HomeMy WebLinkAbout2023-09-28; Homeless Data - Letter to San Diego County Taxpayers Association Regarding Recommended Contract Provisions (Districts - All); Barberio, GaryTo the members of the:
CITY COUNCIL
Date ~l20/23CA~CC V
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September 28, 2023
Council Memorandum
{city of
Carlsbad
Memo ID# 2023101
To:
From:
Honorable Mayor Blackburn and Members of the City Council
Gary Barberio, Deputy City Manager, Community Services
Mandy Mills, Director of Housing & Ho ~ss Services
Via:
Re:
Geoff Patnoe, Assistant City Manager (@:!/
Homeless Data -Letter to San Diego County Taxpayers Association Regarding
Recommended Contract Provisions (Districts -All)
This memorandum transmits a letter that has been sent to the San Diego County Taxpayers
Association (SDCTA) related to recommended contract provisions for access to data held by the
Regional Task Force on Homelessness (RTFH).
Background
For the past 18 months, Housing and Homeless Services Department staff have been
participating in interdisciplinary working groups convened by the Public Regional Outcomes
Standards Board (PROS Board) of the San Diego Taxpayers Educational Foundation. The goal of
the interdisciplinary work groups was to further prioritize and evaluate how the creation and
adoption of governing standards may enhance trust and usability of performance reporting.
The working groups focused on identifying homelessness reporting outcomes.
Discussion
The SDCTA is attempting to obtain raw data from the RTFH to conduct their own analysis. The
RTFH is not participating in this study with the SDCTA and have asked the SDCTA to work
directly with providers that want to be a part of a study of program effectiveness which will
review budgets and program outcomes. Staff from Housing & Homeless Services and
Innovation & Economic Development departments met with SDCTA staff in July to discuss their
request for data. City staff identified a number of concerns with their data request but agreed
to be open and transparent with all data available to the city. Since that meeting, the SDCTA
has called upon all public officials in the region to urge their staff to implement recommended
contract provisions. City staff continues to have concerns about most of the SDCTA requests.
The attached letter was provided in response to the SDCTA requests.
Next Steps
City staff will continue to work with the SDTCA and the PROS Board to identify opportunities to
provide accurate, quality data related to homelessness.
Community Services Branch
Housing & Homeless Services Department
1200 Carlsbad Village Drive I Carlsbad, CA 92008 I 442-339-2810 t
Council Memo -Homeless Data -Letter to SD County Taxpayers Association (Districts -All)
September 28, 2023
Page 2
Attachment: A. Letter from the Housing & Homeless Services Department to SDCTA, dated
• September 27, 2023
cc: Scott Chadwick, City Manager
Cindie McMahon, City Attorney
Laura Rocha, Deputy City Manager, Administrative Services
Paz Gomez, Deputy City Manager, Public Works
David Graham, Chief Innovation Officer
September 27, 2023
Haney Hong, President & Trustee
San Diego Taxpayers Educational Foundation
2508 Historic Decatur Rd. #220
San Diego, CA 92106
Dear Mr. Hong,
Attachment A
(city of
Carlsbad
As you know, the City of Carlsbad is dedicated to identifying performance outcomes for
homeless services, and we're delighted that your team is involved in this impactful work. We
remain committed to supporting t he interdisciplinary working groups assembled by the
Outcomes Standards Board (PROS Board) of the San Diego Taxpayers Educational Foundation.
Additionally, the city's Chief Innovations Officer, David Graham, serves on the PROS Board.
As we discussed at our meeting in July, we're happy to share our anonymized data. As partners
in this effort, we want to ensure that the data that is analyzed is accurate and given proper
context. We have been working with our local homeless service providers and the Regional Task
Force on Homelessness (RTFH) to share anonymized client information that is used to generate
a By-Name List of the people experiencing homelessness in Carlsbad and are working on a
public dashboard for transparent reporting on homeless services for our community and
decision makers. Unfortunately, we will not be able to grant all your requests for standard
contract provisions, as outlined below:
1. Public funder owns all the data generated through the performance of the contract.
We do not "own" the data entered by a nonprofit agency into the Homeless
Management Information System (HMIS}, however we will have access to this data
through the performance of city contracts. The city's Professional Services Agreements
for homeless services outline data reporting requirements in the Scope of Work. We do
require contractors to utilize the HMIS to track the entry/exit of participants and report
data outcomes to the city on a quarterly basis. We include a provision that the agency
"sha.re" anonymized participant HMIS data with the city as part of the City of Carlsbad
By-Name List.
2. Contractor must consent to the sharing of data within HMIS on other programs they
manage in the county.
The City of Carlsbad collects service provider data only for those services provided for
the City of Carlsbad/Carlsbad clients. The city does not have authority to direct how
Housing & Homeless Services
1200 Carlsbad Village Dr. I Carlsbad, CA 92008 I 442-339-2810 t I housing@carlsbadca.gov
Mr. Hong
September 27, 2023
Page 2
service providers manage third-party contracts/programs throughout the county. Any
contract provisions that city service providers have with other programs/agencies
throughout the county are negotiated separately with those programs/agencies.
3. Contractor must consent to data requests made to RTFH by any public agency in the
county.
The City of Carlsbad collects data only for those homeless services provided to the City
of Carlsbad/Carlsbad clients. The records these service providers/contractors provided
to the city are subject to the Public Records Act and are disclosable, subject to any
applicable exemptions from disclosure. However, public records requests to the RTFH
or other nonprofit agencies may not be subject to the Public Records Act. Additionally,
the city does not have authority over the RTFH's data request policies. The city-
through a waiver/consent provision with its contractors--cannot bind non-contracting
entities such as the RTFH to release its data from any source to any entity, whether a
public agency, member of the public, or otherwise.
4. Contractor must consent to data requests made to RTFH by the public.
See response in paragraph 3.
There is a lot of data available to the public on the RTFH website, including public dashboards,
monthly data reports, and annual performance reports. We will continue efforts to work with
you to provide accurate data to evaluate homeless services. Quality data is vital to the
credibility of our collective efforts. Please call or email if you have questions or would like to discuss.
Sincerely,
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Amanda Mills
Director
cc : Scott Chadwick, City Manager