Title
Presentation By Deputy City Manager George R. Keller, Jr., CPPT And Jaime Hernandez, Emergency And Governmental Affairs Manager, To Review And Discuss The City’s Homeless Services Plan, Including The Adoption Of Specific Action Steps To Be Funded And Implemented.
Strategic Plan Focus
Quality of Life & Strong Neighborhoods
Body
Staff Recommends: Discussion and Consensus Building for the Homeless Services Plan by the Hollywood City Commission, including specific action steps and approving necessary funding.
Explanation:
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) considers someone homeless if he or she lacks a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence. In January 2018, 552,830 people were counted as homeless in the United States, according to a 2019 report by the White House’s Council of Economic Advisors. Of those, 194,467 (35 percent) were unsheltered (living on the streets) and 358,363 (65 percent) were sheltered in temporary housing. The overall homeless population on a single night represents 0.2 percent of the U.S. population, or 17 people per 10,000 in the population, the report says. According to HUD’s 2018 annual homelessness count, 111,122 homeless people (20 percent) had a severe mental illness and 86,647 homeless people (16 percent) suffered from chronic substance abuse. Among all adults who used shelter at some point in 2017, 44 percent had a disability. HUD also found that 9 percent of U.S. homeless had spent time in a jail or correctional facility.
Parts of the City of Hollywood, particularly the Federal Highway Corridor, continue to be plagued by homelessness. The Jubilee Kitchen and Broward Outreach Center, both located on the 2000 block of Scott Street in Hollywood, provide the homeless with meals, shelter and access to rehabilitative services through their involvement in the Homeless Initiative Partnership (HIP), which is collaboration between Broward County, municipalities and non-profit organizations to assist the homeless through a system called the Broward County Homeless Continuum of Care. Unfortunately, making effective contact with each homeless individual on Hollywood streets to offer them available sheltering and rehabilitative services continues to be a challenge because of the limited resources allocated to the homeless issue in the City. Additional resources are needed to effectively offer these services to the homeless, as well as develop a comprehensive plan that defines what the available homeless services and resources are and recommends how to best deliver them in Hollywood.
The City has developed a Homeless Services Plan that serves as a blueprint for providing the homeless with opportunities to access shelter, housing, mental health services, addiction assistance, job/skills training, and possible reunification with family members, using a combination of funding from Community Development Block Grants (CDBG), the American Rescue Plan (ARP), the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) HOME Investment Partnership program, the State Housing Initiatives Partnership (SHIP) program, an Interlocal Agreement with Broward County and the City’s Textile Recycling Collection Services program. The Plan balances these services with effective but compassionate enforcement of State Statutes and local ordinances that often involve homeless individuals.
The Plan specifically recommends six initial action steps for consideration, including securing additional shelter beds, establishing a Police Homeless Task Force, starting a pilot program that pairs case workers with Hollywood Police Officers to find and serve homeless individuals on Hollywood streets, petitioning court judges to sentence homeless individuals who commit misdemeanor offenses to perform community service, adopting an “Anti-Camping Ordinance” that prohibits individuals from using public rights-of-way as a temporary or permanent place of dwelling, and establishing a transportation system between the Cities of Dania Beach, Hallandale Beach and Hollywood as part of a collaboration between those three municipal governments that delivers homeless individuals to the Jubilee Kitchen, Broward Outreach Center and other locations in the three municipalities where homeless services may be rendered.
Fiscal Impact:
The estimated initial annual cost of implementing the action steps outlined in the Homeless Services Plan is $350,000.00, which will be funded through a combination of Community Development Block Grants (CDBG) and the American Rescue Plan (ARP). The recommended action steps would be in addition to homeless services such as access to sheltering, housing, mental health services, addiction assistance, job/skills training, and family reunification that are already funded through federal and state grants, the Interlocal Agreement with Broward County and the City’s Textile Recycling Collection Services program.
Recommended for inclusion on the agenda by:
Jaime Hernandez, Emergency and Governmental Affairs Manager
George R. Keller, Jr., CPPT, Deputy City Manager