HOUSING PRACTITIONERS
PANEL
May 4, 2006
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MEMBERS PRESENT: |
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MEMBERS ABSENT: |
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Bert
Nash CMHC- |
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ECKAN- |
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Bert
Nash PATH- |
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HCCI- |
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Independence,
Inc.- and |
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Children’s
Learning Center- Holly Turner |
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Coalition
on Homeless Concerns - |
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DG CO
AIDS Project- Mari McCleerey-Janssen |
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LDCHA- |
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First
Step House- Bridget |
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Lenders-
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Habitat
for Humanity- Jean Lilley |
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Pelathe.-
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Independence,
Inc. - Kelly Nightengale |
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Salvation
Army – Wes Dalberg, Mathew Faulk and Vivian Baars |
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LDCHA- Milton Scott |
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Tenants
to Homeowners- |
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Landlords
of Lawrence- Bob Ebey |
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Law.
Comm. Shelter - |
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Project
LIVELY- |
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Trinity
Respite Care- |
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WTCS –
Sarah Terwelp |
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STAFF PRESENT: |
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Neighborhood
Resources Department- Lesley Rigney and |
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Knoche called the meeting to order at
APPROVAL OF March
2, 2005 MINUTES
Amyx moved to approve the March 2, 2005 minutes.
Lynch seconded the motion, which passed unanimously.
INTRODUCTIONS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS
Simmons stated that Full Citizenship is now a division of Independence,
Inc. She is helping with networking, computers, etc. New e-mail addresses are
first name, last initial @indpendenceinc.org.
Amyx stated that the new homeless case workers started
officially Tuesday, are currently in training and orientation. They will then
be doing training with all co-located agencies. Other various agencies are
participating in training (SRS, Independence, Inc., LDCHA). She has not
developed any formalized referral process yet, but she will work on it.
Schau stated that certain counties, including
Kahle stated that the Housing Development Committee made a
short survey for the landlords fair Friday. The goal is to be able to make a
report to the new Housing Needs Task Force (HNTF). They are waiting for
landlords to return the survey. The Committee is also trying to identify gaps
in ownership and rental opportunities. Landlords of Lawrence (LOL) will be
answering the survey as well.
SUBCOMMITTEE
REPORTS
Homeless Issues – Amyx reported that service providers are participating
in outreach team training. All documents and releases are in order.
Housing Development – Buford said they met April 6 and did
a report on the H2H program and realized that there were some successes and
some failures. Five-six people have come through the program. They are also
trying to gather topics on what their next focus might be. Buford sits on the HNTF
and they were thinking of ways that the two committees could communicate. They
should come back with topics at the next meeting, which will be May 11 at 3:30
pm in the NR Conference Room.
Amyx asked who the contact is for H2H.
Buford said Matt Faulk or Tammy Kahle.
Housing Support Services – Schau said April 6 was the
meeting where they talked about what the role of the committee was. The wanted
to define housing supports and find services available, gaps, duplications. SRS
has access to a healthcare grid of service providers and the the committee is
thinking of developing a similar tool for other service providers. She is also
doing research on how the grid would look and how they would survey agencies. They
are also looking into updating the homeless resources brochure.
Discharge Planning – Staff reported that the committee met
with representatives from the jail, hospital, SRS and the juvenile detention
center and gathered information about their discharge plans.
CoC Projects
Baars said that SA was planning to drop Project Able and do
a leasing project. HUD said that they cannot cancel since they missed the
deadline for submitting in writing the intent to change. After talking with
HUD, they are keeping Project ABLE and trying to coordinate with the case
management team.
Faulk said there would have to be two projects and if they
are providing supportive services from outside, it would be possible. They will
be requesting $26,000 per year for two years. Next year, as long as they notify
HUD by the deadline, they will discontinue Project ABLE.
Swarts asked if Baars sent the Budget Validation Form.
Knoche said she had to get an extension for
Swarts said renewal projects that are permanent housing will
not come out of the city’s pro-rata share.
Faulk said they want to lease 3-4 units for the year and
since it is transitional housing people need to stay for at least 6 months. It
is not permanent so clients would need to move to another unit after a period
of time.
Knoche clarified that there is only one renewal and one new
project so there is no prioritization of projects to do.
Faulk is trying to have Exhibit 1 finished by Wednesday. He
is nearly finished.
Knoche asked if Faulk had any questions.
Collier said there is no match required for leasing but if
there was a local entity that wanted to participate could they use the
contribution as match or leverage. Someone is looking at providing actual housing
and is interested in working with us.
Faulk has a concern with the homeless count. According to
requirements the point-in-time count had to be done in January. There is a
section for stats that it can be an estimate rather than a point in time count.
Does the Committee want to stick with the official count or do an estimate?
After a discussion, it was decided that the point-in-time
count had to be used, but it should be noted that the estimate is very low.
Swarts said the Panel should start talking now about how to
most effectively do the point-in-time for January 2007.
Amyx said she would like to see how other cities do it. We
should get some information from other continuums. There will be four
additional outreach people on the street, which will help.
Faulk said that is far as sheltered folks are concerned
there is place for extrapolation.
Simmons said that Ballard Center reported they had 45 came
in during the three days before the 2005 count, but no one came in on that day.
Faulk said HMIS data can be used to count unsheltered and
sheltered.
Knoche asked if it would be appropriate to ask the homeless
issues subcommittee to add the count to the list. We should ideally be doing a count
twice annually – summer and winter.
Faulk asked how the last count was done.
Knoche said there was a survey developed and there were
people who flat out refused to answer questions. It coincided with the ID badge
issue.
Knoche reminded committee to be responsive to SA and Faulk
during the preparation of Exhibit 1.
City of
Swarts said the CC adopted the 2006 Action Plan and so
basically the Committee’s work is done for the year and they are meeting
tonight to discuss the summer calendar. She said that she can facilitate some
strategic planning.
Collier said it is important to coordinate all committees
and groups.
Swarts said the NRAC should consult with the CCH, who is in
process of implementing the TF Plan and the HNTF, who is in the process of
educating themselves on some of the issues. Those are some valid points.
Collier asked if the City could host a general meeting that
would include all groups.
Swarts said part of the problem is that one of the bodies
is a TF (temporary), one is an advisory committee (permanent). Swarts said this
group is going to have to mesh into that – the HNTF isn’t going to slow down to
accommodate the Panel.
Collier said if they are going to look at various grant
opportunities, there is a lot of lack of information in the community – efforts
seem very fractured.
Amyx said there are so many committees related to housing
and homelessness. She sits on several and she is wondering if there are too
many committees doing the same thing. There is no point in duplicating what is
going on with others.
Swarts explained the roles of the different groups.
Collier said some members of the CCH are lost, too.
Swarts said at the recent Study Session with the CCH and the
CC, one of the agreements they came to is at some point, the CCH is going to have
input on funding decisions - Not necessarily who gets what but how it gets out
into the community.
Buford said she is wondering how to make the Panel a
worthwhile body – they used to do presentations at each meeting which was educational.
There are always changes being made in agency policies and programs and we
could take a few minutes each meeting to do that and maybe that would be
sufficient.
Knoche said she was assuming that during announcements,
people were doing that. We could add it to the agenda or agencies could request
to be on agenda to present new information. She asked which option members
would prefer.
After a brief discussion, it was decided to leave meetings
as they are and that any agency, at any time, may ask to be added to the agenda
and that members would state during introductions which committees they are on.
Knoche asked if there was a formal mechanism for sharing
minutes. Do we want to look at having a formal method of sharing information
such as resources?
Swarts said at this juncture, there are several
interlocking members and that is one reason that people sit on more than one
committee. Maybe it is time for this
group to do a little planning session on what it wants. There seems to be
consistent absences – not everyone can always attend.
Knoche asked if the Panel disbands, are other groups going
to pick up what it is doing. If so, the Panel can disband.
Amyx said the CoC gets left out – everything else gets
done.
Knoche asked if everyone else is on other committees, what
is the point of being on this one?
Swarts said the CoC is the only consideration.
Buford asked how many get CoC funding.
Swarts said two – LDCHA and SA.
Faulk said groups are being formed to hit the streets and
provide good services – we need to figure out the effectiveness and function of
committees and if there is not a meaningful function, it needs to stop meeting.
Collier asked about the CCH and if there task is to
determine funding for agencies – they are an advisory group – if they decide to
say to the NRAC where they think funds should go, how much weight will it
carry?
Swarts said she doesn’t know how it will all play out. There
may be some expectation that so much money will have to go toward homeless
services and the CCH will be the deciding factor of who was going to be doing
what. There was conversation of the CCH having some oversight of CDBG funding.
Collier said a lot of this is coming out of frustration –
there are misperceptions about what committees really do by people who do not
serve on them. Groups are inter-related but they don’t realize it. If we had a strategic
planning session and decided what to fund out of each pot we could get
somewhere. Currently it is too fractured – there is a lack of understanding of
roles.
Swarts said the goal of the CCH is to implement the plan
and in so doing to identify funding sources.
Kahle said there is a lot of power in this room. There are
a lot of people from agencies from important agencies. She often feels that
there is no direction as to how they are going to function.
Knoche said the link between what gets done in
subcommittees and where it can be implemented does not exist. For example, if a
subcommittee does research on how to conduct an effective homeless count, it
should be shared with the CCH – it shouldn’t just go in minutes.
Swarts said we could have presentations between groups to
different groups.
Knoche said maybe the HNTF would like to hear from agencies
here since they are in the learning stage.
Knoche said that as part of each committees report, there
should be a recommendation on what to do with the information.
Swarts said they need to be concrete and useful things. Committees
will have to consolidate information into a report – a one page synopsis or
something.
Knoche said a good example is the brochure they did in 2001
– they heard feedback that it was being used and that it was useful to PD. Members
need to know that their hard work is being used and going somewhere – that is
part of the frustration.
Kahle said recommendations need to be specific – all of
this broad stuff we talk about is not so useful. The Panel is a group of good
people; it is just about making it work with other groups.
Knoche said the interface needs to become more formal.
Collier said the group is useful although somewhat
dysfunctional. They need to have the ability to sit down and collaborate, plan
and innovate. The informality of this group allows this.
Faulk said they could reorganize to include all service
providers.
Collier said they had it with the roundtable but it didn’t
work.
Swarts said maybe part of the key is a combination of the
formal part and the informal part. It is up to this body to determine the
direction.
Knoche said the point of the Panel is to be a resource to
the City and the entities the City develops and if it isn’t doing that, why is
the Panel still meeting.
Buford said the reorganization of subcommittees has helped.
It is frustrating to be on a subcommittee that doesn’t really address permanent
housing and housing development. She doesn’t want to work with homeless issues
– she wants updates but she can’t take that on too. She asked if people don’t
represent the issues on subcommittees that fit with work. Hers fits well with her
expertise.
Schau said Support Services is different but she doesn’t
want to do same thing that other committees are doing.
Knoche said the service matrix Schau was talking about could
be useful to other groups.
Lynch said it sounds like members need to be going to
meetings.
Kahle said if Housing Development is reporting to the HNTF
about vacancy rates or why people aren’t able to buy homes, etc. and each
subcommittee can do their part to provide answers – the Panel would be useful.
Knoche asked if the group wanted to do a planning session.
Swarts said the Panel isn’t scheduled to meet until August,
but the Department could provide lunch in an effort to get people in – she
believes that some people have conflicts but some aren’t attending because they
don’t see value. The Panel can talk about what this group can do that is of
value and what is happening that makes it of no value.
Knoche asked if the group wants to take the August meeting
to do that and to ask everyone to come for a focus session.
Swarts asked if Knoche wanted to do a long lunch or meet at
the regular time. The group can plan to meet from 12-2 on August 3. The
Department can provide lunch.
Swarts said staff will work with
OTHER BUSINESS
ADJOURN
There being no further business, the meeting adjourned at 5:05
p.m.