Recommendation to Provide Direction on the Provision of Housing for the City’s Unhoused Population, Including Emergency Housing, Transitional Supportive Housing, Permanent Supportive Housing and Prospective Homeless Housing Projects. (Community Development 10061833)
Seven is a recommendation to provide direction on the provision of housing for the city's unhoused population, including emergency housing, transitional supportive housing, permanent supportive housing, and prospective homeless housing projects. All right. And I know you've got a presentation and I'm seeing some community development staff showing up, so. Ms. MAXWELL We have Community Development Director Lisa maxwell. Are you leading off on this? I am leading off on this. Welcome. Thank you so much, Madam Mayor and city council members. I'm Lisa maxwell. I'm the community development director for the city. And I'm here tonight seeking direction from council for various options available to the city to provide much needed housing for unhoused community members. At this time, Alameda has no beds or housing options in our city to offer our homeless neighbors. But importantly, we currently have an opportunity to address some of the housing needs for unhoused Alameda. And as a result of the availability of a significant amount of funds from a number of important sources, the federal government has made American Rescue Plan Acts of ACT funds available to the city, and the city has already received $14.5 million of that and will receive the second tranche next year. The City Council, if it elects, may use a portion of that fund to help to assist the unhoused of Alameda. The states also made homekey funds available for homeless housing. Currently, applications may be submitted for the second tranche of HOMEKEY funds, which are to be used for homeless housing. And overall, the state has allocated to about $1.5 billion that the county also has a pot of funds available. And in combination, the availability of the federal, state and county dollars presents a pretty unusual opportunity for the city to make a material difference in the lives of its homeless community members. In light of the availability of funds and the lack of housing for our homeless community members in Alameda, staff is recommending the following two options. First, we would like the council to consider emergency homeless housing at Alameda Point. This project would house approximately 30 homeless individuals and three currently vacant homes, and Alameda Point residents would be offered supportive services with a particular focus on helping each find permanent housing. If the council directs, staff will return on November 16 with more project details and seeking approval for use of ARPA funds for this emergency housing project and seeking approval of a service provider to operate that project. Secondly, we'd like to discuss and recommend a transitional supportive housing project at the Bottle Castle in Alameda. The vital parcel is on Fifth Street, next to the College of Alameda. This project would involve a ground to build a modular ground up modular building on the site. It would include an en suite bathrooms, a pet area, community rooms, community kitchens and some parking. Other details are still in development, of course. This project, this parcel is owned by the successor agency and if council directed, will again return on the 16th with more project details. Seeking approval to submit a homekey application on this project, as well as approval of the service provider and the developer for the project. We will partner with them on this particular item. As we reported steps also recommending a third possible homeless housing project and seeks direction from council tonight regarding whether it should continue to work on this potential option. What we're considering is a permanent, supportive homeless housing project at a site that's to be determined. Specifically, we're investigating the possibility of purchasing a hotel within the bounds of Alameda that we could purchase with a third with dollars from the third tranche of the Homekey project funds. When those later become available, if staff finds that this potential project on a particular site could be a viable option, then we will return to council for further direction. So tonight we're just looking for a direction on this item as to whether we should just continue to work on this further and do greater due diligence. That's my report, and I am more than happy to answer questions. All right. Thank you, Ms.. Maxwell. And I also want to note that we have Lois Butler also from Community Development, who works on homelessness response projects. So council oh, I should ask, Madam Clerk, do we have public speakers on this item? We do not have. We do now. Okay. So before we go to our public speakers, does anyone on the council have clarifying questions they want to ask of Ms.. Maxwell, or should we go to our public speakers? Counsel her desk. Clarifying question Is there any particular reason why we don't specify what the that hotel motel site is the prospect for number three. We haven't put that down yet. At council's direction, we had gone out to an RFP and indicated that we were interested in receiving proposals on the Marina Village in and we didn't receive any. We received a proposal from the Housing Authority for another property, but they're in very early stages, so we don't have that. I negotiated a written agreement pinned down yet, and we're just continuing to investigate our options and once we return, when it's a little more fully baked. Okay. Any other clarifying questions, counsel? Okay. Let's go to our public speaker. And we have two now. And the first is Karen Grace. All right. Good evening, Speaker Bay. Good evening. Mayor and City Council Staff. I am still concerned about the continuation of placing all of the project homekey projects on the West End. Currently, they're being proposed in. Key economic development areas of the West End, our historic districts, potentially in our gateway corridors and in our waterfront district. Again, I'm asking for a more equitable distribution of these projects throughout the community. My suggestions are one to choose the. Village of love for the three families, not the big whites, because they are located in a historic district fund. The 90 unit north housing project. And if the Road and Hotel is one of the hotels that's been considered, consider developing that hotel. As a mixed use mixed community gateway project, which would really benefit the West End as well, and the Western. Business. District and using the project homekey funds to help fund that development. That would be a nice food chance, I think, as you mentioned, but that would give us plenty of. Time to consider maybe not just. The road and hotel, but the coal leaf, the coal leaf hotel, which is on the East End. So again, I want to make sure. That we are looking at other areas other. Than the West End. Other than Alameda Point for these. Projects. A lot of community members. Raised concerns. About equity. About fair housing and redlining. So thank you very much for your consideration. Thank you. Our next speaker. Marilyn Allen. Good evening, Speaker Orban. Good evening. I agree with the former speaker. And I guess what I would say is that the step. Continues to view the. West End as the area to. Be developed for. Their homelessness projects. And I would be member ask them to remember that. Equity was a. Something that was brought up and that was actually agreed upon by the City Council as a. Goal. So I would ask that they keep that in mind and in the forefront of their mind, actually. And then now to something new, newer, I guess the home the road home includes. Counselors as a device. To help the unhoused individuals. Transition into permanent housing. The solution, therefore, is permanent housing. However, permanent housing does not exist, and I suggest that the city focus on permanent housing going forward. Secondly, I propose that the permanent housing does not create a slum or a concentration of poverty, but. But that it creates a community that would be where. People of mixed. Incomes live together. That would be. Where formerly unhoused people. Live side. By side with working. People, with seniors, with. Veterans, with anyone. A perfect example would be the North housing site. And I would suggest that the city partner with the housing authority on that project and rather than develop a. Slum or develop homeless, develop, quote unquote, homelessness, housing projects. I would suggest that thoughtful vision would. Would serve. The unhoused as. Well as our city as a whole. Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker. Okay. Thank you. And then quickly have another speaker. Ryan Kennedy. Good evening, Speaker Kennedy. Hi there, everybody. I just want to. Congratulate Millie Avila on her two beautiful children. She uses them well as political props. Malia, what. Are the names? All right, Mr.. Mr. Kennedy, I. I have asked you before not to reference children. We are elected officials. Please confine your remarks to us. Our children are not elected officials. And I would also just add that this is public comment on this agenda item, which is the homelessness matter. So we will put head, put him back in and let him finish his comments on homelessness. You may continue to comment on this particular item, Mr. Kennedy. Sure. I just hope Malia ever loves her kids. God bless them. I wish them the best. Unfortunately, angel. Families can't help it. All right. I don't believe that this is actually a comment on this particular agenda item. So we will have more opportunity for public comment on items, not on the agenda at the end of the regular agenda. Our next speaker. That was our last speaker. All right. With that, I'm going to close public comment on item seven A and we will go back to the council discussion. So Council, where would you like to start? Do we? Ms.. Maxwell has laid out three different proposals. Do we want to go one at a time or do you just want, you know, more information any way you like? Who would like to start? Councilmember Not quite. I really want to thank staff for bringing this forward. You know, consistent with my last comments, I really appreciate the the prioritization of items that can get us housing and resources built very quickly. And so I want to throw a very strong support behind the Battle Parcel Project concept as well as the the de Almeida Point housing that is currently city owned and available. And also, just to add to the points that we have heard from many speakers, I think that I think that if and when we find a hotel project that works really well, I can certainly get behind that. I'm glad that it's moved to a much longer time frame because we know that it's going to take some time, but that I would like to provide some personal direction that we may be focusing those conversations not on the West End, but much more on the East End and Bay Farm to the extent that that we can , I know that these are going to be tough. They're privately owned businesses. So. Right. We're not going to eminent domain, folks, folks, hotels. But I do think it is an opportunity for us to do that. And then, as I have said through these as well, I do look forward to some opportunities to talk about the resilience centers and other services that could access some some of these funds as well, using whether it's Carnegie or other East End resources so that we're not constantly just moving everybody to the to the West and to provide the support that they need. But great work. Thank you very much. And signify also just wanted to thank Lois Fowler for her quick response to some questions I sent very late in the day, so I got them. Thank you very much. They were very helpful. All right. Thank you, Councilmember. Not quite. Councilmember Desai. Well, I just want to say thank you very much to staff for the three options that they presented. I think any one of the three provides US City Council with an opportunity to go really big in terms of delivering on the needs of persons and families who are homeless. In that regard, if I had to prioritize of the three, I certainly like the bottle option and following that I certainly an open to the big whites. And with regard to the hope of possible hotel motel site, particularly if it's in the if it's in an area zoned community commercial and particularly if it's the first thing that you see coming into the community commercial district, I think that we're going to have to not only look at this as as a real estate project for for for formerly homeless families, but also as kind of the beautification part for when you come into the area. So we can't just look at how can we convert this if should this be one of the three? How can we convert this formerly motel, hotel that might be in a community commercial district, i.e. Webster Street, but how can it convert it into homeless facility? But but how can you make it beautiful? So that's the first thing that you see coming down Webster Street or even Park Street is that you see something beautiful. So if we're going to pursue the third option, we can't just look at it as a housing project, but we have to see it as a beautification project. But, you know, any way that we're going, I think this is a great opportunity with the assistance of Washington, D.C., for us to really go big. And I certainly join my colleagues in this regard. Thank you councilmember decide this next has a her spencer. Thank you, Mayor. So in regards to the ACA, first of all, in regards to the people that need homes and who this is supposed to serve, is there is a for those that are unsheltered throughout the county? Or is it for those that are currently in Alameda? Can staff give any response to who were actually going to be able to help? Thank you. Who want to take that that you, Ms.. Maxwell. I'll start and I will let Lois jump in as well, please. I'll hear from Ms.. Butler as well. We do. We do titles in council meetings. Okay. You take. It away. There. Reminder. Correct. So with respect to the emergency housing, ah, in our focus would be on our local residents and our goal for that housing is in the short run to be able to provide some opportunities for shelter and beds for those within Alameda. And we don't see that project as being a long term project. It's a project that we can get off the ground pretty quickly and hopefully in the near future. The transitional housing project would probably be slightly different in that we would need to go through the county's coordinated care system if to the extent that we have homekey funds and county funds involved. So that would be a larger a larger pool we would be pulling from. However, to the extent we were legally able, we would love to house our residents if we did a hotel project, it would be a we're envisioning a potentially a permanent supportive housing. So that could potentially be a larger county population as well. Did you want to add anything to add Ms.. Butler? Go ahead and then mute. Thank you. So we can hear you as. That's okay. We're we're used to refer to each other as on our first name basis, and we're a friendly place. But I do. Yes. Welcome this butler. Thank you. So I was I think you you covered it when you said we will try to get our Alameda residents in there and work with the county on an Alameda preference. And can I just ask both of you just to amplify on the question Councilmember Spencer asked, so explain to us what the benefits of coordinated care or coordinated entry are. I mean, so because there is a selection process for people who are well suited to a particular resource, if I'm not mistaken to someone, I want to just pick up on that. So for each person that is unhoused in Alameda, we try to register with them within a system. And and so the county and the state require us to go through that system. If we're receiving HOMEKEY funds at the one and we're asking for help queue funds on the bottle parcel if if we go forward with that. And so what it does is it tells you a lot about the individual, what their what their elements are. A lot of the information and system is HIPA. It's confidential, but but it it tells you how long the person has been on the street where they're from. And a number of the people that are in the system, a lot of them even don't live in Alameda, but they're from Alameda would like to return to Alameda. There are others that have lived here in Alameda. Most of our unhoused in Alameda have relational ties to Alameda. Either they lived here previously or they have relatives that live here. And so our hope is that we would have a the ability. From the county to use the system. And house alameda. But this is a process that's going really quickly and we need to continue to. Negotiate different items. And that's one item we continue. To negotiate the preference option. The preference type option. Correct. Okay. So back to you. Councilmember Harris Spencer. Thank you, Mayor. So I just want to make sure so this is at the scattered sites, which is the single family homes that we would in fact, we know that that would help people that are currently unhoused in Alameda. Correct. That's our best opportunity for an expedient solution. There's three homes that are in various varying states of repair and disrepair. Near one of them, we could probably get online and available. I would say pretty quickly after the 16th. And by that I mean approximately three weeks or a month. And then we'd follow the other ones in sequence as they became ready to be occupied. But our goal is to try to get up and running quickly during the poor weather months. All right? Because. Because we don't have. Other money in there from other agencies, we would be able. To target our agents. Correct. Thanks. All right. So I want to discuss that because and I appreciate the clarification because when we see people that are unhoused in the currently in Alameda, my understanding the staff you can describe. My understanding is that the city's hands are. Options are very, very limited in what we can do because we need to be able to offer housing or allow people to remain in tents or wherever throughout the city. And so can staff describe why how that impacts the staff's ability to address people that are unhoused in the city. I will certainly begin the conversation and I will ask city attorney Sen to jump in if he feels that there's some supplements needed in place. It will give us an opportunity to offer housing to individuals on the streets, and we will then at some point have to wrangle with the fact if someone is just interested in housing , what our solutions would be. That would be a pretty complicated conversation and we'd be in consultation with the city attorney's office as well as probably the police chief's office, and imply that that is our that is our option. That is our preference is to be able to offer a bed and be able to provide that first opportunity for housing. Anything to add, Mr. Mayor? Yeah. Yes, Councilmember, I believe in just to echo what Ms.. Mesbah has indicated, I believe the city's program is targeting voluntary individuals. I don't believe the program intends to compel anyone to be in any of these locations. If I misunderstood the question, I'm happy to follow up once I get more clarification. Can someone describe the Boise case and how it impacts the city's options of what to do with those that are unhoused right now? I would think that's a question for the city attorney. I am happy to. Our Madam Mayor Councilmember. So in the Boise decision, which is a decision by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal, the court held that local agencies and really federal and state agencies cannot to criminalize the act of being homeless when there are not sufficient shelter space for folks to go to. And it is a groundbreaking decision because prior to that, there were jurisdictions that have adopted various laws that precluded folks from being, for example, out on the street, sleeping on the street a certain nighttime hours. The Court Basically how that that is a violation against the Eighth Amendment rights, your a person's Eighth Amendment rights against cruel and unusual punishment because that person does not have a home to turn to. And that decision remains good law today. Thank you. So I do support the scattered sites and I'm hopeful that the city can continue to look for scattered lymphocytes to help house Alameda homeless. In regards to the bottle parcel I can so that's right next to the College of Alameda. The College of Alameda now has many programs for it to help to provide services to help people either get right get education and they serve veterans. And I'm wondering if the city is planning to try to come up with some providers that then can really work with the college and help the people that are housed there? Since it's a I think it's a great location, especially if we're able to do anything to partner with the college to help provide services to Ms.. Maxwell and our Misspellings. You want to talk about the kind of provision of services we would be looking for for this this housing at the bottom parcel? Certainly, I'd be happy to know. So we will offer full wraparound services. There will be counselors available to assist with, you know, educational interest, job needs, you know, getting your driver's license back and whatever. But we'll be the person where each individual where they are. But I think that that's an excellent suggestion to have a relationship with the College of Alameda and to offer that as a easy educational pipeline to some of the individuals. So I think that's a that's a great suggestion. And we will be cultivating those relationships. And with respect to this potential project. Thank you very much, because the college has all types of services for all types of people meeting them where they are. Very I think we're very fortunate to have the college there, and that makes this a very unique opportunity. The third category on here is in regards to hotels. That is by far my least favorite because as I had heard for many, many years from staff, that's how. We get our. Transient occupancy tax. And that is a big we count on that for years. I've heard Andrew Thomas who's not here currently but talk about why we need hotels because of that transient occupancy tax and before. So I'm not interested in giving up the revenue stream because then we have to not only we have to make up that revenue stream somehow to continue to provide the services we provide right now. And we all know when you look at our financial forecast, at some point we we exhaust our reserves and it's just. I think it's critical that we continue supporting our revenue streams. I think that we could be looking at apartments, maybe those buildings that could could possibly work that then are not. Giving up a revenue stream like the transient occupancy tax that we get from hotels, which is a high, high percentage higher than a lot of our other revenue sources. So I would I would suggest looking to see if there's any apartment buildings or other multifamily housing available for the city to purchase. And we did have a caller speak to trying to partner with the housing authority. That is something that I have always consistently brought up. So I appreciate the caller mentioning that. I think the housing authority does a very good job, that they are the experts in our community and that they're really part of the city other than now, they're they're somewhat separate, but not completely, because our mayor does nominate to their point to their oversight committee. But I think that I and the equity issue I agree with the caller said spoke to that. And you know, whatever opportunities we have across the island to to look at places that the city can purchase or work with the housing authority to purchase from different revenue streams. But I really don't want to touch our hotels. Thank you. Thank you. I'm vice mayor of L.A.. I want to thank staff for their work on this and the swift turnaround. I know we've we we gave a lot of different instructions the last time. And I appreciate the fact that we were able to go out and at least get some responses to see where we can move forward. I think that in many ways there is there's no reason for us to not act right. We have to act. And I think this is a both and situation. I absolutely, you know, I'm comfortable giving direction with. Just sorry. I have a mini construction worker at home. And these days I am comfortable giving giving instruction to staff to move forward with the bottle bottle parcel. And I also would like to see more exploration into the hotel option. And while I'm disappointed we didn't get a submission from from from one hotel, that's fine. I think we have other opportunities. I would like to look throughout the city and then I think, you know, this is the beginning of much larger and longer conversations. I think Council member Knox White raised some good points about making sure that we're looking throughout the entire city, making sure that we're making the most of of parcels and understanding the need that exists and the fact that the need continues to grow. So that's that's where I'm at. I think we we can move forward. I look forward to supporting it. And and also recognizing this is still a first step. I also think and Village of Love's proposal is is really something that is worth exploring. I think they've they've done some good work providing services and everything else as well. So anyway, I would like to support moving forward with the first option with some other other direction to staff to continue to pursuing additional additional opportunities for the city to fund supportive housing. Thank you, Amy. I would also note that the city does have regulation on the construction, the hours within which construction activity can take place. So let us know if there's anything you need us to do. So I would go last. I want to thank staff for all the time and effort you've put into this, and I've had the pleasure of accompanying Ms.. Jackson, Ms.. Butler and other members of city staff on the screen here on a couple of field trips where we actually got to see in real time the difference, the truly life changing impact that transitional housing, emergency housing can make in a person's life and getting them on the road back to being permanently housed. City Manager Eric Leavitt Was it very long on the job between before and back to who was formerly a member of our staff? And I dragged him on that literally dragged on. But we he accompanied that to Berkeley to see a navigation center and a residential care center, they call it in Berkeley. And so I've also had the opportunity to see some of these providers that our city staff will be considering to to provide the services at these various locations . And there's some really wonderful, innovative and again, truly life changing things going on out there. So I pretty much love everything about that you've brought to us, I think the emergency housing at Alameda Point. Yes, let's do that. It has paid me terribly and I'm sure many of you that we do not have a single place in Alameda where 365 days a year someone could come in out of the weather and not sleep outside if they didn't have a place to sleep. We sometimes have the warming shelter. Christ Episcopal Church has been a wonderful community partner, but then their ability to provide services was curtailed by the pandemic. And so we we need to do better. And now we've had this wonderful opportunity, a silver lining from the cloud of the pandemic that we have ARPA funds and we've got more . The state came in with an amazing surplus because as we've said many times, COVID didn't impact everyone equally. So the state's coffers were very full from people who, you know, in the upper income level. So let's take this opportunity to help level the playing field some more. So, yes, love the emergency housing in Alameda Point. Also a big fan of the bottle parcel. You've got some great providers to choose from and as far as a possible hotel yeah keep looking I mean I to councilmember her sponsors point we get. Occupancy tax revenue, but not so much in the time of the pandemic and the providers who would be willing to sell or enter into some sort of a deal. They haven't done well. And so nor have they been contributing a lot to the the tax base. And the other thing to remember is we pay a lot to address homelessness. There is an amazing cost of just the, you know, helping get people into other placements and what it takes when we go out to clean up. It's not just a sweep and moving people off the pavement or wherever they are, it's finding them other resources, getting them there, just lots and lots of things, time and staff, effort as far as partnering with provider to go into, say, a hotel. And there's some really exciting possibilities. The housing authority would obviously be the last of my choices simply because there are so many more current innovative providers who are doing things just very creatively and very quickly, getting people employed and getting them connected with the services they need and bringing resources to them that the housing authority just isn't set up to do. So I would really favor someone whose specialty is helping lift people out of homelessness. And the you know, the good news is there are some amazing providers out there. So I know staff is going to bring us back some really exciting possibilities. But yes, I mean, I wish we could vote on it today, but we will, as I understand, it's coming back to us on at our very next meeting on the 16th, correct? Ms. MAXWELL Yes, that is correct. We'll be back with you on a full report on both Alameda Point Housing, emergency housing and the transitional housing on the title parcel with our thoughts on appropriate partners and suggestions there. Perfect. Thank you, Councilwoman X-Y. Thank you. One comment I've had to make on the bottom parcel. I do know that some of our research has shown that it is often not a terrible idea to provide some parking onsite for people who bring cars, etc. when a ball site person comes back, especially given the conversation we'll be having a little later tonight, I'd like to at least make sure that the staff report addresses the attention and trade tradeoffs that we have made in order to provide whatever parking is. It is ultimately a part of that. My preference is more housing for people. I think we have a home base and other places where we can find places to help people park and store their cars while they while they're here. So anyway. But I just wanted to throw that out there for. More public discussion. Thank you. Thank you for bringing it up, Councilmember. That's why, you know, one of the things we learned, I think, from our very first visit is parking is needed because a lot of these folks are working. They go every day to a job. It's you know, there's a lot of misunderstanding or a lack of understanding of what homelessness means. People can be working. There could be a two couple to partner couple working both of them jobs and just haven't been able to get a roof over their heads. But we are looking to change that. So, yes, that's a very important part of the conversation. Thank you. Howsoever Harry Spencer. Thank you. In regards to parking, I want to keep in mind also that many of these people have been living in their cars and they have a real emotional attachment. And I would hope that we don't require that they actually give up what they've been living in to be able to have a real roof over their heads . Thank you. Thank you. Another good point. Thank you. Okay. I'm seeing no further. Hands up. Again, thank you so much to staff. This is it's important and it's really exciting that we're moving forward on this. So we will be ready for you in two weeks. Thank you so much. Thank you. Bye bye now with you. Okay, counsel, you do a good job moving along. Yes. Well, I'm not going to say that could bring bad luck. So we will move on. Where are we, Madam Clerk? Item B 70. Yep. Please. Recommendation to approve a Commercial Street two year work program to improve the Park Street and Webster Street striping plans improve the on Street Parklet program. Maintain the Alameda Avenue Street Closure. Rename Resumed pre-COVID parking management fee collection enforcement activities an adoption resolution approving precast concrete traffic control, safety barricades, standards for parklets and adoption. A resolution amending the capital budget by transferring $630,350 in American Rescue Plan Act Project Funds from Capital Improvement Project See 903002 Commercial Street Capital Improvement Project See 12100 an increasing appropriations for the commercial streets CHP by 630,000 350. Take a breath. And the reason we have long titles is that we can get all of our city staff in place. Councilmember Desai, you have your hand up. Yeah.