Yeah, Villanova basketball team rose garden for April 1985. Ladies and gentlemen, the president of the United States and coach Roli Massimino. Well, it's a pleasure to have you all here today. Members of the Villanova Wildcats, well done. You not only represent sportsmen of great talent, you represent the spirit of overcoming great odds that Americans loves like you could fit into a glass slipper. Then again, it wasn't Medj. As Gary McLean said, we work so hard for this, no one in America knows how hard we work down to turn a group of tremendous individual players. Into a team that will go down in the history books. I know that someone else here who deserves recognition, Jake Nevin. And Jake, I know how much you mean to this team and to shots. I was beginning to think it was a hundred percent the way it looked on television. That's better shooting than I used to do in one of those Western movies. You never ran out of ammunition, but all of you to block it. A special word of congratulations to the winner of the tournament's most valuable player award, Ed Pinckney. To be up against an awesome opponent. So congratulations. The game was a testimonial to the enormous talent on both sides. I think you'll all agree with me that Georgetown's team did a great job. Mr. President, we would like to make you an honorary wildcat.  Again, I want to. I'd like to present a jacket on behalf of the Villanova coaching staff and players to President. Thank you. Thank you all very much. And coach, I can't be a fan. And I understand we interrupted your spring vacation. I'm sorry about that. Pleased to have you here. Thank you coach. Thank you. I understand a lot of fans. Yes. Rex, did you want that book of movies back? Well, no, I'd put some paper clips on several of them. I was going to check with her because we won't be going there until the week after. All except the first one. The book is just here for clipping two or three together. That's a copy. I'll get it on. Go, no, you should have a marker so you can get a nootage. It's a sign. One in a dozen of them that's worth a day. He's an oldie for the airplane. No, he's six. When we get back and go to Camp David. He says it's a sign. He said it's a sign. Gordon, do you still have company here? Five. Is the heat coming? Yeah, the heat will be this way. The heat's always on in the minute. It's your time. I've done this way too much, Coach. He's the heat. When he was sleeping in. Well, they got him there. A frescoer up for that. And he walked over. Well, first of all, I think he walked out on the lawn before. He told me just the opposite. The end he said that. That's a very old order that we've been talking about. Is it his niece? Yeah, yeah. He's got him all on them, then there's something in it. They did it. That guy worked. Well, I remember what I did. Back to get somebody to make that call that she said he did. Now I'm doing that. First of all, the key things, how we are, they sent this to you. It's the history of Cowboy Park. He sent you a key. I've been waiting to bring it to you.  I'm just going to leave that. It's a print of one of yours. It's the number one print. Great. But we'll leave that to you. You're doing it. We've got kids in the car. We're going to address them. We'll sort of check them out. We'll just stay there for you. Thank you. Back when the world was not so abstract, you know, and anybody that painted three colors on a piece of campus and I know what he did with them, it was a great artist. I never, I didn't like it. And I was always coming in. At some days, people would rediscover Western art. And you remember in 21 in New York, when you were 14 years old. But I would, everybody, I would tell anyone that would listen for 30 seconds on Western art. And finally, my golly, I was right. Came back and guys like this get $20, $30, $40,000 for a painting. Had a good meeting. A senator from the Social Security. Not Social Security. Well, how is adding a 2% raise each your credit? They say, sir, that your position was that unless you were faced with an overwhelming mandate from Congress, your words, you weren't going to do that. And they say that this group of small Republican leaders from the Senate, not a mandate. No, they were talking about totally canceling that regardless of what inflation might be, that there would be no increases in the coal or no coal is at all. And we're providing guaranteed more than 6% because it's compounded over the three-year period, regardless of what inflation is. How are you going to try to sell your budget, sir? You're going on television? Do you have a plan for the rest of the business? Well, I think we'll use all of that to tell the people about it.  What about Nicaragans? The Nicaragans official say that what your plan is, it basically is declaration of war. How was it? Well, they were saying that before. They even heard what the plan was. More of a say. Well, is there any way you can get a process of their neighbors and their neighboring countries all in support of this? And the countries of the ones who are willing to lay down there on to discuss what kind of a government this should be? It seems to have paid any attention, again, in El Salvador, to talk about participating legitimately in the government. And it was the guerrillas that refused.  Why have you now agreed to lower your military request? It has been suggested by some people, it has been an agreement. Yes, it is a compromise. There are things that I think were worthwhile that budget so that we can honestly say that witness can reduce. Well, there's 3%, now you're a bottom line though. Yes. Not going to go any further. How about the budget as a whole? What are you going to do to sell your Nicaragua flag? What are you going to do to sell your Nicaragua flag? Do you have a seat while you're in California? Do you want to have a television? There hasn't been any plans on that yet. The Nicaraguan government has said no, sir. What now?


to the county and when we have a tier three safe parking program that's 24 seven doing case management participants in that program will be able to be in hmi s as well right and then my last question really is around um you know everything that you just talked about is somewhat overwhelming and i want to congratulate you on everything that's been going on i mean just in rough numbers i'm adding up you know 165 new shelter beds two new mental health liaisons you know 98 people you know affected by the 100 day challenge i mean it just goes on and on i mean we have basically leveraged a 14 million dollar investment and we are often running and people are actually being taken care of they're being housed there's more to come 120 units housing matters two quick questions uh one quick question seems like the relationship with the county is going well we're seeing common areas of leverage common areas of investment um it sounds like you guys are problem solving together um counties taking responsibility they got the 2.3 million dollar grant i believe they helped assist in getting the 6.4 million for the vets homeless housing up in the valley um it just goes on and on i mean the numbers are extraordinary and wonderful is the count are you counting the county's cost share in any of these investments are we both tracking our investments in this in solving this problem and if so is there any way that we can at least grossly report that or do you have any idea how to even approach that and that's my last question um i think there's a lot in that um certainly we haven't specifically talked about how we can wrap all of that up collectively about our respective investments i mean we're certainly having those conversations at an operational level and i think like the one example that speaks to it really clearly is um the development around that the housing matters coral street expansion right we're initially we were looking at expanding shelter capacity and purchasing the shelters in the infrastructure and paying for the program at costs um through our conversations the county is in a position to be able to look at taking on the programmatic costs which frees up our resources so um we're working at that level and i think um i think that could be a next step where we can look at collectively how we're investing how they're investing and really how we're again leveraging one another's resources as well as not just in a financial sense but how we are you know through working in a coordinated fashion are really being able to have a sort of a comprehensive response with respect to homelessness and in our community council member mires if i could dovetail to Larry's comments on there um i can't answer um confidently because our finance team is developing a really intentional financial framework so that we can better track the investments we're making as a city because of the ways the work touches just about every city department you can imagine it's a complex endeavor but a but an important one and i think along those lines we're certainly going to continue in collaboration with the county to help ensure that the county's investments are keeping pace with the major investments that the city is making and that we can more comprehensively report on that collective work across the region so more more to come um and part of that will daylight as we bring the budget and talk about the ways in which we're planning to more closely track those investments on the city side but your point is well taken thank you and i just i'll close i won't comment later i just want to Larry and team lee i want to thank you for housing 38 people i want to thank you for putting 54 people on a pathway to housing i want to thank you for seven people who received necessary services at 12 24 who became engaged in mental health assistance six who got jobs i want to thank you for putting 15 safe sleeping sites out for people to use and i want to thank you for getting ready another 165 shelter beds in our community um this is really amazing and you guys worked really hard and we're going to change this dynamic in this town and we're done being hands off and we're more into being active and hopefully helping people get into successful lives from here on out so these are great numbers i really appreciate it and thanks thank you council member mires are there any other council members council member calentary johnson thank you larry um and the whole team for all your work in this presentation i did send a number of questions and thank you for responding to them um ahead of time but i wanted to just um further ask a few of the questions i sent to you in advance both for the public to hear and for my further clarification um if you could further clarify the city's overlook program at the armory versus the county's current armory program and as that's going offline and we're coming online what do those numbers look like if you could um help explain that that would be great certainly so i'll start with our program that we are standing up and opening next week at what we're calling this the armory city overlook which is on the south lawn on the armory property that will be a program with 75 spaces tents so there'll be 65 folks um uh full-time and there'll be 10 on demand night you know night by night um spots for people so a total 75 capacity and that's what's starting next week to fill up and then again help me get to full capacity over the next three weeks the county's program operates presently inside the building that's their one remaining program up there it presently has i want to say around 60 so they're in the process right as they're working to wind down that program they're focusing their efforts on coming up with rehousing plans for the persons in that program so they will close that program on June 30th at that time what we're exploring is how we can establish a new program with new participants inside the armory building and so again the rough capacity is 60 to as much as 80 different configurations there's some side rooms some of the issues are questions about distancing and spacing with different shelter features the county's capacity of 60 was set by um COVID um hopefully there'll be a moment when that doesn't become integral to our planning efforts but that'll be a consideration still as we start so that's why we're projecting we can open an additional 60 to 80 spaces or beds up in the operating the inside of the building so the this will be a new population you know the county's exploring its options and ability to have a rehousing plan for most of the people in there and so they're still working through that but um we'll be starting a new program if um is that's our that's our hope and intention great thank you and um can you share what are the time limitations of these sheltering programs and what are we doing to support individuals as as they approach their sort of the end of the time limitations to assist them in getting support to more permanent stable housing yeah so this is an area that um I think we're focusing on and looking at and this is part of our conversations with the county too and um working towards having common if not you know similar if not common kind of uh timelines for staying in specific shelter programs and so um the intent is to try to have that turnover to support people to make progress um towards more stable and permanent housing and so um what we've been looking at is something between four and six months um at least as an initial period um I actually believe by by state uh code a shelter is a six month program um so that's sort of a guiding kind of benchmark um that's what we've implemented you know in our first transitional community camp is initial six months of uh of a time limit an evaluation based off of progress towards housing goals if with extension possible based off of people working their plan as well as the prospect of exiting persons in those programs uh if they are not working on the goals and objectives that are part of the uh part of their plan that they developed uh with support from staff so again the goal is you know trying to work with people who are ready to to do that work towards um securing more permanent housing so um that's where we're looking looking at now is six months with the possibility of extensions and uh one of the challenges uh too is just there's you know there's a number of people and other programs that have done the work they need to do with their case plans um have housing vouchers um and don't have a housing option so that's the tension in this process but I think conceptually trying to work around six months as a period and then really the work on rehousing plan starts on day one it's not something that is planned for in month four or month five that is one of the initial pieces so that people can maximize their time that they've got that space okay great and so just along those lines um I know we're using HMIS for tracking um I believe you mentioned in our email exchange I can't remember if it was in the gender report the by names list is is um started for the bench lands um how are we tracking across the shelters at least in the city if not in the county I know that's a maybe longer term um plan that the county's been talking about for a long time but it seems like now is a really great opportunity to really get a by names list going um get folks into coordinated entry system and then do that pathway to housing yeah I think you know with with the uh that new outreach module coming online related to HMIS is going to be that opportunity to be collecting information um on on people sort of that initial stage before they're connected in those programs so I think this is going to be the first step into that space outside of HMIS with the specific programs and specific shelters um so we do have the ability and we you know we can work with the county to get reports um for existing shelters and then we would do the same as we develop this list um they'd be responsible and partners and doing the the reporting and analysis um all on that progress but that's the new functionality is that we'll be able to have that database um to get information on everybody I think bench lands will be that first first test of that uh at some kind of scale okay great and then just two more I'm almost done um great to hear that the safe parking programs are up and running surprised to hear there's only two participating given that we've heard that there's great need and demand out there what else are we doing or can we be doing outside of PD outreach working with county partners working with nonprofits working with street outreach workers to get folks knowledgeable about these spaces and into these safe parking spaces yeah I think one is we can look at you know a more comprehensive outreach you know plan or strategy working with partners as you suggest um again we've we've put information out there um you know the PD has been front lines when they go and do um just normal parking enforcement parking is part of that as well not just PD but when they go and do normal enforcement uh there's informational flyers on the city's program that they distribute um so that's been the principal outreach so we could look at partnering with other organizations to get that information out um I think you know one of the other challenges uh is um is uh right now without being able to enforce in the coastal zone right now folks you know can park for 72 hours without citation um so an overnight program isn't particularly attractive um because you'll have to move every night rather than every 72 hours so that is I think you know something that is capping uh interest presently for a two program I think we'll get some good insight onto that when we're able to set up our tier three program and see what the interest is on a 24 seven program where people can be for an extended period of time again we're trying to align the timeline for participation in that program with other shelter programs so we're looking around six months initially that four to six month range with case management um but that might in some respects be more appealing to some folks because it's a 24 seven location that you can stay and not have to move um so I think those are some you know for the tier two enrollment right now that might be part of what is is explaining it but certainly I think we could look at additional outreach to test and validate what the reasons are for low room low enrollment at the moment okay and then just um I have other comments later but one point to pull from what council member Myers was saying in terms of counting the county investments um outside of what human services housing for health and health services agency behavioral health is doing there's a lot of other work from other departments as well I just worked with the public defender's office the DA's office probation and courts on a six million dollar grant to provide behavioral health services who for those who are criminal justice involved many of them who are unhoused so there's just there's there's a lot happening across the departments across the county that I think if we kind of sit down and dive deep we'll see that that we can leverage the resources in a more efficient way so that's it for now I'll have more comments later thank you so much thank you council member culinary johnson uh vice mayor Watkins uh thank you mayor and thank you for the presentation and uh very thorough agenda report I think has been said there's certainly been a lot done and sure we have a long way to go as well but um the process requires us to continue to keep our I'm kind of our foot on the pedal if you will I guess I have a couple of clarifying questions that um haven't been asked already in regards to the a couple of the proposed positions and I don't know who if maybe this might not be for you Larry but um there's two that sort of stood out as kind of being a little bit high to me and I just wanted to see if I get explanation and one is the halftime community relations specialist the budget being over a hundred thousand for that I'm assuming that's not a a benefited position and the other is for the coral street master planning and design services amount that too seemed kind of high so I was wondering if there could be an explanation as to why those figures are what they are so with respect to the community relations specialist position um and I may defer to HR if there's somebody here but my for that halftime position though I think uh the cost is because it it is benefited oh on top of that so so at that halftime level you know there's eligibility for benefits that are similar to a full-time equivalent cost right that's that helps I didn't realize that I assumed that it wasn't benefited but that's just based on my um other background so a halftime position of the city is benefited or potentially benefited is that correct okay and then um for the for the design services is that something that like what does that entail in terms of the work I guess the scope of work for that right so there's oh go right ahead Larry and I know I think it'd be great to have your planning hat answer all of that sure happy to um so uh we are planning release an RFP later this month for master planning effort um and design charrette and essentially that would involve a consultant doing stakeholder interviews gathering background information holding a design charrette typically these are multi-day charrette um we haven't put that specifically in the RFP because we want to provide that flexibility for consultants to come up with their own approach to how they would handle the the work but oftentimes those are multi-day charrettes where they come in and they do information gathering that first day and then they come back with with potential alternatives the second day and then they they mold those together and come back on the third day and vet some options for how we might plan for the different services and so that would involve both identification of the range of services that we need with the different stakeholders our nonprofit partners the county and ourselves with the city as well as then looking at some of the land use opportunities using architectural expertise to understand what dimensions are going to be successful for buildings and the floor plate sizes as well as for the parking needs out there and how that overall streetscape and the properties along that streetscape can be planned to accommodate all of those uses and what we would anticipate of as that from that is really a conceptual plan that speaks to here are the uses and intensities of those uses that you should potentially be considering and how they might fit together but it wouldn't necessarily include the the specific land use changes in fact I don't anticipate that it would include the land use changes that would be a subsequent effort and that would have the CEQA components to it and the real analysis this is more how might we how might we structure our investments now and what are the steps that we need to take from a land use and design perspective and and prioritization perspective in order to get there so that consultant effort would be condensed but intensive and we we don't know how much that's going to come back at but we do think that we'll have sufficient funds in there for that particular portion now there are also within that pre-development funds for future development on along Coral Street right so once we identify here are the uses that we want to focus on we need to start taking those next steps in terms of both the land use changes as well as starting to put plans together so that we can go out and secure funding and so the 14 million includes allocations for both of those the the initial master planning effort and then the future pre-development fund thank you for the clarification I was just wondering what it encompassed so I appreciate that I think that concludes my okay council member brown thank you mayor thank you larry for the presentation and thanks to the entire team for all of the work you've done I know it's complex it's challenging in many ways and it's just really wonderful to see so many of the things that I've been advocating for and many of us have been advocating for for decades now both myself as an activist prior to being on the council and during my time on the council to see this kind of coming together is is really heartening and having talked with uh somebody who's involved in the tier three uh safe parking program or hopefully going to be managing that um just you know their excitement and enthusiasm um just really made me feel like this you know this is something that's going to make a really meaningful uh difference in people's lives um so thank you um I wanted to ask since we're talking about the kind of budget for some of these additional um functions some of which are intended to be staff uh city staff ongoing and some are as contractors um and I'm gonna just say it again um I I see well about half a million dollars here for uh you know planning and proposal development consultants and then a legislative advocacy consultant um so we we have a very robust administrative and consultant budget I'll say that um and I understand that there are um good reasons to uh want to seek out that additional support and um that there can be a significant return on that investment um so I but I did just want to ask about um kind of how you're thinking about that I see that um agreements for services will come to us if they're um meet the criteria for needing council approval um but they're pretty big ticket items and um you know we spend a lot of time um this city council spends a lot of time talking about um the creating uh accountability and evaluation metrics for our service providers for um the people who are serving very poor people and marginalized people in our community we make them jump through a lot of hoops um and so I'm just wondering if um what kind of um evaluation metrics will put in place for these kinds of functions uh to ensure that those investments are um paying off and um at what point might we um depending on the outcomes determine whether or not it's it's worthwhile to continue to to do that um I just don't want to see another half a million dollars built into our budget for um things that um may or may not actually add value to the city and I'm not saying they won't I'm I'm I'm just you know I'm hoping they will um but it's a lot of money um and we obviously have um significant uh kind of field operation needs so just would love to hear a little bit more about those and since you laid out a little bit more about the um housing matters the coral street campus I thought maybe we could hear a little bit more about those too as well certainly so I think you know um starting with the legislative advocacy consultant I think certainly that's one area where we can more uh readily identify return on investment since part of that scope of work will be um doing advocacy to get policy changes that may change funding formulas that can bring more money to the city or identify new funding or potential earmarks and so I think that's at least from a fiscal sense has the potential to be more readily um evaluated in that context in terms of effectiveness of course that is just a piece of the work I think the other part is again just adding that additional capacity to be able to track the relevant legislation to give us updates to work on coordinating that statewide coalition of cities of similar size like Santa Cruz that are dealing with these big city challenges with respect to homelessness but not having the same kind of seat at the table uh in Sacramento so um there's multiple aspects to work and again there's that's additional capacity that's needed to do that work and in many respects it's not just the direct return on investment but sort of we're we're not keeping pace if we're not able to keep track of um where things are moving in the legislative arena so I think we can with that position there um and again that we'll be able to assess on an ongoing basis whether or not that's just as a good recurring investment I think too with the planning that area of planning and proposal development consultants um there are a number of items uh where again we need additional capacity as we're getting this infrastructure uh to help us work and develop requests for proposals and develop work towards a certified vendor list I think there's sort of one some one-time kind of tool development that's part of that that existing staff doesn't have we don't have the capacity to be dedicated in some respects don't have the specific expertise and experience there may be parts of that that there may be an ongoing need but I see a good part of that are really helping develop kind of the infrastructure to get us in place to be able to do our work more efficiently so um I would not expect that to be as high um if it was coming back in subsequent years and again trying to figure out the metrics might be a little less direct um but um again I think we may be able to quantify in terms of you know are we successful in and streamlining some of our RFP processes do we feel like we have better better um fiscal processes or managing we can look at what our overall costs are and be in a position to make better decisions about how we're investing our dollars through some of the tool development thank you I have one comment that I know it's not comment time but I just I feel like I want to say this because it's come up and the question was about um how it is that people who are looking for safe parking um access uh an interface around the safe parking program um and I mean no impertinence when I say this but um I think that um as council member Calentari Johnson suggested looking at ways to um conduct outreach to give people an interface that is not just through the police department um will make a big difference as well I think the 24-7 thing is is clearly I mean you you really hit the nail on the head with that um but I just knowing um what I experience in the conversations I have because I do spend quite a bit of time out um talking with unhoused people and um uh being in in the encampments that like going into the police station to see if they if someone can find a place to park is not necessarily something that um a large segment of the population would be um feel comfortable with so and again I I just want to say that as a just logistical barrier and no commentary on um how the police department is handling that um I just think we should be thinking about a more um community-based approach to reaching people thank you council member Brown council member Cummings thank you for the presentation um I have a number of questions and many of which have been answered but um some some other issues if I'm wondering if first we could start if you could just define H I know people have been saying that HMIS and oftentimes acronyms get thrown around and maybe members of the public don't know what we're talking about so I'm wondering if you could just start by explaining what that is and what that system is so that people can kind of be aware of what we're talking about when as it relates to that certainly so HM HMIS stands for homelessness management information system and that is the data collection system for uh that is uh administered through the local continuum of care agency which is the housing for health partnership and that's where the information is collected on persons who are enrolled in those county um funded programs that are providing shelter and support services and so this is a tool you know it's part of the case management it has you know the information on personal information on names dates of birth um as well as then service connections you know so every service provider um that's part of that network if they receive us that person receives a service case notes and documentation goes in there to be able to track their progress you can see you know um through that whether um what their housing outcome is in terms of if they are successfully find permanent housing whether that happens or not um and so you can track that and sort of use it as a tool as well for monitoring ongoing performance but then also looking at outcomes okay and I wanted to follow up because I know that myself and um Mayor Brunner were contacted by a woman about a service called Giusecchi and um the the service was a platform that uses text messaging through phones to connect people to services and I know we forwarded this information on to staff I don't know if there's been any communication between staff and um that individual around that service so I'm just wondering if you can maybe speak to that because if that person's watching just being and not even if they're not watching just being able to give them an update on you know where that those conversations are is that a possibility of use because it sounded like a tool that could be used not only by providers but also individuals in the field who if they needed to be connected to a doctor or potential employer or what have you that they could actually use this service which is kind of using an AI platform to help connect people who need services with those services and so I'm wondering and it also tracks all the interactions and engagement and so I'm wondering if you can maybe speak to that yeah thank you for first for forwarding that information um I have not had a chance to follow up yet um but that is something on this to-do list um once to find out more information about the functionality how it might be useful how um as I mentioned you know one of the pieces that we need to develop is this process is to have better data collection tools and better systems and not everything that's part of the city's plan may be possible to work through HMIS just given the the kind of the the parameters around how they're collecting data at HMIS so we may be needing to look at different tools so that we can do some uh monitoring and data collection of our own programs in some way so figuring out that functionality um I think will be useful so that's on my to-do list great thanks and then just so other council members and members of the public are aware it sounded like the technology can also be used to determine when there are beds that are open versus um beds that are filled and knowing that that type of communication is something that will be useful especially if we're trying to move people into beds and into services it could be effective in that regard as well um the next question I had was related to um kind of the discussion around the sober living shelter and um the beds at housing matters um one of the things that was brought to my attention and some of this was answered earlier but I want to make sure that the public is aware um the county board of supervisors on their agenda today um had an item related to the sober center project um and the purchase of um a modular facility that could be used and one of the things that was mentioned in that um agenda report um I'll just quote it in one of the paragraphs was that in December 2021 housing matters informed the county that they were unable to secure sufficient funding for their permanent housing project and therefore can no longer commit to donating the modular to the county um and so I'm just wondering if we could speak to that because you know if I think we're anticipating that housing matters is going to move forward with construction of this 121 or 120 uh bed facility but based on this agenda report that went to the county today um it seems like it was mentioned that um in December 2021 they weren't able to come up with all these funding these funds to make that happen and so I'm just curious um and maybe if we could speak to it so that the public's aware kind of where that's at and what opportunities there are for the city to help because I think one thing that we all agree on is that we need more beds and if it seems like housing matters can't um find the funding to build those beds what opportunities are there for the city to partner with housing matters to make sure that we can actually ensure that those beds are built we've got three of us on who would who would say I'm happy to start but Matt if you want to go for a leave okay at the infill all right um so um back in uh December of 21 the um the housing matters team was considering whether or not they would be able to um submit for the um project home key round that would um that had the uh not technically an expiration but the first deadline of uh January 31st of this year and um they recognized that um they weren't going to be able to meet some of those deadlines in particular with respect to the lead time that was necessary for their um for the um offsite factory production that needed some more lead time and so they recognized if if we were to apply for and receive home key funding um we aren't going to be able to meet those uh criteria so I expected that um that portion of the um the board's report from the staff at the county um that was in relation to that so back in December there was a consideration hey we're going to be giving away you know they they had said we've got these trailers that we're going to be giving away and then you know as often as the case in this realm things shifted and they said all right well you know what could we be utilizing these for and they're not necessarily going to have to kick people out and move those off campus and so do we want to continue to utilize them and might they be a part of our plan so that's what I was mentioning before with respect to the use of those trailers now to house the people from the poly loft and so that has been a dynamic approach I do know that the housing matters team has put in an application for no place like home funding and they have indicated that they would hear back in in June as to whether or not they received that no place like home funding if they do not then I think that they would also be looking at whether or not um project home key the next round of project home key might offer an opportunity for funding so they're looking at a wide range of funding and um similarly to how the situation is dynamic on the housing matters and the situation has already been dynamic on our end with respect to how we've been using and planning to use the 14 million with the example being that that Larry mentioned earlier with respect to the county providing some of the funding for operations of the palette shelters or similar sleeping cabins on and around the coral street area and us redirecting some of that funding to um look at a sheltering facility up at the armory so I think we will continue to need to be nimble as we understand what the needs are and and that is a really key project for our community and one that we absolutely want to see built because that's going to provide very much needed permanent supportive housing and that that's going to be a key component to our overall homelessness response efforts. Great um follow up to that uh well actually pivoting a little bit um I'm just curious how we could speak to how many people are in the Benchlands currently and kind of what's the plan I mean it sounds like you know the there's a June date of demobilization of that um it sounds like there's some flexibility around that as well um there are people who for example are in the armory currently and something's going to happen with those people I guess there's no guarantee they'll all get into housing um and having walked past there you know a couple days ago there's a lot of tents and a lot of people down in the Benchlands so I'm just wondering if you could maybe speak to that and then I have a follow up question afterwards. Sure um so uh getting an accurate sense this is very difficult um and counting tents recently in the range of around 270 to 290 tents um and again um there's not always one person one tent some's tents are storage some of folks have a tent in the Benchlands and some other encampments so it's really hard to get a person count uh but that is you know a kind of a useful metric to get a sense of the scale of the number of people that are down there um and that is certainly an increase from the beginning of the year I think most recently um Caltrans closing encampments around one in nine put a significant um additional number of persons in the Benchlands uh you know particularly the group right um underneath and adjacent to the Water Street Bridge at that end as mostly persons from that encampment so that is the size of the problem um that we need to work on um for the demobilization um so uh it's a significant number of people that we're trying first and foremost I think to expand shelter and housing options I think that's what our first focus has been as I articulated in the you know the presentation first working on expanding the shelter and two collaborating closely with the county and through the additional outreach positions and programs through the grant funding they have to be working on the ground there in the Benchlands to make contact with everybody they can to begin to develop that plan as soon as possible so we have as much lead time before uh July to hopefully find alternative housing options so that's the that's the initial focus um and we'll see and I guess that's the flexibility we'll see how successful these various plans are of her expanding shelter and getting additional capacity to be able to move people from the Benchlands to those uh sites as well as what are the other housing options through the rehousing efforts and support services through the outreach and case management over the next two months to begin to work on reducing that number and we'll be able to evaluate on an ongoing basis how successful those different efforts are that will inform the specific timing of when we'll be closing the Benchlands and then what's required and what the plan is for the persons that continue to remain we do know that not everybody who is there right now is going to be interested in the shelter options that may be available or work on developing a rehousing plan but our goal and our effort is we're gonna have a place to the best of our ability for those who want a shelter space to be able to have one available um with this timeline thanks then the follow-up to that is um you know the 1220 River Street I mean well one you know there's a lot of staff that are being proposed to be hired 1220 River Street and somebody can correct me if I'm wrong but I do remember in the past that the capacity there was probably around 60 to 70 tents that it could accommodate and you know it seemed like things were actually going pretty well there in terms of being able to accommodate people um understanding that you know giving everybody each individual case management takes some effort but again we're investing in that right now and I'm just wondering what opportunities there are to expand the number of tents at 1220 River Street and this ties into the Benchlands and this is somewhat of a comment but one of the things that many people that I've been speaking to are concerned about is that if we demobilize the Benchlands at the end of June you know we're getting into fire season and if we don't have enough capacity and we kick everybody out of the Benchlands there's a high likelihood they're going to go into the Pogonip and you know given that we're coming off of we're still you know recovering from one of the worst fires in the history of our community I think there's a lot of concern about people going into the forest and then that increases fire risk because right now you know fire risk would be low in the Benchlands obviously we need to get people moved you know out of that flood zone before the winter but you know the concern around closing the Benchlands and then people moving into the forest I think is something that's a great concern and so I'm just wondering you know is there the potential to expand the capacity at places like 1220 River I mean it sounds like we're going to meet the same capacity indoor at the Armory we're going to have 75 more tents up there there'll be potential for safe sleeping in RVs and so I'm just wondering if we could use 1220 as additional capacity to try to keep people from moving into some of the more sensitive habitats yes I mean those that those concerns about fire risk are real and and something that we need to look at how we can mitigate with respect to 1220 River there is a space for additional tents but to do that would fundamentally alter kind of the nature of the program as it's operating now the smaller camps maxing at around 30 where they are you know we have staff that are there on site every day but not full day these are you know so to some degree self-managing communities and they're building community and you can build community amongst your neighbors with 30 but if you start to put more people into that size of space the ability to create that community and work together cohesively becomes really challenging and would make it more difficult again for the you know providing the case management and supporting people to make progress towards those you know permanent and more stable housing options so it's to some degree a trade-off between results and effectiveness and sheer number of shelter beds so in terms of the pure capacity you're absolutely right previous versions of 1220 River have had more people on that site with a very different program design it was a 24-7 staffed camp is my understanding um so it had a different level of staffing a different cost associated with that as well and was a very different environment with very different kind of end goals so that is one of the trade-offs I think in terms of trying to stand up additional transitional community camps findings locations to operate these smaller more outcomes focused self-managed camps is certainly a strategy that we're looking at implementing I think is a better long term in terms of trying to move people successfully through that pathway towards housing but it means fewer people in those sites great thank you for that and then I guess my last question just doing some kind of back on the napkin calculations looking at kind of year two just focusing on services it's about five point six million dollars moving forward I'm wondering if someone can speak to you know what we anticipate should the revenue measure move forward how much annually we could anticipate generating from that based on kind of current projections and how that you know how much of that generated revenue would go towards these services I know this is something that the community cares deeply about I also know that there are a lot of competing needs in the community around infrastructure employee compensation you know new equipment what have you and so I'm just wondering how much of this is going to how much of the revenue should measure pass how much of that would actually go towards you know kind of maintaining these services because this is all one time in the the sheet that we have and you know five point six is unfunded moving forward so I'm just wondering if someone can speak to that Miller I can take a crack at that thanks for the question councilmember Cummings so our most recent estimated revenue for measure F that our finance team put together was approximately eight million dollars annually is what we anticipate that measure to generate based on today's figures and where the economy is currently going your question as to how much of that would be directed towards homelessness response will be a future decision for the council to make it's true that the homeless action plan as it stands now does not have a number of the positions funded in year two and year three so there will be future decisions around how best to use the measure F funds if the community decides to support it and I think you know the burden is on us to continue exploring what other funding options we might be able to tap into as well the governor as part of the the state budget proposal just over the the past couple of weeks has made a major commitment to continuing to expand funding for homelessness response as well as mental health and substance abuse programming so that is encouraging and our hope is we continue moving through this including the statewide advocacy that Larry had mentioned earlier this evening that the burden wouldn't be fully placed on our general fund and we continue to explore those other options so time will tell that concludes my questions thank you very much councilmember golder so I just want to say thank you Larry and your microphone hello thank you Larry and to the rest of the team I do support I do support the idea of having advocacy at the state and federal level I think this is obviously an issue that's bigger than Santa Cruz and we won't even make a dent without that level of support and I also think that any money that we invest now in and in this will hopefully offset some of the money that we've been spending out of our general fund in other departments and it will save us money in the long run is what I'm hoping to see I do appreciate all the work being done at the Coral Street campus but I'm a little apprehensive about some of having so many things on one site and specifically I was thinking throughout the presentation like having you know families living amongst people recovering from hospitals and then in addition adding in the permanent supportive housing I just wonder if like you said having so many people at one site will make it less of a community for certain groups or isolate certain groups and so then I started thinking and I know you were talking about the pallet shelters but I have a question and I don't expect you to answer tonight but I know when my husband goes on strike teams with the fire department they sleep in like these sleeping trailers that hold like up to a dozen people and have a little bathroom and a washer and dryer and you can move them around they're like the size of a semi-trailer and so it wouldn't necessarily I don't know how much they cost in relation to a pallet shelter but I was just wondering if maybe you could look into that as a possibility yes certainly there's there's a number of different shelters sleeping cabins tiny homes there's there's all all kinds of products on the market these days at various costs with various features and so yes certainly we're we're looking at multiple pallet shelters one type and it's one that's familiar to describe kind of that is but we're looking at other ones and there's different features in terms of particularly small spaces and significantly is sort of the fire rating of some of the units and that requires if they don't if there might be more inexpensive but don't have the same kind of fire rating it means that you have to space them further apart so you can't get as many units in a space but then higher quality units with better fire ratings are much more expensive you know so those that trade-offs but there's a variety of products and we're working and doing research on on some different products to fit what what the needs are yeah I was just thinking because those are so mobile you could put it real really anywhere at any time and my own my other question is in regard to the housing choice vouchers when you're helping people get those do you also help them with and this might be a stupid question but what got them into homelessness in the first place like help them not repeat that cycle and with like credit repair and like getting their bank accounts and their identification and all that kind of stuff so that when they when they have that voucher and they're out there competing against like other people in the really competitive rental market that they're successful and able to get that housing yes certainly and in good quality case management trying to understand kind of the genesis of what brought people to their current situation and how that might identify you know a work plan moving forward is it's integral to case management not speaking about any particular case but just generally you know a lot some of the research shows that it's often some small relatively speaking event that tips somebody over the edge from having stable housing to homelessness it's a medical issue loss of employment these kind of one-time things that then because there isn't an effective safety net allows people to continue to have a unhoused situation and so you know ideally if we could figure out how to get in front of those and make those more preventative focused I don't mean us as a city but just collectively society we could find the right moment with the right intervention with each person it would be a lot cheaper to work on these because a lot of these are just their events that many of us experience in our families and just some families don't have the resources and support systems around them to be able to work through those bumps and as a result they become homelessness homeless so yeah understanding and uncovering those and helping people circumvent the nuts that's court a case of good case management and then my final question slash request is when you're out there and everyone's out there you know boots on the ground and there's kids out there can you please make sure that those kids are in school that there's personal accountability to the parents that the kids are in school because if they want to get out of generational poverty if we're not ensuring that the kids are in school how can we you know expect that to happen yeah partnering with the schools that's it my last yeah thank you thank you council member golder I had a couple of questions and thank you Larry for answering some questions prior so one thing that has come up and I just kind of want to get clarity in explaining what a hygiene bay is and you know it's really explained in terms of new flooring and new moisture barrier that's all laid out here but it doesn't really define what the hygiene bay consists of and is there only one these are some of the questions that have come up so thank you for that question so fundamentally in the hygiene bay is really it is a showering and restroom facility on the campus for a multi-person use I think I apologize I might be off the numbers but I think the plans for this include 12 shower stalls and a number of toilets but in addition to that though you know the remodel is working on the entire building and so it's also going to require significant you know HVAC you know for heating and cooling and moisture movements so that you don't have kind of the impact on the building and the degradation of the building related to all the moisture that was in the old hygiene bay so the focus is on the hygiene bay and rebuilding that but there's a lot of infrastructure to the building and shoring up the building that was part of that process and again those services are integral to around thinking of the number of people that are sheltered on that campus the day use of services that they have there and having that facility available to improve the quality of life for persons experiencing homelessness is essential thank you um that was also my next question follow-up with that is that is it a shared so it's a facility with showers and toilets and it's shared amongst the entire housing matters campus not specific to one community there Larry it's the um we actually had an agenda report in February of this year so um and it was for the public works request for proposal release and according to that report it prior to being shut down served about a hundred people daily before its closure and as Larry talked about it is a full-on restoration of not just the showers and the toilets and sinks but it also includes upgrades to the ventilation system and the existing building facility and then the moisture barriers the air conditioning etc we've got a full agenda report related to that mayor if we can also forward that on to you to pass on if you'd like thank you you're welcome the next question um is what what are the facilities at the armory in terms of showers and toilets and hygiene bay so for for the program that we're starting there will be a shower trailer um that is available um and then we'll be having portable toilets and hand washing stations up there um there is uh some within the armory building which we will not have access to immediately that would be after the county program closes there are um there are restroom facilities and a shower although it's a shared shower that kind of limits use so while the county's been operating the program they've done it similarly where they've had a shower trailer with multiple shower stalls and portable toilets and restroom facilities up there as well so that's the infrastructure that we'll have for our program and uh the safe parking sites and gray water dumping what's the progress on that yeah so similarly at all um any and all uh safe parking locations that the city operates there will be restrooms and hand washing stations there will be refuse containers uh for garbage um and uh we are working in the process of looking at how we can support um safe dumping of rv gray and black water tanks and it may be through a combination initially um the plan for the tier three program is to to work with at least initially united site services that services the port bodies to see if they can do that as well we're also looking at other mobile operators that can go to the sites periodically and um and provide dump services and we're also looking as part of the plan about trying to find a location and establish a dedicated dump station in the city that people could utilize independent of being part of the safe parking program okay thank you um what is the update on shelters across the county progress and um you know I know you spoke a lot of um the collaboration and efforts um working together the city um and the county working to provide services and some of the programs the behavioral health the mental health liaisons um but I know there was early on with this plan kind of a collective effort a lot of our unhoused folks come from across the county and there was um kind of a look at identifying uh county wide sites and working together to establish some of those smaller um shelter sites and again around that 30 people range to have the most effective uh outcomes for people and so I was just wondering if there was continued progress in that area yeah so uh I don't have an updated uh shelter capacity number from tonight from the last report but I can contact our partners at the county to get an updated number uh but to the other part of your question yes we continue to be in conversation collaboratively about trying to work towards you know the countywide goal is to have 600 uh shelter spaces okay and so when we have our collaborative meetings uh we talk about sites locations programs funding uh so we're actively working on that I think a good example is the county um partnering to support expansion at coral street is one example they're continuing as they're winding down their program at the armory and looking again at other shelter options through master leasing so um their active efforts and again we're sharing information um to be able to work towards that end thank you and developing a housing plan for everyone in the benchlands that is an amazing goal amazing goal um and has that's it sounded like that started now slowly um that process and um the county I'm just clarifying that the county will have uh case managers set up there um at the benchlands to um make those connections and services and reach each person there um is that correct correct that is the goal that's where we have not started that phase formally yet you know we're we're talking with the county and pulling together the different um programs that are doing outreach work there um it's it's happening I guess in a little less coordinated way right now so you we do have outreach that's going on there but we haven't come together specifically around this goal of having you know a rehousing plan for everybody that's in the works we're bringing people together to plan that you're right uh we've we are working with the county to be able to place a mobile office unit there or the outreach staff across multiple programs to be able to do that work um as well as the first phase is you know our our city outreach staff has uh has had a list and has worked on a list of potential participants for the city armory program for months now and so we're going to be implementing that and so that'll be there for 75 people that will be their initial rehousing plan is is moving from benchlands up to the armory so pieces of that are already under the way and uh we're working with the county to be able to do that in a more coordinated and intensive effort over the next two months thank you that concludes my questions uh at this time I will bring it out to the public for public comment let me pull it back here so if you're interested in commenting on agenda item number 31 if you could remain over in line please sir oh thank you of course thank you if you are interested in commenting on agenda item number 31 homelessness response quarterly update now is the time to call in using the instructions on your screen or in the agenda the order of um you can press star nine on your phone or select the raise hand feature on the webinar controls of your computer when it's your turn to speak you will hear an announcement that you have been unmuted and the timer will be set to two minutes members of the public who are joining us here in person in the chambers please line up on the right side of the dais you will also have two minutes to speak and we ask that you sign in to ensure correct spelling of your name however it is not required and again I have approved for extra time four minutes for Huff Robert Norse I'd like to begin with you welcome members of the community and council the big issues here as raised by Mayor Brunner are in fact the real issue of how many people are homeless in Santa Cruz city area and how are they being treated at the moment how are they likely to be treated in the next year given all these new resources which are supposedly available now when I hear the kind of I don't want to call it gobbledygook but it's sort of abstract talk and possible things may soon be happening and we're working and planning on this and indeed as council member Myers has pointed out there may be again what 160 beds available for thousand to 1500 people and the real issue is my concern as a member of this homeless civil rights group is what about the majority of these folks not so much do I expect this council to provide shelter and services for everybody but I expect them not to be dumping their money into the pockets of consultants and legislative analysts and more fun grabbers that don't really produce services for the majority of the people in this county and the idiotic and I think misleading claim that you are looking for a pathway to housing when the housing does not currently exist is very misleading and deceptive and tiresome to hear from the city council but I mean my purpose is not so much to berate the council I know that's going to be what you're continuing to talk about all the affordable housing that isn't really affordable and all the shelter that isn't really available for most people in this county and all the money going into enforcement that really is what this is all about you are trying to find a way to enforce the OVO and the CSSO ordinances at least the OVO although I don't see that you actually passed this word said you're not going to enforce it until the coastal commission reverses its 2016 decision but the CSSO has no such provision here once there is affordable shelter or whether it's once there is a shelter that you have certified and you've declared the benchlands or at least your your go-to guy the city manager has declared the benchlands to be that shelter and yet at the same time as I pointed out the last council meeting this is about to be dispersed in July oh I know it's it's flexible well that's very nice but that's not much comfort to the people either living in the benchlands who can't make there any plans about what they're doing remember people do independently try to get other resources and other housing they really do believe it or not they don't really love being in the benchlands that's not what people like and the notion that you're helping 150 people and how wonderful that is it's not wonderful considering the massive resources that you've had over the last five to ten years it just isn't and people who are watching this know the grand jury knows it I think particularly homeless people know it and I realized that when you're in an insulated position like this council is you don't really feel it except in the most abstract way and that leaves the community to have to take the action here and as usual I hope that we will as we did in the winter of 2020 when we stopped your old city manager from disrupting the lives and stealing the homes of the people in the benchlands but it's really hard to tell maybe your maybe things will go like they were then maybe they won't and if I weren't so tired I would have perhaps given a better presentation thank you thank you I will now go out to our virtual hands raised and let's see our first name is Serge Cagno welcome go ahead and unmute yourself good evening the city council thanks for giving me time to speak I want to very much show my appreciation to Larry and Wally and the very informative presentation I'm hopeful that the services will continue to make a change for Santa Cruz as we are currently in mental health awareness month and as I'm a member of the county's mental health advisory board I have a few comments and three questions first I think forcing people into shelter is not necessary to fill our shelters designing our programs to be more welcoming and more appealing from the participants perspective is the missing piece in these discussions what I don't hear mentioned is trauma informed care designing care from the perspective and behavioral health needs of the participants in the participant agreement for the tier two sleep safe sleeping site and I suspect in the 20 encampments site participants must agree that they have no expectations of safety I'm confused on how we're expecting our city programs to be appealing if we make no promises of safety I have a question for the shelters and the safe sleeping sites how would enforcement of the CSO and the possible enforcement of the OVO affect those people in city shelter programs who get kicked out for behavioral health issues or leaving voluntarily doing that anxiety or other behavioral health issues since there's not housing for the thousand plus people experiencing homelessness in the city of Santa Cruz and many do not qualify for housing vouchers or have a means to pay for housing what happens to those participants at their end of their limited stay with regards to enforcement of those ordinances those are my questions I'll say one last comment Larry referred to a sober living shelter I'm confused about that I don't know if Larry is misinformed or trying to label it as shelter that sober program is just about people who are getting arrested it is not a shelter at all so thank you for your time and I hope that we continue to support people with behavioral health needs have a good night thank you for your comment our next uh member of the public I will invite forward here in person welcome thank you my name is James first I want to thank surge because although I have eight things on my list number six has to do with and accept a grant allocation that the county passed today so instead of law enforcement engaging with every issue that goes on in this county they've allocated 7.5 million for alternative sources I think that's excellent there are a few places where brevity is more important is less important than foreplay it was a lot of talking wow uh three-minor to Williams Shakespeare how much to do about nothing so if there's 14 million dollars as that has been advocated 2.3 million apparently has already been spent it'd be interesting to see what that stuff was spent on and there are it seems like there's a bunch of housing for people with vehicles that's really promising now I too took a walk um through the bench glance and wow there's at least 370 tents there uh there's no telling how many people it seems from the numbers I have heard maybe there's accommodations for 180 if they're like 1800 homeless people in this county what is gonna go on um I want to thank Danny Brown for bringing up some good observations and Justin Cummins for bringing up some good observations there were a lot of good observations particularly about fire safety you know I spoke in the county not so much here about those directed energy weapons my comment is going to be there are frequencies that literally put out fires but what's going on on planet earth there are fires thank you thank you for your comment our next uh member of the public is uh in our virtual attendee room reggie go ahead and unmute yourself hi can you hear me yes hi there great hi um I'm gonna kind of like make a narrow comment here um as I've noted in past meetings the oversized vehicle ordinance is not really a safe parking bill despite how it's advertised it's a bill to criminalize folks living in vehicles safe parking is not even defined in the ordinance only one subsection of ovo even talks about the establishment of safe parking and it simply states that the city manager is given authority to operate support or authorize sites um but this is something they were already able to do which was admitted in the drafting session of ovo where uh there was discussion about safe parking sites at the police station safe parking sites being supported by our city at afc um and safe parking sites being authorized on uh commercial lots so why am I bringing this point up again tonight well I just heard Larry Imwale admit that the city is making progress on developing safe parking sites despite the implementation of ovo being delayed because of the Santa Cruz Cares appeal so I think this is a really important thing for the public to hear ovo is not a safe parking bill it is not stopping safe parking it is not delaying safe parking safe parking is 100 moving forward and it's uh in all the ways that the city manager wants because it already was able to do that um and I want to make another note because it's very concerning to me that what I just admitted that ovo is not a safe parking bill um in the info to voters sent out by the city about measure f I want to say it is the sales tax um they note that there is a ordinance that was passed that is a safe parking bill they are referring to ovo and that is untrue and I think it is very disturbing for the city to release propaganda which is just provably false so I would like to be corrected thank you thank you I didn't know if you heard the the timer okay our next person is in person please welcome to the front thank you very much um council members and larry and lee I first of all just want to say I really appreciate your efforts to address this really difficult problem in within the realm of capitalism um and um I really sincerely mean that um it's it's really tough and I can see the work you've put into it and it's it's deep and profound um and very complex I just really sincerely want you to know that because now I am going to completely criticize this and I just want to say from the perspective of somebody who was a domestic violence victim and um had to become homeless because I was so incredibly harmed by mental health uh professionals um that I decided to take my investigation into homelessness very seriously from a firsthand perspective and so I have been in the river street shelter I wanted to see how hard it was to walk around all night looking possibly for one tree or bush where you could sleep under it and maybe get away with it without getting harmed there were none in Berkeley where I could do that and so I would walk around all night I could go on and on but I'm also somebody who is trained in the mental health profession I'm just going to leave it at that what we need in this city and in cities all around the country first of all is a continuity person because it's ridiculous that politicians come into these bodies like our city council and um and I am saying you're well meaning but you are politicians that's what you are you are city servants maybe so it's ridiculous that we have politicians come in who go out and then we're asking the same questions over and over decade after decade the HMIS system does not work for many homeless people because people are very suspicious so what we need to do is to count the number of beds in actuality I want simple presentations that tell us how many beds and where because we need to make sure that the people at the benchlands who have a city who have a home who have a place to live can go to those beds and if they cannot we will protest we will demand thank you good night thank you for your comment uh next caller is in our virtual attendee list the name I am watching you go ahead and unmute yourself yes as regard your homeless response update it seems to assume incorrectly that Santa Cruz has a perfectly normal size perpetual homeless condition the solution to which is a larger and expensive perpetual welfare just here in the city in the form of emergency shelters parking areas for living RVs and lots and lots of perpetual staff expense I see nowhere an actual stated numerical goal of a reduction in homelessness and dependence with yearly measurable metrics that we can then judge the worthiness of such expenses and effort to return to something like approaching a california average homelessness it just seems like a bigger more expensive government welfare program with no end game you seem to be embarking on a pure welfare commitment with without full funding or even a guess of future funding expenses or sources I note the footnote on the two a footnote on the two year and three year plan blank hrp plan quote funding will need to come from general fund new revenue sources or reductions other services then quote no one would lease a new car without some idea of how to pay for it besides the down payment only an inscrubulous car dealer will allow someone to sign such an agreement apparently you just forgot to mention what those other reduced services might look like as they become a lower non priority than this new welfare system welfare is a tricky business largely the responsibility of the federal state government and charity people can be just as trapped in the welfare state not daring to dig themselves out of it for fear of lost benefits even if they're quite capable of doing so such as the fate of millions of people you wouldn't hold up the citizens of san jacuzzi to blow the whole 14 million in one year and mandate funding of future programs for astronautic numbers of homelessness here by threatening the loss of taxpayer services or else would you thanks thank you for your comment let's see are there any other members of the public here in person that have not spoken okay are you are you okay great come forward please thank you welcome thank you to be uh reading this because that it's that way and um what when i heard about having a community relations specialist i thought what an opportunity that is to change the narrative we have about people who are houseless this is in the wrong place huh there we go batter we need to change the current narrative because we have other homeless people they have we tend to believe they are not like us we're different so we can choose the ones who deserve help and the ones who do not deserve help and we don't have to feel bad because they got there because of something they did wrong an individual failure houselessness is seen in this country as an individual failure but it is not it's a failure of our economy our structure our financialization of land and of homes our housing crisis and we have got to change that for the public because the fact that most of the mistreatment and the and the hate and despising that goes on in the public for houseless people it's because of that belief the misplacement of blame so i hope that i want to encourage this community relations specialist to focus on that because it is an opportunity to change how we see the members of well our other residents who live without homes and i know as a renter here of 22 years i know how uncertain my future is and how unstable it is and i know i am just like them and they are like us thank you for your comment our next member of the public for comment is virtual hand raised darius mosin i uh i i i too agree with justin and the concern for just the a pension lands uh at the height of just the height of the early the beginning of fire season uh it's we know from his we know from past experience these folks will wander back into hell's trail pova nips no hi uh fuel areas i would personally i would like to see somehow that the bench lands stay together i go i've been there probably four or five times i've spoken to people i've seen it's yeah the conditions are important there's a lot of lots of people a lot wrong with it but you have you know close to 300 homeless folks have been you've spread out through the community spread out into these fire prone areas all in one spot it's not visible that doesn't have the the blight that frost camp did it's you know below grade so to speak you've got two full-time folks there jeremy lenner chris montice i believe that are being come to have basically become the corporate knowledge for santa cruz city's homeless after uh how many months of working there and getting to know everybody uh on the other hand i appreciate the comment larry made about groups of 20 to 30 being kind of the ideal sort of size for uh managed encampments i've seen that model in gene seattle i've seen other spots up and down the west coast i don't know if there's some way to break the camp up if you will into different you know micro encampments like we had brent adam's deal with this agreement camp at one point um i would i i think that the public actually benefits from the camp on one spot i think i believe crime is down some petty thefts and other kind of crime in the city and elsewhere is down it's all unfortunately uh it becomes homeless on homeless crime in the benchlands but uh you know the tetsu nature of the beast perhaps more policing more uh more folks like jeremy and chris uh that uh with different time is up i don't know if you heard the timer thank you let's see our next attendee is calling user three go ahead and unmute yourself welcome maryland garrett i'm a retired teacher and i used to have a bumper sticker that said it will be a great day when the schools have all the money they need and the air force has to have a bake sale to be by a bomber the point is over half our tax dollars or profits like that go to the military budget and we just seen huge billions of dollars going to the ukraine and all these wars forever wars what we could do with that money not only for school but provide housing and parks and libraries and you name it it is a problem of capitalism i have an image here in front of me i wish you could see it it shows a medical person in his wife shirt taking notes and it says feeling sad and depressed are you anxious worried about the future feeling isolated and alone you might be suffering from capitalism symptoms may include homelessness unemployment poverty hunger feelings of powerlessness fear apathy and the list goes on loss of free speech incarceration suicidal or revolutionary thoughts death another and and people commenting on mental health services i'm a friend who was picked up on a wellness check so called by sheriff deputies four of them who grabbed her out of her home she 66 injected her took her off held her for days against her will she was harming no one but they were harming her and so when i hear about mental health services i your time is up patients so i think yeah we need a different structure of a system that provides for the well-being of everyone thank you thank you for your comment let's see if there are any other hands it looks like that concludes our comment from public comment period i will now bring it back back to council for action and deliberation we have a recommended motion let me pull up my notes and councilmember calentari johnson thank you i did want to make a motion i had some comments but i'll go ahead and make the motion first and that is to move um this here move staff recommendation to receive updates regarding council directed homelessness response programs and services including council requested homelessness response action plan implementation details objectives and outcomes and second part adopt resolution amending the classification and compensation plans by administratively implementing staffing to support the city's new homelessness response action plan and appropriate funds appropriate funds for the positions from the state of california 14 million in the general fund then i've added a third piece to the to the recommendation and that is to authorize excuse me no the third piece is their authorized staff to pursue purchasing option and appropriate funds for what the services identifying the expenditure plan for the state of california 14 million including county mental health liaison land and resource management services legislative advocacy planning and proposal development and vehicle abatement and return to council as needed consistent with standard purchasing procedures i've added a fourth component and i forgot to email it to you bonnie but i'll read it and then i'll email it to you um request that the mayor submit a letter on behalf of the full council to the county reiterating the need for transitional facilities bridge housing including safe parking across our county prioritization a prioritization of county funds for these purposes and the need for us to continue to work together to address the continuum of housing address the continuum housing needs in our community i'll go ahead and email that to you um so that that's so it's staff's recommendation with that last piece of the mayor writing a letter to the county okay so we have a motion uh by council member calentari johnson the staff recommended recommended three part motion with a fourth part added and that will come shortly we have a second by council member mires and now we can have discussion great so i just had um a few comments and i'll and i'll keep it brief i i want to thank people who showed up tonight here in person and folks who stayed on the line and provided public comment this is a really important issue and clearly our community really cares and is invested in us moving forward we've heard tonight from mr and molly that we've made some great strides and we do have reason to celebrate you know the establishment of comprehensive data collection and data sharing mechanisms across our jurisdictions that's a really big deal we've been working towards that for a long time um hms is not perfect absolutely and it doesn't work for everybody i know that and we're making some incremental steps towards data sharing and and using information so that we can get folks housed um we are stronger and our connection to the county our city counter partnership has not been this strong in a long time we're on the state's radar they gave the 14 and a half million they're watching us and there's real opportunity for us to receive additional resources we're standing up more supports for this population than we have really in the history of our city in recent history not counting covid year 2020 when state mandated that we stand up shelter-in-place sites and as councilmember mires stated this has resulted in people moving into stable shelter people attaining housing vouchers getting substance abuse treatment getting mental health support support obtaining employment and ultimately stability and health that's that's what we are trying to achieve as a community so i know a lot of work remains to be done this is a drop in the bucket this won't cover even a quarter of the population that we need to serve and we need to think bigger than our city um like i said we have really strong partnerships right now with our county let's continue to work on that the county has expressed not expressed the county is committed in their strategic plan that they will also provide bridge housing they've expressed interest in helping with the safe parking so let's pursue that let's think beyond our small city with big city problems and think not only countywide but regionally what can we do to bring in additional resources lever our leverage our resources and provide these supports throughout the jurisdiction throughout our county so i think i'll just keep my comments to that i want to just thank again mr. and wally um lee butler and all of the departments this takes work across our departments all the departments and all the staff and all the organizations in the community who have so far worked with us and are partnering with us a lot of work to be done so i hope this partnership will continue thank you thank you there are any other council member comments or discussion before we have a motion on the table council member comings it just want to i'm wondering if we could first see the language because i just want to you know and i think it's for the public to be clear what this additional motion language was because then i might have a friendly amendment to it but i'd like to see it so but in the meantime i will make a comment where i just want to thank the staff and not just the staff who's been working on this but all the staff that's been working on this over the many many years when that we've been trying to address this issue before i got on the council back in 2018 um in december of 2018 um i know that back then there have been efforts where they first stood up 1220 river street as a shelter model and it's been the attempts at this safe parking programs that have been implemented historically by the afc throughout our community that we've been able to and other types of shelter programs including um winter shelter warming centers that you know we've been able to demonstrate to the community uh what is effective and what we can do that has minimal impacts on our community and what is needed uh in order to make sure that we have um homeless services uh that have minimum minimal negative impacts on the community um so i want to thank all the folks who've put in the hard work to make these services happen and to help us demonstrate that um you know we are able to stand up services that um have positive outcomes um along with that i just think that you know as we're making the decision tonight this is a very um big decision that we're making uh it's you know i think one of the things that's prevented us from being so effective and being able to stand up services in the past is not having funding and i think that um you know we have a lot of positions that we're funding this evening that we don't have long term funding for and my hope is that these positions some of these advocate positions that we're funding um will allow us to seek more funds and that moving forward if these programs are effective we'll be able to demonstrate to the state the need for more money to invest in these programs and so um i'm cautiously optimistic but i but based on our ability to be effective in the past um i'm hopeful that we will be able to stand up these programs and demonstrate effectiveness moving forward and i will say that you know the one thing that also has you know resulted in us being where we are today is the fact that you know martin versus boise really made um our city and many other communities start to really have to take a serious look at um addressing homelessness i mean before this there were lots of laws in place that just pushed people around and what that law did was say that you can't just do that anymore you have to provide beds you have to provide services you have to take care of people and you know commit to that and do so adequately before you can start criminalizing people for being homeless and so i think that's also been a big contributor to helping us get to where we are today and my hope is that the state county our local government and federal government where we'll continue to do what it can to not only alleviate getting people off the street but keeping people in their homes and making sure that we're providing housing and jobs to where people can actually stay in their homes and so um fourth one transition facilities i have any further comments and uh just want to um also ask that um if we can get an update and maybe this is to the city manager but i'd also like to see if we can get an update on um you know the funding and progress of the coral street the 121 beds because if they're continuing to apply for housing or for funding and um you know if they're not able to get that funding it would be good for us to kind of know what progress they're making and what opportunities there are for the city to help step in if necessary because what's going to make us really effective at this is getting those beds online and other beds online as well and so and i guess the last thing i'll say is that um you know as we're moving through this process i think it would be great if staff could you know document when possible and when there's consent the stories of some of these people and document you know how these um different types of uh sheltering models work because part of what makes us effective is being able to demonstrate to community members what works especially when we're going to stand up new shelter that's what was helpful when we stood up the armory and when we met with community members and prospect heights back in 2020 and i believe that that's what will make us effective at being able to stand up shelter more shelters especially some of these smaller ones as we move forward so i just want to thank everybody for the hard work on this and um we'll see how it all goes thank you council member Cummings council member Calentari Johnson i just noticed a typo and email Bonnie it shouldn't say country should say county although it we it would be good for us to stand it up throughout the country but it should say county across our country safe parking across our country should say safe parking across our county the added bullet the new direct the mayor to submit a letter on behalf yeah we can send a letter to panetta as well okay thank you um so thank you again to our staff for this presentation and update um there were a lot of pieces i really encourage everyone to dive into the full agenda uh with all the information and numbers that were presented to us and again i i i believe those updates will all be uploaded to the city website as well as available here at city hall for those that would like to access some of the information um city staff is also available to answer any further questions um and really want to uh think that the collaboration is huge for the city and the county as many of us uh you know brought up because the county is where our health department lies where our behavioral health department lies where our human services department lies where our housing for health department lies and as a city as a municipality we are small but mightily treading forward with great great efforts to really put infrastructure in place getting us to work more efficiently to help folks um and continuing to move forward to support our community to support those that are unhoused to support our environmental impacts to support our neighborhoods to support everybody um that's affected by this housing crisis and really hopeful over the next three years with um the amount of low income and um very low income and affordable housing online and housing vouchers and the pipeline um we're slowly making steps towards what we can progress as a city as a municipality so thank you for all the updates and um i'd like to ask the clerk to please uh call roll on the motion please councilmember county tary johnson aye boulder aye coming aye brown aye mires aye vice mayor watkins aye and mayor brunner aye that motion passes unanimously thank you thank you everyone for being here in person with us and those of you who joined us via the virtual world um we will return may 24th this meeting is now adjourned