Vermont Coalition to End Homelessness Monthly Meeting
February 20, 2018
St. John’s Episcopal Church, 15 Summer Street, Randolph, VTor via phone
Board Representative / Board Member Position / Affiliation / Present Y/N/P(P= phone)
Doug Sinclair / Addison CoC / Charter House / Y
Elizabeth Eddy / Bennington CoC / BROC - Community Action South-West Vermont / Y
Suzanne Legare Belcher / Caledonia/Essex CoC / AHS - Field Representative / Y
Margaret Bozik / Chittenden CoC / Champlain Housing Trust / Y
Holly Olio / Franklin/GI CoC / NCSS / N
dawn butterfield / Lamoille CoC / Capstone Community Action / Y
Kathy Griffin / Orleans CoC / Northeast Kingdom Community Action (NECKA) / N
Heather Hinckley / Rutland CoC / Homeless Prevention Center / Y
Brooke Jenkins / Washington CoC / Good Samaritan Haven / Y
VACANT / Windham South
Pat Burke / Windsor-South/Windham-North / Southeastern Vermont Community Action (SEVCA) / Y
Renee Weeks / Windsor-North/Orange / Upper Valley Haven / Y
Josh Davis / Co-Chair / Groundworks Collaborative / N
Peter Kellerman / Co-Chair / John Graham Housing and Services / Y
dawn butterfield / Treasurer / Capstone Community Action / Y
Rebeka Lawrence-Gomez / Secretary / Pathways Vermont / N
Ari Kisler / Youth / Vermont Coalition of Runaway and Homeless Youth Programs (VCRHYP) / Y
Kara Casey / Domestic and Sexual Violence / Vermont Network Against Domestic and Sexual Violence / Y
Jim Bastien / Veterans / U.S. Veterans Administration / N
Whitney Nichols / Person with Lived Experience / P
Shawn Kelly / Person with Lived Experience / N
Emily Higgins / Vermont Agency of Human Services / AHS - Office of Economic Opportunity / Y
Brian Smith / Dept of Mental Health / AHS - Department of Mental Health / N
Shaun Gilpin / Housing Partners / DHCD / N
Daniel Blankenship / Public Housing Authority/Collaborative Applicant / Vermont State Housing Authority / Y
Meghan Morrow Raftery / HMIS Administrator / Institute for Community Alliances / Y
Erhard Mahnke / Member-At-Large / VAHC / P
MaryEllen Mendl / Member-At-Large / United Ways of Vermont, 211 / P
Deborah Ormsbee / Member-At-Large / Vermont Agency of Education / Y
Additional Attendees:
Greg Hessel / Regeneration ResourcesSarah Phillips / OEO
Tara Chase / Youth Services
Stephen Lunna / UVM-SSVF
Laurel Chen / VCEH/VSHA
Jessica Radbord / Legal Aid
Joyce Cloutier / Veterans Inc.
Justin Wagner / Clara Martin Center
Liz Genge / Downstreet Housing
Sherry Marcelino / Lamoille County Mental Health Services
Caitlin Ettenborough / Institute for Community Alliances
Amos Meacham / Pathways Vermont (acting secretary for this meeting)
Beth Kennett / Cabot Creamery/Liberty Hill Farm
●Douglas moves to accept minutes from January’s meeting, Heather seconds
○Motion unanimously approved
●Dawn, treasurer’s report review:
○Bill from Legislative breakfast paid
○Meeting with Daniel to discuss changes in what activities covered by HUD for consumer representatives
○Big handful of invoices sent out to people, a lot due
●Committee Reports
●PiT Committee- Mary-Ellen & Daniel
○Forms re: PiT being tabulated
○2-1-1 in contract to enter paper forms (Daniel still collecting those), Capstone is fiduciary agent
○ICA still waiting for three agencies to confirm their HMIS data
○Some agencies used Google form, determining who used what forms so we know who/what is missing
○Ari: youth count done by ___, looks like it will be almost 300 (estimate)- that is total of precariously housed and literally homeless
■asked McKinney-Vento liaisons to break out by accompanied or unaccompanied
■not literally homeless (couch surfing) so not in PiT
■Estimate of 25% participation from the liaisons, more than last year
●Discussion of how to increase participation of liaisons in local CoCs, as well as local recruitment
●Strategic Planning- Greg Hessle
○Survey going out to VCEH in next week or so to gather input
○1-on-1 calls will be happening, sometime this week will be scheduling; if you do not hear from Greg in next week but want to have interview with him be in touch
○Laurel announces retreat on May 29th (?) in place of regular VCEH meeting- all board members participating, anyone else invited
○Action plan by July
●Legislative Update- Erhard Mahnke
○Friday before Town meeting is crossover date; bills have to be out of the last committee of jurisdiction
○Budget- House Appropriations
■Number of VCEH people testified at hearings
■Governor recommended level funding for a lot of AHS programs and VHCB, so far appears Appropriations is willing to go along
●Improvement from last year but VAHC recommended a number of increases
■Cuts currently in budget
●$2 million unspecified AHS grants
○List would be assembled by Secretary by end of fiscal year
●$1 million unspecified Reach-Up grants
○Jessica (ACLU)- Number of families has gone down but complexity of needs is great
○Any savings from reduced caseloads is being used as justification to cut Reach-Up
●$4.3 million services for developmentally disabled
●A little over $1 million in person attended personal care services
●ESD cuts discussed among group
○Bill to increase rental housing safety
■Modest, scaled back from VAHC proposal
■Creates database of statewide rental housing
●Could be used post disasters to find housing
●Could be used to assist with code enforcement in more rural areas
●Working on the details, various methodologies proposed- possibly would make some information from landlord certificates public (other than single unit landlords)
■Creates rental housing advisory group
●Tenant law, code enforcement
●Help town officers enforcement of codes
●Looks to report from Health Dept how to strengthen town health officers
○Bill of Tenant Rights
■Could use help writing House General Committee
■Partners with ACLU
■Afraid we might lose this bill
■Concern around law enforcement piece
■Interest in expanding to protection from discrimination for employment status- please let Erhard or Jessica know if you know of someone in that situation
○Senate passed bill the increases the minimum wage to $15/hr by 2024
■Not as aggressive as hoped, wanted 2022
■Has better chance of passage in house with longer time frame
○Discussion of expungement legislation- S.173
■Liz- as housing manager and on the opiate counsel, being able to expunge records could remove a housing barrier
■Erhard- legislature has good record on making it easier to expunge records, will check in if a specific question is emailed
■Jessica- Morade from ACLU can update
●Youth Action Board- Ari
○Been meeting for about a year, working to put together a plan to end youth homelessness
○Working on application to HUD for demonstration project
○Hands out the Draft Charter for YAB
■Created by three youth with lived experience or DCF foster system signed on to be on the board, with facilitation by Bethany
■Would make the YAB a committee of VCEH and VCRHYP, would sit on both boards
■Warning for VCEH March vote on the Draft Charter
■First meeting of YAB to take place at beginning of March
■Geographic distribution of members, still doing recruiting for YAB
■Outreach has been targeted to youth who participated in focus groups
●Daniel- HUD NOFA will be starting earlier this year, exact date not known yet
○Score from application still not available but did find out that CoC funding does not increase funding every year
○No bonus projects around the nation were funded
○If awarded the youth grant, it would be incorporated into the CoC application
○Will probably be able to serve a couple more S+C and RRH through grant savings and FMR
○FMR amounts can be increased some by reasonable accommodation various mechanisms, talk with your field rep
○We lose a couple of points on application because both VRS and VASH are not in HMIS
■There have been a lot of conversations about building capacity for VASH reporting
●Rapid Rehousing Review Brainstorm
○CoC Planning Grant allows for a lot of activities, including review of how RRH is working
○RRH is a new type of program for CoC and VSHA, created with providers
○Not as effective or seemless as could be, led to review
○Technical advisor having review done of all RRH programs, not just CoC RRH
○How do the different RRH interact, work together
○Goal: get clearer policies and procedures- one size does not fit all but also need it to be easier program to manage
■Experience has been that applicants are people with really high needs- is shown in the data but needs formal analysis
■Assessment is that most people need the medium term, up to 24 months, but doesn’t have to be for the whole 24 months
●Standard could be for 3 months and then extended as needed
○Need to build relations with landlords
○Doesn’t work for people with more complex needs, which is many of the CAP service recipients
○Landlord member comments
■won’t accept people who have to pay more than 50% of income for rent
■concerned about people falling off the cliff when subsidy ends
■3 month way too short
■Need a tool that better identifies needs at outset- CE assessment intended for that
■Distress related to the timeline is significant for landlord, tenant, providers, all involved
●People can be transitioned from RRH onto S+C
●Could Coordinated Entry data be used as to how many people needed short, mid, long terms, etc
○CE assessment not evidence based practice
■Current policy is that if recipient’s income goes up, their rent portion stays the same- being reevaluated
○Can provide landlords with demonstration that person/family can be a good tenant
○Rutland has had a lot of success because of landlord liaisons
○Service capacity levels vary from area to area, provider to provider
■Tiering system helps because we can work to get services from places where they are available
○Discussed who would be leading the review, what the review can hope to accomplish
■What happens to people when the subsidy runs out- who’s successful and who’s not, and why
■Feedback can be provided offline, Daniel plans to reach out to everyone as well
○How does Coordinated Entry connect/interface with RRH
○We did not have minimum for services match- 25%; so we could not apply for services to accompany
○Maybe the Dept of Health can provide service match, and what it is already happening that can be documented
○Email Laurel by the end of tomorrow for more comments on planning for the review
●Serve Vermont- Sarah
○VCEH putting in application for 11 VISTA members to support
○Proposed activities announced, written materials of application shared
○Develop partnerships between homelessness providers and SUD treatment providers
○Support CoCs to do local needs housing support assessment for people in recovery
■Goal of Opiate Council to have statewide assessment
○All local lead agencies are willing to host VISTA members
■Cost $6K, local lead agreed to $2K (plus office, supports etc)
■OEO contribute other $4K
○OEO will fund parttime oversight position, Capstone will house that position- they are also the fiscal agent
○Application to be submitted in two weeks
○Looking like will be funded, will need kick-off meeting, VISTA starts in August
○Q: are the host sites already done deals? Still need a couple board approvals
○Project will be owned by VCEH, project manager will be interface with the coalition
●Discussion: Liz “would it make sense to discuss a subcommittee” around this disorder? (SUD)
○Would be great to have a joint thing with Chittenden
○Mental health and SUD? A lot of similar barriers, can be more of an issue for housing people with mh
○What would be the goals and objectives of the committee
○Youth committee has brought in people from a lot of other areas that aren’t normally at this table, maybe this committee could also
○Other committees have been successful partly because of substantial outside TA (youth, veterans)
○Can apply for TA through HUD, TA can be used to develop the committee
○Would need a formal vote to establish this committee
○Any grants available through SAMHSA? Jessica has seen it through Chittenden contacts but they are not applying, SUD license provider needed
○Meeting this afternoon in Washington County for group to do a collective impact ___
○Sarah can inquire if anyone at the state is applying for grant
○Would be good to have reps from DMH and ADAP on any committee to help with any system changes at state level
○Can put this on the agenda for next month
○VISTA kickoff meeting could maybe be used to have conversation with other people/agencies that need to be involved
○Don’t need to re-create the wheels; a lot already happening
○Daniel: ‘Any objections to a request being submitted to getting TA for developing the committee, or objections to the working toward starting the committee?’ None voiced
●Laurel: who can we invite to a conversation about the intersection of employment and homelessness?
○Sarah Buxton
○Pathways
●Announcement, Sarah: Coordinated Entry training in Barre, need to register in advance. People who are doing the housing assessment need to do the training. It’s a day long, in person training.
Meeting Adjourned
Minutes submitted by Amos Meacham, Pathways Vermont