In late 2003, the Reno City Council identified a site on Record Street for the 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 were 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 property tax-based formula to determine each entity’s contribution. Each of the Cities agreed in principal to allocate an amount equivalent to $0.01 of property tax and the County an amount equivalent to 0.005 of property tax. The contribution value is derived 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 2018/19, Washoe County’s Preliminary Projections identify the assessed value in Sparks at $2,838,990,543. Applying the formula of 100 x .01 results in a Sparks contribution for FY 2018/19 of $283,899.

For fiscal year 2018/19, 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 2018/19 budget for the CAC’s core services is $3,628,163.  The City of Sparks would provide approximately $283,899 in funding, an amount equivalent to $0.01 of the property taxes the City anticipates receiving.  This amount is comprised of $121,958 from the City’s FY 2018/19 CDBG allocation (the 15 percent maximum amount allowed for “public services”) and $161,941 from the City’s General Fund.

The City Council’s options include the following:

1. Approve the Interlocal Cooperative Agreement.
2. Modify the terms of the Interlocal Cooperative Agreement subject to concurrence by the City of Reno and Washoe County.
3. Deny the Interlocal Cooperative Agreement and provide direction to the City Manager.

I move to approve the Interlocal Cooperative Agreement for Operation of the Community Assistance Center and Other Homeless Services Among the City of Reno, Washoe County and the City of Sparks for Fiscal Year 2018/19.