How Metro intends to spend $50 million in federal funds on Homelessness

LEARN MORE ABOUT: How Metro intends to spend $50 million in federal funds on Homelessness

BY JUDITH TACKETT

The Mayor’s Office has put together a $50 million proposal to address homelessness for the Financial Oversight Committee, which is charged to review proposals to use federal relief funds Nashville received through the American Rescue Plan (ARP).

A recent Metro report* outlines the spending plan for the $50 million as follows:

• $25,000,000: over three years towards adding affordable housing units through Coordinated Entry, for very low income (30 percent Average Median Income) and set aside in developments for Permanent Supportive Housing. Funding will be designed to create program income to sustain housing and/or services.

• $9,000,000: over three years for Housing First supportive services, such as programs such as ACT, ICM, and SOAR, which help people stay in housing.

• $9,000,000: over three years for low-barrier “Gap Housing” — temporary housing for individuals and families waiting for housing units and/ or permanent housing subsidies.

• $3,000,000: over three years to build capacity of the Low Barrier Housing Collective (housing incentives, landlord engagement, housing navigators) to increase landlord participation and retention.

• $4,000,000 competitive grant funds to local nonprofits, such as high fidelity coordinated Housing First programs to be accessed through coordinated entry.

If we take off the $25 million that is set aside to add affordable housing units for people experiencing homelessness, that leaves $25 million for three years in support services and potential administrative costs.

Then there is $9 million dedicated to Housing First support services, roughly $3 million per year. These are programs that need sustainable funding, which Metro has said would be addressed in the future by looking for state and private dollars.

In today’s column I will provide a quick overview of what ACT, ICM, and SOAR means.

ACT stands for Assertive Community Treatment and is a best-practice team approach to meet the needs of individuals with severe and persistent mental illness. The characteristics of an effective ACT model include:

• A team approach. An ACT team consists of a community-based group of medical, behavioral health and rehabilitation professionals who serve individuals who generally do not benefit from receiving services across multiple, disconnected providers. The ACT team meets daily to discuss how each consumer is doing and whether service adjustments are needed.

• Service delivery in the places and context where individuals live. The ACT team is the main provider of all services and if services (for example medical) are needed outside of what the team can provide, the ACT team ensures those services are available. In addition, crisis intervention services are accessible 24/7.

• A small client-worker ratio. An ACT team consists of 10-12 members and typically serves about 100-120 people for a service ratio of about 1:10, even though the team approach focuses on the team as an entity serving all clients.

• Time-unlimited services.

Serving about 100-120 individuals with an ACT team costs an estimated $1.2 million per year as estimated by the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). These services will be expected to continue for as long as needed.

ICM stands for Intensive Case Management and is a service approach that offers a community-based care package to provide long-term care for people suffering from severe mental illness who do not require immediate admission. ICM evolved out of the ACT and traditional case management models. ICM offers small “caseloads” with a ratio of fewer than 20 consumers per worker. The definitions of ICM are blurrier than those of an ACT team. ICM can follow a team structure but not all programs do. The key for both these interventions is intensive case management with a small case ratio and ongoing support services, which are appropriate for a Housing-First oriented permanent supportive housing program.

A quick rule is that support services should be budgeted at about $5,000-$6,000 per person per year — $1 million would serve about 180 people per year, but those support services will be ongoing as long as needed for each individual.

SOAR stands for SSI/SSDI Outreach Access and Recovery. The Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) provide income benefits to people who suffer from disabling conditions that impact their ability to work. However, these federal programs are not easily accessible to people experiencing homelessness. The SOAR program offers an active engagement effort to link people with these income sources and couple those with Medicaid benefits; therefore, SOAR offers a critical service and income connection that often is the first step toward the path of recovery for many people experiencing chronic homelessness.

A SOAR worker completes about 20 claims per year, which includes outreach, relationship building, and other assistance. For $1 million per year, roughly 200 people could be linked with SSI/SSDI income and potentially health insurance.

With this quick calculation, I looked at the $9 million Housing First support services the Mayor’s proposal would cover. Serving an estimated 300-400 people experiencing chronic homelessness, which would significantly reduce chronic homelessness in Nashville.

The additional funds outlined in the Mayor’s ARP plan would pay for interim housing options until permanent housing is available and move people off the streets at a rapid pace, which is essential to providing high quality support services.

Finally, the $4 million for nonprofits would help increase the support services assistance, at least temporarily. Thus, these funds could significantly enhance the number of people served.

With all this said, we need to be realistic, the $50 million will help A LOT of people and make a huge dent toward moving people off the streets and out of encampments. I applaud the effort. But it will not be sustainable unless these support services are coupled with renewable funds.

That’s where other opportunities like the recently announced federal NOFO (Notice of Funding Opportunity) to address unsheltered and rural homelessness come into play. The Nashville-Davidson County Continuum of Care** is eligible to apply for an estimated $4.85 million for unsheltered homelessness over three years. A third of these funds will become renewable on an annual basis after three years and would be a great opportunity for Davidson County to expand its permanent supportive housing programs.

One of the things that needs to happen now is for advocates to call on city leaders to shift some of the ARP proposal’s temporary support services funds into next year’s operating budget to ensure ACT, ICM, and SOAR support services are lasting longer than through the next election cycle.

In the most recent operating funds, Metro expanded staffing capacity for homelessness with a focus on outreach positions, which signals Metro’s focus on encampments. With the housing-first approach, the gap funding for interim housing, I hope there will be sufficient safe options for people to go to before encampments are dismantled.

This is a solid start, but if Metro is finally getting serious about ending chronic homelessness then the focus will need to shift on ongoing support services dollars, and it would be an extremely strong signal to federal, state and private funders if Metro put up a good portion of operating dollars to invest in quality, time-unlimited support services, and then leverage those other funding sources in a comprehensive way to keep people with severe and persistent mental illness and other vulnerabilities in housing long term.

*The report is available on the Metro Homeless Impact Division’s Website (under the Metro Social Services Webpage): https://www. nashville.gov/sites/default/files/2022-06/ Nashville-Performance-Study-Homelessness-Affordable-Housing.pdf?ct=1654192067

**The Continuum of Care (CoC) is a federally designated area in which all stakeholders from a community work together to build a system to prevent and end homelessness. CoC’s receive competitive federal funds for their systems work.

SIDEBAR

The Financial Oversight Committee consists of nine members: six appointed by the Mayor, three appointed by the Vice Mayor representing Metro Council. Their charge is to “issue reports upon and review the use of funds as it deems appropriate. Further, it will collect, consider, and recommend appropriate uses of the American Rescue Plan Funds as designated by the Metropolitan Council disbursement plan.”

Overall, the city received a total of $259,810,600 in ARP funds. These are allocated in two installments. The city has received the first half of funding allocation, and as of mid- June, all with the exception of $60,465 has been allocated to specific programs. The second half of $129,905,300 is expected soon, and of those, the Mayor would like to designate $50 million to address homelessness in Nashville and use these funds over a three-year period.

Cities must obligate ARP funds by Dec. 31, 2024, and programs must spend down the allocated funds by Dec. 31, 2026.