Agendas and Minutes

Housing and Human Services Advisory Committee (View All)

Housing and Human Services Commission Regular Meeting

Agenda
Thursday, June 27, 2019

Ashland Housing and Human Services Commission
Minutes
June 27, 2019
Audio File
 
Call to Order
 
Commission Chair Rohde called the meeting to order at 4:30 pm in the Siskiyou Room at the Community Development and Engineering Offices located at 51 Winburn Way, Ashland, Oregon, 97520.
 
 
Commissioners Present: Council Liaison
Rich Rohde Dennis Slattery
Joseph Tomlin  
Gina Duquenne SOU Liaison
Linda Reppond None appointed at this time
Erin Crowley  
Tom Gunderson Staff Present:
Heidi Parker Linda Reid, Housing Program Specialist
Sarah Spansail Liz Hamilton, Permit Technician
Jackie Bachman  
   
Commissioners Not In Attendance:  
   
   
 
Approval of Minutes
Commissioners Jackie Bachman /Gina Duguenne m/s to approve the minutes of May 23, 2019. Voice Vote: All Ayes. Motion passed
 
Public Forum  - none
 
 
Jackie Bachman asked Linda Reid to research the Bellingham, WA housing Levy.  Would like to know how they went thru the process for a housing levy.
 
Council Liaison report from Dennis Slattery (due to time constraint for Dennis):
Gave info on Budget process and info that Housing Trust fund is still intact.
Special meeting proposed for July 8, 2019 for City Council to talk about (2) proposed ADHOC committees, (1) for finding ways to fund things within the city and (1) to work on cost containment within the city.
 
Presentation: 10 Year Plan to End Homelessness Update
Constance Wilkerson, Continuum of Care Director gave handout (see attached) and presentation on the statistics of the years 2009-2019.
 
Rich Rohde asked about Medford homeless plan for 2019.  Constance answered, Medford has an action plan of what they want to accomplish in the next 3-5 years to address homeless. Medford City Council plans to finalize the plan by Sept or Oct. The proposed plan follows a lot of C of C priority list.
 
Jackie Bachman asked about a County Based solution for homelessness, why is there not a collaboration for shelters.  Constance answered, the County has come to the table with work groups.  County is funding part of the C of C programs. Everyone is looking for more collaboration with the county.
 
Dennis Slattery wants to know the process for finding housing, feels like there is a process and then it just ends.  Constance answered, there is a bottle neck in the process and it is availability of housing.  Dennis asked what is the number to meet the need?  Constance answered there are 1600 people currently on the list waiting for housing in the Rogue Valley.
 
Rich Rohde states that there is State legislature regarding potential bills for money towards homelessness and substance abuse.
 
Discussion about the County Jail and homeless being released.  Constance comments that the jail is now releasing at 7am only, the County is providing transportation to a Community Resource center, staffing the resource center trying to help those just coming out of jail to keep them back off the streets.
 
Heidi Parker comments on the amount of Chronically mental ill seen in the emergency shelters this winter.  Need more facilities for the mentally ill.
 
Discussion about Jackson County Mental Health programs that were lost and how difficult it is to follow up on outpatient mental health when the patient will not come back for follow ups.  It is brought up that more permanent solution housing with case management is needed for follow up than actual mental health providers.
 
Discussion about how important the Continuum of Care is in communication
Dennis Slattery leaves 5pm
 
CDBG Consolidated Planning Process Introduction/Overview
Linda Reid gives brief overview of what the parameters are for providing HUD the 5 year strategy plan.  Showed what the objectives were for 2015-2019. Also reminded commission of the Rent Burden Forum that the State requires to be held each year.  The process will be to draft a 5 year strategy, review it, have public hearing process, and have it ready to submit to HUD by May 2020.
 
Discussion around what the Commission will do for public feed back:
Erin Crowley – wants rent burden meeting earlier than November, and to put more into advertising to the public.
Rich Rohde – wants to combined rent burden and SB608 Forum together in one event.  There are other agencies that want to talk about all this too.
Heidi Parker – past outreach has be “anemic” want to get more dynamic in outreach.
Joseph Tomlin – maybe door to door canvasing.  Possible clip-board questioning at other events for data
Erin Crowley – Is there money to advertise on Facebook or social media?
Gina Dequenne -  Look into a Facebook presence as well as handing out fliers
Sarah Spansail – Need to make it an event on Facebook
Rich Rohde – wants the brainstorming ideas to be on a separate list to add to the agenda to keep coming back to and for the work groups to have.
 
Tom Gunderson Leaves 5:14
                       
SB 608 Forum Planning
            Need to invite planners to the forum as well. Rich Rohde- need outline for clear info for forum.  Linda Reppond – need to nail down date and speakers.   What is the target for this forum, should we combine SB608 and Rent Burden together in one forum?  Need to shoot for Sept or Oct to hold this forum.  Focus again on outreach for forum.   We should still look into partnership with other cities that are interested in this topic.  Set work group meetings after adjournment of this meeting.
Work group:  Sarah/joseph/Gina
                       
SS Grant Application Changes Suggestions   Work Group:  Erin / Tom / Heidi        
            Tom & Erin met for Work Group on Tuesday.  Have questions, how many changes can we make and what can we make?  Linda Reid – give wish list to me and I will give to United Way joint meeting to go over our wish list.
Erin – really want to separate how many people in Ashland are being served.  Budget lines were confusing and still need work,  Next topic was for each Commissioner to take 2 applicants and visit yearly for follow up reports.  Heidi Parker – may need to set a financial limit for reporting, as complaints have been for small amounts burdensome for reporting.  Jackie Bachman – really interested in making sure applications have it broken down about cost per person or per service for their needs or defiantly have a mid-cycle meeting to find out how many people they have help with their grant money.  Linda Reid will bring materials from United way for the Commission to inspect and see what they want to use.  Erin – Tom wants commission to discuss setting aside a certain amount of grant money for specific needs or services.  For example, only, setting aside $50k for child care. Work group will give the Commission rough draft at next meeting before giving to Linda Reid. 
 
Liaison Reports discussion
            Council (Dennis Slattery) – See above
SOU Liaison (vacant)
Staff (Linda Reid)  - went to “Project Community Connect” event.  Has gotten so big with the Judges meeting people that they have created a separate time for the Judges.
            General Announcements – Rich Rohde has list of bills still in the senate regarding homelessness and etc.
 
Upcoming Events and Meetings
                        Next Housing Commission Regular Meeting
4:00-6:00 PM; July 25, 2019 in the Siskiyou Room of the Community Development Building
 
Adjournment:   Rich Rohde adjourned the meeting at 5:58p.m.  
 
Respectfully submitted by Liz Hamilton
 
 

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