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38 Alameda Countywide Homeless and Special Needs Housing Plan Context for Preventing and Ending Homelessness Alameda County's Homeless Housina and Service System Todav Alameda County's homeless housing and services activities are coordinated primarily through the Alameda Countywide Homeless Continuum of Care Council (Council). The Council has a number of initiatives: · Coordinate strategic planning and priority setting for the homeless system. · Prepare the annual Continuum of Care application to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) by bringing together proposals from throughout the county. In 2004, Alameda County organizations received approximately $22 million in federal McKinney- Vento funding for homeless programs in response to the application submitted. · Identify and document the county's homeless populations and their related housing and service needs. In 2004, the Council released the Alameda Countywide Shelter and Services Survey. · Implement a Homeless Management Information Strategies data system (HMIS), as required by HUD for McKinney-Vento programs. Generally, HMIS is intended to collect and report information about the homeless population and its patterns of service utilization. The Council has convened year-round since 1997 to facilitate the coordination of homeless services countywide. The Council is comprised of 45 designated and elected seats, including seats for each local government, consumers, service providers, funders, housing developers, and representatives of the faith community, labor, business, and education. Two co-chairs (one jurisdictional and one community-based organization) jointly lead the Council. The Alameda County Housing and Community Development Department (HCD) acts as fiscal agent for the Council and provides office space and other in-kind support to the Council. This reflects the historical relationship that HCD has had with related programs. The Council's activities are funded by a mixture of funding from the County, every city in Alameda County, foundation funding, and some support from HUD? If a community-based organization decides to pursue funding through Alameda County's Continuum of Care, it can submit a proposal once annually, during the Continuum of Care application process administered nationally by HUD. All proposals in the county are brought together, ranked according to established criteria, and the top ranked proposals are combined into a single submittal to HUD from the Council. An important role of the Council and a major goal of the 1997 Alameda Countywide Homeless Continuum of Care Plan is to coordinate housing and support services. Coordination between providers had always been an interest in Alameda County, but collaboration was generally on an ad hoc basis prior to the 1997 Continuum of Care Plan. 2 Alameda Countywide Homeless Continuum of Care Council, 2004 Continuum of Care application, Exhibit 1; Application Summary.