2017 April CoC Advisory Board Meeting

Approved Minutes

Wednesday, April 12th, 2017 8-9:30 AM

Sacramento Steps Forward, 1331 Garden Highway, Sacramento, CA 95833 – VCR Room (2nd Floor)

MEMBERS PRESENT: Joan Burke, Bill Knowlton, Beth Hassett, Emily Bender, Sarah Bontrager, Cindy Cavanaugh, Katherine Cooley, Cathy Creswell, Lisa Culp, Dion Dwyer, John Foley, Katie Freeny, Emily Halcon, Jason Henry, Todd Henry, David Husid, Erin Johansen, Diane Lampe, Lt. Dan Monk, Jonathan Porteus PHD, Amani Sawires Rapaski, Sarah Thomas

GUEST(S): Larry Mickleburgh, Pastor Jonathan Gainsbrugh, Jenn Fleming, Tricia Rosenbaum, Stefan Heisler, Nick Mori, Danny Marquez, Dorothy S. Landsberg, Mike Jaske, Bob Erlenbusch, Brian Talcott, Gabby Herrera, Kate Hutchinson, Martin Ross

MEMBERS NOT IN ATTENDANCE: Patty Kleinknecht, Charles Ware, Holly Wunder Stiles

STAFF: Ryan Loofbourrow-CEO, Michele Watts-VP of Programs, Nick Lee-VP of Operations, Andrew Geurkink, Gabrielle Salazar

Call to Order: Bill Knowlton, Chair 8:04am

1. Welcome & Introductions by: Bill Knowlton
2. Review & Approval of Prior Meeting Minutes: Abstention – Katie Freeny, MSC
3. Chairs Report: The SSF Board is expanding its membership. They have reached out to members of the faith community. Kaiser has joined in on the board level. Next month, an up to date list of current board members will be provided.
4. SSF CEO’s Report: Ryan Loofbourrow wanted to alleviate any fears the Sacramento Bee article might have elicited. The Bee reported that SSF is losing $2.5 million dollar due to budget cuts. This, however, is not the case. SSF is experiencing a $772,000 increase in funding. It is true that SSF is experiencing a $1.2 million cut from County funding which means a loss of three navigators, the Wind Youth contract, and rapid rehousing dollars. This money is being reallocated to strictly County homeless services. SSF will also be spending money to partner with 211. Ryan reported that all SSF’s partnerships are still very solid in spite of changes.
5. New Business:

Item A: Update on Mayor’s Efforts – Emily Halcon

-Warming centers: There were three warming centers opened by the City. The locations were downtown, the Southside Pool House, and the Wind Youth drop-in center. They were open from Christmas until March 31st. They are now closed. Emily is working on compiling data for a report on how many were assisted, how many were connected to services, demographics, and best practices. These warming centers were low to no barrier, allowing pets and partners. They did not have a screening of any kind and they had no major issues. There were community concerns but not due to any specific behaviors. Emily will share her report with the Advisory Board when it is finalized.

-City, County, and SHRA have been working together on gaining access to Public Housing resources. The allocation of a number of resources for homeless was approved. Emily is working with SHRA on the implementation. A 60-90 day comment period has begun.

-The City is applying for Whole Person Care Pilot Program, medi-cal waiver program. It is designed to be a County run initiative, but the City decided to apply. Wellspace Health worked on the application, which was submitted on March 1st. Now they are working on modifying the application. The final revisions will go to the state by Friday. This has the potential to bring in 6-8 million dollars for 5 years. This money could be spent on outreach, case management, housing support etc. When the application is finished, Emily will share it with the Advisory Board.

Item B: System Performance Measures Continued – Michele Watts

See Revised Powerpoint.

See Performance Measurement Module (Official Report Submitted to HUD).

In the System Performance Measures PowerPoint, the data points for 2016 were removed because they are not due yet, they are due May 31st. Having 2016 data alongside 2015 data made last month’s presentation a little confusing to look at.

The System Performance Measures are evaluated each year. HUD wants to see improvements on the 7 measures year to year.

Measure 1: Length of Time Homeless

There was a question on Measure #1a. There was curiosity around whether a person would need to have been in both ES and TH to be counted on the graph, or if a person was only in TH, would they be added to this group. Michele explained that a person just needed to be in either ES or TH, or both, to be counted. A person does not have to touch both ES and TH to be counted in this measure. There was a question around why the data is framed this way, and the response was that HUD requires the data to come in this form.

Union Gospel Mission is the only homeless program that does not enter into HMIS. WEAVE also does not enter into HMIS. SSF’s HMIS coverage is over 80% for shelter beds.

A question was raised regarding why “SH” appears on the Performance Measurement Module, but not on the graph on the PowerPoint. Michele explained that we do not utilize “SH” in our continuum, so that is why it is not seen on the graph.

Measure 2: Returns to Homelessness

During the discussion around Measure 2, it was explained that you can exit PH and move on to other PH. An example would be being in a PSH program and then moving on to other another Permanent Housing solution such as a market rate rental. It was also noted that this measure counts the number of persons, which would count each person in a household individually. Ryan Loofbourrow noted that the greatest percentage of homeless self-resolve.

It is HUD’s intent to not compare CoC’s to other CoC’s, but rather to see measurable progress from the individual CoC.

Measure 3: HMIS Count of Homeless Persons Served

The number of persons counted are unduplicated.

Measure 4: Employment and Income Growth

It was noted that this measures only a positive change in income. If it changes negatively, and income decreases, this is not accounted for in Measure 4. The change could be as little as an increase of 50 cents, and the increase would be measured. There was concern that there should be more detail is the report, showing a breakdown of the amount of increased income.

Measure 5: Number of Persons who Become Homeless for the First Time

Clarification was made around what “Newly Entering” means in Metric 5.1. It means that they have newly entered the system; they were entered into HMIS. They may not be newly homeless, just new to the system.

During the discussion around Measure 5.1, there was conversation about how we can continue to do better each year. The questions was raised about whose responsibility that would be. The Leadership Committee will have the conversation about how to maintain momentum and growth. Michele thought it would be helpful to have each metric assigned to a sub-committee so there can be strategy as to thinking about these HUD benchmarks, and how to continue to improve and continue to do favorably when looked at by HUD.

Measure 6: Prevention N/A

It was discussed that the CoC cannot get Prevention dollars until we are considered a high performing community. They want to see significant decrease in number of homeless first.

Measure 7: % of Successful Exits/Retention

There was clarification around the 86% successful street outreach exits. The percentage does not include those who exited for 90 days without contact. These are strictly “Successful exits.” Time frame is an important factor in this measure because outreach did not officially begin until the beginning of 2015.

Item C: Homeless Employment Survey Report – Bob Erlenbusch

Postponed

Item D: HUD Update – Michele Watts

Michele will be sending out several HUD updates to the Advisory Board electronically on equal access, gender identity, and the violence against women reauthorization act. Providers need to have these reflected in policies and procedures to meet threshold factors. The HUD update that is most relevant to the Advisory Board is the Coordinated Entry requirement checklist. The CE committee has been meeting consistently for three hours at a time, delving into it. They have until January 2018 to get everything checked off the checklist. John Foley stated that he would like to make a report to the Advisory Board before the end of the year.

6. Announcements:

Bob Erlenbusch thanks David Husid and Quinn Cottages for kicking off the Homeless Speakers Bureau, he also thanks Supervisor Serna and Mayor Steinberg. The Homeless Speakers Bureau is comprised of 15 speakers mostly from Quinn Cottages and Women’s Empowerment. If anyone or any group would like a speaker, they can request one online. This would be great for a church group, community group, or any gathering.

7. Meeting Adjourned: 9:32am

Prepared by:  Gabrielle Salazar, CoC Coordinator