City Council Meeting: April 25, 2006

Agenda Item: 3 B

To: Mayor and City Council 

From: Barbara Stinchfield, Director, Community and Cultural Services

Subject: Agreement with the Urban Institute for a System and Program Evaluation of Santa Monica’s Homeless Continuum of Care

Recommended Action

It is recommended that City Council authorize the City Manager to negotiate and execute a professional services agreement with The Urban Institute in an amount not to exceed $126,000 for a system and program evaluation of Santa Monica’s Homeless Continuum of Care.

Executive Summary

To improve homeless service delivery in Santa Monica, the Community and Cultural Services Department’s Human Services Division engaged in a process to select a consultant to conduct a system-wide evaluation of Santa Monica’s homeless continuum of care. A Request for Qualifications (RFQ) was issued on November 14, 2005. On January 31, 2006 a Request for Proposals (RFP) was issued to four qualified respondents and three proposals were received by March 1, 2006. An interdepartmental evaluation team reviewed the three applications and selected The Urban Institute as the finalist. Following meetings with the evaluation team, City staff and representatives of the local homeless service providers, The Urban Institute was recommended to conduct the evaluation at a cost of $126,000.

Discussion

Background

The Community Priority adopted by City Council in the FY2005-06 Budget addressing the impacts of homelessness on the community includes “a system-wide evaluation of Santa Monica’s continuum of care” as an element of the work plan. Funding in the amount of $200,000 for a one-time Continuum of Care Evaluation was included in the City’s FY2005/06 Budget. This is the first time the City’s homeless delivery system will be comprehensively evaluated since its inception in the 1980s.

In August 2005 City staff met with local homeless service providers to solicit input on the proposed evaluation and its scope of work. On November 14, 2005 the City of Santa Monica released a Request for Qualifications (RFQ) to over 80 professional, research and academic organizations nationwide. Information on the RFQ was posted on the listserv for the American Evaluation Association and on the Human Services Division website. The RFQ was also sent to national homeless advocacy groups. In response, eleven consultants submitted resumes and relevant work samples. Human Services Division staff reviewed all of the responses and interviewed seven respondents by phone. On January 31, 2006 four consultants were invited to submit a full proposal.

The Request for Proposals (RFP) asked for a qualitative and quantitative description of Santa Monica’s homeless service delivery and an evaluation of Santa Monica’s system in light of best practices across the nation. The goals of the evaluation were articulated as:

1) Refining the strategy for homeless service provision and the effective management of resources;

2) Results-oriented recommendations against which the effectiveness of the programs and the system can be measured;

3) Recommendations for specific action steps to be carried out within the next five years; and,

4) Recommendations for increasing and/or reallocating resources to carry out the action steps. The evaluation timeline has been set at nine months so sufficient progress will be made in time to inform grant funding decisions for the 2007-2010 Community Development Program. It is anticipated that Council consideration of the grantee selection criteria, followed by issuance of the Request for Proposals to local non-profit agencies, will occur in January 2007.

Consultant Selection

Three of the four invited consultants responded to the RFP and outlined evaluation methodologies, plans, timelines and project budgets. An evaluation team consisting of representatives from Community and Cultural Services, Police and Housing and Redevelopment engaged in efforts to address homelessness was convened. The team reviewed applicants’ qualifications, evaluation plans and proposed budgets. A Senior Behavioral Scientist from RAND, acting as a volunteer to the project, offered a written critique of each proposal.

The evaluation team considered three applicants: The Lewin Group, Resource Development Associates, and The Urban Institute. The Lewin Group, an Arlington, VA-based research and consulting firm with experience evaluating welfare reform, employment and homeless programs, proposed a methodology that was deemed useful for a description of the current system but lacking as a tool for developing recommendations for future actions. Resource Development Associates, a Bay Area social research and consulting firm, was determined to have less experience with evaluating homeless services. The Urban Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based nonpartisan economic and social policy research organization that has completed numerous evaluations of homeless programs and continuums of care, are considered experts in the field and emerged as the preferred applicant. Subsequently, The Urban Institute was invited to Santa Monica to interview with members of the interdepartmental evaluation team and to meet with local homeless service providers. On April 10, 2006, the principal consultants from the Urban Institute team met with members of the evaluation team, City staff and representatives of the local homeless service providers. As a result of this selection process, The Urban Institute is recommended as the project consultant.

The Urban Institute is recommended based on the following considerations:

1. Professional qualifications including experience with relevant topics and projects of similar scope;
2. The demonstrated competence, ability, capacity and skill of the principals to employ a variety of methodologies that will sufficiently address the goals of the evaluation and produce a high-quality, results-oriented final report that is accessible to a wide range of readers;
3. A realistic and achievable timeline;
4. The sufficiency of the firm’s resources;
5. The character, integrity, reputation and judgment of the principals;
6. The ability of the principals to provide such future service as may be needed; and
7. The price which the firm proposes to charge, including whether the price is fair, reasonable and competitive.

Consultant Background

The Urban Institute is a Washington, D.C.-based nonpartisan economic and social policy research organization. The Urban Institute and the project’s principal evaluators, Dr. Martha Burt and Laudan Aron, have completed numerous evaluations of homeless services programs and continuums of care, surveyed best-practices and are considered experts in the field. Prior evaluations have used agency and project surveys; sampling; literature review; site visits; fieldwork; focus groups and data analysis.

Dr. Burt and Ms. Aron have extensive experience developing evaluation plans with local stakeholders, which include clearly articulated goals and feasible mechanisms for measuring progress. They are currently working on a five-year project to reduce long-term homelessness, especially among people with serious mental illness, sponsored by the Corporation for Supportive Housing and the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation; and are evaluating a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development/Department of Labor homeless demonstration project for the City of Los Angeles’ Community Development Department. Other past clients include: The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Melville Charitable Trust, The Charles and Helen Schwab Foundation, Fannie Mae, numerous Federal departments and agencies, and local jurisdictions across the nation. Staff contacted three of the Urban Institute’s references – the Corporation for Supportive Housing; City of Los Angeles Community Development Department; and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development – and received very positive feedback.

Budget/Financial Impact

The contract amount to be awarded to The Urban Institute is $126,000, this includes an 8% contingency for potential additional costs related to issues which may arise during the course of the evaluation. This could include additional data collection and analysis and extra on-site briefings to local officials, services providers and community residents. Funds are included in the FY2005/06 budget at account 012627.555060.

Prepared by:

Danielle Noble, Sr. Administrative Analyst – Homeless Services

Approved:	Forwarded to Council:
Barbara Stinchfield, Director, Community and Cultural Services	P. Lamont Ewell City Manager