from organizations outside the homeless services community?
    No.
    If yes, from which organizations/communities (outside of homeless service providers) did you recruit volunteers for the 2017 PIT count?
    
    

    We put out a call for volunteers to a list of approximately 1000 people on our CoC mailing list. We also do a call for volunteers through the Multi-Faith Action Coalition, a municipal Fire Department and non-homeless service County employees. In addition, we have press releases, social media posts, and notices that go out in County Supervisor and other community newsletters.

25. Please share your perspective on the reasons your CoC's unsheltered homeless population in 2017 did or did not change from that in its previous unsheltered PIT count.
    
    

    We haven't seen substantial changes in our overall PIT counts but we have seen geographic shifts. In addition, we have been making a very concerted effort over the last 2 years to eliminate veteran and chronic homelessness through the Built For Zero campaign. This effort has resulted in a 27% decrease in veteran homelessness between 2016-2017.

26. Has your CoC reallocated funding in the past?
    No.
    Yes. If yes, please provide additional details or comments regarding reallocation you would like to share.
    
    

    Yes, we have reallocated projects that ranked low in our CoC's prioritization process Two projects have been reallocated in the last 3 years. The funds were reallocated to Coordinated Entry project and Permanent Supportive Housing.

27. How often does your CoC reevaluate final priority rankings for the HUD CoC Program Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA), based on HUD priorities?
    Never
    Every year
    Other (please specify)
    
    

28. How often does your CoC perform the following gap analyses?
    
    Housing gap analysis—First planned for 2018
    
    Funding gap analysis—Annually
    
    Service gap analysis—Annually
    
    Other (please specify)—
    
    
29. In what year did your CoC perform each of the following for the first time, or leave the row blank if it is not applicable.
    
    Housing gap analysis
    NA
    
    Funding gap analysis
    2013
    
    Service gap analysis
    2013
    
    Other (as you identified in question 27)
    
    
30. Does your CoC employ specific strategies for identifying alternative funding for programs that are reallocated or do not receive HUD funding?
    No.
    Yes. (If yes, please share some strategies your CoC employs to identify replacement funding.)
    
    

    Coordination with Consortium of county and city entitlement jurisdictions to leverage ESG and CDBG funding as applicable. Technical assistance phone calls to programs regarding pursuit of other federal or private funding sources.

    
    
31. Does your CoC have a strategic plan that integrates other publicly-funded programs that provide services, housing, and income supports to poor persons whether they are homeless or not (mainstream benefits and services)?
    No. (Skip to question 36.)
    Yes. (Continue to questions 32-35 and skip question 36.)
    
    
32. Please provide a web address to your CoC's most recent strategic plan or email it as an attachment to CoCSurvey@auditor.ca.gov.

    http://cchealth.org/h3/coc/pdf/strategic-plan-update-2014.pdf

33. When did your CoC complete its first strategic plan?
    
    

    2004

34. How often does your CoC update its strategic plan?
    
    

    Every 5 years

35. How has your strategic plan benefited your CoC?
    
    

    Having a common framework for how to address homelessness and a shared language for all 19 jurisdictions in Contra Costa is very useful!

    
    
36. Why has your CoC not developed a strategic plan?
    
    

37. What grant-seeking or fundraising activities does your CoC engage in?
    
    

    The CoC partners with the CoC lead agency, Health Housing and Homeless Services, for grantseeking and fundraising.

38. Are there any strategies or unique actions your agency takes that have strengthened your CoC?
    
    

    We have offered municipalities the opportunity to invest in outreach teams that will focus only within their jurisdictional boundaries. The teams are staffed and managed by the County but work closely with police departments in the cities that have invested in teams. This has provided a funding stream for outreach, provided an opportunity for cities to actively engage in addressing homelessness in their communities and laid the groundwork for closer relationships between the local law enforcement and the CoC. We have also dramatically simplified access to services through our Coordinated Entry system. We have also increased transparency and communication with communities through implementation of Coordinated Entry.

39. Please provide any information about these strategies or actions.
    Feel free to provide web addresses to any reports or email them as attachments to CoCSurvey@auditor.ca.gov.
    
    

    http://cchealth.org/h3/coc/partners.php#simpleContained4

40. If you have any additional perspective or concerns, please provide this information in the space below.
    For example, if you would like to share additional information regarding homelessness, services, or funding.
    
    

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