The San Francisco Bay Area^[84] is in the final phases of a Bay Area Regional Initiative (BARI)  to address homelessness on a regional basis. Santa Cruz and Monterey Counties have recently joined BARI. Seven million dollars in core funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for the initiative is nearly used up.^[85]

A 27-member Regional Task Force (RTF)  makes funding decisions for the initiative. The composition of the RTF reflects major governmental, nonprofit, business, labor, and foundation homeless stakeholders as well as homeless people themselves.^[86]

A Regional Steering Committee on Housing and Homelessness (RSC)  meets bi-monthly to help develop homeless policy for the region. Ad hoc working groups of the RSC work on specific policy issues of concern.

Four BARI Institutional Partners  work closely with the BARI governing bodies.^[87] The Northern California Council for the Community (NCCC) is the grant administrator. NCCC’s role includes serving as the fiscal intermediary, receiving the grant, convening the allocations process, executing contracts with BARI grantees, and maintaining the books. HomeBase staffs the policy and program work of the RSC and staffs the RTF. They provide technical assistance and project oversight and handle public relations. The Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG) convenes a Policy Advisory committee of local elected officials for BARI. The Northern California Grantmakers Task Force on Homelessness assists in generating matching resources.

Decisions about which initiative projects to fund and at what level evolved from a protracted planning process which produced a 1995 Collaborative Plan.^[88]  The planning process included focus groups with presently homeless people, ad hoc meetings throughout the region, meetings of working groups on specific issues, and a full day collaborative roundtable meeting. The daylong meeting was attended by more than 200 people representing local elected officials, homeless people, homeless advocates, service providers, business, labor, academia, philanthropy, and civic organizations.

BARI has funded eight collaborative regional projects. The lead agencies and a summary of the eight regional initiative projects and their goals are shown below.
 

The eight BARI regional initiative projects received original awards  in October, 1996 of between $250,000 and $1,800,000. At the end of the original two-year grant period BARI received a one-year no cost extension. In December, 1998 and January, 1999 most of the remaining BARI funding was reallocated. Six of the eight projects received additional sustaining awards  of between $50,000 and $100,000.  The Training And Enterprise Collaborative (TECH) did not receive a sustaining award. Three quarters of the BayFund award was reallocated to other projects at that time and the balance in September, 1999. The original and sustaining awards for the eight projects are shown below.
 

As part of its grants management activities the Northern California Council for the Community (NCCC) has developed a semi-annual progress reporting system and helped subrecipients develop quantitative outcome measures appropriate to their specific projects. Since BARI is intended both to deliver services and result in systemic policy change subrecipients report on both direct service indicators  and systems outcomes. Regional initiative project outcomes are described in a recent HomeBase publication, Turning Homelessness Around.^[89]  The table below summarizes key direct service indicators and systems outcomes from the first two and one half years of BARI projects.