The Housing and Community Development Department (HCD) recommends Council approval of an Ordinance authorizing a Subrecipient Agreement between the City of Houston (City) and SEARCH Homeless Services (SEARCH), providing up to $391,766.00 in HOME Investment Partnerships Program – American Rescue Plan (HOME-ARP) and End Street Homelessness funding for a program that will serve a total of approximately 500 individuals. Services will include street outreach to unsheltered individuals during non-conventional work-day hours, outreach supplies, and client navigation services towards accessing available housing resources. This agreement is one part of Mayor Whitmire's program to end street homelessness in the City of Houston.
SEARCH’s trained outreach staff interacts with unsheltered individuals throughout the City of Houston and with the goal of building trust with clients so they will accept offered interventions, participate in assessments, and accept referrals to other services. This program will expand the operating times of outreach and navigation services to include non-conventional work hours. Outreach during the traditional 8am-5pm workday is beneficial and will continue, but the homeless response system has identified a need for early morning, before 8:00am, and evening/overnight outreach to be performed after 6:00pm. Operations during these times will allow more transient individuals to be contacted that may not be easily accessed during the workday.
|
CATEGORY
|
FUND 2012
|
HOME-ARP
|
TOTAL
|
PERCENT
|
|
Program
|
$0.00
|
$352,734.00
|
$352,734.00
|
90.04%
|
|
Administration
|
$39,032.00
|
$0.00
|
$39,032.00
|
9.96%
|
|
Total
|
$39,032.00
|
$352,734.00
|
$391,766.00
|
100.00%
|
In March 2025, in partnership with Harris County and the Coalition for the Homeless of Houston/Harris County, the City invited organizations to submit proposals under a Request for Expression of Interest (REI). SEARCH was one of the agencies that responded and was selected from the applicants that proposed street outreach activities.
The initial agreement period is from the Date of Countersignature to August 31, 2026. SEARCH Homeless Services has received funding from the City of Houston since 1996. There were no findings or concerns in the most recent compliance monitoring for other funded projects.
Fiscal Note:
No fiscal note is required for grant items.
No significant Fiscal Operating impact is anticipated as a result of this project.
This item was reviewed by the joint Quality of Life/Housing and Affordability Committees on June 16, 2025.
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Michael Nichols, Director