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28 July 2023
Richmond City Council outlines clear recommendations to City Administration directly addressing increased challenges facing unhoused Richmond families, children, and vulnerable populations
(Richmond, Virginia U.S.A.) – Richmond City Council today outlined clear recommendations to the City Administration directly addressing increased challenges facing unhoused Richmond families, children, and vulnerable populations.
Richmond City Council’s
recommendations to Richmond Chief Administration Officer, Lincoln Saunders, are
as follows:
MEMORANDUM
TO Mr. Lincoln Saunders
Richmond
Chief Administrative Officer
Richmond Office of Chief
Administrative Officer
FROM The
Honorable Michael J. Jones
Council President,
Richmond City Council
Councilmember Stephanie A. Lynch, Chair
Richmond City Council
Education and Human
Services Standing Committee
THROUGH LaTesha S. Holmes, Council Chief of Staff
Richmond City
Council Office of Council Chief of Staff
DATE July 26, 2023
COPIED Members
of Richmond City Council
SUBJECT Unhoused
Richmond Residents
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Thank
you for the continued collaboration in finding the best solutions to serve our
unhoused citizens in Richmond. The Richmond City Council Education and Human
Services Standing Committee has been tasked with tracking and monitoring
several topics relative to the city’s homeless service efforts which include
both short and long-term solutions.
The Committee has requested and
received various reports from the Administration, starting in September of 2022
with proposed plans for implementation of the year round shelter program;
projected budget of the 2022-2023 Inclement Weather Shelters (ICW), ongoing
reports related to census and status, service delivery issues and the most
recent budget tracking report which demonstrated the surplus allocation
remaining from the $4.4 original million allocation. In addition to the ICW
tracking and monitoring, the EHS Committee has continued to track the status
and wellbeing of the current homeless population, taking a particular focus on
the increased number of families and children.
The Committee and full body looks
forward to a report to the EHS Committee by September 14, 2023 on the status of
a permanent, year-round housing resource center which should include expanded
capacity for specialty populations such as an elderly and medically vulnerable,
as well as a permanent location for the upcoming year-round shelter. As always,
this body remains committed to working with the Administration on these
solutions and leveraging whatever relationships, resources and institutional
knowledge we can offer to identify solutions that meet the needs of our
unhoused community.
In light of a recent wave of evictions
as well as other unique dynamics facing the City of Richmond in this moment, we
remain concerned about the number of medically vulnerable,
elderly
individuals and families that remain precariously housed. In recent months
since the closing of the ICW shelters, we have heard from numerous stakeholders,
direct practitioners as well as homeless individuals and families themselves-
who have cited the need for case management and resources to help get them back
to stability. While we acknowledge and appreciate the $1 Million appropriation
to Homeward and Housing Families First, we are also painfully aware that the
needs far outweigh the capacity. We also understand and remain sympathetic to
the inherent challenges and barriers to accessing these channels through the
GRCoC’s coordinated point of entry (the Homeless Connection Line).
The Education and Human Services
Standing Committee, with the support of the full body of Council, would like
the Administration to consider the following recommendations to address the
increased challenges facing our families, children and vulnerable populations
experiencing homelessness. We would ask to expedite the implementation of these
recommendations no later than July 31, 2023 given the urgent nature of these
issues.
1. Leverage our
existing infrastructure to increase case management services and deploy
resources to our families and children, as well as vulnerable populations in
need.
Recommendation A: An
appropriation of $120k to allow for our existing partner Daily Planet Health
Services to continue invoicing for case management services, supplies and the
addition of FTE to provide specific case management services to families and
children until 11/1/23
Recommendation B: Request a
report from Homeward on how all current funding is being leveraged families and
children in the City of Richmond (this includes the $1M appropriation approved
by Council specific to Housing Families First as well as the federal grant
funding received to prevent and end youth homelessness. We would recommend
exploring access with partners such as Daily Planet so that their dedicated
case managers may assist families on their caseload.
2. Increase scope
and capacity of our existing Family Crisis Fund to support families and
vulnerable populations with both prevention and intervention efforts to
mitigate the impact of homelessness.
Recommendation
A:
Allocate an additional $700k to replenish the Family Crisis Fund and expand its
capacity to work in a more targeted way with families who are currently
experiencing homelessness and/or precariously housed. Human Kind can serve as a
convening partner for agencies and non-profits working directly with families
and vulnerable populations to help provide homelessness-to-housing support;
including but not limited to temporary emergency shelter, first month’s rent,
utility and transportation assistance.
Recommendation
B:
Establish an internal working group to bolster the capacity of the Family
Crisis Fund. The internal working group will consist of Human Kind, City
Administration, current coordinating non-profit partners and a City Council
representative and will be responsible for evaluating the current processes,
developing criteria for maximum cap exemptions, as well as recommendations to
fully leverage the FCF as a tool to lift up at-risk families and vulnerable
populations facing eviction and homelessness into economic stability.
Additional tasks for the workgroup may include recommendations for program
sustainability with projected budget.
In addition to these recommendations,
we also look forward to continued dialogue around the ongoing challenges facing
our homeless service system and ask for your collaboration on the following:
1. An ordinance
to codify and solidify the city’s expectations for all future shelter operators
in receipt of city funds. This includes expectations around hours and timeline
of operations, prioritization of services and service delivery expectations.
2. An analysis of
Homeward’s role in the GRCoC as well as their operation of the Connection Line
as the sole coordinated point of entry. We remain committed to exploring
options that ensure a ‘no wrong door’ pathway for all individuals experiencing
homelessness. We are committed to continuing partnership with GRCoC partners as
well as ensuring that all individuals are reported through our Homeless Case
Management Information System, but are interested in exploring options to fully
leverage our federal funding, data and homeless service continuum to best serve
our unhoused residents.
3. An MOU with
our regional partners that solidifies the commitment to fund and support the
city’s year-round housing resource center and expand capacity of shelter beds
through our existing partners. The city has traditionally bore the full
responsibility of funding the ICW walk-up shelter as well as cooling stations
during the summer months. We understand that a certain portion of our census is
coming from the surrounding counties and that homelessness knows no boarders.
We would like to explore a formalized partnership with our regional partners to
support these efforts. This would come with the opportunity to carve out the
scope of work and deliverables for our operators as well as explore additional
federal and private foundation grant opportunities together.
Again, we thank you for your
consideration and careful review of these recommendations. We stand in full
support of our city staff, community partners and most importantly, our individuals
experiencing homelessness to develop a system that meets people where they are
and when they need it most. We would appreciate the administration attending
the Tuesday, September 5, 2023 Organizational Development meeting to update
council on steps taken.
It is our greatest honor to serve all
of the residents of this city, no matter what station they may be in. We look
forward to working with you to meet the needs of our most vulnerable.
- E N D -
Richmond City Council - Richmond City Hall - 900 East Broad
Street, Suite 305 - Richmond, Virginia
23219 U.S.A. - rva.gov/richmond-city-council (web)
