He did actually ask a bunch of us to help him come up with solutions, and a bunch of us did, but we only had one or two meetings with him before he declared us all enablers, screamed at us, dropped an f-bomb (quick, call chief Koval) and we haven’t met again. Here’s what we came up with preliminarily for him, but we never actually discussed it with him because he was too busy watching his live stream videos and making up fantastic stories about what he thinks is going on (despite a couple members of the group going out and talking to the people and giving him different information, which he promptly ignored.)
>Preliminary Brainstormed Suggestions on
Madison and Dane County Homeless System for Mayor Soglin
(not in priority order, meeting notes)
Present: Tami Miller (Friends of the State St. Family), Teri Coates (Helping Hands and FSSF), Connor Wild (Bethel), Will Brewer (Porchlight), Karen Andro (1st United Methodist), Linda Ketcham (Madison Urban Ministry), Heidi Wegleitner (Dane County Board Supervisor), Sarah Lim (Tellurian), Brenda Konkel
OVERALL CONCEPTS
– Best practices = trauma informed care, harm reduction, housing first
– We already have the Homeless Services Consortium and Joint City-County Homeless Issues Committee and we should as much as possible work through them. Advice of the City-County Homeless Issues Committee should be given more weight by elected officials. Their recommendations should be taken seriously. We need the Homeless Services Consortium to be more transparent and functional.
– Accountability. How we are holding the city, county and funded nonprofits accountable to commitments made to recognize housing as a human right, implement housing first, end veterans homelessness and chronic homelessness?
– Flexible funding that can be used to serve folks currently unserved due to major funding sources eligibility criteria. Allows for more flexibility and innovation.
SHORT TERM SOLUTIONS
Downtown Day Resource Center
– Could double as a night shelter overflow temporarily instead of building more shelter if necessary (see needs below)
– Rent space as soon as possible, for this winter
Basic needs – easy/immediate and relatively cheap fixes
– Red Boxes
– Lockers in downtown parking ramps
– Return regularly cleaned portapotties
– legal place to sleep
Leadership
– Use trauma informed person centered language that avoids further stereotyping people without homes
– Be on message with housing first and Zero 2016 goals and what we need to make them happen. Focus on best practices, encourage partnership.
– City/County united front
– Bureaucracy
– – tackle the real/big issues, not periphery
– – Stop making it sound like “we have sufficient services” because it’s clearly not working
SHORT TO MEDIUM TERM SOLUTIONS
Zero 2016 Campaign
– Follow through, resources and real commitment from agencies, particularly with housing first
– Need case management/advocates for people at the top of the list
– Rapid rehousing for singles, currently there are zero units in the community
– Longer Registry Week
Outreach Workers and Case Managers
– Training of case managers/outreach – successful ones train new or unsuccessful ones (meet, share ideas, share outcomes, increased number of outreach workers)
– Outreach workers not in silos/flexible funding (mental health – challenge to document, aoda, downtown)
– Developmental disability and AODA (gaps in outreach services)
End Youth homelessness by 2017
Coordinated intake? Homeless Hotline working?
Affordable Housing Funds
– Rapidly house the people with the highest need (people traditionally excluded/with the most barriers)
Transportation
– Monthly bus pass program for people without homes or free rides for homeless persons
CDA and nonprofits
– Evictions need to be handled differently so people aren’t returned to homelessness, should be for major issues
– CDA preference for homelessness and reasonable/reality-based admissions criteria with individualized assessment of applications and an opportunity to meet with admissions staff prior to receiving a denial decision. See New Orleans Housing Authority policy.
LONG TERM SOLUTIONS
Comprehensive Downtown Day Resource Center
– Comprehensive Permanent Downtown (see Dane County Report for minimum requirements which may need to be modified) https://www.forwardlookout.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/FINAL-REPORTtoHHN2-1-13.pdf
– – basic needs in one place -showers, laundry, lockers, food, personal essentials, survival gear, phone charging
– – services – housing and job placement assistance, aoda, mental health including a walk-in psychiatrist services, legal services, daycare area,
Mental Health System
– Need to get diagnosed to qualify for programs but jumping through the hoops is difficult, not trauma informed processes
– Cost of medications
– Beds available when needed, not appointments in a week
AODA System
– Beds available when needed, not appointments in a week
Shelter
– What do we do when people run out of days but haven’t been able to find housing (do they get help finding housing while in shelter?)
– Wet shelter
– More beds for women and families so no child is turned away
– Concerns about shelter (safety, comfortable, untreated mental illness, physical and medical needs)
– Need for privacy – trauma informed care, PTSD, etc – single rooms
Cosigner program
