City of Lawrence, KS

Community Commission on Homelessness

July 11, 2006 Minutes (City Commission Room, City Hall)

 

MEMBERS PRESENT:

 

Katherine Dinsdale, Phil Hemphill, Loring Henderson, Shirley Martin-Smith, Robert Mosely, Sara Taliaferro, Helen Hartnett, Jane Faubion

 

 

 

MEMBERS ABSENT:

 

Kim Gouge, Barbara Hogue

 

 

 

STAFF PRESENT:

 

Lesley Rigney and Alicia Ellingson

 

 

 

PUBLIC PRESENT:

 

Saunny, Hubbard Collinsworth, Teresa Staskal, Rick Marquez, Wes Dalberg, Hilda Enoch

 

 

 

 

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

 

Introductions

 

Members introduced themselves.

 

Approval of the agenda and the June 12, 2006 minutes

 

Martin-Smith moved to approve the agenda and the June 12, 2006 minutes. Robert seconded the motion.

 

Discuss Chair/Co-chair and Terms

 

Faubion stated that Ed Brunt has resigned and recommended an individual from Police.

 

Taliaferro stated she is resigning as of today, but will continue her work on subcommittees and will continue as chair of the CCC.  Due to family concerns, she is unable to serve on the CCH any more and she feels her voice is less important on this committee; her primary goal is to make sure the CCC stays moving. She recommended Rich Marquez, director of Downtown Lawrence, Inc., as a replacement.  Personally, he has an interest in this committee’s work and professionally, he brings Downtown Lawrence to the table.

 

Martin-Smith confirmed that Marquez is interested in serving.

 

Taliaferro said yes, contingent on the committee, chair, and Mayor’s approval.

 

Rigney stated that once Taliaferro submitted a letter of resignation the opening will be announced and posted on the web. Members of the public can submit letters of interest.

 

Martin-Smith thanked Taliaferro for her service and ongoing willingness to work on the subcommittee.

 

Faubion stated she is willing to act as sole chair of the CCH.  There are many reasons to have a co-chair, however she would argue in favor of just one chair, in terms of leadership.  It allows one front contact.  Another option is to have a chair-elect and Faubion is interested in electing someone to that position today.

 

Martin-Smith stated that initially the group needed a co-chair as some of us were very new.  She would support the idea of having a chair-elect, but she is not prepared to select someone without talking to members informally.

 

Faubion asked about term length.

 

Hartnett stated that the group had originally wanted co-chairs to rotate, to prevent burn out and get more people involved.  A chair-elect will know what goes on, and can run meetings in the chair’s absence.

 

Faubion stated that a co-chair needs to be elected next month and asked when her term up?

 

Rigney stated that the original chair appointment was a 3-month term, which is technically expired.

 

Henderson moved to elect Faubion as chair for a one-year term.  Dinsdale seconded the motion, which passed.

 

Hartnett clarified that the next meeting would include an election of a chair-elect.

 

Faubion said absolutely and encouraged members to discuss possibilities outside of meeting time. She stated that she wanted to leave ample time for public comment and moved to subcommittee reports.

 

Subcommittee Reports

 

Jobs Subcommittee - Martin-Smith said the next  meeting is at 3:30pm tomorrow afternoon.  She and Gouge have met and are chairing the job component.  The initially invited all agencies who said they were interested in this component and there has been a lot of support through e-mails.  Getting them all together has been a challenge.  She invited any members to attend.

 

Housing Subcommittee – Mosely stated they are contacting various housing organizations like Pelathe, etc.  

 

Taliaferro said they had developed a planning proposal.  Hemphill put together a one-page summary of the task force plan for housing programs.  They are trying to meet with Commissioner Highberger.  The next step is to organize a short presentation to review transitional housing as it exists now and the direction it will take.  They are having discussions with other committees so as to clearly define our terms early.

 

Faubion said the group may plan to have a presentation about transitional housing at the August meeting. 

 

Rigney stated that Lynn Amyx is giving a presentation in August about the progress of the homeless case managers.

 

Emergency Shelter – Henderson stated that LCS approached the City Commission (CC) two weeks ago for a loan to explore potential uses of Lakeview Manor.  They tied 2-2 and thus did not support the request for $50,000.  There was some neighborhood opposition but the seven acres is about as good of a buffer as we will have in a metropolitan area.  There were other suggestions for shelter location.  The $ 2 million asking price is considered too high.

 

Faubion stated that in their discussion, Mike Amyx was pretty clear about some things. She needs to put together a plan that is called a Continuum of Care and states how to end homelessness in 10 years.

 

Henderson stated that it should say to “reduce” homelessness.

 

Faubion stated that most say “to end”.  From there, she will put together a flow chart that includes emergency, transitional, and permanent cheap housing.  Another sheet needs to say who is providing the services, what is the cost for individuals.  Agencies should be able to say that for this amount of money and services, we expect this many people to be helped.  We need something simpler to end chronic homelessness in 10 years.  We need to set up a finance committee to look at what is being spent.  We need to send a letter signed by the Mayor to all agencies, asking for this information. 

 

Taliaferro stated that she has started drafting that letter.  It was put on hold per a request while meeting with Amyx, but she would be glad to pick up that charge again. She said that there does not exist a concise, accessible, transparent report that any one in the community can look at and know where money is being spent and how programming ties together.  In our subcommittees, we bring up new agencies, people we haven’t thought of and it isn’t clear who is doing what with services.  If we had that, we would gain credibility in the community.  The community could bring input.  Secondly, we have not done a good job of getting the community involved in dialogue.  We have not done public relations.  We are not out in the community negotiating effective change. 

 

Martin-Smith said there is a lot of dysfunctionality in this community about this issue.  The CCH hasn’t had any time to discuss the county’s role in this and it is more than she can consider at this time but the community does need to know how money is being spent.  That is the CC’s job and the CCH can advise them.  The CCH needs to look at this plan, decide what should be implemented and what needs changed.  We need to know the exact issues and be able to tell them.

 

Dinsdale stated that initially, the CC wanted to adopt the plan.  But, by declining the $50,000 exploration money they are not supporting the investigation of this.  

 

Hemphill stated that if the CCH went into the CC tonight and said “we support the Topeka model, we want that,” then they will get the money.  Schauner and Amyx support the Topeka model, but caregivers do not support this plan.

 

Hartnett stated that the Topeka model is just like transitional housing.  People don’t have an understanding of what it really means.  She had a discussion with the Mayor who said he liked that people are out of sight.  She wants to know what people mean by “Topeka model” – the programming, the funding?

 

Hemphill stated that he doesn’t understand how Hartnett does not understand the Topeka model.

 

Hartnett stated that she knows what Topeka does, but the CC does not.

 

Hemphill stated the CC toured the Topeka Mission.

 

Hartnett stated that they did not tour the Mission with the Task Force. They could have done it on their own.

 

Henderson stated that he has communicated to the CC that the only thing Lawrence doesn’t have that Topeka does is the prayer groups, but that didn’t seem to get heard at all or recognized in conversation.  At the same time, LCS is helping a lot of people into jobs and housing.

 

Taliaferro stated that her observation is that people assume what is going on in programming.  If we went through item by item and discussed what we have or what we need to do, we may have something similar to Topeka.  Topeka has a united community behind them; that’s what we do not have.

 

Mosely stated that the CCH was put together to help solve the issue of homelessness. Every time we go to the CC, our requests/recommendations are turned down.  We are a buffer between the commission and the people who don’t want this thing.  Unless the CC stands firm, the CCH is going nowhere.  If you see a problem out there and if you are not a part of the solution, you are a part of the problem yourself.

 

Faubion asked if the CCH would like to hear from Wes Dahlberg with the Salvation Army about what is needed for the CC meeting tonight.

 

Dahlberg stated that specifically tonight, the Salvation Army is in a position where the neighborhood has taken a stand that they just do not want us in the neighborhood.  No matter what hoops they ask us to go through, they really want us to go away.  We do not intend to do that but if the conditions put on us force us to not act as the Salvation Army, we will have an empty building for a long time.  We will not sell our soul.  The neighbors have had a loud voice in advance, in commission meetings, etc.  But, we need to focus not just on East Lawrence, but on all of Lawrence.  If we continue, eventually the community will see we are enhancing the neighborhood, not bringing it down.  What is currently the Salvation Army, that is not what we see ourselves as in the future.  We are existing in facilities that are not designed and are not capable of performing our services.  We are taking a step away from emergency shelter and getting into more rehabilitative housing.  We need to see Henderson get a new facility.  Tonight, the best way to help the SA is to help the CC understand that this is a community-wide issue.

 

Faubion stated that she has had discussions with some CC members about the CCC and their services to the community.  Their role is to facilitate good relations between neighbors and organizations.  They should be a good tool for anyone meeting neighborhood resistance.  We are on a cusp.  We have two organizations ready to move to the next step, to make things happen.  It’s time to think about the entire community, not individual interests built on old perceptions with no idea what a new reality will be.  Tonight will set the precedent for any other organization, including LCS. 

 

Martin-Smith said that any restrictions placed upon SA or other organizations is a slap in the face to the CCH. 

 

Dahlberg said the neighborhood does not want anything with transient services or drop-in services - they don’t want anything.  The neighborhood association filled the room at the last meeting and that makes a strong statement.  We need people there on behalf of the SA.  It would be beneficial for anyone to come speak.

 

Taliaferro asked if there is any chance that the CCH step forward and say, if the SA and LCS are willing to work with us, we (CCC) are the body that works with these issues.

 

Dahlberg stated the SA has a site plan and meets all of the conditions.  They have no reason not to approve the site plan.  The zoning, however, the neighbors want to attach conditions to.  That is the direction they are heading - conditional zoning as opposed to a special use permit.

 

Taliaferro stated that SA needs to work on this with CCC. 

 

Dahlberg stated that the City has been drawing this out for five months and he doesn’t know how much longer they can drag this out and come up with any funds to build the building.  That’s his fear.

 

Taliaferro stated that they may even want to bring in a professional mediator.  We need to get everyone there and an open dialogue.  Then we can work with the relations with the community. She moved to extend the meeting for ten minutes for public comment. Mosely seconded the motion, which passed.

 

Public Comment

 

Collinsworth stated that he is working now making $5.15/hour and is living in transitional housing.  He is concerned with the wasting of money that can be used to house people.

 

Saunny stated that SA has new neighbors from Habitat.  Those might be friends, people who would support the SA.

 

Sims stated that we are being reactive.  We need to be proactive.  We need to promote them with the commission and in the community.  It doesn’t have to be as miserable as it is.  We can be happy to be here as we accomplish something.  He is a little worried about LINK.  Will the support for LINK continue?  It is important to have a food program.  It doesn’t help just the homeless, but people who are precariously housed, or just plain poor.  24/7 shelter – he is all for that but he is for housing first.  He is not for a 24/7 without a housing first component.  You put me there, without a way out.  This is a job first community.  LDCHA says you must work first, then find housing.  The CCH can get a tour of the emergency shelters in town, but they won’t know what it’s like, staying over night to see what happens when it’s real people.  We need to look outside of Kansas for models.  What I have heard from Topeka, it’s not so rosey.  Lawrence is mean, in the sense that we don’t want certain elements here.  We don’t want the poor, trailer parks, etc.  A tool shed is better housing than the shelter.  It’s bigger than the room I stayed in with 2 or 3 people.  The building at 31st street will not help anyone who drinks unless they want to stop.  It is too far from the local bars.  We need to look at if that will be able to meet the true needs.

 

Enoch stated that Lawrence needs transitional housing for people with mental illness and drinking problems.  We need to do that more than cramming people together.  We need to see how many people we can help, how many can we house?

 

Adjournment

 

The meeting adjourned at 10:15am.