FAMILY & HUMAN SERVICES COMMITTEE
Meeting Date: May 11, 2026
Subject: Council on Homelessness 2026 Quarter 1 Report
Submitted For: Dr. Grant Colfax, Health Services Director
Department: Health Services
Referral No: 5
Referral Name: Homeless Continuum of Care - Quarterly Report
Presenter: Jaime Jenett, Health Services Community Engagement Specialist
Contact: Jason Chan, (925) 655-2050
Referral History:
In November 2014, the Board approved “Forging Ahead Towards Preventing and Ending Homelessness: An Update to Contra Costa’s 2004 Strategic Plan”, that renewed the County's 2004 plan with the latest data, best practices, and community feedback and reaffirmed the County's commitment to the Housing First approach. As such, “Forging Ahead” establishes this guiding principle:
“Homelessness is first a housing issue, and necessary supports and services are critical to help people remain housed. Our system must be nimble and flexible enough to respond through shared responsibility, accountability, and transparency of the community.”
The Strategic Plan Update identifies two goals:
1) Decrease the length of time people experience homelessness by focusing on providing Permanent Housing and Services; and
2) Decrease the percentage of people who become homeless by providing Prevention activities.
To achieve these goals, three strategies emerged:
• Implement a coordinated entry/assessment system to streamline access to housing and services while addressing barriers, getting the right resources to the right people at the right time; and
• Use best, promising, and most effective practices to give the consumer the best possible experience through the strategic use of resources; and
• Develop the most effective platforms to provide access, support advocacy, and connect to the community about homelessness and available resources.
The Contra Costa Council on Homelessness (COH), a Board of Supervisors appointed body, provides advice and input on the operations of homeless services, program operations, and program development efforts in the County. The COH establishes the local process for applying, reviewing and prioritizing project applications for funding in the HUD Homeless Assistance Grant Competitions, including the Continuum of Care (CoC) Program and the Emergency Solutions Grant Program.
The County Health, Housing and Homeless Services Division (H3) of the Health Services Department partners with the COH to develop and carry out an annual action plan that identifies the objectives and benchmarks related to each of the goals and strategies of Forging Ahead. Further, H3 incorporates the strategic plan goals into its own delivery system of comprehensive services, interim housing and permanent supportive housing as well as contracting with community agencies to provide additional homeless services and housing with the goal of ending homelessness in our community.
The Council submitted its last quarterly report (2025-Q4) to the Family and Human Services Committee on February 9, 2026.
Referral Update:
As an Advisory Board of the Board of Supervisors and to the Continuum of Care, the Council on Homelessness (COH) assists and provides guidance in the development and implementation of long-range planning and policy formulation of homeless issues in Contra Costa County. The Council is bringing two (2) items to the Family and Human Services Committee this month.
1) Receive the Quarter 1, 2026 report from the Council on Homelessness. The Council submits quarterly reports on the work of the Council to the Family and Human Services Committee and the Committee and the Board have accepted the reports in the past.
2) Extend the expiration date for two (2) seats:
a) Lived Experience Advisor seat currently held by LeAnn Matthews from 12/31/26 to 12/31/27 and
b) Public Housing Authority member seat held by Tony Ucciferri of the Contra Costa Housing Authority from 12/31/27 to 12/31/28.
In October 2024, in an effort to stagger the expiration dates of the two Lived Experience Advisor seats, the Council on Homelessness voted to have LeAnn Matthews, the highest scoring applicant in the Lived Experience Advisory category seated in the second Lived Experience Advisor seat, for a three (3) year term, with an expiration date of 12/31/27. When materials were submitted for the November 2024 Family and Human Services Committee, the ask to seat her for three years instead of two was accidentally dropped in the creation of the packet materials. Therefore, we ask that her term be extended until 12/31/27.
In addition, to better balance the ratio of seats expiring per year, we ask that the Public Housing Authority member seat held by Tony Ucciferri of the Contra Costa Housing Authority be extended by a year, from 12/31/27 to 12/31/28. Analysis determined that, based on past application processes, this seat was very unlikely to have competition and therefore extending this seat by a year would have little impact on potential other applicants.
Recommendation(s)/Next Step(s):
ACCEPT the Council on Homelessness 2026 Quarter 1 report, and DIRECT staff to forward the report to the Board of Supervisors for their information; and APPROVE the term extensions for the Lived Experience Advisor #2 and Public Housing Authority Representative seats on the Council on Homelessness.
Fiscal Impact (if any):
There is no fiscal impact.