LTC 282-2016 Update on Homeless Services and Funding Received MIAMI BEACH
OFFICE OF THE CITY MANAGER
NO. LTC# 282.2016 LETTER TO COMMISSION
TO: Mayor Philip Levine and Members o'!the City Co mission
FROM: Jimmy L. Morales, City Manager
DATE: June 30, 2016
SUBJECT:Update on Homeless Services an Funding Received from the Homeless Trust
The purpose of this LTC is to update the Mayor and City Commission on homeless outreach
services and the funding received from the Miami-Dade County Homeless Trust (Trust).
The City's Homeless Outreach Team continues expanding its service capacity.As a reminder,the
City operates the sole municipal walk-in center for homeless services in Miami-Dade County. The
following is the Office's service numbers for last year as well as thus far this fiscal year:
Calendar Year 20:15 FY 15/161
Service/Activity Number Service/Activity Number
Census Count (January 2015) 193 Census Count (January 2016) 156
Client Contacts (Office&Street) 2,094 Client Contacts (office&Street) 3,334
Homeless Clients (unduplicated) 1,214 Homeless Clients (unduplicated) 1,033
1 Data for FY 15/16 is from October 1,2015 through June 1,2016
Despite the very high street population, our City is very effective in sheltering those who want help
as well as obtaining permanent housing for those who follow their care plan as demonstrated by
the service data:
Calendar Year 2015 FY 15/16
Service/Activity Number Service/Activity Number
Client Relocations 78 Client Relocations 55
Shelter Placements 540 Shelter Placements 548
Clients Transitioned to Permanent Housing 91 Clients Transitioned to Permanent Housing 43
Permanent Homeless Reduction Rate` 47% Permanent Homeless Reduction Rate 28%
2 Percentage of permanent transitions as compared to official homeless count
The City purchases 52 emergency shelter beds from the following providers:
• Camillus House (single men)
• Lotus House (women and children)
• Miami Rescue Mission (single men)
• The Salvation Army (women, men and families with children)
The City also has placement privileges for up to 55 additional beds provided by the Trust. The
number of beds available fluctuates depending on their use by the City of Miami. As a member of
the Miami-Dade County Continuum of Care, the City is one of two outreach teams for the County;
the City of Miami is the other outreach team. A Continuum of Care (CoC) is a regional or local
planning body that coordinates housing and services funding for homeless families and individuals
and is a requirement for jurisdictions to receive federal funds from the US Department of Housing
and Urban Development (HUD).
I
Homeless Services & Funding
June 29, 2016
Page 2 of 2
Annually,the Trust purchases 1,172 beds countywide(which includes those assigned to our City).
For comparative purposes,while the City purchased 62 beds to handle a homeless census of 156
homeless(1 bed to 2.52 homeless persons in census),the Trust purchased 1,117 beds to manage
a homeless census of 826 homeless persons for Miami-Dade County (or 1 bed to 0.74 homeless
persons in census). While this ratio would suggest that there is an excess of emergency shelter
beds, in actuality, there is a waitlist for non-family beds in the County.
In terms of funding, the Trust provided the City the following funding this fiscal year:
Outreach Services $ 63,079
HMIS Data Entry $ 12,333
ID Document Replacement $ 25,000
Hotel Placement for Families2 $ 10,000
TOTAL TRUST FUNDS $110,412
2—Traditionally,the City does not fully draw these funds.
The City leverages Trust funds with$1,312,000 from the General Fund. Trust funding accounts for
7.7 percent of the Office's standard operating budget. As a reminder, our office provides the
following services (some of which are unavailable elsewhere in our County):
• Emergency shelter services
• Family Reunification (relocation services to contiguous 48 states)
• Identification Document Replacement (including immigration documents)
• Short-Term Employment(via Jewish Community Services and HOPE in Miami-Dade, Inc.)
• Care Coordination (replaces traditional case management)
The Office has expanded its engagement efforts to include the employment of homeless clients in
shelter as outreach workers joining our Team in the field.The City utilizes Community Development
Block Grant(CDBG)funds to contract HOPE in Miami-Dade, Inc.to screen and employ homeless
clients referred by the City at a cost of $41,434. The program, which launched April 2016, has
proven very effective resulting in the following in only two months:
Performance Data for Homeless Employment Program #
Number of Homeless Clients Employed Through the Program 8
#of Homeless Engaged by the Homeless Employment Program (Unduplicated) 207
#of Clients Engaged by the Homeless Employment Program Who Accepted Shelter 20
#of Clients Engaged by the Homeless Employment Program Who Accepted Other Services 30
3 Two of the eight employed clients found full-time employment before completing the program.
Given the concerns raised by many in the community regarding this issue, I have asked Maria Ruiz
to reach out to you for one-on-one meetings.
Shoulti
have any questions, please contact me.
JLM/KGB/MLR
c: Kathie G. Brooks, Assistant City Manager
Maria L Ruiz, Department Director