September 12, 2006 Minutes (City
Commission Room, City Hall)
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MEMBERS PRESENT: |
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MEMBERS ABSENT: |
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STAFF PRESENT: |
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Lesley Rigney and |
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PUBLIC PRESENT: |
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Ted Carter, Hubbard Collinsworth, Wes Dahlberg, Saunny,
Norman Scraper, Bill Sims |
Gouge called the meeting to order
at 8:40 am.
Introductions
Members introduced themselves.
Henderson announced the Good Neighbor
Agreement is still a work in progress – there will be public meetings in
October that will be announced to gather input and start asking folks to sign
on to the agreement. Also, the shelter is still looking for a building, which
is an ongoing project. The board will be setting up a capital campaign
committee. He also stated that the shelter has a new no intoxication policy
which means no one who is intoxicated can be on shelter property during the daytime.
He is not going to ban them from the shelter but he is asking them to leave for
the day. The success has been, with the patio in back, people like to hang out
there and staff is spending a large amount of time dealing with a few people. He
noted that intoxicated people are going to go someplace and if they are not on the
property of LCS they are going to parks or other buildings or alleys. It is not
something that is just the shelter’s problem – it is the community’s problem.
He is willing to work with DCCCA, Bert Nash, LKPD, etc. to address this
problem.
Approval of the
agenda and the August 8, 2006 minutes
Martin-Smith moved to approve
the agenda and the August 8, 2006 minutes. Hartnett seconded the motion,
which passed unanimously.
Advisory Board Coordination Meeting Update
Swarts stated the chairs of the
six related advisory boards met to discuss the purpose of each group. The consensus
of the chairs was that there does not need to be a big meeting at this time. However,
each group is going to pay more attention to what the others are doing and staff
is going to do weekly meetings updates with links to the agendas and minutes of
the various group’s meetings.
Martin-Smith said if there were a
lot of duplications, she would expect staff to identify and address them. She
is not concerned about it.
Swarts said there are a lot of Practitioner’s
Panel members who are also serving on the Housing Needs Task Force and there
are a lot of the same topics. The group also talked about having chairs attend
other group’s meetings but we do not want to overtax any one board or
commission or person with more meetings than they can handle.
Study Session
Several members plan to attend
the Study Session (SS) in
Martin-Smith asked the purpose of
the SS.
Swarts said the CC is touring the
library and sports arena complex and they decided to also visit the mission
since it is also a topic of interest.
Funding for Homeless Initiatives
Staff handed out the $230,000 request for homeless initiatives and stated it
was funded at the 2006 level of $209,000. In 2006, the $13,000 for staff
support was not really expended, but absorbed. That could be added to one of
the other components that were not funded.
Gouge clarified that the CCH needs
to discuss where they would like to see the $13,000 allocated.
Hartnett said the first thing she
sees is they asked for support for the Community Cooperation Committee (CCC)
and it has not received any funding. She suggested allocating $3,000 to that
group, the amount of their request.
Martin-Smith agreed.
Gouge asked if individual amounts
should be motioned – or if it should be done in one motion.
After a brief discussion the
group agreed to delay the remainder of the discussion until after the
subcommittee reports.
Subcommittee Reports
Jobs – Martin-Smith said she and
Gouge have been working with the jobs team. Even though they have called
together every social service and private employment agency, interest has not
been high. The challenge has been keeping people from reworking the jobs
component of the plan. Gouge has been good at keeping the group focused on “what
can we do now to help people who are ready to work.” They are now looking at a
list of needs and gaps in addition to what was identified by the Task Force
(TF). Generally there are a lot of services in place to deal with employment – it
seemed like a simple and straight-forward task and to some degree it is. The jobs
component says the CCH will contact the city (Parks and Recreation) to partner
to provide work experience. The group is meeting every two weeks and
participants want to move forward and get something done. She reminded the
group that transportation and safety equipment may become an issue after the jobs
report is finished at the end of the week. Work clothes are not addressed
anywhere.
Dinsdale stated that her
organization provides advocate/mentors to walk the system with applicants. She offered
to go through the process as a potential consumer and give feedback to the
group.
Martin-Smith will let Dinsdale
know when the next meeting is.
Gouge said that there appears to
be so many avenues and channels – the group is having trouble staying focused.
Dinsdale said some of the
training organizations in town might not be offering the right services – maybe
that is part of the discussion of the jobs component.
Martin-Smith said training is
kind of unusual. In the private sector employees can receive on the job
training – people don’t always have to go to a class to learn something. The challenge
seems to be intake - where we sit down and learn about strengths and barriers. The
team feels there are more soft skills that need to be addressed and then
companies will be willing to invest in the training.
Martin-Smith said the plan also
says they are going to go to downtown businesses to partner for employment
opportunities. She wants the homeless to not be identified as homeless – she
wants them to integrate into the work force as anyone else will do.
Martin-Smith said there needs to
be better coordination of services. If there is a serious gap, we can look at
it. We have to work with current resources otherwise. The norm is to ask for
more money, but we have to make it work with what we have right now.
Gouge said it is about making the
process work efficiently and removing some of the barriers to obtaining employment.
Housing – Mosely stated the
housing subcommittee needs to reinvent itself. There were originally three
members and now two members are gone – he is the only one left. He is upset and
discouraged. Taliaferro is no longer on the committee and Hemphill has not been
present for months. He spoke with Faubion about needing support but has not
received any.
Gouge asked Mosely to please not
become discouraged yet. He stated that the CCH needs someone to step up and
help out with this committee because it is very important.
Martin-Smith clarified that
Mosely has not been able to pull together a team to look at the housing
component of the plan.
Mosely stated they had one
meeting of housing providers and there was supposed to be a second.
Quality of Life –
Emergency Shelter -
Martin-Smith said if the CCH is
ever going to discuss the possibility of a 24/7 shelter, she would like to feel
like they pushed the plan forward during the first year. If no retreat is
scheduled she would at least like to meet with LCS/SA boards to gain a better understanding
of the gaps.
Dinsdale said the rubric the
Emergency Shelter group is developing showed gray areas that agencies needs to
claim and do well – it may be others than those who are currently participating
in emergency shelter services. Many of those issues cannot be advanced until
some things are settled – neighborhood issues, etc.
Dinsdale said the committee got
off to a good start. The plan was to have another meeting. They have started a
rubric/matrix of existing services that they need to finish.
Gouge said he feels the needle is
moving – the group can feel good about subcommittee work.
Funding for Homeless Initiatives
After hearing subcommittee reports,
Hartnett moved to allocate the $13,000 as follows: $3,000 for CCC
operations, $3,000 additional for transportation, $3,000 additional 24/7
shelter operations, and an additional $4,000 to the case management component.
Martin-Smith seconded the
motion.
Dinsdale said the city declined
to provide funding for putting property on hold for shelter exploration – could
this money go to that?
Swarts said it needs to go to one
of the proposed activities – that is outside the scope of the request.
Dinsdale stated that Interfaith
is looking at a new transitional housing program. Is it too late for them to
apply for any of this?
Swarts said yes.
The motion passed unanimously.
Martin-Smith asked to discuss an
additional item. The county is doing re-entry planning and focusing on
employment. She would like to see a link between them and the CCH.
Swarts asked if the letter should
invite a member of the re-entry planning team to a CCH meeting and talk about
their activities and how the CCH might facilitate what they are doing.
Hartnett said yes and seconded
the motion, which passed unanimously.
Public Comment
Collinsworth said the last agenda
item is the charge of the CCC. He is angry that the CCH did not even suggest
the CCC be brought into this.
Martin-Smith asked what
Collinsworth is suggesting going forward.
Collinsworth said to give the CCC
the authority they just gave Gouge. The CCC is the group charged with initial
contact, gathering and dissemination of information.
Hartnett asked for clarification.
Collinsworth said the CCH charged
the CCC with communication and just cut their legs out from under them. There
is no direct representative of the CCC on the CCH. He is also concerned with low
attendance.
Ted Carter asked how the county’s
initiative is going to be funded.
Carter clarified that
Norm Scraper said yesterday when
he was visiting the Haskell Health Center he noticed the old Latter Day Saints complex
is up for sale and it might make a good 24/7 shelter.
Saunny said she appreciates that
notices have been going to newspaper but was there an apology sent to the
public who missed the June meeting. She also asked if someone applies for a job,
is offered a job and the offer is pulled after shelter address is given – is
that legal.
Martin-Smith said she does not
know, but Legal Aid Services or the city’s Human Relations Department will know
and she may contact them for clarification.
Dinsdale stated that Taliaferro
resigned from the CCH because she does not have the time, but there does need
to be firm representation from the CCC on the CCH.
Bill Sims said he has not heard any
discussion regarding his concern with violence. He was chased from LCS property
by a drunk and if he was a student it would have been addressed. At what point
will LINK and LCS come to their senses and hire a security person for $15,000 –
a law suit will be a hell of a lot worse. The Coalition on Homeless Concerns
has not been helpful – he took a grievance about having to stand out for an
hour on Christmas Eve and nothing has come of it. The general attitude toward
homeless is that they do not count. When will a nice KU student get injured by
LCS/LINK guests – at what point will they decide there is a problem?
Scraper said Sims missed the
first part of the meeting where
Adjourn
There being no further public
comment, the meeting adjourned at 9:50 am.