Regional Needs Assessment Report

This Regional Needs Assessment report presents the findings from 12 individual needs assessment processes that were conducted between 2017 and 2021 by the Disadvantaged Community Outreach Partners, from a Tribal needs assessment process administered by five Tribal Outreach Partners, and from the peer-to-peer needs assessment to understand how people experiencing homelessness are accessing water for drinking, sanitation, and hygiene.

The needs assessment with people experiencing homelessness is presented first to elevate these voices because often people experiencing homelessness are not included in problem-identification or solutions development processes. After the needs assessment with people experiencing homelessness, findings from the Disadvantaged Community and Tribal partners’ needs assessments are presented, followed by a Regional Connections section summarizing the consistently similar priorities for water management across participating Communities and Tribes. Best Practices for making grant programs more equitable and accessible to Disadvantaged Community groups and Tribes and other overall recommendations from the San Francisco Bay Area IRWM Region DACTI Program are presented at the end of this report.