News from the Continuum

Revised: January 2019

By Sarah Owens and Michael Livingston

Pamala Garrick (SHA) with Michael Kerrigone and Walter Lofton (UGM)

Change is coming to the Union Gospel Mission.  Walter Lofton (far right) will be replacing Food Services Manager Michael Kerrigone, who is leaving UGM for new opportunities.  Other new staff include: Linda Cook, Capital Campaign Manager; Mark Hunter, Director of Development; and Dan Clem, Interim CEO.

The Center for Hope and Safety got a lot of support from the Urban Renewal Agency (City Council) at its last meeting, in the form of forgiveness of three, no-interest loans of about $70,000 in federal funds, made between 1981 and 2003, secured by their property at 1590 Winter Street NE, which, until recently, the Center operated as a shelter.  The City's 2013 loan of $300,000 to assist with the acquisition of 650 and 657 Center Street remains outstanding, but is set to be forgiven in 2023, if at that time it appears that the Center has complied with all the terms and conditions of the loan agreement.

The ARCHES Project Day Shelter Still Not Open

After ten weeks, there's finally some signage in front of the Mid-Willamette Community Action Agency (MWVCAA)'s Commercial Street building to help consumers figure out where to find The ARCHES Project.   

Unfortunately, the sign is car-centric (oriented toward vehicular traffic, which is all headed south on one-way Commercial Street), when  most consumers are on foot.  Still, it's better than no sign at all.

MWVCAA purchased the 16,000 SF building on Commercial Street last June using $487K in state emergency housing funds as a down payment.  The state  authorized the purchase on assurances that building would house a day center (day centers are included in OHCS's definition of "shelter") and would be open for business on June 30th, 2017, which it wasn't.

"The building will house a large day center"

Even after eleven weeks in the new building, the day center is still not open, and renovations needed to get it open haven't begun.  Meanwhile, the Homeless Outreach Advocacy Project (HOAP), run by Northwest Human Services, is serving record numbers of people at its day center over on Church Street.      

PITC Planning Group at UGM on 9/21/17

This past Thursday, MWVCAA finally convened the long-awaited meeting to conduct a "complete overhaul" of the annual Point in Time Homeless Count methodology.  Attendees included staff from UGM (host), Northwest Human Services, Salem Housing Authority, Salem Leadership Foundation and Santiam Hospital -- that's in addition to Community Action and Shangri-La, who, as longtime CoC Program grant recipients, are responsible for organizing the counts.  Polk County was not represented at the meeting.

There was no description or analysis of the existing count methodology and no proposal for a new methodology.  There was not so much as a one-pager describing how the event is typically organized.  No wonder that Marion and Polk Counties are counting, by CRP Director Jimmy Jones's estimation, only 59-77% of its homeless population.

Judging by what was said during the meeting, here are some of the problems that need to be addressed in future counts:  no method to ensure appropriate adjustments are made to MWVCAA's  database following ServicePoint upgrades; consequent problems pulling reports; surveys not being entered into the database; inadequate training on data entry; insufficient number of volunteers; inexperienced and inadequately trained/supported volunteers; paper survey forms; the form itself; and visiting the camps during day shift, when most people are away.

"We have got to get this HMIS [ServicePoint] piece cleared up."

Some of the strategies the group suggested to counter the deficiencies:  plan to open warming centers around the day of the count, whatever the weather;  plan to hold "connects" at which the most sought-after items like sleeping bags and tarps are given away; publicize the events and the need for volunteers well in advance; expand volunteer training beyond how to fill out the survey form; close day centers like HOAP to allow staff to participate in the count; have social service agencies each lead a project work group; call on other agencies to participate in the count; call on local colleges and university students to participate in the count; conduct the unsheltered count using teams of experienced workers paired with volunteers (1:5); conduct surveys using a mobile app (available from HUD since 2015); and form a steering committee made up of representatives from Salem, Polk, North Marion, and up the canyon to oversee preparations.  No suggestions were made at this meeting regarding the ServicePoint problems (adjusting for updates and data entry error), probably because MWVCAA staff identified those strategies some months ago -- they just need to be implemented.  Jones indicated his intent to address the problems by saying, "We have got to get this HMIS [ServicePoint] piece cleared up."

The meeting was like so many others called by Community Action (e.g., the Coordinated Entry Work Group [halted after four meetings] and the ROCC Region 7 Grantees [hasn't met since May 2017].  Often late starting, minimal (if any) agenda, no focus, no questions to be decided and little (if any) follow up.  In the beginning, they are well-attended, but, because they are unproductive, attendance quickly drops off.  The people with decision-making authority are the first to go, leaving only interns and case managers, and maybe those attending as a condition of a grant.  

Strategic Plan Open House on 9/21/17

There was a lower than expected turnout at the City of Salem's Strategic Plan Open House at Broadway Commons, probably owing to the availability of an online survey (there was no presentation or group Q&A) as to which strategies are important for the City to implement in the coming year.

Although we hung out most of the evening near the Affordable Housing and Social Services station (whose strategies received good support), we observed an overall friendly rapport with staff (about 13 blue vests) and those City Councilors in attendance (all except Nanke, Cook and the Mayor). 

Collective Impact 3.0 Community Workshop

Friday's breakfast meeting at the Kroc Center to hear Sylvia Cheuy of the Tamarack Institute of Vancouver, Canada, speak about the latest thinking on collective impact (you know, the approach everyone says they've been doing for years, but few actually have) was well attended, but it wasn't particularly informative (newsflash: it still takes money and influence to accomplish anything).

We (and we suspect others) attended because a flyer said we would "Hear the story of how a small city in Canada eliminated chronic homelessness", but someone must've forgotten to tell Ms. Chuey.  The talk (it was  billed as "a workshop", but it was just a talk, with no time for Q&A) was sponsored by Catholic Community Services, Marion County, Willamette Valley Community Health and The Early Learning Hub.

Following Ms. Chuey's talk was a bizarre encore by Keizer Mayor Kathy Clark about the Mid-Willamette Hopeless Initiative Task Force's Strategic Plan -- 30 minutes of the exact same PowerPoint slides she presented to the Keizer City Council in a work session last April, and Commissioner Carlson presented to the Marion County Board of Commissioners, and they both presented to the Salem City Council last spring.  We suffered through it on the promise that the Mayor would be providing an update on plan implementation, but that promise, like most of the promises coming out of the MWHITF, proved to be false, there having been no developments on that front since our last report in June.