Berkeley City Council Special Meeting on Homeless Response and Gun Violence Prevention Grant - July 29, 2025
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Berkeley City Council Special Meeting on Homeless Response and Gun Violence Prevention Grant - July 29, 2025
The Berkeley City Council held a special meeting on July 29, 2025, at 4:00 PM in the School District Board Room. The meeting focused on approving a $1,000,000 grant for the Byrne State Crisis Intervention Program and receiving presentations on the city's homeless response system and a related audit. Councilmember Bartlett was absent.
Consent Calendar
- Grant Award: Byrne State Crisis Intervention Program (SCIP) Cohort 2 Funding: The Council adopted a resolution to accept a $1,000,000 grant from the Board of State and Community Corrections (BSCC) for the city's Gun Violence Intervention and Prevention Program (GVIPP). The grant funds expansion of violence intervention services via Live Free USA and establishes a temporary Crime Analyst position (not to exceed two years) at a cost of $450,000 (fully loaded). The consent calendar was approved without objection.
Public Comments & Testimony
- Kentrell Killens (Live Free USA) spoke in support of the SCIP grant, noting that the organization currently has 2.5 life coaches/outreach workers and the grant would add two more. He highlighted that while Berkeley has seen no gun violence homicides recently, four Berkeley residents have lost their lives in Oakland. He urged approval to maintain the program's integrity.
- A second speaker (name not given) questioned the $450,000 allocation for a temporary crime analyst, suggesting a graduate student could fill the role for less. He expressed concern that nearly half the grant would go to administrative costs rather than direct services.
Discussion Items
- Presentation: Comprehensive Summary of Berkeley’s Homeless Response: City Manager's Office staff (Peter Radu, Josh James, Osavri — likely Osvaldo) presented an overview. Key points included:
- A 45% drop in unsheltered homelessness since 2019, attributed to low-barrier, non-congregate interim housing with an 80% acceptance rate vs. 40% for traditional shelters.
- 60% of Berkeley's homeless population is Black, despite Black residents making up only 8% of the city. Rising rates of acute disabilities were noted.
- In the most recent point-in-time count, more people were sheltered indoors than any previous year, and the fewest were on the streets.
- Regional challenge: for every person exiting homelessness, nearly three fall into it for the first time.
- The city's three-pronged strategy (prevention, interim housing, permanent housing) is at risk due to expiring funding.
- A pilot rental assistance program (up to $1,800/month for up to 3 years) has served over 50 households; Berkeley has the lowest eviction rate in Alameda County (4 evictions per 1,000 rental households vs. 44 county average).
- Auditor's Report: Homeless Response Team Audit: City Auditor Jenny Wong presented an audit with six recommendations to improve coordination, data procedures, outcome reporting, transparency, and staffing. The City Manager's Office agreed with the findings. The Council was asked to request a follow-up report in Fall 2026 and annually thereafter.
Key Outcomes
- The consent calendar (SCIP grant) was approved unanimously (motion by Councilmember Bartlett? noted absent, but no objections).
- No formal votes were taken on the homeless response presentations; they were informational. The Council directed the City Manager to report back on audit recommendations in Fall 2026 and annually.
- The meeting adjourned without further action.
Meeting Transcript
All right. We are ready. Thank you so much. Today is Tuesday, July 29th, 2025, and I am calling to order the special meeting of the Berkeley City Council. Thank you. Take the roll. Yes. Councilmember Kessnerwani. Here. Present. Bartlett. Is currently absent. O'Keefe. Here. Here. Luna Parra. Here. Umber present. And Mary Ishi. Here. Okay. All right. Thank you very much. This is a special meeting. Um, but we're gonna move straight on to the consent calendar. Is there any public comment on consent calendar and or information items only? And if so, please, oh yes, thank you. If you if so, please come up to the podium here. And I think because we it looks like we only have two folks here, so you'll each have two minutes to speak. Or you're gonna speak together. I'm gonna speak for you. You're gonna speak for him. Okay. Sounds good. Two minutes begins now. Okay. Greetings, uh, mayor and the council. My name is Kentrell Killens. I'm from uh live free. Um, we are the organization that is holding the contract for uh the gun violence program, um, intervention program in the city of Berkeley. We're here on behalf of a grant opportunity that we just uh acquired, and it has to get um your approval for the funds to be released. Um this is an additional uh services to expand our current team. We currently have two and a half um life coaches and outreach workers. Um I say two and a half, we have one certified, we have two individuals who are 24 hours around the clock. Todd is one of those individuals who at the moment of a crisis can get called to a scene at three in the morning, six in the morning, five in the afternoon. Um so we want to expand that. It'll give us the opportunity to add two more individuals to our additional team. Definitely much needed work um as we're um addressing a lot of harm and trauma that um individuals are facing. I know that you all as a city council may understand that at this current moment there has not been a gun violence homicide in the city of Berkeley, but I want to lift up the fact that there are three individuals, four individuals from the time that we got this contract that are all residents of Berkeley that lost their lives in the city of Oakland. And so through these funds, we've been able to support families in extreme moments of try uh trauma, helping individuals to um get connected to other resources throughout the region, as well as do what we can to keep ongoing support.
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