Cowlitz Housing First! Coalition

Transcription

1 Cowlitz Housing First! Coalition Lower Columbia CAP ~ Altrusa Room February 20, :30 3:00 PM Meeting Summary Members Present Chuck Hendrickson Nancy Malone Marilee Hertig Mike Johnson Sandra Junker Diane Perron John London Frank Morrison Sue Peterson Ilona Kerby Mike Wallin Pam Howe Gary Gray Deborah Johnson Marcel Goulet Members Absent Ellen Rose Vacant Vacant Marty Frank Capt. David Davis Jeni O Neil George Robertson Jack Keolker Captain David Davis Chris Pegg Jerry Sivil Andrea Taylor Sherrie Tinoco Cindy Helms-Jarrell Deb Whitney Others Present Jim Murphy Ted Grammount Anna Leslie Melissa Taylor Dawn Hanson Gary Gray Mamie Mendes Katie Perrigo Jen Schapman Representing Love Overwhelming Vice Chair City of Kelso Work Opportunity Center - Goodwill DSHS Head Start Cowlitz Habitat for Humanity Lower Columbia Mental Health Community House on Broadway Lower Columbia CAP Chair City of Longview Lifeworks Representing Longview Housing Authority (in lieu of Chris Pegg) Representing Longview Police Department (in lieu of Jim Duscha) Kalama Housing Authority City of Castle Rock Lower Columbia Mental Health/PATH City of Woodland WA DOC Salvation Army Cowlitz County (Corrections) FISH At-Large Representative Secretary Salvation Army Longview Housing Authority Drug Abuse Prevention Center City of Kalama Emergency Support Shelter At-Large Representative Longview School District Community House on Broadway Love Overwhelming PATH Cowlitz-Wahkiakum Council of Governments (CWCOG) Cowlitz-Wahkiakum Council of Governments (CWCOG) Longview Housing Authority AmeriCorps Cowlitz County Health Department Cowlitz County Health Department Cowlitz County Health Department 1

2 Denise Dishongh John Rice Berry Stueve Amber Rosewood Dian Cooper Regional Support Network City of Kelso Peace Health I. WELCOME & INTRODUCTIONS The meeting was called to order at 1:30. Meeting participants introduced themselves. II. CHANGES TO THE AGENDA None. III. NEW BUSINESS A. Approve Minutes There was not a quorum to approve meeting minutes for January B. Announcements Dawn Hanson: Dawn announced that the Kelso-Longview Ministerial Association is holding their second annual Community Services Fair where service providers and agencies can provide information to area church and ministry leaders. This is a chance to connect with faith-based communities. Contact Mark Schmutz, mschmutzwa@yahoo.com, , if you want to attend. Dawn handed out the flyer. C. Proposal Awards Dawn Hanson: Dawn announced the agencies recently awarded county contracts for the 2013 document recording fee homeless projects. The following awards were made: Life Skills Training partnership among Lower Columbia Community Action Program, Emergency Support Shelter, and Cowlitz Community Network Total awarded $18,443 Urban Rest Stop Love Overwhelming $127,740 Housing Retention Team Lower Columbia Community Action Program $70,000 Housing Retention Team Community House on Broadway $67,000 The following proposals are pending: Extreme Weather Shelter Love Overwhelming $82,660 Permanent Supportive Housing Community House on Broadway $102,978 The following proposals were not funded: Life Skills Training Community House on Broadway $31,000 Permanent Supportive Housing Longview Housing Authority $350,000 Marilee Hertig: Marilee asked if those agencies that were awarded county funds could share more detail about their projects with the coalition. Dawn will try to make that happen at the next meeting. D. DSHS CHIPRA grant Dawn Hanson: Dawn reported that DSHS put out a request for proposal for Community Based Organizations who are interested in assisting individuals who want to apply, or maintain enrollment in the state s Children s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). The grant provides CBOs with the equipment necessary to help people enroll software, computers, and scanners. Agencies can contact Lynette Richardson, if interested richala@dshs.wa.gov, Mike Johnson responded that the grant is due in a few days and they only have $20,000 left to give. Youth and Family link received a grant for Cowlitz County and they are looking for a provider in Wahkiakum. 2

3 E. SOAR Dawn Hanson: Dawn explained what SSI/SSDI Outreach, Access, and Recovery (SOAR) is and how it can be beneficial for expediting the SSI/SSDI process for homeless or at risk for homelessness clients. There was a recent training in Vancouver that eight providers from Cowlitz County attended. Pam Howe and Anna Leslie: Pam and Anna described their experience with the two-day SOAR training in Clark County. There is a significant amount of detail necessary for SOAR applications; however, the process should only take 3-5 months, not 3-5 years. A SOAR trainee can help expediting the process by collaborating with medical providers, Social Security Administration, Department of Disability Services and the client. Pam and Anna plan to continue to meet with the other trainees and share challenges, successes, and ideas on improving the application process. Dian Cooper: Dian reports that some clients request medical records for their SSI application but they cannot pay and the lawyer doesn t pay. FHC had been waiving the fees but clients were not picking up their records. Now they charge any clients seeking records for SSI. Dian would like advice FHC would waive fees if it were truly going to help them get on SSI. Dawn mentioned that if the client was getting help with a SOAR provider then they will have someone facilitating the process and will be the contact person for the clinic. Dian asked for the contact list of the recent SOAR trainees Dawn will provide her the list. Anna Leslie: Anna highlighted that SOAR providers do this for clients at no cost. Lawyers typically charge a very large fee and don t do much to help the clients. Melissa mentioned that there is a disincentive for attorneys to expedite the process; they get paid more the longer the process takes. Pam added that lawyers typically wouldn t even help a client until they are denied SSI and need an appeal. F. WSDOT Bridge Project Dawn Hanson: Dawn was recently contacted by an intern at the Department of Transportation about an I-5 bridge construction project in the Northfork area that will begin this summer. The intern, Chelsea Emrick, stated that there are homeless persons living under the bridge and DOT would like our assistance, as well as Clark County s help, to help place the people into services and housing, or another suitable location, prior to the start of the construction project. Dawn asked if anyone was interested in developing a committee from the coalition to work on this issue with Clark County. Dawn referred to an article recently sent to coalition members, Why is homelessness a transportation issue? The article discusses that there could be partnerships among transportation departments, services, housing providers, and others to humanely deal with homeless in situations like these. Anna Leslie: Anna stated that she has been in contact with the Clark County PATH team and plans to visit the site in the next week to see how many homeless persons are living under the bridge. Anna will let us know what she finds out. Anna Leslie, Marilee Hertig, Frank Morrison and Dawn Hanson are all interested in participating on a committee to come up with solutions to this issue. The committee will start working on this after a report from Anna. G. Nominations Outstanding Member Awards Dawn Hanson: Dawn reported that the steering committee decided to award outstanding coalition members at our annual meeting this year. Coalition members can nominate an outstanding member or agency based on the nomination criteria that was handed out and ed to members (see attached). Nominations are due by April 1 st. COMMITTEE REPORTS & UPDATES A. Committee/Project Updates a. Coordinated Entry and Assessment Committee Marilee Hertig: Marilee reported on the coordinated entry process. Since November, the coordinated entry system working committee has met five times. The committee has begun discussions on selecting a coordinated entry intake and assessment model for Cowlitz County. The committee is basing this decision on research of best practices, presentations and information from other counties, reading materials on case studies, and expert committee knowledge of our community. Coalition members were 3

4 ed the results of the meeting discussions (see attached). At the most recent meeting, we had Jeff Spring from Commerce talk to the committee on HMIS, its role in coordinated entry, data sharing and potential challenges and opportunities for HMIS with implementing coordinated entry. b. Project Homeless Connect (PHC) Planning Committee Dianne Perron: The planning committee met regularly throughout December and January and worked hard to implement a successful, first annual Cowlitz County Project Homeless Connect on January 24 th. The event served around 400 guests, with over 60 volunteers and nearly 30 service providers providing a variety of vital services. Diane passed around photos. Diane acknowledged members of the committee Anna Leslie, Chuck Hendrickson, Marilee Hertig, Pam Howe, Amber Rosewood, and George Robertson. Diane gave a special thanks to Dawn for all of her work, Community House for sponsoring the event and paying $1,000 for the location, and the multiple agencies contributed to the event planning. Diane shared some of the amazing stories from PHC. The planning committee hopes to fund raise and have an even better event for has agreed to serve as our fiscal agent. Sandra Junker: Sandra asked whether document recording fees will be used for next year. Dawn responded that if we can fundraise for PHC then those funds could be used for other housing and homeless projects or programs. Melissa shared that PHC was a new activity and there wasn t any proposal process for it. Every year the county contracts with the CWCOG to implement the Ten Year Plan and within that contract, the COG can outline several items in the budget to help with this work. PHC has been identified in the staff scope of work as an activity that TYP prioritized for the county. These funds were awarded as a January budget request with the commissioners. There is no guarantee that these funds can be used on an annual basis for PHC. c. Other committee updates see attached IV. ROUNDTABLE EXCHANGE & DISCUSSION A. Southwest Washington Regional Support Network (RSN) Denise Dishongh: Denise, relations specialist at RSN for the children s system of care, attended the coalition meeting today in the place of Steve Maynard, provider network manager for the Southwest Washington Behavioral Health RSN. The RSN is the Medicaid contractor for mental health services in the SW Region they have a governing board that includes commissioners from each of the three counties (Clark, Cowlitz, Skamania), Commissioner Misner representing Cowlitz County. One area the RSN is working to improve is penetration rates people that are eligible for mental health services are able to access them. Denise mentioned that Cowlitz County does well with penetration rates. Another area the RSN wants to improve is the crisis response system. The RSN recently held a number of focus groups on the crisis system. Dawn mentioned that the coalition did not receive notice and therefore didn t participate in those meetings. Denise suggested that Coalition members can provide input on the crisis system today or request to speak to Steve directly. Denise shared key findings with the crisis system redesign focus groups: Retain the strengths of the current system do not dismantle the system if current processes are working. Need to build off of successes. In Clark County they want to see a walk-in or triage center with inpatient facilities similar to what Cascadia Behavioral Healthcare does in Portland. Funding for this is an issue at this time. RSN has decided to use existing resources to create an improved crisis response system, which includes: o Enhancing coordination and collaboration among mental health providers, law enforcement, schools and hospitals. o Improving response times. o Preventing and diverting crises divert out of the system and into the system of providers. Provide the least restrictive level of care possible. o Providing trainings in communities on how to deal with crises situations. o Providing community support teams and community outreach. o Providing service integration for those who have co-occurring disorders. o Providing transitional case managers help people transition from state hospital to 4

5 community/providers for those that have Medicaid. Denise stressed that the RSN wants input on how to better serve the homeless populations and what the gaps are in the system for serving this population. Steve of the RSN would like to regularly attend the coalition meetings, and work on projects and challenging cases together. Melissa Taylor: Melissa asked if a link exists between the transitional case managers and reentry work with hospitals, juvenile justice or jails. She shared that discharge planning is a gap in the homeless system and this could be an area where homeless providers can collaborate with the RSN, or if transitional case managers can help bridge services among providers. Denise replied that transitional case managers work at the local and state level to make sure there is a plan when clients are discharged help with step downs, make sure person does not end up back on street, and coordinate with drug/alcohol treatment providers. They also started working with the justice system and helping those people transition, as well. Frank Morrison: Frank asked for clarification on the service integration committee. Denise responded that they are still working on the service integration committee and program, identifying characteristics of people that need this service, and trying to identify high utilizers. They currently have a charter, goals and are now looking at training opportunities for providers ideas for this committee are welcome. Denise Dishongh: In response to the question on whether the affordable care act could help with the lack of funding for triage, Denise stated the RSN is trying to emulate what Portland (Cascadia Behavioral Healthcare) does with their triage system; however, most of it is funded with city/county funding, not Medicaid. The RSN plans to do what services they can with Medicaid dollars, including setting up medical homes for accessing services. Mike added that triage isn t dependent on brick/mortar based services. Mike Johnson: Mike stated that a big gap in services in Cowlitz County is helping those with dual diagnosis; there is no place for a person to get treatment for both mental health and substance abuse at the same time. Denise emphasized that it is very important for co-occurring disorders to be treated simultaneously. Denise Dishongh: In response to the concern about the huge increase in Medicaid clients with the affordable care act, Denise responded that the RSN is trying to expand what providers do and possibly even bring new providers on. Catholic Community Services has expanded to Skamania County and might expand to Cowlitz County, as well. RSN has also asked providers to expand services throughout the region. B. Member Updates Marcel Goulet: Kalama Housing Authority is opening up its low-income housing waitlist. The board has been doing adjustments on admission policies, administration, their manual, and management of the low-income housing program. The board decided to give priority to homeless families for their public housing units. They recently had two units open up and were able house two homeless families in the last 30 days. Nancy Malone: Nancy introduced John Rice new nuisance abatement officer and development reviewer for Kelso. He will be attending the Housing First meetings instead of Nancy. John London: LCMH Woodland office is now open M-F. They have two full time counselors; one is Spanish speaking. Marilee Hertig: Goodwill work crew is working four days a week on several CAP houses. Marilee also introduced Barry Stueve of Peace Health; Barry is thinking about becoming a coalition member VI. Adjourn There being no other business, the meeting ended at 3:00 PM. The next meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, March 20, 2013 at 1:30 PM. in CAP s Altrusa Room CHFC MTGSUM.DH.02_20_13 5