AgdaPkt 2010-01-25 clsd and regular

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o Mr. Taylo~, a regular participant at the Fair Oaks Intergenerational Senior Center, has seen a cut in his Social Security income this past year, about $45/month, due to reductions in the state portion of his benefit. When he visits the Intergenerational Senior Center he can pick-up weekly staples to take home thanks to the Second Harvest Food Bank Senior Brown Bag program and enjoy the Family Service Agency's Senior Dining Program where he receives a healthy breakfast and lunch several days a week. Mr. Taylor is attending the meal program about 2 times more/week than prior to the Social Security reduction. This is true of about 15% of the program participants. 7A Page 2 Each year, over the last 30 years, as much as one-third of the 27,423 households in Redwood City have benefited from the services provided through the HSFA program- with over 10,000 households served each year. They include people like: o Nancy3, a monolingual Mandarin speaker made the decision to flee her husband who had been abusive for forty years. With her daughter as translator, she went to the Bay Area Legal Aid's restraining order clinic seeking assistance in obtaining a temporary restraining order. Bay Area Legal Aid helped her secure the restraining order and find a pro-bono lawyer. The attorney's work allowed her to secure a permanent restraining order effective through the year 2012 and file for dissolution and spousal support. o Ed4, a local resident who lives and works in Redwood City, went to the Legal Aid Soqiety's Eviction Prevention clinic when he learned that the home where he and his family rented a room was being foreclosed upon and they were being evicted - a growing trend at the clinic. Legal Aid Society's housing attorney worked to ensure Ed and his family had a place to stay. Because of Legal Aidls intervention, Ed, his wife and children were able to remain in their home with a lease from the bank and assurance that they would be notified in a timely manner should they have to move. Amongst t.he 27,423 households in Redwood City, 6.3010 of all households live below the Federal Poverty Level ($1 O,830/year for a family of 1; $22,050/year for a family of 4). 150/0 of all households earn less than $25,OOO/year. This includes hard-working families, seniors living on social security retirement income, and people with disabilities living on disability income. [See Appendix D, Redwood City Census Data -Income Data] The wealth of programs and services available to serve our low income population is due, in part, to the City's long-time commitment to supporting non-profits in our community. Because of this, non-profit agencies choose to come to our City to offer and/or expand their services. While impact is most significantly measured in terms of the difference the programs and services make in the lives of our residents, it is also important to note that the City is able to leverage significant additional resources for our community with our investment. In FY 09-10 alone, through the HSFA program and general fund support for Redwood Family House, the City has been able to leverage more than 10 times its investment - $2,527,980 in services for Redwood City residents leveraged by the City's $231,594 investment. [See Appendix E, Human Services Financial Assistance Program FY 09- 10 Leveraging City Dollars]