Fiscal Note
The proposed resolution accepts the Community Development Division’s (CDD) Homeless Services Requests for Proposals (RFP) and authorizes CDD to accept proposals from service organizations in response to that RFP. CDD will formulate 2018 funding allocation recommendations to be presented to the Mayor and Common Council for use beginning in 2018. Release of this RFP assumes continuation of the program in 2018 at the current service level. The proposed funding process will allocate both City General Fund dollars and grant funding from various HUD grants. The total 2018 estimated funding for this process is $784,385; $610,275 in General Fund support and $174,110 in grant funding. Funding included in the 2018 agency request is consistent with the 2017 Adopted Budget.
Title
SUBSTITUTE--Accepting the Community Development Division’s (CDD) Homeless Services Request for Proposals, and authorizing the CDD to accept proposals from service organizations in response to that RFP and formulate 2018 funding allocation recommendations to the Mayor and Common Council for use beginning in 2018.
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WHEREAS, the Community Development Division, in consultation with the Community Development Block Grant Committee, is responsible for formulating recommendations to the Mayor and Common Council regarding the use of City administered resources budgeted for homeless services that are purchased from private, nonprofit agencies; and
WHEREAS, on December 3, 2014, the Common Council adopted the City of Madison, Wisconsin 2015-2019 Consolidated Plan, articulating the specific community development goals and objectives on which the City would focus its federal entitlement funds; and
WHEREAS, that plan identifies Affordable Housing as a primary goal and Housing Assistance, including assistance to homeless and special needs populations, as a specific related objective; and
WHEREAS, CDD staff played an active role in the community conversation which culminated in the recently approved 2017 Madison/Dane County Community Plan to End and Prevent Homelessness and incorporated into the City’s RFP its key recommendations; and
WHEREAS, the CDD, on behalf of the City, intends to continue partnering with the Madison/Dane County Continuum of Care (CoC) and the community with the goal of improving the homeless services system in accordance with performance measures adopted by HUD, and seeks to reinforce these standards within the City’s RFP; and
WHEREAS, the Community Development Division undertook a robust research and community engagement process to gather data and solicit input and recommendations on how best to target City administered homeless-focused funds in such a way that they are most impactful in preventing and ending homelessness in the Madison area; and
WHEREAS, research findings and input gathered from focus groups and written recommendations offered valuable information that was considered in the development of an RFP document; and
WHEREAS, CDD’s release of an RFP for homeless services assumes the continuation in 2018 of funding for homeless services at the same level as that authorized in the Adopted 2017 Operating Budget; and
WHEREAS, with the exception of contracts with Sankofa Street Outreach Services and the Beacon (County Day Resource Center), which have or will commence in 2017, existing contracts for services awarded under the City’s homeless and special needs populations objective (listed below) will expire on December 31, 2017 and those funds (totaling $769,869) will be rebid through the 2018 Request for Proposals process:
• Community Action Coalition: Housing Crisis Hotline
• Lutheran Social Services: Off the Square Club
• Porchlight: DIGS Program
• Porchlight: Eliminating Barriers to Stable Housing
• Porchlight: Case Management at MPL Central Library
• Porchlight: Outreach
• Porchlight: Shelter Outreach / Case Manager
• Porchlight: Support Services & Operations
• Porchlight: TESS (Transit for Jobs)
• The Salvation Army: Emergency Family Shelter (Warming House)
• The Salvation Army: Single Women Shelter Case Management
• Tellurian: "ReachOut" (Downtown Outreach) Program
• YWCA: Mifflin Street Housing First
• Social Justice Center: Storage Space
NOW, THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the Common Council accepts the Community Development Division’s (CDD) Homeless Services Request for Proposals, and authorizes the CDD to accept proposals from service organizations in response to that RFP, and formulate 2018 funding allocation recommendations to be presented to the Mayor and Common Council for use beginning in 2018.