Will tenants in Dane County outside the City of Madison no longer have tenant services available to them? Dane County Board votes on Monday, public can’t speak to give input on this latest amendment.
Long story unfolded over the past week. Yeah, it’s not even a full week yet.
A WEEK AGO AT 4:00 ON WEDNESDAY
An hour and a half before the last chance to give input on budget amendments, I found out that this amendment (look for amendment labeled P&F 14) had been proposed by County Board Chair Sharon Corrigan.
Neither expenditures nor revenues be changed and the following provision be included in the operating resolution, “In accordance with Chapter 25 of the Dane County Code of Ordinances, the Dane County Department of Human Services shall bid the contract for housing services for 2015 in order to provide competition for the critical services of housing counseling, information and referral to individuals in search of housing or in need of eviction prevention, to include staffing a housing help desk at the Dane County Job Center and mediation services between tenants and landlords.”
I was on my way out the door to a press conference, I facebooked, tagged my board members and ran off to the meeting. Here is the video of that meeting explaining what they were doing.
SIDENOTE: It should be noted that all this followed this other debacle of the Health and Human Needs meeting that played out at the last Personnel and Finance meeting. Agencies were cut with no notice or chance to give input, and an unapologetic chair of Health and Human Needs Committee Jeremy Levin said nonchalantly that’s the process and we should all be leery of our funding. I think he meant leery of him.
Good news: All the amendments that cut agencies that didn’t get notice were overturned by Personnel and Finance – thanks for doing the right thing!At that same Health and Human Needs committee where agencies were cut without warning, Dane County Human Services Director Lynn Green also tried to say that Faith Communities could just fill the gaps in human services. Madison Urban Ministry and others responded.
We launched a petition which over 550 people signed in 4.5 days. Thank you!
Cap Times wrote this story about my blog post and Chair Corrigan and Health and Human Needs Chair Jeremy Levin threatening retaliation. They were already mad at me for talking about the meeting which shall not be named, which was also written about in the State Journal.
This new amendment appears to be further retaliation since out of over 100 contracts, Tenant Resource Center was the only agency being singled out. For 15 years all housing and homeless services have been in the same situation, sole sourced and not bid. The contracts are all slated to be put out for RFP this year.
After a lot of constituent pressure and inquiries, County Board Chair Sharon Corrigan told people this (form letter response to emails which is full of political speak saying very little and full of ironies and goofy “truths”)
Thank you for your recent email regarding my proposal to bid housing support services purchased by Dane County. I offered this amendment for consideration last week, but no vote was taken at that time. As is the practice of the Personnel & Finance Committee, budget amendments were presented the week before the vote in order to allow time for input. I appreciate receiving your thoughts prior to the vote.
My intent in requiring a bid for these services stems not only from the fact that the services have never been bid but also from the fact that the current housing support services contract needs updating. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development recommends a different model of service delivery, a “one-stop shop” point of entry to the system. This best practice is something Dane County’s clients deserve.
The County currently purchases the provision of housing counseling and information and referral services to individuals in search of housing or in need of eviction prevention from the Tenant Resource Center. I have spoken with the Executive Director of the Tenant Resource Center and she has indicated that she agrees that contract needs updating.
Bidding a contract does not mean that the current contractor will not be the successful bidder. Additionally, no break in service is anticipated. If this proposal is approved, the County will continue to contract with the current contractor until the bidding process is complete.
Bidding a contract for these services does ensure that Dane County is obtaining the best service at the best price.
I support bidding all contracts for housing and homeless services that have previously been purchased without a competitive process and support this addition to my amendment. While housing and homeless services have been sole source contracted in the past, there are now multiple vendors who could provide the service. The Dane County Code of Ordinances requires bidding contracts when multiple vendors are available.
Thank you for contacting me about this issue. I share your support for providing high quality housing and homeless services and, in the 2015 Dane County budget, hope to address these issues as well as increasing the County’s commitment to providing access to affordable housing.
Dane County Supervisor Sharon Corrigan
After Corrigan’s emails and the phone conversation, it sounded like everyone might be treated the same . . . but . . .
MONDAY
Here’s what happened on Monday. TRC is still singled out AND they seem to be changing what services they are bidding out to exclude us from applying for the money, changing from serving all tenants in Dane County *84,000+ households) to serving a small group of chronically homeless persons (600 – 700). We aren’t one of the “chosen 5” agencies, by the way, none of them are new and all existed but did not apply when we got the original contract.
This is the new amendment (look for P & F 14 which is now amended)
Neither expenditures nor revenues be changed and the following provision be included in the operating resolution, “In accordance with Chapter 25 of the Dane County Code of Ordinances, the Dane County Department of Human Services shall bid all contracts for housing services effective Quarters 2 – 4 of 2015 except that all case management housing homeless services shall be bid in 2015 for the 2016 contract year. Housing shelter service contracts shall be evaluated in 2015 for the possibility of bidding in the future.”
Thank you to Supervisor Sheila Stubbs for being the only one to speak out against this amendment (see video above). Thanks to Supervisor John Hendrick for joining her in voting against it. (Voting for it were Supervisors Cynda Solberg, Denny O’Loughlin, Chuck Erickson, Jeff Pertl, Sharon Corrigan and George Gillis) I’m guessing some of those voting for it didn’t read the actual amendment and were just voting on the pre-approved packet of amendments that came out late that afternoon which they were forced to vote for to get what they wanted into that package – but who knows.
WAIT, WHAT? WHAT DOES THAT AMENDMENT MEAN?
I have two major questions about P&F 14 language and what was said about it at the meeting. First, to address the comments in the video and changing from tenant services to coordinated intake services, I sent this yesterday.
from: Brenda Konkel <brendakonkel@gmail.com>
to: “Green, Lynn” <Green@co.dane.wi.us>
#County Board Recipients <County_Board_Recipients@countyofdane.com>,
Tenant Resource Center <trcboard@yahoogroups.com> Date: Tue, Nov 11, 2014 at 10:05 AM
Re: P&F 14 – Changing from Tenant to Homeless ServicesLynn –
I heard you say last night that you were going to change the focus of the funding that TRC currently gets to coordinated intake. I also understood that because tenant services are not “mandated” you were moving away from them. Currently the funding Tenant Resource Center gets justifies us helping people with any tenant issue outside of the City of Madison but in Dane County. If you switch the focus of this funding to coordinated intake/single point of entry (homeless or at risk of homelessness services, focused on the chronically homeless) does that mean you will not be funding housing counseling (security deposits, repairs, breaking a lease, heat, etc.) information or mediation services for people outside the City of Madison? As you know, housing services provided at the job center is also a “best practices” of HUD and removing these tenant services from the job center seems to be running counter to that “best practice” (which serves 1,000s of people) in favor of a “best practice” for a much smaller group of people (100s).
Additionally, if you are looking at using this money for Coordinated Intake, while TRC may be able to apply for the funding, since Community Action Coalition is the point of entry for Dane County, I don’t see how TRC would be able to effectively compete. It is essentially changing the program to give the money to a sole source vendor. TRC is not the coordinated intake point for Dane County and would not qualify for the funding.
I may have misunderstood you, but this appears to not be about looking for new vendors for the same service (tenant services), but changing from tenant services to homeless services. Is that correct?
Second, I’m not even sure I know what the amendment does:
from: Brenda Konkel <brendakonkel@gmail.com>
to: #County Board Recipients <County_Board_Recipients@countyofdane.com>,
“Green, Lynn” <Green@co.dane.wi.us>,
Tenant Resource Center <trcboard@yahoogroups.com> date: Tue, Nov 11, 2014 at 8:56 PM
subject: What does P&F 14 do?Given the language in the amendment, and the description of services in the housing and homeless services category, can you tell me which services will be RFP’d during the 1st quarter (“housing services”), during 2015 (“case management housing homeless services”) and which ones will be further considered (“housing shelter services”). The language in the amendment doesn’t seem to make it clear given the descriptions of the services and the language in the budget. Are van, food and day services also to be considered? And when services are both case management and shelter, will they be RFP’d twice?
AMENDMENT LANGUAGE
Neither expenditures nor revenues be changed and the following provision beincluded in the operating resolution, “In accordance with Chapter 25 of the DaneCounty Code of Ordinances, the Dane County Department of Human Servicesshall bid all contracts for housing services effective Quarters 2 – 4 of 2015except that all case management housing homeless services shall be bid in 2015 for the 2016 contract year. Housing shelter service contracts shall be evaluated
in 2015 for the possibility of bidding in the future.”SERVICES DESCRIPTIONS
EACLTHFD – CAC – $20,000 for food distribution.
EAHMBLS – Bethel Lutheran Services – $30,000 for day shelter services and service referral.
EAHMLPLT – Porchlight – $101,121 for van service and overflow overnight shelter at St. John’s and First United.
EAHMLTRC – Tenant Resource Center – $95,000
EAHMLYWC – YWCA – $141,000 for shelter and case management for families.
EASHLETA – CAC – $128,726 for housing case management operating out of JFF offices across the county and security deposit and rent payment grants.
EASHLMIH – The Road Home – $19,796 for shelter and case management for families.
EASHLPLT – Porchlight – $50,304 for drop in overnight shelter at Grace.
EASHLPLT – Porchlight – $25,039 for housing case management at their Brooks St. residential facility.
EASHLSAV – Salvation Army – $175,600 for emergency housing vouchers.
EASHLSAV – Salvation Army – $732,630 for shelter for single women and families (includes Warming House) and case management.
EAHMLYSS – $300,000 for operation of a Day Resource Center, provider to be determined.Thanks for considering this and I look forward to an answer on this.
Sincerely,
Brenda Konkel
NEXT MONDAY, HOW YOU CAN HELP
So, I haven’t gotten answer yet and only have what was said at the meeting to go on, and I’m not entirely sure they knew what all the words they were throwing around really meant, it sounds good to talk about “one stop shop”, “best practices”, “single point of entry” etc, but to the careful and informed listener, they were saying something very specific.
Here’s how you can help . . . note, new petition to address new concerns after Monday’s meeting . . . so please sign again.
WE NEED YOUR HELP! Next Monday, the Dane County Board will vote to approve a procedure that singles out Tenant Resource Center as the only service put out for bid during the 1st quarter of 2015 AND they aren’t bidding comprehensive tenant services.
What does that mean? By cutting $95,000 from the Tenant Resource Center, 1000s of people outside the City of Madison will be left with no comprehensive services unless they are about to become homeless and have been in the recent past.
Where is the money going? The funding will go from serving 1000s of people to providing services to a few hundred chronically homeless persons that already get $145,000 in funding.
How can you help? The Dane County Board has a chance to keep tenant services in the budget – but they won’t do it if they don’t hear from you! Here’s how you can help, BEFORE Monday, November 17:
- E-mail your Dane County Board Supervisor, asking them to propose or support an amendment keeping “tenant services” in the Dane County budget. Emails to county_board_recipients@co.dane.wi.us go to all county board supervisors.
- Sign our petition to keep tenant services in the Dane County Budget.
