City of Lawrence, KS

Community Commission on Homelessness

August 8, 2006 Minutes (City Commission Room, City Hall)

MEMBERS PRESENT:	Katherine Dinsdale, Jane Faubion, Kim Gouge, Helen Hartnett, Phil Hemphill, Loring Henderson, Shirley Martin-Smith, Mike Monroe, Robert Mosely, Sara Taliaferro
MEMBERS ABSENT:	Richard Hemphill, Barbara Hogue
STAFF PRESENT:	Lesley Rigney and Margene Swarts
PUBLIC PRESENT:	Hubbard Collinsworth, Wes Dahlberg

Faubion called the meeting to order at 8:40 am.

Introductions

Members introduced themselves.

Approval of the agenda and the July 11, 2006 minutes

Mosely moved to approve the agenda and the July 11, 2006 minutes. Hartnett seconded the motion, which passed unanimously.

Presentation on Homeless Outreach Workers – Bert Nash

Lynn Amyx, Housing Coordinator and Homeless Outreach Team Coordinator for Bert Nash Community Mental Health Center introduced herself and handed out the first quarter report for the homeless outreach team. She clarified that the report covers 3/1-6/15 and the numbers are particularly impressive because workers were actually in the field for less than six weeks of that reporting period. She explained the report and stated that people who are chronically homeless and involved with substance abuse are harder to engage on a regular basis. Assertive Outreach is performed on the streets – looking at folks who are at risk. Regular Outreach is ongoing case management. All together, nearly 500 hours of direct service time were provided. Some workers may have only had one contact with one person but at the end of the quarter, 59 clients are actively involved in a plan (including children). A common barrier is that people have no ID’s and cannot access services without one. There also seem to be a lot of hidden homeless – families with children who are camping, couch-surfing, in cars, etc. The school district does not identify any homeless children but service agencies know differently. There is no safe shelter for families with children. There has been good response from agencies where workers are located. She talked about the limited number of transitional housing programs in the community. Bert Nash has two properties and LDCHA has one that is a permanent supportive housing program but there is no emergency interim housing – there is nowhere for a homeless individual in a wheelchair, mothers with children, etc. This is the largest gap they have seen. This group of homeless individuals either stay on the streets, in shelters or in motels (church funded) until their name comes up for TBRA. It would be much cheaper to rent an apartment for these families than to pay hotels for a month but most landlords will not accommodate this risk. If we had a house or an environment where folks could go, between Bert Nash, the homeless outreach team and Independence, Inc. case management – there are enough supportive services. She explained that the term “dual-diagnosis” refers to mental health and developmental disabilities; “co-occurring” refers to mental health and substance abuse issues. There are plenty of vacant units in Lawrence – they just are not affordable. Regarding the proposed Home Makers program, she questions paying someone from out of state to come in and do something we should be able to do with existing vacancies. The biggest difficulty for outreach workers is finding a place for clients to live.

Hartnett asked about the process of the outreach team – what does it mean when someone declines services or is not enrolled. Do they have to have complete an assessment before they are referred somewhere?

Amyx said no they do not, but when she developed this reporting system they had not yet started the work the report will probably look a bit different for next quarter. In reality, someone may call an outreach worker to report a potential homeless individual and the outreach worker may show up and the homeless individual can decline services or even just ask for a ride to the bus station. In those cases, they are not enrolled. Someone who initially declines, workers may continue to engage those people and some will eventually become involved and some will not.

Hartnett clarified that people do not necessarily have to do an intake or enroll to receive any type of assistance and stated that it might be helpful to capture that because there might be work hat is occurring that is not accounted for in this report.

Amyx said that is a good idea – workers actually keep logs of who has been contacted. People who have one-two interventions are considered enrolled. There is a lot of initial stuff going on that we may not be capturing.

Hartnett said that capturing those activities will show the city and others who do not understand case management – it helps them understand the nuances and that is part of the whole picture of serving the needs of the community.

Amyx said those one-time interventions can often be significant in the lives of some people – helping them to make a parole meeting or an SRS benefit meeting can have a lasting impact.

Dinsdale asked about the budget structure.

Amyx said very little is going to equipment – cell phones and backpacks are the only equipment for workers. There are administration costs but she would have to look at the budget to give them details. The brunt of the funding is going to salaries and transportation and a small amount for flex funds (paying deposits, meds, birth certificates). She introduced the full-time case managers and said that 90% of their time is spent out in the community, not in offices. She meets weekly with agencies where they are located in order identify consumers to avoid duplication, brainstorm ideas, to identify worrisome consumers, etc.

Monroe asked about the case workers’ hours and how police could contact case workers?

Amyx said they typically work 9-5. The work some evenings and weekends but she does not want to burn them out.

Faubion asked about the process for individuals in mental health crisis.

Amyx said Police and Bert Nash should be contacted – the outreach workers are not trained in mental health crisis.

Faubion asked about getting necessary drugs and treatment. Lawrence does not have an inpatient unit, so what happens?

Amyx said a wide variety of things can happen – clients have the right to refuse treatment unless they are a danger to themselves or others. If they do want assistance, police can transport to a mental health center and they can have an emergency screen to determine if they need or want to be in a hospital or if they can just be connected with services.

Dave Johnson said if there is an emergency situation, they will be seen by a clinician within two hours so that if they need to be hospitalized there will be someone in attendance until they are hospitalized. Clients who refuse will leave with a safety plan – it depends on the individual. If someone is not of danger to themselves or others, police cannot do anything – the cannot take someone into custody if there is no legal basis. If a person is in a crisis, they will have a screener seeing them within two hours.

Hartnett said she knows workers are co-located – are numbers tracked by agency? Do they float between agencies?

Amyx said it is not tracked by agency – they do float and they do shuffle consumers around so they are working with people they want to work with. Because there is so much communication they are efficiently using resources. The outreach team is maxed out on what they can manage and they may be starting a waiting list based on need.

Faubion said any time the city gives money to an agency, we are under scrutiny – CCH members have all had feedback from the community regarding the outreach team. We want to be good stewards of the money.

Amyx said she appreciates the questions and is happy to know the group is interested in their work.

Dinsdale asked the case workers what is missing?

Boy – Name? stated it would be a big help if there were no more drugs on the street. It really helps once the word gets out that case workers are actually helping people. A lot of relationship building is done during transportation. Girl (ECKAN?) Helping people obtain ID’s is a huge problem – someone who has no form of ID has trouble finding a way to access legitimate forms.

Martin-Smith said to the point of obtaining KS ID, could Hartnett take this issue to the state committee she serves on to see if there is anything anyone could do to speed up the process?

Hartnett said she will mention the problem to the Kansas Coalition on Homeless Concerns.

Amyx said the system is becoming much more streamlined because the outreach workers are in place throughout the whole process.

Martin-Smith said that obtaining and ID will be one of the biggest barriers for obtaining employment for the jobs component, which she is chairing.

Elect next Chair

Martin-Smith asked Gouge if he would consider serving as chair-elect, which would set him up to chair for one year after Faubion is finished. The term would begin July, 2007.

Gouge agreed to be nominated.

Martin-Smith moved to nominate Gouge to serve as Chair-Elect. Moseley seconded the motion, which passed unanimously.

Hartnett moved to close nominations and elect Gouge by acclamation. Dinsdale seconded the motion, which passed unanimously.

HMIS Update - Loring

Swarts said all agencies have been trained on the system, it is up and running and various agencies are doing input. MaacLink took so long to get everyone up in the community and they were waiting to bring Lawrence on until the upgrade was complete. The City only has access to aggregated data in report format. Currently there are nine agencies participating.

There was some discussion about whether or not the Violence Against Women Act permitted domestic violence shelters to participate in HMIS.

Hartnett is meeting with the state coalition and will find out if domestic violence shelters could participate in HMIS in any way.

Saunny said SRS is interested in participating.

Martin-Smith asked if there are other agencies who serve homeless that should be on the system.

Henderson said Healthcare Access would be a good one.

Hartnett clarified that HUD mandates that cities use HMIS in order to access funding.

Dinsdale said church providers have been able to casually work with service providers to determine who is using services – it would be helpful to know how much of that information is protected.

Hartnett said that is the controversy about HMIS – some communities use it to keep track of people and so a lot of social workers are against it because it computerizes the relationship. Some use it to reduce duplication of services.

Henderson said the Leo Center is another example of who might be good to join.

Faubion said it will be helpful in identifying the hidden homeless.

Subcommittee Reports

Mosely said the housing subcommittee met to discuss Transitional Housing and he read a summary of the meeting.

There was some discussion of the upcoming evaluation of city advisory boards.

Public Comment

Collinsworth congratulated everyone who is here today – he was becoming concerned with the participation level. He is wondering if there is a section in the bylaws that if members miss a certain number of meetings, they are asked to resign.

Henderson said with Hogue leaving, the City should make sure to get someone who represents the homeless population.

Swarts said to submit names to the manager’s office or to staff to be forwarded.

Dahlberg stated that the notes from the Transitional Housing meeting were not appropriate. The wording “The Salvation Army was invited but unable to attend” is inaccurate because they were never made aware of the exact time and location of the meeting. It was all very confusing.

Adjourn

The meeting adjourned at 10:00 am.