Welcome
We don’t say it enough, but I know we all think it every time we meet - a big thank you to the Salvation Army for hosting – not just providing a space, but coffee, pastries and always the warmest of welcomes. Oh, and a big sorry to Jill Fish for not quite getting to her presentation on Friday. –ed.
- James Pogue, Comprehensive Life Resources
- Responding to the City of Tacoma Request for Information –
- City of Tacoma Phase 3 planning committee is at a spot where they want to get creative ideas
- Committee goals - to come up with information and ideas that are sustainable that will impact certain populations or the system as a whole
- Ideas should only need rough numbers
- There is no commitment from the City, just collecting information
- 5 committees – or more if some committees have multiple ideas worth pursuing .
- Evictions – Greta Brackman
- Micro Housing – Theresa Power-Drutis
- Doing whole range of housing solutions – want to produce something succinct (succinct – from the latin word succinctus – meaning to tuck your clothes up for action – nice word choice, Theresa –ed.) for the City of Tacoma – want to hear any contacts after the
- After-care programming – Carrie Ching/CCS
- When permanently housed, clients are often separated from their friends and support structure and this causes problems – clients can give up their apartment or bring friends with them which causes an eviction. Perhaps rotary club or lions club or churches can build positive community relations to help folks stay housed.
- Group will come up with menu of possibilities – possible activities to pursue – create a “menu of opportunities”.
- April 28th – Education Day – Larry Seaquist
- Talk about who the homeless are, how we serve them,
- Employment – Sherri Jensen
Reports
very productive committee work
- talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, write, talk, write, gesture, talk, write, talk, talk, talk. Repeat.
Committee Report Out and Other Proposals: (people talked crazy fast during the report out – so this is mostly correct –ed.)
- Something important the note taker didn’t catch
- Note taker chastened for holding side conversation when he should have been taking notes.
- Tiny Houses Proposal
- James reported out
- Looking at a cost of $20,000 per house – City to provide land or get a new developer that will cover cost (and some other money detail I didn’t get down –ed.).
- 20 units of folks exiting incarceration that are work ready – for the YouthBuild program (not sure about how the youthbuild program fits in –ed.)
- After Care
- Carrie Ching reported out
- Narrowed list of 10 options to a mentorship program
- List of activities is great, but having a mentor working with them ahead of housing, the mentor will be able to steer a client in a direction that matches their interests.
- Richard Berghammer – is working on a mentorship program with several churches on the East Side
- Also talked about a support group
- YMCA is coming to present on how they can offer their programs to folks
- Committee will look at technical colleges – and see what changes can be made to make them more accessible
- Look at internship programs – like the internship program CCS uses - to see if those interns can do some of this work.
- Not putting together a response to the Request for Information from the City of Tacoma
- Evictions
- Greta Brackman reported Out (and has the vocal agility for a career in auctioneering –ed.)
- Working on a number of things, such as
- Get more resources for paying off debts
- Work to clients access to Legal help
- Educational opportunities for landlords and tenants.
- Advocacy component – work with City Council or State Supreme Court about removing eviction when they have been resolved
- Looking at ways to get folks who have had evictions a pathway to home ownership.
- If anyone has any information pertinent to the eviction process – even if not on the subcommittee – come talk to Greta (or e-mail gbrackman@cmhshare.onmicrosoft.com )
- Not putting together a response to the Request for Information from the City of Tacoma
- Enhanced Rapid Rehousing Proposal
- Gerrit Nyland reported out on this
- Catholic Community Services is looking to put a idea out that has funding flexibility for the following
- Diversion like program – one time financial assistance
- Rapid Rehousing like program – around a year of an apartment subsidy
- Permanent supportive housing program – if independence is not possible, an indefinite subsidy is possible
- The lease intensive options will always be pursued first.
- Also looking at clustering housing for clients in market rate housing – so having 3 or 4 clients in the same apartment building – to reduce isolation.
- Veteran Group
- Tony Dayton and I think Joseph Deaton (but I could be wrong – sorry about that –ed).
- Sound Outreach (I think –ed.) – with National Alliance to end veteran homelessness – Veteran homeless to home owner program – leverage own stories. Use VA home loan program for veterans to buy properties. Use Peer support, recovery coaching, sound outreach for financial literacy. Not sure about doing clean and sober. Working with veterans home lending. Goal is to move folks from VA programs to home ownership.
- Tent Cities
- Patricia Menzies reported out
- Not sure it is useful to submit proposal for Tent Cities.
- There is a huge need for places for folks to go.
- Encampments are challenging for everyone involved – trash gets left, campers have to move
- City does the cleanup work since landlords aren’t cleaning up their properties
- Campers get forced to constantly move – aren’t necessarily being offered the right programs to keep them safe. Signing a lease with no certainty you can pay for the lease is a scary thing. A tent city may be the appropriate location to live.
- Will meet with Councilmember Keith Blocker – ask why the City isn’t willing to run a Tent City. Need to ask folks to step up, not wait for groups to volunteer to do the work.
- Need to treat the situation as the emergency it is.
- Housing
- Theresa Power-Drutis
- Will submit an overarching letter to support all this work being requested by the City.
- Lauren with the City will provide info about scattered site (I didn’t quite catch all this, sorry – ed.)
- Will support Accessory Dwelling unit plan
- It is OK for us to send out a support letter for other projects that are being proposed.
- City is just looking for ideas
- Need someone to put in a proposal for derelict buildings.
- Al –Need a building code change for tiny houses. Need to (again, I missed some of this – ed.)
- Housing for folks in Recovery
- Comprehensive Life Resources – get folks from treatment into housing. Folks newly into recovery – have city sponsor some clean and sober beds – Cost per client is $5,000 for 6 months in clean and sober. Essentially 6 months of transitional housing.
Hire 253 – wrap up
- Sherri Jensen
- Hire 253 – had 42 employers and around 140 job seekers attend. 12 job seekers were hired on the spot. 89 employers lined up interview. Did 68 interviews on the site. In 2 weeks will be doing follow-ups with all participants. At least 8% of the folks walked away from the event with jobs. Almost everyone walked away with an interview.
- Evelyn – employers gave feedback that this was really a useful event. One employer said she spent 3k on hiring events last month, which were not very successful – but at this event she left with 12 interviews.
Workforce Development
- Sherri Jensen
- Own agency focused on the homeless population –
- Talked about how to support other projects in the room.
- Come connect with Greg or Sherri if you want an employment component included in a response to the City
Create a blanket Letter of support from the Coalition
- James will send out a blanket letter of support to the group, including hours of time this group is putting into this work.
- Theresa – looking a lots of options – affordable housing, shared housing, shelter, Rapid Rehousing, Permanent Supportive housing, Permanent self-managed tent city, temporary shelter,
Good of the Order
- Jill – Steel Toed Boots – did fellow from the listserv get some? Answer – Yes. Jill has some socks if they need them.
- Target e-mails urging funding and support for more resources for homeless programs to your agency or your own city council member. Alexis will e-mail a sample support letter.
- Full info on contacting City council members at: http://www.cityoftacoma.org/government/city_council
- Always good to contact the council member for the district you live in or work in – or an at large member. The above link has info on which member is in which district.
- Or just e-mail them:
Coming Attractions
- March 23rd - Coffee Oasis – overview of their Kitsap County programs and ideas for expansion into Pierce County – and questions and answer period
- March 30th – meeting cancelled
- April 6th – Committee Work and Lakewood YMCA presentation/discussion
Restaurant Review
Greg said he wanted a restaurant review in the minutes, so here you go. I was trying to be all clever and work it into the meeting minutes, but I just couldn’t pull it off – maybe next week. Anyway… want to know my go-to Thai restaurant in Tacoma? Probably not, but I’m telling you anyway. My favorite Thai restaurant has to be Galanga (1129 Broadway, in downtown Tacoma - http://www.galangathai.com/ ). So, like 15 or 20 years ago, my wife and I were bummed at the huge wait at Fujiya (this was during that Japanese restaurant’s golden period, with both Masahiro and Jackie behind the sushi bar – great place still, but not quite as magical). So, we thought we’d try the new Thai place – Galanga - one street down. Imagine my surprise at seeing Ted, an old coworker, as the co-owner. Last I knew, Ted was still a technical writer at the database company we both worked for in the Emerald City. Long story short, he married a gal from Thailand and they opened the restaurant together. The service is pleasant, food is fresh and tasty, and the owners are lovely people. Lunch is always busy, but dinner is a bit quieter. The usual Thai dishes are all present. In addition, I like their Four buddies and One Pal (a nice veggie sauté with meat or tofu) , and this thing that is often on their special menu called Thai Basil Green Beans – I can get pretty close to replacing it at home – but I’m not quite there. Generally their flavors are subtle – enhancing the natural ingredients in a really lovely way. It is my life-got-in-the-way-and-I-don’t-have-a-plan-for-dinner emergency take-out restaurant of choice. And a nice spot for lunch. Or a dinner before a show at the Pantages. They usually do a food booth at the Thursday Farmers Market in downtown Tacoma, too.