Title
A Partnership to Provide Services for Homeless Veterans (B)
This is a request for the City Commission to consider and approve the City of Gainesville entering into a partnership with the Alachua County Coalition for the Homeless and Hungry (ACCHH) and the local Veteran’s Administration Office (VA) to provide services for homeless veterans in Gainesville-Alachua County. **ESTIMATED STAFF PRESENTATION 15 MINUTES**
Explanation
On June 18, 2015, Mayor Ed Braddy, Intergovernmental Affairs Coordinator Kelly Ferrel, and Assistant City Manager Fred Murry met with local VA officials, Thomas Wisnieski, Director, Nancy Reissener, Deputy Director, and Vianne Marchese, Chief of Community Care Services, to discuss this subject. The VA officials expressed a need for supportive housing for veterans and asked if that need could be addressed at the Empowerment Center. The VA was interested in providing case management services but they did not have the mechanism to provide supportive housing. The City of Gainesville has the ability to provide buildings and construction funds for VA housing but not the other supportive services.
Recently, ACCHH entered into a contract to provide up to $900,000 in emergency transitional residential services for homeless Veterans. These services are to be provided on a per diem basis and include indoor shelter, meals, case management, showers, laundry, transportation, and other services as may be needed while the Veteran is in residency. With the execution of that contract, the creation of a partnership between the ACCHH, the VA, and the City of Gainesville to provide support services to veterans and their families became a possibility.
In this partnership, ACCHH would be responsible for providing supportive services (shelter, meals, etc.), and for the management of (and all expenses related to) the building. In addition to payments of up to $180,000 per year for the next five years to ACCHH for those services, the local VA would provid...
Click here for full text