September 12, 2006 Minutes (City Commission Room, City Hall)
|
MEMBERS PRESENT: |
|
Katherine Dinsdale, Kim Gouge, Helen Hartnett, Loring Henderson, Rick Marquez, Shirley Martin-Smith, Mike Monroe, Robert Mosely |
|
|
|
|
|
MEMBERS ABSENT: |
|
Jane Faubion, Phil Hemphill |
|
|
|
|
|
STAFF PRESENT: |
|
Lesley Rigney and Margene Swarts |
|
|
|
|
|
PUBLIC PRESENT: |
|
Ted Carter, Hubbard Collinsworth, Wes Dahlberg, Saunny, Norman Scraper, Bill Sims |
Gouge called the meeting to order at 8:40 am.
Introductions
Members introduced themselves.
Henderson announced the Good Neighbor Agreement is still a work in progress – there will be public meetings in October that will be announced to gather input and start asking folks to sign on to the agreement. Also, the shelter is still looking for a building, which is an ongoing project. The board will be setting up a capital campaign committee. He also stated that the shelter has a new no intoxication policy which means no one who is intoxicated can be on shelter property during the daytime. He is not going to ban them from the shelter but he is asking them to leave for the day. The success has been, with the patio in back, people like to hang out there and staff is spending a large amount of time dealing with a few people. He noted that intoxicated people are going to go someplace and if they are not on the property of LCS they are going to parks or other buildings or alleys. It is not something that is just the shelter’s problem – it is the community’s problem. He is willing to work with DCCCA, Bert Nash, LKPD, etc. to address this problem.
Approval of the agenda and the August 8, 2006 minutes
Martin-Smith moved to approve the agenda and the August 8, 2006 minutes. Hartnett seconded the motion, which passed unanimously.
Advisory Board Coordination Meeting Update
Swarts stated the chairs of the six related advisory boards met to discuss the purpose of each group. The consensus of the chairs was that there does not need to be a big meeting at this time. However, each group is going to pay more attention to what the others are doing and staff is going to do weekly meetings updates with links to the agendas and minutes of the various group’s meetings.
Martin-Smith said if there were a lot of duplications, she would expect staff to identify and address them. She is not concerned about it.
Swarts said there are a lot of Practitioner’s Panel members who are also serving on the Housing Needs Task Force and there are a lot of the same topics. The group also talked about having chairs attend other group’s meetings but we do not want to overtax any one board or commission or person with more meetings than they can handle.
Study Session
Several members plan to attend the Study Session (SS) in Topeka. Swarts said there will be a presentation by Reverend Feaker, Director of the Topeka Rescue Mission. Members should plan to arrive at 1:00 and it should be over by 2:00. Study Sessions are open to the public but this one is geared toward the CCH – staff will be present. Most of the discussion will happen between the CC and Reverend Feaker.
Martin-Smith asked the purpose of the SS.
Swarts said the CC is touring the library and sports arena complex and they decided to also visit the mission since it is also a topic of interest.
Funding for Homeless Initiatives
Staff handed out the $230,000 request for homeless initiatives and stated it was funded at the 2006 level of $209,000. In 2006, the $13,000 for staff support was not really expended, but absorbed. That could be added to one of the other components that were not funded.
Gouge clarified that the CCH needs to discuss where they would like to see the $13,000 allocated.
Hartnett said the first thing she sees is they asked for support for the Community Cooperation Committee (CCC) and it has not received any funding. She suggested allocating $3,000 to that group, the amount of their request.
Martin-Smith agreed.
Henderson suggested giving them the $3,000 and seeing what they do the first year.
Gouge asked if individual amounts should be motioned – or if it should be done in one motion.
After a brief discussion the group agreed to delay the remainder of the discussion until after the subcommittee reports.
Subcommittee Reports
Jobs – Martin-Smith said she and Gouge have been working with the jobs team. Even though they have called together every social service and private employment agency, interest has not been high. The challenge has been keeping people from reworking the jobs component of the plan. Gouge has been good at keeping the group focused on “what can we do now to help people who are ready to work.” They are now looking at a list of needs and gaps in addition to what was identified by the Task Force (TF). Generally there are a lot of services in place to deal with employment – it seemed like a simple and straight-forward task and to some degree it is. The jobs component says the CCH will contact the city (Parks and Recreation) to partner to provide work experience. The group is meeting every two weeks and participants want to move forward and get something done. She reminded the group that transportation and safety equipment may become an issue after the jobs report is finished at the end of the week. Work clothes are not addressed anywhere.
Dinsdale stated that her organization provides advocate/mentors to walk the system with applicants. She offered to go through the process as a potential consumer and give feedback to the group.
Martin-Smith will let Dinsdale know when the next meeting is.
Gouge said that there appears to be so many avenues and channels – the group is having trouble staying focused.
Dinsdale said some of the training organizations in town might not be offering the right services – maybe that is part of the discussion of the jobs component.
Martin-Smith said training is kind of unusual. In the private sector employees can receive on the job training – people don’t always have to go to a class to learn something. The challenge seems to be intake - where we sit down and learn about strengths and barriers. The team feels there are more soft skills that need to be addressed and then companies will be willing to invest in the training.
Henderson said anything jobs can do to practically facilitate that partnership with Parks and Recreation would be helpful.
Martin-Smith said the plan also says they are going to go to downtown businesses to partner for employment opportunities. She wants the homeless to not be identified as homeless – she wants them to integrate into the work force as anyone else will do.
Henderson asked what the role of the committee is – to actually do the work of placing people in jobs or what.
Martin-Smith said there needs to be better coordination of services. If there is a serious gap, we can look at it. We have to work with current resources otherwise. The norm is to ask for more money, but we have to make it work with what we have right now.
Gouge said it is about making the process work efficiently and removing some of the barriers to obtaining employment.
Housing – Mosely stated the housing subcommittee needs to reinvent itself. There were originally three members and now two members are gone – he is the only one left. He is upset and discouraged. Taliaferro is no longer on the committee and Hemphill has not been present for months. He spoke with Faubion about needing support but has not received any.
Gouge asked Mosely to please not become discouraged yet. He stated that the CCH needs someone to step up and help out with this committee because it is very important.
Martin-Smith clarified that Mosely has not been able to pull together a team to look at the housing component of the plan.
Mosely stated they had one meeting of housing providers and there was supposed to be a second.
Quality of Life – Henderson stated that Taliaferro provided him with draft minutes of the last CCC meeting. There were three points covered – the development of an observer corps which would consist of volunteers who would attend meetings all over town and combine information, a discussion about LINK coordination and working with LCS to finish developing the good neighbor agreement.
Emergency Shelter - Henderson said one idea they had was to have a joint meeting/retreat between CCC/CCH/Salvation Army/LCS so there is a sense of common goals. There can be understanding of where everyone is coming from and a stronger, common voice – it will be explored further. LCS had a successful board retreat a while back and it did a lot to unify the organization. We are all in this together and we need to coordinate what we are saying to the broader community.
Martin-Smith said if the CCH is ever going to discuss the possibility of a 24/7 shelter, she would like to feel like they pushed the plan forward during the first year. If no retreat is scheduled she would at least like to meet with LCS/SA boards to gain a better understanding of the gaps.
Dinsdale said the rubric the Emergency Shelter group is developing showed gray areas that agencies needs to claim and do well – it may be others than those who are currently participating in emergency shelter services. Many of those issues cannot be advanced until some things are settled – neighborhood issues, etc.
Dinsdale said the committee got off to a good start. The plan was to have another meeting. They have started a rubric/matrix of existing services that they need to finish.
Gouge said he feels the needle is moving – the group can feel good about subcommittee work.
Funding for Homeless Initiatives
After hearing subcommittee reports, Hartnett moved to allocate the $13,000 as follows: $3,000 for CCC operations, $3,000 additional for transportation, $3,000 additional 24/7 shelter operations, and an additional $4,000 to the case management component.
Martin-Smith seconded the motion.
Henderson said to consider case management and inflation.
Dinsdale said the city declined to provide funding for putting property on hold for shelter exploration – could this money go to that?
Swarts said it needs to go to one of the proposed activities – that is outside the scope of the request.
Dinsdale stated that Interfaith is looking at a new transitional housing program. Is it too late for them to apply for any of this?
Swarts said yes.
The motion passed unanimously.
Martin-Smith asked to discuss an additional item. The county is doing re-entry planning and focusing on employment. She would like to see a link between them and the CCH.
Henderson moved that the CCH chair make some formal contact with the re-entry planning team.
Swarts asked if the letter should invite a member of the re-entry planning team to a CCH meeting and talk about their activities and how the CCH might facilitate what they are doing.
Hartnett said yes and seconded the motion, which passed unanimously.
Public Comment
Collinsworth said the last agenda item is the charge of the CCC. He is angry that the CCH did not even suggest the CCC be brought into this.
Martin-Smith asked what Collinsworth is suggesting going forward.
Collinsworth said to give the CCC the authority they just gave Gouge. The CCC is the group charged with initial contact, gathering and dissemination of information.
Hartnett asked for clarification.
Collinsworth said the CCH charged the CCC with communication and just cut their legs out from under them. There is no direct representative of the CCC on the CCH. He is also concerned with low attendance.
Ted Carter asked how the county’s initiative is going to be funded.
Henderson said it is not funded by homeless initiatives.
Carter clarified that Lawrence residents do not have to worry about the jail using the shelters as a dumping ground for people who cannot find housing.
Henderson said shelters are already being used as a dumping ground and we will invite them to talk about it.
Norm Scraper said yesterday when he was visiting the Haskell Health Center he noticed the old Latter Day Saints complex is up for sale and it might make a good 24/7 shelter.
Henderson said it is a good idea for the Interfaith project but it is too small for a shelter.
Saunny said she appreciates that notices have been going to newspaper but was there an apology sent to the public who missed the June meeting. She also asked if someone applies for a job, is offered a job and the offer is pulled after shelter address is given – is that legal.
Martin-Smith said she does not know, but Legal Aid Services or the city’s Human Relations Department will know and she may contact them for clarification.
Henderson said some people had a field trip to KC/Leavenworth to look at Heartland projects. They were interesting – both deal with mentally ill folks. They are sponsored, owned, and run by Heartland Mental Health Association. They were small (8-10 residents) with a full time counselor and others who come in to do support services. KCMO is older but clean and nice. Leavenworth is a brand new building. People in both programs are screened and come from other programs. HOPE Building residents come directly from shelter and it is much more difficult. There was a staff comment at KCMO that the State of Missouri gives a lot of support. Kansas residents have to have a lot more money to help pay for the service. October 20 at 7:00 pm at the library there will be a representative from Heartland coming to speak. He introduced Shannon Williams, the new intern at LCS.
Dinsdale stated that Taliaferro resigned from the CCH because she does not have the time, but there does need to be firm representation from the CCC on the CCH.
Bill Sims said he has not heard any discussion regarding his concern with violence. He was chased from LCS property by a drunk and if he was a student it would have been addressed. At what point will LINK and LCS come to their senses and hire a security person for $15,000 – a law suit will be a hell of a lot worse. The Coalition on Homeless Concerns has not been helpful – he took a grievance about having to stand out for an hour on Christmas Eve and nothing has come of it. The general attitude toward homeless is that they do not count. When will a nice KU student get injured by LCS/LINK guests – at what point will they decide there is a problem?
Scraper said Sims missed the first part of the meeting where Henderson said that intoxicated people will no longer be allowed at LCS during the day.
Adjourn
There being no further public comment, the meeting adjourned at 9:50 am.