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Welcome to the February 26th, 2026 Social Service Human Relations Board Meeting.

This meeting is being recorded.

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Oh sorry, item number you will be speaking on.

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Public comments will be limited to three minutes.

The public has two opportunities for public comments.

First, under agenda item two, public comments.

Comments from the audience may concern matters not on the agenda but must deal with matters subject to the jurisdiction of the Social Service Human Relations Board.

Second, under each agenda item, there will be an opportunity for public comment on that specific item.

Each item follows a format similar to city council meetings.

First, a presentation will be at well.

First, after a presentation, we will ask if there are any clarifying questions from Shrub members for staff.

Then we will ask if there are any public comments on this agenda item.

And after public comment, we will open the item for board discussion and a vote if recommended.

We will now call this meeting to order at 7.04 p.m.

Oh, and no, we'll do roll call.

Robbie Kreitz is a is a creator critic.

Robbie Kratz?

Present.

Chantel Carter?

Present.

Bernie Wolf, he's not here.

Gerald Bryant, here.

Um Michelle Buckles, and she will be absent tonight.

Samantha Green.

And Scott Mead's here.

And from the Housing and Human Services Division, we have Garcia Mana Ayon, program manager.

Roel Sideno, engagement specialist supervisor, and Shelby Neal administrative specialist.

And we may also have Simone join this virtually.

Comments from the audience may concern matters either on or not on the agenda, but must deal with matters subject to the jurisdiction of the Social Service and Human Relations Board.

Comments will be limited to three minutes.

Comments concerning matters on the CV's agenda will be heard when that item is called.

If speakers fail to follow these rules, they will be warned, and if they continue to disregard the rules, their opportunity to speak will end.

Do we have any speakers for comments?

Okay, thank you.

Oh, and there's Simon too.

All right, well, then let us go to our third item on the agenda, which is our minutes.

Um hopefully people had time to view the minutes and reminder only people who are at the meeting can actually vote on it, and we will actually do a voice vote on this since everyone is in the room.

So we have one of the exhibit here.

So we can try to do it last time for you today in case Bernie Happy because he hasn't told me that it's not coming.

Right.

Okay.

We'll table the minutes for now.

Worst case scenarios at the next meeting with all the other people who are going to get.

Um let's look at uh let's move to item number four then.

And we have a very full agenda tonight area.

Um is a presentation on mental health and outreach by Alyssa Daniel III.

Um the housing and human services engagement specialist supervisor.

The engagement specialist team, also commonly referred to as the outreach team, provides engagement services across the island supporting residents who are homeless and at risk of becoming illness.

Role will discuss the importance of mental health for both clients and outreach workers.

Hello everybody, it's highly present this to you.

And so I'm gonna talk about the significance of mental health and bridging the gap with community engagement.

One more time.

Awesome.

And we'll start with uh look at the introduction.

Again, my name is Marvel and the DJ Specialist Supervisor.

Uh and with the city of Alameda, the one on Case Plus.

And a little bit about what I do, a lot of it's in the community.

I collaborate with the T with three individuals.

And with that, we'll slightly into the target sense of community engagement.

You can see the definition right here.

It is the process of working collaboratively with and group groups of people affiliated by geographic proximity, special interest, or similar situations to address issues affecting the goal being most of you.

Um it promotes local capacity ability, improved access to resources.

Uh, an example is we can be dealing with a lot of house individuals, right?

So we're connecting to housing uh resources, food, uh mental health.

It could be it's not just outreach tools, also prevention, people who are at risk of being homeless.

So I could be helping them with resources to have their bills paid, or connecting them with an electric provider that can pay their bill, something of that nature.

Um creating culturally relevant community resolutions, um, being culturally sensitive and deal with the adverse community here in Alamuna, and powering individuals with good experiences, uh, giving them that dignity teaching cookie every day, and just being respectful and short of the one else.

Out of question, have you ever met with someone with mental illness or a mental disorder?

I need it every day.

So we have some interesting facts that I have here.

Uh one in five, you also experience a mental illness each year.

So that's incredible.

Just think about ultimate modeling.

He starts with a scale that's California and walk in the United States.

That's a lot of people who experience that.

Uh one in 20 U.S.

experience serious mental health each year.

Uh one in seven, between six and seven years experience mental health disorder each year.

And we also have technical consideration how tech has evolved and how that affects children as well, and how that's affecting their mental health.

Uh well, 50% of all lifetime mental events we get by age 14.

I was astonished when I saw that number as a very young age.

And by at 75% of people by age 24, think about that.

Still within that timeline for a transitional age use would not be quite effective at such a good age.

And so I is the second leading call for that among people age, ages 10 to 24.

So interesting fun facts.

Uh actually like something to be aware of.

Why are we having this conversation?

Because mental health is a part of our lives every single day.

Community groups we attend, anywhere we go to the grocery stores, we see it.

We go to the mall, we see it.

Um a lot of the residents that we serve, uh obviously they have some trouble, they have some anxiety, they have depression, some serious mental illness, can be added through uh substance use, family loss, it can be to a number of things.

Um housing instability and homelessness, it's a serious thing.

What happens when we have instability?

Uh housing uh what goes up, crime goes up.

It's very unfortunate, and that's one thing a lot of people are doing dealing with right now.

It's just bad, even worse than mental health, obviously, and instability affects kids, it affects their education, it affects their futures, it affects families.

And this it impacts the way we engage safety, and it affects the way the um it affects it impacts as outwork.

Um that's why it's not just important for us to work, it makes important for us to take care of our mental health as well.

Because we know people well who can be affected as well.

They may forget what you said, but they'll never forget how you made them feel.

That's one line I keep with me every day in my head while I'm working with people, first impression is everything.

People can never never forget how you made it in the field.

And then the reality in the field.

What am I seeing in the field?

Uh I see price behaviors on very intake.

Uh intake can be kind of difficult.

Some people take one touch, some people only take three or four touches, or maybe take three months to get them to go to the program.

That's just based on my experience.

Everyone's had a different space.

Now there's no same situation.

Um we also see clients disengaging and then cycling back into homes.

This is part of the reason why I had or the last slide I had mentioned, the impact of instability of policy because when people are unstable, they may have gotten out of a situation where they were breakfast from substance use, but don't happen if there's a chance that they go back into substance use because they have to move.

It's just much much more of a temptation for them and more reason for them to get back into it.

And how does that work staff?

How does that how does that affect staff?

How does it affect you?

Um, well, we absorb emotional strength without enough support.

Um we have to be careful, it doesn't happen to us.

Uh be careful it doesn't happen to any of you.

Um we hear other people's trauma, uh, we see the instability.

Uh we try to obviously help manage the crisis.

Um, because we help people and we try to leave them, but essentially people have dignity of choice.

And they have the right to choose what they want to do, and they don't want to.

You can't force them, we're always uh uh pushing them in the right direction and helping them take those regardless.

Um you don't have to uh feel overwhelmed to be in.

There's something called vicarious trauma that people go through, and just hearing enough stories and hearing enough situations, seeing enough things, it can impact you a little bit.

Uh much of the field work, we go doesn't show up with reports.

You know, I can't tell you how many times I've heard stories, or so much nuance type of thing, but I don't put it in the reports because what looks like a 45-minute situation could be much more than that because there's so much I will put it in a report.

An example, I could be talking to someone and just about their situation, and they can go on about their personal life, about their family members, about what's happening in the past.

So now, so I have some amazing tips for all of us.

This is why we're here.

Uh, one of the uh things I love to do, uh stretch breaks, lunch walks, and uh team support.

I think we should never be afraid to ask the team support.

I think it's okay to speak to coworkers, people who trust, and that's why it's important to go in healthy relationships in the workplace so that you have these spaces when you have these opportunities available to be when you need them.

Um support, say technology call worker, uh, try talking to someone for a few minutes and disconnect.

There's nothing wrong with that.

It's okay to take some time for you.

You don't always have to be busy because you don't need to take care of you too.

We're human.

Uh puzzles, one thing I really love about where I work at, uh, we have a little station for puzzles and we can go still five minutes and just uh put the puzzle little by little and take five ten minutes and just disconnect us over viewfully underwater.

Uh we'll say close the mental tag after uh difficult interactions.

Uh if you reply in your head and stick with you for some times.

But just think you have to accept that you as long as you know you did everything that you could do, that's what's important.

That's the most important.

Don't take it home with you, keep that balance, and just protect yourself, protect your mental health as well.

And break back your routine.

Um, that's kind of obviously my unfortunate enough for me.

I get to go out in the field, we can do a bunch of things in the different places.

Uh, or for last time, but there's that's most of the time.

And one way to break that is by standing, having stepper, I don't know, doing some squats, doing something fun, doing something connective that can help you.

And one big thing I like to uh mention is attached to your phone.

I'm noticing being on my phone for a long time, we just call the loom scroll now.

Uh I think we waste a lot of time on our phones, but uh I think it's just important to check from the phones and just attach it to the outcome.

Uh take five minutes, right?

Read a book, read a magazine.

I don't know, even they only type really something that will engage in a different way versus just being on your phone.

And then we protect the goal by protecting ourselves and each other.

We need everyone healthy.

You, you, you, everyone here needs you healthy.

If you're not helping another 100%, how are you going to make an impact on each other?

Uh strategies and implementation.

Um I'm gonna have Russia play this video.

It's gonna be a quick butt, it takes a lot of money.

Yes.

And image relationships, we develop and maintain our mental and emotional well-being.

According to the US Regent General's epidemic and rolling as reporting, Iraqi social connection can increase the risk for premature debt as much as looking 15 cigars a day.

Safe relationships are not just nice to have essential to our mental and physical help, which then show that relationships are one factor.

And that does affect our lifespan, not just what our mental will be, but for academic own physical help as well.

And wired to connect with others.

Neuroscience and social research supports the idea, and relationships are one of the most critical components of all help.

At the point our ability to pay our emotion, engage with others in LB Ray, that was back and challenges and contribute to our communities in a meaningful way.

Awesome.

So I'll add to that that your human social interaction is a must.

If you feel like you have not uh been out there, you haven't been as social and disconnected to my friends.

I encourage you to get comfortable with being uncomfortable so that you can go back to those places and feel like this.

And you just create a couple of basic principles on mental health.

Awesome.

And that wasn't a short presentation.

I will open it up for questions, comments, maybe you guys want to know.

Can I add a little bit of um I just wanted to give some context for why uh we invited our whole here today?

He gave this presentation to uh other city staff when we're having a larger city manager office meeting.

And I thought it was really wonderful because it one speaks to the work that they do as an agent specialist, but also the culture that they are creating in terms of taking care of each other and the team.

And you wrote you had something there that said like we protect the alpha by protecting each other.

So I thought I we wanted to share with you all how the work is really being done on the ground.

Right.

And that's one thing that comes and protect each other.

I give uh I try to do the space for all the team to take whatever the time they need to disconnect if they need a day off to take it off.

And I just want you to be out of shit.

That's the most important.

That's the most creating and maintaining safe.

Yeah, thank you.

So do we have any clarifying questions for the board?

Sure.

Um so you work predominantly in the mental health sphere.

Do you also do services that you mentioned earlier that there were uh resources and services that you provide as well?

Uh some of those services you were saying, things like paying electric bills.

So what I what I will do is we connect people to the to the resource, right?

For example, if someone needs like we want to connect them with building futures here in building futures, building futures managers or referrals for uh thing, for example.

Then when you're on the list and once they're gonna call the future call and then we replace somewhere.

Not necessarily the village, but we're gonna be in the summer where there's transition modeling and call even third housing.

And we also actually here at the city of Alameda, uh, we actually provide uh support at the library uh right here across the street, and we have a clinical social worker there, and she's their credit friday, and we're gonna take uh procedures more of a deeper need, and uh spite of people we need a deeper useful care and other services, we can connect them with her, and that's the interfacing services.

We're on the ground making sure we're getting those connections with the individuals because most people don't want to worry about we don't know how to start the call.

We help them navigate all of that.

Another question on the same line.

So you said they would provide services such as like, I don't know, you said helping you pay rent.

Exactly.

So there are there are some like there are some organizations that will help someone, for example, it's they're back a month and rent, but they're just in a bad situation, but they can prove that they're gonna be able to keep paying bill front of that money and help them one time, one-time assistance.

And if they're able to prove that we can't keep paying and maintain that, then we have to go forward.

I'm just gonna keep going unless you guys have something I want to add.

So let's say hypothetically I was in need of help with my rent.

Right.

And I needed to get my rent paid, right?

And I was a month behind, and I needed to get those services, and I came to you.

What would be required?

Well, I would say, are you gonna be able to maintain?

Are you gonna be able to keep living once I help you?

That's one.

Because we don't want to send most of a rider.

Let's say I'd say I don't have a job and I'm still looking for work, but in the meantime, I have a good relationship with my landlords, and I would be interested in trying to do the services.

I would I would assist you all with helping you all find as many uh job resources available and help you in that area, and then if you weren't able to find something that I would work on, is seeing like for right now, we have right now we currently have a bunch of warming shelters because that's such an idea that remember to head your eye here.

I would work with you and I'll say, hey, girl, there's a bunch of working shelter, uh, there's also a place of open calls, sitting into the parts if you say, but again, I think about me as being somebody who's lived in Alameda for 25 years, right?

I lose my job.

My landlord is nice, they're willing to work with me for a month or two, but I don't want to put them in arrears for a month or two.

So I come and I look for these services, is the only recourse to move into a shelter.

That wouldn't be the only recourse.

You can always negotiate with the landlord.

Oh, I I'm my question was you said something about them paying rent.

There are so there are organizations that will help you with a one-time site towards your rent, which has to be able to keep paying for it because we don't they want to special further because they help you, and then two months you still have to deal with it anyway, you can't pay.

Sure.

I I guess I'm I'm trying to ask these questions because these are pertinent questions.

Um in this day and age when layoffs are quite prominent and people go months and even years without employment, the idea that they would spend all of their cash and then still have to pay rent afterwards in other words, they still had to do it.

What can you say about the providers for those rent?

Again, I'm I'm trying to be hyper specific about this because I have some personal dealings with this, and I'd like to see how things have changed.

If they're I don't have to find and see which regulations can do that.

I would like to know, and if I could ask, would you come back and please give us that information or at least give us that information at some point because it's important.

It's really important.

If I can interject, I think it's hard to do that at a hypothetical because every case can be so specific and depends like do you have family to help you?

A lot of times they'll reach out to their family, do you have savings?

Is there like are people at landlord hold out will they lower your rank, maybe negotiate your rent lower depending on where you live?

Like Rome would have to know what the details of the needs are because what they're saying is it's not that they don't want to entrust people with the rent, that it's not dealing with a problem because this has happened again and again where they will expand the limited resource and they'll help you in this moment in a crisis, and then they can't help you the next month at all.

So again, I'm I'm only offering it as a hypothetical because I don't want to get too specific about a situation of that type.

And I'm using myself as the example because once again, I don't want to get too specific about the example, but it's a real question that has come up in the past, and I've made such gestures and offered such services and found that they were lacking.

And I'm a little concerned when people say we can help you out, and then they say, Oh, well, we have to do something like uh negotiate with your landlord to not charge you for extra fees, or we have to negotiate with your landlord to not make you pay late fees so that we can pay your rent for you.

Uh I I when I got that story, I was surprised because I was under the impression that these were services that were available.

And I really was surprised at the final outcome on it.

Nonetheless I really want to get more information about this because you talk about people here in Alameda right now who are a month away from homelessness.

You can't say oh well there's a warming shelter over here you can take your kids and go.

It's not the answer.

And so I'm looking for those somebody who's lived in some really interesting neighborhoods and I can tell you that's important.

And if you ask me to go talk to somebody who's a month away from homelessness now I don't confidently have that ability to say those so I would like for you to help me because your program is awesome I think we should I do again I'm sorry to interrupt any send on also has a comment would you have I've just again I was gonna tell somebody else has a question.

I'm gonna continue to go to some hello can you hear me have to be Thursdays.

There's an echo we don't hear it you have you're up there listed twice as guests so maybe you have two sessions running.

Oh sure all right how's that I don't know I guess there's oh wait maybe it's better can you hear me?

Yep okay great um sorry I can't be there with you all have had an unexpected eventful day today um but I did want to um try to better understand the conversation and it sounds like a couple of things one I think maybe it would be beneficial to have an offline conversation about the specifics that you're talking about Gerald so we can understand the very specific situation and and dive a little deeper because I I'm I know you don't want to get into all the details on the public call but I think that would be helpful to have a separate conversation I also want to level set that we have we've started a new prevention program and it's very limited in funding so we have to really dive deep into solutions outside of funds before we are able to apply funds to as the solution if that makes sense we have about 25,000 for a year which if you know you know folks that are struggling that doesn't go very far.

So we're really looking at problem solving and helping and talking and understanding situations so that we can troubleshoot and then as a very last resort we're looking at the funding.

We would love to expand the funding and um as fund rate funding opportunities come available we're interested in applying to increase the funding but um this is a new program the prevention which it's a little fuzzy so hopefully I'm talking on the right topic because this is what it sounded like you were talking about but it's a little hard to hear on Zoom so if I'm off base let me know but um it's it's a new program with limited funding and so we're really looking at our engagement specialists to work with pe with with our program participants and find ways to troubleshoot such as working with the landlords and um trying to get the landlords to cancel late fees and extra expenses so that maybe instead of owing five thousand maybe you owe 3500 or instead of owing 3500 maybe you owe 1500 you know things like that help us to be able to support um folks with maintaining their housing um but we're definitely always open to hearing suggestions and ideas and we're also really um focused I think most smaller jurisdictions most nonprofits are focused on leveraging county resources so the county has the coordinated entry system which includes housing problem solving and housing problem solving is very similar to prevention services where it includes funding to homelessness.

So we're really wanting to leverage all of our resources because the city of Alameda is a small city's, you know, we don't have the type of investment that we would like starting off for prevention services.

So we're, you know, we're doing what we're able to do to support people, and we've have supported um multiple people with maintaining their housing by paying past due fees by supporting with other types of services outside of just financial, because that's just unfortunately right now, that's not the strongest piece of the program.

The strongest piece of the program is having folks that understand the system and can help people navigate the system.

Hopefully, I'm hoping that's helpful a bit.

It's probably not the best answer that you want to hear, but I'm hopeful that it's helpful and understanding where we are.

I I will only say I'll we can take it offline at some point.

Um unless you guys have other questions, I'd like to continue on another point of mental health since we're working through the different things.

Sure, I just have a well, I appreciate your presentation.

So specifically as a woman of color, I did lose my job earlier this year, and as you know, throughout the country, uh a lot of women of color and executive and leadership positions um suffered from job loss, and so and I recently had just bought a condo in Alameda, and so to your point, like that was the first thing, right?

Like, you know, what do I have?

What family members can I reach out to?

Um, you know, moving money around, right?

Now, does this really does this pertain just to rental properties, or does this also pertain to mortgage?

So I'll refer to the question that she could have housing.

Okay.

Um, so that's a really interesting question.

I don't think that we have a specific rule as to whether it has to be rent or mortgage.

Okay.

But it really as Simone is saying you're alluding to you have to have exhausted all of your resources.

Absolutely.

If you have a home, you typically have an asset you can fridge.

So we almost never get homeowners.

Okay, it's almost always renters.

Okay.

That's that's good to know.

And I would say that in my particular situation, and luckily I landed on my feed, but because I was relatively new homeowner nine months after purchasing, right?

So I didn't have equity in my home yet.

So just something to think about, right?

As we expand the program.

Yeah, and I would say to that point that in that type of situation we would most likely refer to you, refer you to um VACs, which has a key keep folks house program, and that includes a program for both rental and homeowner um households.

But we are, yeah, I I just think that context needs to land that we are very in our entry-level stages and very limited in the funding.

So our focus is really on folks that are going to be homeless tomorrow if we don't do something today.

Okay.

Thank you, Sam.

Okay, I'll continue.

I know I hate to put you on the hot seat, but I'm um I'm asking relevant questions for relevant reasons.

Absolutely.

Um, over the last few months, we've had a young lady who comes in here and sits in on our meetings and has clearly been person with mental health issues.

Right.

Um she's a part of the community, she's a known entity.

And the last few times we've had to have the police show up for her.

When you have somebody in that situation, how will you help them?

How can you help them if they're in that situation?

Because again, this woman shows up, and we all know, one of us who's been here, we all know what she's here for.

She's got some hateful grudges against several of the programs here in Alameda.

She believes that some of them are stealing from government, stealing from the city and the people of the city.

So what would you say to a person like her?

How would you work with her in her situation?

What are you?

I'm sorry.

I I can't speak specifically to the case or the details of this person, but she is not.

And I don't think that that's a good example.

Um because years of of the case of details, and I'm not going to share on what forum.

Agreed.

And we would be happy to talk to you about it offline, but it is something that has been a lot of attention on our.

But if your question is, maybe if I could rephrase this because you can let me know if it's not the right way.

I thought that was what I was alluding to.

Okay.

Yes.

So we continue to emphasize and continue to build a relationship.

Like I said earlier, it's sometimes it's easier to build a relationship in the beginning, sometimes it's not.

We gotta continue to build that trust with individuals, especially over time.

My experience doing this almost four years.

People do when you show up enough, again, people will care how much you want to say not how much you care.

When you show up enough, you make enough touches, people have actually helped want to have a recent example that I can tell you about.

There's a gentleman who's been completely close off to me.

He's been living in his band, and I wasn't super specific to what's at.

He's been living in his family for quite some times.

He quite some time, he's um informed me that he does have some health issues.

When I've the first like five times I went there, he wasn't open at all.

What do you do in our running?

What happened on the sixth time?

I'm impressed with your uh which was how persistent you are, and you finally opened up to meet.

So I think the more you show what you care, the more they're gonna want to open up to you.

If there is a situation where they don't want to open up to you, it is too much.

Well, I'm an alternative.

I I could keep going, but I don't want to do that.

I also have a quick question about kind of um kind of just to think about your team and how you're addressing kind of how it's working, right?

How your team is working.

And I wondered if you guys have like a limit on like the number of cases that you're able to address as an individual, or is it do you guys ever reach that just to think about like we're we're here to help support staffing for the city and think about those needs, and so I'm just kind of curious if like mental health is definitely important to make sure that we retain you guys that are here and know the city and know all the resources, and so I just kind of want to make sure that you guys feel supported in the the the case load that doesn't seem like too much for the folks that are doing this outreach work because outreach is amazing.

Thank you.

So I'll say I'll now you know we have it's not too much.

We have three other uh individuals that I collaborate with, um, and they're amazing.

Uh so we're gonna be doing this for 10 plus years, so they come with a throwing experience, knowledge, and they're already on the running, and I'm working for them as well.

We work together, we try to go solutions together, and that's what we do.

And we actually have on logistics side of life, but we have the islands of two different spaces, so each one has a design section, and we attack that section, and we get people to help AD and build those relationships, and we address all of the service.

And then I just had another question.

I know your department is like relatively new bringing outreach services into the city, and so I'm wondering kind of how that feels for you guys.

I know you're like very new to your position, but um if that feels like that's like running really smoothly, or are there still kind of kinks that are being worked out with it not being a separate provider?

Um, does it feel like the community is collaborating and seeing this as like a great is it smoothing out the process for given services?

I feel like everything's is running just fine.

I think the more we can do it, the more consistency we have, the better it's gonna get.

We have the support as well, we have amazing leadership in office, and if there's any questions I have, I can just go to that.

So it's pretty cool.

I'm really glad to see that you guys are growing as great.

It's great.

How do you feel that um information systems are working in terms of following the individuals?

So you're documenting and monitoring the trajectory of someone, you know, so everybody you know come into the Bay Area, they started off with an RB, which eventually broke down, they lost that and they ended up going through other you know systems.

Are we following that very well?

Or when someone are you able to track what's happened to someone when they come into you come to you?

Absolutely.

So we meet someone, the first thing I want to do is get their name, get their uh their name, all that stuff, and what I can do is I can go to uh something called HMIS, and in that system, I will see all of their history, and I would see all of the external organizations that they're currently working with, and it's a one-stop shop, so you can see everything so that way I don't have to call this organization that organization to figure out what's going on.

I can see the notes for all organizations they've worked with, and the last time they needed contact with that organization.

Exactly.

And if they're not in the system that I can do is I can get them involved in our program and they can be one of our external agencies, and if they don't want to give us your name, actually we actually have a Microsoft form where we take as much information as we can and continue to build that relationship until they feel comfortable enough to uh want to work with us and the lesson there.

Okay, that's great.

That's great.

That's better than interagency health care communication is, by the way.

So there has been a lot of infrastructure built out.

And the outreach team came in house, I think in October.

And during that time, our engagement specialists have an incredible job at building another.

We can certainly have more comments and questions and stuff, but we do want to check in to see if there's anyone who is in public who has anything that we're going to do.

Yeah, well, yeah, sorry.

There is no public comment.

Yes, I should say the words.

Okay, thank you.

Then we can keep going back to uh comments and questions.

Well, I, for one, would say thank you for giving the answers you gave, and I'm glad to see that you're in the position.

I'm looking forward to seeing more of the work that you do because I said it needs a lot of what you're offering.

Twenty-five thousand dollars doesn't like nearly enough to do what you need to do.

If the questions I ask are specific, they're only because I'm looking to get ideas of how you can get more help.

If there are other interests part of what we do here is to find other organizations and bring them together to help with your dealing with so if it's something to do with that, how can we get those kind of organizations to work with you?

Okay, appreciate that.

Thank you for your questions.

Thank you, Roman.

I appreciate it.

Yeah, I think one of the things you said, which is maybe something when you were saying how many of you know someone who's had mental health issue.

If we're doing really be honest with each other, I bet every one of us has actually looked in the mirror at some point in our lives and seeing someone with a mental health problem, right?

We all have goes through trauma and issues in our lives.

And so that's something we can all hold in common.

Brings us closer in some way.

This is a point of empathy, I think.

Um, it's also something just you know, it's not like an illness where like you can't take it as an antibiotic, you can't take an antibiotic for seven days and be healed, right?

I mean, that's so that's the thing too.

It's it's persistent, right?

And we always have to check in on each other.

Um, and I'm just I guess I'm bringing all this up because later on you'll probably be gone by then, but later on, I'm gonna talk a little bit about this project I'm working on with UC Berkeley students here, and it actually has to do with the social determinants of health, volunteerism, and getting people intergenerationally out of their homes in the community.

So when we get this can be for the senior project, when we get done with it, we'll share it with you because a big part of human um human services and health is actually connecting the people, just your basic you know, banal connection is the people on a daily basis.

So we want to support that in any way we can.

So and thank you for the work we're doing here.

Thank you.

Yeah, thank you.

Thank you so much.

Appreciate it.

No other questions.

All right, well, we can move on then.

Um we are now on item four B presentation on the final report on the road home, a five-year plan of event and respond to homelessness in Alameda on January 6th, 2026.

City Council accepted the final report for the Road Home Strategic Plan.

Shrugged is invited.

Housing Human Services Division Manager Simone Falls to present the report to the board as an update.

You can go ahead, I'll be ready to go.

Yes, I'm ready.

Are you all ready for me to start?

Okay, great.

I just wanted to uh I know Raul just snuck out there ever once gave him a shout out, thank him for presenting today, and um, you know, having his first presentation at Shrub in his role as supervisor of the engagement specialist team.

Uh that is one of our great accomplishments out of this road home plan.

So we had a five-year plan 21 to 2025, which was focused on how we would prevent and respond to homelessness in Alameda.

Um I don't think I can move the slides.

So next slide, please.

A needs assessment was conducted with the community and with stakeholders.

Um out of that needs assessment.

Um we identified causes of homelessness and housing instability.

And we saw that there was a lack of affordable housing that um including high cost of living, discriminatory policies and barriers for vulnerable populations.

There were seven primary needs identified to prevent and end homelessness.

That included increasing affordable housing, providing flexible financial resources, utilizing low barrier shelter, enhancing supportive services, expanding data collection, ensuring sustainable funding, and improving collaboration and coordination.

The stakeholder engagement session informed the plan and identified key drivers of homelessness and also solutions to preventing and homelessness.

You can do the next slide.

So the road home plan created a roadmap to prevent and reduce first time homelessness, reduce chronic homelessness, and shorten the time spent homeless.

And this included implementing low barrier, housing focused shelter and services, which you'll see that there were four shelters open, three full time, one seasonal.

Chronic homelessness is a challenge and a focus of the overall system in Alameda County to prioritize people who are chronically homeless and get them into supportive services quickly so that they can transition into permanent housing and in that cycle of homelessness.

And the prevent and reduce first-time homelessness really focused on adding prevention services and collaborating with partner jurisdictions to address uh first time or folks that who are at risk of becoming homeless.

Next slide.

So really focusing on preventing recidivism so that folks are who do enter homelessness are homeless one time and for a short period of time, and addressing disparities for individuals experiencing homelessness.

And we see um clearly in our data that there are disparities amongst what populations are homeless, not only in the city of Alameda, but throughout the county and the state, and identifying uh ways to address those disparities.

Next slide.

So there are three goals identified.

Um goal one was to secure a housing future for all Alamedans.

The city adopted the general plan from 2023 to 2031, which was the housing element, which is state required um document for all jurisdictions, and that you can find online on our city website, but it outlines the plan for affordable housing to provide shelter and permanent housing for low-income households, which is a big part of the plan to address homelessness.

Um, if you look at addressing homelessness, there's homeless there's a continuum where there's the street outreach, emergency shelter, long-term shelter.

At the end of that, there has to be affordable housing, and that's um something that the housing element addresses.

There are 82 low to moderate income homes for sale and 182 rental units between 2021 and 2025.

We expect to produce over 800 additional affordable housing units over the next few years through 2029.

Goal two, increase access to homeless emergency response services.

So, like I said, we opened four shelters, three are year-round and one seasonal.

We have our emergency shelter pro emergency supportive services program, and that is four houses that were renovated to act as shelter homes.

So two of the houses are for single adults, six adults per house, and two of the houses are for families, and it's one family per house.

We also have our day center overnight shelter safe parking program.

It's kind of a three in one program that has 18 shelter beds for single adults, it has 25 safe parking spaces for adult only households, and then there's the day center program where people are able to come in and out throughout the day, speak to case managers, um, have a meal, watch TV, get on the computer, etc.

And then there's the day center program where people are able to come in and out throughout the day, speak to case managers, have a meal, watch TV, get on the computer, etc.

Then we have our dignity village program, and that is a state-funded and city funded program that has individual household units with their private restrooms and sleeping area.

There's on-site kitchen facilities, on-site laundry facilities, and case management services.

Those three programs all also have therapy services through Alameda Family Services.

The seasonal program is our winter warming shelter, primarily service through Christ Episcopal Church and Episcopal Community Services.

It also rotates to two other churches throughout the season.

It's a five-month program.

As you just heard from Raul, we have initiated our internal engagement team, which provides outreach services and light touch case management.

We also provide showers through WeHope and the church three times a week.

Once we have, so uh want to add that we're opening a new day center.

So the current day center will transition to a slightly larger site from 18 beds to 30 beds in the late summer of 2026.

Once that happens, there will be showers seven days a week.

Right now we have showers three days a week.

Goal three, mobilize citywide response to homelessness.

We hold collaborative meetings, which we call COT, the collaborative outreach team, and that is between different service providers within the city of Alameda, different nonprofits and government agencies that work together, including Alameda County, Building Futures, Operation Dick.

Several agencies, we meet together to discuss clients by name, which helps us to best serve our clients collaboratively.

We also work in close collaboration with partner departments.

So we work with public works around cleaning up spaces.

We work with ARPD to support folks who may be going into parks for a safe place to sleep.

We work with APD to also address encampments.

I just went over.

We also have a homeless flex fund program that's $50,000.

So we have a combined $75,000 a year that goes towards flexible funding to support the unhoused population and at risk of becoming unhoused population.

There used to be a cap on those grants, but we are becoming more flexible because we know cost of living is expensive.

We have to be very strategic in how we use the fund since we're so limited right now.

But we are more flexible where before it was about 750 that folks could use.

We've also a big highlight is our data.

So we have increased our data capacity.

There used to be challenges with outreach data, but we now have an outreach program in the housing homeless management information system known as HMIS, which allows us to track our outreach data.

So since we've had an outreach team internally, we've been tracking our data through that system.

So it will help us to better understand who we're serving and how we're serving, which will allow us to learn how to better serve the folks that we're coming in contact with.

So affordable housing, we have 82 low to moderate income homes that were for sale, 182 affordable rental units available.

We have below market rate units available currently through two complexes.

One is called the launch, and the other is called Star Harbor.

Star Harbor is for moderate income households.

The launch serves low to moderate income households.

So people can look at go to those websites and talk to those sites to see if they qualify or will be interested in those opportunities.

We have permanent supportive housing that we provide through funding support different jurisdictions.

An example of that is we provided funding for subsidies at Lynette Corner.

We also provided funding for estuary one and two, which are two housing authority affordable housing properties.

Next slide.

This program requires developers to set aside a certain amount of units that are considered affordable.

And we have affordable housing agreements with each developer that lays out how many units per income level will be provided.

So for example, if we look at number of ownership BMR units by income level, we can see that 50% of the AMI is annual medium income.

Folks that are at 50% AMI or lower, there were 22 units provided for folks 80% or under, there were 22 units provided.

So 50% is very low income, 80% is low income, and 100% and 20% is medium moderate income.

So there were 38 units provided at 120% or lower AMI.

And so that is a requirement for every new development currently.

We don't currently have an in LU fee.

So currently, if a developer um uh creates a property that has 10 plus units, they are required to provide below market rate units in their uh portfolio.

Next slide.

Uh we manage several different funding sources.

So we have federal funding, state funding, county funding, and we have our local funding.

So we uh manage a lot of different funding streams.

Federal funding has been um interesting this year.

There have been some changes that have come about, but we have CDBG community development block grant and home funding for state.

We have different funding sources, such as um we have PLHA, which is a funding source that is associated with um housing feeds.

We have PIP, which is a funding source that is awarded for being in affordable housing friendly community.

We have HAP funding, which is homeless specific funding.

So different types of state funding sources.

We have county grants.

So the county gets some direct funding from the state or federal government.

And then they issue that funding out to different jurisdictions.

So we get some of that funding from the county.

And then we have our general fund and also we have some revenue funding sources from our affordable housing units, so develop developers who have fees that they pay us annually.

And we're always looking for more funding opportunities as well, you know, looking to increase our funding, especially to further support the community members that we are here to help, and also to minimize the expenses that we have minimize what we're pulling from the general fund.

So that's always a goal finding alternative funding sources.

Next slide.

So you can see the day center served almost 700 people.

Over 700 people out of all the shelters were identified as chronically homeless, which means they've most likely been homeless for two years or more.

Most folks, it doesn't show it here, but most folks are in the mid-age range, so 25 to 55.

We do have a good amount of seniors, 332 folks identified as seniors.

Midway shelter is our women's and children's shelter.

They serve 232.

Oh, these numbers I believe show a clear example that there is a continued need for services in Alameda.

These are people who have been identified as being on the street and entering into emergency shelter programs.

This doesn't even get to the folks that are you know challenged and struggling with maintaining their everyday housing or at risk of becoming homeless.

Next slide.

Again, that's our um home key project that has individual units for each household.

Uh you can see that there has been an increase.

So in after 2023, we identified a new provider.

So Operation Dignity joined Dignity Village in late 2024, and they hit the road running.

They immediately started supporting people with becoming permanently housed.

And you can see where there was a big change from five people becoming permanently housed in 2023 to shortly after Dignity Village came uh Operation Dignity came on board.

There were 20 people housed.

And in 2025, there were 23 people housed.

So this data was pulled in uh it was either October or November, but the final data was 23 people for 2025.

Next slide.

So we have concluded our plan.

Um the plan ended with the fiscal year 24-25.

We are now working on our new plan.

So this is an introduction for you all to hear a bit about what has happened over the last five years.

You will hear more about what we are planning to do in the next five years, and we would love to get your input on what you would like to see happen in the next five years, what you have seen that has worked well, what you have seen that has not worked well.

We also have a survey that is out right now, and so we would love for folks who live in Alameda and work in Alameda to complete that survey.

I believe it's due, I want to say March 11th.

Yes, so uh we would love for you all to fill that out and share it with your neighbors, your colleagues, so they can also fill it out, and we can really use that data to inform our next five-year plan.

The goal is to have that plan uh presented to council at the end of this fiscal year to have it ready to launch in the 26-27 fiscal year.

And that is it.

I am here for any questions you may have.

This was uh from the point in time count, uh, which is now over, but um this presentation was from counsel before the point in time count.

So we had a point in time count in January, which will also inform um HUD, which is the federal department which funds homeless services.

It will inform how they fund individual jurisdictions, and it also helps us to understand uh what is happening in our city around homeless services, if people living in cars, RVs on the street in shelters, it helps us to understand a little bit more about what is happening around homelessness in Alameda.

Thank you.

Thanks, um great.

Um yeah, thank you for the presentation.

Um do we have any uh uh I'm sorry, do we have any uh questions from the board?

I do.

Uh you said there was a survey.

Where can I find the survey?

So we did email it to the board, and then it went out, so it emailed it to you directly, I believe it wasn't last week, and then the last one out today again, but today it came from with general side validated email, so that may I just come to your job, but uh happy to resend it to you.

It's also on our web page.

That was what I was trying to find out.

Where we're our web page, um housing and human services, it's the top tile, uh, and I will also be announcing it and sharing the QR code during my staff announcements.

Thank you.

That was my only question to other people.

Yeah, that's why I checked.

Yep, yep.

I just had questions from the report about uh so the housing placements from Dignity Village.

Awesome.

Um do we have data on where those folks are finding that permanent housing?

Like what are those exits?

What do they look like?

Where they're headed to.

Is that like supportive housing?

Is it into affordable housing?

Do we know how that's splitting out how that's working?

Um that's an interesting question because I have asked the same thing, so we're exploring how to get that very specific data.

Um, I know that HMI HMIS asked where you were last housed on that level, um, but it's a little more secure on where you are then placed.

So I am trying to um get a little more specifics on is it permanent supportive housing?

Is it independent rentals?

But um it should we should be able to get that.

I'm just uh I've asked that exact same question to get that level of data, and so I guess to be determined soon is my answer.

And then I'm like wondering for those folks that are newly housed at department housing.

Do we have programs that are supporting them once they're placed in that permanent housing?

And do we have like I know there's some programs that we'll call six months, 18 months, right?

To just ensure to ensure there's not recidivism back into the system.

I wonder if you're dignity village has a six-month aftercare program.

So people who have moved out do receive um monthly case management uh check-ins.

So if there are challenges, um the case manager can help address those challenges.

I remember a while back there was a big push to get people enrolled in healthcare, especially Alameda Alliance was doing a lot of that.

Is there a good mechanism now?

Is that been maintained?

Are most people in enrolled in Medical at this point?

Yes, so Alameda Alliance now goes to Dignity Village once a week.

So they're connecting with resident or participants at those programs regularly.

They have their health van that goes there once a week.

Um, they also go to the day center once a week.

Do we have any other questions?

Let's let's go to public comments and then seriously.

There is no public comment.

No public.

Okay.

So are there any um additional comments about the roads?

We have a board group almost.

What is going to be the function of that work group going forward?

That's a good question.

Um reviewing, I mean I'm not sure.

We have changed our roles.

Yeah, I think we've talked about, and we've talked about this kind of at our last meeting with that there's a lot of things that are still needed in terms of connecting people to the services and expanding the capacity for people to understand how and where to connect to those services.

So while the city's taken over the provision of the services and that kind of stuff, there's still the need for the board to really help kind of make sure that there's like communications, right?

City communications, um, and so thinking about how we can kind of reframe our work so that it's more about kind of ensuring that people know what services are actually out there in the communities and ensuring that people know about um like when we need to advocate for additional services, when things are going to be out in the community, there'll be a board for approval, that kind of stuff that we could be a voice to kind of bolster that and then to just kind of so Scott and I are still participating in the um the meetings for the next five-year plan.

So we've been attending the community events, and we actually have a report out for you for our um as our like group work group report.

But I think, yeah, it's definitely something that we've been talking about.

It's just kind of what does that role look like if we're not overseeing the road home anymore?

Right, um, and if we're not overseeing the community needs assessment anymore.

And we are gonna have work planning probably starting next month.

So we need to get into it more.

Yeah, and I do think there is a place for um shrub in this.

I mean, not think there definitely is a place for shrub um through this process.

Um the need the needs assessment and strategic plan differ this round in the in the fact that the road home was intended to really focus on homeless services.

The plan that we're working on this year for the next five years is really focused on the division's full role, which extends beyond homelessness, it includes affordable housing, it includes social services, and so that's where um there is a big difference, but we did find it important to present this to you all today with the intention of then bringing back our draft plan and no having you um participate throughout the process, like Sam said, Sam and um Scott are both participating throughout the process, and then bringing the draft plan for your feedback and input.

Um, so we really want you all to be able to understand what the division does entirely and not just around homeless services, so that you all can give your input and guidance as well as um experts that have worked in these fields that impact um human services.

So we have a face with the face of the ears, okay.

Eyes and ears, okay.

And so context for Chantal and Robbie, um, like the role of Trump is like like Sam Home Right needs assessment in previous years, which is a pretty atypical role for board member, but our division is also only a couple years old.

So we used to only have three staff as a division, and now we're at the like 13.

So as like we grow and we have more structures and we're more robust, and they you know, we're so it just shifts, but still equally as important.

Yeah, and I think that there's there's like been pieces that have been the role of shrub previously through prior to us, right?

So the shrub is continuously been in charge of doing the community needs assessment as a way to support um the way we do it wrong, right?

Say the club instead of the funding.

Um and so I think that has been a big change for us is to kind of think about if these reports are being produced by the department, what are their data sources?

Well, we need to think about as a board to ensure that we have the information that we need that's separate from the department if there's any additional information that we need and how to acquire it.

And that's an interesting point that we should probably start that we should discuss during our work line because I believe that you will uh Andre's not here, so I mean he's our CDBQ guy.

Um you still have to have like a letter written, so there's still gonna be like your own mini assessment process as part of the funding.

Uh just have to I think this last year the time was a little off, but yeah, we'll put that there out.

Right.

Well, and we funded the two public social service for two years, so that's probably my still last minute, yeah.

Right, do we have any more comments or questions?

No, well, thank you very much for your presentation, Sorra.

Thanks, Simon.

Thank you, and sorry again that I wasn't there in person tonight.

Okay, thank you.

So you've traveled.

Thank you.

All right, let's move to um item four C review of the eight friendly cities survey draft.

That's part of the social service and relations board efforts to improve social services and elementary community.

The road homework group is created a survey to disseminate into the community.

The surveys doesn't need design, sorry, to collect data related to creating a livable community for people all ages, especially seniors 55 and older, which will inform the road homework group's future work.

The survey asks questions about social activities, daily living awareness, and services and more.

And yes, the eight domains of age-friendly cities.

Um just give a little bit more background on this.

So um I I worked extensively, you know, in Oakland on this, um, you know, for for like it's been 10 years now, and and uh in my role as a um with the East Bay Foundation at AG, we actually funded their last survey.

I helped them develop it.

So and when it was done, they of course graciously let us use it as a model.

So the formatting was was kind of set, and then went work on changing the questions based on input from people I got in the meetings and some other differences.

For example, transportation is a bigger issue for seniors in Oakland than half than the type of housing questions that were asked at Oaklands, but that way so things were prioritized a little different, that kind of thing.

And then after I got it all put together, it was still really long, even though it was shortened, and then Sam got a hold of it and and really made some major formatting changes.

Um a lot of what we're looking at is content, even though I'm just kind of lead off my first question here.

Is one thing we did just a little different, is the very beginning, there's actually two questions that you would write and fill in rather than starting right off with checkbox answers.

We had a little bit of a debate whether that was a good idea or not.

I would like to get feedback on that.

Thank you.

Much appreciated.

So you see, there's like there's two questions that are you know, fill in handwritten kind of questions.

But debate is whether or not you should we should start a survey with that, or whether we start just with check boxes that are easier to fill out.

So think about that.

Um there's can you actually so there's this checkbox?

Can we just go to the next are we missing something here?

They're the ones that have the oh they're down further, right?

Right.

So um also one thing that makes it a little bit longer.

These are just a couple of formatting questions that are really big questions about this actually helps clarify for people what we're talking about.

I don't know if you if you think this is needed or not.

Do you see there's the part in bold, which is category?

Yeah, so you could say, well, no, part caregiver support services for people who are caring for a loved one who needs assistance.

We could just ask that, but then it provides examples, see in parentheses there.

Do you think that's that makes it quite a bit longer?

But we thought it was necessary to have so people wouldn't be guessing what we're talking about.

So I'm I'm just trying to share these rationales that people have different views on it.

These are still things we're questioning ourselves.

I would refer to people that know how to do holes.

I don't know how to do them.

So but you fill them out, right?

Like for me personally, I'm like if the surveys are like three pages long, I'm like, people needed to shorten this, right?

I get grumpy.

Um so it's just not too much.

Shove this onto two pages, let me go forward about it.

It's still eight pages long.

It's eight pages long to go.

So like I I mean, I think one of the things is like, you know, we all do fill out surveys, and they're it's important to have like that.

These are supposedly, right?

Like these have been tested.

There's so questions haven't tested.

It's actually, it's actually less than half the length of AARP one.

Yeah, so they're originally intended, like they're originally written from AARP.

Oh, I think they were used.

Right.

This is like kind of what they're screaming just.

And we're parrying it down because they ask membership stuff, people who are more affluent in things that questions is not in the and we just took that kind of stuff out.

And it's their suggested survey for their age kind of cities.

Yeah, too.

And it's been conducted in multiple locations, right, for multiple years.

And they do it once every five years, actually, too.

So it's not like done regularly.

I I think you're saying that like three pages are like but maybe those open-ended ones in the beginning, putting those at the end because you really want people to answer.

And check boxes in the line give them done, but at least we got information.

Just kind of like, all right, keep going.

There's still more boxes, you don't have to type or write or anything.

I don't know, just like a semantics thing.

Yeah, and I understand.

That's good.

Yeah.

The number of questions aren't ridiculous because each one is like, you know, there's like maybe six or seven on one page because of all the extra qualified information.

I'm sorry, you were gonna say something.

I was just gonna ask, is this gonna be a digital type of thing, or is this going to be a handwritten kind of thing?

Because I see you've got handwritten space, so I'm just wondering which side of both.

Are you gonna do it as a PDF document or something?

Well, like SurveyMonkey, you can actually fill in fields.

Yeah, okay.

I'm just making sure I understand how the format would work, because then you might be able to ask questions in a different way if you're using it as a long sheet page as a thing.

But if you're doing it as one set of questions, and then you give each question one at a time, they don't feel that same pressure of having eight pages.

You just you're showing them what you want them to see at that time, asking them that question, getting the answers, and then the next little line goes over there, and then the next little line goes over there.

That that way you're not overwhelming people with eight pages of stuff.

You're just saying, here's some questions I'd like you to fill up.

Here, the first section is done.

Second section, yeah, third section.

And then people feel a little less uh shocked by the length.

Not that not that there's anything wrong, but I just you made it a question of and she answered the same way.

The last part would be the one where you have people actually type something in or write something in.

Um I don't know.

If it's on paper though, that's a different story.

That was why I wanted to make sure it clarified.

Right.

No, in advance.

Also, there's there's actually two pages of demographic questions.

Do you think those are too heavy-handed?

I always go with US census demographics, just so that we have comparable data to compare to the general population of the city.

So that should be your starting point right there, and then do the rest of the like scale stuff in there, and then do the last thing where you uh we have people fill in stuff because by the time we get to the end, they're pretty burned out already.

Yeah, just saying that somebody so we have our age, and then yeah, we you know, we have questions like like you know, living with grandchildren and stuff, so we don't, you know, we're trying to find that information, languages.

It's yeah, I mean, there might be a way of crunching that stuff together, but then it's good for reads.

No, that's why I say if you have it ordered properly, people are usually or much more likely to finish or get close to paying.

I think I think one of the things that for me, I'm curious about like the boards insights is just like content-wise the system, like the questions are of interest to us and things that would be actionable for us, right?

So if we're thinking about um you know promoting age funding cities and developing or helping the community develop programming to support older adults, is this gonna get us the information that we need to make that actual?

That right there is two page.

I love having the descriptors after the parentheses.

That helped me.

So I'm like, I'm like having that explanation makes it very clear.

And having the categories like the headers thing that makes it because it's very user-friendly.

And survey marking makes it easy.

And a lot of these things we actually fund too, like the legal assistance for seniors and you know get these agencies get C D B G money.

Well, the question is how familiar are you with it?

Here and now you're making them familiar with it.

Uh it's like an over explanation.

Well, that's what I was saying.

The the extra text that's in the parentheses is are there are are any of them too difficult to understand with just the part that's involved?

Would you know what they were if they didn't have the emphasis made on them?

If you said, Do you know about any transportation accessible services if you didn't mention any of them?

That is kind of what you showed you.

At least as far as I understand.

Yeah, because if the answer is, oh yeah, I'm real familiar with it, so then I can just check for, but if you give me the answers and say select one of the above, then you may not get it.

And if you want a more honest answers, you might not get it because you're feeding them variations.

Right, and that's why I'm just yeah, that's what that's why I'm asking that.

Are we leading people to the answer too much?

But then again, would it be clear if you just read the bold part when I'm asking?

Or we're asking.

Yes.

I would think the bold would be understandable.

Um whether or not they just look yeah, yeah.

I also think that so much text can be overwhelming, and you can do it.

So I'm not gonna read it.

Yeah.

Well, if it doesn't have all that stuff, you can probably shorten it.

That alone will shorten the survey by half by a page or two.

So we're down to six pages.

Really?

No, only three pieces of paper.

And and only two pieces of paper have the real survey, the last one's just demographics.

And all the people who are gonna get in paper form until you have paper form are gonna look at how long it's that's true, yeah.

So that too, all three of those.

Okay.

Well, I'll do a new ver a next version.

I'll re-title it to scampus, and then so you can see too.

And then so we'll know.

So we'll keep the old version so we can see the difference, and and we'll edit it without that text in there, and we'll move those questions at the beginning after.

I'm wondering.

I wonder if it would happen.

Would you get different results if you answered them with one set and different than the other?

In other words, if you did the one where you had the information, they could go, oh, you need that, yes, I know about that, versus I don't know, which could you know that can influence it in both directions?

So it'll be interesting to see.

I don't know, maybe you want to do one of each.

I'm just offering up the streets.

Do control groups be testing.

We need another university group now.

Been around at cool years.

Yeah, been around.

But originally there was five different answers there, and there was a whole separate section just about not being familiar with things.

And that was thank you.

I and I was like, this, I was a little bit lost, and you really helped with that.

We got another two pages just by that.

Yeah, sorry, yeah, that was too long.

It was too long.

Yeah, yeah.

So, okay.

And um, and she'll be will be she graciously uh alter the multiple multiple.

Or she'll be creating the virtual version.

And this is all this is to ARP and also the World Health Organization, just so you know, and the little symbol there next to the LMD assembly.

That's World Health Organization.

Some people say, Why do you have a snake up there?

Unless that's the symbol.

I was gonna ask you about that.

What part of it is from WHO.

Well, what you mean, well, the model for age-friendly communities is World Health Organization.

That's why the other survey.

Yeah, and ARP is just like the the is on for the in the United States, yeah.

But um, yeah.

We did executive decision ad um service providers as another group to survey, and just because we thought it would be important for the service providers to be able to address like what services they know are not being like addressed within the community, and yeah, sorry, that was not part of the original ARP.

I should disclose all the things that were not for any legal AARP.

Um that being a major one is that we would have a separate population that would complete a survey.

Well, I hope we were able to do some of the interesting.

It's good, yeah.

Because the questions I I'm really feel solid about, but the delivery is the problem.

And I saw it in Open's version was like 16 pages long.

So it's like we're gonna give us a more concise and food.

Yeah.

We're banishing bureaucracy.

That's what we're doing here.

There you go.

All right.

Thank you so much for your time on this.

I know the hours getting late, so we're gonna move to work group reports.

Um as uh item 4D.

This item is for board discussion only.

There's no set presentation, I'll go directly to public comment.

I have to check that there are no public comments.

Um great.

Um now that our items are open for discussion.

Do we have anyone who wants to take we also need to?

I don't know if this after work groups and let's do yeah, we'll do minutes after work group reports, but part of our reports is actually to talk about the work groups, right?

We we need to have a discussion about distributing people into the work groups.

But let's do let's touch on work we've done the last month.

And do you want to start off, Brian?

Yeah, I don't know.

So I'm a big believer in not making presentations.

So I asked Shelby to uh attach notes of the domestic violent task force that we had.

It was very successful.

Thank you, Shelby and Raskia for organizing it.

So as you as you read that it's the most successful one we've ever had, and very optimistic about the mayor attended, the uh city manager attended three people for the police department attended, and you know, it's all there in the in the minutes and the notes, and that is the focus.

What I I think for me is the most important thing that I can do, you know, as a member of the work group as the only member.

And uh we've had speakers, we're gonna have another meeting, you know, uh, pretty soon, and trying to bring in some more people, and it's it's become a very uh good forum for communication among the various providers and a way of um you know of moving certain projects forward.

So I'm really happy about it.

So I don't know if anybody has any questions about the you know the uh report.

That's what I appreciate the minutes.

I appreciate the minutes.

Yes, that was really helpful.

Yeah, thank you.

And we're also uh service providers that are small.

Um so Alameda's United against Tate.

I think that's straightforward.

We have recently been working with the season of nonviolence program, we being me now, used to be a two-man, two-person option, but now it's it's more about a shelf.

Um we've been working on a seasonal non-violence program, which is something that occurs every year in the states.

We basically talk about the two things that go on.

And right now, our biggest event is going to be the open mind that we're going to have for our season of nonviolence.

It's going to be over at the Healing Gardens.

Beautiful place.

It's right over in on Webster and Taylor.

It's outdoor.

Um we originally had uh been doing a poetry slam for the United Against Hate Week, and we were doing a speech contest for the season of nonviolence, the speech contest would occur here at City Hall.

We would get the uh students in, and the students from the union high schools and high school would come in and do various speeches and programs, and they would get awards and prizes.

This time we were able to engage the actual students themselves to have them do the work.

They made the fire.

That's not fine.

That's a perfect example of they are more engaged.

And it would be funny.

I had asked some of the students at our last United Against Hate Week.

If they were doing it, how would they do it?

And I don't know whether that was what got the whole thing started or not, but they started on this part of it and they decided to do this.

And so uh this month, March 25th, I will be I'm judging, right?

Yes, I'll be judging this year for the nine.

I invite any of you to come judge with me.

We need some extra judges up there if we have availability or participate, or participate.

All ages to all ages.

Oh, so they answered that question.

So it's all initially it was I had asked it whether it would be the kids or whether we wouldn't have all ages.

So if you want to come up and do something, you're welcome to come up and do something as well.

I I'm really excited to see the turnout from the youth and the adults.

The youth usually lead in these types of things, and the adults kind of find out by looking and seeing and go, oh, this is one of the things where we're trying to do outreach in the community.

The goal for the social services and human relations board is to be the face that people see.

One of the former board members told us in his last time here, he said you should be out there in the community with the people where they need to see.

So this is another example of our opportunities of taking advantage of.

I encourage everybody to come out.

That's all I have for now.

Do you want to go ahead, Simon?

It's a separate separate from this committee, so I can go after which committee is it related to.

Oh, yeah, we'll do the staff announcements are staff communications are next.

Okay.

Thank you.

I'm available to do anything you you need before the other.

I'd love to have you as a judge, or you can come up there and play your new instrument if you'd like.

That'd be fun.

Um so um we're going to Samantha are going to talk about the stakeholder meeting that um that occurred uh earlier this month.

Which one I'm sorry, you might tell them.

Oh sorry.

The uh it was road home, right?

It was that's what it was called.

Yeah, it was a stakeholder meeting, and it happened at City Hall West, and it had um groups uh providers from all over um you know Alameda came came there and congregated there.

Um and uh Simone and there's the rest of the staff uh led the session.

Um and we have some of the things we report on it.

Um the idea is it's an opportunity to collect information about the service needs in the community to present in the next report um and to build out the the plan.

And to provide a historical context too, and yeah, right.

So there was a presentation by um Camille and Simone that talked about kind of where we are within the city in terms of the data and what's available to us and some of the things that are um some of the greatest needs that have been identified, um, and then the previous report information.

Um and then we broke out into kind of smaller groups that where people could talk about their experience as service providers and then it's something we're seeing within the community.

And uh some of the major themes are of course the need for more affordable housing in the area, um and to work around the homeless services um shelter and continue to expand shelters and options for housing, and then of course just the administrative barriers, you know, dealing with the different agencies and waiting for funding and all that type of thing that happens.

Um but it I felt like it was a very engaged group.

Um, the interest is really high.

Um we also had I thought it was great that they had some people with real life experiences who were able to talk.

That was part of it, race care of Asia, sorry.

I don't have all things here.

Yeah, um of folks that really talked about kind of their experience with and uh trying to access the system um in Alameda and kind of processing their experience and what they've been able to achieve with the support of the programs, um which I think was helpful for folks that didn't have that kind of experience trying to test.

It just never sounds the same when you no offense to anyone in the field or working in it, but it never sounds the same when a professional or a person who's working in it is talking about it as with someone who's gone through it.

It just has a different tone to the whole thing, yeah.

And it makes it makes people feel a little uncomfortable, I think, but in a good way because it makes it so little for that.

So that's great that you guys added, and there's really meaningful, I think.

So that's good.

Yeah.

Do you want to talk about kind of where you guys are headed with the goals?

Would you want us to talk about it?

Yeah, so we're um so those were the big picture things from the first session.

We had breakout groups, and of course there were like the like affordable housing is such like an umbrella term, like there are many mechanisms of like how we should do it and the different policies and what's within our control to be able to do that because us as a division we don't develop buildings, and uh we also don't uh get directly change or the inclusionary housing policy that lives with planning.

So we get to like inform it through best practices and we implement it, but in terms of who sphere heading the policy changes itself, it tends to be kind of the planning permit.

Um so what so right now we're crafting the agenda for our session that's going to be in March, so we're gonna have a smaller stakeholder session, um, and we're going to present a couple of ideas for what we're what we heard from the I have like I'm sorry, I'm like I'm organizing myself through all the information.

So we joined the community survey, we've already got an almost like 150 responses, which is great.

Um we sifted through our breakout programs and came away with some of those things.

And we're gonna take all of that, and I do think it's going to be somewhat but an extension from our last plan, but the main thing, and someone can also speak to this that I think we're taking it ways that we want to refine.

So like someone mentioned the previous class really focused on all this.

We're very clear on like what is our role at the thing too.

When it comes to affordable housing, it's like more fuzzy.

Like, do we just are we just like the implementation and compliance folks?

Are we doing are we expanding that infrastructure?

And then we have social services, which is like completely unclear.

So some of those things that we want to get more respective or refinement, just but more of like a to stay for mind.

So that is what we're leaning for the next session.

Um yeah.

Do you have anything to add, Simone?

No, I think you covered it well.

And I also will be uh pulling so the survey is quantitative, I always get that wrong.

Quality qualitative data.

And then quantitative data is also going to be cool in terms of like two one-one phone calls, trying to get uh date specific data on voucher vulters in the city evictions, information with the grant program.

So that's all going to inform our next session, and then by the third session, which will be our final session, we're hoping to have a draft to present to folks that get direct feedback from our earners.

Yeah, and I think as just for us as the board, we're kind of in this um interesting place as we participate in the process and then see this plan moving forward because our role isn't just in overseeing your department, it's in overseeing the services that are available within the city to all of residents, right?

So, like as a board, our purview is beyond the department, and so I think that's one of the places that we'll even have to think about as we think about like what our committee does, if that makes any sense, right?

Because these reports and these things are gonna be held at the department level, but the work that we do is really supposed to be citywide and have the perspective of all of the different departments and the different organizations and right, like the housing authority, all that kind of stuff.

So, how is that all how's that all working then where there's still needs?

Because it things may not be the purview of the department that we still need to address with the city council or whatever.

That makes sense.

We actually do made a lot of collaborative.

So I don't know how I'm not a committee person.

That's what what do I sign up?

Do I put my name on the line?

That was gonna be our next conversation.

Now we're gonna open that up to the to the floor.

Um you you both are are new and discuss what what committee attracts you and well I guess we're not following I'm really interested in the domestic violence.

That sounds a very hard sentence to say.

No, I'm really interested in the work that you're committee, doesn't I like or the subcommittee?

So we do a lot of that way to work every day, and then like oh, I challenge myself in something that I don't have to work.

So I just I don't know what I need to do next.

Oh, there's a huge government.

I'm like, okay, I'm sure there's a screen process and everything.

Yes, we take nine months, I think.

So there we go.

No, there's we we can just decide as we're gonna decide as a board.

So um we just want to make sure there's you know a decent balance, and we can always adjust people from their current.

Technically, you could also join two.

Technically, you could also join two.

So there's there's the possibility that folks could be on two communities as long as that's correct, right?

By bylaws.

I don't know.

Oh, yeah, there's no rule of more of the one, which is gonna have more than three.

The reason you can't have more than three is because then if you when you meet outside of these meetings, you're just sort of forum, and then it would have to be a bell meeting.

Right.

So to be able to meet as a committee and keep it three roll up.

I know what you jump to.

Committee of one.

Yeah, huh?

Wow.

These guys already have a third member on your board, so if you want to cajole Michelle to move over to you now to get the tape, you can jump in with them on the trend on the uh road on project problem.

So there's a lot of options.

Also don't have to make decisions to that.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

No, I think so.

Since since we just found out that we can be on two, I would love to be on domestic violence.

I think uh given my background working in law enforcement in the District of Columbia working specifically with domestic violence survivors.

Um I think that work group um really speaks to me.

Um, and then also like the United Against Hate would be also a subboard group I would love to sit on.

Should we now you're at three building?

Um I that's great.

I will say it will be more of a time commitment if it if you're on two, right?

You want to make sure like more like transparent about that.

Domestic violence typically have community events as the domestic task force meetings, which are quarterly, and there's a monthly committee meeting so that every committee meets monthly for about a half hour, and then AUAH has like we meet monthly, and then there's community events where like a couple weeks were like really busy, and there's like a little couple weeks we're really busy.

Um so you can also give it some thought in case you know you want to make sure work balance, work life balance.

Yeah.

Alright, sounds good.

I I I'll follow up offline with Michelle in terms of what what she's thinking in terms of moving into the future, especially considering the you know the road is actually changed quite a bit.

So if you do something different, it might be good time for her.

Great.

Okay.

Um I think we got everything within the work groups.

Which means that we can move into item five staff communications.

And Simone, I believe, has something she wants to talk to us about.

Do you want to go first, Simone?

Or should I read mine?

Mine's kind of long.

You can go first, and then if I have anything to add, I'll add.

Okay.

Do you want to see me in?

Or was that nice yet?

Oh, yes.

Okay, great.

Okay.

Sorry.

Um, no worries.

Okay, good evening, everyone.

My name is Iessia.

I am a program manager with housing and human services, and I'm here to present the status report on the city of Alameda's housing and human services.

So every six months, I actually am supposed to give you all a much longer six-month report.

I actually ponded off this about this time.

So she gave you the presentation of like what we've been doing over the last five years.

So we thought it would be a little too repetitive if I also did it to stick to my regular uh updates.

So for our my first update, we already mentioned the open mic night.

Gerald Motion is my workout group update, so I will help skip that.

Um also mentioned is our community survey.

So the housing and human services division is conducting a community needs assessment survey.

Our goal is to better understand the needs and priorities of our community as it pertains to human social and housing services, so we can improve service deliveries.

Your responses are anonymous and will help us shape programs and resources that support residents.

You can find the link to the survey on the city of Alameda Housing and Human Services website under the community needs assessment surveys section, or you can slap a picture of this QR code to get there.

Moving on, our an update around below market rate rental housing.

Uh so we have actually updated our BMR rental housing guidelines as of this month, February 2026.

Our guidelines were updated to increase clarity around what happens if uh residents can have income changes going up and down, um, and to reflect lessons learned over the last year as we build out the programs infrastructure.

Um so the guidelines are actually very they're very short.

So they're only maybe like 10 to 15 pages, and if you look at maybe like San Francisco's, it's like double hundreds of pages.

So as we like are really getting into the program and we come into different scenarios, we're building it out again more specific.

Okay.

Um January 20th, Housing Human Services released the fiscal year 26-27 community development block grant.

Notice the funding availability and request for proposals for the economic development and public service activities.

The application was open for one month.

Uh we did receive a couple, we receive three applications actually.

Uh the next steps will consist of evaluating the applications, deciding on which project to fund, which projects to fund, and taking the recommendations to city council for approval in May of 2026.

A reminder uh that this application ground was for economic development and capital improvement activities, and the existing CDG funded social service providers did not need to reapply for next year's funding and will likely be funded for a second and second year.

Our pick count was held on the morning of January 22nd.

We had 41 volunteers participate in the count, and I'd like to read a thank you from Camille Rodriguez, another program manager of our division who led the count for the city.

A sincere thank you to those who volunteered with the city of Alameda for the 2026 point in time count.

It was a very early day, and your time, energy, compassion, and commitment during the count were vital to helping us locate and identify as many unsheltered people as possible.

With this information, we have our coordinate funding as well as programming.

Each conversation held, survey completed, and care package shared was a reminder that homelessness is not an abstract issue, it is about people, stories, activity.

Your collective efforts strengthen our ability to advocate for resources, design effective solutions, and move from awareness to action.

During the count, each team received care packages that went out to folks who are encouraged during who are encountered during the count.

We want to formally thank Pastor Mike Yoshi's one of his the United Methodist Church basketball team, as well as Earl Scout Troops number 32763 and 31003 for their assistance with assembling these care packages.

They are first graders and junior high kids, so I just want to say they were awesome, and they created an assembly line, and yeah, they were so into it.

Sorry.

Um, and also a thank you to everyone who donated supplies for the care packages.

The city of Alameda is grateful for your partnership, and we are hopeful that together through continued collaboration, compassion, and accountability, we can build a future where homelessness is rare, great, brief, and ultimately end.

And that concludes my status vote.

My status report.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I just wanted to add that um we do have new service providers for our programs.

So as of this um late this week, we have restorative pathways that is overseeing our emergency supportive housing program, which is a um more of a transitional housing type program.

Folks have their own private room and um they have a longer term stay and on-site services and the ability to you know um operate as if this is their own home, like um buy their own groceries and cook their own food, things of that nature.

Uh we also have a new provider urban alchemy at our day center state parking emergency shelter program, and that uh program is more for low barrier immediate services for people who are on the street really needing immediate shelter and connection to case management to get into either longer programming or permanent housing, and that's it.

We'll have um an introduction to them in a couple of weeks.

We'll have some festivities to welcome them to town in a couple of weeks.

Awesome.

Yeah, great.

Thank you.

Yep, yep, we're gonna do minutes before we do this file thing.

We're gonna go back to item number what is it, three?

Um, and we now have a barn here.

So uh I would like to put forth a motion to approve the minutes for January 15th, 2026.

Do I have a second?

Second.

We have a second.

All those in favor.

Aye.

Opposed.

Then I think two reques.

We got it done.

Thank you.

So before we conclude this meeting, we do have um number item six board communications, not agenda items.

I know the hours being late, so I'm just gonna quickly go for this, and then other people can have theirs.

So I just want to explain this.

UC Berkeley has a health and human services graduate program.

Um, they reach out to uh organizations throughout the Bay Area to ask for projects they can work on.

Um, I applied um on behalf of Alameda, they accepted it.

So I I met with them a couple of times.

I I really thought they were gonna really like this data program, but I had this this database program and communications thing.

I thought they were gonna love because it's all dealing with like computers all that stuff, and they were like, heck no, the volunteer list that a volunteer program, we want to do that.

So what do you what do you know?

Like Gen Z, Gen Z surprise you, right?

So they they really wanted.

I really pitched age-friendly as a concept of a continuum, and that you want to make sure that the next generation to prepare for the next generation continually, right?

And that that requires feedback.

So we really got excited.

They want to do an intergenerational program design for volunteer alameda that would incorporate um yeah, some coordination.

And there's do you remember there was that grant?

It comes every few years that was for INA.

It's it's part-time, there's no matching, it's just part-time positions.

Usually people hire seniors into them.

That kind of position, which can be paid for by the county, could coordinate the program.

So the we're gonna design a program that will duplicate in some ways the loss of the federal senior companion program.

That program was lost because the Trump administration canceled it.

Try to scan that up without federal funding using different delivery model.

So really excited.

I'm really excited.

These four bright minds are getting their masters of public health that I can you know work with them and then send them off, you know, out into the world.

So just wanted to share that.

Very nice.

Yeah, that's that's actually a wonderful idea.

Finding a new way to do it without the federal funding is really what we're gonna have to start doing a lot more of.

So could have.

Yeah, so you just we can't pay stipends.

Yep.

Wow.

But we do have a transport, a uh paratransit funded paratransit program that's out of mastic that could help with the trans transportation aspect of it because they do have funds that they can allocate in different ways.

So there's there's there's systems in there that we can use.

The merrier agreement.

Um other announcements.

I got two.

I don't know how many of you are familiar with the K Avenue program.

I've talked about this in the past, right over here by the Crab Cove.

They're building a respite center and senior housing.

Uh, this is just a quick report for you.

Um we finished construction.

Um sorry, I'm on the board for that program right there.

We finished construction and inspection of the upstairs, and we're currently uh carrying out final inspections to the downstairs.

We've already built that first building in there, and we're getting ready for the next part.

Um we plan on uh requesting a temporary certificate of occupancy at the end of February.

So at this point, the process will take about two to three weeks during March.

We'll finish with the landscaping and installation of the furniture, artwork, and supplies, the lifelong staff, lifelong of the organization that will be handling lifelong staff.

Should be moving in in April, and we're working on setting a date for the grand opening in the second half of April.

So you will see the work that we spent years trying to get.

Finally show up, and that's just the first part.

Next part gets even better.

Once we get that done, we'll start the grant work for that one, as a matter of fact.

Um we're beginning, we're inching closer to the beginning of construction work on a few housing project.

We'll be applying for the permits next month.

Then we'll be submitting our application for the final funding in April.

We hope to be under construction in the fall, which means by next year, sometime end of the year, we should actually have the senior housing element taking care.

That's a really great one that I was really thrilled to be able to do.

And the second one is about the Rise Up Alameda program.

I'm also on the board for the Rise Up Alameda Program.

Rise Up Alameda program is a guaranteed basic income study that we did with the grant and the research.

We have uh finished the program at this point.

Um they were scheduled to do some more work.

Um we're now at the point where we're starting to get the stories of the people who were participating in the program and putting them together for a video visual presentation because it's important to get the faces of the people that you actually supported for two years.

People got a thousand dollars a month, no strings attached.

That's an amazing feat.

And the idea that we can now ask them how they used it, not just the data that you get here, but to see the faces, and that's the kind of thing that resonates.

So really looking forward to getting started on that part of the project.

We're going to be doing that over the next period of two months.

So really really thrilled to be able to do such great announcements for important things that we need here.

And the only other third one that I was going to say was there was a movie that I did not get to go to this Monday.

Yes, the apology.

I I have not gotten a chance to see it, but I've already said I'm going to buy it so I can watch it because if you've been to the Oakland Museum and you've seen the uh black spaces reclaim and remain, you know the story of Russia.

And that's until March 1st, right?

Yeah, yeah.

Please go before it goes.

Oh, yeah.

It's $20.

It's the best $20 you'll spend in the uh in the area.

And that was all I had to say.

Thank you.

I want to get on your calendar and talk to you about EBI.

Yes.

Definitely.

Yeah.

Okay.

Um, any other announcements?

No.

Um, okay.

Then we can adjourn this meeting at 9 04 p.m.

I thought for sure we're gonna hit the I just waited like five seconds.

So