LINCOLN S CONTINUUM of CARE/HOMELESS COALITION

LINCOLN’S CONTINUUM of CARE/HOMELESS COALITION

MEETING MINUTES

5/24/2013

In Attendance: Andra Backer, CAP; Clarence Grendahl, MTKO; Kit Boesch, City of Lincoln; Beatty Brasch, CFPIN; Tamara Cartwright, UNL-CCFL; Jeff Chambers, UNL-CCFL; Jay Conrad, Houses of Hope; Leah Droge, Friendship Home; Jason Dubas, Lincoln ED Connections; Bobbi French, League of Human Dignity; Andrea Haberman, LLCHD; Lee Heflebower, CAP; Ruth Karlsson, Released and Restored; John Krejci, RAN; Sandy Lee, GA; Christina Lloyd, Cedars; Clarice Mackey, Salvation Army; Amber Maddox, TASC; Robin McDannel, United Way; Denise Packard, CenterPointe; Diana Poskochil, NE Dept of Corrections; Tom Randa, GNCC; Rob Robinson, VA; Nikki Siegel, The Bay; Anna Sullivan, Catholic Social Services; Susan Tatum, LHA; Sarah Virchow, LCCC; Chris Webster, LPS; Lea Wroblewski, Legal Aid; Monica Zinke, Fresh Start; Mary Rittenburg, Region V Systems; Liz Stewart, Pickit Mobile; Zach Christensen, Pickit

John Turner opened the meeting.

Minutes from April 2013 were reviewed and approved.

Treasurer’s report was reviewed and approved. There are 41 agencies on the membership list. Of the 39 that pay dues, 15 have not paid their 2013 dues.

Presentation Nebraska Homeless Assistance Program (NHAP) and Emergency Solutions Grant (ESG) Updates Cindy Kadavy, NHAP Coordinator, provided an update. NHAP allocated a combination of ESG funds (federal) and HSATF (state) funds. It is a two year funding cycle and the second year renewal process is underway for the 2012-2014 cycle. Decisions should be announced sometime in June. Currently there is a little over $2 million in funds across the state with $544,000 allocated in the Lincoln/ Lancaster County region. The current emphasis is on moving people to permanent housing and helping people in housing avoid homelessness. There is a new requirement for the allocation person (Cindy) to consult with the CoCs about priorities for funding. Nebraska has three CoCs: Omaha, Lincoln, and Balance of State. Any changes would go into effect with the 2014-2016 funding cycle. That application will be released in December 2013 and comments/suggestions for the application can be given to Cindy this fall. She will consider the suggestions along with mandates from the federal guidelines and make changes if appropriate and warranted. Currently funded activities include: street outreach, shelter, HPRP, and data management.

Cindy also advised of a change to ESG funds. The allocation for Lincoln will be coordinated through the Urban Development office starting on 07/01/13 because Lincoln will receive ESG funds directly from the government instead of them being given to the state and then reallocated. After this renewal year, the application and allocation process may be separate from the NHAP/HSATF process. Cindy and Bradd Schmeichel (Urban Development) are in discussions about this change

Presentation Reentry Alliance Nebraska Pastor Bob Bryan presented information about an event that is scheduled for Friday 5/31/13 at Trabert Hall. Steve Thomas with The Network for Better Futures, MN will present. A video about their program and statistics regarding their success was shown during the meeting. Pastor Bryan would like the group (and community) to look at services being provided to and the needs of people that are being released from incarceration and feels that the Better Futures program is a good model.

Committee Updates

Executive Committee- John Turner The strategic plan for the coalition was briefly addressed. It will be reviewed and potentially revised this year. Those interested in being involved should contact John. Executive committee and Data & Planning committee also will be involved.

Executive Committee has explored the process for obtaining 501(c)(3) status for the Coalition. Woods Charitable Fund has resources about how to apply and if an agency should apply; the executive committee has reviewed them Pros and cons were briefly discussed. Pros include being able to seek donations for events / services at Project Homeless Connect Lincoln, give more official status to the Coalition. Concerns/cons included the potential for competition for funding then, and the potential for the Coalition in the future to move into a direct care role because of funding received/available. It is suggested that something be added to the by-laws that states that the Coalition does not provide direct services or compete with member agencies.

Pershing event center was discussed. It was recommended that the Homeless Coalition send a letter to the city in support of keeping the center open for community events. It was also suggested that the Homeless Coalition send a letter asking for reduced costs for community events at the new arena.

Planning and Data- Jeff Chambers Bradd Schmeichel/ Urban Development is working on the specifics needed for ESG and the committee will review those and move forward. It has to be completed by September. Contact Jeff Chambers if you’d like to help with this. Summary of the Point in Time Count from January 2013 was provided. Number of homeless is almost het same as 2012 count. They are working on performance measures per the new HUD expectations for CoC and ESG applicants. This measures would be across the entire CoC and would include benchmarks to show that CoC/ESG program meet the standards. The PIT and Housing Inventory data was submitted to HUD. With changes from HUD, it may be that both the CoC and funded agencies would be monitored and have site visits.

Consumer Engagement- Rob Robinson, Chairs The next Employment Workshop is planned for July 10 from 10AM-2PM at Community Action. There will be 6-7 presenters who give information for approx. 10 minutes each and then participants can break into groups and seek out more information from/talk to the speakers directly. This is in an effort to make it a more helpful and hands on experience for the participants. Rob also provided an update on the work they are doing to compile a list of services provide by member agencies that would include services and eligibility criteria. The next meeting is at MTKO on May 7 at 9AM.

Public Awareness- Lee Heflebower, Chair Focus for the next few months will be Project Homeless Connect Lincoln. Youth- Chris Webster/ Nikki Siegel, Co- Chairs They plan to conduct a “mini-tour” of detention, Cedars, etc and have an mini- PHCL to people (mostly I&R) to connect youth to services. Over the summer, contact Nikki with questions or to be involved as Chris will be out of town most of May 31- August 1.

Project Homeless Connect- Monica Zinke, Chair The benefit concert for PHCL that was held on 4/20/13 raised $400 for the event. Monica shared comments from the voluntary survey that was given in 2012. Thank you to Denise and other committee members for gathering this information. Please contact Monica if you are interested in being involved with the committee, or if you have suggestions on what services to offer or how to improve the event. It will be held on 10/10/13 at Pershing from 10AM-3PM.

Rent and Utility Network- Lee Heflebower for Michelle Martinez, Chair Next meeting is on 6/17/13 at 1PM at CAP.

Reentry Alliance- John Krejci They are pursuing 501(c)(3) status. They are sponsoring the event on 5/31/13 that was discussed by the presenter.

SOAR- Dennis Hoffman They are training another person now. They also plan to offer another “SOAR Lite” seminar, which is a 2 hour long session about the basics of the SOAR program and SSI/SSDI applications. Lincoln has been one of the data collection sites for a national pilot program and was declared to have the cleanest data of all of the pilot sites.

Agency Updates were provided.

Meeting adjourned. The next meeting is scheduled for Friday 6/28/13 at 9:00AM at Cedars Northbridge.

Respectfully submitted by Monica Zinke