If you’d like to help support these recommendations, email the county board at County_Board_Recipients@countyofdane.com and make sure to include your address so they know you are a constituent!
Homeless Services Consortium 2017 County Budget Recommendation
Dear Dane County Supervisors,
After a year of planning, gathering input and community discussion, the Homeless Services Consortium (HSC) has completed the Community Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness. We hope you will consider the Community Plan during your budget deliberations, and make funding recommendations that further the goals and implement strategies of the Plan. The Plan employs three key strategies– collaborate, connect, and evaluate– to further the following goals: (1) Prevent Homelessness in Dane County; (2) Support Persons and Families Experiencing Homelessness; (3) End Homelessness in Dane County; and (4) Advocate and Collaborate with Local, State and National Partners.
The new Homeless Services Coordinator position (to be a City of Madison employee funded through a HUD planning grant) will oversee HSC efforts to implement the Community Plan. The Consortium believes permanent staffing to support the strategies set forth in the Community Plan will be more effective than hiring an outside consultant to engage in additional planning for homeless services delivery.
We commend County Executive Parisi for prioritizing homeless services in his budget proposal. It is important that new funding proposals are consistent with Community Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness. Ongoing commitments to affordable housing creation, doubling eviction prevention, and supporting housing locator services all find support in the Community Plan.
Increased funding is critical. Quality homeless services require adequate funding for service providers and homeless services workers. First, we support a budget that funds the living wage. Many shelter workers will benefit directly from the ordinance amendment to increase the County living wage to $15/hr by 2022. We thank the County Board for this ordinance amendment and the County Executive for including funding for the living wage in his budget proposal.
Second, we support a cost of living adjustment equal to the increases received by County employees. Human services providers contracting with the County went several years without any increases and deserve a 3% increase. We support Supervisor Dye’s amendment HHN-O-2.
Third, we support retaining human services surplus revenue in the human services department. We support HHN-O-15. The human services surplus is significant revenue that is generated every year by human services providers, and is returned annually to the general fund.The $6.24M human services surplus should be reinvested in human services programs.
This funding could support a much needed COLA to contracted human services agencies, pay for necessary professional development opportunities for homeless services staff, and increase services to support our community’s most vulnerable persons and families.
In keeping with the goals of the Community Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness, we request your consideration of the following additional recommendations.
1. Prevent Homelessness in Dane County (Plan Goal 1)
a. We support the County Executive’s proposal to double eviction prevention assistance administered by Joining Forces for Families to $100,000. It costs much less to stabilize an individual or family before they’re evicted than to shelter and rehouse them once they become homeless.
b. We support Amendment HHN-O-11 and HHN-O-14 to provide $55,000 in funding for tenant services. 44% of Dane County residents live in rental housing. Tenant services for Dane County residents has been eliminated or drastically reduced in the last year, when state law changes make tenant counseling even more critical. This amendment is consistent with Plan Objective 1.1 Identify Barriers and Improve Access to Tenant Services.
2. Support Persons and Families Experiencing Homelessness (Plan Goal 2)
Please consider this guiding principle of the Homeless Services Consortium, which is set forth in the Plan: homelessness is defined by the people who experience it. People who have lived experiences of homelessness have an integral role in the design of solutions to prevent and end
homelessness.a. Create a Day Resource Center to provide an accessible resource for persons and families experiencing homelessness. Plan Strategy 2.2.3. “The creation of a day resource center is an important part of the outreach and improved access to services objective in the goal of supporting those experiencing homelessness.”
We support HHN Amendment-O-7 to designate the Dane County Development Group as the operator for the comprehensive day resource center. DCDG, a non-profit entity of the Dane County Housing Authority, has been an active member of the HSC and is committed to providing access to unbiased, non-directive information, products (e.g. condoms), and services free of religious limitations. DCDG is committed to best practices for homeless services, including harm reduction approaches and trauma-informed care. Additionally, DCDG developed its proposal in collaboration with and the support of many other active HSC members. Collaboration and connection are two of three key strategies in the Community Plan and
sectarian limitations on collaboration and connection have an adverse impact on homeless persons who are best served with seamless and holistic care provision.Additionally, DCDG’s proposal included overnight personal storage, which should be a program operated out the comprehensive day resource center. Comprehensive Day Resource Center operations should be directed and staffed by persons with extensive experience in homeless outreach and successful engagement with chronically homeless persons.
b. We support HHN Amendment-O-8 The MMSD Transition Education Program has identified a need for funding to assist homeless school children in accessing school-based after school programs. While not a lot of money, $12,500, is sure to make a difference for several homeless school children who would not otherwise be able to access programs that strengthen their ties to school, increase self-esteem, and foster emotional and social connections with their peers.
c. We support HHN Amendment-O-6 Over $100,000 is spent annual to support the Briarpatch Youth Shelter, which on an average night has 7 out of 8 beds sitting empty. The youth shelter policies and procedures need to be re-evaluated with the goal of reducing barriers to youth accessing shelter.
d. We support HHN Amendment-O-13 The Salvation Army has indicated that program changes for the women and families shelter will result in shelter guests not having access to laundry facilities. This amendment will support The Salvation Army in making necessary repairs or obtaining additional appliances to offer laundry options for its guests.
3. End Homelessness in Dane County (Plan Goal 3)
a. We support HHN-C-1 dedicating the Messner property for permanent affordable housing, targeting households at or below 30% County Median Income. If Dane County is going to get serious about ending homelessness, it needs to increase resources dedicated to new units. The East Washington corridor is experiencing economic revitalization and dedicating land to permanent affordable housing in this high-opportunity area is imperative for equitable and inclusive development.
b. We support the Department’s proposal to redesign the family shelter to serve as a true emergency shelter and redirect motel voucher funding to rapid rehousing. This is consistent with the plan objective 3.1 to realign funding for rapid rehousing. We request that the transition be monitored closely by the County and in consultation with the HSC for unintended consequences. The Salvation Army should be fully funded to make this transition. This is a significant change and we must work collaboratively to ensure its success.
c. We support the additional funding for housing locators to engage landlords and connect homeless persons to available housing. Housing locators help us identify additional units in existing housing owned by private landlords. See Plan Objective 3.3.
4. Advocate and Collaborate with Local, State and National Partners (Plan Goal 4)
a. We support HHN-O-12 and P&F-O- to create a Housing Strategy Coordinator in the Department of Administration. A Housing Development Director position was originally proposed when the Affordable Housing Development Fund was created, but was not approved in the final 2015 budget. The County’s affordable housing development lacks staff capacity, strategy, and coordination with the County’s homeless support services, the Dane County Housing Authority, and potential project partners. Housing and homeless services are funded through a variety of sources, and administered by a variety of contract managers spread across multiple divisions and departments. The Housing Strategy Coordinator could engage municipalities outside the City of Madison regarding the housing needs in their communities and assist them in accessing federal funding by participating in the HUD Point-in-Time Count. A Housing Strategy Coordinator would significantly increase County the County’s support of and accountability to the Community Plan.
b. We support HHN-O-9 because we believe $3000 would be better spent ensuring access to laundry for single women and families. The HSC is already a member of WCAH and was not required to pay any dues. City and County Leaders, including electeds, lobbyists, persons with lived experience, and service providers, should be supported in legislative advocacy as permitted by law. All lobbying efforts, including dues paid to outside advocacy organizations, should be in furtherance of the Community Plan and our commitment to Housing First principles. We need to ensure legislative advocacy complies with all federal, state, and local lobbying regulations.
Thank you for your attention to our recommendations. As stated in our Plan’s guiding principles, “there has to be shared ownership and responsibility for preventing and ending homelessness across all Dane County groups including, but not limited to business, faith communities, funders, government, homeless and formerly homeless individuals and social service providers. We look forward to strengthening our relationships with you to prevent and end homelessness in Dane County.
Respectfully submitted,
Torrie Kopp Mueller
Board President
