Chair Lee Heflebower Opened the Meeting

Lincoln Homeless Coalition Meeting Minutes July 24, 2015

Attendance: Susie Blue, MTKO; Beatty Brasch, Center for People in Need; DeGroot, Heather, House of Hope/ TASC; Leah Droge, Friendship Home; Sarah Fentress, Community Action; Lee Heflebower, Community Action; Dennis Hoffman, CenterPointe; Mary Kelly, Good Neighbor Community Center; Alison Kortefay, St. Monica’s; Christina Lloyd, Cedars; Maria Lopez, Catholic Social Services; Clarice Mackey, Salvation Army; Rhonda Mattingly, Bridges to Hope; Sarah Meints, NE State Penitentiary; Patricia Miller, Lincoln Vet Center; Tom Dierks, Lutheran Family Services; Tom Randa, Good Neighbor Community Center; Diana Schilf, Realtor’s Association; Bryan Seck, LPS; Nikki Siegel, The Bay; Terry Uland, Downtown Lincoln Association; Sarah Virchow, Community Corrections; Abby White, People’s City Mission; Monica Zinke, Fresh Start; Jenni Hagen, Dept. of VA; Blair Banas, Salvation Army; Carl Eskridge, City Council; Wende Baker, United Way; Nancy Green, Clinic with a Heart; Andrea Wever, Adult Parole; Theresa Cusic, Legal Aid; Amber Dean, People’s City Mission; Ashley Bambraugh, Project Everlast; Kris Whisenhut, Project Everlast; Jana McDonald, Cedars; Michaela Young, Cedars; Michaela Elsener, Region V Systems; Leighon Brabec, Realtor’s Association; Christina Krivolavek, Realtor’s Assocaition; Lea Barker, Realtor’s Association; Dennis Mehrhoff, Woods Bros/ Realtors Association; Emily Zink, Dept of Corrections.

Chair Lee Heflebower opened the meeting.

Minutes from the June 2015 meeting were approved.

Treasurer’s Report was reviewed. Current balance is $8,141.78, including PHCL of $3,246.53. Expenses were conference registrations for Susie Blue to attend the National Alliance to End Homelessness Conference in July. Deposits were $1,000 from NIFA for Project Homeless Connect.

Presentation #1: Check Presentation Diana Schlif, Realtors Association Diana Schlif, along with other members of the Realtors’ Association of Lincoln, presented a check for $1,000 for Project Homeless Connect Lincoln.

Presentation #2: NAEH Conference Overview Susie Blue Matt Talbot Kitchen and Outreach.

See attached notes from Susie Blue regarding the NAEH conference.

Committee Reports

Executive, Lee Heflebower NOFA will be out soon. The next meeting for the 10 year plan to end homelessness is on September 15. Lee will send out information.

Planning and Data, Dennis Hoffman If you have questions about the NOFA, please contact Dennis. Consumer Engagement, Lee Heflebower Lea Wroblewski will be chair as Andra Baker has left Community Action and is no longer on the committee.

Youth, Cristina Lloyd Committee is working on another job and resource fair, to be held on October 27 at 2pm at Lincoln High.

Street Outreach and Coordinated Entry, No report.

Public Awareness, Bryan Seck Community meeting, specifically for downtown entities, was held on 7/22/15 at 11AM at Lincoln Community Foundation and had good attendance. It was a good start, and notes from the meeting will be shared soon.

Discharge Planning/ ReEntry, Patricia Miller The last meeting was on 7/21/15. They spent the time learning about one another’s agencies. One common concern raised was lack of transportation when discharged from incarceration. Local churches help with the first day but they would like to expand that help to one week.

Project Homeless Connect Lincoln, Monica Zinke Save the Date for Tuesday 9/29/15 with set up on Monday 9/28/15. The committee continues to plan and to work on additional services. Animal services are in the works, as are vehicle repair vouchers. There also may be limited podiatry in the afternoon. Legal is working on additional legal services, and possible an amnesty day like that occurs in Omaha. The poster has been sent and the provider registration will be sent in the next week or two. Fundraising also continues. It is going well, as long as the VA does help with venue costs (answer pending from VA). Otherwise, more funds will be needed if we want to add services. Please contact a committee member if you have any leads for services or would like to help. The next meeting will be after the next Homeless Coalition meeting on 8/28/15.

SOAR, Dennis Hoffman for Denise Packard “SOAR lite” training occurred and had great attendance- approximately 35 people.

Rent and Utility Network, The meetings are on the 3rd Monday of the month at Community Action at 1pm. Next one is 8/17/15.

Agency Updates were given.

Next meeting will be August 28, 2015.

Respectfully submitted by Monica Zinke, Homeless Coalition Secretary Susanne Blue, CMSW Executive Director, Matt Talbot Kitchen & Outreach (MTKO)

Presentation on 2015 National Conference on Ending Homelessness

Conference was July 15-17th in Washington DC

Attended the Following Sessions

Rapid Re-Housing 101 for Providers and Community Leaders It consisted of tips and training to practitioners and community leaders with skills and strategies to successfully understand and implement rapid re-housing as part of larger, system-wide approach to ending homelessness. It went over the Core Components of this model which are:  housing identification,  recruitment of landlords,  rental and move-in assistance,  case management to a limited degree and it is suggested that the case management is more effective after housing than before housed. Best practices must include finding and engaging good landlords, assistance negotiating with landlords, offering choice by engaging participants in what they want. It’s important to have a “damage fund” to assist landlords with property damage.

Alliance Conference Jump Start This entailed tips on how to navigate the conference. They had over 1,000 attendees and it was sold out. 60% of people attending were new to the conference. The main focus was to learn about research on homelessness, best practices and advocacy efforts. It is not really designed to build sills for practitioners.

Keynote: Nan Roman-CEO National Alliance to End Homeless & Muriel Bower, DC Mayor Ms. Roman feels that Rapid Re-Housing is the most successful model for families in crisis and is less costly. Research is showing that Transitional housing is more costly and doesn’t produce any better outcomes. She stated we need to advocate for more Section 8 Housing Vouchers and stressed the importance of ending homelessness for Veterans. These would be main focuses for Capitol Hill Day. She thought HHS should lead the effort on youth homelessness not HUD. She also stated that services for Permanent Supportive Housing are the best intervention for those experiencing chronic homelessness. DC is investing $35 Million for Permanent Supportive Housing and $20 Million for Rapid Re Housing. They just opened a daytime service center which was the first one in 10 years! The DC Mayor was very inspiring and motivated to addressing and ending homelessness. She is their champion.

Finish the Job: Ending Chronic Homelessness Here they spoke about the need to scale up permanent supportive housing if we are going to be successful in ending chronic homelessness. Speakers shared there was an Opening Doors 2015 Amendment where every community will have a systematic response to housing assistance and services. When homelessness occurs there should be a quick response with immediate access to shelter and services. Using assertive outreach, engagement and discharge planning is key along with standardized assessment and prioritizing rapid placement to permanent housing with low barriers. Services must be linked to health. Expanded Medicaid is key to fund services in housing settings. President’s budget is $5.5 billion in targeted homelessness assistance. We need 67,000 new hosing choice vouchers. The administration also budgeted $2.5 billion in HUD Homeless Assistance Grants. Attendees learned about a homeless approach from Utah which was very successful. They formed a Homeless Coordinating Committee with sub-committees which consisted of:  Discharge Planning  Affordable Housing  Support Services  Information Services  Business Sector  Media and Public Awareness

It was stressed many times that communities need a champion for the Cause-in Utah it was their LT. Governor. They used both single and scattered sites. Need your Mayor and a “sensitive” local community including the private sector. Speaker though that Nonprofits are in survival mode, and can’t do what it takes to finish the job alone. Need a collective strategy, influential leaders, changed beliefs and proven best practices. Really stressing Housing First and Permanent Supportive Housing models with services. And you need these groups to join the effort.  Faith community  Education  Health Care  Criminal Justice Services and Housing should be:  Person Centered  Recovery Oriented  Trauma Informed  Culturally appropriate

Reaching the Most Vulnerable: Outreach and Engagement Strategies This session discussed creative ways for locating and engaging the true “street Population” and how to link them to housing providers who can rapidly connect them to permanent housing and supportive services. Talked about peer support and the role people that are currently experiencing or have formerly experienced homelessness can play in this process, and how to involve them. Many of the strategies I was familiar with or we already use at MTKO.

Lunch Plenary was a Conversation with Richard Gere, Actor, Activist and Philanthropist – made a movie, Time out of Mind and plays a homeless person in New York. It will be released in September.

Other Speakers: Sister Mary Scullion from Project HOME and Robert McDonald, Secretary of the US Department of Veteran Affairs Met with the Nebraska Delegation to Prep for Capital Hill Visit-the only visits I attended were with Senator Deb Fischer’s office and Senator Ben Sasse’s office. We met directly with Senator Fischer and her aide and Senator Sasse came and shook our hands but left us to meet with his aide. We advocated by sharing statistics on homelessness for the state, encouraged support for homeless veterans and increasing the number of housing vouchers. We also discussed issues related to youth homelessness.

Recovery Housing Models and Strategies This session defined types of recovery housing and encouraged review of the National Alliance for Recovery Residency as a way to establish quality standards for this type of housing. They said there were 4 Levels:  Peer Run  Monitored with a House Manger and access to support services  Supervised with Paid Staff  Service Providers/Therapeutic Communities Suggested a relapse policy for these types of programs is necessary for accountability and to keep other residents safe. But encouraged continued support for resident after relapse.

The Strategic use of Transitional Housing Resources in Your Crisis Response System Because Transitional Housing or at least that terminology is getting some negative feedback they are suggesting to agencies that provided it to stick with it but lower the barriers to convert your program to more of a Rapid Rehousing or Permanent Supportive Housing Model. Scattered Site Transitional Housing can be converted to Rapid Re Housing more easily. For those you get HUD funding for this you can reclassify programs, reduce length of stay and increase exit rates to permanent housing. High need people need more permanent supportive housing rather than transitional.

What is a Housing First Approach? This was really interesting in that there was a bit of tension in terms of who felt what program model was more effective, Housing First or Rapid Rehousing. Housing First is an intervention that has permanent supportive housing and services. It should be person centered and directed. It is both a model and philosophy about the importance of housing in every person’s life. Speakers discussed what it means to adopt Housing First in different program models such as rapid rehousing and permanent supportive housing.

It was educational, inspiring, affirming, and fun!