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HEALTH SERVICES AGENCY - Executive Director Jayme Bottke
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Requested Action(s)
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a) AGREEMENT - Request approval and authorization for the Executive Director to sign the Letter of Acknowledgement with Tehama County Continuum of Care (Tehama CoC) and CoC-member organizations to share a commitment to preventing and responding to homelessness and housing insecurity in Tehama County
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Financial Impact:
Signing this letter in support of the Tehama County Continuum of Care will allow the Health Services Agency the possible benefit from receiving funds to support ongoing medical street outreach for the homeless as well as service coordination for the No Place Like Home units at Olive Grove and the two additional projects planned for Red Bluff to name a few.
Background Information:
The California Interagency Council on Homelessness (Cal ICH) has made Round 3 of the Encampment Resolution Funding (ERF) Program. The ERF funds were established for the following purposes:
• Assist Local Jurisdictions in ensuring the safety and wellness of people experiencing homelessness in encampments.
• Provide grants to Local Jurisdictions and CoCs to resolve critical encampment concerns and transition individuals into safe and stable housing.
• Encourage a data-informed, coordinated approach to address encampment concerns.
The County does not intend to apply for ERF Round 3 for the prioritized encampment areas, but instead intends to partner with Tehama CoC to connect unhoused individuals with wraparound supportive services, interim housing, and permanent housing solutions to be offered by CoC-member organizations with the support of ERF and leveraged funding. Projects applying for this funding program are required to designate a “prioritized encampment” and all services to be provided using the funding are supposed to be services provided to the individuals who are coming from that prioritized encampment. Cal ICH has clarified that in very small communities it may be possible to justify prioritizing all of a small number of encampments for resolution using this fund source. Attached is a map of encampment areas the CoC plans to designate as “prioritized”.
Tehama CoC intends to apply for Encampment Resolution Funds (ERF) to address a small number of prioritized encampment areas within the City of Red Bluff, including those located in and around Red Bluff River Park, Dog Island/Samuel Ayer Park, and Forward Park, as well as the area near the intersection of Interstate 5 and Highway 36 between East Sand Slough and the Sacramento River and the area north of Walnut Street and east of Baker Road.
The Tehama CoC recently received some clarification from Cal ICH on a couple of additional requirements that, as a CoC applicant, they will need to meet in order to include any site that is partially or completely located in a state right-of-way as part of our “designated encampment”. This letter of acknowledgement will satisfy the requirement and allow the CoC to move forward with the application for funding by January 31, 2024.