Item 20 - Street Outreach and Engagement Agreement with City Net

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Street Outreach and Engagement Agreement with City Net July 19, 2022 Page 2 outreach contacts and successfully exited over 500 individuals off the streets of Santa Ana. City Net teams also responded to over 4,700 dispatched calls for service from direct community calls, first responders, and the mySantaAna app. These teams also proactively outreached to over 500 contacts. The response time for City Net to respond to calls averaged 32 minutes, consistent with Priority Three and Four SAPD calls for service. The ability for City Net teams to respond to these specific calls previously handled by SAPD, and to engage with the individuals experiencing homelessness an average of 21 minutes, speaks to the success of this program. On these occasions, Quality of Life (QOLT) officers were freed up to respond to higher priority calls. At times, City Net would be able to take over certain SAPD calls in the field, also releasing officers to handle the higher -need calls. A more detailed evaluation of the data for the pilot program from December 1, 2021 to May 17, 2022 is attached as Exhibit 1. While street outreach efforts in Santa Ana are systematic, coordinated, and comprehensive, it is important to know that it often takes many contacts in the field before an individual accepts services. This may be frustrating for community members who mistakenly assume that a call to outreach teams or SAPD correlate with the individual always going to jail or shelter. Outreach workers, including SAPD, cannot force an individual into shelter, not take an individual to jail without reason. Additionally, shelter, for some, will never be a viable option. Mental health disorders, including a lack of treatment for the most seriously mentally ill, causes the kind of delusions and irregular behavior that make living in a shelter untenable. For these individuals, it is the persistent outreach and encouragement by outreach workers that may lead to mental health or substance abuse treatment, or a permanent housing option. To achieve the best response from outreach services, it is essential to deploy the correct street outreach team. Having the ability to deploy either SAPD or mental health homeless outreach workers, is ideal. ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT There is no environmental impact associated with this action. FISCAL IMPACT Upon approval, funds will be available in the following expenditure account: Fiscal Year Accounting Unit -Fund Description Accounting Unit, mount Account Account Description FY 22-23 (mid -July- 18118013-69135 American Rescue Plan ARPA-CDA, Payment $2,133,600.50 June) Act to Subagent FY 22-23 (mid -July- 12218716-69135 Emergency and HealthHHAP-2, Payment to $ 349,999.08 June) Grants Subagent Total $2,483,599.59