June 12, 2007 Minutes (City Commission Room, City Hall)
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MEMBERS PRESENT: |
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Hubbard Collinsworth, Phil Hemphill, Loring Henderson, Shirley Martin-Smith, Robert Mosely |
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MEMBERS ABSENT: |
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Katherine Dinsdale, Jane Faubion, Kim Gouge, Rick Marquez, Mike Monroe |
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STAFF PRESENT: |
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Lesley Rigney and Margene Swarts |
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PUBLIC PRESENT: |
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Sandy Carr, Jeannette Collier, Wes Dalberg, Charlotte Knoche, Saunny Scott, Bill Sims, Norm Scraper |
Martin-Smith called the meeting to order at 8:35 am.
Approval of the May 8, 2007 Minutes
Collinsworth moved to approve the May 8, 2007 minutes with the correction that Norm Scraper was not present at the meeting. Mosely seconded the motion, which passed.
June Recommendation
Martin-Smith identified what would be included in the recommendation. There will be a cover letter, housing options chart, ES and ETH explanations, definitions, and the homeless count. She suggested including the article on Housing First.
Martin-Smith wants to rewrite the cover letter to not so much dwell on the past and talk about the vision we have as a commission. She is going to work on fine-tuning the cover letter and she will send it out to the group.
Henderson suggested removing some of the editorial language. He understands we want only one shelter; it is a goal.
Martin-Smith asked if anyone has anything else to address in the letter.
Henderson asked if it would come up about implementation of the plan. We haven’t talked about implementation.
Martin-Smith said when she reworked some of this she talked about how to assess things. There are benchmarks. Her sense is that if the group can articulate the vision, and know that the City Commission (CC) understands where the community would like to head, and it makes sense – the community will move ahead. If there is no agreement or support the group may need to reconvene and address those questions.
Swarts said it is likely the CC will ask what the next step is. What will the answer be?
Martin-Smith said there needs to be a lot of outreach next, soliciting community support and commitment. The Community Cooperation Committee (CCC) wants to know how they can help us.
Henderson said Commissioner Chestnut has a lot of connection to the faith community and would make a good champion in that area.
Martin-Smith said it will be important for elected officials to be speaking on behalf of the vision. When the Mayor appointed Commissioner Amyx to look at homeless issues, it was mainly around finances, but that is certainly going to mesh with this vision.
Collier said if the CCH is asking the CC and the church committee to support this, when funds come available, what will be the mechanism to get the message out - that the community is only supporting one shelter. What will be the template for whoever takes over this ETH program?
Martin-Smith said when we go to community and say this is our vision, we are depending upon those who have the expertise to come forth with ideas.
Collinsworth said why not – we know what DCCCA, The Salvation Army and Bert Nash are doing. We don’t know what LCS is doing. Do we need this Committee to sit down with the four agencies and ask them what are you going to bring to the table?
Henderson said this should possibly be done, but the group should not speak about this at the CC Study Session.
Hemphill said the group talked about finding an entity to run the show. The CCH will be out of that mix – we won’t be running homeless programs.
Henderson said we can talk about these details after the Study Session.
Martin-Smith said if the CC says this makes sense – that may trigger a different way to consider funding.
Swarts said after the CC buys in, the group can do a lot of outreach to try to identify the players and who could possibly lead the project. One of the things the CC is looking at is where funding is going in the community. Some agencies get a little bit of funding from various agencies and some don’t. She thinks the CCH is taking a global look and this is a good point to put forward in a plan.
Knoche sees this vision as where we want to be when change is done. The experts will help us get there. We want to be careful about not dictating to the CC because we are putting up a goal and vision and then it will be dependent on agencies to pull it off.
Henderson said he was just reading about St. Joseph and their new downtown shelter. There are four shelters in St. Joe. You never know how it’s going to fall out.
Martin-Smith said without public support this cannot happen and this is the public-private vision. One shelter is not a negotiable item. This needs to get out to the general public. We can articulate our vision and tell them how they can help.
It was decided to add a footnote about specialized shelters and note that they are not included.
Swarts said what the community would like to see is the general homeless community being served at one shelter. There doesn’t need to be several of these entities out there all doing the same thing.
Martin-Smith said yes, we need this parallel track of emergency housing to skip the shelter in some cases. It is not the vision of this group that everyone who finds themselves homeless will go to an emergency shelter.
Henderson said what we are trying to say is this is our vision, and there are many types of homeless. Someone may come forward and say they just want to address alcohol issues.
Swart said the group doesn’t want to try to consider every possible eventuality.
Martin-Smith said one facility could mean the lead agency and within the lead agency there are several facilities that serve subpopulations. We could sit around and talk about different scenarios, we cannot solve it all but we have to take the vision to the community and we will get feedback.
Mosely asked if we decided to eliminate the word “one” from the shelter description. He feels it is restrictive.
Martin-Smith said no. If in the future, we have 200 people who need ES, we will have a different problem.
Sandy Carr, homeless advocate, ECKAN volunteer, is curious whether one shelter is to be serving the needs of people who are in active addiction.
Henderson said the definition states there will be space for people who are inebriated or ill.
Norm Scraper said they could say “a specific” shelter and they could add more later if needed.
Martin-Smith asked for comments on housing options.
Collier said we can get the number of evictions that have been prevented by community and faith-based funds. She will bring that number for the presentation.
Martin-Smith said she wants to deal with the issue of “one” because it isn’t going to go away. She wants to hear from each one of the group. Consider there are some people who aren’t here today that have been highly involved in determining this recommendation. If we substantially change the vision today, the group is not ready to go to the CC.
Henderson said it plays into the perception that there is duplication.
Swarts said what is being put forth is a shelter that is not like what is now in the community. It is inclusive of everything the community needs. The “one” is important.
Henderson said where we say “flex space” to respond… we give ourselves more flexibility. He is okay with the word “one.”
Martin-Smith said from the work groups, temporary housing is a preferred housing option for people.
Knoche asked if it would be clearer to call this chart “housing needs chart”. This is not what is. We need to clarify to say this is what we need.
Collinsworth said he has a strong feeling that the CC and the general public – get a homeless family or individual that comes into this community, what is the number they call? Can they pick up the phone and get housing? Can Headquarters call LCS and say “do you have any beds left?”
Martin-Smith said the CCC envisions a website for this work and they are soliciting free help as we speak.
Henderson said practically speaking; if a family comes into town and needs a place to sleep they can get a place to sleep. He made a comment that in the presentation, in the letter, or maybe just verbally, there should be a celebration of what has happened in the community - the growth of agencies – all struggling but more and more getting a grip on this problem. It should be communicated what has been done and where we are.
Martin-Smith asked for an email from Henderson with some high points to integrate.
Collinsworth moved to forward the packet with the aforementioned changes. Henderson seconded the motion, which passed. Mosely dissented.
Martin-Smith said Dinsdale sent an e-mail saying that responses from her outreach with churches were very positive. She will go with Rick Marquez to DLI. Maybe the plan should be to take this to the CC and then start doing outreach, including service providers. There are lots of people to communicate with. We are light years ahead of where we were at this time last year. She said that once the final packet is available staff will staff forward it to all interested parties. She asked for public comment.
Carr asked what is happening with The Salvation Army. Have representatives from Bert Nash, DCCCA and LMH been invited to the table?
Dalberg said SA is going to build something. They are waiting for the city to finish this work, present it to the CC – so they don’t go out like a lone ranger and build something that nobody wants. Once the city gives a stamp of approval to this vision, SA will start identifying where they fit into the plan.
Carr asked about funding.
Dalberg said there is no other pool of money aside from the local community. Any funds used for operation of SA in Lawrence come from this community. That is why we want to be able to say this is what community wants, and this is where we fit in.
Martin-Smith acknowledged that Collier, Knoche and Dalberg have been participating and made valuable contributions. This group is not leaving out players – those mentioned by Carr were part of the original Task Force on Homeless Services (TF) and they know the CCH is working on this. They aren’t actively involved, but are likely following the progress of the CCH.
Simms said the CCH is going in front of the CC and they are focused – he is concerned of getting to the discussion. The more you don’t have a way to integrate people, the more isolated they need to be. HA doesn’t fit all feet so we need another component. Without it we are left with a small box that needs to be a big box. He agrees with the concept of a small box because within a short period of time (3 weeks) there can be a plan. Most people aren’t given a plan because there is no way to reintegrate into the community.
Martin-Smith said to remember that the smaller shelter and the ETH concept run parallel and we have to have them simultaneously.
Henderson asked if there was a step after the Study Session – will they adopt the vision in a formal fashion?
Swarts said they may direct the group to proceed. That should be one question – what they want to see happen next.
Knoche said regarding the Study Session on 20th – does the CCH want temporary members there?
Martin-Smith said yes.
Swarts gave the general format of a SS.
Adjourn
The meeting adjourned at 10:00 a.m.