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.  This agreement continues to be necessary to accomplish the requirements of managing the provision of shelter and a broad scope of rehabilitation services to the homeless.

The three jurisdictions have agreed to fund CAC operations using a formula based on allocations of property tax equivalents. Specifically, each of the cities has agreed to allocate an amount equivalent to $0.01 of property tax while the County provides an amount equivalent to $0.015 of property tax.

For the City of Sparks, the amount of this commitment is calculated by multiplying the assessed value of property within the City of Sparks (excluding Redevelopment Areas) by .0001 (i. e., one penny of property tax).  For FY 2018, Sparks’ assessed value equals $2,774,101,639.  This amount is divided by 100 and multiplied by .01, which equals $277,410.  The FY 2018 contributions of the City of Reno and Washoe County are $773,762 and $2,418,189, respectively.  Combined, the three jurisdictions will contribute $3,469,361. 

As lead agency, the City of Reno contracts with Volunteers of America (VOA) to operate the CAC. For FY 2018, CAC operations will include three core services which are as follows:

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

VOA’s proposed budget to operate the CAC during fiscal year 2018 is $3,211,641. If VOA’s budget is fully funded, there will be approximately $257,720 remaining, of the $3,469,361 the three jurisdictions are providing, to support other homeless programs and activities.  These include outreach initiatives such as MOST (Mobile Outreach Safety Team) to bring homeless people in off the streets to the shelters and social service programs, and initiatives to provide for rapid rehousing of chronically homeless persons and families.

As noted in the Analysis section of the proposed FY 2018 agreement, the City of Sparks would provide approximately $277,410 in funding. This amount would be from two sources: $96,160 from the city’s FY 2017/18 CDBG allocation (the 15 percent maximum amount allowed for “public services”) and $181,250 from the city’s General Fund. These funds were included in the budget the City Council adopted for fiscal year 2018.

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.

I move to approve the Interlocal Cooperative Agreement between the City of Reno, Washoe County and the City of Sparks for the operation of the Community Assistance Center (CAC) and other homeless services for fiscal year 2018 with Sparks' share being $277,410.