Memorandum

City of Lawrence

City Manager’s Office

DATE:	09/19/08
TO:	David L. Corliss, City Manager
FROM:	Casey Liebst, Budget Manager
CC:	Cynthia Boecker, Assistant City Manager Diane Stoddard, Assistant City Manager Margene Swarts, Assistant Director of Planning and Development Services
RE:	Funding Recommendations of the Community Commission on Homelessness

Please place the following agenda on a future City Commission agenda for their review and, if appropriate, approval. 

Receive recommendation of the Community Commission on Homelessness regarding 2009 funding for programs related to homelessness.

Background

The City Manager’s recommended budget provided funding for a number of agencies related to homelessness from the General Operating Fund.  The recommendations, based on the review of the applications by Commissioners Hack and Amyx, included a reduction in funding to a number of agencies and elimination of funding to the Community Cooperation Committee (to be replaced with in-kind services.)

Agency	Request 2009	City Commission Committee Rec. 2009	2009 Adopted Budget	CCH Rec. 2009
Bert Nash Homeless Outreach Team	164,000	120,000		164,000
Community Cooperation Committee	2,952	0		0
Salvation Army	11,000	10,000		10,000
Lawrence Community Shelter	10,000	8,000		8,000
Lawrence Douglas County Housing Authority	57,192	57,192		13,192
subtotal	245,144	195,192	195,192	195,192

During budget deliberations however, it was decided that rather than allocations for individual agencies, the adopted budget would simply include a total dollar amount for homeless programs and that the City Commission would later seek a recommendation from the CCH on how to allocate that amount between the agencies.  The main question was whether funding for the Bert Nash Homeless Outreach should be reduced to fund a new Housing Connection program to be provided by the Lawrence Douglas County Housing Authority. 

On September 9, 2008, the Community Commission on Homelessness met to make a recommendation regarding 2009 funding for programs related to homelessness.  As shown above, it was decided that the CCH would recommend that the funding to Bert Nash not be reduced and therefore, only a small amount of funding should be allocated to the Housing Authority. 

Action Requested

Staff recommends the City Commission accept the recommendation of the City Commission regarding funding to these agencies providing services to the homeless.