LTC 095-2018 The City's Homeless Services0 i
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OFFICE OF THE CITY MANAGER
NO. LTC # LETTER TO COMMISSION
095-2018
TO: Mayor Dan Gelber and Members of t.7e City Comssion
FROM: Jimmy L. Morales, City Manager
DATE: February 22, 2018
SUBJECT: The City's Homeless Services
The purpose of this LTC is to provide the Mayor and Commission an update on the City's efforts to
end homelessness as requested by Commissioner Michael Gongora.
Our Services
Our community is one of the leaders in the County in its municipal efforts to address homelessness
and curb its impacts. As one of only two municipal teams in the County, our City is the only
municipality that staffs a Homeless Outreach Team (HOT) and operates a walk-in center. Our multi-
cultural team of 10 staff (including one program coordinator and nine [9] outreach workers) manages
52 shelter beds funded fully by the City at an annual cost of $623,123. These beds are located at
three different shelters to ensure that the City can offer placements appropriate to the homeless
person seeking help:
Camillus House
Miami Rescue Mission
The Salvation Army
Single Men
Single Men
Single Men, Single Women,
Families w/Children
In addition to the beds purchased by the City, the Miami -Dade County Homeless Trust provides the
City an additional 55 beds, when available, at the following shelters:
Miami Rescue Mission Single Men
The Salvation Army Single Men, Single Women
Emergency shelter beds provide a congregate setting for homeless people transitioning from the
street to alternate, permanent housing. The shelters provide meals, beds and a variety of services to
support a homeless person's successful transition including:
• Case management (providing navigational support to community-based resources and
services to help the person become self-reliant, i.e. counseling, job training, etc.);
• Employment placement assistance (a source of income will be crucial to living
independently); and
• Entitlements application assistance (i.e. Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program,
retirement, veteran and disability benefits).
The City offers shelter placement services when beds are available to those homeless people who
meet the following criteria:
• Homeless in our City (as verified by Police or HOT as having no habitable place to live);
• Identification must be verified (to ensure that the person is not a sexual predator);
• Must not be banned by the shelter where a bed is available; and
• Must be prepared to end their homelessness by addressing the factors that contribute to
their homelessness.
The City has been recognized for its care coordination approach. The City's demonstrated success
— lauded at the Metro Lab Workshop on Big Data and Human Services held in Seattle January2017
-- has led to City staff providing consultations on its best practices to representatives from Sunny
Isles Beach, North Miami Beach and Miami. The care coordination process is a starkly different
approach than traditional case management and vastly more cost-effective and centered on client
assets than Housing First. Care coordination centers on client responsibility building on natural
assets to create a sustainable living plan that limits reliance on external resources.
Care coordination provides a framework that builds on strengths to address success gaps and
provides structure applied universally to all clients regardless of history and need. Care plans are
tailored to client needs with the goal of sustainable permanency.
Our Homeless Milestones
The City achieved several milestones in FY 16/17 including:
• Captured significantly more data about our homeless population
• Fully launched its homeless employment program, Hope Exists, as a means of fast
tracking the transition from the streets to independent, stable living
• Began offering daily support groups based on the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People for
the homeless transitioning away from the streets
• Engaged more civilians in community outreach and joint outreach missions
• Presented at the Big Data Conference on Human Services held in Seattle
In addition to the 15.8 million tourists who visited last year, our City also welcomed 1,571 people
who self -identified as homeless, a significant drop from the 1,998 homeless people who visited the
year before. As a matter of perspective, the City's resident population was 91,917 in 2016 and
Florida's statewide homeless rate was 440 persons per 100,000 population or approximately 1 of
every 227 residents (Source: State of Florida Report. 2016 Homeless Census Estimates). The City's
homeless rate is almost four times the State average.
As noted in previous years, the vast majority of homeless persons in our City became homeless in
another jurisdiction and migrated to our community without housing plans. This migration pattern
continued in FY 16/17 and was exacerbated by Hurricane Irma which brought additional homeless
people from the Florida Keys and our west coast at a time when seasonal homelessness
traditionally rises in advance of dropping temperatures up North.
While the other cities throughout the country (including Los Angeles and New York City) struggle to
deal with its burgeoning population of homeless families, our City has worked to establish a safety
net system that provides rent and utility assistance as a prevention tool to homelessness. Our City
stations staff at our feeder pattern schools to enable the early identification and intervention of
families at risk of homelessness and maintains a policy that prioritizes help to families ensuring that
no child lives in our streets. Our City is currently housing one (1) homeless family in shelter.
Our community is leading local efforts to move away from the traditional case management model
that centralizes services through a third party (not the client) to a care coordination model that
empowers clients to take charge of their lives and creates the culture and skill -set to discourage the
return to homelessness. This process emphasizes personal responsibility and provides the tools for
independence while moving away from a traditional welfare -dependent model that fails to address
the factors that led to homelessness.
We are the only outreach team in the County that employs the homeless it places in shelter to serve
as ambassadors to engage the homeless that remain on the streets. Through this program piloted in
FY 16/17, the homeless are able to strengthen their engagement skills and transition back into an
employment culture while looking forfull-time employment and earning much-needed moneyto buy
interview clothes and personal items. In turn, the City obtains the insight and knowledge base
familiar with living in the streets and identifies the places and mindsets of those who remain for us to
engage. This win/win model has also succeeded in shortening the length of time between placement
in shelter and the securing of permanent employment.
A quick review of major data measures demonstrates our progress and impact:
Homeless Encountered in 1,998 1,571
-21.4%
CIty1
Average Morning Count2 115.51 90.82
-21.4%
Official City Census3 156 133
-14.8%
Served by HOT 1,370 1,456
+7.0%
HOT Shelter Placements 676 570
-15.5%
Direct Police Placements5 0 24
N/A
Relocations6 88 118
+34%
Permanent Placements' 154 172
+11.7%
Homeless Employed byW] 22 1 42 I
+90.9% I
1 — The number of unduplicated, self -identified homeless contacted by Hot and PD
2 — The morning count factors high -traffic areas. This will include beach in FU 17/18
3 — The Point -in -Time Survey, January 2016 and 2017, respectively
4 — People contacted in the walk-in center and field
5 — Police were provided placement privileges in February 2017
6 — Relocations are provided once in a lifetime per client with verification of destination
7 — Placements in sustainable housing. Only City -funded beds are tracked as there is no access to Trust -funded bed
data
8 — Employment program began full year implementation in FY 16/17
This past fiscal year, the City's homeless population has declined by several measures:
• Official Point -in -Time Survey
• Self -identified homeless engaged by police and HOT
• Average morning count
The reduction is supported by various rising indicators:
• Number of self -identified homeless served by HOT
• Police direct placements to shelter (a service that began February 2017)
• Number of relocations
• Number of permanent placements
Throughout the year, key stakeholders were kept abreast of data and trends through the weekly
data dashboard that provided service levels and shared news about homelessness elsewhere:
Historical City Goal
Historically, the City's goal has been to end homelessness. To achieve this, the homeless must
transition into permanent housing and not return to our streets to panhandle or engage in illicit
activity. The mere provision of a place to sleep does not end homelessness. Individuals and families
must find suitable, sustainable housing that they can afford regardless of their income source. For
those homeless who are younger than 62 and do not present a disabling condition, this means
securing employment and finding housing that, at a minimum, does not consume more than 70
percent of their income to cover housing costs (rent/mortgage, utilities). For those of retirement age
or with a disabling condition that warrants disability benefits, the challenge becomes finding housing
they can afford when the typical disability and retirement benefit ranges from $743 to $1,166 per
month.
Rather than following, our community has chosen to take the lead in ending homelessness. We
have created a comprehensive homeless strategy that emphasizes personal accountability,
intradepartmental collaboration and innovation that responds to our community's unique needs and
assets while firmly founded upon compassion, integrity and efficacy. We have:
• Increased the number of shelter beds bought by the City and engaged more shelters to
ensure that we can offer the appropriate, culturally -competent support to any homeless
person seeking to end their homelessness.
• Expanded our outreach team from seven (7) staff members to 10 and rolled back our
starting time to 7:30am to shorten the service time for those wishing to leave the streets
behind.
• Created the Client Management Information System (CIMS) to document and track our
engagement and service efforts with the homeless so that we build on our efforts without
duplicating services while simultaneously ensuring integrity and accountability in the use of
City resources and expecting integrity and accountability in return from those who benefit
from our services.
• Engaged members of the faith community to join our outreach team because sometimes
what led to a person's homelessness cannot be fixed solely with the provision of a bed and
food.
• Trained our emergency shelter partners on care coordination services so that clients take
ownership of their personal success while having the supports and knowledge at their
disposal to leave homelessness with an expectation — and the skills — not to return to the
streets.
• Launched our homeless employment program so that we can harness the street
knowledge of those who have accepted shelter to engage those who remain while providing
them an immediate job and the skills, tools and opportunity to seek and obtain permanent
employment.
• Encouraged intradepartmental collaboration between Police and HOT so that the first
approach to those who are breaking our laws because they see themselves as homeless is
to offer them shelter and the opportunity to end their homelessness -- rather than encourage
a passive acceptance of their circumstances as an intractable fate.
It is worth noting that, since implementing our current strategies, we have eliminated the running
shelter waitlist the Administration inherited. Since eliminating the running waitlist in 2015, the City
has been tracking bed availability at the beginning and close of each day. The City averaged 19
vacant beds per day in May 2017, representing a 17.7% vacancy rate — by far the highest monthly
vacancy rate for the year. The lowest vacancy rate occurred in February when an average of 2.1
beds were available daily or a 1.9% vacancy rate.
The greatest number of daily beds was available on May 26, 2017 when 26 beds or 24.2% of beds
were vacant. There were 18 days when all shelter beds were occupied or 4.9% of all operating days
for the year. Eleven of these days occurred in November 2016. We are serving those people who
want shelter and have room to serve those who remain.
What is very important to note is that the City's placement rates (the number of people placed in
shelter) are virtually identical for the past two fiscal years. This is very important as this data set
further distinguishes the City from other jurisdictions whose placement rates are influenced by the
actual number of people needing services. In our community, placement rates are influenced not by
weather, population or availability but rather by behavioral factors, most notably the receipt of
entitlement benefits.
Shelter Placement by Police
This past fiscal year, Miami Beach Police officers have been provided with shelter placement
privileges to enable service to those homeless seeking shelter when the Homeless Walk -In Center
is closed, typically nights and weekends.
Police made 24 direct shelter placements in FY 16/17. Two of these placements were for the same
person and completed in June 2017.
The City's Police placement
privilege enables Miami
Beach Police officers to offer
shelter as an alternative to
arrest for certain offenses
and complies with Pottinger
case engagement
parameters. In addition,
Police can serve homeless
persons seeking shelter
when the City's Walk -In
Center is closed including
nights, weekends and
holidays.
Relocation Services
# of Police Placements
—# of Police Placements
The City relocated 118 people this past fiscal year, exceeding its line item budget and projected
number of relocations. The City had initially projected 100 relocations at a cost of $20,000. In
actuality, the City's 118 relocations cost $25,671 or 28.3% over budget.
Of the 118, people relocated, 62 (or 53% of the total) returned to the City from which they came.
Fifty-one of the remainder of those served requested relocation to an entirely different part of the
country at least two hours or more away from their originating location. Interestingly, two relocated
clients originally lived in Miami Beach and asked for relocation assistance to New York and Texas,
respectively. The top 10 relocation destinations were:
Homeless Employment Program
The City's employment program, a newly -permanent program that was the outgrowth of a successful
pilot in FY15/16 funded with Community Development Block Grant funds, employed 42 individuals
providing them short-term (32 hours) work experience, work and interview clothes and an
New York City
8
Chicago
6
Las Vegas
6
Seattle
4
Richmond, Virginia
3
San Francisco
3
Dallas
3
Ft. Worth, Texas
3
Atlanta
3
Boston
3
Homeless Employment Program
The City's employment program, a newly -permanent program that was the outgrowth of a successful
pilot in FY15/16 funded with Community Development Block Grant funds, employed 42 individuals
providing them short-term (32 hours) work experience, work and interview clothes and an
opportunity to enhance interview skills to prepare to seek and obtain permanent employment. Work
is an important and necessary tool in ending person homelessness. Aside from the obvious financial
gain, employment creates community integration, provides opportunities to build new, supportive
relationships, and provides a framework to promote personal stability. The City budgeted $60,000 to
serve 42 individuals.
Summary
Our City spends $1,737,950 annually in staffing, shelter beds, relocation services, identification
document replacement services, and rent assistance to serve its homeless population. In short, our
current efforts balance accountability, compassion and efficacywhile expecting the same from those
we serve. We cannot - and will not end -- homelessness in our community unless those who are
homeless choose to do their part. We remain committed and prepared to help those who wish to
help themselves.
Should you have any questions, please contact me.
JLM/KGB/MLR
Kathie G. Brooks, Assistant City Manager
Maria L Ruiz, Department Director