By Hector Gonzalez
Special to The Lookout

April 22, 2016 -- Santa Monica is ready to invest at least $775,000 and as much as $1 million to augment local homelessness services, including hiring a local nonprofit to deliver medical and mental health services directly to people living in the streets.

About $175,000 of the amount expected to be approved by the City Council next week would go to Florida-based Alexandria Consulting so that the firm can continue collecting federally required data on Santa Monica's homeless population.

A new deal recommended by staff extends Alexandria's contract, originally approved in 2014, for another two years, with the total amount not to exceed $409,925.

A second item on Tuesday's consent calendar recommends paying as much as $600,000 for one year to the nonprofit Ocean Park Community Center (OPCC) to create a Homeless Multidisciplinary Street Team.

The team would initially bring medical treatment and mental health services to between 20 and 25 homeless people officials have identified as chronic users of the City's emergency services, said staff.

Outreach programs for the homeless “have evolved from simple engagement by peers or advocates into sophisticated and medically/clinically trained teams that can provide field-based assessments and treatments,” staff wrote in its report.

Over the decades, Santa Monica has invested millions of dollars addressing the “complex” issue of homelessness, staff said.

A City document, the “Action Plan to Address Homelessness,” promotes a “whatever it takes approach” to the problem, emphasizing “flexible delivery of services in a way that reaches people wherever they are,” said the report.

Having professionals deliver quality medical care directly to homeless people on the streets through mobile clinics is one example of the flexible delivery of services, according to the report.

The Integrated Mobile Health Team (IMHT), an innovative treatment model that combines the efforts of the County Department of Mental Health, OPCC, Venice Family Clinic and St. Joseph Center, also "has yielded successful results," according to the report.

“IMHT focuses on placing vulnerable individuals in housing first, then surrounding them with the supportive services necessary to promote wellbeing and housing retention.

“The team's multidisciplinary staff provides mental health, physical health, and substance abuse services in the streets and in the client’s home.”

Since 2012, dozens of Santa Monica's “most vulnerable chronically homeless individuals” have been permanently housed through the IMHT program, staff said.

Santa Monica gets federal help funding its homelessness programs, and each year the City distributes the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) grants to local nonprofit service-providing agencies.

HUD requires data be kept on how that money is spent, including demographic information on the homeless population, household configuration, their income history, health information and housing status, according to staff.

The data also helps City officials monitor the progress of individual homeless people as they move through the programs offered by six City funded nonprofits.

According to the report, Alexandria Consulting has done a good job of collecting the data since being hired in September 2014, and staff recommended the City continue the relationship for another two years.