City of Lawrence, Kansas

HOMELESS ISSUES ADVISORY COMMITTEE

April 11, 2017 Minutes (Lawrence City Commission Room)

Members present: Vivian Baars, Michael Brouwer, Mathew Faulk, Trent McKinley, Dana Ortiz, Teri Smith

Members absent: Laurie Hooker, Erick Ogwangi, Cary Strong

Staff present: Danelle Dresslar

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 January 10, 2017 Meeting Minutes

Faulk provided a correction on a data source provided in the January minutes. Motion by Smith to approve the January 10, 2017 minutes of the HIAC with changes discussed by Faulk; seconded by Ortiz.

The motion passed 6-0.

ITEM NO. 3 Election of Chair and Vice-Chair

Dresslar indicated that historically the current Vice-Chair has moved into the Chair position at the annual election. The Vice-Chair is currently Faulk.

Motion by Brouwer to nominate Faulk for the position of HIAC Chair; seconded by Ortiz.

Faulk accepted the nomination.

The motion passed 6-0.

Motion by Brouwer to nominate Smith for the position of HIAC Vice-Chair; seconded by Faulk.

Smith accepted the nomination.

The motion passed 6-0.

Matthew Faulk will serve as Chair of the HIAC and Teri Smith will serve as Vice-Chair.

ITEM NO. 4 Receive Bert Nash Homeless Outreach Team 2016 4th Quarter Report

The HIAC received the report. Ortiz asked Faulk if under the term “Housing Status” if that is a number of clients that they housed that quarter. Faulk said it was not, but it was the people that they worked with that were housed at the time of contact. Faulk said there are two main sets of persons staff works with. Those that are formerly housed and those that are housed but still needing support. One of the grants at Bert Nash is one that allows for traditional case management for mental health. In addition, they can assist other case mangers when working with this set of people. Faulk indicated all of this data is reported.

Smith asked if the reduction in numbers for the fourth quarter was typical.

Faulk said yes, that in November and around the holidays, there is usually a decline. He said that the data could also dip when staff has time off. Where both of these land can impact the numbers.

Ortiz said they see a dip during the holidays as well. The hypotheses that they work with is that people are more generous during the holidays. The numbers ramp up again in January and declines slightly after that. Ortiz said the dip in March can be attributed to tax returns.

Brouwer asked if the HIAC could make recommendations on the budget in terms of the cuts to the Bert Nash case management team.

Dresslar said they could make recommendations.

Brouwer said as a board the HIAC should recommend to the City to restore funding to the Bert Nash Homeless Outreach team to previous levels. The outreach is a core service that is needed in the community. Putting more money into housing makes sense, but if the community is not helping those that are homeless as well, that might not be the best trade-off.

Dresslar indicated that the HIAC could write a letter to the City Commission and have a sub-committee work on it. A letter of recommendation could be forwarded to the budget team. Dresslar cautioned that the amount of time to comment on the budget is getting smaller, and the HIAC must adhere to open meeting and voting guidelines.

Brouwer said it would need to be complete to vote on prior to the next meeting.

Dresslar said yes, and that the next meeting is in July and the budget will be in the process of taking final public comment at that time.

Smith said that there needs to be a very compelling reason for asking for more funding.

Faulk said right now there are two workers on the Outreach Team, and the team saw 429 people last year, including 233 new. Statistically it is virtually impossible to provide a high quality of service with those numbers. There needs to be additional resources such as personnel.

Smith agreed that quality of service was a compelling reason for asking for increased funding.

Faulk said that the team is unable to follow up with people right now. They cannot be thorough enough because there are not enough resources.

Natasha Derakhshanian, the Balance of State Coordinator for the Kansas Statewide Homeless Coalition asked if it would make sense for the HIAC to include information about the money being saved to the community in emergency services by having the outreach team in place. The money savings could be seen in places like the jail, the emergency room, the ambulance service, etc.

Faulk agreed and said that information is covered in the application as well. Nationally speaking, outreach services do statistically show a decrease in those accessing emergency services. There are very specific studies on Housing First models, which can show up to a 90% reduction. That is definitely a measureable outcome. The community is looking at crisis intervention currently and are looking at team diversions from the state hospital in crisis intervention. In the first quarter of 2017 the community is looking at diverting around 100 people from the state hospital. The overall perspective is that yes, outreach will save a community quite a bit of money in the long run. Faulk said a struggle with writing a letter at this meeting would be not having the data sets to pull information from.

Norm White suggested the HIAC conceptually put a letter together and populate it with data at a later time. That way the letter is still conducted at an open meeting session.

Dresslar said the vote would be to send the letter itself on to the City Commission. Dresslar indicated that staff was not entirely comfortable drafting a letter on the HIAC’s behalf without HIAC input.

Brouwer said the deadline for social service agency applications was March 21.

Dresslar said that when the Bert Nash report is submitted to the City Commission, a cover sheet outlining the board’s thoughts could be submitted with it.

Faulk and McKinley both stated they would recuse themselves from the approval of any letter regarding the budget from the HIAC. Dresslar said that four votes would not be a valid vote as a quorum is five.

Brouwer discussed the possibility of writing a letter of support of submitting a cover sheet for the reduced funding concerns. Due to time constraints for approval, it was determined that Faulk would provide a cover sheet for submittal of the report to the City Commission that discussed the effect of the reduction in funding. The committee further discussed what information the cover sheet should contain.

Dresslar said the committee could start the discussion of the 2019 budget cycle letter of support at the July meeting. They could set a timeline and have the letter ready to approve for January.

ITEM NO. 5 Discussion of request for follow-up arrest statistics regarding illegal camping

Dresslar indicated that this request came from Ogwangi at the last meeting.

In the January 10, 2017 meeting, the minutes state that: 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.

Dresslar asked McKinley to speak to the problematic nature of gathering this data set.

McKinley said this request is something that would take a large amount of time to compile as it is based on a hand-search for the data. The data being asked for is something that is kept in several different systems, and in order to gather the data a person would need to hand-sort the data bases and cross check them together. There would be considerable staff time involved in this request. McKinley said there was no one report that could be run that shows the demographic information based on the charge. With the information being on several different systems, there are many challenges to gathering this data.

Smith asked if there was an overall trend for camping charges.

McKinley said the charge is one that is complaint-driven, and is centered more toward camping in the downtown district specifically. The majority of times when an officer is sent to look in to a camping allegation, they just talk to the person and for the most part everyone is cooperative. Most of the time, this visit does not end up as a citation. If they refuse to leave, it becomes a citation situation. Camping in areas like parks are also a category. Much like the downtown district, most of the time these visits do not end up in a citation. Again, it is complaint-driven.

McKinley added that in the past the city knew of camping, but there were not necessarily any complaints to follow up on regarding the behavior. At one time there was a death investigation near a homeless campsite, and Parks and Recreation and Police worked together to contact people who were living there and explain the ordinance, and asked them to remove their items. The site was given 48 hours to be cleared out, and for those who did not move, their campsite was disposed of. In that situation, it was not a citation.

Norm White said the Housing Coalition has asked the question of “what constitutes camping?”

McKinley said it is when a person is taking a piece of the right-of-way and impeding people’s travel and such by using sleeping materials.

ITEM NO. 6 Housing Vision Reports

a. Non-Housing – BoS CoC

Natasha Derakhshanian of the Kansas Statewide Homeless Coalition (KSHC) introduced herself as the new Balance of State Coordinator for the Continuum of Care (CoC). Derakhshanian was previously with the Mid-America Assistance Coalition (MAAC) so she arrives to the KSHC with a history of working with the CoC agencies and the HMIS system. She said she is very excited about her new position and working to engage all service agencies in the Balance of State regardless of their funding. The funding coming into the state depends on the collaboration and local relationships of all the agencies. Part of the coordinated entry process has been coming up with these policies and procedures. She said as far as updates, there were upcoming changes to the coordinated entry requirements, and she will share the updated policies with this group. The next coordinated entry meeting for Lawrence/Douglas County is in May. Derakhshanian admitted that there are challenges with a statewide policy for coordinated entry, but drilling down to the regional level has found to be the most effective way to tackle the process. This allows for the CoC to personalize the structure within regions. The response network is already in place, but this closes the loophole and helps everyone move through the resource connections quickly. She said it saves time, money, and resources, and makes for a better client experience.

Derakhshanian indicated that the point-in-time count was in the final stages of analysis and that there was a strong count in Douglas County.

b. Emergency Shelter/Temporary Housing – LCS Update – Trey Meyer

Meyer was unable to attend the meeting. Faulk said he has been meeting with Meyer and the shelter is looking to expand services. They are set to try to renovate the warehouse area of the shelter to create an overnight area for overflow guests. The guests in this area are those who are not necessarily able to stay in the shelter for various reasons. Faulk said he is unaware of where the process is or where the funding stands, but the shelter is working towards it.

Faulk indicated that LCS was also working with DCCCA and Bert Nash to apply for a SAMSA grant, which will allow for the addition of case managers. The grant is due at the end of April and is for $400,000 a year. It is specifically designed for folks with mainly substance abuse disorders. The grant includes outpatient treatment, mental health treatments, and other aspects.

Derakhshanian offered to assist Faulk with data collection for the grant application.

Norm White asked about the grant’s delivery of service and if it would be onsite or offsite from the shelter.

Faulk said both in some sense. The case management aspect at the shelter will primarily work with those in the shelter. They will be coordinating with the other agencies to bring forth folks that qualify for the grant services. DCCCA will be where the treatment is given, and the therapy will be at Bert Nash. Bert Nash is the lead agency for the application.

Smith asked if there has been any talk about reduction in funding for homeless grants at the federal level.

Dresslar said that the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) and the Home Investment Partnerships Grant (HOME) are both being suggested for elimination under the President’s budget blueprint. Both these grants award money to homeless services.

Smith indicated she has heard that the grants that are specifically being looked at are those grants where there is little that agencies put in. Those where the agencies put something in are less likely to be eliminated. The others are being heavily looked at.

Dresslar said the blueprint states that the CDBG and HOME-type activities should be the responsibility of the cities and states to fund. CDBG been around since 1974 and it has done a lot of good in communities like Lawrence. HOME has been around since 1992. The budget blueprint going through as written is going to be difficult to adopt. That said, the city must be prepared for the possibility elimination of these grants, or at the very least significant cuts. Dresslar indicated that she had not heard anything about the Emergency Solutions Grant (ESG) in the discussion of cuts.

McKinley asked Faulk if LCS wanted to increase the capacity of the shelter with the new warehouse space.

Faulk said he was not sure that was the case. He said he did not think that was a possibility without amending the management plan.

McKinney said his concern is that the Police Department does not ban people from the shelter. The shelter bans people from the shelter. If LCS is banning someone and moving them to another part of the shelter, what type of supervision is going to be provided? If they are banned, and they return, the shelter usually contacts the police and the banned individuals is arrested. This will be a different level of responsibility.

Faulk said that this item has not been specifically talked about. He said most likely it will take a revision of the management plan. The notion of a ban might change under this new program and they will have to look at that aspect and staff it at all times it is in operation. The thought is that it will run from 7:00pm or 8:00pm to 7:00am or 8:00am. The location will offer very few amenities but will have things such as peanut butter sandwiches, coffee, and bedrolls.

Brouwer said that will be several layer of levels and they will need willingness to participate across the board.

Norm White asked if the facility will have a different access.

Faulk said yes and that it is not part of the main shelter.

c. Transitional Housing/Supportive Services – LDCHA – Laurie Hooker

Hooker was not able to attend but she provided this written statement to read to the board regarding transitional housing and permanent housing (letter e):

“LDCHA is running at around 99% occupancy of its standard HCV program, with 727 of 732 under lease. Remaining voucher slots are anticipated to be leased by voucher-holders already issued and searching. Until the federal funding situation is clearer, LDCHA is holding off on new issuances to many of its programs to ensure no over-obligation occurs and that commitment to existing holders can be maintained. VASH is in a similar situation with less than full occupancy at present but with voucher-holders searching that will bring up numbers to where LDCHA is comfortable holding rates. LDCHA’s domestic violence, foster care, and correctional reentry programs all have existing tenants but are presently frozen to new admissions other than the possibility of leasing two vacant units at LDCHA’s New Hampshire property for one-bedroom households.

Other than Public Housing routine turnover, transitional programs are where some capacity for numbers growth remains. Around 13 Bert Nash SPMI families and 15 homeless transitional families are presently under lease with a good additional number still searching. LDCHA is nearing the number of vouchers it can issue in the standard homeless transitional program but still can issue to several new SPMI referrals. LDCHA currently has 7 additional families under lease through the locally-sourced New Horizons program for families with children referred from Lawrence Community Shelter. Several more families were recently issued vouchers for this program which will bring LDCHA to capacity until more funding is awarded.

Taking all voucher programs into account, LDCHA sits at around 797 families currently under lease renting in the private local market with an additional 40 searching with vouchers.

Also of note, LDCHA recently completed a waitlist purge for its General Programs (S8 and Public Housing), removing over 100 applicants no longer in need of assistance or unreachable. Ample wait list numbers remain, but LDCHA can now focus attention and time on those still actively interested in programming.”

d. Permanent Supporting Housing – HOPE Building Update – Rae Johnson

Vivian Baars from the Salvation Army stated that the last Project Able household is looking for a unit to fill the last voucher. She said there are 14 households in the program.

Ortiz asked if they were still taking applications.

Baars said that is something they struggle with, because it is permanent housing and there is very little turnover. She said the agency feels like it provides a false hope, but that said, they will still take applications.

e. Permanent Housing – Section 8 Program – Laurie Hooker

See report from Laurie Hooker above

ITEM NO. 7 Calendar/Miscellaneous

The next meeting of the HIAC will be on July 11, 2017 and will contain a discussion regarding the 2019 budget letter. Additionally, Trey Meyer will be invited back to speak about LCS.

Ortiz said she could discuss the Family Promise temporary housing program expansion.

Faulk asked if the City’s Housing Trust Fund process could be updated for the committee.

ITEM NO. 7 Public Comment

Norm White said he appreciated that the agencies are talking across the entire continuum of services in the community.

Derakhshanian reminded the board that as a CoC, the Balance of State will be graded on several things and points that will come from HMIS data. There will still need to be collaboration and partnerships between all the agencies in the Lawrence/Douglas County region. The partnerships prove the work that the region is doing. She said not having people participate in HMIS can affect not only the funding in Lawrence, but in the entire state. She asked that the agencies encourage others to participate in HMIS.

ITEM NO. 8 Adjourn

Motion by Faulk to adjourn the April 11, 2017 meeting of the HIAC; seconded by Smith.

The motion passed 6-0. Meeting was adjourned at 10:00 am.

Attendance Record

Members

1/10

4/11

Vivian Baars

Michael Brouwer

Mathew Faulk

Laurie Hooker

Trent McKinley

Erick Ogwangi

Dana Ortiz

Teri Smith

Cary Strong

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