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Housing First • Page 3 We know what the problems for the homeless are, their complexities, nuances, and extreme difficulties. We know most of the homeless by name, what their primary challenges are, and usually where they are. We acknowledge the many nuisances caused by some homeless individuals and encampments — the unhealthy conditions, the criminally dangerous conditions, and the environmentally hazardous conditions, especially in the Santa Ana River -bottom. We believe that we must shift our resources from the current practice of managing the homeless problem to a practice that has been proven to end homelessness utilizing the Housing First Model. We strongly believe this will work because 1) it's a proven best practice across the country and around the globe, 2) it worked to end Veterans homelessness in Riverside in 2016, and 3) we have successfully operated 16 housing first units in Riverside. One of the main tenets of Housing First is that the necessary services to help individuals and families stabilize after homelessness are most effectively provided when people are in their own home — not in the streets, in the parks, or in the river -bottom. We also understand the concern that if we provide Housing it may attract more homeless from other communities. First and foremost, the Riverside Housing First Plan will focus on Riverside's homeless community. We will work on an effective diversion program to get other people back to their home communities, including a family reunification program — we've had some success at this. We also have to figure out how to get prisoners released back into their own communities instead of our downtown. The bottom line is the City currently expends approximately $2,792,658 annually to address homelessness. Of this amount, $2,096,658 is spent on responding to the community impacts of homelessness, and $696,000 is spent providing services to the homeless. Almost none of this ends homelessness. It simply manages the problems and moves them from place to place. UNSHELTERED POPULATION 1,200 1,000 800 600 400 632 632 1063 1063 571 571 399 389 384 497 504 441 — UNSHELTERED ESTIMATE WITHOUT H1 — UNSHELTERED ESTIMATE WITH Hl 511 518 525 397 353 570 532 540 547 555 562 309 200 258 265 134 221 178 91 47 4 0; 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 I I I I I I I I I 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 2026 2027 2028 YEAR If we commit to the Riverside Housing First Plan (H1), staff projects that we can, beginning in 2018, house the majority of the unsheltered homeless population over the next ten years, absent a severe economic fluctuation. The Riverside Housing First plan can effectively end homelessness for the majority of the population, reduce the impacts to the greater community, and save the publics dollars being spent to address those impacts. It will require a ten-year commitment to fully implement and complete the plan.