Antioch Hires “Unhoused Resident” Consultant, Aims to Now Hire “Worker Bees”

On Tuesday, the Antioch City Council agreed to hire Focus Strategies on a contract not to exceed $73,000 to serve as its Unhoused Resident Consultant.

The Request for Proposal (RFP) was put out to bid after Mayor Pro Tem Joy Motts and Councilmember Lamar Thorpe held a series of Homeless Encampment Ad-Hoc Committee Meetings. The goal was to seek out information from local stakeholders in order to provide a series of recommendations to the full council on both short-term and long-term solutions to address homelessness in the city.

Focus Strategies will assist the City of Antioch to identity and help the City implement strategies that provide immediate and long-term solutions to those experiencing homelessness.  The contract is set to end by July 28, 2020.

According to the firm, who was founded in 2006, they have clients across the State of California and United States, local clients include: City and County of San Francisco, City of Berkley, Sacramento County, and San Mateo County. A full list can be found on their website.

City staff warned the council that Focus Strategies would not be able to do everything in their RFP which the council helped craft, but could provide guidance.

On Tuesday, however, it became clear during council discussion, that Focus Strategies would be used as a consultant to help craft a new Request for Proposal to assist the city in hiring an Unhouse Resident Coordinator position which the mayor called “worker bees”.

Megan Kurteff-Schatz, president of Focus Strategies, shared with the council who they are and what they do which was to provide technical assistance to city staff, but were not someone who handles day-to-day operations. For Antioch, their coordinator on the project lives in in the City of Oakland.

“We’re committing to working here in California in cities that are experiencing the kinds of crisis that Antioch is experiencing. So we are very about this opportunity and feel like it’s a really nice fit for us to help you and to bring our experience and expertise from all around the country in terms of different ideas, strategies, and programs that different communities have used which helps inform our thinking which we would bring here to you and help figure out what your local strengths and resources are and really try to tailor some individual efforts,” explained Kurteff-Schatz.

Councilwoman Joy Motts said she was excited after reading the proposal and was excited to see what they can bring to the city.

Councilmember Lamar Thorpe sought clarification on what Focus Strategies meant by “coordinated crisis” because the phrase concerned him after they were very specific in their RFP wants and needs.

“The phrase concerned me,” said Thorpe.  “Our task force was homeless encampment task force because we didn’t want to solve the homelessness problem because we don’t have the capacity to solve the homelessness problem. But we knew that as we heard from residents, particularly around encampments and the dangers that they pose around public health.”

Thorpe continued by explaining he didn’t want the City of Antioch to be caught up in the Continuum of Care, but rather, focus on reducing the amount of encampments which are posing a health threat to everyone.

Kurteff-Schatz appreciated Thorpe’s comments as they help them understand context to help come up with a plan.

“I think part of what we can bring is a lot of information and a lens to sort of look at what happens when you make some choices. So every choice you make will of course have a ripple effect and we’ll have some unintended consequences. We’ll have some challenges. And so one of the things I think that we can help you do is sort of figure out based on lots of other communities experiences, what might that look like and what are the ways to connect to the County wide resources that show your particular show a benefit for your particular um, group of residents who are homeless,” explained Kurteff-Schatz.

Thorpe noted he was curious on the things they do not do because he thought those were important.

“I don’t think there’s anything we read that we thought, Oh, they shouldn’t do that. It’s really that we’re a consulting firm. And so the kinds of day to day onsite, like locating things in the community, meeting with people in the community and really sort of a day to day way is outside of what we can provide in part because we’re a consulting firm,” explained Kurteff-Schatz.  “It’s actually because our experiences, every time we have tried to step into more of a community role, its not the best choice in the long run because when the contract’s up, we are not here anymore. So that infrastructure and the relationships and the ongoing, it’s really important that they be local for, for success.”

She further highlighted that some of the day-to-day items would be done by city staff.

Councilwoman Lori Ogorchock stated she was excited that they were here and could provide data and direct staff on what needs to be done, but was concerned when the contract is up and they leave, they would have no one to continue to “run with the ball”.

“I have a concern asking the city manager and others to do this,” said Ogorchock staring she wanted clarification if they would pull together stakeholders or not.

Kurteff-Schatz explained the client team is identified by city staff and they would support them.

“All of the sort of local pieces around who pull together and the logistics of pulling folks together, that’s done locally,” said Kurteff-Schatz. “What we can do is help figure out what’s the agenda, what’s the research that needs to be done. We do that research, we provide materials and we do a lot in a case like this, a scope like this, we do a lot of helping you launch the thing.”

She further clarified that they were there to provide technical assistance to staff and they should be used as little as possible and have staff doing the work with local stakeholders. They would help with technical pieces, data pieces, the research and all the unintended consequences,

Mayor Sean Wright said he loved the concept of having someone for the city to work with.

“If you want to go down this road, here’s what other cities have done, here’s the pros, here’s the cons, really, really think about it. Um, and make those decisions. I love having that,” said Wright. “My question is from the standpoint of as this came to us, the idea was to have somebody that would actually be the worker bee, somebody that would take the plate off of the plate of Ron (Bernal), off of the plate of our city staff. So the whole is I think that was the purpose of the hire”

Wright further highlighted that if they go down this road, they should hire an organization like this for the “worker bee”. Wright then asked the city manager what his plan was.

Ron Bernal replied they would have to hire someone after they put out this RFP expecting multiple people would apply.

“I don’t think realistic for one person or one firm to be able to take on the whole thing. I think going into it, we knew that,” said Bernal. “We were excited about Megan’s proposal because we feel like a firm of her expertise and a wide range of experiences would really help Antioch in our efforts to try to find the best solution or solutions. But as far as far as the worker bee person or people, we’re going to have to hire and find somebody to do that.”

Kurteff-Schatz stated within 60-90 days they could have a plan after collecting local information such as costs, RFP, and creating a plan. She said it would be important for the city to have a person in place at the point of rollout of the plan.

“What really is needed locally is that it’s a local person. Ideally a city person who’s calling the meetings together, who’s pulling people together. It’s not some consultants from out of town,” said Kurteff-Schatz. “There’s that relationship that’s created on an ongoing basis, those pieces. But in terms of the what to do, I think you already have pulled together a lot of information. You’ve already done a lot of work as a community.”

Ogorchock said she thought they should not kick the can down any further and liked the idea of finding out what they could do and how to move forward.

Councilwoman Monica Wilson agreed with Ogorchock that the firm could help the city identify the “worker bee”.  She then asked how long it would take to hire someone.

Staff said the RFP would have to be created because the RFP out right now was so broad, they needed to have items that someone could achieve—noting that only one firm responded to the RFP.

Wright suggested they move forward with Megan’s firm as “phase 1” and they help them get an RFP together so they can be specific enough to find the right person to help them be successful.

Motts replied she thought the firm could do both, help them develop an RFP quickly but helping the city with critical decisions about what looks best for Antioch as they moved forward.

Thorpe asked staff who helped them write the current RFP which staff said the Council did based on their conversation at the September 10 meeting.

Thorpe then asked about funds set aside for the homeless that they haven’t spent any of it in which Bernal replied, “very little”.

“I’m personally am fine where we are,” said Thorpe who said he was wanting a coordinator person. “This is just yet another kind of delay… but its important we get someone on the ground moving.”

Wright said he didn’t disagree, but if they said “no” to this, they are back to square one.

The council then approved the agreement in a 5-0 vote with the city manager setting the scope and timelines.