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Agenda Item
ASR
Control 25-000145 |
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MEETING
DATE: |
04/22/25 |
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legal entity taking action: |
Board
of Supervisors |
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board of supervisors district(s): |
4 |
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SUBMITTING Agency/Department: |
County
Executive Office (Approved) |
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Department contact person(s): |
Doug
Becht (714) 834-2323 |
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Zulima
Lundy (714) 834-6805 |
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Subject: Renewal Contract for Bridges at
Kraemer Place Shelter Operations and Services
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ceo CONCUR |
County Counsel Review |
Clerk of the Board |
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Concur |
Approved
Agreement to Form |
Discussion |
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3
Votes Board Majority |
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Budgeted: N/A |
Current Year
Cost: N/A |
Annual Cost: FY2025-26: $4,093,886 |
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Staffing Impact: |
No |
# of Positions: |
Sole Source: No |
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Current Fiscal Year Revenue: N/A
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Prior Board Action: 11/19/2024 #11, 3/26/2024 #34,
4/27/2021 #26 |
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RECOMMENDED
ACTION(S):
Authorize the County Procurement
Officer or Deputized designee to execute Amendment No. 8 to Contract with Mercy
House Living Centers, Inc. for Bridges
at Kraemer Place Year-Round Emergency Shelter Services, to renew and amend the
Contract for an amount not to exceed $4,093,886, for the term of July 1, 2025,
through June 30, 2026, for a revised cumulative total amount not to exceed
$16,887,772.
SUMMARY:
Approval of the Amendment No. 8 to
renew the Contract for Bridges at Kraemer Place Year-Round Emergency Shelter
Services will provide individuals experiencing homelessness in the North
Service Planning Area of Orange County continued access to emergency shelter
and housing-focused case management.
BACKGROUND
INFORMATION:
Bridges at Kraemer Place first
opened in May 2017 and provides 200 emergency shelter beds and supportive
services for adult (ages 18 and over) individuals experiencing homelessness in
the North Service Planning Area (SPA) in Orange County.
Prior
Board of Supervisors (Board) Actions:
|
Board Date |
Contract |
Term |
Maximum Obligation |
Action |
|
4/27/2021 |
Approve Contract
with Mercy House for the operations of Bridges at Kraemer Place |
7/1/2021 –
6/30/2024 |
$8,700,000 |
Approved as
Recommended |
|
N/A |
Amendment No. 1
to modify the budget table |
7/1/2021 –
6/30/2024 |
N/A |
Deputy
Purchasing Agent (DPA) Delegated Authority Administrative |
|
N/A |
Amendment No. 2
to change the administrating agency from OC Health Care Agency (HCA) to the
County Executive Office (CEO) |
7/1/2021 –
6/30/2024 |
N/A |
DPA Delegated
Authority Administrative |
|
N/A |
Amendment No. 3
to modify the budget table |
7/1/2021 –
6/30/2024 |
N/A |
DPA Delegated
Authority Administrative |
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3/26/2024 |
Approve
Amendment No. 4 to Renew Contract for one additional year |
7/1/2021 –
6/30/2025 |
$12,793,886 |
Approved as
Recommended |
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N/A |
Amendment No. 5
to modify the budget table and staffing table |
7/1/2021 –
6/30/2025 |
N/A |
DPA Delegated
Authority Administrative |
|
N/A |
Amendment No. 6
to modify the budget table |
7/1/2021 –
6/30/2025 |
N/A |
DPA Delegated
Authority Administrative |
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N/A |
Amendment No. 7
to modify the budget table |
7/1/2021 –
6/30/2025 |
N/A |
DPA Delegated
Authority Administrative |
|
11/19/2024 |
Approve revised
Community Advisory Board (CAB) Bylaws |
N/A |
N/A |
Approved as
Recommended |
Mercy House has operated emergency
shelter and homeless service programs in Orange County since 1990, including
being the operator of Bridges at Kraemer Place since it initially opened in
2017. Mercy House has continued to increase their organizational capacity and
footprint and now operates three other emergency shelter programs in Orange
County including, the Buena Park Navigation Center in the City of Buena Park,
Costa Mesa Bridge Shelter in the City of Costa Mesa, and the Huntington Beach
Navigation Center in the City of Huntington Beach. Collectively, these programs
have transitioned over 1,500 participants into permanent housing placements.
Additionally, Mercy House has experience in providing other homeless service
programs including homelessness prevention, street outreach, interim housing,
rapid rehousing programs, permanent supportive housing, low-income housing, and
residential services.
Scope of Services:
The Emergency Shelter Operations
and Services for Bridges at Kraemer Place (Program) is designed to provide
safe, temporary shelter services with the goal to ensure a household’s
experience with homelessness is as brief as possible. The Program incorporates
evidenced-based approaches such as motivational interviewing, progressive
engagement, trauma-informed care, harm reduction and risk management, to
address barriers to housing and economic stability. Access into the Program is
facilitated by referrals from community partners, including law enforcement
departments, street outreach providers and Coordinated Entry System (CES)
Access Points through the CES Bed Reservation System.
The Program operates in accordance
with the County of Orange’s Standards of Care for Emergency Shelter Providers
(Standards of Care); a comprehensive set of administrative, operational, and
facility-based standards designed to support the quality and consistency of
program operations, evidence-based participant services, core organizational
and administrative functions, and facility design and operations.
Mercy House will continue to
provide the following services, at minimum, as part of the Program:
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a. |
Process
referrals into Bridges at Kraemer Place through identified referral partners
and through the Bed Reservation System to ensure equity and accessibility of
beds. |
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b. |
Support the
County’s regional strategies and ensure all referring partners in the North
SPA can seamlessly access the Program. |
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c. |
Intake and
assessment to understand the participants’ history of participation in other
homeless service assistance programs, collection of needed demographic
information, and determination of what supportive services would be most
beneficial for the participants. |
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d. |
Housing-focused
case management to support program participants with evaluating housing
options that meet the participant's individual needs and completing the
necessary process and tasks to access housing. |
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e. |
Housing
navigation services to support the participant in identifying available
housing units and community resources, completing needed forms and applications
for housing, as well as providing support through in-person or teleconference
meetings relating to housing search and placements. |
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f. |
Coordinated
Entry System (CES) Access Point to support participants in accessing the CES
through the completion of an assessment and the collection of required
documentation to verify length of homelessness, homelessness status and/or
disabling condition. |
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g. |
On an annual
basis, at minimum, solicit participant feedback to assess program operation
changes to better support and meet the needs of participants and evaluate how
to best meet the performance outcomes. |
The agreed upon Scope of Services
outlined in the proposed Contract are in alignment with the Shelter Pillar’s
best practices, guiding principles and commitments as detailed in the Homeless
Service System Pillar Report.
As the operator of Bridges at Kraemer
Place, Mercy House will continue to support the regional strategies with
ensuring all referring providers can seamlessly access the shelter program
within the North SPA.
Performance
Metrics:
As part of the Renewal Contract,
the target goals for the performance metrics are detailed below. Two
performance metrics have been revised from the original contract term and are
noted below.
From
July 1, 2022, to January 31, 2025, the following performance metrics were
measured and achieved:
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FY 2022- 23 |
FY 2023-24 |
FY 2024-25* |
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Number
of Participants Served |
337 |
598 |
443 |
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95
percent of all participants will be continuously engaged in an active
individualized service and housing plans.*** |
63% |
68% |
85 % |
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90
percent of participants will be connected to the CES within 30 days of
program enrollment. |
82% |
90% |
93% |
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30
percent of participants exited were placed into a permanent housing
destination. **** |
20% |
10% |
10% |
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90
percent of bed utilization |
65% |
93% |
93% |
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15
percent of participants will increase their income.** |
N/A |
N/A |
7% |
* Fiscal Year in progress – July 1,
2024, to January 31, 2025
**Note: This performance measure
was introduced during the Contract renewal for FY 2024-25.
***Note: The performance metric for
the percentage of participants that established an Individualized Housing and
Service Plan within 30 days of program enrollment has been reduced from 95
percent to 75 percent.
****Note: The performance metric
for participants exiting to a permanent housing destination has been reduced
from 30 percent to 25 percent.
Mercy House is currently under
performing in meeting the performance metric related to participants’
continuous engagement in individualized service and housing plans. Mercy
House’s ability to meet this performance metric has been impacted by high staff
turnover, which has been detrimental to service delivery and data entry
quality. However, Mercy House has focused on ensuring this performance metric
continues to improve through the implementation of protocols that facilitate
continuous engagement of participants and prioritized individual service and
housing plans. The performance metric for the percentage of participants that
established an Individualized Housing and Service Plan within 30 days of
program enrollment has been reduced from 95 percent to 75 percent, given that
not all participants willingly engage with Mercy House for case management
services and Mercy House may need additional time to build rapport and be able
to complete this task.
The performance metric of
participants increasing their income was introduced during the Contract renewal
for FY 2024-25, which is currently in progress. The target is expected to be
met by the end of the fiscal year.
Mercy House has consistently not
met the performance metric related to percentage of participant’s program exits
into permanent housing destinations. Mercy House’s ability to meet this
performance metric has been impacted by the decrease in available housing
resources following the end of COVID-19 related assistance. This is further
exacerbated by an already challenging local housing market leading to less
permanent housing opportunities for participants to transition to. This
challenge is also being experienced at other County funded shelter programs. It
is important to note that Mercy House has supported 93 percent of the Program
participants in connecting to the CES and completed all necessary steps for
participants to be eligible for housing. In addition, this is consistent with
the 2024 Point In Time Count Summary report which indicated that 72 percent of
participants at the two County of Orange (County) owned and operated shelters,
which includes the Yale Navigation Center, have completed all the necessary
steps to be eligible for housing programs; however, only one (1) out of every
12 participants were connected to housing at that time. As such, the
performance metric for participants exiting to a permanent housing destination
has been reduced from 30 percent to 25 percent.
The CEO, Office of Care
Coordination (OCC) is actively working with Mercy House to review current
practices related to the program operations, by facilitating monthly meetings
with Mercy House and addressing all aspects of the contract in detail,
including performance outcomes achieved. In addition, monthly programmatic
meetings are held in person to facilitate case conferencing related to housing
service plans, exits to permanent housing, data entry accuracy and strategies
to enhance the delivery of services. This has resulted in improvements in
program operations and improved data quality into the Homeless Management
Information System (HMIS).
The OCC works collaboratively with
Mercy House and ensures adherence to the Good Neighbor Policy that is included
in the Contract. Mercy House provides services at the Program in a way that
limits its impact on the surrounding neighborhood(s) including but not limited
to environment, safety, and congregation, while still providing high quality
services.
The recommended Amendment No.8 to
renew the Contract with Mercy House is the final renewal term. The OCC will
issue a solicitation through a Request for Proposal (RFP) in the Fall of 2025
for the Emergency Shelter Operations and Services for both County-funded and
operated programs, Yale Navigation Center and Bridges at Kraemer Place. The RFP
will align the contract renewal process for both programs and identify vendors
to continue the operations.
The Contractor’s performance has
been confirmed as satisfactory. The County Procurement Office has verified
there are no concerns that must be addressed with respect to Contractors’
ownerships/names, litigation status or conflicts with County interests. The
non-profit has been verified to be in good standing.
This Contract does not currently
pass through to other providers but does have subcontractors. See Attachment B
for the Contract Summary Forms. The Orange County Preference Policy is not
applicable to this Contract award. The Office of Care Coordination has worked
to incorporate the Homeless Service System Pillars Attestations into the Amendment
for the Contract, for the Shelter Pillar as applicable to the Emergency Shelter
Operations and Services being provided.
The OCC requests that the Board
approve Amendment No. 8 to the Contract with Mercy House for Emergency Shelter
Operations and Services for Bridges at Kraemer Place as referenced in the
Recommended Actions above. Approval of the Amendment will continue to support
the County’s effort to build a responsive System of Care that meets the needs
of different segments of the homeless population.
FINANCIAL
IMPACT:
Appropriations and Revenue for this
Contract will be included in Budget Control 018 FY 2025-26 Budget Request.
The proposed Contract includes
provisions allowing CEO to terminate the Contract, reduce the level of
services, and/or renegotiate the levels of services provided, as necessary.
This includes a notice that allows CEO adequate time to transition or terminate
services to clients, if necessary.
STAFFING
IMPACT:
N/A
ATTACHMENT(S):
Attachment
A – Amendment No. 8 to the Contract MA-017-22011902 with Mercy House Living
Centers
Attachment B – Contract Summary Form for MA 017-22011902