Title
a. Receive an update on Homeless Shelter Housing Capacity; and
b. Provide direction to staff as appropriate.
Presenter: Glorietta Rowland, Management Analyst II, Department of Social Services
Report
RECOMMENDATION:
It is recommended that the Health, Housing, Homelessness & Human Services Committee:
a. Receive an update on Homeless Shelter Housing Capacity; and
b. Provide direction to staff as appropriate.
SUMMARY/DISCUSSION:
The Coalition of Homeless Service Providers (CHSP) is the organization currently partnering with the Monterey County Health Department to launch the use of a public facing dashboard that will display shelter bed capacity/occupancy. Staff will provide an update on the current available data, existing reporting processes, challenges and potential solutions.
CHSP manages the Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) to track the inventory/services of HMIS participating service providers and the clients that are utilizing such resources. There are several challenges in formulating a monthly status report that could potentially result in an incomplete or outdated report due to the delay of data entry. The average client entry into the software occurs more than one week after the client started receiving services.
CHALLENGES:
* Current data collection practices include half of the shelter beds in Monterey County. Data is not collected for two Domestic Violence shelters, I-HELP for men, I-HELP for women and Victory Mission.
* Non-funded programs will be invited to report data but cannot be required to report.
* Motel Voucher programs require the agency providing the voucher to verify there are no shelter bed availability before supplying the voucher to the consumer.
POTENTIAL SOLUTIONS:
* Create a simplified data collection method that will keep service providers willing to participate, while creating the habit of transparency and encouraging better performance.
* Create a Google Survey that collects basic information on bed ...
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