Fiscal Note
Funding of $22,358 is currently allocated in the CDD 2014 budget. This resolution would not change the amount or the source of funds; it would change only the Contractor. There is no impact on the City levy.
Title
Approve the re-allocation of $22,358 from the YWCA of Madison to The Salvation Army Dane County to provide case management to homeless single women, and authorizing the Mayor and City Clerk to execute the necessary agreements.
Body
CDD currently contracts with the YWCA to operate the Second Chance Tenant Education Program. This is a 6-hour course that educates homeless persons on finding and maintaining stable housing. The amount under contract is $22,000 for 2013 and $22,358 in 2014, and the source is primarily HUD Emergency Solutions Grant (ESG) funds. The YWCA CEO, Rachel Krinsky, notified CDD that they would be discontinuing the Second Chance Tenant Education Program in an effort to focus on strengthening other core programming. Ms. Krinsky asked that CDD consider re-allocating these funds to one of the other YWCA housing programs i.e. The Third Street Program for mothers with small children or the SRO housing for single women. CDD supports both of these programs and is currently providing $31,500 annually to the Third Street Program and, since 2004, has provided over $350,000 to the YWCA to rehabilitate and maintain the building at 101 E. Mifflin Street. The decision as to whether to amend the YWCA contract to shift the funds to one of their housing programs was delayed in order to determine the best use of the $22,358 in ESG funds.
Currently, the City is partnering with seven housing and services providers (including the YWCA) in preparing a $3 million HUD Continuum of Care (CoC) grant request to fund a number of supportive housing projects for homeless individuals and families with children. This is a competitive process, in that an application must score a sufficient number of points to be considered for funding of existing, as well as new projects. In an effort to put the Madison/Dane County application in the most advantageous position, three renewal programs are being removed from the application as they no longer provide services that HUD prioritizes in this specific grant process. One of these programs is being re-designed to better fit HUD's highest priorities to rapidly re-house families with children to permanent housing and will be submitted as a new program. The other two programs, Legal Action of WI's Legal Advocacy and The Salvation Army's Case Management for Sheltered Single Women are more appropriately funded using ESG funds which are designed to support emergency shelter and support services. In order to maintain the legal advocacy services, the City and the other applicant agencies committed to support Legal Action's funding through the state ESG application which will become available in February 2014. In order to retain the valuable case management services provided at The Salvation Army's Single Women's Shelter, CDD recommends that the $22,358 available from the YWCA's decision to end its contract for the Second Chance Tenant Education Program, be shifted to The Salvation Army. This will allow The Salvation Army to continue providing much needed case management services to homeless single women while moving the funding of the project to a more appropriate source - ESG funds.
Whereas, the Common Council has adopted a five-year Community and Neighborhood Plan which identifies homelessness as a critical issue within the community and outlines a set of strategies and priorities to address these problems including providing outreach to unsheltered homeless and case management to persons sleeping in emergency shelters in efforts to connect homeless persons with housing; and,
Whereas, the Common Council has supported the Community Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness in Dane County that supports offering a variety of services to be made available to homeless persons and those at risk in order to help them obtain and maintain stable housing; and,
Whereas, the CDD staff work collaboratively with Dane County and non-profit homeless service providers and funders to help homeless persons find stable housing.
Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Common Council approve $22,358 in CDD funds to contract with The Salvation Army of Dane County to provide case management services to single women residing at the Single Women's Shelter with re-captured funds from the YWCA's 2014 Second Chance Tenant Workshops contract and authorize the Mayor and City Clerk to execute the necessary agreements.