Welcome

• James Pogue, Comprehensive Life Resources
• Glad to have clean air
• I’m glad you are all here

Presentation

Second Cycle – https://www.2ndcycle.org/

• Kevin Ruby, Second Cycle - kevineruby@gmail.com - 253-381-6730
• Bike shop on 12^th and MLK on the hilltop
• We are a nonprofit, but we are like a normal bike shop (are there actually normal bike shops out there?  Just curious. I thought for sure Portlandia would have a bike shop sketch, but I couldn’t find one on youtube.   -ed).  We Also teach folks how to repair their own bikes. 
• Lots of folks experiencing homeless come through our doors
• I’m new to working with some of the challenges that come with serving folks experiencing homelessness (you and me both. –ed). 
• We’ve tried to do bike giveaway programs and skill building programs, but they’ve been a bit ad hoc.  We want to streamline our bike giveaway – and have a formal program with a referral system
• To take us there, we have a few questions that you might be able to answer to help us develop that.  We’d like to have a referral form asking for the following information:  Height, name, age, employment status, referring agency, participants relationship to the agency, other bike needs – riding skills, lock, helmets,
  • Patty – add some checkboxes, maybe not have the question so open ended
  • Sherri – add Ethnicity or race demographics? –
  • Gerrit – is literally homeless a requirement (what a great question, Gerrit. –ed)?  Kevin – not a requirement, we can help anyone
  • We’ve not had a lot of success giving the bikes away – they often come back to us, or we see them with a different owner, or with unsafe modifications (I totally wanted details on what “unsafe modifications” were, but no specifics were given.  Like, https://recyclenation.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/cart-bike2.jpg  , maybe? Or this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GoqdqxSZ1TM –ed.)   
  • Theresa – it would be good for the client to write out why they would like the bike – have the form direct the client to write that out so they could articulate their own needs.
  • Sherri – do you have a some giveaway targets?  Kevin – maybe one a month.  We are rebuilding bikes – usually at a ¼ or a 1/5 of the cost.  We try to keep one bike on deck for giveaway purposes.  We have been flooded at times with multiple people
  • Gerrit – If you add the HMIS ID  to the form, we can then see if a donated bike helps end someone’s homeless episode quicker.  We can also map to the demographic data we collect in HMIS to provider more information when aggregating data for reporting. 
  • Patricia – Do you track serial numbers on bikes.  Kevin – we occasionally check if serial numbers are in the system.  We have several thousand bikes donated per year, and we are unable to track all those numbers.  We don’t participate in the national serial number program.  Patricia – there is a lot of bike theft here. 
  • Kevin – If we require a referral form from a provider, is this referral form an undue burden for providers?  Group – No (unanimous –ed).
  • Al – do you have a sense of who all is referring people to you?  Do some agencies refer more actively?  Would it make sense to make a better connection with the agencies?  Kevin – past referrals have all been folks experiencing homelessness referring other folks experiencing homelessness.  Sometimes it is an informal referral from a homeless service provider. 
  • Sherri – is this referral form meant to eliminate the folks walking in?  Kevin – yes, we’ll request they connect in with a service provider to get the referral filled out.
  • Question - How do you prevent folks from being unsafe or selling the bike?  Kevin – we can’t.  The better the bike meets the needs, the better the chance they’ll retain the bike and use it.  (I think this was the conversation – I missed a few key words, and this is my best guess –ed.)
  • Patty – do you have children’s bikes?  Kevin – yes.  Also, kids under 18 use the tools for free.  (adults rent tools by the hour). 
  • Greg – thank you guys – I live down the street, and you guys are awesome.  They take donations – drop stuff off.  Also, a lot of our agencies may have funds that may be able to purchase the bikes.  Kevin - Adult bikes are from $100-$300, when we sell them.  Most of the time you can get a solid, dependable bike for $150. 
  • Sherri – would be we able to set a single rate for bikes?  Could we have one set number – if we spend $100 for a bike.  Kevin – yes, we could do a homeless service discount bike – I’ll look into that. 
  • (My take on that exchange…
    Kevin: I’d like to give bikes away for free to folks experiencing homelessness.
    Homeless Providers: How about if we pay you for them. 
    Kevin: um, OK. *these people don’t seem so smart…*
                                                    -ed.)   
  • Question – Do you reach out to downtown on the go?  Kevin – not formally, but we are friends with them.
  • Question -  Are you on social media so we can share the donation option.  – Kevin – yes, we have Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/2ndCycle/ ), twitter (https://twitter.com/2ndcycletacoma )and Instagram (http://instidy.com/2ndcycle )
  • Al – any support from the City [of Tacoma]?  Kevin – our classes for youth aren’t self-sustaining, so we get some support from them. 
  • Dru- would you hold a class for youth in shelters, could we have a specific class for our clients?  Kevin – yes, we can do that.  We could model it a bit on the lady’s night we have with free tool usage (somehow just hearing Lady’s Night makes me think of that Kool and the Gang classic… - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLnUJQut-kc  -ed). 
  • Martha – do you work with the Trinity Presbyterian Church bike giveaway?  Kevin – I’m unaware of that giveaway.  Martha – you could do a safety class for them...  Kevin – we could support that.
  • James – Is there anything we can do for you?  We appreciate the discounts.  Kevin – shop with us, donate to us, send us referrals. 
  • Questions -  how about if I can’t ride a bike?  Kevin – we’ll teach you. 
  • If you need a bike, come on by – it is a bit like a thrift store.  Come by, and we’ll take any donations.
  • Carrie – a shout out - Molina Health Care has a bike – and 2^nd Cycle serviced the bike – much appreciated.  Also have bought bikes from them for raffle prizes.
  • Theresa – another shout out – 2^nd cycle provided a chance for a client to volunteer in their shop when no one else wood – and it led to a job at a bike shop for her.

Presentation

A prototype System Model of Pierce County Homelessness

• Gerrit Nyland – Catholic Community Services – gerritn@ccsww.org – 253-304-5105
• I developed a tool that models the homeless system in Pierce County.  The objective of this tool is to spur conversations around our funding options to address homelessness (his hidden objective is to use the model to manipulate you into funding the homeless system how he thinks, in his arrogance, it should be built out. Be careful who you trust… –ed)
• The tool is still a prototype, and is mostly accurate.  The model simplifies a very complex system in order to create an interactive tool.  Most of the model uses data tracked in our community.  The model attempts to show the effect of increasing or reducing funding to different programs.  Do keep in mind it is only a model.  The list of disclaimers is like what you’d expect from a magazine drug advertisement.  A big pretty picture with 10 words in a large font, with a ridiculous amount of small type explaining why that pretty picture may not happen.  Except I’m not providing the fine text, just the pretty picture.
• Again, this is still a prototype.  Neither the County nor the City have bought off on this as either an accurate model nor a preferred way to engage in a discussion about responding to homelessness.  Mind you, neither has said it isn’t accurate.  One of the concerns from County is that it presents some rather daunting costs to end homelessness that may impede our ability to get the funding we need.  That is a legitimate concern.  Tacoma would like a City specific model, but I think that the siting of so many of the County’s services for folks experiencing homelessness within the City of Tacoma makes a model of the entire County the only realistic option. 
• I’m being a bit naughty sharing this prototype, but I’m eager to get additional feedback on this tool before I go live with it.  Since I started working in homelessland 2 years back, I’ve wanted to know the answer to the question of “what resources do we need to end homelessness”.  This is my attempt to answer that question. 
• So, pop over to https://exchange.iseesystems.com/public/gerritnyland/pchomeless/index.html#page1 and take a look. 
• This model starts with our current homeless population (a hair over 5,000 people) and predicts what the homeless population will look like in 5 years.  That is the graph in the lower left.  The red line represents all folks experiencing homelessness.  The Blue line represents a subset of the population that can only be assisted with Permanent Support Housing (a housing subsidy and case management for the rest of your life).  Click the green button to run the model. 
• There are 6 controls that increase or decrease the homeless population.  Adjust these dials and sliders, then click the “Run Model” button to see how they affect the homeless population in 5 years.
  • Annual Diversion Funding (center green dial) – this controls the amount of funding that goes to the one-time assistance program called Diversion.  Everyone experiencing homelessness is offered this one-time assistance, which can help with the deposit for an apartment, relocation costs to move to a family member who will guarantee permanent housing, or other costs that will provide stable housing.  It is an in depth conversation that helps a client identify their strengths and assets to end homelessness on their own, often with no financial assistance.  And if financial assistance is provided, it is only a one time deal.  Diversion funding only helps so much.  It is not a deep enough intervention to assist many families, but it is so cost effective, it is a no-brainer to fund it.  Remove it, and the homeless population skyrockets.  But the optimal amount is about $1.4 million.  More funding than that doesn’t decrease the homeless population, because once all the households that can be helped with it have been helped, it can’t help any additional households. 
  • Annual RRH Funding – this control adjust the amount of funding that goes to Rapid Rehousing.  Rapid Rehousing is essentially 6 months of a rent subsidy for households renting from landlords out in the community.  The idea with Rapid Rehousing is that clients will be housed and then have a chance to work on employment or mental health or increasing income or substance use.  Whatever the client wants to work on.  The housing provides space to be successful.  This program currently helps about 70% of the clients that enroll.  This is the work horse of the homeless system in Pierce County and throughout the US.  It can help most households experiencing homelessness get and keep housing.  It takes  a lot of additional resources added to Rapid Rehousing to get the red line near zero.  However, the red line doesn’t hit zero, because the blue line, representing the clients that can only be helped by Permanent Supportive Housing are still out there. 
  • Annual PSH Unit Funding – this control adjust the annual funding spent on Permanent Supportive Housing.  Again, Permanent Supportive Housing is case management and a rental subsidy (where a household pays 1/3 of their income to rent, and the subsidy covers the remaining rent and utility costs) that lasts forever.  The model is a bit unsophisticated in its display of the effect of adding funding.  The goal is to get the blue line to zero for the entire 5 years, which you can do for around an additional $4 million annually in funding.  And depending on how you provide that housing (using community landlords or building your own building) will affect the capital costs associated with these additional units (a slider lets you determine how much is project based where a provider owns the facility vs. tenant based, where the landlords in the community are paid rent for the units). 
  • Annual Homeless Prevention Funding – this control adjusts how much funding goes into homeless prevention.  We do almost none of this in our community.  People often criticize the homeless response system for funding so little homeless prevention.  The idea that preventing homelessness is far cheaper than addressing homelessness is very attractive.  Unfortunately, the reality is that it is extremely expensive to use homeless prevention to address homelessness.  The reason is that most folks facing homelessness don’t become homeless.  Looking at data, only about 5% of households facing a 3 day pay or vacate actually become homeless.  Homeless Prevention programs can cut that in half to just 2.5%, but at huge costs.  You end up assisting 100 families to prevent 2 or 3 from becoming homeless.  Those families all needed that financial support, but if you are trying to address homelessness, there are more efficient ways to do this.  If you assist 100 families with Rapid Rehousing, you are helping 70 families exit homelessness.  With homeless prevention, that same money would only stop 2 or 3 households from becoming homeless.  That data is from a couple different national studies, but since we do so little homeless prevention locally, I don’t have local data available for the calculation. So, an efficient system should have little to no homeless prevention while households are still literally homeless. 
  • The last control is the Rental Vacancy Rate slider.  It models the relationship between the rental vacancy rate and homelessness.  Looking at 75 metropolitan areas that the rental vacancy rate is tracked for, and then comparing it to the per capita homeless rate in those communities, I’ve identified a relationship between the rental vacancy rate and the per capita homeless rate.  I am arguing that it is causal.  When there isn’t enough housing stock, housing costs rise dramatically, causing homelessness.  If we could increase housing stock and increase the vacancy rate, we could slow the flow of households into homelessness.  Homelessness is very low in communities with over 7% rental vacancy rates.  Economists identify 6% or 7% vacancy rates as the level that sees only increases in rent related to inflation.  When you have rates lower than that, raw economics of limited supply force prices up.  That causes homelessness more than any other factor I’ve been able to associate with homelessness.  Domestic Violence rates, rates of disability, rates of mental illness, rates of substance use – they are all the same in communities with high homelessness as in communities with low homelessness.  It is the rental vacancy rates that correlate with homelessness.  In the model, if you increase the housing vacancy rates, you need far fewer resources to address homelessness.
• Some financial numbers on the right side show the cost of the existing system, and the cost of the system you’ve modeled.  It also shows non-housing related costs associated with homelessness.  These are real number from other communities that have quantified the costs of incarceration, crisis services, emergency rooms, healthcare and the like caused by homelessness.  Again, these aren’t local numbers, but they are none-the-less very real.  I was careful to use number from research conducted in communities most similar to Tacoma.  While it may never be possible to pay for an increased homeless response with funds we will save in the court system, it is none-the-less real savings to the community. 
• Lots of folks asked questions, and instead of taking notes of the questions, I was answering them.  I thought I was recording the discussion on my phone, but I screwed that up, so I don’t have anything other than my sieve like memory to go on for these questions.  So I interlaced what I remembered of the questions into my narrative. 
• One interesting question was, “what do we do with this?”   I think the answer is a bit complicated, but it is certainly to continue our push to increase housing stock.  That is what increases the vacancy rate, which will drive rental prices down and reduce homelessness.  And, while I don’t think everyone in the room was convinced, it really is only necessary to add housing stock to the market.  It doesn’t need to necessarily be low income housing to have a positive effect on folks with low income.  The data shows it is really a simple lack of housing stock, not at a specific pricing level, that will improve rental rates for everyone.  That said, I’ve not done adequate research on this topic, so I may have more insight to offer in the future.  We also need to push for adequate funding for Rapid Rehousing and Permanent Supportive Housing.  These are the industry standard, best practices that best address homelessness. 
• Please provide any feedback directly to me (gerritn@ccsww.org).  I’d love to hear what is confusing, doesn’t seem right or could be improved.  (He already think it’s amazing, so you don’t need to tell him that. –ed)
• Some questions I’ve received have to do with how this model takes into account race and discriminatory housing policies.  It doesn’t.  All that discrimination is real – both past and present (people really suck, sometimes) – but this model is not nearly complex enough to account for that level of detail.  And it is complex enough as it is.  Trust me. 

Good of the Order

• a Meeting for the Tent City working group has been scheduled.  Contact Patricia Menzies - pmenzies48@gmail.com . 16 folks on the invitee list – not many confirming attendance yet.  Working to put together “tent city in a box”  
• Anyone on government assistance with a government phone can get their minutes refilled for free.  Just come to local DSHS office (pierce north, Lakewood, 72^nd) and get minutes added.  Question - can they replace lost phones? Answer – not with us, but with their provider, or at Nativity House Shelter
• (I left youtube playing music after Lady’s Night, and now we’re on to Boogie Wonderland by Earth Wind and Fire.  Oh yeah. –ed.)
• Martha - Hilltop Street fair – kicking off shelter volunteer training program.  Program designed by Tacoma Salvation Army, Associated Ministries, Tacoma Rescue Mission, and Catholic Community Services, so that class participants will be trained to work at any shelter.  Idea is that areas in outlying areas that may want to do a shelter in a church will have volunteers that are appropriately trained and aware of the homeless system. 
• Larry - If you have families with middle school kids, make sure those 6,7, and 8 graders sign up for college bound in 6^th, 7^th or 8^th grade, the state will send them to college.  Marybeth - the stipend doesn’t cover everything, but a lot. (there was some discussion about this program, so Larry setup a presentation on it for us for September 21^st.  Yay Larry. – ed.)

Coming Attractions

• September 7^th - Jake Fey, State Representative for district 27 and Also LASA’s expanded Homeless Prevention Program 
• September 14^th – Shelter forum - Cities with very cold winters have enough shelter to prevent folks dying in the cold.  Warmer areas like ours have to scramble to have enough beds.
• September 21^st – College programs for youth at risk or experiencing homelessness, and an overview of the Landlord Liaison Project by Associated Ministries
• September 28^th – October 19^th – Candidate Forums
• October 26^th – Guest panel –Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang: The Magical Car, a prescient allegory for 21^st century political dysfunction or simply a slightly better book than you expected.
• A December celebration extravaganza

Restaurant Review

Breakfast is king at the Nyland house, and I lean toward the savory options.  These days, I can make most everything I crave - but when laziness overtakes me, there is no better breakfast in Tacoma than Marcia’s Silver Spoon (2601 S Tacoma Way, Tacoma, WA).  It will be the death of me, but I think that might be an OK way to go.  This is a classic breakfast, done right.  You’re not going to find “alder smoked wild king salmon, cream cheese, smoked rabbit and avocado” on the menu.  Well, in this day and age, maybe you will.  But don’t order it.  It isn’t that sort of restaurant.  My favorite breakfast is the “D”.  It hasn’t been on the menu in probably 10 or 15 years, but they still usually know what I’m talking about.  It is hashbrowns and a biscuit smothered with country gravy, a couple fried eggs on top, and I think some bacon to seal the deal.  It’s more than enough food for a family – but it’s all for me, thank you very much.  The hashbrowns rock.  Soft, crunchy, buttery - they are the real thing.  It was the work of a good 3 years to finally replicate them at home.  Marcia’s isn’t the fastest restaurant in town, but man alive, the food is worth waiting for.  Part of their problem is the huge portions – you can only fry so many potatoes on a given griddle.  If they’d just cut the portions back, I’d add a couple years onto my life and get my food quicker.  But that isn’t how they roll.  You can’t fight it – just embrace it.  If all is well in my world, my kids are off doing something wholesome, and my wife and I can perch at the counter at Marcia’s and sip coffee.  My better half will knit away while I do battle against the wit and wisdom of puzzlemaster Will Shortz and the Sunday NY Times crossword puzzle.  Meanwhile, the cooks will do their magic.  I’m in no rush - Life only slows down occasionally, and a diner on South Tacoma Way is pretty great place to experience a day stretching on with no immediate responsibilities looming, and some hashbrowns and gravy on the horizon.  They probably have a decent lunch, but I’ve never bothered to try.  On a side note, the Lucky Silver tavern next door is pure South Tacoma and has some of the best French fries in Tacoma. 

Attendees

• Tammy Stewart, Associated Ministries
• Carrie Ching, Molina Healthcare
• Al Ratcliffe, Tacoma Human Rights Commission
• John Christiansen – Department of Social and Health Services
• Marybeth McCarthy, Tacoma Community College
• Elle Claus-McGahan, Community Member
• William Stinson, Catholic Community Services
• Jeena Kaur, Community Member/student
• Rosemary Powers, New Connections
• Patricia Menzies, Tent City Tacoma
• Charleen Fitzgerald, Coordinated Care
• Joseph Denton, Sound Outreach
• Lynn Jones, Catholic Community Services
• Joyce Stanford, Candidate for State House 26^th Legislative District
• Jena Smith, Department of Social and Health Services, Pierce North CSO
• Taylor Rome, Campaign Manager for Joy Stanford
• Marilyn Duran, Tacoma Rescue Mission
• Glenn Kelley, Multicare
• Martha Sheppard, Tacoma Salvation Army
• Joseph Sanders, Tacoma Rescue Mission
• Theresa Powers-Drutis, New Connections
• Dru Gonia, Tacoma Salvation Army
• Kayla Scrivner, Tacoma Pierce County Health Department
• Larry Seaquist, League of Women Voters (did you know you don’t need to be either a woman or a voter to join League of Women Voters?  True story. And I have no idea what it has to do with 3 nautical miles. –ed)
• Cynthia Stewart, League of Women Voters
• Wes Bailey, Metropolitan Development Council
• Kevin Ruby, Second Cycle
• Sheri Jensen, Valeo Vocation
• Patty Schneider, Catholic Community Services
• Dana Peterson, Catholic Community Services
• Jane McKittrick, Catholic Community Services
• Greg Walker, Valeo Vocation
• Richard Berghammer, Fellowship Bible Church
• Desiree Wilkin-Finch, Fuse Washington
• Paul Crandall, Fuse Washington
• Bobbie Ocasio, City of Tacoma
• LaVada Napier, WJB
• James Pogue, Comprehensive Life Resources