CITY OF REDDING/COUNTY OF SHASTA
HOMELESS CONTINUUM OF CARE
MINUTES OF
February 20, 2007
Members in Attendance:
Linda Barba, Shasta County Department of Social Services
Gloria Boston, Redding VA Clinic
Melinda Brown, People of Progress
Lydia Buckley, City of Redding Housing Division
Bob Denham, Nazarene Church & Living Hope Compassion Ministries
Betty Franco, Shasta County Health Department
Angela Jones, Shasta County Women’s Refuge
Arlin Markham, Shasta County Sheriff’s Office
Mark Keys, Redding Police Department
Rick KinCannon, Good News Rescue Mission
Richard Kuhns, Shasta County Housing Authority
Don Meek, Redding/Shasta County Homeless Continuum of Care
Denise Morey, Shasta Treatment Center - Comm. Safety Net Plus
Bill Price, PACT
John Severson, Redding Police Department
Robert Scott, FaithWorks
Karen Schaefer, Northern Valley Catholic Social Service
Monique Taylor, FaithWorks/Francis Court
Sandra Van Larson, Independent Living Services of Northern California
Steve Ware, Redding Police Department
Wayne Wetter, Salvation Army
Guests in Attendance:
Don J. Boardman, North Valley Stand Down Association
Jeannie Megen, community citizen
Introductions
• The meeting was called to order at 10:33 a.m. and introductions by members and guests present were made.
Additions to the Agenda
• There were no additions to the agenda.
XXX
Approval of Minutes
• Minutes for the December 18, 2006 and January 16, 2007 monthly meetings were approved.
Roundtable Discussion
$ Pastor Bob Denham shared that as of January of this year, the Day Center at Living Hope Compassion Ministries is now open all day to the public. This expansion of services is due to a $10,000 grant from The California Endowment. Danyett Cloward, the Director of Volunteers is now in a full-time position at the center. She is willing to collaborate with other local providers to broaden services to the homeless and needy.
Update on 2006 Annual Survey Results & Status of 2007 Point-in-Time (PIT) Survey
$ Don Meek thanked all of the PIT Survey members for their ongoing efforts for the past several months in making the count a success.
$ Melinda Brown passed out a summary sheet detailing key facts from the Shasta County Homelessness Survey. 2,584 individuals representing 1,484 households were homeless at some point during the year. Of that total individual count, 956 (37%) were children. Other notable statistics showed that 283 households met the HUD definition of chronic homeless; the top three reasons for becoming homeless were job loss, income loss, and domestic violence; 56% have lived in Shasta County for two or more years; and 23% were on parole or probation.
Highlights of Eleventh Northern/Central Valley Homeless Roundtable
$ Don Meek reaffirmed for the benefit of new members that the roundtable event is a quarterly meeting of leaders in homeless continua throughout Northern and Central Valley communities. The goal is to create regular opportunities for participants to foster an exchange of information and to build relationships of cooperation.
$ The primary topic of discussion focused on 10-year strategic planning approaches as well as implementation successes and lessons learned. The benefits of such an effort include (1) development of new leadership and acquiring new energy; (2) passing knowledge to new leaders and the community-at-large; (3) realignment of resources; and (4) building new community champions though the assessment process.
$ Some of the constraints include lengthiness of the process (up to two years), the need for continuing education for new players, and obtaining decisions-makers in the process. Lessons learned include being receptive and open to new ways to make it work, finding pilot programs and/or successes and put the “spotlight” on it, and finding leadership while listening to all players.
XXX
$ HUD updates presented at the Roundtable noted that (1) the 2006 funding announcements would take place the following week; (2) the current budget hold-up has stalled the SuperNOFA process; (3) the CDBG and HOME budgets for 2007 and 2008 will likely remain at the same levels; (4) the Homeless budget will likely increase from $1.3 to $1.5 billion for 2007 and 2008; (5) the SF HUD office is less effective due to the loss of five employees with no replacements to date; and (6) the HUD SAC office is moving to a new location during the third week of March.
$ Weather Disaster Preparedness Plans was also discussed with many communities coordinating with the police, churches, Red Cross, city/county leadership and others to provide “warming centers”. There seemed to be a clear lack of knowledge or awareness of Shasta County’s plan for weather disasters.
$ The final two topics at the Roundtable focused on a debriefing from statewide communities participating in the Point-in-Time Count and pending legislation/policy issues relative to housing and homelessness. HUD and statewide advocates strongly encouraged local continua to review the bills and proposed cuts (i.e., McKinney-Vento Reauthorization bills, proposed cuts to AB 2034, Proposition 1-C guidelines for homeless youth housing, and sponsoring legislation addressing discharge planning from state prisons with a housing component) and voice their opinion in order to maintain or promote programs and activities.
$ Both the 10-year Strategic Plan and Weather Disaster Preparedness Plan topics were directed to the Housing, Supportive & Health Services Subcommittee for further review.
Status of CoC Business Items
• Housing, Health & Supportive Services: Lydia Buckley noted that the 2006 Homeless Assistance Awards were posted on HUD’s website, but she has not yet been able to access it. (It was later confirmed that our local continua through NVCSS was successful in our funding request to assist the chronic homeless mentally ill.) Lydia and Linda Barba also commented on the Housing and Community Resource manual process. Because Shasta County was not successful in their attempt to obtain state funding for creating a resource manual, this committee will move forward with creation of a document which would be a hard copy (notebook binder style) which can easily be updated and maintained. It will be specific to all organizations participating in the CoC homeless process. This group will coordinate and share information with Melinda Brown and People of Progress who will be producing a community-wide document.
$ Public Safety: Bill Price summarized actions in the previous hours’ meeting through the Public Safety Subcommittee. The focus was on homeless camping issues and ex-offender re-entry activities. After discussing the issue of police actions relative to homeless camping, it was decided that Lieutenant John Severson would provide a written description of police protocol, Don Meek would research procedures and experiences in other communities and the group would then draft a plan of action. The plan would be forwarded to the CoC Council for consideration and action. Bill also reaffirmed progress with representatives of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to promote model re-entry programs within the state. It is hoped that the county will be able to dovetail their similar program for probationers into the state’s model with the inclusion of state resources to help “drive” the program. There was no progress noted relative to a list of the major service gaps with a year-end summary and roadmap for future attention.
$ HMIS/Education: Melinda Brown noted that our primary work over the past two months was related to the Point-in-Time (PIT) survey. Don Meek also noted that community presentations would move forward with primary focus on the upcoming public meeting (scheduled for March 26th) which is both a priority setting and community education session.
Adjourn
$ There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 11:47 a.m. The next regular meeting is scheduled for Monday, March 19, 2007 at 10:30 a.m. in the Caldwell Conference Room at City Hall.
C:\Documents and Settings\Don Meek\My Documents\Corel User Files\CoC Files\Minutes\February 20, 2007 Minutes.wpd
XXX