City Allocates $5M For Implementation Of Homeless Strategic Plan

CONCORD, CA—The Concord City Council is set to divvy out $5 million to six local organizations working to combat homelessness in the city.

Council members approved the funding Tuesday and will distribute it in November so that the organizations can work on initiatives in the Homeless Strategic Plan that the Council adopted in February 2024. The organizations will offer a combination of temporary housing and comprehensive support services to help people transition out of homelessness.

Additionally, they will deliver field-based services to people in their current sheltering locations, addressing essential needs such as medical care, substance abuse treatment, food and hygiene, and workforce development.

The ultimate goal of implementing the strategies is to support individuals in successfully exiting homelessness and achieving permanent housing.

• Caminar to receive $1.58 million for rapid rehousing
• GROW Concord to receive $1.75 million for Mobile Resource Unit
• Hope Solutions to receive $760,000 for Permanent Motel Supportive Housing
• NAMI Contra Costa to receive $200,000 for Mobile Resource Unit
• Northern California Family Center to receive $25,000 for Scattered Site Interim Housing
• Veterans Accession House to receive $730,000 for Scattered Site Interim Housing

The organizations were among 17 that responded to the city's request in September for proposals from groups that offer homeless response services.

On Sept. 20, an ad hoc committee comprised of Councilmembers Dominic Aliano and Laura Nakamura conducted public interviews with each applicant, then developed its funding recommendations based on key attributes, including community benefits, goals and objectives, partnership and funding sources, and organizational capacity.

Concord’s Homeless Strategic Plan was developed over 11 months with significant community participation. It consists of seven core strategies that prioritize addressing the immediate needs of the unsheltered by focusing on connecting them to services and expanding housing options with support services:

• Creating a Mobile Resource Unit
• Investing in Rapid Rehousing
• Development of Scattered Site Interim Housing
• Development of Scattered Site Tiny Homes
• Development of Centralized Tiny Homes
• Securing Interim Motel Housing
• Securing Permanent Supportive Motel Housing

The City Council also approved a $126,500 agreement with Homebase for grant monitoring and reporting services. This agreement enables the city to closely track the progress of each program and gather data to measure and report on the achievement of specific outcomes and goals.

By evaluating the effectiveness of the programs and the investments made, Concord aims to be better positioned to inform future initiatives and provide valuable insights that could benefit other agencies or similar programs.

The $5 million allocated Tuesday is in addition to the approximately $1 million annually that Concord distributes to support 10 local organizations, city officials said.

The city published a fact sheet on how it has been addressing homelessness: