Membership Council–Minutes

Wednesday,February 10, 2016

10:00-11:30AM

LifeWorks-East Multi-Purpose Room

Attendance: Irit Umani (Trinity Center); Mariana Salazar; Becky Casey; Niki Paul; Katy Manganella (ECHO Staff); Sam Woollard (Consultant); Vella Karman (City HHS); Hosie Washington (SAFE Alliance); Monica Keller (VA); Stephanie Hayden (City of Austin); Sandy Coe Simmons (CCC); Michelle Wilkinson (Easter Seals); Darilynn Cardona-Beiler (ATCIC); Christy Moffett (Travis County HHS); Sandra Chavez (ASA); Mandy De Mayo (Housing Works); Julia Spann (SafePlace); Lisa Garcia (HACA0

10:00-10:05Welcome and IntroductionsStephanie Hayden, Chair

10:05-10:10Approval of MinutesStephanie Hayden, Chair

  • Amendments to minutes-1950-I should be 1915-i
  • ACTION: Motion to approve minutes by Irit Umani. Darilynn Cardona-Beiler Second. Minutes approved by all. 13-0.

10:10-10:202016 Conflict of Interest VerificationStephanie Hayden, Chair

10:20-10:25Advocacy and Community EngagementStephanie/Niki

  • The Salvation Army Passages program was unable to put application into CoC application process due to HUD moving away from services only and towards permanent housing
  • Mayor Pro Tem proposed asking for more funding
  • Ann has requested MC members submit an email to council members showing support for resolution #18

10:25-11:10Continuum of Care BusinessNiki/Mariana/Katy Manganella

  • 2016 Point in Time Count Update
  • Nearly 600 volunteers
  • Placed more capacity in downtown sections
  • Preliminary numbers showing nearly 22% increase in both sheltered and unsheltered count
  • Added 152 transitional beds in the last year resulting in an increase of persons staying in shelter
  • Thoughts on increase:
  • May have gotten more thorough count due to increase in downtown volunteers
  • Hosted magnet events after the count
  • Possibly an increase in unsheltered folks
  • Survey is different and more efficient resulting in counting more folks
  • Street Medicine followed up with their folks after the count
  • Preliminary results have been given to ECHO Board of Directors
  • Unsheltered veteran count is nearly half of what it was last year-significant decrease
  • Concern with inaccurate number affecting policy changes
  • HUD is moving towards System Performance Measures which will cover a much more accurate overview of homelessness in Travis County
  • Improvements on the surveys
  • Difficulties with sections in the early morning-once the sun came up, people were gone
  • Concern with APD clearing people out of their camps-criminalizing persons is still a prominent issue
  • May fall on MC to address how we are dealing with decriminalizing any person who is sleeping outside
  • HMIS Data Quality Assurance Updates
  • Shown great improvement on data completeness
  • Bowman has released reports that show gap between client interaction and data entry
  • Goal to allow for 5 business days for data entry rather than 35 days
  • Idea to implement with new billing cycle-March 1st
  • Suggestion to reach out to agencies to figure out what is reasonable/practical for each program
  • Closest to real-time data has been crucial to the Austin Homeless Veterans Initiative as staffing occurs weekly
  • Revising data score cards; started with focus on data completeness and now moving towards also focusing on data timeliness
  • Suggestion to move to 7-10 days in the beginning
  • 2016 HMIS Billing Schedule
  • In the process of reviewing every agency’s HMIS license usage; will be cutting invoices by the end of the month
  • ECHO Core Funding Principles-Review and Revise
  • As a community, what are the broader, over-arching principles needing funding
  • Some changes:
  • Not just focusing on housing interventions but also supportive services
  • ECHO aligns with priorities set forth by the Opening Doors: Federal Strategic Plan to End Homelessness; evaluated on annual basis
  • Ensure that we are looking at funding strategically including programs that are strengthening our community goals rather than solely focusing on performance outcomes
  • Change in language-ECHO promotes maintaining and increasing our CoC housing inventory to best fit the need of the population
  • Suggestion to add a 6th point pertaining to leveraging resources to augment-mention focus on both public and private, and philanthropic resources
  • Concern with aligning with Opening Doors as policies may change in upcoming election-should provide language regarding both local priorities and priorities of Opening Doors, as there may be variations
  • Need to separate what are funding priorities for CoC dollars and what are funding priorities for this community; some community priorities may not always align with HUD priorities
  • Plan to re-draft and present in next month’s meeting

11:10-11:30ECHO Community Updates

  • ECHO Work Group restructure updateNiki Paul, ECHO
  • Housing Work Group Schedule update
  • Housing WG will meet bi-monthly
  • Any of the task groups can contact Sandra or Lori if support is needed quicker than the Housing WG
  • Voices of Youth-Youth Research OpportunitySusan McDowell/Niki Paul
  • Videoconference scheduled for February 24th, LifeWorks South location
  • Opportunity for stakeholders to participate in videoconference
  • Planning to complete second youth count between May or June
  • Does unaccompanied youth include youth in foster care system or youth in juvenile justice system?

11:30AMADJOURNStephanie Hayden, Chair

*Next Scheduled Membership Council Meeting: March 9, 2016, LifeWorks East, Multipurpose Room