County Administrator’s Office Bill Emlen

Shelter Solano, Inc’s lack of unrestricted funding prevents the shelter from operating at capacity. Response to Finding 1 The Solano County Administrator disagrees with this finding. As noted above, SSI is an independent, private non-profit and is not a division of the County and as such, the County has no information to determine whether unrestricted funding would allow the shelter to operate at full capacity, particularly since many of its funding sources do require an agreed upon number of beds be reserved for clients of those specific programs or other agencies. Without these funding sources, SSI might not be able to maintain operations at the current level and consequently might potentially be unable to serve any unhoused individuals in the county. The County has no authority to control SSI’s operations aside from mutually agreed upon contractual obligations. Additionally, due to the critical nature of some of the programs supported by the funding sources, such as Solano County Behavioral Health, having beds available provides critical stabilization to individuals served by these programs. Therefore, the County has no intention of modifying its contract to remove this restriction.

There is a lack of metrics and comprehensive data collection to inform decision-making, to monitor and measure program efficacy and performance, as well as outcomes across the homeless service continuum. Response to Finding 5 The Solano County Administrator partially disagrees with this finding. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) requires all agencies that receive federal funding for the provision of homeless services enter data into a computer system known as the Homeless Management Information System (HMIS). Each Continuum of Care is responsible for selecting an HMIS software solution that complies with HUD’s data collection, management, and reporting standards. However, the data, once collected, cannot be modified to reflect local conditions and some modifications could be beneficial to service providers and the community as a whole to better understand needs and outcomes in the county. The County does not have the authority to require that all agencies providing services to the unhoused in the county report based on a more regionalized basis, and if an agency does not receive federal funding, there is no requirement, and the County cannot require, that the agency report at all.

Despite improved collaboration between the service providers, funders, municipal government, and county, there remains a lack of an overall leadership role/authority. Response to Finding 6 The Solano County Administrator partially disagrees with this finding. The County agrees that a coordinated leadership effort between the incorporated cities and the County would be of great benefit to the work of providing services to the unhoused, but no single entity has the authority to undertake such a role. However, the County has recently been engaged in meeting with all the cities in the county to modify the membership of the CAP Solano JPA Board of Directors to consist of elected officials from each jurisdiction’s governing body. Having a Board comprised of policymakers throughout the county will greatly assist in developing more countywide solutions to remove barriers to housing the unhoused.

The SCCGJ found no evidence that CAP Solano, JPA is registered as a public agency with the State of California or Solano County as required. Response to Finding 7 The Solano County Administrator partially disagrees with this finding since Solano County has no direct knowledge of what the SCCGJ did or did not find in its investigation.

The public is unaware of the volume of money coming into Solano County to address the homeless issue. Response to Finding 8 The Solano County Administrator disagrees partially with this finding in that there are many different sources of funding, including private donations, that would make it quite difficult to track the total volume of funds coming into Solano County to provide homeless solutions. As it pertains to the County’s expenditures on homeless solutions, the County’s budget is fully accessible and transparent in terms of funds in the Budget directed to homeless solutions.

Feedback from multiple stakeholders and document review during the SCCGJ’s investigation revealed that CES is not currently providing the expected services. Response to Finding 9 The Solano County Administrator disagrees with this finding as it is not warranted since it is beyond the scope of the County’s authority and should be addressed to the CAP Solano, JPA.

Lack of housing makes it difficult for individuals to successfully graduate out of Shelter Solano, Inc. into permanent housing as required by the Housing First Delivery Model used in Solano County. Response to Finding 10 The Solano County Administrator partially disagrees with this finding. The County agrees that there is an inadequate amount of affordable housing units in Solano County, and this creates challenges when trying to provide services to the unhoused, but there are many reasons why individuals do not successfully transition into permanent housing.

Direct observation and feedback received during Shelter Solano, Inc. site visit revealed shelter maintenance has been neglected. Response to Finding 12 The Solano County Administrator disagrees with this finding because the County has no recent direct knowledge of the condition of the shelter structure or what the SCCGJ observed during their visit.

Direct observation, document review, and feedback during the Solano County Civil Grand Jury investigation revealed gaps in service delivery along the entire continuum of services. Response to Finding 13 The Solano County Administrator disagrees partially with this finding. The subject of this report is “homelessness and Shelter Solano, Inc’s role in serving the homeless community” and does not appear to have included a full review of the entire continuum of care in the county.

A document review conducted by the Solano County Civil Grand Jury revealed discrepancies and inconsistent accounting and reporting practices among the entities providing services to the homeless in Solano County. Response to Finding 14 The Solano County Administrator disagrees wholly with this finding as to the extent this finding relates to the County and has no ability to comment on any entity outside of the contract and/or control of the County.