City Increases Homeless Services Spending by 41%

During the final Tallahassee FY2025 budget hearing, elected officials voted to increase spending for Homeless Services by 41% or $227,600. Last fiscal year the city spent $554,947.

Based on this change and other considerations, the city will now spend $2,969,180 for Human Services, up from the $2,643,968 allocated last year.

Homeless Services Category

The Homeless Services category was recently added to the city’s primary mechanism for providing human services funding, the Community Human Services Partnership (CHSP). The CHSP is a collaborative effort with Leon County that invests in a broad range of human service programs implemented by local nonprofit organizations.

According to the agenda item, the CHSP process has been instrumental in providing more than $126 million to local nonprofit agencies since its inception in 1997. The program has undergone numerous changes during the past 25+ years, including the exiting of the United Way as a major funding partner in 2018 and the addition of several categories based on Commission direction (e.g., Promise Zone category in 2014).

In 2018, the CHSP process transitioned to a two-year funding cycle to provide more predictability in funding for participating agencies. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, in 2021 the City and County Commissions voted to establish a new CHSP category, Homeless Services, and added one-time American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) money for the 2023-2024 funding cycle.

While the addition of the new Homeless Services category necessitated funding in the previously existing ten categories to be rebalanced to accommodate an eleventh category, based on City and County Commission direction and prioritization, the overall City and County investments in CHSP have remained stable (excluding one-time ARPA funding). The rebalancing efforts directed by the Commission provided $554,957 in initial City funding in the Homeless Services category.

FY25 will be the first year of the current two-year funding cycle (FY25-26). As recommended by local volunteer Citizen Review Teams and approved by the City Commission, $2,643,968 of City funding will be disbursed in FY25 to local nonprofits to implement human services programs.

Staff have worked collaboratively with County staff and the Citizens Review Teams to provide the included recommendations for the 2025-2026 funding cycle.

Following the commission’s direction and continued prioritization of homeless services funding, the current recommendations further increase City funding in the Homeless Services category by $227,600 to $782,547. The result of this multi-year rebalancing effort on the current recommendation is that some categories saw an increase, including Basic Needs and Emergency Services, Senior Services, and Community Support. Other categories saw decreases in total funding, including Children’s Services, Persons with Disabilities, Family Support, Youth Recreation and Character Building, Youth Education, and Promise Zone. The net change to those categories with reduced funding recommendations for the current cycle is $325,212.

During the meeting, elected officials voted unanimously to fund all categories at no less than the prior period allocation, which resulted in an increase of $325,212 for a total of $2,969,180 in city contributions to CHSP in FY25.