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California State Auditor Logo COMMITMENT • INTEGRITY • LEADERSHIP

Homelessness in California
State Government and the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority Need to Strengthen Their Efforts to Address Homelessness

Report Number: 2017-112

Response to the Survey From —
San Diego City and County CoC

 

HUD provides two lists of California Continuum of Care (CoC) key contacts: one for Northern California and one for Southern California.
You can find these lists at https://www.hud.gov/states/california/homeless/continuumcare.
  1. Enter the CoC number for which you are completing the survey.

    CA-601
  2. Enter the CoC name for which you are completing the survey.

    San Diego City and County CoC


  3. Enter the organization within the CoC that you represent.

    Regional Task Force on the Homeless

  4. What type of organization do you represent?.







  5. How many staff (full-time equivalents) does your organization employ?

    24

  6. Does your organization provide homeless services directly for clients?


    We also have the CES grant and staff within our organization. Our CES staff do provide direct client service through housing navigation.

  7. Are you a direct recipient on your CoC's HUD application?
     
  8. Approximately what percentage of the funding your organization administers is from HUD for the CoC program?

    75

  9. If not your organization, is there another organization in your CoC that administers the majority of homeless services funding?




    San Diego Housing Commission is the largest grant recipient.

  10. Does your CoC conduct an unsheltered Point-in-Time (PIT) count annually? (Including those years not required by HUD)
     
  11. In which year did your CoC begin conducting an annual unsheltered PIT count?

    2006

  12. Why did your CoC decide to conduct an annual unsheltered PIT count?

    Since the mandate from HUD, counting sheltered and unsheltered homeless people has become a priority for all CoCs. San Diego's Regional Continuum of Care Council (RCCC) was the locally appointed body responsible to meet this HUD mandate in 2006. In order to report clean homeless census data, and related subpopulation characteristics, CoCs must rely on a well-managed homeless management information system (for sheltered counts) and well-orchestrated street count methods. Since the Regional Task Force on the Homeless (RTFH) was the HUD-approved Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) administrator in the County of San Diego, a partnership ensued was forged to comply with the federal mandate. With strong volunteer participation these to agencies decided is was feasible to conduct the count annually. In 2017 the two organizations merged into one the Regional task force on the homeless and will continue annually counting.

  13. What funding sources do you use to conduct the annual unsheltered PIT count? (Check all that apply.)





  14. How did your CoC facilitate the annual unsheltered PIT count?
    (For example, did you increase the number of volunteers, or find additional funding?)

    The RTFH, working in partnership with UWSD, P-TECH and San Diego's Regional Continuum of Care Council (RCCC), recruited 400 volunteers, trained them to be enumerators and surveyors, conducted a street count the last week in January 2009, collected and analyzed the data, and produced the Regional Homeless Profile by June 2009. Dozens of nonprofit groups throughout the county participated and enumerators and surveyors. We have used this method each year since.

  15. Did your organization have any challenges in implementing an annual unsheltered PIT count?



    Some of the challenges to achieving an accurate street counts include: inclement weather, number of enumerators, well-trained surveyors, precise mapping, valid surveys and more. Further, obtaining clean self-report data, for example, to accurately identify chronic homeless, is also a challenge that can impact a point-in-time count.

  16. How has conducting an annual unsheltered PIT count affected your CoC's operations and/or outcomes? If you have any data or analyses, please share specific metrics.

    By conducting an accurate count, we can improve the overall efficiency of treating homelessness, especially the chronically homeless subpopulation. Data has been used to describe chronic homelessness, sheltered versus unsheltered and family homelessness. All data has been incorporated into the WeAllCount annual report that helps to educate the community, elected officials and community stakeholders on out CoC's homeless clients and their needs.

  17. Why does your CoC not conduct an annual unsheltered PIT count? (Check * all that apply)







     

  18. Please elaborate on the reasons why your CoC does not conduct an annual unsheltered PIT count.


  19. What would cause your CoC to conduct an unsheltered PIT count in the years not required by HUD?



  20. What sources does your organization use to fund the HUD-required PIT count of unsheltered homeless? (Check all that apply)






     

  21. How much did your CoC's 2017 PIT count cost?

    $165,000
  22. How many people did your CoC require to conduct its 2017 PIT count? (Staff, volunteers, and others)

    1794

  23. How many of those identified in Question 22 were volunteers?

    1788

  24. Does your CoC recruit volunteers for its unsheltered PIT count from organizations outside the homeless services community?



    We have volunteers from all walks of life. Some examples are elected officials, police and students.

  25. Please share your perspective on the reasons your CoC's unsheltered homeless population in 2017 did or did not change from that in its previous unsheltered PIT count.

    San Diego Regional CoC, like many west coastal cities, saw an increase. We are not certain why more people living on the streets but are looking to increase our street outreach to get more person centered information.

  26. Has your CoC reallocated funding in the past?



  27. How often does your CoC reevaluate final priority rankings for the HUD CoC Program Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA), based on HUD priorities?




  28. How often does your CoC perform the following gap analyses?

    Housing gap analysis—annually

    Funding gap analysis—annually

    Service gap analysis—annually

    Other (please specify)—

  29. In what year did your CoC perform each of the following for the first time, or leave the row blank if it is not applicable.

    Housing gap analysis
    2006

    Funding gap analysis
    2008

    Service gap analysis
    2012

    Other (as you identified in question 27)

  30. Does your CoC employ specific strategies for identifying alternative funding for programs that are reallocated or do not receive HUD funding?




  31. Does your CoC have a strategic plan that integrates other publicly-funded programs that provide services, housing, and income supports to poor persons whether they are homeless or not (mainstream benefits and services)?



  32. Please provide a web address to your CoC's most recent strategic plan or email it as an attachment to CoCSurvey@auditor.ca.gov.

    we will email it

  33. When did your CoC complete its first strategic plan?

    2012

  34. How often does your CoC update its strategic plan?

    every few years

  35. How has your strategic plan benefited your CoC?

    regional planning and helped set priorities.


  36. Why has your CoC not developed a strategic plan?

  37. What grant-seeking or fundraising activities does your CoC engage in?

    As a lead agency we seek grants like the local CDBG to strengthen coordination and regional planning.

  38. Are there any strategies or unique actions your agency takes that have strengthened your CoC?

    In 2016 it was decided that the RCCC be merged with the RTFH to create one lead organization with includes regional planning, CES and HMIS. These organizations were merged in 2017. We believe this will significantly strengthen our collective efforts.

  39. Please provide any information about these strategies or actions.
    Feel free to provide web addresses to any reports or email them as attachments to CoCSurvey@auditor.ca.gov.


    we can find documents about the merger at rtfhsd.org

  40. If you have any additional perspective or concerns, please provide this information in the space below.
    For example, if you would like to share additional information regarding homelessness, services, or funding.


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