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 and the Department of Social Services 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 There have been several challenges in formulating a status report that could potentially result in an incomplete or outdated report due to the delay of data entry. CHSP has developed an MOU with several homeless services providers that will commit to timely input of data reporting on shelter occupancy.
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 woman and Victory Mission. Conversations regarding obtaining occupancy data from these programs have been promising.
* 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.
SOLUTIONS:
* Create a simplified data collection method that will keep service providers willing to particip...
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