June 15, 2011 Meeting Minutes
1. Meeting called to order at 2:00 PM by Vice-Chair Darlene Cook.
2. Attendance: Darlene Cook – Vice-Chair, Sarah VanCleve – Secretary, Walt LeCouteur, Betsi Kuker, Greg Fontenette, Jim Stowers, Clara Ann Ness, Diana Gilman, Laura Kahle, Danielle Perez, Jennifer Laslovich, Terry Schroeder, Kirsten Jewell, Darin Gemmer, Beverly Kincaid, Ruth Westergaard, Jackie Brown, Sheila Gilliam, Linda Hollingsworth, Leann Weaver, Greg Alkire, Vicki Adams, Leif Bentsen
3. Introductions were made around the table.
4. Agenda Review: No changes were made to the agenda.
Minutes: May meeting minutes – Sarah VanCleve moved to approve, Greg Fontenette seconded and they were approved as presented.
Pierce County Coordinated Entry – Troy Christensen: Troy works for Pierce County and oversees their homeless programs. They received a Gates Foundation grant in order to evaluate and build up their homeless systems. As a part of that, they decided to put together a comprehensive coordinated entry program. There are some differences between coordinated entry and centralized intake: coordinated entry ~ the way people get into the system is coordinated; centralized intake ~ is a form of coordinated entry that is centralized in one or more locations. There are many different ways to do coordinated entry.
Pierce County decided to set aside $750,000 of the homeless housing funding (2163) increase from 2331, with a match from Washington Family Fund. They decided they wanted to have a single organization responsible for doing the comprehensive risk assessments (intake and screening). Associated Ministries is the agency that is responsible for the coordinated entry. Some agencies still do a full assessment. They will be putting into the Consolidate Homeless Grant program that agencies cannot directly accept referrals (all referrals must go through Associated Ministries) and that they cannot repeat questions to clients (cannot do another full assessment). Several agencies were able to either eliminate intake staff or change the function of that staff person when this process started. They have a few agencies that continue to say they get mis-matches, but the majority do not. They allow agencies to indicate areas of specialization. Both the Tacoma and Pierce County Housing Authorities participate. The process works as follows:
- The client calls to make an appointment. Phone screening (3 pages) is done to determine if they are eligible for prevention services, which could be received in 2-3 days.
- If not eligible for prevention services, they receive an appointment for an intake/full assessment in about 2 weeks. There are two appointments set aside each day for emergencies.
To determine the numbers of people that they thought they would need to assess on a monthly basis, they used the most recent PIT count, HMIS information, OSPI information, and turnaways from agencies that serve homeless families in Pierce County. For a definition of homeless, they decided to use the HEARTH Act definition as it is the broadest. Using that information, they felt they would have about 500 persons per month who were actually homeless; they ended up with an unduplicated number of 2200 qualified persons per month and are still at that rate. The vast majority are families ~ those timing out of unemployment benefits, TANF benefits and soon Disability Lifeline benefits. Within the first month, they were 6 weeks out to get an appointment. They added some temporary staff and two interns and narrowed the definition of homeless and have decreased that to about 2 weeks to get an appointment. Those who need simple prevention go through the phone screening and then are served. They are working on a separate system for anticipated openings (a web-based spreadsheet). Agencies would go in each day and put in their anticipated openings. They do work with 2-1-1, who can forward calls to Central Intake. They initially asked for extended hours, 7 am to 7 pm and four locations (downtown Tacoma, Helping Hand House ~ Puyallup, WorkSource ~ Lakewood, Children’s Home Society ~ Key Peninsula). Based on information from Grand Rapids, Michigan, they did not feel there was enough activity over the weekends to warrant keeping the office open. Victims of domestic violence do not need to go through central intake, but all other populations do. For those people who cannot be placed immediately, staff work with them to determine ways to prevent them from becoming homeless or places where they can stay until a shelter opens up. Pierce County is releasing an RFP this week for a landlord liaison position. Their coordinated entry system is called “Access Point 4 Housing” and the website is www.associatedministries.org/pages/access4housing.htm.
Coordinated Grant Application – Kirsten Jewell: For review of the Coordinated Grant Applications, a Grant Recommendation Committee (GRC) is needed. This committee will have a total of 4 persons recommended by the Continuum of Care Coalition ~ two for the public service applications and two for the capital applications. Since no one who is affiliated with an agency applying, most of the CoCC members will not be able to be on the GRC. There are specific types of experience that they are looking for in each group. An application has been developed, which will be included in the Thursday Journal this week. The funders would like to have geographic diversity and experience diversity, among the full GRC (a total of 8 members for public service and 8 for capital. The application packet is online and a calendar is at the front of the packet. They will be using partial electronic submittal, but will still require 3 paper copies and 1 pdf on a cd or jump drive. The CoCC will need to identify 2 persons to sit on the Grant Review Committee (GRC) for the public service applications and two people for the capital applications. We will discuss the process for this at a later date.
CoCC Bylaws – Terry Schroeder: The bylaws were approved via an email vote and the revised bylaws will be sent with the Thursday Journal this week.
COMMITTEE REPORTS:
Outside Homeless – Terry Schroeder: At the last meeting, there was discussion regarding a draft business plan for a 24/7 shelter; the draft is about 60-75% complete. There was also discussion regarding a proposal from Bremerton Rescue Mission to open a permanent overnight emergency shelter. This is in the early stages. Walt LeCouteur has put together an informational sheet on this and that will be included with the Thursday Journal this week. The committee was invited to participate in the “Lunch with the Electeds” and the Safety Net Forum that follows lunch. A motion was brought forth from the Outside Homeless Committee to: Have the CoCC send a letter to jurisdictions encouraging them to enact an emergency ordinance allowing recreational vehicles on private property. Leif Bentsen moved and Walt LeCouteur seconded a motion, Send a letter to city jurisdictions encouraging them to adopt legislation that allows organizations and private property owners to establish encampments, safe parks and other provisions for the homeless similar to Kitsap County Ordinance # 466-2010 . The motion passed.
Community Education and Outreach – Terry Schroeder: They continue to work on updating the brochure on “Ways to Help the Homeless”. The Executive Committee had a few suggestions, including that only member agencies should be included. A suggestion was made to change the title so that we are not identifying people as homeless. The suggestion was “How You can Help End Homelessness in Kitsap County”. That will be brought back to the committee and the Executive Committee.
AGENCY UPDATES:
The Salvation Army – Greg Fontenette: Sally’s Camp will be closing as of June 27. They have some supplies available, such as toys, microwave oven, and kitchen equipment. Contact Greg if interested.
Housing Kitsap – Jennifer Laslovich: Housing Kitsap currently has positions open ~ 1) Procurement Officer, 2) Assistant Housing Manager, 3) Assistant Maintenance Manager and 4) Temporary Maintenance person. Jennifer reported that they have a balanced budget prior to the start of their fiscal year and that Julie Graves will be the designated CoCC representative for HK. Both Eli’s Place and Martin Avenue are now owned and operated by YWCA. Both were previously owned by HK and Martin Avenue had been operated by KCR until the first part of this year when YWCA took it over. Eli’s Place has always been operated by YWCA. On July 25, they are moving to the Norm Dicks Government Center (NDGC). They will be closed on July 22 and July 25, reopening on July 26 at the NDGC.
Kitsap County – Leif Bentsen: He would like to have a group of leaders from the CoCC to set a date and time to meet for a couple of hours to start working on a convincing proposal for the Commissioners regarding the Veterans and Human Services Levy. They set June 29 at 9:00 am at KCR as the time to meet. They need to document the need for this levy, including the impact of state and federal budget cuts. One question for the providers is what the demand on your services is. Members present agreed to support a Veterans and Human Services levy.
Agape – Diana Gilman: They have five openings in their project-based housing. This is for single females, in recovery who are homeless at the time they enter housing and are disabled.
Kitsap Parent-Child Assistance Program – Clara Ann Ness: They have a couple of openings for women who are pregnant or within 6 months post-partum and used alcohol/drugs during pregnancy. The KPCAP can work with the mothers for 3 years to help them stabilize their lives.
YWCA – Jackie Brown: They have one bed available. They have newly acquired some transitional housing for families affected by domestic violence. They have two or three families that they can assist with permanent housing through their Home Plus program.
Kitsap Recovery Center – Linda Kerkes: The Guest House is full; they have six people housed there and all of them are out in the community looking for employment.
Bremerton Housing Authority – Sarah VanCleve: They opened their wait list for section 8 on June 13 and will keep it open until it hits 500. They anticipated a large number of people to be waiting on Monday morning, but there were only a few and it hasn’t hit 500 yet. They have made a decision on five of the $10,000 grants, but need to have it approved by the Board before announcing. They will re-open the process and those who were not funded or anyone who wasn’t able to put in a request can resubmit an application in August.
Kitsap Regional Coordinating Council – Kirsten Jewell: The date of the orientation for the Grant Recommendation Committee (GRC) is August 10 instead of August 11. The GRC also need to have access to a computer as they will receive the applications on a disc.
DSHS – Bremerton CSO – Danie Perez: Their reduced hours of operation will continue through June.
Housing Resources Board – Phedra Elliott: They are breaking ground on Ferncliff Village. Eighteen have been sold. To qualify, a family must be below 80% AMI for Kitsap County.
Sound Grants – Bev Kincaid: Bev is now officially a Bremertonian. They have completed their move from Port Orchard to Bremerton.
Georgia’s House – Leann Weaver: They are currently housing eleven women and one child and have a family of three coming in today. They have provided 499 bed nights as of June 3 and have utilized 319 volunteer hours as of May 30.
Bremerton Rescue Mission – Walt LeCouteur: They have ordered their Mobile Shower Unit this month and will have it out in the community as soon as possible once they receive it. They had to shut down their Monday evening meal site as the location owner changed hands. They are taking over the Tuesday/Thursday meals at Sylvan Way Baptist.
The meeting adjourned at 4:00 pm.
Respectfully Submitted,
Sarah VanCleve, Secretary
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