Inyo provides Continuum of Care services for region

The Inyo County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday approved a contract to expand the scope of contract work to address Continuum of Care (CoC) grants management and coordination for Inyo, Mono and Alpine counties.

CoCs, which the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development initiated, are charged with promoting and “implementing evidence-based, best, promising and emerging practices for preventing and ending homelessness.

California is divided into 44 COCs, each of which consists of a widerange of representatives from public and private entities that include civic groups, educational institutions, faith-based organizations, health and mental health care providers, local government and non-profit agencies.

Anna Scott, Inyo County Health and Human Services director, recounted how, about 18 months ago, Inyo County stepped up as the “collaborative applicant” for the regional COC after Inyo Mono Advocates for Community Action, Inc., encountered some financial difficulties in managing the federal and state grants aimed at preventing and ending homelessness.

The regional COC includes Inyo, Mono and Alpine counties.

Scott said the complexities involved in managing the federal and state homeless and housing assistance grants, which include periodic tracking and reporting, became too much for the small, nonprofit IMACA to handle.

Scott said staff has been working over the past several months to transition those programs over to the Inyo County administration.

She said during that time, the regional COC has continued to meet to stay on top of funding opportunities and make applications for them.

Scott said funding streams available for services for the unhoused “can be pretty complex.”

“Most of them are coming down from HUD as federal grants or through various state departments, including the Interagency Council on Housing at the state level,” she said. “So, early on we knew that we would have a very steep learning curve to get on top of all the requirements for these grants and to be able to effectively move our region forward in addressing some of these needs.”

Scott said through the county’s work with California Health and Wellness, a managed care plan the county uses, county staff learned about Thurmond Consulting,

LLC of Sacramento, California, and how the agency worked with other counties, including some rural counties, on grant management.

“We were desperate, I would say, at the time to make sure that we had some very steep timelines as far as getting some federal funding applications,” Scott said, adding that the

situation led to a solesource contract with Thurmond Consulting to cover basic needs at the time.

Scott said Thurmond has continued to provide those services and has conducted a “mini strategic planning session” with many COC partners throughout the region.

Expanding the scope

of work

She said last May Thurmond representatives proposed to conduct a more in-depth look

“and really get into the nitty gritty of what strategically we might do with the funding available and where we can potentially expand to bring in additional funding for the region.”

Scott said the contract that supervisors approved Tuesday includes the continued support in meeting all reporting requirements required by various funding streams but to also conduct a more comprehensive strategic planning session for Inyo, Mono and Alpine counties.

“We really need to do some infrastructure work as far as building up our capacity to bring in some additional funding in this arena,” Scott said.

The contract with Inyo County calls for Thurmond Consulting, to provide Continuum of

Care (CoC) grants management and CoC coordination for an amount not to exceed $250,000 for the period of July 1, 2023 through June 30, 2025, contingent upon the approval by the Inyo County Board of Supervisors of future budgets.

Second District Supervisor Jeff Griffiths expressed his appreciation to Scott and her department for scrambling after seeing what complex burdens homeless grant requirements put IMACA through.

“Inyo County was the only one in our region that was willing to step up and take that on,” Griffiths said.