Title
Cold Night Shelter Program (B)
This item is a request to approve additional funds for the Cold Night Shelter Program.
Explanation
Since January 1, 2006, the City and County have provided funding for the Cold Night Shelter Program in accordance with an Emergency Shelter Services Interlocal Agreement (Agreement) as executed between the City and County. As part of the Agreement, the City and County provide $25,000 respectively for a total of $50,000 annually for the purposes of providing services to ensure the health and safety of homeless individuals during periods of cold weather or other emergencies caused by extraordinary circumstances that threaten the physical health and/or welfare of homeless persons. Due to limited shelter capacity available for homeless individuals during extremely cold weather conditions, the emergency shelter services funds have been historically allocated to the Cold Night Shelter Program.
The services for the Cold Night Shelter Program are usually provided from December 1 through March 31 during the coldest winter months of each year. However, due to the recent severe emergency weather conditions (temperatures 45°F or lower), from November 5 through November 16, 2010, the City implemented an emergency set-aside of $5,000 to provide temporary shelter and support services to homeless individuals during this period. This left a remaining program balance of $45,000 to allocate to the Cold Night Shelter Program for the remainder of the program period through March 31, 2011.
As part of the standard annual application cycle for the Cold Night Shelter Program the City's Affordable Housing Advisory Committee (AHAC) recommend and awarded the remaining $45,000 to two local housing agencies to provide temporary shelter and support services for the remainder of the program period. The Alachua County Housing Authority (ACHA) was awarded $24,750, and St. Francis House, Inc. (SFH) was awarded $20,250 to provide Cold Night Shelter Program services for a total of $45,000.
In late December, staff from the City's Housing and Community Development division consulted with both agencies to determine the status of funds expended and remaining in the program. Based on these initial estimates in December, staff requested official numbers through the end of December in order to bring an update to the City Manager and City Commission. Final numbers were received on Monday, January 10th, and a memo was sent to the City Manager outlining the program status (Attachment I).
According to the agency program data provided through December 31, 2010, over 70% of the Cold Night Shelter Program funds have been expended. There are approximately 90 days remaining in the Cold Night Shelter Program period to cover potential extreme cold weather conditions. Based on these calculations, there is a strong possibility that the available funding for the Cold Night Shelter Program will be exhausted before the end of the Cold Night Shelter Program period on March 31, 2011.
Given these circumstances, the ACHA and SFH have been advised to utilize the Cold Night Shelter Program funding as carefully as possible to ensure that services will be available through March 31, 2011. As a result, both the ACHA and SFH plan to continue coordinating their programs to closely monitor program activities and expenditures. However, to ensure that sufficient cold night services are available through March 31, 2011, staff recommends identifying alternative resources to add supplemental funding to the Cold Night Shelter Program.
On December 21, 2010, City staff identified $66,801.75 remaining in the account for services provided by the Office on Homelessness (OOH) (Attachment II). In accordance with the Interlocal Agreement, the City and County shall evenly split any remaining funds. The City will retain a refund of $33,400.88 and will submit a return of funds to the County in the amount of $33,400.87.
During the Alachua County Board of County Commission (BoCC) meeting on January 11, 2011, the issue of Cold Night Shelter Program funding was discussed, and the BoCC directed County staff to work with the City and the Cold Night Shelter Program agencies to identify matching funding for the remainder of the period.
To ensure that the Cold Night Shelter Program continue through the remainder of the period (March 31, 2011), city staff is recommending that $30,000 of the City's surplus funds from the Office on Homelessness account be used to increase the Cold Night Shelter Program budget from $50,000 to $80,000 for FY11. The Cold Night Shelter Program budget is expected to be further increased by the amount of additional funds as appropriated by the County, and if so, the City's additional funding will be used to match the amount of funds contributed by the County. The Agreements between the City and County as well as the two agencies providing the Cold Night Shelter services will need to be amended to facilitate the increase in budgeted funds and additional services.
Fiscal Note
Funds in the amount of $33,400.88 have been identified in the account for services provided by the Office on Homelessness.
Recommendation
The City Commission: 1) approve a transfer of surplus funds in the amount of $30,000 from the Office on Homelessness account into the account for the Cold Night Shelter Program; and 2) authorize the Mayor and/or the City Manager or his designee to execute any and all necessary documents, subject to approval as to form and legality by the City Attorney.