Fiscal Note
Up to $10,000 will be reallocated from the 2013 adopted City operating budget for Miscellaneous Appropriations: County Day Shelter to the budget of the Community Development Division for the administration of appropriate contracts. Funds will be used to reimburse non-profit's actual expenses; any remaining funds will return to be used for the County Day Shelter. There is no net impact upon the City levy.
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SUBSTITUTE - Resolution authorizing the approval of up to $10,000 to pay for additional costs of providing shelter to homeless families and individuals on cold weather exception days, amending the 2013 adopted City operating budget to re-appropriate funds from Miscellaneous Appropriaitons, and authorizing the Mayor to execute an agreement with The Salvation Army of Dane County.
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Background: When the weather is forecasted to be 20 degrees or colder, actual temperature or wind chill, the single men's shelter operated by Porchlight and the single women's shelter operated by The Salvation Army, open their facilities to everyone needing shelter. The only exception is persons who are banned from the men's shelter as a result of violence against staff or other guests and/or the sale of drugs. Both the single men's and single women's shelter are operated as night's only shelter with overflow guests accommodated by the use of cots in downtown area churches or The Salvation Army gym.
For families with children, a 14-bed overflow shelter referred to as the emergency family shelter or warming house, began operating as a seasonal overflow shelter in 2003; due to demand it was expanded to year round operation in 2008. Once the 14 beds are occupied, The Salvation Army has no other options to shelter homeless families who are turned away without services. During the last week January, The Salvation Army used their own funds to pay for motel vouchers for these families. However, this practice is not sustainable as the costs are high.
These three overflow facilities are operated as nights-only shelter; a majority of these households use the County-funded Daytime Resource Center, which is open daily from 8 am to 4:30 pm, to connect with services and to be sheltered during the day from the winter weather. This is the second year that a temporary cold weather daytime resource center has been operated and like the night-time shelters, there has been an increase in daily use from approximately 100 to 140 users a day.
In order to provide a safe environment and provide support services for all those who use the daytime and/or overnight emergency shelters, the non-profit operators need to increase staffing and food costs. The Salvation Army is working with The Red Cross which supplied cots and bedding at the E. Washington shelter building to accommodate additional families with children and single women. The Salvation Army estimates the costs for approximately 30 additional cold weather exception days to be $1,100 to serve single women and $7,100 to serve families with children. Porchlight estimates the need for $1,800 to pay for additional staff at its overflow shelter for single men at First United Methodist Church. These funds will ensure that the additional 30-50 individuals receive safe emergency shelter on each of the cold weather exception nights.
The daytime resource center operated by Porchlight on E. Washington has also seen an increase over last year. The center depends on volunteers and 2 paid staff to provide services and manage the safety for the single adults and families with children who use the facility. One of the greatest challenges is to provide services to persons with mental illness with problematic behaviors. It is important to provide services to this population so that they can continue to be served; the only alternative is to deny them use of the facility which could provide serious safety problems for them during frigid winter days. The estimated cost to provide professional services to this population through the end of March is $10,000.
The cost of providing these additional staff and food costs is $20,000 and will be divided equally with Dane County; the City will amend its contract with The Salvation Army to provide funds for the three over-night shelters while Dane County will contract with professional service providers to staff the day resource center.
Action:
Whereas, the Common Council has adopted a five-year Community and Neighborhood Development Plan which identifies homelessness as a critical issue within the community and outlines a set of strategies and priorities to address those problems including safety-net housing using community-based groups; and
Whereas, the CD Division staff worked collaboratively with the County and the non-profit shelter providers to provide services to homeless adults and families with children;
Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Common Council approve up to $10,000 to pay for additional costs of providing shelter to homeless families and individuals on cold weather exception days and authorize the Mayor to execute an agreement with The Salvation Army of Dane County to pay for staffing at The Salvation Army and Porchlight shelters.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the policy regarding the cold weather exception be clearly posted at the entrances.
BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED that the 2013 adopted City operating budget be amended to reallocate funding of $10,000 from Miscellaneous Appropriations: County Day Shelter to the Community Development Division, as follows:
($10,000) Miscellaneous Appropriations: County Day Shelter (decrease funding): GN01-54279-971000
$10,000 Community Agency Contracts - Increase Funding: GN01-54920-276000