The county wants elected officials to believe that TRC just didn’t write as good of a proposal as CAC did. They say there is no loss of services. And they say that perhaps we were doing work not required under our contract because we went above and beyond for 17 years. Well, now the truth comes out, I have a copy of the contract and can see the differences – which boil down to TRC serves 7,000 people while CAC is only going to serve 1,436. Yeah, no loss of services there. None.
This makes me sad and angry and disappointed and angry again and I want to know, who is going to serve all the clients we were serving that CAC isn’t going to serve. 1,000s of people will be told what? And why the shift? Who made that decision? I thought we were just going to RFP for existing services? With the contracts, its all a bit more clear now . . .
DIFFERENCE ONE – TARGET POPULATION
Under Tenant Resource Center Contract:
Low-income households living in Dane County and/or persons pending eviction in Dane County.
Under Community Action Coalition’s Contract:
Families or individuals with low or no-income and are homeless or in immediate danger of becoming homeless. (emphasis added)
Ok, that significantly narrows the population being served. You have to be homeless or in immediate danger of becoming homeless to get services . . . no real prevention work. No working with the W-2 clients who have expiring leases and need to find a cheaper apartment or one closer to where they need to be. No working with people who got laid off and want to break their lease to find something they can better afford until they get back on their feet. No working with victims of domestic violence to help them understand how they can stay in their homes and have the perpetrator be forced off the lease (if that is a safe choice for them). No working with doubled up people staying with their families or friends (depending upon which definition of homelessness you use – typically they can’t receive services except through the schools).
And who is going to answer all the tenant landlord questions about repairs, breaking a lease, security deposits not being returned (which can be a lot of money!), the eviction process, bed bugs, discrimination, application fees, etc etc etc etc. I guess only if you are in IMMEDIATE DANGER of becoming homeless do you deserve answers.
DIFFERENCE TWO – MEDIATIONS
Under Tenant Resource Center Contract:
Complete 300 mediation sessions
Under Community Action Coalition Contract:
Offer tenant landlord mediation services to at least 200 households to help consumer maintain housing. Mediaiton services shall include but are not limited to:
1. Negotiated repayment agreements.
2. Resolution of communication issues.
3. Negotiated agreements regarding the maintenance of property.
Sure, we had to “complete” our mediations, they only have to “offer” them. And they are going to do only 2/3s of the work. Our mediations are done in small claims court, and DIRECTLY result in someone not losing their housing or managing it better to prevent homelessness. Their offer of a mediation can resolve communications issues? And what does “maintenance of property” even mean? Keep their belongings? Or fix the broken sink?
NOTE: They currently do these mediations, under their current contract, so its really a cut of 300 mediations the TRC would be doing.
DIFFERENCE THREE – PEOPLE SERVED
Under Tenant Resource Center Contract:
Provide Housing Counseling Services to 700 Households and information and referral to 6,000 individuals
Under Community Action Coalition Contract:
– Ensure 500 participants will be provided with housing information and referral.
– Ensure 200 participants will receive an eligibility assessment when requesting financial assistance
– Ensure 200 participants will be referred to shelter resources
– Ensure 250 participants will have housing options identified and 200 of those participants will receive more intensive services provided by Housing Navigators
– Ensure 86 participants will be diverted from using the shelter system and move into permanent housing
TRC would serve 6,700 clients, while CAC is going to serve 1,236. And clearly, these are not AT ALL the same services. And what happens to those other 5,464 clients? They clearly had their services cut. Do they expect TRC to just serve them anyways? I have been assured multiple times that CAC will not “dump” their clients on us. After the article appeared where CAC says they would be referring clients to us, I asked them what they meant. The response was “To your specific question, beyond court mediation cases and requests for legal training, CAC probably wouldn’t refer anyone to TRC at this time.” So what happens to the 5,464 clients?
PAST FUNDING
Tenant Resource Center Contract:
$90,000 to served 7,000 clients
$5,000 for eviction prevention to serve 100 people
Community Action Coalition Contract:
$128,726 to help 560 households
– 130 case management
– 200 housing consultations
– 200 housing mediations
– 30 households got eviction prevention
TRC hadn’t gone out to RFP for 17 years. We were the only ones to apply for the “Housing Kiosk” in 1998 and never had to re-apply. And never were asked to change anything or had any complaints about our services. In fact, county staff worked with us to revise our contract language last year, and they didn’t ask that we change a thing. At the height of our funding, we were up to $106,000 a year, but had been cut back – ostensibly working with the county board to help reduce their costs – in a show of good faith. But that didn’t really work out now, did it. We had been spending $120,000 – $150,000 a year to provide services and we were putting our own money into the program.
CONCLUSION
This is a CLEAR cut in services to Dane County residents. People won’t get help if they are not homeless or in immediate danger of becoming homeless. We estimate at least 5,000 people won’t get services . . . and CAC says they won’t be referring them to us unless its court mediation. What happens to those 5,564 clients with needs?
