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San Leandro Homeless & Housing Task Force 9 St. Leander Church The Church has several programs that assist the homeless.  Pennies for the Poor serves 900 individuals annually, providing breakfast, lunch and clothing from 9:30am to 1:00pm on the 1st, 2nd, and 4th Saturdays each month.  The Monday Night Adoration/Homeless Program offers the Church as a shelter from 6pm Monday night until 6am Tuesday morning. This program annually welcomes 411 individuals. However, the Church does not track the number of participants who use the Church as an overnight shelter.  St. Leander’s Conference of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul provides food and assists individuals with rent payments, utility payments, rental deposits, transportation, and other needs. 7,200 individuals are assisted annually, of which 15% (or 1,080) are presumed to be homeless. The Church does not define “homelessness”. The Church provides services to anyone who requests assistance. Church staff does not require its guests to self-identify if they consider themselves homeless. Individuals seeking services are also not required to provide identification. Consequently, the Church does not have a methodology to track the homeless population. St. Leander Church identifies the most critical service gaps as volunteers and financial support to continue providing services. As these different and varied methodologies attest, the Task Force found it challenging to define “homelessness”. The new Outreach Coordinator funded by recommendation of the Task Force and further described in the “Task Force Recommendations”, will be responsible for implementing a single, comprehensive intake system for San Leandro’s homeless which should assist in determining future needs. Another challenge is ensuring that the methodology used to track homelessness is consistent with the HUD’s definition of “homelessness” contained in the Homeless Emergency Assistance and Rapid Transition to Housing Act (HEARTH) of January 18, 2012. The definition affects who is eligible for various HUD-funded homeless assistance programs. The definition includes four broad categories of homelessness:  People who are living in a place not meant for human habitation, in emergency shelter, in transitional housing, or are exiting an institution where they temporarily resided. The only significant change from existing practice is that people will be considered homeless if they are exiting an institution where they resided for up to 90 days (it was previously 30 days), and were in shelter or a place not meant for human habitation immediately prior to entering that institution.  People who are losing their primary nighttime residence, which may include a motel or hotel or a doubled up situation, within 14 days and lack resources or