HOUSING PRACTITIONERS
PANEL
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MEMBERS PRESENT: |
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MEMBERS ABSENT: |
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Children’s
Learning Center- |
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ECKAN- |
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Bert
Nash CMHC- |
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First
Step House- |
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Bert
Nash PATH- |
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Independence,
Inc.- Kelly Nightengale |
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Landlords
of Lawrence- Bob Ebey |
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Coalition
on Homeless Concerns |
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DG CO
AIDS Project- Mari McCleerey-Janssen |
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Habitat
for Humanity- |
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LDCHA- |
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Lenders-
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Independence,
Inc.- |
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Pelathe
Comm. Ctr.- |
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Law.
Comm. Shelter - |
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Project
LIVELY- |
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LDCHA- |
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Tenants
to Homeowners- |
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Salvation
Army – Wes Dalberg |
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WTCS –
Sarah Terwelp |
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Salvation
Army- |
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Trinity
Respite Care- |
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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
Terwelp moved to approve the
INTRODUCTIONS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS
Members introduced themselves.
Schau has been working on the disaster food stamp program
for hurricane victims. Case workers for elderly and disabled clients are trying
to learn Medicare Part D, but it is very complicated. Child care has gone to
the automated EBT cards and it has gone well with few glitches.
Allen said that elderly clients may call the Douglas County
Senior Services for the Medicare presentation and for help enrolling. Project
LIVELEY recently held a legislative forum as part of the Interagency Network
for Aging. It went well and she is attending a legislative pre-session for the
Douglas County Legislative Forum.
Turner agreed that the new automated child care voucher
cards are wonderful.
Knoche announced that LDCHA held the first service provider
briefing in October and it went well and they are going to do quarterly
briefings geared for both new and experienced providers. The next one is January
11 from
Buford announced that TTH is doing a workshop with LDCHA
for clients transitioning from renting to homeownership. There is also a homeownership
workshop coming up in January. These workshops are helpful well in advance of
homeownership readiness.
Collier announced that ECKAN has been grappling with the
new ROMA system that CAPS are now required to use and it is not working well.
Knoche said the LDCHA elderly service worker can also help
with Medicare enrollment.
Schau said in February, SRS is having a Get to Know Your SRS
event and she will forward information when a date and time is decided.
Collier said the Warm Hearts program has started and
Schau said SRS will be accepting LEAP applications after Martin
Luther King Jr. Day.
Collier stated that the Interfaith Alliance is designating
funds for utilities for those that do not qualify for LEAP or Warm Hearts. ECKAN
still has weatherization packets.
SUBCOMMITTEE
REPORTS
HMIS – Withrow stated she was not able to attend the last
meeting and has no report.
Knoche said that
Outreach – no report
Funding – no report
DP – no report
PSS – no report
HDN – Terwelp said the subcommittee received an update on H2H
and talked about the website and made some plans to make some contacts.
Knoche said that she and Ebey are looking into hosting a website
on LDCHA’s site.
Ebey said that no one attended the H2H classes scheduled
for last month.
Schau suggested giving providers more notice, at least
three weeks.
Ebey said it was all up to
City of
CCH – In
Schau asked if part of their function was to give their opinion
to the CC.
Swarts said that their primary job is to oversee
implementation of the plan but it is likely that things will change in the
community as people became aware of what is going on. The have also been asked
to give guidance to CC on how to deal with issues. She talked about the Community
Cooperation Committee (CCC).
Ebey asked if the community was spending too much time and
money on 150 people out of a population of 100,000. He is concerned that we are
attracting homeless to the community.
Swarts said there is a need in the community to address a
population that we do not want to see expand and considering other issues,
there are many folks who are a misstep away from homelessness. The goal is partly
to address currently homeless but also to provide a safety net to keep people
housed. She said that the CC allocated $160,000
for a case management team and staff has received proposals from four agencies.
The team could be up and running as early as February.
Ebey asked if once the plan gets up and going if there will
be less time and money required.
Swarts said once a viable solution is in place, she would
like to hope that the situation would stabilize. There are so many issues with
substance abuse and mental health that it would be unreasonable to think that
the problem will no longer be here.
Knoche said that mental health and substance abuse define
chronic homelessness and getting them to address and take on responsibilities
is so difficult – there are so many layers of long-term problems. Invariably
when they house someone, they regress. LDCHA has had to accommodate that and
deal with the behavior. They are afraid of losing “freedom”. It is complicated.
She has been glad to see the CCH as being officially recognized when for years,
groups dealing with the issue have been on the side.
Swarts said what has helped with that is that the CCH was
new when they went to the CC meeting and requested that issues, such as the LCS
UPR and the camping ordinance, be referred to the CCH. Maybe these issues will
come through the group now before playing out in public. There are good people
on the committee who have genuine interest in resolving the problem.
OTHER BUSINESS
Knoche stated that it was time for elections.
Ebey suggested leaving things as is.
Knoche opened nominations.
Ebey moved to
re-elect current officers.
Staskal asked if Knoche was still interested in chairing
the Panel.
Knoche said as long as she does not have to write Exhibit 1
of the CoC by herself.
Lynch seconded the
motion, which passed.
Knoche called attention to proposed changes to simplify subcommittee
structure. This came about because several members are not on any committees
and some are on multiple committees and some committees have no people. She did
not feel like she could make appointments if people were unwilling to serve.
She wants people working on things they are interested in which is why she came
up with this new proposal. She thinks it
gets the group back to a networking and information development tool that they
pass on to the CC and the NR Department.
Ebey moved to
approve the new proposal.
Schau asked about the HMIS subcommittee.
Knoche said that once HMIS is in place, no committee is
needed – they will be doing their own work independently of the Panel.
Swarts agreed that it will be outside of the Panel. The original
committee was focused on getting an HMIS in place and now that it is she does
not know what purpose there would be for meeting within the Panel.
Knoche stated they are fully funded and it is time to spin HMIS
off, thanks to
Schau clarified that the Chair would call together a CoC
group as needed.
Ebey said they need a second before there can be a
discussion.
Staskal seconded the
motion.
Knoche asked if regarding the CoC, it would be appropriate
to take this to the CCH as all CoC grants are for homeless activities.
Swarts said the CCH is not in a position to be able to
oversee the CoC at this time.
Knoche said that agencies who are interested in applying
should get together to do the work. The current structure of the Panel was
developed to address Exhibit 1 of the CoC, but the Panel has other issues to
address – homelessness is just one piece of this.
Schau asked if there should even be a homeless
subcommittee.
Terwelp said her concern with dropping it is that discharge
planning (DP) issues have never been addressed. She is concerned that if they
drop homeless issues, they will drop DP which has meaning and importance to the
city, the Panel, homelessness, etc.
Knoche said that the Panel could recommend issues to study
to the CCH. That is how the Panel started out – identifying needs and deciding
which party should address them.
Nightengale said that the DP subcommittee helps people who
are being discharged – it is necessary for the discharging entity to be
involved and they are not on the Panel. Agencies are doing what they can from
the consumers end, but they often do not know until after they are discharged.
Terwelp asked if, whatever it is called, they can make
recommendations that maybe another group will work with so that larger
questions can be answered. That is where the gap is – there are consequences of
releasing people without a plan so releasing entities are involved with
problem. Discharge is one of the reasons for homelessness.
Allen said as far as jail release goes, the people who are
doing the discharging have to be involved. There is not a lot of planning that
goes on, but without those people at the table, it cannot be addressed.
Ebey said everything that has been said is in Knoche’s
memo.
Knoche asked if they should keep the homeless subcommittee.
Terwelp said yes.
Knoche asked if anyone had any ideas for improving her
proposal.
Buford asked if anyone felt that they were not represented.
Knoche asked for any more discussion. The motion passed.
Knoche asked if by the February 15, everyone could e-mail staff
their preferred subcommittee. The Panel decided to choose their subcommittees
immediately as follows.
Housing Support Services – Schau, Nightengale, Allen, Turner,
Staskal
Housing Development – Oberzan, Terwelp, Ebey, Lynch, Buford,
Kahle
Homeless Issues – Collier
Knoche said members could move back and forth among groups,
attend more meetings than assigned, etc. – she wants flexibility. Someone is
going to have to call, convene and set agendas for initial meetings and during
February, subcommittees will need to meet and appoint a Chair. Knoche said to
send staff e-mails informing of dates, times and locations of meetings. She
asked for volunteers to organize first meetings.
Collier agreed to organize the Homeless Issues meeting.
Terwelp agreed to organize the Housing Development meeting.
Kelly-Allen agreed to organize the Housing Support Services
meeting.
Knoche agreed that any member who does not choose a
subcommittee by the end of February will be assigned one. She stated that the next
Panel meeting will be March 2 and asked for any other business.
ADJOURN
There being no further business, Allen moved to adjourn the meeting.
Ebey seconded the motion, which
passed.
The meeting adjourned at