At its February 7 meeting, the Martinez City Council will receive a presentation on efforts of the regarding Coordinated Outreach Referral and Engagement (CORE team) services.
The report will be its Quarter 2 Update after the City of Martinez continues to partner with Contra Costa County to provide outreach services to homeless within the City of Martinez. On July 1, 2023, the program was expanded to a full-time team of two workers providing 40 hours per week of services in Martinez. The cost of the program in FY 2024 is $269,729, with $130,000 funded by a one-time allocation from the American Rescue Plan Act.
The report will also highlight that CORE management provided community outreach to 80 businesses throughout the City of Martinez while also engaging with Loaves & Fishes on a weekly basis at the request of the Martinez city council during their Q1 report out.
Meanwhile, CORE target areas that have the highest need in the city and have also bolstered coordination of services between Martinez PD and CORE. CORE successfully diverted 235 calls from Martinez PD Dispatch during Quarter 2. This has allowed Martinez Police Department to take more pressing calls while CORE addresses issues specific to unhoused needs.
According to the report:
The Martinez CORE team provided services to 100 unique (unduplicated) individuals and made 565 contacts during Quarter 2. Each person served was contacted an average of 5 times.
Of those served:
- 73% (73 individuals) reported they lost their housing in Martinez
- 82% (82 individuals) reported they have roots in Martinez (grew up in Martinez, have family, friends, etc.)
The top three self-reported causes of homelessness of those contacted by the CORE Martinez team are:
- low income 43% (43 individuals)
- thrown out 40% (40 individuals)
- loss of job 38% (38 individuals)
Demographics of the individuals and families served by the Martinez CORE team include:
- 77% (77 individuals) reported that this instance of homelessness was not their first time
- 57% (57 individuals) reported they have been unhoused for over five years
- 95% (95 individuals) reported having a disabling condition
- 41% (41 individuals) reported chronic health conditions
- 65% (65 individuals) reported having a mental health disability
- 27% (27 individuals) reported having a physical disability
- 17% (17 individuals) reported being survivors of domestic violence
- 60% (60 individuals) report having zero income
The Martinez CORE team provided 1,402 services that ranged from healthcare coordination to warming center placements. During this reporting period, the Martinez CORE team provided 598 housing coordination services to 91 individuals. Housing coordination includes support with shelter placement, housing applications, and finding units to rent, as well as providing support with obtaining ID/live documents. Additionally, the Martinez team made 33 placements into warming centers.
CORE’s impact in Martinez is highlighted in the exit outcome measures below. Of the 29 who exited:
– 72% (21individuals) exited to a stable housing destination (shelter, temporary or permanent housing)
- 57% (12 individuals) moved in with friends or family
- 10% (2 individuals) moved into rental with an ongoing housing subsidy
- 33% (7 individuals) moved into shelter
On average, 7 individuals transitioned from the streets into permanent or temporary housing each month during this reporting period.
Although the Martinez CORE team does not operate 24 hours a day, the team serves as an access point to ensure unhoused Martinez individuals are still able to receive services after-hours. Of the additional 66 individuals served by other CORE teams:
- 13 individuals exited to staying or living with friends temporarily
- 9 individuals) exited to a shelter
- 1 individual) exited to staying or living with family temporarily
- 1 exit to a substance abuse treatment facility or detox
- 1 exit to transitional housing for homeless persons
The coordination of around-the-clock services showed to be particularly impactful for placement services this quarter, as the winter months caused capacity expansion at warming centers and shelter placements occurred beyond daytime operating hours. An additional 241 warming center placements reflects this area of our work.
CORE adheres to the Contra Costa Continuum of Care (CoC) Program Models and Performance Standards (link below), which establishes performance expectations, measures, and benchmarks for homeless service providers. The outcomes goals for street outreach include 35% of exits going to a temporary (includes shelter) or permanent destination. This quarter, the Martinez CORE team exited 67% of individuals into a positive housing destination and exceeded its placement goal by 32%. Additionally, Martinez CORE team had zero returns to homelessness from prior exits during the quarter.
Editors Note – for resources and services, click here
Martinez City Council Meeting
DATE: Wednesday, February 07, 2024
TIME: 7:00 PM
PLACE: Council Chamber, 525 Henrietta Street, Martinez, CA 94553
Agenda – click here
Previous Stories:
- Oct 27 – Martinez to Get Update on Efforts to Help the Homeless
- July 19 – Martinez Looks to Expand CORE Team to Provide Increased Homeless Services
2 comments
I see the “let’s dazzle them with statistics” mentality at work here. I am curious just what “community outreach to businesses” actually means. Lots of fancy but very vague verbiage.
I can see them crunching numbers as we speak. Hopefully they didn’t hire the same statistician as Antioch did. 😏
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