Meeting Minutes - Final

CONTRA COSTA COUNTY Contra Costa

Council on Homelessness

1:00 PM

Thursday, June 5, 2025

Location: In person: 1025 Escobar St.,

Martinez Virtual:

https://homebaseccc.zoom.us/meeting/register/t

Zclf-uspzovGdR7op72t5-X4nsGdqdpvL-X#/reg

istration

General Meeting

COH Agenda w Time 6.5.25

COH Slides 6.5.25

Attachments:

Agenda Items: Items may be taken out of order based on the business of the day and preference of the

Committee

Roll Call and Introductions

Staff Attendance: Jaime Jenett, H3; Jamie Schecter, H3; Mark Mora, Homebase; Tania Morales,

Homebase

Community Member Attendance:

• In-person: Jaclyn Tummings, DCD; Melanie Erickson, DCD

• Remote: Ms. Evon Ufland, Agape's Restore & Renew Home; Bullard Clearnise, BACS;

RHamilton, BACS; Christine Wetzel, Caminar; La Tanya Johnson, Caminar; Ishani

Rasanayagam, City of Pittsburg; Ajani Cox, Community Member; Heaven, Community

Member; Elizabeth Keller, Contra Costa County; Peter Myers, Contra Costa County District

3; Janna Evans, CCCOE; Gina Bills, CCCOE; Denise Clarke, Contra Costa County Office of

Education; Elizabeth Winstead, DOR; Khougen, EHSD; Stephanie Booth, EHSD; Brianna R,

FLY Program; Allison Mabbs, Focus Strategies; Kat Jacobs-Crotta, Focus Strategies; Brendi

Velasquez, Focus Strategies Lived Experience Consultant; Brittany Ferguson, H3; Caroline

Miller, H3; Cheryl Leonor, H3; Christy Saxton, H3; Jacqueline, H3; Maria D. Dominguez, H3;

Michelle Richardson, H3; Natalie Siva, H3; Rochelle Barbosa, H3; Shelby Ferguson, H3; Steve

McNutt, H3; Todd Peterson, H3; Yessenia Aguilar, H3; Deanne Pearn , Hope Solutions;

Elizabeth Verdin, Hope Solutions; Emily Bero, Hope Solutions; Khayla DiGiorgio, Hope

Solutions; LLee, ILS Health; Carmen Cano, Lao Family Community Development; ; Julie, LSS

NorthCal; Jill Ray, Office of Supervisor Candace Andersen; Jared Murti, Partnership for the

Bay's Future; June, RCD Housing; Rena Moore, Safe Return Project; Alicia Alferez, SHELTER

Inc.; Christi Rossi, SHELTER Inc.; Cynthia-Bella Chavez, SHELTER Inc.; Rebecca GomezPellecer, SHELTER

Inc.; Jai De Lotto, VA CES; Leon Saelee, YAB; Jeff O'Hearn, White Pony

Express.

Alejandra Chamberlain, Verneda Clapp, Sherina Criswell, Hope

Dixon, Wayne Earl, Maria E Fairbanks, Carolyn Foudy, Susan

Leslie Gleason, Nicole Green, Gabriel Lemus, LeAnn Matthews,

Yahel Moreno, Courtney Pal, Shawn Ray, Tony Ucciferri, and

Heather Worobey

Present

Danielle Jimenez

Juno Hedrick

Absent

Non-voting

Public comment on any item under the jurisdiction of the Committee and not on this agenda

(speakers may be limited to two minutes).

COH Staff Report 6.5.25

COH Minutes 5.1.25 draft

Q1-2025 Report

Attachments:

For item A, the following changes to the May 1 meeting minutes were requested and

amended for section 7.b:

a) Alejandra Chamberlain, COH member, shared that she is part of a cross-agency

workgroup that is meeting to support the implementation of AB 2083. The group

includes representatives from Probation, Child Welfare, Behavioral Health, the County

Office of Education, and the Regional Center, and is focused on improving coordination

of services for children and youth with complex needs.

b) Courtney Pal was the COH member referenced and who made the comment in section

7.b.

A. APPROVE minutes from the May 1, 2025 Council meeting as amended, B.

APPROVE staff report for the June 5, 2025 Council meeting, C. APPROVE members

for the 2025 Nominating Committee: Carolyn Foudy, Hope Dixon,

Nicole Green, Tony Ucciferri, D. APPROVE members for the 2025 Homelessness

Awareness Month Committee: Nicole Green, Rina Criswell, Wayne Earl

Motion:

Criswell

Second:

Ucciferri

Roster of City Government Representative Candidates

City Government Representative Candidate Applications 2025

Nominating Scoring Rubric

Attachments:

The Nominating Panel, conformed by Dani Jimenez, Juno Hedrick, and Leanne Matthews,

reviewed and scored applications for the City Government Representative seat. A total of

four applications were received. The names and city they represent was shown on a slide.

The nominating panel recommended Bessie Marie Scott for the City Government

Representative seat. The next step will be to get the approval from the Board of

Supervisors, likely at their June 24th meeting.

To approve Bessie Marie Scott as the candidate for the City Government

Representative as recommended by the Nominating Panel to be forwarded to the

Board of Supervisors for official approval for Council on Homelessness membership.

Motion:

Earl

Second:

Criswell

Committee Report Outs: Youth Advisory Board (YAB)

Juno Hedrick provided an update on the Youth Action Board's activities in May. The YAB continues to

meet regularly, with communications and outreach being particularly active in planning social media

and event participation. In addition, YAB members are participating in the Youth and Young Adult

(YYA) Community Strategic Planning, including action step workgroups. They are also involved in the

Contra Costa Health Youth and Young Adult Transitional Housing RFP process. Juno shared upcoming

priorities, including presenting key findings from the YYA Needs Assessment to support Measure X

funding recommendations, continuing participation in various committees, and preparing for the

release of the HUD Youth Homeless Demonstration Program NOFO.

Old Business: Sector Report Outs from Council Members

The following COH members gave the following updates:

- Wayne Earl shared that The Multi-faith Action Coalition, the Interfaith Council of Contra Costa

County, and Hope Solutions hosted a workshop on reimagining sacred land for affordable housing on

May 20th at the Christ the King Church in Pleasant Hill. The workshop featured case studies of Hope

Village in Walnut Creek, which is located on land owned by Grace Presbyterian Church, and the Village

of Hope in Pittsburg, showcasing how faith organizations can use underutilized land for affordable

housing with prefabricated cottages and supportive services. Some of the challenges discussed

included denominational concerns, fundraising capital campaigns for smaller parcels, and utility setup

such as PG&E. Wayne emphasized the importance on collaboration and community engagement.

Some of the participants included the Mayor of Walnut Creek, Pastor Mark Burnham, Pastor Christy

Dick, and the Vice Mayor from Pittsburgh, Dionne Adams. A white paper on the topic was shared for

faith leaders to consider. More information about this project may be found at the Multi-Faith ACTION

Coalition’s website. Wayne shared a link about the grand opening of Hope Village, which can be found

at the Hope Solutions’s website. The Faith-Owned Land for Housing Solutions document may be found

at The Bays’s Future website.

- Tony Ucciferri stated that the project-based voucher program is opening up 16 different waitlists on

June 30th, with seven being designated to seniors and nine to families. The waitlist will close on July

24th, 2025. One of the new construction properties will be available for immediate housing in

November 2025. Some of the preferences to be considered for applicants will be to live in or work in

Contra Costa County, having been involuntarily displaced, or be a veteran. Senior programs are

targeted to the elderly ages 62 years of age or older to qualify and family housing being open to

anyone under 62. The Housing Authority’s Sign-Up Waitlist notification form may be found at its

website.

- Alejandra Chamberlain made a follow-up update regarding the interagency collaboration of AB 2083

that brings together agencies from Probation, Child Welfare, Behavioral Health, the County Office of

Education, and the Regional Centers. The workgroup is in the process of updating the Memorandum

of Understanding (MOU) and has been discussing intervention and preventative strategies for children

in the foster care system and experiencing trauma, with housing being a key focus. Alejandra

highlighted the importance on how we are looking at vulnerable populations and thinking about our

children and youth who are experiencing homelessness with the intent of them not going into systems

of child welfare, probation, and so forth. An email invitation from the workgroup to H3 will follow to

discuss future collaboration efforts.

- Sherina Criswell shared the devastating news of the closure of Job Corps, an agency that prepares

youth for job readiness, and will likely result in an increase of unhoused youth and young adults

needing assistance.

Old Business: Funding Updates

Jamie Schecter provided an update on the re-released of HUD COC Built Notice of Funding

Opportunity. In Fall 2024, the CoC submitted the Hope Solutions’ Village of Hope project but was later

taken down to comply with the new executive orders. H3 will put out a Letter-of-Interest

announcement to seek applicants who would like to submit a project in addition to re-submitting

Village of Hope project under the new NOFO requirements. The application process is fast paced with

projects due by June 26th. It was also announced that the Transitional Housing for Transition Aged

Youth Request for Proposal will be coming out soon. H3 has revised some of the language per federal

requirements changes. The team also discussed the HUD COC collaborative application debrief,

highlighting that while they didn't achieve the highest score, they still performed well with a score 3

points higher than the median score. The highest scores that were received came from the system

performance measures section, particularly the Point-In-Time count. HUD did not provide a full

debrief report, but Homebase has provided a document with great information, which will be shared

at the Oversight Committee.

New Business: Feedback on Homeless Housing, Assistance and Prevention (HHAP) Round 6

Grant Funding

Allison Mabbs, from Focus Strategies, presented on the County Strategic Plan to Address

Homelessness, explaining the project's focus on improving cross-departmental collaboration to

address homelessness. The plan includes the input and contribution of Brendi Velasquez, who brings

the voice of lived expertise as a consultant. Brendi introduced herself and shared her vast experience

and the work she does in the community. The presentation included the project purpose and

background, objective, the Home Regional Action Plan, timeline, and purpose of input sessions and

interviews. A variety of engagement opportunities for feedback have taken place, from input sessions,

key informant interviews, to written comments. Anyone with questions may contact Allison Mabbs

directly at allison@focusstrategies.net.

Jamie Schecter presented an overview of the HHAP 6 Action Plan, emphasizing the need for public

input sessions and coordination between various county departments and behavioral health services.

The Homeless Housing, Assistance and Prevention Grant is funded from the State of California's

Housing Community Development Department, and its main so focus is to sustain investments

towards long-term sustainability of housing and supportive services as well as to prioritize permanent

housing solutions. The application due date is August 29, 2025. The application components are

regional partners roles and responsibilities, system performance measures improvement plan, funding

plans to sustain interim housing and permanent housing, and Memorandum of Understanding (MOU)

between the County and the CoC. A new section on the HHAP-6 application is to address policies for

addressing encampments.

Adam Down, Program Manager for Behavioral Health Housing Service Housing and Support Services

Administration, gave a brief account on the Behavioral Health Services Act (BHSA) and its

implementation in Contra Costa County as part of a larger behavioral health transformation initiative.

The act will allocate significant funding for housing interventions and behavioral health services, which

will take effect in July 2026. Its goals include improving access to care, increasing accountability and,

allocating significant funding for

housing interventions and behavioral health services. The funding allocation for BHSA is described

with 90% going to counties and 10% to the state. The county's portion is divided into housing

interventions (30%), full-service partnership programs (35%), and behavioral health services and

supports (35%). Adam explained the need to gather feedback from stakeholders and incorporate new

regulations into their integrated plan. The group discussion focused on challenges in accessing housing

for individuals with behavioral health needs and the importance of improving crossdepartmental

collaboration to address homelessness. Challenges include access to housing for individuals with

severe mental health and substance use, particularly for high-need populations like homeless

individuals, transition-age youth, and women with children. They recognized the existing gaps in

services, including the lack of residential drug treatment programs and the need for better integration

of housing and mental health services. It was emphasized the importance of preventative work with

children. In terms of helping unsheltered people affected from encampment sweeps, H3 has a new

housing site called Rick Doug Commons to house people from coordinated entry referrals. To learn

more about how to connect to behavioral health services in Contra Costa, please visit the Contra Costa

Health's website. To read about previous funding awarded to Contra Costa County, please visit the

Contra Costa Health/Newsroom section here.

Announcements – Open for all to share announcements about upcoming events and to give brief

reports about recent events/trainings relevant to the Council.

None

The next meeting is currently scheduled for 7/10/25.

Adjourn

The Committee will provide reasonable accommodations for persons with disabilities planning to attend

the Committee meetings. Contact the staff person listed below at least 72 hours before the meeting. Any

disclosable public records related to an open session item on a regular meeting agenda and distributed by

the County to a majority of members of the Committee less than 96 hours prior to that meeting are

available for public inspection at 2400 Bisso Lane, D2, Concord during normal business hours. Staff

connection malfunctions for any reason, the meeting may be paused while a fix is attempted. If the

connection is not reestablished, the committee will continue the meeting in person without remote

access. Public comment may be submitted via electronic mail on agenda items at least one full work day

prior to the published meeting time..

For Additional Information Contact: contracostacoc@cchealth.org