Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout2008-02-20 Work Session MinutesDeschutes County Board of Commissioners 1300 NW Wall St., Suite 200, Bend, OR 97701 -1960 (541) 388 -6570 - Fax (541) 385 -3202 - www.deschutes.org MINUTES OF WORK SESSION DESCHUTES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2008 Present were Commissioners Dennis R. Luke, Michael M Daly and Tammy (Baney) Melton. Also present were Dave Kanner, County Administrator; Susan Ross, Property and Facilities; Judith Ure, Administration; Erik Kanner, Deputy County Administrator; Tom Anderson, Catherine Morrow, Barbara Rich and Peter Gutowsky, Community Development Department; Anna Johnson, Communications; and approximately ten other citizens. Chair Luke opened the meeting at 1:30 p.m. 1. Discuss Strategies to Address Regional Homelessness. Paul Carlson of the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness spoke about the progress being made on the issue of homelessness. The Veterans Administration is working towards helping homeless veterans in a more positive way. The cost of doing nothing is immeasurable, affecting public safety and the hospitals. Studies show the cost to society per homeless person is about $50,000 per year. The cost of housing these people and providing social services runs under $20,000 per year. The current homeless population really began in the 1980's. The count in Deschutes County is about 2,000, which is a high number in view of the total population of the area. Homelessness is already hardening into a class of people, and if it continues much longer, it will never cease. The problem has been analyzed and matched to a solution. A technology of permanent supportive housing, combined with social services, can work to reverse this trend. The most difficult part of the problem should be addressed first; this means helping those individuals who have been homeless for the longest and are the most difficult to assist. Usually these people are disabled, or are suffering from mental illness or substance abuse, and end up in the jails or hospital emergency rooms because they have ignored their health problems for so long. Minutes of Administrative Work Session Wednesday, February 20, 2008 Page 1 of 7 Pages Homeless families are a different group. A variety of ways is being established to get families off the street. The traditional approach is transitional housing; help with employment and social services; and training to get into permanent housing. Services need to be attached to the housing portion in order to help the chronically homeless population. The ten -year plan addresses homelessness and needs to be spearheaded by local government management and community leaders. Desired outcomes include how many people were housed, and how many people got jobs. Several counties have completed plans, and others have plans that will be finished this year. Those that have implemented their plans are seeing a homeless population that is 20% lower than previously. Portland's plan showed a 39% decrease. The group is already setting up a one -night homeless count. It is natural for Deschutes County to take the lead and work in partnership with the other cities and counties in the area. Commissioner Luke observed that without the support of federal and state dollars, it is difficult for counties to pay for this kind of ongoing project. Commissioner Melton said that her hope is the County will want to take this on; that it is proactive and cost - effective in the long term. She wants to partner on putting together a plan to move forward. Cindy Pasko of the Partnership to End Poverty, as a citizen, asked for cooperation for a local plan in writing, with goals and benchmarks. She is a frontline provider, and sees the results of the problem every day. There are holes in services and things that are not working. They need to start somewhere, and require the support of public officers. Commissioner Luke said he had no problem participating in the count program. Commissioner Melton stated that the groundwork needs to be set to get the buy - in of other counties. Erik Kropp said that he sees is participation as a link, to help decide when to bring in various entities and people. Dave Kanner added that the City of Bend has a full -time employee who is supposed to be working on housing issues, and perhaps that resource can be tapped. Commissioner Daly noted that this will only work if all of the cities and counties in the area work together and put all the pieces of the puzzle into place. Minutes of Administrative Work Session Wednesday, February 20, 2008 Page 2 of 7 Pages Mr. Carlson noted that these types of plans are succeeding when leadership is brought to the executive level, demonstrating the will of the community to address the problem. This energizes the existing partners and brings in new ones, as there is more clout and authority. Christine Lewis of Housing Works, Suzy Reininger of the Homeless Leadership Council, Deb Price of the Oregon Housing and Community Services Department and Cathy ? of Neighborlmpact took part in the discussion. Mr. Kanner said that someone needs to coordinate the program. It is not his expectation that Mr. Kropp will be the expert, but there are many people who have that history and training. The vast majority of homeless in the area are in or near Bend, and the impacts on public safety and medical infrastructure are mostly felt in Bend, so the City needs to be very involved. Mr. Kropp can coordinate and rely on others as necessary, but the commitment of the City is needed. 2. Update/Discussion regarding Daycare Center Contract. Commissioner Luke said that this is more than a lease; they have made investments and need some security. Ms. Ross said that she surveyed daycare providers and broadened the scope. Most of the current users are happy, and there is a waiting list for most age groups. Infant care is the hardest to find. The County's daycare is competitive. Most just provide snacks and charge a registration fee. Commissioner Melton said there is a principal about this being a benefit. It is not a benefit if the parent does not work nearby. Commissioner Luke pointed out that a daycare center was part of the agreement with the State as a convenience to employees, and is not a benefit. It is an opportunity to provide a service, as there is a huge shortage of providers. The rate is less because the County does not charge much rent. Rent is a small part of the operating costs; most is personnel. This is a convenience to employees of the County, State, and others who work downtown. He added that they would have another on the east side of town if there was room for a facility. He said that there is a state standard for the ratio of staff to child. Infant care is the hardest to find, and can cost $1,000 a month in most places. It is clear they are passing the rent subsidy on to the clients. Minutes of Administrative Work Session Wednesday, February 20, 2008 Page 3 of 7 Pages Ms. Ross added that they would not provide infant care without the subsidy. This was planned to be a long -term relationship; you cannot have a daycare provider going in and out of a location. It needs to be stable for the children and parents. A full -blown RFP process was done and only two providers applied; most were not interested. People are generally very happy with the arrangement. Commissioner Melton stated that there may be some misunderstanding that it is a benefit for employees. Commissioner Luke said that employees take preference if there is an opening, but someone else will not be kicked out to make room for an employee's child. Ms. Ross added that it is about half government employees and half public. Some of the employees do work at the Sheriff's Office or on the east side of town. Commissioner Melton wants a clause included that Mary's Place has the right to use the building; Ms. Ross said there is no problem with that, as it is already happening Commissioner Luke noted that perhaps the agreement should be a license and not a lease. Mr. Kanner will talk to Legal Counsel in this regard. 3. Discussion of Bend Airport Traffic Mitigation. This item will be addressed at a future meeting. 4. Discussion of Wetlands Program Development Grant Proposal. Peter Gutowsky gave an overview of the proposal, which requires a 25% match. A grant to the EPA Region 10 has been sought and funding in the amount of $100,000 may be available. A portion can be used as this in -kind match. This concerns the red lot, high ground water project. He has been working on a proposal to apply for the grant; and support letters have been sought and received. Some staff time can be part of the comprehensive plan update. The grant would help pay for a local wetlands inventory; the Division of State Lands and a consultant, and other agencies will help to identify wetlands. This would replace old national wetlands inventory. At that point a plan can be developed on how to preserve and maintain wetlands. Tom Anderson said this takes a commitment of staff time. These lots are tied to the local rule issue. If a lot is identified as wetlands, it cannot be developed. This proposal will help clarify whether a lot falls into that category. Minutes of Administrative Work Session Wednesday, February 20, 2008 Page 4 of 7 Pages 5. Consideration of Economic Development Grant Requests. None were offered. 6. Update of Commissioners' Meetings and Schedules. Commissioner Melton said she would be gone on February 29, as will Commissioner Daly. Commissioner Luke will be out on February 28. 7. Other Items. Susan Ross said that Bethlehem Inn is officially hooked up to the sewer system now. Environmental Health has indicated that they can now apply for a restaurant license so they can serve food, and the number of residents can increase. Ms. Ross stated that she has heard from the State, and an award letter is coming on building the new Oregon State Police building project. Ms. Ross gave an update on the Latino Community Association, whose year's lease is about up. They said they will need a larger space in about a year. They currently have two offices and the use of a common meeting room. She suggested the group be allowed to remain another year but to charge them a normal rate of 90 cents per foot. They are working on getting stabilized and recruiting more board members. Commissioner Luke suggested that they not be charged rent, as he would rather see the money go into their programs. They provide a community service that no one else does, including working with the homeless. They operate a medical and dental clinic, which takes some pressure off the County. Commissioner Melton observed that RSVP got kicked out because they could not pay rent, and there are other groups the County does not support in this fashion that also provide needed services. Ms. Ross said they are looking at a small house that rents for $600 per month, but they would have to move again. A year would help them to find a more permanent type of facility. Minutes of Administrative Work Session Wednesday, February 20, 2008 Page 5 of 7 Pages It is not necessarily the money part, but they need good visibility and access. The cost at 90 cents per square foot would be about $300 per month. Commissioner Melton noted that this is still a reduced rate, and that they have been working on restructuring for a long time. Commissioners Luke and Daly indicated that they approve of charging $200 per month for the next year. Tom Anderson said he has received a request for a fee waiver for a small business. It is a State fee and the County has no provision to waive it. The cost to the County to do inspections is about the same as for a large business. He cannot just waive fees on the basis of whether someone can afford it, as this sets precedence for others. Mr. Kanner will respond and suggest the person talk with the State about it. Mr. Anderson stated that Mr. Aceti withdrew his appeal. The property is still in Code enforcement. This relates to the containers on the property. Commissioner Daly said that the containers are farm related. Mr. Anderson stated that this is supposed to be secondary to farm use and there was a limitation on how many and where they were located. Commissioner Melton said that the property is sliced up and is harder to farm, and is now a hobby farm. Commissioner Luke noted that there is no such thing as a hobby farm in State law. He added that this was based on the Hearings Officer's decision and a judge could override it. However, Legal Counsel feels that the Hearings Officer allowed him to do too much. A court decision would help settle this. Deschutes Junction should be a commercial area, and historically has been, but the Code enforcement case was based on a citizen complaint and had to be addressed. Being no further items addressed, the meeting adjourned at 4:45 p.m. Minutes of Administrative Work Session Wednesday, February 20, 2008 Page 6 of 7 Pages DATED this 20th Day of February 2008 for the Deschutes County Board of Commissioners. ATTEST: Recording Secretary Dennis R. Luke, Cliai Tammy Baney, Vice 140-1151-- hair Michael 1 . Dal , Co issioner Minutes of Administrative Work Session Page 7 of 7 Pages Wednesday, February 20, 200.E U Deschutes County Board of Commissioners 0 1300 NW Wall St., Suite 200, Bend, OR 97701-1960 (541) 388-6570 - Fax (541) 385-3202 - www.deschutes.org, WORK SESSION AGENDA DESCHUTES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS 1:30 P.M., WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2008 1. Discuss Strategies to Address Regional Homelessness — Erik Kropp, and a Representative of HUD 2. Update/Discussion regarding Daycare Center Contract — Susan Ross 3. Discussion of Bend Airport Traffic Mitigation — Catherine Morrow 4. Wetland Program Development Grant Proposal — Peter Gutowsky 5. Consideration of Economic Development Grant Requests 6. Update of Commissioners' Meetings and Schedules 7. Other Items PLEASE NOTE: At any time during this meeting, an executive session could be called to address issues relating to ORS 192.660(2) (e), real property negotiations; ORS 192.660(2) (h), pending or threatened litigation; or ORS 192.660(2) (b), personnel issues Meeting dates, limes and discussion items are subject to change. All meetings are conducted in the Board of Commissioners' meeting rooms ai 1300 NW Wall Si., Bend, unless otherwise indicated. If you have questions regarding a meeting, please call 388 -6572. Deschutes County meeting locations are wheelchair accessible. Deschutes County provides reasonable accommodations for persons with disabilities. For deaf hearing impaired or speech disabled, dial 7 -1 -1 to access the state transfer relay service for TTY. Please call (541) 388 -6571 regarding altemative formats or for further information. PLEASE SIGN IN Work Session Meeting Wednesday, February 20, 2008 (Please Print) Name Representing ?au\ C r 1 S o In U` vth� r'4 ' )2 Vtcy Co 0 vic i. I c.,_ Itzoy S ec!`s in r_i ..------D4 c?,-% CQ— il_ 3 )-(A.t,s.'in oti,,crN,N ■J ''.,/1--461--. 1 /j i / /97 51 irher G S Lt)es c- ,1e S f N∎ e Isom c41ze it_ 0 op 1 w , / . A NM_ L ( �, ( P_ ; n \ f e { s S � CC eiSl ;� � Please return to Bonnie. Deborah Price Regional Advisor to Department Central Region Debbie.Price@hcs.state.or.us regon HOUSING AND COMMUNITY SERVICES 109 NW Greenwood Ave., Ste. 101 Bend, OR 97701 Cell: (541) 460 -3231 www.ohcs.oregon.gov "Setting the Standard" PAUL H. CARLSON REGIONAL COORDINATOR REGION 10 UNITED STATES INTERAGENCY COUNCIL ON HOMELESSNESS c/o HUD Regional Director 2ntl Floor, Old Federal Bldg. 909 1st Avenue, Seattle, WA 98104 206 - 220 -5362 phone 206 - 399 -6170 cell 206- 220 -5108 fax paul.carlson@hud.gov www.usich.gov United States Interagency Council on Homelessness Mission. The mission of the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness is to coordinate the federal response to homelessness and to create a national partnership at every level of government and every element of the private sector to reduce and end homelessness in the nation. Revitalized by President Bush in 2002, the Council, under the leadership of Executive Director Philip F. Mangano, is engaged in carrying out the President's commitment to end chronic homelessness in the United States. In doing so, the Council has forged an unprecedented national partnership that extends from the White House to the streets and includes federal, state, and local government, advocates, providers, consumers and faith -based organizations. The Council works to improve access to and coordination of federal investments among its Council member departments and agencies; ensure the effectiveness of federal activities and programs; engage and assist state and local governments, advocates, service providers, and customers in creating effective local solutions; and provide technical assistance and evidence -based best practice information to partners at every level of government, as well as the private sector. Interagency Collaboration - Federal. The Council is an independent agency within the federal executive branch composed of 20 Cabinet Secretaries and agency heads and reports directly to the White House Domestic Policy Council. Meeting regularly at the White House, the Council's Cabinet Chair is currently Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Alphonso Jackson. Intergovernmental Collaboration. As part of the Council's strategy to establish non - partisan, intergovernmental partnerships to end chronic homelessness, specific initiatives have been fostered with state and local governments. To date, Governors of 53 states and territories have taken steps to create State Interagency Councils on Homelessness. Over 200 Mayors and County Executives and 6 Governors have committed to 10 -Year Plans to End Chronic Homelessness. The Council provides technical assistance to states and localities in the development of these initiatives including the expeditious dissemination of innovative best practices that are results - oriented. 1ntercommunity Collaboration. To carry out the strategy of intergovernmental and inter- sector partnership, the Council has developed community partnerships with the National Governors Association, U.S. Conference of Mayors, National League of Cities, National Association of Counties, United Way, Chamber of Commerce, International Downtown Association, National Alliance for the Mentally 111, and the National Alliance to End Homelessness. Additionally, the Council regularly convenes state and local officials, communicates with national and local provider and advocacy organizations, and communicates directly with homeless people to foster consumer - centric solutions. Technical Assistance and Support. To administer and facilitate the Council's mission at the local and regional level, the Council has Regional Coordinators throughout the country. Each of the Coordinators is responsible for working with federal partners and state and local governments, homeless advocates, providers, and consumers to encourage and coordinate their collective efforts to end Ohronic homelessness. The Coordinators facilitate the creation of regional federal interagency councils and state interagency councils as well as jurisdictional 10 -Year Plans. The Council, in keeping with the President's Management Agenda, encourages activities and initiatives that incorporate research - driven, performance- based, and results - oriented solutions. For example, the Council supports: • The dissemination of new and innovative approaches such as Housing First, Assertive Community Treatment Teams, and Project Homeless Connect that are proving effective at ending chronic homelessness; • Local cost - benefit studies that reveal the costs of homelessness to the community and the cost savings that arise from effective solutions; • Strategies to prevent homelessness for individuals and families before it occurs; and, • Access to mainstream resources for the benefit of homeless persons and families. For more information, please visit the Council's website at www.usich.gov. United States Interagency Council on Homelessness Phone: 202/708 -4663 FAX: 202/708 -1216 Pacific NW and Alaska Coordinator Paul Carlson, Seattle, WA Phone: 206 220 5362 paul.carlsonna,hud.gov RESOLUTION TO DEVELOP A REGIONAL TRI- COUNTY, AFFORDABLE 10 YEAR STRATEGY WITH A FOCUS ON PREVENTING AND ELIMINATING HOMELESSNESS WHEREAS, safe and decent shelter is one of the most basic of all human needs; and WHEREAS, the lack of adequate and affordable housing is begin felt by individuals of all ages and income levels in Deschutes, Crook and Jefferson Counties; and WHEREAS, inadequate housing and homelessness make it more difficult for children to learn, adults to be productive, and people of all ages to stay healthy; and WHEREAS, lack of affordable housing and homelessness represent an economic burden on the community, especially the public safety and public health systems; and WHEREAS, many government agencies, non - profit groups and individuals in Deschutes, Jefferson, and Crook County are valiantly working to address shelter and homeless prevention issues; and WHEREAS, the local resources to deal with the problem fall far short of the need, with housing, shelter, and the supportive programs of all types reporting long waiting lists; and WHEREAS, there is a new focus on the problems of affordable housing and homelessness at both the state and federal levels, as well as recognition that new approaches, including the "housing first" model, show great promise in preventing and ending homelessness; and WHEREAS, the Federal Government has adopted a 10 -year goal to end homelessness, and has asked local jurisdictions to join in this effort; The recognizes that additional resources will be required in order to meet the goals included in the 10 Year Strategy to End Homelessness and that the Plan will include strategies to seek funding; NOW, BE IT RESOLVED, that the supports development of a regional plan and will strive to achieve it through working with other government partners at all levels, non - profits organizations, the private sector, the faith based community, and interested individuals. Adopted by the this day of , 2008. THE 10 -YEAR PLANNING PROCESS TO END CHRONIC HOMELESSNESS IN YOUR COMMUNITY A Step -by -Step Guide United States Interagency Council on Homelessness Federal Center SW • 409 Third Street SW, Suite 310 • Washington, DC 20024 Phone: 202 - 708 -4663 •www.usich.gov • Fax: 202 -708 -1216 JURISDICTIONAL SUPPORT FOR 10 -YEAR PLANS "The U.S. Conference of Mayors supports the 10 -year planning process and strongly encourages cities to create and implement... strategic plans to end chronic homelessness in 10 years." — Resolution passed unanimously by the U.S. Conference of Mayors, June 2003 "NACo endorses the Bush Administration's national goal of ending chronic homelessness in ten years... NACo encourages counties to develop 10 -Year Plans incorporating the latest research...to prevent and end chronic homelessness." — Resolution adopted by the National Association of Counties, July 15, 2003 "The National League of Cities (NLC) supports the Bush Administration's goal to end chronic homelessness in the United States in 10 years and will help advance the planning process set forth by the Administration." - Resolution adopted by the National League of Cities, December 2003 "We have to do more than just manage homelessness. Our objective [is] to prevent homelessness, and ultimately end it. [That is the] intent of this plan." — Mayor Richard Daley, on Chicago's 10 -Year Plan "The Governors support the goal of ending chronic homelessness and recognize the shared responsibility that local, state, and federal governments have in combating this social problem ... and for ensuring that the state government is coordinating its efforts effectively with the federal government and with local efforts including 10 -year planning efforts to end chronic homelessness." - Policy Statement adopted by the National Governors Association, March 2005 "Five years ago the notion of cities having 10 -year plans to end homelessness was naive and risky. No one thought it was possible. But the new research and new technologies have created such movement and innovation on this issue that it may now be naive and risky not to have such a plan." — Executive Director Philip Mangano, U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness www.usich.gov The United States Interagency Council supports and encourages the development of local 10 -Year Plans to end chronic homelessness. Planning to end homelessness — not to manage or maintenance — is new. Inspired by the President's call to end this profile of homelessness and by city and county 10 -Year Plans that have been developed across our country, these planning processes have offered new resources, new collaborations, and new energy to create solutions. By FY 2007, over 290 cities and counties had committed to such 10 -Year Plans. The Council's work with federal departments and agencies promises new collaborative approaches and new funding opportunities at the national level. Our encouragement of Governors to create State Interagency Councils on Homelessness will create new state level opportunities. Again, by 2006, 53 Governors had made such a commitment. Most importantly, the new research and new technologies offer performance based, results oriented strategies to reduce and end homelessness. We have prioritized people on the streets and in long term stays in shelters, those experiencing "chronic homelessness." They are the most vulnerable, visible, and costly. This document is designed to guide your community through the steps of developing and implementing a 10 -year plan to end chronic homelessness. We are indebted to the U.S. Conference of Mayors for their assistance in creating this document, to the National Alliance to End Homelessness for their innovative work in developing the 10 -Year Planning template, and to HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson and his staff for their support in endorsing and promoting 10 -Year Plans. Homelessness is a national problem with local solutions. Working together, we can end this national disgrace. AU the best, Philip F. Mangano Executive Director U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness www.usich.gov ii TABLE OF CONTENTS • What Is Chronic Homelessness? 1 • What Are Characteristics of Individuals Experiencing 2 Chronic Homelessness? • Why Focus on Chronic Homelessness? 3 • Why Focus on Chronic Homelessness Now? 5 • How Can You End Chronic Homelessness In Your 6 Community? • What Are the Elements of a Successful 10 -Year Plan? 18 • What Results Can Your Community Expect? 19 • Where Can You Find Additional 10 -Year Planning 20 Resources? www.usich.gov iii WHAT IS CHRONIC HOMELESSNESS? • The most visible form of homelessness; often people on the streets of our neighborhoods and communities • Experienced by 150,000 Americans each year • A subgroup that constitutes 10% of the homeless population • A condition found in counties, cities, suburbs, and rural areas www.usich.gov 1 WHAT ARE CHARACTERISTICS OF INDIVIDUALS EXPERIENCING CHRONIC HOMELESSNESS? • Unaccompanied individuals • Homeless for a year or more or multiple times over a several year period • Disabled by addiction, mental illness, chronic physical illness or disability, or developmental disability • Frequent histories of hospitalization, unstable employment, and incarceration • Average age in the early 40s www.usich.gov 2 WHY FOCUS ON CHRONIC HOMELESSNESS? Chronic homelessness has a visible impact on your community's safety and attractiveness. It is a finite problem that can be solved. Effective new technologies exist to engage and house this population. * Described in more detail on following page www.usich.gov 3 INDIVIDUALS EXPERIENCING CHRONIC HOMELESSNESS CONSUME A DISPROPORTIONATE AMOUNT OF RESOURCES 10% of the homeless population consumes over 50% of the resources Other homeless subpopulations Chronically homeless Population • 0 0 • 0 0 • Resources Individuals experiencing chronic homelessness are heavy users of costly public resources, including : • Emergency medical services • Psychiatric treatment • Detox facilities • Shelters • Law Enforcement / Corrections /Courts Burt, Martha R., Laudan Y. Aron and Edgar Lee. 2001. Helping America's Homeless: Emergency Shelter or Affordable Housing? Washington, DC: Urban Institute Press. Kuhn, R. & Culhane, D.P. (1998). Applying cluster analysis to test of a typology of homelessness: Results from the analysis of administrative data. The American Journal of Community Psychology, 17 (1), 23 -43. Community Shelter Board. Rebuilding Lives: A New Strategy to House Homeless Men. Columbus, OH: Emergency Food and Shelter Board. www.usich.gov 4 WHY FOCUS ON CHRONIC HOMELESSNESS NOW? New technologies exist to move people off the streets and keep them housed (e.g., Housing First Strategies, Assertive Community Treatment) Solution-oriented strategies offer alternative to expensive police /court interventions New federal investment A new commitment by the President and his Administration to end chronic homelessness A new spirit of partnership on this issue that trumps partisanship www.usich.gov 5 HOW CAN YOU END CHRONIC HOMELESSNESS IN YOUR COMMUNITY? 10 Step 1: Commit the Jurisdiction to Developing a 10 -Year Plan 10 Step 2: Identify Stakeholders 10 Step 3: Convene a Working Group 10 Step 4: Gather Research and Data on Homelessness 10 Step 5: Define Your Community's Homeless Problem 10 Step 6: Develop Strategies to Address these Problems 10 Step 7: Solicit Stakeholder Feedback and Finalize Strategic Plan 10 Step 8: Create an Action Plan to Implement Strategies 10 Step 9: Announce and Publicize the Plan 10 Step 10: Implement the Plan www.usich.gov 6 STEP 1: COMMIT TO DEVELOPING A 10 -YEAR PLAN A strong commitment from the Mayor or County Executive is critical, although many parties can initiate the process The 10 -Year Planning Process Requires: • Long -term commitment from the first planning steps to full implementation • Staff time and energy • Willingness to engage diverse stakeholders and forge new partnerships • Ability to think creatively about old problems and existing resources www.usich.gov 7 STEP 2: IDENTIFY STAKEHOLDERS The most successful efforts have broad support and participation from the public, private, and non - profit sectors Mayor/ Agency / Business & Civic Law County Executive Department Heads Leaders Enforcement Officials Housing Developers & Service Providers Hospital Administrators Academia Libraries Parks & Recreation Departments www.usich.gov United Way/ Chambers of Commerce General Public t .2411 ell Individuals Non - profits / Faith -based experiencing foundations Organizations Homelessness STEP 3: CONVENE A WORKING GROUP The working group coordinates the planning process and should include representation from different stakeholders • The working group should create forums to facilitate broader community input and participation throughout the process • Individuals chosen for the working group should: - Have authority to make funding and resource decisions - Have relevant expertise or experience - Be committed to the planning process - Be well respected by stakeholders and the larger community • Chair and co -chair should report directly and regularly to Mayor or County Executive www.usich.gov 9 STEP 4: GATHER RESEARCH AND DATA ON HOMELESSNESS Accurate, timely data and research will create a solid foundation for your community's plan • Existing research on homelessness (local /national) • Local homeless counts • Service and housing capacity • 10 -Year Plans from other communities • Availability of funding resources www.usich.gov 10 STEP 5: DEFINE YOUR COMMUNITY'S HOMELESS PROBLEM Identify and assess the root causes of chronic homelessness in your community Problems identified by other communities include: • Difficulties in engaging this population • Inadequate service capacity • Lack of appropriate supported, permanent housing • Poor discharge planning from public systems • Inaccessibility of mainstream resources • Fragmented systems of care • Historical leadership vacuum on issue • Investment in stop -gap measures rather than permanent solutions www.usich.gov 11 STEP 6: DEVELOP STRATEGIES TO ADDRESS THESE PROBLEMS Strategies to end chronic homelessness fall into two major categories: Prevention and Intervention PREVENTION "Close the Front Door" Reduce the number of people who become chronically homeless INTERVENTION "Open the Back Door" Increase placement into supported housing of people who are currently experiencing homelessness www.usich.gov 12 STEP 6: DEVELOP STRATEGIES TO ADDRESS THESE PROBLEMS (continued) Effective strategies used by other communities can help guide and inform your community's approach PREVENTION "Close the Front Door" • Centralization of funding and service delivery to increase coordination [Community Shelter Board, Columbus and Franklin County, Ohio] • Dedicated resources to house individuals discharged from psychiatric care institutions [Special Initiative to House the Homeless Mentally 111, State of Massachusetts] • Discharge planning protocols that prevent homelessness INTERVENTION "Open the Back Door" 0 • Assertive Community Treatment (ACT): multi - disciplinary, clinically - based teams that engage people experiencing chronic homelessness on the streets and in shelters • Permanent supported housing with low threshold access for homeless mentally ill people [Pathways to Housing, New York City] • Direct access to permanent supported housing for frequent users of acute health systems [Direct Access to Housing, San Francisco] www.usich.gov 13 STEP 7: SOLICIT STAKEHOLDER FEEDBACK AND FINALIZE STRATEGIC PLAN Input from stakeholders is particularly critical at this point to ensure support for and consensus on the final plan DRAFT ./ pLAN _. IL) ''•■ \\\ t * 343 e STEP 8: CREATE AN ACTION PLAN TO IMPLEMENT STRATEGIES Translate high -level strategies and goals into concrete, actionable steps to achieve them The Action Plan Should Include: • Specific activities and the parties responsible for executing them • Costs and funding sources • Timelines /Benchmarks • Performance metrics www.usich.gov 15 STEP 9: ANNOUNCE AND PUBLICIZE THE PLAN Plans should be publicly endorsed and announced by the Mayor / County Executive to ensure maximum visibility • Host a special press conference where Mayor /County Executive announces 10 -Year Plan • Leverage print, TV, and radio media to maximize press coverage • Encourage participating stakeholders and organizations to actively promote plan • Enlist the support of community leaders and local celebrities to spread the word www.usich.gov 16 STEP 10: IMPLEMENT THE PLAN The final step is to execute the identified strategies and action steps to begin ending chronic homelessness in your community • Use the plan to guide your activities, but recognize that it is a living document and should be updated as situations change • Regularly track your community's progress using the identified metrics • Continue to innovate and stay informed of activities in other communities • Encourage ongoing stakeholder and community input • Continue to build new partnerships www.usich.gov 17 WHAT ARE THE ELEMENTS OF A SUCCESSFUL 10 -YEAR PLAN? 1. Collaborative Planning Process 2. Research and Data - Driven Approach 3. Performance and Outcome Orientation 4. Innovation and Creativity 5. Endorsement by Top City / County Officials 6. Involvement of Stakeholders In Resource Enhancement 7. Planful Implementation Strategy www.usich.gov 18 WHAT RESULTS CAN YOUR COMMUNITY EXPECT? • Significant savings in public systems from reduced use of services including hospital emergency rooms, ambulances, and EMT services (San Diego, Seattle, Boston, and other studies) v Savings in other service systems, including homeless shelters, acute psychiatric services, and corrections can result from placement of individuals into supportive housing (Culhane et al.) • Enhancement of quality of life for both those who are housed and homeless • Supported housing retention rates of 80% or greater • More resources to address other homeless subpopulations, including youth and families • Inspiration and energy from working together to help your neediest neighbors www.usich.gov 19 WHERE CAN YOU FIND ADDITIONAL 10 -YEAR PLANNING RESOURCES? United States Interagency Council on Homelessness • USICH Regional Coordinators have specific local expertise and are based nationwide — call us for more information • USICH Website ( www.usich.gov) has links to 10 -Year Plans and information on interagency and agency- specific activities and funding opportunities • USICH's weekly e- newsletter headlines new developments, innovations, partnerships, and resources focused on ending chronic homelessness: subscribe at www.usich.qov National Alliance to End Homelessness • Website (www.endhomelessness.org) • "Ten Essentials Toolkit" — comprehensive set of resources to help communities prevent and end homelessness United Way ( http: / /national.unitedway.org /) Foundations and Non - Profits www.usich.gov 20 > 0 d? s 0 •N 7 Good..1 to Better. .. to Great Innovations in 10 -Year Plans to End Chronic Homelessness in Your Community United States Interagency Council on Homelessness Federal Center SW • 409 Third Street SW, Suite 310 • Washington, DC 20024 Phone: 202 - 708 -4663 • www.usich.gov • Fax: 202 - 708 -1216 The United States Interagency Council supports and encourages the development of local 10 -Year Plans to end chronic homelessness. Inspired by the President's call to action, over 200 communities across the country, 49 states, and three territories have committed to planning initiatives in the last two years. As a result, new people, ideas and resources are beginning to emerge. This document is dedicated to the communities now engaged in the move to end chronic homelessness in the United States. Tangible progress is being made thanks to smart work invested in innovations and new solutions. Good to Great, the best - selling management book by Jim Collins, documents research conducted on over 1200 corporations to identify the common elements that caused good performers to become great performers. Inspired by Collins' work, USICH studied 10 -Year Plans to discover corresponding components that move plans from good, to better, to great. We offer you that collective wisdom in this summary form, distilled into what we call the Ten Elements. They, too, fit into "Disciplined People, Disciplined Thought, and Disciplined Action," the framework used by Collins and the Good to Great team. Whether you are just beginning the planning process or are well into implementation, we encourage you to ensure that these Ten Elements are incorporated into the "living document" that is your 10 -Year Plan. This Good ... to Better ... to Great document is designed to offer guidance regarding the contents of your 10 -Year Plan. A companion toolkit, The 10 -Year Planning Process to End Chronic Homeless in Your Community, A Step by Step Guide, takes you through the plan development process. Both toolkits are available on the Council's website (www.usich.gov). As with 10 -Year Plans, this innovations guide is a "living document." With each new community, each new collaboration, comes new challenges and fresh solutions. to ending chronic homelessness. Be sure to visit Innovative Initiatives that are Preventing and Ending Homelessness on the Council's website to find replicable programs and strategies. We are indebted to federal and private sector partners who have contributed to this learning effort. Along with Jim Collins the list includes Malcolm Gladwell, Clayton Christensen, and HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson. Homelessness is a national problem with local solutions. Our goal is to help you achieve results by implementing plans that are research - driven, performance - based, and results- oriented. Working together, we shall end this national disgrace. All the best, Philip F. Mangano Executive Director United States Interagency Council on Homelessness 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS DISCIPLINED THOUGHT ➢ National Map ➢ What Makes a 10 -Year Plan Great ➢ Ten Elements of Great Plans DISCIPLINED ACTION ➢ Political Will > Partnerships - One ➢ Partnerships - Two > Consumer - Centric Solutions DISCIPLINED THOUGHT 4 ➢ Business Plan 11 5 ➢ Cost Implications 17 ➢ Prevention & Intervention 18 ➢ Innovative Ideas 19 6 7 8 9 10 DISCIPLINED ACTION ➢ Implementation Teams ➢ Broad -Based Resources ➢ Living Documents GOOD ... TO BETTER ... TO GREAT 20 21 22 3 200+ CITIES AND COUNTIES ARE NOW ENGAGED IN 10 -YEAR PLANNING INITIATIVES * ti * Zs- _ T e, % * * * *t * '. * Fall 2005 WHAT MAKES A 10 -YEAR PLAN GREAT? USICH studied over 200 local jurisdictions engaged in 10 -Year Planning Initiatives. We learned that Great Plans have something in common with Great Companies. In Good to Great, Jim Collins and his team of researchers studied 1500 corporations and identified 11 companies of the Fortune 500 that achieved and sustained outstanding performance ... cumulative return s at least three times the market for periods of 15 years or more. After determining the key elements of success that made companies great, they summarized them into three categories: ➢ Disciplined People ➢ Disciplined Thought ➢ Disciplined Action From 200 jurisdictions, we learned the elements that help make 10 -Year Plans Good, Better, or even Great. GOOD... TO BETTER... TO GREAT 5 TEN ELEMENTS OF GREAT PLANS These Ten Elements create Great Plans that are research - driven, performance- based, and results- oriented. DISCIPLINED PEOPLE 1. Political Will 2. Partnerships 3. Consumer - Centric Solutions DISCIPLINED THOUGHT 4. Business Plan 5. Budget Implications 6. Prevention AND Intervention 7. Innovative Ideas DISCIPLINED ACTION 8. Implementation Team 9. Broad -Based Resources 10. Living Documents "We tried to bring our plans to successful conclusion step by step, so that the mass of people would gain confidence from the successes, not just the words." - Kroger CEO, Jim Herring, Good to Great GOOD ... TO BETTER ... TO GREAT 6 1. POLITICAL WILL Leadership from Jurisdictional CEOs DISCIPLINED PEOPLE Great Plans are typically sponsored by Mayors /County Executives/ Governors who often: > Announce the planning process publicly and appoint planning committee members ➢ Appoint community champion(s) to provide visible leadership in convening the planning committee > "Own" the Plan and commit to implementation ➢ Align government agencies to support implementation goals Respected community champions play important leadership roles that support, sustain, and implement 10 -Year Initiatives. GOOD ... TO BETTER ... TO GREAT 7 2. PARTNERSHIPS: One Who is "On the Bus ?" DISCIPLINED PEOPLE Great Plans include decision - makers from government agencies right from the beginning. > Effective planning and implementation includes leaders from the government at every level: - city /county region state - federal government - council of governments - USICH regional representative > Coordinated plans — state with local and local with state — produce comprehensive results. "The main point is to first get the right people on the bus (and the wrong people off the bus) before you figure out where to drive it." - Jim Collins, Good to Great GOOD... TO BETTER... TO GREAT 8 2. PARTNERSHIPS: Two Who is "On the Bus ?" Great Plans have created Community Will for ending chronic homelessness by including leaders from all private sector stakeholders. DISCIPLINED PEOPLE ➢ United Way /Philanthropy ➢ Banks /CRA Representatives ➢ Business and Civic Leaders ➢ Chambers of Commerce /Downtown Associations ➢ Housing Developers /Housing Authorities ➢ Tourism Officials /Hospitality ➢ Academia ➢ Hospitals /Regional Healthcare Systems ➢ Behavioral Health /Other Care Providers ➢ Consumer Advocates ➢ Transportation Agencies ➢ Workforce Agencies ➢ Faith -Based Organizations ➢ Law Enforcement/Courts ➢ Veterans Organizations ➢ Providers /Non- Profits ➢ Consumers "No one level of government, no one sector can do this job alone. Every level of government and every stakeholder from the private sector, including consumers, need to be partnered to reach the goal." - Philip F. Mangano GOOD ... TO BETTER ... TO GREAT 9 DISCIPLINED PEOPLE 3. CONSUMER- CENTRIC SOLUTIONS What do consumers want? Great Plans identify and respond to consumer preferences for housing, treatment, and services. Choice is often the key. Including consumers on planning councils and implementation teams is critical. > In addition, first -hand knowledge of consumer wants and needs can be gained in a variety of ways: - Focus groups - Surveys - Advisory groups - Ombudsmen GOOD ... TO BETTER ... TO GREAT 10 4. BUSINESS PLAN Implementation Management DISCIPLINED THOUGHT Great Plans are configured to achieve results by incorporating into their content: > One: Business Principles — familiar concepts, such as investment vs. return, that bring a business orientation to the strategy > Two: Baselines — documented numbers that quantify the extent of homelessness in the local community > Three: Benchmarks — incremental reductions planned in the number of people experiencing chronic homelessness > Four: Best Practices — proven methods and approaches that directly support ending chronic homelessness > Five: Budget — the potential costs and savings associated with plan implementation GOOD ... TO BETTER ... TO GREAT More... 11 4. BUSINESS PLAN: One Implementation Management Business Principles DISCIPLINED THOUGHT Great Plans are results- oriented. They gain credibility by orienting around a basic management agenda for success which can include: > Research and data - driven investments that move the response beyond anecdote and hearsay to achievement of quantifiable results ➢ Performance -based focus related to targeted outcomes ➢ Results- oriented measures that are indicators of the plan's impact > Return -on- investment outcomes in people experiencing chronic homelessness moving off the streets and out of long term shelter to housing ➢ Cost Benefit Analysis studies to identify savings (e.g. emergency room and other primary and behavioral health costs, law enforcement, courts, incarceration, etc.) GOOD ... TO BETTER ... TO GREAT More . . 12 4. BUSINESS PLAN: Two Implementation Management Baselines Great Plans include baseline data to define the magnitude of local need. > Quantify and document the number of people in your community currently experiencing chronic and other forms of homelessness > Identify the number of persons anticipated to enter the homeless system each year DISCIPLINED THOUGHT > Document the source of those entering the front door of homelessness (e.g., discharged from other systems, evicted from housing, etc.) "We all want to believe that the key to making an impact on someone lies with the inherent quality of the ideas we present." - Malcolm Gladwell, The Tipping Point GOOD ... TO BETTER ... TO GREAT More... 13 4. BUSINESS PLAN: Three Implementation Management DISCIPLINED THOUGHT Benchmarks Great Plans include benchmarks — incremental, quantifiable goals to calibrate implementation efforts. Benchmarks serve as markers by which progress is measured over the 10 -year period. ➢ Benchmarks can include: - Reductions in number of people experiencing chronic homelessness (annually, bi- annually, monthly, etc.) Reductions of people living on the street, in street deaths, etc. - Number of permanent supportive housing units created in year one, two, etc. Annual reductions in number of emergency room visits, arrests and incarcerations, court appearances, etc. ➢ Plan reasonably. Set initial goals you can expect to meet or exceed and that are budget achievable. Early successes instill confidence, build momentum, and attract additional investment. GOOD ... TO BETTER ... TO GREAT More... 14 4. BUSINESS PLAN: Four Implementation Management Best Practices DISCIPLINED THOUGHT Great Plans incorporate proven, evidence -based practices that deliver results: > Maintain local practices that work > Draw upon research and results achieved by innovation elsewhere to make the case for investment in your community > Adapt best practices as needed to meet local needs > Practice the "art of legitimate larceny" by "stealing" the best from other cities Qc() AO .�l ideas "Innovative ideas and initiatives that have produced the intended results elsewhere are welcome. They can be homegrown or stolen. Finding best practices elsewhere and replicating them is the art of `legitimate larceny'." - Philip F. Mangano GOOD ... TO BETTER ... TO GREAT More .. . 15 Budget 4. BUSINESS PLAN: Five Implementation Management DISCIPLINED THOUGHT Great Plans commit to a budget to solidify intent. > Conduct Cost Benefit Analysis studies to identify potential savings in mainstream system costs (e.g. emergency room and other primary and behavioral health costs, law enforcement, courts, incarceration, etc.) > Identify potential costs associated with plan implementation > Compute costs to implement the plan - Unit costs of housing development or rehabilitation - Costs of supportive services - Costs of infrastructure improvements, such as HMIS > Identify new and existing sources of funding from the public and private sector > Identify resources (i.e. federal, state, local, private, philanthropic, business, etc.) to invest in the implementation GOOD... TO BETTER... TO GREAT 16 DISCIPLINED THOUGHT 5. Cost Implications Adding It Up: Chronic Homelessness is Expensive Great Plans include a local Cost Benefit Analysis to reveal to the community the hidden costs of chronic homelessness and to identify savings opportunities. ➢ Ending chronic homelessness can result in reductions in: + Emergency room visits + Ambulance fees + EMT costs + Hospital admissions + Arrests + Incarcerations + Court costs + Treatment costs in acute behavioral health programs Minimally, the Plan includes Cost Benefit Studies from other communities to establish a basis for the cost of chronic homelessness. "You must have faith that you can and will prevail in the end ... AND at the same time have the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality ..." - Jim Collins, Good to Great GOOD ... TO BETTER ... TO GREAT 17 DISCIPLINED THOUGHT 6. PREVENTION AND INTERVENTION A Balanced Approach Great Plans emphasize prevention protocols to close the front door into homelessness. Prevention practices identified include: > Prioritizing high -risk, vulnerable populations such as veterans, abuse victims, elderly, youth, ex- offenders > Results- oriented discharge planning protocols from jails, substance abuse and mental health treatment facilities, foster care, etc. > Intergovernmental partnerships to establish discharge outcomes and replicate best practices and innovations > Housing tenancy preservation "Without attention to both opening the back door of homelessness and closing the front door through effective prevention strategies and discharge planning protocols, we'll never get the job finished." - Philip F. Mangano GOOD ... TO BETTER ... TO GREAT 18 7. INNOVATIVE IDEAS Proven Technologies DISCIPLINED THOUGHT Great Plans incorporate the latest research - based, results- oriented innovations, as well as re- tooled best practices such as: > Permanent Supportive Housing > Housing First > Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) Teams > Project Homeless Connect > NO WRONG DOOR > Zero Tolerance for Discharge to Homelessness > Reunification NATIONAL PROJECT HOMELESS CONNECT They also practice "legitimate larceny" in the quest to capture and apply results- oriented practices from other communities. GOOD ... TO BETTER ... TO GREAT 19 8. IMPLEMENTATION TEAMS Implementation Management DISCIPLINED ACTION Great Plans identify accountability for plan implementation. Results- oriented implementation teams: > Maintain accountability to jurisdictional CEOs > Establish priorities > Identify /target specific benchmarks and outcomes > Create and monitor timelines, roles, and responsibilities > Publicly report progress at regular intervals through the web or other means > Recommend that the jurisdiction hire a point person to coordinate and direct the effort > Include consumers as well as decision - makers from government agencies and leaders from key private sector stakeholders "The good -to -great leaders were able to strip away so much noise and clutter and just focus on the few things that would have the greatest impact." - Jim Collins, Good to Great GOOD ... TO BETTER ... TO GREAT 20 9. BROAD -BASED RESOURCES Implementation Management DISCIPLINED ACTION Great Plans target both traditional and non - traditional funding resources and invest those dollars in innovations and results. > Mainstream government resources (e.g. HOME, Workforce Investment, Block Grants) > Federal McKinney -Vento Homeless Assistance resources > Local funds (e.g. real estate transaction fees, revenue from seized assets, meal tax) > State funds (e.g. tax exempt bonds, housing trust funds) > Private foundations (e.g. pilot projects) > Business /corporate investments (e.g. incentives, philanthropic giving) GOOD ... TO BETTER ... TO GREAT 21 10. LIVING DOCUMENTS Keep the Momentum Going DISCIPLINED ACTION Great Plans maintain momentum by including a schedule to monitor, review, and update the strategy on a regular basis. > Assess progress according to benchmarks > Regularly modify strategy and tactics based on assessment of outcomes > Apply "legitimate larceny" > Share ideas and lessons learned by meeting with other cities through forums sponsored by USICH > Add innovations that demonstrate results; discard strategies that don't > Schedule public events to mark visible progress > Celebrate success Incorporate the Ten Elements into new plans; add to existing plans as needed. GOOD ... TO BETTER ... TO GREAT 22 ADDITIONAL RESOURCES FOR 10 -YEAR PLANS United States Interagency Council on Homelessness • USICH Regional Coordinators have specific local expertise and are based in federal regions nationwide (see map on next page) • USICH Website ( www.usich.gov) has links to 10 -Year Plans and information on interagency and agency - specific activities and funding opportunities as well as innovations • USICH's weekly e- newsletter headlines new developments, innovations, partnerships, and resources focused on ending chronic homelessness: subscribe at www.usich.gov. USICH city meetings bring together local community CEO's, their representatives, and community champions National Alliance to End Homelessness • The National Alliance Website (www.endhomelessness.org) provides a wealth of information about homelessness as well as the "Ten Essentials Toolkit" to support communities' efforts to develop 10 -Year Plans. The toolkit includes guides for prevention, outreach, treatment, data, and other critical components. United Way (htttt : / /national.unitedway.org) GOOD ... TO BETTER ... TO GREAT 23 RESEARCH REPORTS ON HOMELESSNESS IN AMERICA ti A New Vision What is in Community Plans to End Homelessness? National Alliance to END HOMELESSNESS NOVEMBER 2006 A New Vision What is in Community Plans to End Homelessness? NOVEMBER 2006 Authors The Homelessness Research Institute at the National Alliance to End Homelessness pre- pared this paper. The primary authors of the paper are Mary Cunningham, Michael Lear, Emily Schmitt, and Meghan Henry. The authors wish to thank communities from across the country that submitted their ten year plans. All errors or omissions are the responsi- bility of the authors. InNational Alliance to END HOMELESSNESS The National Alliance to End Homelessness is a nonpartisan, mission - driven organiza- tion committed to preventing and ending homelessness in the United States. Our work The National Alliance to End Homelessness is a leading voice on the issue of homeless- ness. The Alliance analyzes policy and develops pragmatic, cost - effective policy solu- tions. We work collaboratively with the public, private, and nonprofit sectors to build state and local capacity, leading to stronger programs and policies that help homeless individuals and families make positive changes in their lives. We provide data and research to policymakers and elected officials in order to inform policy debates and educate the public and opinion leaders nationwide. Guiding our work isA Plan, Not a Dream: How to End Homelessness in Ten Years. The Ten Year Plan identifies our nation's challenges in addressing the problem and lays out practical steps our nation can take to change its present course and truly end homelessness within 10 years. To learn how to end 20 years of homelessness in 10 years, please visit www.endhomelessness.org. Homelessness Research Institute The Homelessness Research Institute at the National Alliance to End Homelessness works to end homelessness by building and disseminating knowledge that drives policy change. The goals of the Institute are to build the intellectual capital around solutions to homelessness; to connect with researchers across the country to ensure that policy - makers, practitioners, and the caring public have the best information about trends in homelessness demographics, research, and emerging solutions; and to engage the media to ensure intelligent reporting on the issue of homelessness. A New Vision What is in Community Plans to End Homelessness? NOVEMBER 2006 Contents Executive Summary 3 Background 6 Plan Types 10 Primary Strategies and Plan Quality 16 Strength of Plans 28 Implementation and Funding Sources 30 Implications for Homelessness and Future Planning Efforts 31 Appendix 33 List of Exhibits Exhibit 1 Plan Target Populations 10 Exhibit 2 Plan Target Subpopulations 11 Exhibit 3 Plans by Geographic Region 11 Exhibit 4 Plans by Area Type 12 Exhibit 5 Private Stakeholders 13 Exhibit 6 Public Stakeholders 14 Exhibit 7 Nonprofit Stakeholders 15 Exhibit 8 Strongest Sector Representation 16 Exhibit 9 Strategies for Ending Homelessness 18 Exhibit 10 Strength of Plans 29 Exhibit 11 Plan Strength Scores 29 Exhibit 12 Implementing Bodies 30 Exhibit 13 Funding Sources 31 Executive Summary The problem of homelessness, many say, is an unsolvable problem. Communities across the country have struggled with getting homeless people off the street by building shelters, transitional housing, and soup kitchens. Although these strategies help address the immediate needs of our nation's homeless people by providing food and tem- porary shelter, they have not been successful in decreasing homelessness, leaving com- munities frustrated and hopeless. In 2000, the National Alliance to End Homelessness announced A Plan, Not a Dream: How to End Homelessness in Ten Years. Drawing on research and innovative programs from around the country, the plan outlined a new vision to address the problem of homelessness. This vision included strategies to end the problem by providing affordable housing and needed services, and, just as important, by preventing homelessness from occurring in the first place. Since that time, 220 commu- nities have undertaken efforts to end homelessness and 90 communities have completed plans to end homelessness. These plans echo key strategies outlined in the Alliance's plan and represent a critical, collective effort to end homelessness nationwide. This report is the first nationwide examination of local plans to end homelessness. The major findings in the report include the following areas. Plan Types A majority (66 percent) of the community plans to end homelessness target all homeless people and 34 percent focus on chronically homeless people. Many plans lay out strate- gies for specific subgroups of homeless people, including families, youth, veterans, and the elderly. Forty -one percent of plans outline strategies to end family homelessness, 49 percent outline efforts to end youth homelessness, and 31 percent of plans address the housing needs of former prisoners, to prevent them from becoming homeless. Planning efforts to end homelessness have taken root across the country— geographically distributed, but concentrated in population centers. A wide range of stakeholders were involved in the community planning process, with the strongest representation from the nonprofit sector and the weakest representation from the private sector. Although some plans (28 percent) involve currently or formerly homeless people, their participation in the development of plans is lower than that of other stakeholders. Primary Strategies Outlined in the Plans Communities outline a wide range of strategies in the plans: creating data systems; pre- venting homelessness —both emergency prevention and prevention at the systems level; outreach to homeless people to get them back into housing; shortening the time that peo- ple spend homeless by using rapid re- housing strategies; creating permanent housing options for homeless people; and, once homeless people become housed, linking them to services and to programs that will help them boost their income and increase their abil- ity to afford housing in the future. The plans address the following issues: • Creating Data Systems. Almost all of the plans (91 percent) outline strategies to create Homeless Management Information Systems (HMIS). • Homelessness Prevention. An overwhelming majority of the plans (79 percent) address emergency prevention (e.g., one -time rental or utility assistance, help negoti- ating an eviction with a landlord, etc.), and 91 percent of the plans outline systems prevention activities, such as discharge planning from correctional facilities, foster care systems, or mental health facilities. • Outreach. Outreach efforts to engage people living on the streets are outlined in 79 percent of the plans. • Shortening Time of Homelessness. Shortening the time that people spend homeless by providing permanent housing to homeless people is included in 67 percent of the plans; 57 percent call for rapid re- housing. In total, the plans call for creating approximately 196,000 units (or subsidies), of which 80,000 units are permanent supportive housing. • Links to Services. Once individuals or families are in housing, 81 percent of the plans outline strategies to link them with mainstream services so they can earn enough money to pay rent and avoid homelessness. Implementation and Funding Sources The plans are a step in the right direction —a forward movement in the effort to end homelessness —but in order for a community to see real declines in the number of homeless people, it must implement its plan. This analysis measured the strength of the plans by calculating a score for each strategy outlined in the plan based on the like- lihood that it would be implemented. The strength score was calculated based on whether the plan identified performance measures, set a timeline, and identified spe- cific funding sources and bodies responsible for the implementation of each strategy. Most of the strength scores were low to medium, with a majority falling between 0 and 2 (the highest being 4). These scores show that, although plans are outlining the right strategies, they are not always setting clear numeric indicators, establishing timelines, implementing bodies, and identifying funding sources to implement each key strategy. While the strength scores examined specific strategies, we also looked at overall plan implementation and funding. We found that a little over half (54 percent) of the plans identify a body that will take up responsibility for overall plan implementation once the plan is completed. Similarly, about half of the plans (48 percent) identify funding sources to implement the overall plan. Implications for Homelessness and Future Planning Efforts Today hundreds of communities are tackling the seemingly intractable problem of home- lessness by outlining plans that move from managing the problem of homelessness to ending it. The problem of what to do about homelessness is no longer viewed as an unan- swerable question. Although community plans to end homelessness represent a collec- tive effort, much more can and should be done. This study reveals that hundreds of com- munities are planning to end homelessness. Some are implementing their plans —and are seeing positive results —but many more must take their plans off the shelf and move from planning to action. While efforts to end homelessness require participation from local communities, the federal government has a bigger role to take on in the form of increas- ing access to affordable housing and coordinating mainstream services, such as Tempo- rary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF), Medicaid, Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), and mental health services. There is much more to be done, but despite these challenges, for the first time in two decades, communities have a plan and homelessness is a problem with a clear solution. ...on any given night, upwards of 750,000 people are without a permanent place to call home. Background For more than two decades, communities have struggled with the complex problem of homelessness, a seemingly intractable problem in cities and small towns across the United States. Homelessness increased significantly in the 1980s. In response, the fed- eral government funded a $2 billion homeless assistance system, made up of emergency shelters, soup kitchens, transitional housing, and other programs that met homeless peo- ple's immediate needs., At the time, most Americans thought homelessness was a tem- porary problem caused by a devastating recession, the deinstitutionalization of people with mental illness, and the onslaught of the crack epidemic. Eventually, the economy recovered, but affordable housing became increasingly scarce and incomes failed to keep pace. Despite billions spent on a homeless assistance system, homeless people remained —even increased during that period. Today, on any given night, upwards of 750,000 people are without a permanent place to call home? What went wrong? The homeless assistance system provides shelter and feeds and clothes homeless people, but it cannot provide them with the thing they need the most— perma- nent housing. The system was set up to manage the problem of homelessness, not end it. Now, 20 years later —when homelessness has gotten worse, not better —the homeless assistance system, initiated as a stopgap measure, risks becoming the sole response to the problem. It has been said that the solution to every problem starts with a great plan. During the past five years, hundreds of communities have committed to ending homelessness by dramat- ically transforming their homeless assistance systems. Each commitment starts with a plan that outlines a framework to guide community -wide efforts. These plans have become a critical component of efforts to prevent, reduce, and end homelessness nationwide. The development of local 10 -year plans began in 2000 when the National Alliance to End Homelessness announced A Plan, Not A Dream: How to End Homelessness in Ten Years., The Alliance's Ten Year Plan focuses on using data to plan for outcomes, closing the front door to homelessness through prevention programs, and opening the back door out of homelessness by rapidly re- housing individuals and families. Finally, it calls for building an infrastructure by increasing incomes, expanding affordable housing, and helping indi- viduals and families access needed services. This plan, supported by research and grounded in practical experience, was a call to action that outlined a blueprint for com- munities to follow (see "How to End Homelessness in 10 Years "). Since the National Alliance to End Homelessness' announcement in 2000, the concept of local planning to end homelessness has taken root, and local 10 -year plans have prolif- 1 For more on the history of homelessness policy, see Burt, Martha R. Helping America's Homeless Emergency Shelter or Affordable Housing? Urban Institute, 2001. See Burt, Martha R. What Will it Take to End Homelessness? Urban Institute, 2001. 3 See National Alliance to End Homelessness, A Plan, Not a Dream: How to End Homelessness in Ten Years, avail- able at www.endhomelessness.org. How to End Homelessness in 10 Years erated across the country. In 2000, Indianapolis Mayor Bart Peterson was the first mayor to endorse the creation of a plan to end homelessness. In 2002, Chicago, Memphis, and Indianapolis become among the first cities to complete 10 -year plans. At the same time that local efforts to end homelessness started to develop, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Mel Martinez endorsed ending chronic homelessness in 10 years.4 President Bush echoed this endorsement, making ending chronic homeless- ness an Administration -wide goal.5 Congress committed to creating 150,000 units of per- manent supportive housing for chronically homeless people. The Administration also reinvigorated the once dormant U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH), an agency dedicated to coordinating federal efforts to end homelessness. * "Taking On the Problem That 'Cannot Be Solved.'" Remarks prepared for delivery by Secretary Mel Martinez, Friday, July 20, 2001. 5 President Bush first announced the Administration's commitment to end homelessness in the FY2003 Federal Budget. It has been sal(', that the solutic r1 to every problem starts \with a gr tat: last. To date, over 200 cities, counties, and states have initiated a planning process to end homelessness, and 90 jurisdictions have completed plans. The movement to end homelessness continued to grow when, in 2003, the USICH Director, Philip Mangano, challenged 100 cities to create plans to end homelessness. Spurred by a federal goal of ending chronic homelessness in 10 years, resolutions by the U.S. Confer- ence of Mayors, the National League of Cities, and the National Association of Counties, and encouragement and technical assistance from the National Alliance to End Homeless- ness, a parade of plans followed (See "Plans to End Homelessness — Timeline "). To date, over 200 cities, counties, and states have initiated a planning process to end homelessness, and 90 jurisdictions have completed plans. At the local level, these plans are widely scrutinized and publicized, often the product of lengthy public processes, and closely watched by local media and advocacy groups. Yet, at a national level, little to no information about the plans exists. What are the primary goals and strategies outlined in the plans? What stakeholders are involved in the planning process? Are there patterns or similarities across plans or are they a disparate set of documents? Do plans include mech- anisms or concrete steps that will lead to implementation? And, the most common ques- tion, which plans are the best? These questions, and others, remain unanswered. Information about the content of completed 10 -year plans to end homelessness is impor- tant and informative both at the national and the local levels. Policymakers and advo- cacy groups have an interest in what strategies communities are adopting across the country and what resources they are utilizing to implement these strategies. Local organ- izations and jurisdictions embarking on plans to end homelessness can learn from the experience of other communities and replicate model plans. Faced with this vacuum of knowledge, the Alliance set out to gather information on the content of existing local plans to end homelessness. Alliance staff analyzed all completed plans using qualitative and quantitative methods (see "Methods "). This report describes the findings, including the types of plans, their geographic location, and the strategies outlined within them (see the appendix of this report for a list of plans that were included in this analysis). It further examines key indicators of the implementation potential, including funding. In addition to reporting on quantitative measures, this report also highlights case studies of model plans. Finally, it examines the implications of the find- ings for future planning efforts. This report is the first nationwide examination of local plans to end homelessness. This report is t ie first nationwidJ� examination of local plans to e id ho,nelessness. Despite this federal emphasis on ending chronic homelessness, the majority of communities have, in their planning processes, looked beyond the chronically home- less population and created plans to end homeless- ness for all homeless people. 10 Plan Types Planning to end homelessness is, for the most part, a local process. Plans usually cover a city or county, although statewide plans do exist —for example, Utah, North Car- olina, New Jersey, and Rhode Island. Plans come together in different ways: mayors or governors initiate some, and the local Continuum of Care or homeless advocates spear- head others. The development of plans involves different stakeholders ranging from homeless service providers to bank presidents. Some plans are the result of small work- ing groups and others are the product of hundreds of constituents. No matter how it is developed, each plan is a unique document that takes into consideration the needs of the local homeless population and the resources in the community to address the problem of homelessness. The Majority of Plans Target All Homeless People Plans target different segments of the homeless population, including chronically home- less people, families, youth, and others. Because of the Administration's commitment to ending chronic homelessness, local communities receive encouragement from the fed- eral level, including outreach from the USICH to create plans to end chronic homeless- ness. Jurisdictions receiving HUD Supportive Housing Program and other HUD funding are rewarded for developing plans to end chronic homelessness.6 Despite this federal empha- sis on ending chronic homelessness, the majority of communities have, in their planning processes, looked beyond the chronically homeless population and created plans to end homelessness for all homeless people. Approximately two - thirds of completed plans to end homelessness (66 percent) are plans to end all homelessness. About one -third of completed plans (34 percent) are plans focused exclusively on ending chronic homelessness (see Exhibit 1). Many plans further lay out strategies tar- geted to specific subgroups of the home- less population including families, youth, veterans, and the elderly. Approximately 41 percent of plans outline strategies to end family homelessness, such as using TANF dollars to fund short-term housing subsidy programs or rapid exit programs that help families move from shelter to permanent housing; 20 percent of the plans address the needs of homeless victims of domestic violence. About half of plans (49 percent) tar- get strategies to homeless youth, including 19 percent of plans that specifically address Exhibit 1 Plan Target Populations 6 See the Toolkit for Ending Homelessness available at www.endhomelessness.org/section /tools /essentials /. homelessness among youth involved in the child welfare system. About one -third (31 per- cent) of plans address homelessness amongex- offenders, commonly calling for discharge planning for individuals leaving prison and jail. Almost one -third (29 percent) of the plans address the housing needs of homeless veterans, and 11 percent of plans target strategies to elderly homeless people (see Exhibit 2). Exhibit 2 Plan Target Subpopulations Plans Are Geographically Distributed Communities across the country have completed plans to end homelessness. Plans are not concentrated in any particular geographic region, but rather spread out across the map, with the exception of the Great Plains. Almost one - quarter of the plans are located in the Southeast; 14 percent are in the Southwest. The Northeast holds 17 per- cent of the plans to end homelessness and the mid - Atlantic region holds 9 percent. The Midwest has 13 percent, the Pacific coast 13 percent, and the Northwest 16 percent (see map and Exhibit 3). However, while plans are geographically spread across regions of the country, they are concentrated in urban areas, or urban areas and their surrounding suburbs? As Exhibit 4 shows, about one -third (30 per- cent) of plans focus exclusively on urban areas such as New York or Chicago, and 30 percent of plans include urban areas Exhibit 3 Plans by Geographic Region 7 These categories were assigned loosely. The distinction between urban, suburban, and rural was made using population and proximity to closest metropolitan statistical area. 11 c Representation o Corn ) etec Ten Year P an AP Geo.tap and their suburbs, such as King County, Washington, which encompasses Seattle. Another 34 percent of plans cover urban, suburban, and rural areas —these include state plans, such as the state of Georgia and the state of Minnesota. Only 5 percent of plans cover exclusively suburban, exclusively rural, or suburban and rural —but not u rban—areas. A Wide Range of Stakeholders Were Involved in Community Planning Processes It will take a united effort of the private, the public, and the nonprofit sectors of society to end homelessness. Analysis of the plans demonstrated that, indeed, the process of cre- ating 10 -year plans brings a wide range of community stakeholders from the private, pub- lic, and nonprofit sectors to the table. As Austin's plan states, "Ending chronic homelessness is an achievable goal, but only if there is a strong commitment from local government leaders, federal and state policymakers, and the community at large." Stakeholder involvement —those from the community with a vested interest in ending homelessness— varies from community to community. An overwhelming majority (83 per- cent) of plans identify private stakeholders that had been a part of the planning process (Exhibit 5). These include hospitals and health care providers (63 percent of plans), banks (32 percent of plans), for - profit housing developers (30 percent of plans), Chambers of Commerce (23 percent of plans), landlords (20 percent of plans), and philanthropic organ- izations (17 percent of plans). Indianapolis, Pittsburgh, and Nashville are among the 30 plans that involve representatives from banks. Twenty plans involve members from the Chamber of Commerce, including Memphis, El Paso, and Dallas. Yakima, Washington, Hartford, CT, and Waco, TX are among the 15 plans that include representatives from phil- anthropic organizations. Exhibit 5 Private Stakeholders rc ...the process of creating 1 O -ye< r plans brings a wide range of corTlliT,(„1- nity stakeholdc rs from the orival e, public, and nol - profit sectors t,) the table. 13 Mainstream agencies and systems also have the resources and responsibility to end homelessness for individuals and families and in doing so can lead to improving organization performance and cost savings to the community. 14 Almost all of the plans (90 percent) identify public stakeholders that had been involved in creating the plan. The represented public stakeholders include Departments of Human or Social Services (70 percent of plans), Housing Authorities (60 percent of plans), Depart- ments of Community or Economic Development (52 percent of plans), police departments (44 percent of plans), mayors' offices (44 percent of plans), Departments of Mental Health (43 percent of plans), Departments of Public Health (42 percent of plans), and Depart- ments of Corrections (41 percent of plans). Many other public agencies were involved in the planning efforts (see Exhibit 6). The importance of involving mainstream agencies should not be overlooked. Many peo- ple who become homeless still are, or should be, clients of mainstream systems of care. These systems can prevent homelessness by monitoring the housing stability of the peo- ple they assist, particularly those who are at greatest risk of homelessness because of lack of family supports, extremely low incomes, mental illness, or other personal difficulties. Mainstream agencies and systems also have the resources and responsibility to end home- lessness for individuals and families and in doing so can lead to improving organization performance and cost savings to the community. An overwhelming majority of plans (87 percent) identify participation from the nonprofit sector. Nonprofit stakeholders include community -based nonprofit organizations (73 per- Exhibit 6 Public Stakeholders Exhibit 7 Nonprofit Stakeholders cent of plans), the faith community (66 percent of plans), nonprofit housing developers (57 percent of plans), and representatives of academia (37 percent of plans). The national office of the United Way has made a commitment to ending homelessness and encour- ages local United Way offices to become involved in planning efforts. It is not surprising then that the United Way participated in developing 50 percent of plans (see Exhibit 7). Consumer involvement —that is, including currently or formerly homeless people in the planning process —is generally viewed as a positive and invaluable contribution. How- ever, compared with other stakeholder involvement, consumer participation was lower. Only 28 percent of plans included currently or formerly homeless people in the planning process. Hartford, Connecticut; King County, Washington; and Nashua, New Hampshire are among the 25 plans that included formerly or currently homeless people in the plan- ning process. Austin's planning committee spent an evening listening to the experiences of those who exited chronic homelessness and then used this information to help develop the plan. Strongest Stakeholder Representation Is from the Nonprofit Sector The descriptive analysis presented above is limited: To have a stakeholder from each sec- tor, the plan need only have one organization or agency present. These indicators give the breadth of participation. Therefore, for example, if a representative from a bank, a representative from the Department of Mental Health, and a nonprofit homeless provider drafted the plan, it would be recorded as having representation from stakeholders in all sectors. This is an extreme example, but it illustrates the limitations of the data. To over- come these limitations, we created a list of possible stakeholders and recorded how many representatives out of all possible were present from each sector. This provides an indi- cation of the depth of participation of any given sector. Across the board, the nonprofit 15 16_: sector was the sector represented most broadly (that is, representatives from many dif- ferent organizations or agencies) in planning processes. About two - thirds (61 percent) of plans had strong representation from the nonprofit sector, while 37 percent of plans had strong representation from the public sector and 21 percent of plans had strong repre- sentation from the private sector (see Exhibit 8). Exhibit 8 Strongest Sector Representation Primary Strategies and Plan Quality How do communities end homelessness? Homelessness is one of society's most vex- ing social problems. It is not surprising that many people think that homelessness will exist no matter what we do or how much money we throw at the problem. However, widespread homelessness did not always exist and there are strategies that communities can undertake to end and prevent future homelessness. In 2003, the National Alliance to End Homelessness published the "Ten Essentials to Ending Homelessness."' These essen- tials mapped out, in more detail, the essential ingredients for ending homelessness at the community level (see "Ten Essentials to Ending Homelessness: A Guide for Communities "). For this analysis, we examined the content of local plans to end homelessness using the 10 essentials as a framework and recording which essentials, if any, were addressed in each plan .9 This section describes these strategies. s See the Toolkit for Ending Homelessness available at www.endhomelessness.org/section /tools /essentials /. It is important to note that we do not report on other strategies that are not included in the 10 essentials —a few plans expand the shelter system, create a local panhandling ordinance, or increase transitional housing. Ten Essentials to Ending Homelessness A Guide for Communities =zr 17 18 Exhibit 9 Strategies for Ending Homelessness MEW The plans outline a wide range of different strategies to end homelessness. Attention to the 10 essentials varies widely (Exhibit 9). All of the plans include at least one of the 10 essentials and more than half (56 percent) of the plans address all of the 10 essen- tials. It is important to note that because the plans reflect community need, they do not necessarily have to address each of the 10 essentials. For example, if the commu- nity does not have many people living on the street, then conducting outreach may not make sense to that community. Taking this into consideration, not having a specific essential in the plan does not mean the plan is inadequate or doomed to failure. It may be more of a reflection of community need or of a place where the community already has systems in place. Creating a Data System Planning for outcomes and using data to manage and evaluate programs are key compo- nents of a majority of the plans. Almost all of the plans (91 percent) outline a strategy for implementing a Homelessness Management Information System (HMIS). Efforts to incor- porate HMIS are aligned with HUD funding requirements that mandate Continuums of Care to adopt HMIS. According to HUD, about 284 Continuums (about 60 percent of all Continuums) have implemented HMIS.10 The city of Hartford has been developing their HMIS since 2001 and it is a model plan for developing data systems. The city's plan calls for 80 percent of service providers, including emergency shelters, transitional living facilities, and supportive housing units, to be using HMIS by 2006. In addition, the plan calls for enhancing data collec- tion and implementing best practices. The city is planning to use HMIS to identify pop- ulations at risk of becoming homeless and to identify homeless veterans (see Box 1: Hartford, Connecticut). 1° See Performance and Accountability Report Fiscal Year2003 from the Department of Housing and Urban Devel- opment for more on HUD's performance measures and HMIS. Emergency Prevention Even with the most effective strategies for helping people leave homelessness, ending homelessness is impossible without implementing strategies to prevent it from occur- ring in the first place. An overwhelming majority of plans (79 percent) address emer- gency prevention, mostly in the form of rent, mortgage, or utility assistance (52 percent) and case management (44 percent). Denver's plan to end homelessness, for example, calls for funding one -time eviction, foreclosure, and utility assistance for those at 0 to 50 percent of area median income (AMI). Further, the plan calls for negotiating with landlords to reduce or waive rental application fees, deposits, and move -in costs; this will help move families immediately into housing rather than into emergency shelter (see Box 2: Denver, Colorado). Grand Rapids, Michigan and Kent County, Michigan are redirecting funds to prevention. The plan, Vision to End Homelessness, calls for developing a coordinated application for public assistance benefits; funding a revolving pool for housing assistance intended to resolve minor rent back payments, mortgage, or utility assistance delinquencies; and funds Fr "Kling homelessness ii impossible \NitlIout implementing strategies to prevent it fron occurring in tie first place. 19 20 for landlord and tenant education programs. The Continuum of Care, the body responsible for overseeing plan implementation, will monitor outcomes, including reductions in evic- tions, a decrease in the number of people living in places not meant for habitation, and a decrease in the number of people living in shelters (see Box 3: Grand Rapids, Michigan). Systems Prevention Systems prevention activities are also prevalent in the plans. Public systems or institu- tions, such as jails and prisons, hospitals, the child welfare system, and mental health facilities, too often "graduate" people directly into the homeless system. One aspect of prevention is to stop these discharges into homelessness through basic transition plan- ning so that people leaving these institutions have stable housing and some means for maintaining it. Almost all of the plans (91 percent) outline systems prevention activities; 86 percent include strategies to improve discharge planning from correctional facilities; 62 percent include transitional services from foster care; and 61 percent and 67 percent of the plans outline efforts to improve discharge plans from mental health facilities and hospitals, respectively. Box 3 Grand Rapids, Michigan Public systems or institutions, such as jails and prisons, hospitals, the c Eiild welfare .system and nental health facilities, too o 'ten graduate" people directly into the homeless syste, n. 21 A key ingredient of effective outreach is a rapid link to housing, which necessitates some form of low - dernand housing housing with few rules or require- ments. 22 Quincy, Massachusetts' plan to end chronic homelessness serves as a model example of a plan that addresses systems prevention. According to the plan, an average of 25 to 30 youth, individuals with mental health needs, or former prisoners who are discharged from systems of care — including discharges from the Department of Youth Services, Department of Corrections, Department of Mental Health, regional hospitals, and regional courthouses —are ending up in emergency shelters. Local city officials plan to work with state agencies to create a "zero tolerance policy" toward discharges into home- lessness. Quincy's goal is to reduce inappropriate discharges by 10 percent each year until they reach zero. Outreach Most plans (79 percent) outline strategies to address outreach to homeless people living on the streets. Outreach can play an important role in ending homelessness by engag- ing people who are living on the streets and getting them into housing or shelters. A key ingredient of effective outreach isa rapid Iink to housing, which necessitates some form of low- demand housing— housing with few rules or requirements. Safe Havens are one popular form of low- demand housing intended to reach hard -to -serve homeless people with serious mental illness. About 39 percent of plans call for creating Safe Havens and 28 percent outline strategies to link homeless people to other types of low- demand housing. Contra Costa County, California plans to provide 3,000 units of low- demand housing. With few rules, requirements, and optional services, this housing engages chronically homeless adults who are unwilling or unable to access other housing options. Plans for outreach to chronically homeless adults include a 24 -hour, 7 days a week outreach team targeted at homeless encampments and resistant populations; the teams will be outfitted in new outreach vans that facilitate safe client transportation and effective communication between services and outreach teams (see Box 4: Contra Costa County, California). Permanent Housing Housing instability for extremely low- income individuals will continue until the supply of affordable housing increases substantially. While federal funding for affordable housing has dramatically declined over the past decade, states and municipalities have developed a number of strategies to respond to the housing needs of extremely low- income individ- uals. Permanent housing is among the key provisions outlined in the plans. An over- whelming majority of the plans (92 percent) address the issue of permanent housing. The plans focus on permanent supportive housing units and other types of affordable hous- ing such as Section 8 vouchers and single room occupancy units (SROs). The plans call for creating about 196,000 affordable housing units (or subsidies); 80,000 of this total are permanent supportive housing. The Blueprint to End Chronic Homelessness in the Chattanooga Region in Ten Years calls for creating 1,400 affordable housing units for homeless people over the next 10 years. Box 4 Contra Costa County, California Chattanooga will draw on several sources to make the units available, including increas- ing Section 8 vouchers available to homeless people, developing a local time - limited sub- sidy program, preserving existing rental stock by implementing a one - for -one replacement, and creating new units with dollars from Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC), HOME, and Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) (see Box 5: Chat- tanooga, Tennessee). Housing instability for extremely low- income individ _talc vtilill continue u Ztil the supply of affordable how ing increases substantially. 23 Box 5 Chattanooga, Tennessee Services Services are a critical component of ending homelessness and should be provided after people are housed. Homeless people may have immediate service needs in the form of substance abuse treatment or physical and mental health problems that have gone unad- dressed. Other homeless people may need services to help them access mainstream ben- efits or find employment. All but five plans (94 percent) outline strategies to address gaps in service delivery to homeless people. Most of the plans (81 percent) focus on linking homeless people to mainstream services, and 68 percent outline a strategy to provide dedicated services, mostly in the form of case management. Designing one -stop service centers are also among some of the different service strategies outlined in the plans. Almost all of the plans identify strategies to deliver services to homeless populations; these include efforts to link clients to mainstream resources (81 percent) and provide ded- icated services (68 percent of the plans) such as case management. Broward County, Florida's plan to end homelessness calls for more treatment and serv- ices through accessing detoxification and mental health crisis stabilization for people who are homeless. The plan will increase contracted services for homeless beds at detoxifica- tion facilities and mental health facilities (see Box 6: Broward County, Florida). Linking homeless people to existing mainstream services is equally important to creating new services. Spokane, Washington's plan is one example of a plan that outlines strategies to improve mainstream service delivery to homeless adults, families, and youth. Specifically, the plan identifies steps to increase access to Medicaid, Supplemental Security Income Box 6 Broward County, Florida 25 26 (SSI), General Assistance, and TANF by training case managers in expedited enrollment procedures and providing technical assistance on navigating different systems. Incomes Increasing homeless people's incomes is a primary strategy of most (81 percent) of the plans. After homeless people reaccess housing, in addition to immediate needs, services should focus on ensuring that households have adequate income to afford their rent. To boost income, services should focus on helping people obtain and retain employment and linking them with mainstream income programs such as SSI and TANF. One -third of plans (30 percent) outline strategies to help households access TANF benefits and 43 percent call for methods to expedite SSI enrollment (43 percent). More than two - thirds (68 per- cent) of plans call for creating job training opportunities for homeless people; these are usually through government assistance programs funded through the Department of Labor. Austin's plan outlines a number of activities to increase income —both earned and income from benefits —for homeless people once they access housing. The plan calls for increasing income through benefits acquisition by expediting access to SSI and expand- ing the number of representative payees who can accept and manage SSI payments for homeless people. Austin's plan calls for increasing access to mainstream employment pro- grams through designated funding or slots for homeless persons in local workforce con- tacts and for working collaboratively with the workforce investment board to address the employment needs of homeless people. In addition, the plan calls for developing part- nerships with Austin Community College and other postsecondary education institutions to expand access to job training and placement. Shortening Homelessness and Housing First Shortening the time people spend homeless is an important component of efforts to end homelessness. A little more than half the plans (57 percent) identify strategies to shorten homelessness. Housing First is an approach that guides a set of interventions designed to help homeless people transition more rapidly out of the shelter system; it includes crisis intervention, re- housing as quickly as possible, follow -up case management, and housing support services to prevent the reoccurrence of homelessness. A majority of the plans (67 percent) specifically mention Housing First, but, despite the strong emphasis on creating additional units of permanent housing, there is less focus overall on strategies that help homeless people access permanent housing faster. Portland, Oregon's plan calls for a adopting a Housing First approach that helps home- less people access Housing First, and then, if needed, provides services. According to the plan, only 27 percent of Portland's homeless population eventually accesses permanent housing. One goal outlined in Portland's plan is to increase that percentage to 40 percent of homeless people moving into permanent housing within three years; by 2012 the goal is 60 percent (see Box 7: Portland and Multnomah County, Oregon). Box 7 Portland and Multnomah County, Oregon Only 16 percent of plans, however, call for tracking length of stay in emergency shelters. "Hope for the Homeless," Shreveport, Louisiana's plan to end homelessness, monitors Housing First outcomes by using HMIS to track length of stay in shelter. The HMIS cap- tures the entry and exit, calculates length of stay, and generates a report for the entire homeless population. Tracking length of stay will help Shreveport monitor the Housing First model, which the plan calls for instituting during the next 24 months. Rapid Re- housing Helping people rapidly reaccess housing is essential to ending homelessness. More than half (57 percent) of the plans outline activities to shorten the length of time people spend 27 28 homeless through rapid re- housing. One of the primary challenges that homeless people face in getting back into housing is navigating the private rental market. Most communi- ties have a shortage of housing affordable for low- income households. Consequently, landlords can select the most appealing tenants, many of whom have higher incomes, and require a large sum of cash for a deposit to cover first and last months' rent. There is lit- tle incentive for landlords to work with potential tenants who have lower incomes, little savings, credit problems, or unstable housing histories. About half (56 percent) of the plans address rapid re- housing through housing search assistance, outreach to landlords, and addressing barriers to housing. Chattanooga, Tennessee's plan, The Blueprint to End Chronic Homelessness in the Chat- tanooga Region in Ten Years, focuses mainly on getting homeless people back into hous- ing rapidly. The plan calls for providing housing search assistance and housing placement, links to subsidies, first -month rent, and utility assistance. Chattanooga's plan also calls for outreach and incentives to landlords to persuade them to rent to homeless people and families. Strength of Plans 0 ne common and fair - minded criticism of the plans is that, until implemented, they remain ideas on paper. The plans are a step in the right direction —a forward movement in the effort to end homelessness —but in order for a community to see real declines in the number of homeless people, it must implement its plan. A number of fac- tors affect the potential success and implementation of the plans to end homelessness. Some measures can be quantified— funding availability or dedicated housing units — while others are qualitative, such as strong mayoral leadership or a long- standing part- nership between government agencies and the nonprofit sector. To measure the strength of the plans we looked at various built -in mechanisms that would increase the likelihood that the strategies outlined in the plans would be adopted; these include setting quantifiable performance measures, setting timelines, identifying specific funding sources for specific strategies, and identifying bodies responsible for the imple- mentation of specific strategies. For each of the 10 essentials, we calculated a strength score, giving the essential one point for each of the indicators. Each essential receives a score on a scale of 0 to 4 (with 0 being the lowest) and each plan has an average overall score based on their scores for each of the essentials. These measures are imperfect and certainly have limitations because they do not capture some of the qualitative aspects of the plans, but they do provide meaningful quantitative indicators of the likely implemen- tation success of the plans. The implementation scores vary by essential (see Exhibit 10). Permanent housing received the highest average score of 1.9, followed by creating a data system, which Exhibit 10 Strength of Plans received a score of 1.4, then by services at 1.2, and systems prevention and emergency prevention at 1.0. Shortening homelessness and rapidly re- housing received the lowest strength score of 0.6 and 0.9, respectively. It is important to note that some strategies are easier to quantify and therefore will result in higher strength scores. Permanent housing, for example, is clearly meas- ured by the number of units, giving the strategy a clear numeric indicator. Out- reach efforts or prevention strategies may be more difficult to set numeric measures. In addition to a score for each essential strategy, an overall strength score was also calculated. The strength scores were low to medium, with most falling between 0 and 2. Forty percent of the plans had an average score that fell between 1 and 2 and 33 percent of the plans fell between 0.1 and 1; only 11 percent of plans received a 0 score and only 2 percent of plans received an aver- age score above 3. These scores show that while plans are outlining the right strategies, they are not always setting clear numeric indicators, timelines, implementing bodies, and identifying funding sources (see Exhibit 11). Exhibit 11 Plan Strength Scores These scores show that while plan are outlining tt .e right strategies they are not all , ays setting clear turmeric indicators, timelines, imple- menting hodie , and ideritifvin funding sources. 2 30 Implementation and Funding Sources As communities complete the planning process and assume the next step of imple- menting the strategies laid forth in the plan, an organizational body that is respon- sible for overseeing plan implementation is crucial to making sure that the plan gets off the ground and does not become a piece of paper on a shelf. Equally important is ensur- ing that the strategies outlined in the plans are not unfunded mandates. About Half of the Plans Identify Implementing Bodies A little over half of the plans (54 percent) identify a body that will take up the responsi- bility for plan implementation once the plan is completed. In most cases where an imple- menting body is identified, the body was made up of a combination of nonprofit, governmental, and other stakeholders —such as a local interagency council on homeless- ness. More than half (61 percent) of plans that identify an implementing body identify a body that was made up of representatives from different sectors. In other cases, the implementation of plans is assigned to governmental body, such as a Depart- ment of Health and Human Services (22 percent of plans) or a nonprofit organi- zation (10 percent of plans); one third of plans (33 percent) call for progress reports to be released on a periodic basis, updating the community on the progress of the plan (see Exhibit 12). About Half of the Plans Identify Funding Sources About half of the plans (48 percent) identify funding sources. Funding to address the needs of homelessness, including housing and services, comes from a wide range of sources. The federal government provides competitive and formula grants through the McKinney -Vento Homeless Assistance Programs. In addition, there is fund- ing for housing available through other HUD programs such as CDBG, HOME, and LIHTC. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) also sponsors a number of pro- Exhibit 12 Implementing Bodies Exhibit 13 Funding Sources grams for homeless people, and TANF funds can be used for some housing and prevention programs as well; 37 percent of the plans identify federal government funding for strategies outlined in their plan. Other funding sources, such as set- ting up local housing trust funds that generate revenue from taxes or fees are also identified. As Exhibit 13 shows, almost two- thirds of plans (66 percent) identify state and local government funding. Finally, only about 19 percent of plans identify funding from founda- tions (11 percent) or from the private sec- tor (6 percent). Implications for Homelessness and Future Planning Efforts Efforts to end homelessness started with a plan —like all solutions to every problem. Quickly, one plan turned into 10 and then 10 plans turned into hundreds of plans spread across the United States. Today about 220 communities have tackled planning efforts and almost half have completed plans. Taken together, these community plans represent a nationwide effort to end homelessness; they are an important policy illustra- tion of innovation at the state and local level. This study reveals that communities are moving forward. They are dramatically transforming their homeless assistance systems by focusing on emergency prevention, systems prevention, permanent housing, and bringing mainstream agencies and resources to the table. The effort to end homelessness is far from over, however. Indeed, challenges remain for- midable. Some communities are moving from planning to implementation, but there is a need, in many communities, for increasing brawn and power behind the plans. Com- munities must set clear goals and timetables, and identify funding and implementing Some communities are moving fro n planning to inlj)l_ernentatio 1, but there is a need, in many communities, for increasing bray. u and power beh end the plans. 31 bodies to ensure that they move from planning to action. Other communities that have not yet embarked on a planning process must gather stakeholders and begin outlining strategies. Unquestionably, community plans to end homelessness represent a collective and criti- cal effort, but much more can be done. In the past five years, the federal government has made a number of changes within the homeless assistance system that retool policies to focus on permanent housing. These changes help communities enact changes that move homeless people from temporary housing to permanent housing. Still, the federal gov- ernment has a bigger role to take on. Without critical housing dollars in the form of pub- lic housing or housing vouchers, communities will be left without the necessary resources to address the primary driver of homelessness —the lack of affordable housing. Further, the federal government should work to coordinate funding sources and encourage col- laboration among mainstream agencies. Will the plans end homelessness? It is still too early to tell, but there certainly is some evi- dence to suggest that, as a nation, we are moving in the right direction. One thing is clear, communities no longer view homelessness as an intractable problem; it is a problem with a solution, mapped out by hundreds of local plans. 32 Appendix Plans Included in the Study r, End Homelessnes Opening Doors of Opportuni Homelessness en. Year P; l` Ending Homelessness NO WI Creating New, Pittsburgh Allegheny County Pennsylvania Partnerships For Change! • A TO Year. Plan to End Pinellas County. Florida Hope for the Homeless Plan to' Northwest Louisiana Bossier Louisiana, Ten -Year Plan to`End Chronic Homelessness and Alezan Other; Forms of Homelessness Looking Homeward The 10 Year Plan to End Home lessness• Asheville Buncombe County North Carolina. The New Haven Ten Yea Homelessness Plan to End Chronic' ew Haven Connecticut State of Colorado Homeless Policy Academy Mainstream Resources Action PIan 33 Plans Included in the Study (continued) Reducing Homelessness A Blueprint for the Future ' Louisville, Blueprint to Break Cycle of, Homelessness an Prevent Future Hometessnessr Memphis/Shelby` County Mayor's Task Force on Homelessness emphis Shelby County Tennessee elessness in Mercer County Mercer County New Jersey' A Home for Everyone A Blueprint to End'. Ann Arbor, lArashtenaw County ; Michigan Homelessness In WashtenawCounty Ypsilanti Vision;.to,En essoe rand. Rapids Ken Hartford's Plan to End` Homelessness by 2015 Hartfo`r Budd n omesz BuildtngHope Endmg Homelessness= de Island oof Over Every Bed In King Coun omriugity s Ter Year Plan to Eh Homelessness "in to End ontgomery County. Beginning Mon gorse. land The Strategic Plan ,to End Chronic Homelessness in Nashville : - Nashville Davidson County Tennessee Blueprint to.Enct HoMelessness in South. Carolina,: State of Georgia HomelessAction Plan to End Homelessness'in Ten Years South Carolina nnsylvani, a an to Eh 34 Georgia Plans Included in the Study (continued) to `off H The San Francisco Plan to Abolish Chronic Homelessness. San Francisco San Francisco t� California New Jersey State Policy Academy Team Preliminary Action Plan.to End Hoinelessnessjin New Jersey. New Jersey Agenda for Ending Homelessness in Pennsylvania in Ph ad,. A Plan to nd,Homelessness in Yakima County by 2014 'Plan to End Chronic Homelessness in Austin, it '„ellp i` If we could end homelessness. Bridgeport Area, Ten Year PIa'n` Homelessness '' A Ten Year Plan -to End,Homelessness on Cape Cod and the Islands Getting Housed. Staying Housed arC4 Homeward Bound: A Plan to "End Chronic Homelessness in Collin County Plano' Collin County Texas d� rn . kah A Strategic Plan to End Chronic Homelessness in Corpus Christi; Seven Years, Corpus Christi Texas eBluep in it Ilgmele ei Region on a e5se! 3 Plans Included in the Study (continued) City of Quincy Massachuse Chronic Homelessne"s"s 10-Year Plan to En Quincy. Norfolk Coun Massachusetts`, Keys Housing Homelessnes Spokane Region Homelessness; 0 Year P1an to Address; Spokane Spokane. WashinL on Dallas Ten-Year Plan An Action Plan to Identif Goals, Strategies and Methodology to;I m pact'an EndtChronic Homelessness Ten Year ?too'; Dallas Texas �r9 Homelessnes •Border Solutio s Ending Chronic Homelessness in EI Paso El Paso Texas Homeless No More AStrategy for Ending Washington Homelessness Ma n ss as a spa � r it � es Plan to End Chronic Homelessness in the San Diego,; San Diego, ork Ci Washington, DC 36 San Diego, Imperial The New Yorker: PRINTABLES Page 1 of 9 THE NEW YORKER FACT PEP`E OF SOCIAL SEIWIC:ES MILLION- DOLLAR MURRAY by MALCOLM GLADWELL Why problems like homelessness may be easier to solve than to manage. Issue of 2006 -02 -13 and 20 Posted 2006 -02 -06 Murray Barr was a bear of a man, an ex- marine, six feet tall and heavyset, and when he fell down — which he did nearly every day —it could take two or three grown men to pick him up. He had straight black hair and olive skin. On the street, they called him Smokey. He was missing most of his teeth. He had a wonderful smile. People loved Murray. His chosen drink was vodka. Beer he called "horse piss." On the streets of downtown Reno, where he lived, he could buy a two - hundred - and - fifty - millilitre bottle of cheap vodka for a dollar - fifty. If he wa flush, he could go for the seven - hundred - and - fifty - millilitre bottle, and if he was broke he could al N 3 do what many of the other homeless people of Reno did, which is to walk through the casinos and fini off the half -empty glasses of liquor left at the gaming tables. "If he was on a runner, we could pick him up several times a day," Patrick O'Bryan, who is a bicp;le cop in downtown Reno, said. "And he's gone on some amazing runners. He would get picked up, get detoxed, then get back out a couple of hours later and start up again. A lot of the guys on the street who've been drinking, they get so angry. They are so incredibly abrasive, so violent, so abusive. Murr was such a character and had such a great sense of humor that we somehow got past that. Even when 1 was abusive, we'd say, `Murray, you know you love us,' and he'd say, `I know' —and go back to swearing at us." "I've been a police officer for fifteen years," O'Bryan's partner, Steve Johns, said. "I picked up Murra my whole career. Literally." Johns and O'Bryan pleaded with Murray to quit drinking. A few years ago, he was assigned to a treatment program in which he was under the equivalent of house arrest, and he thrived. He got a job and worked hard. But then the program ended. "Once he graduated out, he had no one to report to. anc he needed that," O'Bryan said. "I don't know whether it was his military background. I suspect that it was. He was a good cook. One time, he accumulated savings of over six thousand dollars. Showec:' up for work religiously. Did everything he was supposed to do. They said, `Congratulations,' and put hin back on the street. He spent that six thousand in a week or so." Often, he was too intoxicated for the drunk tank at the j ail, and he'd get sent to the emergency room al either Saint Mary's or Washoe Medical Center. Marla Johns, who was a social worker in the emergem room at Saint Mary's, saw him several times a week. "The ambulance would bring him in. We would sober him up, so he would be sober enough to go to jail. And we would call the police to pick him up. fact, that's how I met my husband." Marla Johns is married to Steve Johns. "He was like the one constant in an environment that was ever changing," she went on. "In he woi Lid come. He would grin that half - toothless grin. He called me `my angel.' I would walk in the room, and he would smile and say, `Oh, my angel, I'm so happy to see you.' We would joke back and forth, Ind would beg him to quit drinking and he would laugh it off. And when time went by and he didn't c>me in I would get worried and call the coroner's office. When he was sober, we would find out, oh, hc;'s http:// www. newyorker. com /printables /fact/060213fa_fact 2/6/2 006 The New Yorker: PRINTABLES Page 2 of 9 working someplace, and my husband and I would go and have dinner where he was working. When my husband and I were dating, and we were going to get married, he said, `Can I come to the wedding ?' And I almost felt like he should. My joke was `If you are sober you can come, because I can't afford your bar bill.' When we started a family, he would lay a hand on my pregnant belly and bless the child. He really was this kind of light." In the fall of 2003, the Reno Police Department started an initiative designed to limit panhandling in the downtown core. There were articles in the newspapers, and the police department came under harsh criticism on local talk radio. The crackdown on panhandling amounted to harassment, the critics said. The homeless weren't an imposition on the city; they were just trying to get by. "One morning, I'm listening to one of the talk shows, and they're just trashing the police department and going on about how unfair it is," O'Bryan said. "And I thought, Wow, I've never seen any of these critics in one of the alleyways in the middle of the winter looking for bodies." O'Bryan was angry. In downtown Reno, food for the homeless was plentiful: there was a Gospel kitchen and Catholic Services, and even the local McDonald's fed the hungry. The panhandling was for liquor, and the liquor was anything but harmless. He and Johns spent at least half their time dealing with people like Murray; they were as much caseworkers as police officers. And they knew they weren't the only ones involved. When someone passed out on the street, there was a "One down" call to the paramedics. There were four people in an ambulance, and the patient sometimes stayed at the hospital for days, because living on the streets in a state of almost constant intoxication was a reliable way of getting sick. None of that, surely, could be cheap. O'Bryan and Johns called someone they knew at an ambulance service and then contacted the local hospitals. "We came up with three names that were some of our chronic inebriates in the downtown area, that got arrested the most often," O'Bryan said. "We tracked those three individuals through just one of our two hospitals. One of the guys had been in jail previously, so he'd only been on the streets for six months. In those six months, he had accumulated a bill of a hundred thousand dollars —and that's at the smaller of the two hospitals near downtown Reno. It's pretty reasonable to assumF that the other hospital had an even larger bill. Another individual came from Portland and had been in Reno for three months. In those three months, he had accumulated a bill for sixty -five thousand dollars. The third individual actually had some periods of being sober, and had accumulated a bill of fifty thousand." The first of those people was Murray Barr, and Johns and O'Bryan realized that if yot# totted up all his hospital bills for the ten years that he had been on the streets —as well as substance- abuse- treatment costs, doctors' fees, and other expenses— Murray Barr probably ran up a medical bill as large as anyone in the state of Nevada. "It cost us one million dollars not to do something about Murray," O'Bryan said. Fifteen years ago, after the Rodney King beating, the Los Angeles Police Department was in crisis. It was accused of racial insensitivity and ill discipline and violence, and the assumption was that those problems had spread broadly throughout the rank and file. In the language of statisticians, it was thought that L.A.P.D.'s troubles had a "normal" distribution —that if you graphed them the result would look like a bell curve, with a small number of officers at one end of the curve, a small number at the other end, and the bulk of the problem situated in the middle. The bell -curve assumption has become so much a part of our mental architecture that we tend to use it to organize experience automatically. But when the L.A.P.D. was investigated by a special commission headed by Warren Christopher, a very different picture emerged. Between 1986 and 1990, allegations of excessive force or http:// www. newyorker. com /printables /fact/060213fa_fact 2/6/2006 The New Yorker: PRINTABLES Page 3 of 9 improper tactics were made against eighteen hundred of the eighty -five hundred officers in the L.A.P.D. The broad middle had scarcely been accused of anything. Furthermore, more than fourteen hundred officers had only one or two allegations made against them —and bear in mind that these were not proven charges, that they happened in a four -year period, and that allegations of excessive force are an inevitable feature of urban police work. (The N.Y.P.D. receives about three thousand such complaints a year.) A hundred and eighty -three officers, however, had four or more complaints against them, forty -four officers had six or more complaints, sixteen had eight or more, and one had sixteen complaints. If you were to graph the troubles of the L.A.P.D., it wouldn't look like a bell curve. It would look more like a hockey stick. It would follow what statisticians call a "power law" distribution —where all the activity is not in the middle but at one extreme. The Christopher Commission's report repeatedly comes back to what it describes as the extreme concentration of problematic officers. One officer had been the subject of thirteen allegations of excessive use of force, five other complaints, twenty -eight "use of force reports" (that is, documented, internal accounts of inappropriate behavior), and one shooting. Another had six excessive -force complaints, nineteen other complaints, ten use -of -force reports, and three shootings. A third had twenty -seven use -of -force reports, and a fourth had thirty -five. Another had a file full of complaints for doing things like "striking an arrestee on the back of the neck with the butt of a shotgun for no apparent reason while the arrestee was kneeling and handcuffed," beating up a thirteen - year -old juvenile, and throwing an arrestee from his chair and kicking him in the back and side of the head while he was handcuffed and lying on his stomach. The report gives the strong impression that if you fired those forty -four cops the L.A.P.D. would suddenly become a pretty well - functioning police department. But the report also suggests that the problem is tougher than it seems, because those forty -four bad cops were so bad that the institutional mechanisms in place to get rid of bad apples clearly weren't working. If you made the mistake of assuming that the department's troubles fell into a normal distribution, you'd propose solutions that would raise the performance of the middle —like better training or better hiring —when the middle didn't need help. For those hard -core few who did need help, meanwhile, the medicine that helped the middle wouldn't be nearly strong enough. In the nineteen - eighties, when fiomelessness first surfaced as a national issue, the assumption was that the problem fit a normal distribution: that the vast majority of the homeless were in the same state of semi - permanent distress. It was an assumption that bred despair: if there were so many homeless, with so many problems, what could be done to help them? Then, fifteen years ago, a young Boston College graduate student named Dennis Culhane lived in a shelter in Philadelphia for seven weeks as part of the research for his dissertation. A few months later he went back, and was surprised to discover that he couldn't find any of the people he had recently spent so much time with. "It made me realize that most of these people were getting on with their own lives," he said. Culhane then put together a database —the first of its kind —to track who was coming in and out of the shelter system. What he discovered profoundly changed the way homelessness is understood. Homelessness doesn't have a normal distribution, it turned out. It has a power -law distribution. "We found that eighty per cent of the homeless were in and out really quickly," he said. "In Philadelphia, the most common length of time that someone is homeless is one day. And the second most common length is two days. And they never come back. Anyone who ever has to stay in a shelter involuntarily knows that all you think about is how to make sure you never come back." The next ten per cent were what Culhane calls episodic users. They would come for three weeks at a time, and return periodically, particularly in the winter. They were quite young, and they http:// www. newyorker. com /printables /fact/060213fa_fact 2/6/2( °06 The New Yorker: PRINTABLES Page 4 of 9 were often heavy drug users. It was the last ten per cent —the group at the farthest edge of the curve —that interested Culhane the most. They were the chronically homeless, who lived in the shelters, sometimes for years at a time. They were older. Many were mentally ill or physically disabled, and when we think about homelessness as a social problem —the people sleeping on the sidewalk, aggressively panhandling, lying drunk in doorways, huddled on subway grates and under bridges —it's this group that we have in mind. In the early nineteennineties, Culhane's database suggested that New York City had a quarter of a million people who were homeless at some point in the previous half decade —which was a surprisingly high number. But only about twenty -five hundred were chronically homeless. It turns out, furthermore, that this group costs the health -care and social- services systems far more than anyone had ever anticipated. Culhane estimates that in New York at least sixty -two million dollars was being spent annually to shelter just those twenty -five hundred hard -core homeless. "It costs twenty -four thousand dollars a year for one of these shelter beds," Culhane said. "We're talking about a cot eighteen inches away from the next cot." Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program, a leading service group for the homeless in Boston, recently tracked the medical expenses of a hundred and nineteen chronically homeless people. In the course of five years, thirty -three people died and seven more were sent to nursing homes, and the group still accounted for 18,834 emergencyroom visits —at a minimum cost of a thousand dollars a visit. The University of California, San Diego Medical Center followed fifteen chronically homeless inebriates and found that over eighteen months those fifteen people were treated at the hospital's emergency room four hundred and seventeen times, and ran up bills that averaged a hundred thousand dollars each. One person —San Diego's counterpart to Murray Barr —came to the emergency room eighty -seven times. "If it's a medical admission, it's likely to be the guys with the really complex pneumonia," James Dunford, the city of San Diego's emergency medical director and the author of the observational study, said. "They are drunk and they aspirate and get vomit in their lungs and develop a lung abscess, and they get hypothermia on top of that, because they're out in the rain. They end up in the intensive -care unit with ther very complicated medical infections. These are the guys who typically get hit by cars and buses and trucks. They often have a neurosurgical catastrophe at well. So they are very prone to just falling down and cracking their head and getting a subdural hematoma, which, if not drained, could kill them, and it's the guy who falls down and hits his head who ends up costing you at least fifty thousand dollars. Meanwhile, they are going through alcoholic withdrawal and have devastating liver disease that only adds to their inabilityto fight infections. There is no end to the issues. We do this huge drill. We run up big lab fees, and the nurses want to quit, because they see the same guys come in over and over, and all we're doing is making them capable of walking down the block." The homelessness problem is like the L.A.P.D.'s bad -cop problem. It's a matter of a few hard cases, and that's good news, bdcause when a problem is that concentrated you can wrap your arms around it and think about solving it. The bad news is that those few hard cases are hard. They are falling -down drunks with liver disease and complex infections and mental illness. They need time and attention and lots of money. But enormous sums of money are already being spent on the chronically homeless, and Culhane saw that the kind of money it would take to solve the homeless problem could well be less than the kind of money it took to ignore it. Murray Barr used more health -care dollars, after all, than almost anyone in the state of Nevada. It would probably have been cheaper to give him a full -time nurse and his own apartment. The leading exponent for the power -law theory of homelessness is Philip Mangano, who, since he was appointed by President Bush in 2002, has been the executive director of the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, a group that oversees the programs of twenty federal agencies. Mangano is a slender man, with a mane of white hair and a magnetic presence, who got his start http:// www. newyorker. com /printables /fact/060213fa_fact 2/6/2006 The New Yorker: PRINTABLES Page 5 of 9 as an advocate for the homeless in Massachusetts. In the past two years, he has crisscrossed the United States, educating local mayors and city councils about the real shape of the homelessness curve. Simply running soup kitchens and shelters, he argues, allows the chronically homeless to remain chronically homeless. You build a shelter and a soup kitchen if you think that homelessness is a problem with a broad and unmanageable middle. But if it's a problem at the fringe it can be solved. So far, Mangano has convinced more than two hundred cities to radically reevaluate their policy for dealing with the homeless. "I was in St. Louis recently," Mangano said, back in June, when he dropped by New York on his way to Boise, Idaho. "I spoke with people doing services there. They had a very difficult group of people they couldn't reach no matter what they offered. So I said, Take some of your money and rent some apartments and go out to those people, and literally go out there with the key and say to them, `This is the key to an apartment. If you come with me right now I am going to give it to you, and you are going to have that apartment.' And so they did. And one by one those people were coming in. Our intent is to take homeless policy from the old idea of funding programs that serve homeless people endlessly and invest in results that actually end homelessness." Mangano is a history buff, a man who sometimes falls asleep listening to old Malcolm X speeches, and who peppers his remarks with references to the civil- rights movement and the Berlin Wall and, most of all, the fight against slavery. "I am an abolitionist," he says. "My office in Boston was opposite the monument to the 54th Regiment on the Boston Common, up the street from the Park Street Church, where William Lloyd Garrison called for immediate abolition, and around the corner from where Frederick Douglass gave that famous speech at the Tremont Temple. It is very much ingrained in me that you do not manage a social wrong. You should be ending it." The old Y.M.C.A. in downtown Denver is on Sixteenth Street, just east of the central business district. The main building is a handsome six -story stone structure that was erected in 1906, and next door is an annex that was added in the nineteen - fifties. On the ground floor there is a gym and exercise rooms. On the upper floors there are several hundred apartments— brightly painted one - bedrooms, efficiencies, and S.R.O. -style rooms with microwaves and refrigerators and central airconditioning —and for the past several years those apartments have been owned and managed by the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless. Even by big -city standards, Denver has a serious homelessness problem. The winters are relatively mild, and the summers aren't nearly as hot as those of neighboring New Mexico or Utah, which has made the city a magnet for the indigent. By the city's estimates, it has roughly.a thousand chronically homeless people, of whom three hundred spend their time downtown, along the central Sixteenth Street shopping corridor or in nearby Civic Center Park. Many of the merchants downtown worry that the presence of the homeless is scaring away customers. A few blocks north, near the hospital, a modest, low -slung detox center handles twenty -eight thousand admissions a year, many of them homeless people who have passed out on the streets, either from liquor or —as is increasingly the case —from mouthwash. "Dr. Tichenor's —Dr. Tich, they call it —is the brand of mouthwash they use," says Roxane White, the manager of the city's social services. "You can imagine what that does to your gut." Eighteen months ago, the city signed up with Mangano'. With a mixture of federal and local funds, the C.C.H. inaugurated a new program that has so far enrolled a hundred and six people. It is aimed at the Murray Barrs of Denver, the people costing the system the most. C.C.H. went after the people who had been on the streets the longest, who had a criminal record, who had a problem with substance abuse or mental illness. "We have one individual in her early sixties, but looking at her you'd think she's eighty," Rachel Post, the director of substance treatment at the http:// www. newyorker. com /printables /fact/060213fa_fact 2/6/20(6 The New Yorker: PRINTABLES Page 6 of 9 C.C.H., said. (Post changed some details about her clients in order to protect their identity.) "She's a chronic alcoholic. A typical day for her is she gets up and tries to find whatever she's going to drink that day. She falls down a lot. There's another person who came in during the first week. He was on methadone maintenance. He'd had psychiatric treatment. He was incarcerated for eleven years, and lived on the streets for three years after that, and, if that's not enough, he had a hole in his heart." The recruitment strategy was as simple as the one that Mangano had laid out in St. Louis: Would you like a free apartment? The enrollees got either an efficiency at the Y.M.C.A. or an apartment rented for them in a building somewhere else in the city, provided they agreed to work within the rules of the program. In the basement of the Y, where the racquetball courts used to be, the coalition built a command center, staffed with ten caseworkers. Five days a week, between eight - thirty and ten in the morning, the caseworkers meet and painstakingly review the status of everyone in the program. On the wall around the conference table are several large white boards, with lists of doctor's appointments and court dates and medication schedules. "We need a staffing ratio of one to ten to make it work," Post said. "You go out there and you find people and assess how they're doing in their residence. Sometimes we're in contact with someone every day. Ideally, we want to be in contact every couple of days. We've got about fifteen people we're really worried about now." The cost of services comes to about ten thousand dollars per homeless client per year. An efficiency apartment in Denver averages $376 a month, or just over forty-five hundred a year, which means that you can house and care for a chronically homeless person for at most fifteen thousand dollars, or about a third of what he or she would cost on the street. The idea is that once the people in the program get stabilized they will find jobs, and start to pick up more and more of their own rent, which would bring someone's annual cost to the program closer to six thousand dollars. As of today, seventy -five supportive housing slots have already been added, and the city's homeless plan calls for eight hundred more over the next ten years. The reality, of course, is hardly that neat and tidy. The idea that the very sickest and most troubled of the homeless can lie stabilized and eventually employed is only a hope. Some ofthem plainly won't be able to get thee: these are, after all, hard cases. "We've got one man, he's ins twenties," Post said. "Already, he has cirrhosis of the liver. One time he blew a blood alcohol of .49, which is enough to kill most people. The first place we had he brought over all his friends, and they partied and trashed the place and broke a window. Then we gave him another apartment, and he did the same thing." Post said that the man had been sober for several months. But he could relapse at some point and perhaps trash another apartment, and they'd have to figure out what to do with him next. Post had just been on a conference call with some people in New York City who run a similar program, and they talked about whether giving clients so many chances simply encourages them to behave irresponsibly. For some people, it probably does. But what was the alternative? If this young man was put back on the streets, he would cost the system even more money. The current philosophy of welfare holds that government assistance should be temporary and conditional, to avoid creating dependency. But someone who blows .49 on a Breathalyzer and has cirrhosis of the liver at the age of twenty -seven doesn't respond to incentives and sanctions in the usual way. "The most complicated people to work with are those who have been homeless for so long that going back to the streets just isn't scary to them," Post said. "The summer comes along and they say, `I don't need to follow your rules.' " Power -law homelessness policy has to do the opposite of normal- distribution social policy. It should create dependency: you want people who have been outside the system to come inside and rebuild their lives under the supervision of those ten caseworkers in the basement of the Y.M.C.A. http:// www. newyorker. com /printables /fact/060213fa_fact 2/6/2006 The New Yorker: PRINTABLES Page 7 of 9 That is what is so perplexing about power -law homeless policy. From an economic perspective the approach makes perfect sense. But from a moral perspective it doesn't seem fair. Thousands of people in the Denver area no doubt live day to day, work two or three jobs, and are eminently deserving of a helping hand —and no one offers them the key to a new apartment. Yet that's just what the guy screaming obscenities and swigging Dr. Tich gets. When the welfare mom's time on public assistance runs out, we cut her off. Yet when the homeless man trashes his apartment we give him another. Social benefits are supposed to have some kind of moral justification. We give them to widows and disabled veterans and poor mothers with small children. Giving the homeless guy passed out on the sidewalk an apartment has a different rationale. It's simply about efficiency. We also believe that the distribution of social benefits should not be arbitrary. We don't give only to some poor mothers, or to a random handful of disabled veterans. We give to everyone who meets a formal criterion, and the moral credibility of government assistance derives, in part, from this universality. But the Denver homelessness program doesn't help every chronically homeless person in Denver. There is a waiting list of six hundred for the supportive- housing program; it will be years before all those people get apartments, and some may never get one. There isn't enough money to go around, and to try to help everyone a little bit —to observe the principle of universality —isn't as cost - effective as helping a few people a lot. Being fair, in this case, means providing shelters and soup kitchens, and shelters and soup kitchens don't solve the problem of homelessness. Our usual moral intuitions are little use, then, when it comes to a few hard cases. Power -law problems leave us with an unpleasant choice. We can be true to our principles or we can fix the problem. We cannot do both. Afew miles northwest of the old Y.M.C.A. in downtown Denver, on the Speer Boulevard off - ramp from I -25, there is a big electronic sign by the side of the road, connected to a device that remotely measures the emissions of the vehicles driving past. When a car with properly functioning pollution - control equipment passes, the sign flashes "Good." When a car passes that is well over the acceptable limits, the sign flashes "Poor." If you stand at the Speer Boulevard bxit and watch the sign for any length of time, you'll find that virtually every car scores "Good." An Audi A4 — "Good." A Buick Century— "Good." A Toyota Corolla — "Good." A Ford Taurus — "Good." A Saab 9- 5— "Good," and on and on, until after twenty minutes or so, some beat -up old Ford Escort or tricked -out Porsche drives by and the sign flashes "Poor." The picture bf the smog problem you get from watching the Speer Boulevard sign and the picture of the homelessness problem you get from listening in on the morning staff meetings at the Y.M.C.A. are pretty much the same. Auto emissions follow a power -law distribution, and the airpollution example offers another look at why we struggle so much with problems centered on a few hard cases. Most cars, especially new ones, are extraordinarily clean. A 2004 Subaru in good working order has an exhaust stream that's just .06 per cent carbon monoxide, which is negligible. But on almost any highway, for whatever reason —age, ill repair, deliberate tampering by the owner —a small number of cars can have carbon- monoxide levels in excess of ten per cent, which is almost two hundred times higher. In Denver, five per cent of the vehicles on the road produce fifty -five per cent of the automobile pollution. "Let's say a car is fifteen years old," Donald Stedman says. Stedman is a chemist and automobile - emissions specialist at the University of Denver. His laboratory put up the sign on Speer Avenue. "Obviously, the older a car is the more likely it is to become broken. It's the same as human beings. And by broken we mean any number of mechanical malfunctions —the computer's not working anymore, fuel injection is stuck open, the catalyst died. It's not unusual that these failure modes result in high emissions. We have at least one car in our database which http:// www. newyorker. com /printables /fact/060213fa_fact 2/6/ !006 The New Yorker: PRINTABLES Page 8 of 9 was emitting seventy grams of hydrocarbon per mile, which means that you could almost drive a Honda Civic on the exhaust fumes from that car. It's not just old cars. It's new cars with high mileage, like taxis. One of the most successful and least publicized control measures was done by a district attorney in L.A. back in the nineties. He went to LAX and discovered that all of the Bell Cabs were gross emitters. One of those cabs emitted more than its own weight of pollution every year." In Stedman's view, the current system of smog checks makes little sense. A million motorists in Denver have to go to an emissions center every year —take time from work, wait in line, pay fifteen or twenty -five dollars —for a test that more than ninety per cent of them don't need. "Not everybody gets tested for breast cancer," Stedman says. "Not everybody takes an AIDS test." On- site smog checks, furthermore, do a pretty bad job of finding and fixing the few outliers. Car enthusiasts —with high - powered, high - polluting sports cars —have been known to drop a clean engine into their car on the day they get it tested. Others register their car in a faraway town without emissions testing or arrive at the test site "hot " — having just come off hard driving on the freeway —which is a good way to make a dirty engine appear to be clean. Still others randomly pass the test when they shouldn't, because dirty engines are highly variable and sometimes burn cleanly for short durations. There is little evidence, Stedman says, that the city's regime of inspections makes any difference in air quality. He proposes mobile testing instead. Twenty years ago, he invented a device the size of a suitcase that uses infrared light to instantly measure and then analyze the emissions of cars as they drive by on the highway. The Speer Avenue sign is attached to one of Stedman's devices. He says that cities should put half a dozen or so of his devices in vans, park them on freeway off -ramps around the city, and have a police car poised to pull over anyone who fails the test. A half -dozen vans could test thirty thousand cars a day. For the same twenty -five million dollars that Denver's motorists now spend on on -site testing, Stedman estimates, the city could identify and fix twenty - five thousand truly dirty vehicles every year, and within a few years cut automobile emissions in the Denver metropolitan area by somewhere between thirty -five and forty per cent. The city could stop managing its smog problem and start ending it. Why don't we all adopt the Stedman method? There's no moral impediment here. We're used to the police pulling people over for having a blown headlight or a broken side mirror, and it wouldn't be difficult to have them add pollution - control devices to their list. Yet it does run counter to an instinctive social preference for thinking of pollution as a problem to which we all contribute equally. We have developed institutions that move reassuringly quickly ana forcefully on collective problems. Congress passes a law. The Environmental Protection Agency promulgates a regulation. The auto industry makes its cars a little cleaner, and — presto —the air gets better. But Stedman doesn't much care about what happens in Washington and Detroit. The challenge of controlling air pollution isn't so much about the laws as it is about compliance with them. It's a policing problem, rather than a policy problem, and there is something ultimately unsatisfying about his proposed solution. He wants to end air pollution in Denver with a half - dozen vans outfitted with a contraption about the size of a suitcase. Can such a big problem have such a small -bore solution? That's what made the findings of the Christopher Commission so unsatisfying. We put together blue- ribbon panels when we're faced with problems that seem too large for the normal mechanisms of bureaucratic repair. We want sweeping reforms. But what was the commission's most memorable observation? It was the story of an officer with a known history of doing things like beating up handcuffed suspects who nonetheless received a performance review from his superior stating that he "usually conducts himself in a manner that inspires respect for the law and instills public confidence." This is what you say about an officer when you haven't actually read his file, and the implication of the Christopher Commission's report was that the L.A.P.D. might http:// www. newyorker. com /printables /fact/060213fa_fact 2/6/2006 The New Yorker: PRINTABLES Page 9 of 9 help solve its problem simply by getting its police captains to read the files of their officers. The L.A.P.D.'s problem was a matter not of policy but of compliance. The department needed to adhere to the rules it already had in place, and that's not what a public hungry for institutional transformation wants to hear. Solving problems that have power -law distributions doesn't just violate our moral intuitions; it violates our political intuitions as well. It's hard not to conclude, in the end, that the reason we treated the homeless as one hopeless undifferentiated group for so long is not simply that we didn't know better. It's that we didn't want to know better. It was easier the old way. Power -law solutions have little appeal to the right, because they involve special treatment for people who do not deserve special treatment; and they have little appeal to the left, because their emphasis on efficiency over fairness suggests the cold number - crunching of Chicago- school cost - benefit analysis. Even the promise of millions of dollars in savings or cleaner air or better police departments cannot entirely compensate for such discomfort. In Denver, John Hickenlooper, the city's enormously popular mayor, has worked on the homelessness issue tirelessly during the past couple of years. He spent more time on the subject in his annual State of the City address this past summer than on any other topic. He gave the speech, with deliberate symbolism, in the city's downtown Civic Center Park, where homeless people gather every day with their shopping carts and garbage bags. He has gone on local talk radio on many occasions to discuss what the city is doing about the issue. He has commissioned studies to show what a drain on the city's resources the homeless population has become. But, he says, "there are still people who stop me going into the supermarket and say, `I can't believe you're going to help those homeless people, those bums.' " Early one morning a year ago, Marla Johns got a call from her husband, Steve. He was at work. "He called and woke me up," Johns remembers. "He was choked up and crying on the phone. And I thought that something had happened with another police officer. I said, `Oh, my gosh, what happened ?' He said, `Murray died last night.' " He died of intestinal bleeding. At the police department that morning, some of the officers gave Murray a moment of silence. "There are not many days that go by that I don't have a thought of him," she went on. "Christmas comes— and I used to buy him a Christmas present. Make sure he had warm gloves and ablanket and a coat. There was this mutual respect. There was a time when another intoxicated patient jumped off the gurney and was coming at me, and Murray jumped off his gurney and/shook his fist and said, `Don't you touch my angel.' You know, when he was monitored by the system he did fabulously. He would be on house arrest and he would get a job and he would save money and go to work every day, and he wouldn't drink. He would do all the things he was supposed to do. There are some people who can be very successful members of society if someone monitors them. Murray needed someone to be in charge of him." But, of course, Reno didn't have a place where Murray could be given the structure he needed. Someone must have decided that it cost too much. "I told my husband that I would claim his body if no one else did," she said. "I would not have him in an unmarked grave." + http:// www. newyorker. com /printables /fact/060213fa_fact 2/6/20(6 Daycare Rate Quotes for the Bend Area (not private) December 26, 2007 1. Alphabet Academy Rates: Infant no care provided Toddler no care provided Preschool $585 /month Capacity: 35 Waiting List: No Annual Registration Fee: $75 Food Provided: Snacks and milk 2. Bright Stars Rates: Infant no care provided Toddler $640 /month Preschool $500 /month Capacity: 89 Waiting List: No Annual Registration Fee: $75 Food Provided: Snacks and milk 3. Cottage Day Care, Inc. Rates: Infant no care provided Toddler no care provided Preschool $585 /month Capacity: 82 Waiting List: 178 Annual Registration Fee: No Food Provided: Yes 4. Fox Hollow Child Care Center Rates: Infant no care provided Toddler $595 /month Preschool $520 /month Capacity: 74 Waiting List: No Annual Registration Fee: No, $100 one -time fee Food Provided: Yes 5. Growing Tree Rates: Infant $695 /month Toddler $590 /month Preschool $500 /month Capacity: 104 Waiting List: 200 (1 year) Annual Registration Fee: Yes, $50 with volunteer hours, $150 with no volunteer hours Food Provided: Yes 6. Kid Works Rates: Infant Toddler Preschool Capacity: 107 Waiting List: No Annual Registration Fee: $75 Food Provided: Snacks and milk 7. Munchkin Manor Rates: Infant Toddler Preschool Capacity: 46 Waiting List: 23 *Employees given Annual Registration Fee: $75 Food Provided: Snacks and milk 8. Small Wonders Rates: Infant Toddler Preschool Capacity: 107 Waiting List: No Annual Registration Fee: $75 Food Provided: Snacks and milk no care provided $620 /month $525 /month $641 /month $593 /month $439 /month preference no care provided $620 /month $525 /month Munchkin Manor Employee Children Comparison: Infant: 4 of 4 are employee children. 1 year olds: 3 of 4 are employee children. 2 year olds: 6 of 9 are employee children. 2 V2 year olds: 6 of 9 employee children. 3 year old: 6 of 10 employee children. 4 year olds: 6 of 13 employee children. Waiting List: Currently, the toddler rooms have approximately 12 children on the waiting list. Preschool rooms have part-time parents waiting for openings. County and state employees are priority status on the waiting list. Customer Service: A questionnaire is taken biannually to access input on services and to gather changes parents would like to see. Responses are generally positive with many parents commenting how much their children enjoy the music program. Some parents have asked for better communications between staff and parents. Mary's Place: Mary's Place also uses the space and the childcare resources for parenting classes. Page 1 of 2 December 30, 2007 To Whom It May Concern: I was recently asked by Sue Bauer, owner of Munchkin Manor, to write a letter of support for her, her staff and her business. More importantly, I believe strongly, that this is a letter of support for my son and all the little ones who go to preschool at Munchkin Manor. My children have been enrolled at Munchkin Manor since 2000. II am pleased to say that the current staff of teachers that my youngest is with, and that I plan for him to be with, are the same teachers that taught my first two. It is my understanding that these teachers have been together for well over the past decade. They are dedicated and experienced. They are kind, gentle, loving, and bright. They are not only very patient with the children, but with the parents as well. Both my oldest children loved the science that was taught. I look forward to my youngest coming home and telling me about the mysteries of dinosaurs, the solar system, ants, butterflies, germs, snowflakes and completing all the art projects that his brother and sister have done. For me, the staff at Munchkin Manor is a part of my family; they are a part of my children's lives that they get to share. I want it to be understood that I have made sacrifices to keep all my children with these teachers. I followed this staff from Munchkin Manor West, to Munchkin Manor East, to Munchkin Manor County. I am not the only parent who was committed to having their children taught by this group of teachers. That being said, I am also aware of the history of the county daycare and the dedication that Sue Bauer has and has had to this facility. Ultimately, she now owns only this daycare. Ultimately, she saw the financial downside of a smaller facility and created a second family for my children, for all of our children. For that, I am grateful. As I am a county employee, I also recall taking a survey regarding the prospect of a county daycare. I also recall writing a letter for Sue Bauer a number of years ago when she was initially approached to open a County Daycare. I am in a unique position to understand this situation. I know that it must be nearing the time for a contract renewal or, something has occurred that has not yet surfaced. Either way, I find it disturbing that I would be approached to write another letter of support for Munchkin Manor. The reason it is disturbing is that I am left with a few propositions. One is that I have been wrong about the high quality of care, love and support that my children and I have received during these years. Well, that is not possible. Another would be that something horrid has occurred to bring this business into question. Well, I have not heard of anything horrid occurring at Munchkin Manor in the news. The third would simply be injustice and unethical practices being wrought by my employer. I do not want to believe that it is possible for our elected officials in Deschutes County to about:blank 12/31/200 7 Page 2 of 2 weld their powers to the detriment of the staff of Munchkin Manor. Certainly, this is not a possibility in little old Bend, OR. However, as I am a county employee who utilizes the county daycare and am vested in providing stability for my child, I want to be clear that I expect open dialogue about this topic. I am left feeling unsettled as I write this letter. Wondering, why in the world, would I be asked to write a letter of support, once again for a business that appears to have proven itself worthy of our support? And so, in closing, I would like to offer my continued respect, admiration and appreciation to Sue Bauer and her dedicated staff. My children have all been happy at daycare and excited to go school. The staff has been flexible, supportive and patient with me and my family as we have transitioned through our life for his benefit. Also, I would actively encourage all the parents of Munchkins to do the same for the emotional well -being of their children. However, this is one transition that I hope to be spared. Thank you for your time and consideration, Sincerely, Tarina Tonge Employed by Deschutes County Mental Health Don't get caught with egg on your face. Play Chicktionary! Check it out! = about:blank 12/31/200' December 30, 2007 Deschutes County Board of Commissioners 1300 NW Bond St Bend OR 97701 Re: Munchkin Manor My name is Jenifer Templeton and I have two daughters that have been enrolled at Munchkin Manor. I met Sue Bauer and the staff of Munchkin Manor eight years ago when my eldest daughter Trinity, then three months old, began attending Munchkin Manor. I do not believe that I would have been able to return to work if not for the wonderful care that I knew Trinity was receiving while at Munchkin Manor. She still talks about her teachers and what a wonderful time she had while attending pre- school there. When I picked Trinity up she was always happy and well cared for. The instant I found out I was having another child I immediately called Sue and asked to be put on the waiting list. I was delighted and amazed to find out that four of the six teachers that Trinity had were still there. I believe it is a true testament to how wonderful Sue is that she has that kind of loyalty from her staff. Tana now has the same people caring for her that put my heart at ease when Trinity was in daycare and pre - school. Sue has always been wonderful to work with. When Trinity was two I was able to reduce my hours at work. Sue had no problem allowing me to change my enrollment to part time and found another parent to fill the extra spot on the days Trinity was not there. There was a point when I didn't feel that my child was quite ready to be advanced to the next class so Sue held her in the lower class until I felt comfortable with advancement. Sue has always been prompt and professional when I have had any issues be they financial or care oriented. Finding out that Munchkin Manor was right across the street from my office was wonderful but not why I enrolled Tana there. I would have driven twenty miles out of my way to take her to Munchkin Manor. It is an excellent facility that is run by the most caring and professional people that I have ever known. I would not trust my greatest treasures to any place other than Munchkin Manor. Thank you for your time and if you have any questions about my experiences with the Munchkin Manor staff or Sue please feel free to contact me anytime. Sincerely, Jenifer Templeton 923 -1675 or 815 -3339 December 30, 2007 Deschutes County Board of Commissioners 1300 NW Bond St Bend OR 97701 Re: Munchkin Manor Our names are Bob and Henrietta Hall. We have four foster children that either have been or still are at Munchkin Manor. Our first two oldest were put in Munchkin Manor by the DHS over eight years ago. After attending the facility for over three years, the children were returned to their parents. As fate would have it, the children were taken from their parents and put under our care once again. Two years had elapsed before their return. We immediately contacted Side since the two newer children were of pre - school age. Sue graciously accommodated us in enrolling the two children.. When the two oldest boys found out their siblings were going to Munchkin Manor they were delighted, as they have wonderful memories of the school, Sue and her staff. Most importantly they felt safe and loved under their tutelage. All the staff and Sue having always being involved with the children on a personal level, not custodial. Having taken on the responsibility of raising four foster (which we are currently adopting) children required many adjustments to our work schedules and other activities committed to during the years. None of the these schedules or accommodations would have occurred if it were not for the involvement and caring of Ms. Bauer and her willingness to accommodate our needs. All of our Foster Children (4) have attended Munchkin Manner over the years to our greatest satisfaction due to the quality of care and interest provided them which is not normally found in most other day care centers. When Sue sold her facility last year, and established her care at the current location her classes filled immediately. Due to extenuating circumstances we were unable to follow her to the new location at that time.. After our situation changed, we immediately contacted Sue to enroll our youngest foster child in her new location. Sue graciously accommodated us once again. Our child who is four years old is very, very , happy at the school and looks forward to attending everyday,. She loves her teachers and "Miss Sue" as she is referred to by most of the children. We consider ourselves to be extremely fortunate to have found a facility that we unequivocally trust and admire. So does the State of Oregon DHS. Both my husband and I would be most happy to answer any questions you might have concerning the quality of care and caring provided by this school. I would send my "blood" children to Munchkin Manor without hesitation if they were at that ag as well.. Sincerely Yours, Bob and Henrietta Hall 280 - 7212,280 -7210, 389 -9657 Dear Munchkin Manor Parents - Our lease will soon be up for renewal and we could use your help. In order to renew the lease, I need to provide testimonies from parents which state how satisfied (or dissatisfied) you are with Munchkin Manor and the care that your child receives. I know that several of you have followed us around town and I wouldn't want you to have to re- locate again. Please give us your opinion on the lines below and then mail it to me as soon as possible. I have provided a self - addressed stamped envelope for your convenience. Thanks for your help, Sue o rr. C ks't \)1 V1602._ p -4M rJn (-1 Olu,vi (n k i.v, rl1'1(AA Qv to i-)4n iNna c i c(.5VICur S .vt;-� aytd w■ S,A Clkbikk nou.) , Apra ti s Q Vf"-ClutI v'o cry pro e *at 1 v.x»uLtd swAd rvt c Ic1.v . 5 1 Ine.i LL vAcinkim (v1iu' ov (rL cJ SO stkci lAn) Wtucla Lao. -t Ga 01 P We- NA_ r v✓ +{y cif 4-DiwA (coax you v c 1 -En0_1 vw&cJ, 1, Q.r p cAtLvtc..latlk\ VY wov _ l r 5 aan bk1 VlQ ' 1,J ovvj D_1r c i - V,aann , tA- is a\so a tzsitumant +0 tau. r r b unr 4o so z \tbuJ Yvkvuj 4 lsr co ✓ So lovn . Si n ,nmp(oSj Qo Ina Q Cu✓QWA i 4 v- A love • .l 1.c d Em ,b • ti■ eV vl Dear Munchkin Manor Parents - Our lease will soon be up for renewal and we could use your help. In order to renew the lease, I need to provide testimonies from parents which state how satisfied (or dissatisfied) you are with Munchkin Manor and the care that your child receives. I know that several of you have followed us around town and I wouldn't want you to have to re- locate again. Please give us your opinion on the lines below and then mail it to me as soon as possible. I have provided a self - addressed stamped envelope for your convenience. Thanks for your help, Sue a_4. 1 7 j-r 42c oiZ • 77- _Ci7VIa A('Q 0 al cl t77 ., (7'u.pv' 6-Le kir .v( a L ; 00,--) G e4,/ r / UCQ� JZ I Y a_41 � ✓ 'C.{ L � .&7 4'-c N`- � l CG��L ki-)iZ v-vr (4J/ ,S/am / � /,( �Y /4,i cil,e 71740 4 i /1.f v ( (% ('CLAY 1 �J Dear Munchkin Manor Parents - Our lease will soon be up for renewal and we could use your help. In order to renew the lease, I need to provide testimonies from parents which state how satisfied (or dissatisfied) you are with Munchkin Manor and the care that your child receives. I know that several of you have followed us around town and I wouldn't want you to have to re- locate again. Please give us your opinion on the lines below and then mail it to me as soon as possible. I have provided a self - addressed stamped envelope for your convenience. Thanks for your help, Sue Dear Munchkin Manor Parents - Our lease will soon be up for renewal and we could use your help. In order to renew the lease, I need to provide testimonies from parents which state how satisfied (or dissatisfied) you are with Munchkin Manor and the care that your child receives. I know that several of you have followed us around town and I wouldn't want you to have to re- locate again. Please give us your opinion on the lines below and then mail it to me as soon as possible. I have provided a self - addressed stamped envelope for your convenience. Thanks for your help, Sue J / 2, r a/14,(A 11/1 vilzOvvi,a AA_ Dear Munchkin Manor Parents - Our lease will soon be up for renewal and we could use your help. In order to renew the lease, I need to provide testimonies from parents which state how satisfied (or dissatisfied) you are with Munchkin Manor and the care that your child receives. I know that several of you have followed us around town and I wouldn't want you to have to re- locate again. Please give us your opinion on the lines below and then mail it to me as soon as possible. I have provided a self - addressed stamped envelope for your convenience. Thanks for your help, Sue d.'-} telaw ncA &V4-1 i � � c c t a ck 11\71 u,nCio kf, Mil Ici1'n �:SoN-41 e42 frKls 31111a , I , d— I&s-t- Apr I R) nncn -ed f,-zVv Pc4-1.0,4 cvd z was R 1J V -a ct (44-1:C d L cA d- 5--k-AcC v b it k pt eXyl s d.a- 40,fe S 134A --4 • -v,1,(C, -e-( LA_ s S 3 Lo d,- AA tb - 41AQ - C \ IT 1L4 ti,A) IVO i1 a [16,1-e LOC -rk i Li9j),f5 [O kLLrevv 4 a- i4.3d1 care 66-1-k r cikilate,voiSksz_ ka`s ruAAd c 1 LAti6 tM Pct -4 E i rz & 1— 1 Qri --r- a IJ ci4Ya.vtCQ d ham tts 5 6c4cv s lei ' Vag. .Su tS 44_0► L ACc cArr Gi t -vt, c ' •, r, ectk.k, etta (/.1t.-04\ u 4 4 4 4 2 7 a g i e - L i I d/re--w Cc Dear Munchkin Manor Parents - Our lease will soon be up for renewal and we could use your help. In order to renew the lease, I need to provide testimonies from parents which state how satisfied (or dissatisfied) you are with Munchkin Manor and the care that your child receives. I know that several of you have followed us around town and I wouldn't want you to have to re- locate again. Please give us your opinion on the lines below and then mail it to me as soon as possible. I have provided a self - addressed stamped envelope for your convenience. Thanks for your help, Sue UJe hive be,e rn 4ont.n IC.t rt 1tltn c.- * . ' ,' Nose t 6 Gags t'1etr 3 0-41 < <dt . vit, haves -Followed s vc� d k r cp-y -01 +eac- he-v-s -Prom env_ -f-a 41,te, eat- hat, cu., d r ov d <1'14 e. bvn ldl i.n �- l s e J ,'1 �r10� �1�iY' �-�-A-� �1d�.� k� US _t, 9 � new trulAte, (ivy* Am/rel. old fr o rwL -E Jar,(- lee r' pro rc5 i r�A V? �1n� r adt.s �` levers . cow- X51 tl-t.,�- c hlyd yr r► vv t� w�,ttr� �� A,,� ar-cd - 1�.t. ►�.dkr' o 1 -lei v— sc k avi. t� ds nv� . ' 4,eaYs . C eo...sld. ri 4- at f plef wC* ghrt, &yak' Dear Munchkin Manor Parents - Our lease will soon be up for renewal and we could use your help. In order to renew the lease, I need to provide testimonies from parents which state how satisfied (or dissatisfied) you are with Munchkin Manor and the care that your child receives. I know that several of you have followed us around town and I wouldn't want you to have to re- locate again. Please give us your opinion on the lines below and then mail it to me as soon as possible. I have provided a self - addressed stamped envelope for your convenience. Thanks for your help, Sue , Q0.. 41* -r"o st:o._r !! and, or me \cf. (A✓ C,dns i st - -r o ► �v./ � : � a and ?c)4- 0, rrd Chi 1d... alt- r oSk- 1T Y n11� .V.3 ke�! cad \ore d her 8 {a .(TYe OAt " ch4 r1 CL( hr r ' c.h ∎td d.y A--eicuk fi Ack. c. r Q. P Ut d r • one \ DC.t ( � 76, 3 wig t ix A_ chat \42v- r,., .ao oUk.r ‘(1 aik orn4 - c ie (-di , . Laaii- W Get YCIkrx'Y'l i� ,� ' oCk sti r . \; X1 2 v (i (c PC'.d of- N'v t Q, \6∎ vd , k tJN C t- cv1eci 6k3 b L G sran e� amp c�Vex lie. tace Sheo no up e (err end r av\ ) ftii Inc -te cAc N. r kf < -c\- b� hug a ffik .04(-d k- 1 \tAnGYUCin 4,410 of �. January 11, 2008 Deschutes County Commissioners 1300 NW Wall Street Bend, Oregon 97701 RE: Munchkin Manor Dear Deschutes County Commissioners, My name is Bea Armstrong and my three year old son, Aiden Armstrong, has been in full -time daycare at Munchkin Manor for exactly two years. As a new mom returning to the workforce, I was diligent in researching daycare facilities. While interviewing caretakers, my top priority was to find a daycare for Aiden that was professional, clean, caring, loving, fun and personable while maintaining a healthy, safe environment where he would thrive. After a thorough process, my husband and I agreed that Munchkin Manor was a perfect fit and met the list of our criteria for Aiden's care. After two years, not once have we been disappointed in our decision to place Aiden at Munchkin Manor. The choice of whom to entrust your child to on a daily basis is not one to be taken lightly. As a parent, my hope is that Aiden will learn good manners, be thoughtful, kind, and respectful while exploring his endless curiosities and having his individuality and spirit nurtured. These are the values that are shared by Sue and her professional staff at Munchkin Manor. I have been highly impressed by the diverse skill sets of the teachers as well as the ability to communicate with me, the parent, about Aiden's various maturation stages associated early childhood development. Sue has been successful in hiring a staff of caring, loving and competent individuals who are fun and committed to their jobs. As a result, Aiden looks forward to going to "school" and has a very positive environment in which he excels and learns new things on a daily basis. I highly recommend Munchkin Manor to friends weekly. At this stage in his development, Aiden is growing leaps and bounds— physically, mentally, and emotionally. As a parent, it reassuring to know that while I am at work, he is being very well cared for and these various growth stages are being assessed by his teachers. The ability to recognize what his interests are and how to best nurture his personality to support learning while promoting good social skills is a primary focus of the staff. Consequently, Aiden is learning good skills and manners at Munchkin Manor. We are delighted to have a great daycare place for him. Should you have any questions about my recommendation letter for Munchkin Manor, please do not hesitate to contact me. Sincerely, Bea Armstrong (541)419 -7892 Page 1 of 1 From: Michael Espinoza <tapout1 @bendcable.com> To: Bauersski @aol.com Date: Fri, 11 Jan 2008 9:46 am January 10, 2008 To Whom It May Concern, There was nothing more difficult than making the decision to place our first born in a childcare setting. The first thought was would she be happy or cry all day away from us? Would she be challenged? Would she make friends? Would the hours fit our work schedules? Would the cost be worth it? Would the staff be loving and safe? And so many other concerns. Sue and her staff have made the Munchkin Manor daycare in the County Admin Building just such a place. The staff, cost, and policies have all been reasonable, beyond expectations, and without question, a place we chose for our second born as well. The new location became a huge benefit for both working parents and the safest location for a child care facility. I am assured each day I take them that my children are safe, loved, and socially adapting. We as parents now count on the staff and facility being available until our children reach school age. The stress of finding the right f t for our family and re- establishing security for our children would be great if we had to relocate or the facility close d its doors. Munchkin Manor has staff members that have been with the agency longer than any other in Bend. It is our hope they remain and work with the children of our community for many years to come. Establishing a permanent and convenient location has been a huge relief for many county families. We thank the Munchkin Manor staff and hope all remains for years to come. Sincerely, The Espinoza Family http://webmail.aol.com/33706/aol/en-us/Mail/PrintMessage.aspx 1/11/20118 To Whom It May Concern: I am the Bears Teacher at Munchkin Manor. I have been a teacher here for over 10 years. I came back to work after a nine month period to work for Sue at her previous center on the Westside of town. When she sold the Westside Daycare I went with her to work at the new Eastside center until the County Center opened. I have seen Sue bring a center that was not doing well and turn it around into a great place that children and parents love. I have really enjoyed working at the County Munchkin Manor. The children and parents are awesome. Sue as a boss, has also been a friend during the time that I have worked for her and before she owned Munchkin Manor. She is always encouraging us to learn more than the 15 hours a year of Child Education that we are supposed to have by law. She is always putting the children and their families first and expects her teachers to do the same. If I did not work at Munchkin Manor then I would honestly not want to work for anyone else. Sue has such a way that she encourages and supports her employees to better themselves in order to help children and families as well as their own families. Sincerely, 1'1 C@,0 Sandy 0 i' alley To Whom It May Concern: December 31, 2007 I have worked for Sue for over nine years. My 13 and six year old girls have both attended Munchkin Manor. I have worked for several childcare centers around Bend and I have found that working for Sue and Munchkin Manor has been the most rewarding for my family and me. One of the things that I love the most about Sue and Munchkin Manor is that we are like a family, the staff and the families who come here. I have seen several generations of children who have followed Sue as well as staff to each location. I hope to be able for work for Sue and Munchkin Manor for years to come. Sincerely, Dana Laite December 31, 2007 To Whom It May Concern: My name is Nicolette, I am the one year old teacher for Sue at the County Munchkin Manor. I have worked for Sue for over six years and have enjoyed my time being her employee. During those six years I have left and come back to do an internship as well as go to school and she has always been able to accommodate my schedule as have all her employees that I have worked for. Part of the reason why they have all been able to support me in my educational and spiritual paths is because they all are like family to me. Sue has been caring enough to walk with me through an extremely challenging and emotional time in my life and I am a better person because of her. She is willing to always support us, to help us not only become better employees for the families we love and care for but also has helped us become better people for our own families. I wouldn't want to be anywhere else; I would make sacrifices in my own life in order to be able to continue under her employment. I have in fact done so a few times in the past, such as following her to the different locations she has moved to. I have watched her take centers that are struggling and transform them into places that parents feel safe bringing their children and also places where the children love to come. There are few other centers in Bend that I could say the same thing about. Munchkin Manor at the County is where I want to be and I can say with confidence that the three awesome one year olds that I care for would say the same thing, if they could talk©. Sincerely, Nicolette Bryant- Wessling January 2, 2008 To Whom It May Concern, My name is Annette Elliott and I teach the four and five year old class at Munchkin Manor. I am writing this letter as my personal recommendation for Sue Bauer as the owner and director of Munchkin Manor. Sue is a take- charge person who is able to work well with parents and her teachers. She is always striving to make Munchkin Manor a better place for the children, parents and her staff. Sue listens to parents' concerns and works hard to fix any problems or concerns that arise. Her first priority is the welfare of the children. Parents know they can count on Sue to help them with any issues and that she is there for them. Sue has a strong work ethic and is dedicated to make Munchkin Manor a safe and caring childcare center. Sue's enthusiasm and dedication to the children, parents and teachers is very inspiring and motivating. It is the reason so many families continue to come back to Munchkin Manor as their families grow. Many of the teachers at Munchkin Manor have worked for Sue since she became the owner /director nine years ago. Teachers do not stay working at a childcare center for that many years if it is not managed well. It is important to the parents that the teachers are happy with their director and enjoy their work. I have worked for Sue for the nine years she has owned Munchkin Manor and I have been proud to be associated with her and glad to call her my boss. Due to Sue's hard work and caring ways I have seen the growth and development of a wonderful childcare center. Sincerely, L '] A, 6 Annette Elliott EPA Wetland Program Development Grant RFP Key Points • Successful proposals will build capacity of government to develop and refine effective, comprehensive programs for wetland protection and management • Wetland grants targeted to Region 10 (Oregon, Idaho, Washington, Alaska) • Typical award will be about $25,000 to $250,000 • Minimum match of 25% of the total project is required. Match may be in the form of cash or in -kind services • Deadline is March 1112008 2008 • EPA expects to announce selections by late April, early May • Timing of the wetland coincides with the conclusion of the federal earmark, near - stream environment study, and the initiation of a high groundwater development work program Wetland Program Development Grant Federal Match: $250,000 Part 1. Develop Local Wetland Inventory for La Pine sub - basin County Match: $100,000 Deliverables ► A. Hire Wetland Consultant Part 2. Wetland Protection & Restoration for La Pine sub -basin B. Data Acquisition & Coordinate w/ Landowners C. Replaces NWI with detailed inventory information to better identify wetland type and function in the La Pine sub - basin. A. Engage Steering committee funded separately by DLCD grant, discussing different approaches to preserve and enhance wetlands B. Integrate USGS Near - stream study with LWI C. Develop wetland- riparian - floodplain policies and implementation measures