Item 17 - Approve Street Outreach and Engagement Agreement with City Net

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INCREASING OUTREACH Through learned experiences, the City of Santa Ana has realized that proactive outreach and engagement has the biggest impact on the community at large. In 2019, the City expanded City Net's contract to include additional teams of two staff members working five days a week, from 7 a.m. to 5:50 p.m. Two days a week, City Net teamed up with SAPD to respond to calls together. In 2020, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the City began to look at outreach differently. As calls for service continued to increase, it became clear that a more persistent response to those living on the streets was needed. The City of Anaheim had recently formed a Community Care Response Team, utilizing City Net for a call center as well as in -person outreach. Anaheim 911 dispatchers diverted non -emergency, homeless -related calls to City Net, and both City Net's in -person and phone outreach teams had expanded hours of operation. This program has been highly successful in Anaheim, and fit the bill for what Santa Ana needed. The Santa Ana City Council authorized and awarded a contract to City Net to expand their services and start a pilot program for the Santa Ana Multidisciplinary Response Team (SMART) to receive 911 dispatch calls seven days a week from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., expand outreach hours from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m., and have teams on the streets seven days a week. SMART includes homeless services outreach case managers, a safety coordinator, and access to medical, mental, and behavioral health assistance in the field without an additional call. SMART Pilot Program Goals: ro 1. Exit homeless individuals from the streets of Santa Ana. 2. Divert approximately 500 calls a month for non -emergency, non-violent, homeless -related services to facilitate a quick connection between individuals experiencing homelessness and appropriate services; 5. Provide safe COVID-19 information and interventions to vulnerable homeless neighbors. 4. Develop a pilot for a regional response to homelessness that connects homeless neighbors to housing solutions throughout the region, through full participation in the Orange County Continuum of Care.