During its April 22 meeting, the Sedona City Council approved a $46,719 contract extension to its existing $70,000 contract with Viam Advising of Houston to provide the city with more advice on homelessness.

The public was first given notice of a likely contract extension on Jan. 29, when members of council requested Viam’s consultants provide more specific data on the number of home less individuals in the area, the number of homeless individuals who were not itinerant workers and “van lifers” and where to direct city spending to reduce the number of new homeless, as well as on what Councilwoman Kathy Kinsella termed “concrete next steps.”

“Our scope of work as of the end of this month is pretty much winding down,” Jonathan Danforth of Viam said during the meeting. “Our hours are reaching their limit. We’re very interested in a scope of work to do mapping to complete the strategic planning process and are available to support that work.”

“Are you saying you would need an additional contract to do that?” Kinsella asked.

“Yes,” Danforth said.

“I think Jonathan and I are in agreement that that’s a likely next step,” Matt White of Viam said.

“The end work product that I believe we’re expecting was the adoption of a strategy, correct, by the council, so that piece is still coming, we’re just going to add in this additional segment to help them finalize the strategy, correct?” City Manager Anette Spickard said. “Were we not planning for some other document?”

“We have paused the strategic plan to get through this process,” Danforth said. “We can complete the strategic plan portion of the needs assessment but it’s not as in depth of an analysis as we’re describing here.”

The agenda bill for the contract extension specified that the new scope of work would include “identifying and cataloging homelessness-related resources across Sedona and the Verde Valley, assessing service gaps and duplications, evaluating potential funding sources and identifying opportunities for partnerships … [and] engaging with the community and key stakeholders to ensure broad support and alignment with the strategic plan.” Funding would be derived from “vacancy savings through the housing department budget.”

Council approved the contract extension unanimously as a consent item on April 22 with no discussion or public comment.