News from the Continuum

Revised: January 2019

By Sarah Owens and Michael Livingston

"This [reforming the local CoC] is going to happen, so you need to support it."        --Mayor Bennett

That was the unequivocal response Tuesday night to misgivings expressed by Jon "it's not easy" Reeves, CEO of the Mid-Willamette Valley Community Action Agency (MWVCAA), and Robin Winkle with Shangri-La, during the public comment period of the last meeting of Salem's Affordable Housing, Social Services and Homelessness strategic plan work group.

Together, MWVCAA and Shangri-La  receive the bulk of the program dollars coming into Marion and Polk Counties through HUD's CoC Program -- about $600,000.  They greatly fear local control over those funds could increase competition, and, if that happens, they might lose funding.  So, they basically want to maintain the status quo to keep their grants locked down, even if it's bad for the wider community. 

7/25 Agenda

There was a big turnout for the July 25 meeting, the group's last.  In addition to members and staff (and those mentioned above), there was Kevin Winder, a property owner participating in the Homeless Rental Assistance Program (HRAP), his tenant Ralph Erwin, Urban Development Department Director Kristin Retherford, Kenny LaPoint of the Oregon Housing and Community Services Department (OHCS), Jimmy Jones of MWVCAA, T.J. Putman of the Salem Interfaith Hospitality Network (SIHN), Susann Kaltwasser of the East Lancaster Neighborhood Association (ELNA), Joyce Judy of the Northgate Neighborhood Association, and Larry Nassett.     

The members started out by affirming their preliminary recommendations as "still relevant" and hearing about HRAP.  Twelve individuals have been enrolled (meaning a relationship has been established) and five have been housed.  They have three landlords they're working with, Kevin Winder being one.  He said he liked working with Sonya, but "if it doesn't work, it's gonna put stress on the relationship."  He said that in front of Ralph, which to us felt very awkward, but Ralph appeared not to notice.

Ralph Erwin

Ralph (pictured at right and standing in the photo above) told the work group he was 65, had lived a pretty exciting life and had worked at Willamette Industries until he couldn't do it any more.  He became very depressed, developed liver disease (his own fault, he said) and had been in and out of the hospital.  He described some of the problems he had living on the street and said it was very depressing.  Said he was very grateful for a chance to be an asset to the community.  He stayed through the entire meeting, paying close attention to what was said and, toward the end, offered public comment in support of the City's developing a locker/storage program. He would later blow out of HRAP.

After seven minutes of high-speed statistics on the local homeless population from data guy Jimmy Jones (more or less what was reported here at p 13-14), Pamala Garrick schooled the group on HUD  policy priorities (see below).
 

Councilor McCoid wanted details on reforming the local CoC.  Was there a deadline?  Who would manage it?  Who has to agree?  Do we agree it make sense to have a local CoC?  Andy Wilch affirmed his earlier remarks to HUD, saying "it makes sense to have resources controlled in the environment where the resources are delivered."  Mayor Bennett, pinned him with, "And you'll bring those policy decisions to the Housing Authority Board?"  Yes, Andy said, he would, at which point Kenny LaPoint said that OHCS was "looking at using...additional resources to support continuums across the state...because HUD does not always give you what you need to run a continuum."  Councilor Andersen renewed Councilor McCoid's question about timing, saying "we don't want this 26 [other] counties thing, we want it to come down to the two counties and the city, for all the reasons we've talked about."  When could that happen?  Next spring?  Yes, but there are "a series of...milestones" on the way to registration, Andy cautioned.  Councilor Andersen:  "But it's our goal to hit those...milestones, right?"  Everyone nodded.  Then Jimmy Jones said something very interesting.  He said we needed to "do the groundwork, to make sure our metrics are solid."

Now, the reason that's interesting is that Jimmy's agency, MWVCAA, has long been the "lead agency for the City of Salem and the local CoC (ROCC Region 7), and it's supposed to have been "mak[ing] sure our metrics are solid" for as long as area providers have participated in the CoC Program (more than 12 years).  However, it hasn't done a very good job.  Take, for example, the need to regularly monitor grantee and sub-grantee data quality, conduct a well-designed annual point-in-time count and promptly provide the community and policy-makers with accurate PIT Count, Housing Inventory Count and System Performance Measures reports.  It's been years since any of those "metrics" have been what could reasonably be considered "solid."  So, Jimmy's right, someone needs to "do the groundwork", and that "someone" is his agency, his department, his program, his staff and himself.   

Salem has seen an increase in shopping cart "trains" like this one over the past year

The discussion touched briefly on staffing needs and whether the money should come from programs, before Jimmy Jones again hijacked the conversation with talk of funding formulas and projected allocation increases.  He was just explaining how the opposition to reforming the CoC "is and isn't" based on "turf protection" (Councilor Andersen's term), when Kellie Bataglia reclaimed the floor in order to go over the 11'x17' list developed for the meeting.

Once again, time ran out before any more decisions could be made (except whether they wanted to meet again) (no).  So, it would seem that the 11'x17' list, amended to include a recommendation to develop a locker/storage program (see photo above), is destined to be passed along to the community to peruse at the open house on September 19, and from there to the entire City Council. 

Community Garden at Robert Lindsey Tower

Two things readers can feel unequivocally positive about this week are 1) someone's tending the gardens at RLT, where the meeting discussed above took place, and 2) at long last, and after several unsuccessful attempts, it looks like the service integration model that's been so successful in Polk County (26+ years) and successfully replicated in Yamhill County (2 years) is finally coming to Marion County in September 2017.

Sharon Heuer of Salem Health announced on Tuesday the creation of four teams.  Three out in the county:  the Woodburn SIT (sponsored by PH Tech), the North Marion SIT (sponsored by Salem Health) and the Stayton SIT (sponsored by Santiam Hospital).  Salem Hospital will also sponsor a North Salem SIT.  By "sponsor" is meant put up base funding for direct aid.

Salem Health will administer the Woodburn, North Marion and North Salem SITs.  Skye Hibbard from the Community Health program will facilitate the Salem Health team meetings, part time.  The Salem Health programs/teams are in the nature of a pilot (not a long-term commitment).

Santiam Hospital will administer the Stayton SIT.  Santiam Hospital has a service integration program that is coordinated full time by Melissa Baurer, formerly of The Salvation Army.  Santiam Hospital is fully committed to service integration. 

A West Salem SIT Mtg

It should be noted that the initial response to the effort to bring service integration to Salem was not unequivocally positive.  There was  concern that SITs would  duplicate and therefore compete with community partnership teams (CPTs), whose mission is to "Increase neighborhood livability for children, youth and families through partnerships, projects and programs."  They "support programs such as neighborhood centers, community gardens, youth programs, literacy, neighborhood beautification, and many other prevention efforts."  Their goal is a healthy community.

Service integration teams also want a healthy community; however, their purpose is more narrowly focused on basic needs (eye glasses, tires, a bed), and their meetings are intended for agencies and professional providers seeking to "facilitate collaboration among community partners to provide coordinated resources and information...matching resources to clearly defined needs, while avoiding duplication of service."  Gradually, CPT advocates came to a better understanding of the service integration model, and accepted its presence in Salem.

excerpt from the mtg notes of the March 2017 Children and Families Commission Mtg

The North Salem CPT is called "North Neighbors" or "N2" and meets the second Wednesday of the month from 11 to 1 at various locations.  The North Salem SIT will meet beginning in September at Center 50+, the first Wednesday of the month at 1:30.   Both teams cover the North Salem High School catchment area, which includes portions of CANDO and the Grant, Highland, Northgate, Lansing, and Northeast Neighbors neighbor-hood asso-ciations.

The Edgewater CPT and West Salem SIT also overlap, though the latter covers the entire West Salem High School catchment area.