In late 2003, the Reno City Council identified Record Street for the co-location and expansion of homeless services. The Men’s Drop-in-Center, Reno Sparks Gospel Mission and St. Vincent’s Dining Facility were relocated and a new woman’s shelter, family shelter, triage center and community resource center have been built.

In July 2008, the mayors of the two cities and the chair of the County Commission held a Homeless Summit.  At that time the community urged the jurisdictions to identify a lead entity, open the facilities as soon as possible and develop an entity with dedicated funding to assume long-term management of the facilities.  In response, the three jurisdictions developed and adopted the original Cooperative Agreement in September 2008, with the City of Reno as lead entity to manage CAC operations.

The three jurisdictions have agreed to fund the CAC’s core services using a formula based on allocations of property tax equivalents.  Each of the Cities agreed in principal to allocate an amount equivalent to $0.005 of property tax and the County to $0.01 of property tax equivalent.

For fiscal year 2015/16, the CAC operations will include three core services which are as follows:

• Homeless Shelters (Men’s, Women’s and Family)
• Security Services
• Tom Vetica Resource Center

The estimated FY 2015/16 budget for the CAC’s core services is $2,096,891.  The City of Sparks would provide approximately $111,840.00 in funding, an amount equivalent to $0.005 of property tax the City anticipates receiving.  The aforementioned is comprised of $99,143 from the City’s FY 2015/16 CDBG allocation (the 15 percent maximum amount allowed for “public services”) and $12,697 from the City’s General Fund.

The City Council’s options include not approving the Cooperative Agreement or modifying its terms, subject to concurrence by the City of Reno and Washoe County.

Staff moves to approve the Cooperative Agreement and authorize the Mayor to sign the agreement.