City
of Lawrence, Kansas
HOMELESS
ISSUES ADVISORY COMMITTEE
January
10, 2017 Minutes (Lawrence City Commission Room)
MEMBERS
PRESENT: Vivian Baars, Michael Brouwer, Mathew Faulk, Laurie Hooker, Erick
Ogwangi, Teri Smith
MEMBERS
PRESENT: Trent McKinley, Dana Ortiz, Cary Strong
STAFF
PRESENT: Danelle Dresslar, Brad Karr
The meeting
was called to order at 8:35 by Vice Chair Faulk.
ITEM NO. 1 Introductions
The
committee members introduced themselves.
ITEM NO. 2 Approval
of the Agenda and the July 12, 2016 Meeting Minutes
Motion by Smith
to approve the July 12, 2016 minutes of the HIAC; seconded by Hooker.
The motion
passed 6-0.
ITEM NO. 3 Receive Bert Nash Homeless Outreach Team 2016
3rd Quarter Report
Ogwangi
asked what was the age of the clients served. Faulk said 18 and older; if they
find a homeless unaccompanied minor, they are required to make a report to
Child Protective Services to take over. Ogwangi asked if there were any
demographics associated with the report. Faulk said the criteria asked for by
the City in this report does not include race or gender. Faulk said nationally,
the large majority of homeless individuals served are single white males.
ITEM NO. 4 Housing Vision Reports
a. Non-Housing BoS CoC (Deferred until PIT training item at 9:00am)
b. Emergency Shelter/Temporary Housing
Willow Update Liz Stuewe
Liz Stuewe was unable to
attend the meeting; this item was deferred.
c. Transitional Housing/Supportive
Services LDCHA Laurie Hooker
Hooker invited Eric Sader
from the LDCHA to speak to the committee. Sader said transitional housing
finished the year with around 15 families under lease in the City HOME TBRA program;
11 under lease in the SPMI program; nine in the Safe Housing program; two in
the Next Step program; one in the correctional re-entry program; 38 in the VASH
program. Sader said overall, 2016 averaged a 99% utilization of the 797
vouchers available. Hooker asked about New Horizons. Sader said New Horizons
finished 2016 with five under lease, with a sixth family looking for a unit.
Ogwangi asked how long the vouchers last. Sader said two years for the standard
transitional programs, with an opportunity to receive a permanent Housing
Choice Voucher at the end of the two years; children aging out of foster care last
potentially up to three years. Brouwer asked the typical length of time to
process an application for a transitional voucher. Sader said depending on the
clients paperwork, it could be processed and to the eligibility committee
within two weeks.
d. Permanent
Supporting Housing HOPE Building Update Rae Johnson
The LDCHA HOPE Building
has six furnished units, each with a kitchen, three have their own bathroom and
three share a common bathroom. Individuals living in the building do not have
to put any money down and do not have to have a source of income. The program
is for chronically homeless with either a mental health or substance abuse disability.
There are currently three openings, although two of those will be filled next
week and hopefully one by the end of the month. There will still be two people
on the waiting list after the units are filled. Ogwangi asked where they got
referrals. Johnson said referrals come from LCS, Bert Nash, or others in the
community working with homeless individuals.
e. Permanent
Housing Section 8 Program Laurie Hooker
Hooker said the LDCHA is telling
people the wait list for the Section 8 program could be 10 to 20 months for one
of the 797 vouchers; there are a lot of people looking right now but inventory
is down, especially for handicapped accessible lower floor units.
ITEM NO. 5 Calendar/Miscellaneous
The next
meeting of the HIAC will be on April 11, 2017 and will contain an election for
Chair and Vice Chair.
Ogwangi
asked if any demographics on race were available on the homeless camping arrest
stats provided at a previous meeting. Dresslar said she would check with the
court system to see if demographics could be obtained.
ITEM NO. 6 Public Comment
Trey Meyer,
Executive Director of the Lawrence Community Shelter, spoke to the committee on
recent activities at the shelter. They tried to plan for the increase that
comes with the cold weather by reducing the number of shelter guests to around
75 by September, which they accomplished. Since the end of October, they have
averaged around 110 to 115 guests, with it spiking up to around 135 in the real
cold temperatures. They succeeded in managing the numbers down by a combination
of being aggressive in getting people housed and being more discriminating in
who is permitted into the shelter. New staff hires include Shine Adams as the
Director of Operations and Program Development, and Mia Gonzalez as the
Director of Development. LCS will be opening a satellite office in the United
Way building to assist individuals at risk of homelessness and provide post
move-out support. LCS, with the help of local agencies, recently got a family
of eight housed; the family had been at the shelter for 425 days.
James Dunn,
a private landlord, spoke to the committee about a problem he recently
encountered at one of his properties. An individual was causing a disturbance which
required the police to respond; the individual was already banned from LCS and
had nowhere to go. Dunn said there is a gap for those people who are banned
from the shelter with nowhere to go to spend the night. Hooker said there are
some individuals who will not be housed; there will not be any type of gap
housing for them. Faulk said of the 1500 people Bert Nash has worked with in
the last ten years, he has only had two people who did not want to be housed.
Faulk said there are lots of individuals that are difficult to house because of
behavior problems, criminal issues or lack of income, but they still want to be
indoors out of the weather; the challenge as a community is to be creative
enough to find some stop gap that is appropriate for the specific segment of
the people they are trying to serve. Hooker asked if Faulk could have a wish
list of one thing besides money to assist these individuals, what would he
chose. Faulk said 100 units, $0-$250 per month for rent, built in a way to be
hard to damage, available at all times, loose rules in relation to what they
could be kicked out for, has staff every day, but is not in an institutional
setting. Meyer said LCS is planning on building an auxiliary shelter within the
current LCS facility for the cold months and would be separate from the other
residents. This would be for service resistant individuals and only to keep
them alive with very basic mats, sandwiches and coffee. This would cost around
$25,000 to $30,000 to build and needs the blessing of the City, and could allow
the shelter to relax the ban rules a little since the populations will be kept
separate. Hooker said it would be exactly what was needed in the situation Dunn
described.
Jennifer
Tuley, HUD VASH case manager with the VA, indicated there currently are five
voucher openings and they are taking referrals.
ITEM NO. 7
Adjourn
Motion by Faulk
to adjourn the January 10, 2017 meeting
of the HIAC; seconded by Smith.
The motion passed
6-0. Meeting was adjourned at 9:29 am.
Attendance Record
|
Members |
1/10 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Vivian
Baars |
+ |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Michael
Brouwer |
+ |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Mathew
Faulk |
+ |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Laurie
Hooker |
+ |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Trent
McKinley |
E |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Erick
Ogwangi |
+* |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Dana
Ortiz |
E |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Teri
Smith |
+ |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Cary
Strong |
U |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
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