City of Lawrence, Kansas
HOMELESS ISSUES ADVISORY COMMITTEE
January 12, 2016 Minutes (Lawrence City Commission Room)
Members present: Vivian Baars, Christian Ballard, Michael Brouwer, Laurie Hooker, Trent McKinley, Teri Smith
Members absent: Brad Cook, Cary Strong
Staff present: Danelle Dresslar, Brad Karr
Public present: Liz Stuewe, Trey Meyer, Mathew Faulk, Jacob Schooler, Jacob Brainerd, James Dunn, Jennifer Tuley, Norm White
With no Chair or Vice Chair present, the meeting was called to order at 8:31 by Dresslar.
ITEM NO. 1 Introductions
The members of the HIAC introduced themselves.
ITEM NO. 2 Approval of the Agenda and the October 13, 2015 Minutes
Motion by Smith to approve the October 13, 2015 minutes of the HIAC; seconded by McKinley.
The motion passed 5-0.
ITEM NO. 3 Receive Bert Nash Homeless Outreach Team 3rd Quarter Report
This item was received. There were no further questions from the committee.
Christian Ballard arrived at the meeting and was introduced.
ITEM NO. 4 Receive arrest statistics regarding illegal camping
Dresslar provided the committee a memo with illegal camping-related arrest data for the last five years. McKinley asked where the numbers came from; Dresslar indicated the numbers where provided by the Municipal Court. McKinley asked if any additional information was provided, including the disposition of the cases; Dresslar indicated the numbers shown were all that was provided.
Hooker asked McKinley if he knew why the numbers were so low in 2012-2014. McKinley indicated he did not know, but was curious as to how the data was pulled and what the dispositions of the cases were. McKinley indicated the arrests are complaint driven, and illegal camping primarily refers to the Downtown business district.
Brouwer asked if the majority of these were notices to appear, and not actual arrests. McKinley indicated yes and no; if the individual will cooperate and cease the offending action, a citation would be issued, but some refuse to cooperate and are physically arrested.
McKinley suggested having the Municipal Court provide further data including notice to appear vs physical arrest, case disposition, number of distinct individuals vs repeat offenders and date of citation to see if there is a weather correlation.
ITEM NO. 5 Election of Chair and Vice Chair
McKinley suggested waiting until the Chair and Vice Chair return before having elections.
ITEM NO. 6/7 Balance of State Continuum of Care information/Point in Time count
Dresslar spoke about the 2016 homeless Point in Time count which will take place on January 28, 2016, and will be an unsheltered count. There will be two webinar trainings available before the day of the count. The survey will be very similar to the one used last year. There will also be a housing inventory count at the same time. Hooker asked if transitional housing is counted in the housing inventory count; Dresslar indicated that transitional housing does count.
ITEM NO. 8 Housing Vision Reports
a. Non-Housing – Market Match Program – Eileen Horn
Eileen Horn, City/County Sustainability Coordinator, gave a presentation on programs and initiatives of the Douglas County Food Policy Council.
b. Emergency Shelter/Temporary Housing – Lawrence Community Shelter
Trey Meyer, Executive Director of the Lawrence Community Shelter, spoke to the committee on recent activities at the shelter. A current challenge is to find space in the shelter for individuals to sleep during the cold weather months. The shelter is currently housing 150-160 individuals, well above the allowed numbers (125 normal, 140 in cold weather). The shelter has a ninety day stay policy on the books, but historically has not stuck to it, with some individuals staying multiple years. The shelter will work in the future to reduce these numbers and work on the root cause, using case management to solve some of these individual’s problems.
c. Transitional Housing/Supportive Services – LDCHA (if needed)
Hooker spoke to the committee about the newly acquired building at 1725 New Hampshire St that will be used to house youths aging out of foster care, and the additional funding provided by the City and the County to expand the HOME funded TBRA program.
d. Permanent Supporting Housing – Project Able
Baars spoke to the committee about The Salvation Army’s Project Able which provides permanent supportive housing to the homeless with one adult in the household having a documented disability.
e. Permanent Housing – City of Lawrence Rental Registration Program
Treni Westcott, Field Supervisor in the Code Enforcement Division, spoke to the committee about the Rental Registration Program. The expanded registration program is just beginning the second year, and covers all rentals in the City of Lawrence, estimated to be 20,000 units. Inspections are conducted on 10% of an owner’s units, with incentives provided based on the number of violations found. 2,300 inspections were conducted in 2015; 61% of inspections had at least one violation; 3.3 was the average number of violations with the most common being smoke detectors, GFCI outlets and outlet covers, window locks and stair handrails. 38 cases have been sent to municipal court, mostly for failure to obtain a rental license. The number one goal of the program is to provide safe housing for all tenants in Lawrence.
ITEM NO. 9 Calendar/Miscellaneous
The next meeting of the HIAC will be on April 12, 2016. Dresslar indicated Becky Peters had submitted her letter of resignation to the HIAC; Family Promise will replace her position with another representative.
ITEM NO. 10 Public Comment
Jennifer Tuley, HUD VASH manager with the VA, indicated there currently are 10 VASH vouchers available if anyone knows of any homeless veterans.
ITEM NO. 11 Adjourn
Motion by Brouwer to adjourn the January 12, 2016 meeting of the HIAC; seconded by Smith.
The motion passed 6-0. Meeting was adjourned at 9:30am.
Attendance Record
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Members |
1/16 |
4/12 |
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Michael Brouwer |
+ |
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Brad Cook |
E |
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Vivian Baars |
+* |
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Trent McKinley |
+ |
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Cary Strong |
U |
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Laurie Hooker |
+ |
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Christian Ballard |
+* |
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Teri Smith |
+ |
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Becky Peters |
E |
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X - Meeting Cancelled Due to Inclement Weather
E - Excused Absence
U - Unexcused Absence
() – Last meeting in term.
* - First meeting in term.
^ - Last Meeting
# - Meeting not official – no quorum