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Home My WebLink About07-22-2019 Minutes I fir•. * C ITY OF_ HUMAN SERVICES COMMITTEE - ..�-f DRAFT MINUTES WASSHINGTON July 22, 2019 CALL TO ORDER The Human Services Committee meeting was called to order by Lela Brugger at 4:18 pm on Monday, July 22, 2019 at 1 East Main Street, Auburn, WA. Committee Member Dana Riel tendered her resignation effective July 22, 2019. The Services Committee currently has eight(8) members. A special quorum was approved by Director Jeff Tate for the four (4) attending Committee Members to hold the meeting. Committee Members present: Lela Brugger, Tammy Gourdine, Susan Miller,JoAnne Walters Staff present: Community Services Manager Joy Scott, Human Service Program Coordinator Kyla Wright Absent: Jason Berry, Shanece Dedeaux, Barbara Derda, Shawn Paton Guest: Julie McFarland, Cloudburst Consulting II. APPROVAL OF MINUTES • Member Sue Miller moved to accept the June 24th, 2019 meeting minutes; Member Lela Brugger seconded the motion. All committee members were in favor of adopting the minutes as amended. The June 24th, 2019 meeting minutes were approved. III. MISCELLANEOUS • Julie McFarland from Cloudburst Consulting was present to facilitate a conversation to gain the Human Services Committee's insight and perspective to include in the Community Needs Assessment. Joy Scott left the meeting during the conversation with Julie and the Committee Members. Kyla Wright gave a brief introduction to Julie explaining how she has met with several funded agencies and community groups to gain perspectives about what Auburn services are working well, need to be bolstered, barriers to access and other comments, concerns, and ideas to be considered in the Needs Assessment. o Julie asked what types of services the Committee most frequently connects people with. Sue and Lela and JoAnne Walters stated that they most community members they meet who need assistance are looking for immediate financial assistance but they had referred people to St. Vincent de .'u -41 y Paul, Catholic Community Services and Multi-Service Center. Tammy Gourdine said that she has referred some community members to the Muckleshoot emergency shelter which is available during inclement weather. o Julie asked what the Committee's experiences were in connecting people to those services. Tammy stated that she has made referrals to community members but has not had an opportunity to follow up to find out if the referrals resulted in a successful outcome. o When asked what Auburn's funding priorities should be, there was consensus among the Committee that priorities should be affordable housing, food access, and accessible health care and mental health services. o When Julie asked which services are adequately funded, Sue stated that there were not any agencies that were appropriately funded and that all agencies are doing their work with insufficient resources. JoAnne and Lela agreed and thought that Sound Generation's Hyde Shuttle and the Auburn Food Bank were among the most resourced programs. o Julie asked what barriers exist to connecting residents to services and Tammy said that the bus system in Auburn and public transportation between cities is extremely challenging and time intensive. Tammy said that because some buses only run once per hour or may have service gaps during certain times of day, transfers are incredibly difficult and it can take all day to get to appointments between cities. All the Committee Members agreed that it is challenging to know which services are available and most appropriate to make a suitable referral. o Julie asked what some solutions are to barriers in services. Lela recommended working with Green River College to construct tiny homes as an immediate solution to lack of affordable housing. Tammy stated that the Muckleshoot community has a resource guide which is helpful in directing Muckleshoot community members to tribal services. o Julie asked what trends the Committee has seen. JoAnne said that there are more service agencies that have opened in the Auburn area and more agencies that have applied for funds than in previous years. The entire Committee agreed that housing prices have increased dramatically and that there is a greater need for utility assistance. JoAnne stated that there is less of a familial safety net and that multiple generations are financially taxed and there is no one to help out in a financial emergency. o When asked if there was anything else the Committee wanted to add, Lela wished to see the downtown Auburn area impacted by the fire be revitalized and the Auburn owned area near Fred Meyer be developed. There was also group discussion and resource sharing about the Food Pantry at the Senior Center. • Julie concluded the focus group questions and asked the Committee Members to contact her is they had any follow up thoughts or ideas. • Joy returned to the meeting to give a brief announcement of the upcoming recommendation going to Council request an adjustment from a flat dollar amount to a per capita adjustment to the Human Services funding model. Since 2009 there has been $490,000 budgeted to agencies through the competitive application process. While previously$490,000 was 1% of the City budget, it is now approximately 0.72% of the City budget. The recommendation going to Council will be to move from budgeting $490,000 for Human Service funding dollars to $8.15/resident. This would adjust overall funding to $670,000. The recommendation would be to adjust the r•, sr. mental health issues and that it is most effective to stabilize housing first rather than make treatment a prerequisite. Miriam added that there was another specialized program called Popsicle Place which treats medically fragile children with a direct referral from the hospital. Barb asked if there was a time limit on how long diversion staff worked to find housing for clients. Miriam responded that the goal is to find a housing solution within 90 days but there is technically no time limit. In most cases the first thirty days are used to resolve the main housing barrier and the second thirty days are used to locate housing. Barb followed up to ask if there were wrap around services available. Miriam responded that there were no wrap around services but that staff works hard to make sure that appropriate referrals and resources are used. the Diversion staff frequently makes referral to mental health and addiction treatment facilities, Nexus and Sound. Joy asked how the Mary's Place application for Auburn Human Service dollars might change and/or what they have learned in this funding cycle. Miriam deferred an official answer to Allyson Moon but said that Mary's Place is looking to continue to improve equitable service and do what they can to increase success rates in family all of which requires more resources and more collaboration. Miriam gave some final data on Auburn residents and said based on the information collected that in 2018 there were 87 unsheltered Auburn families. In the first two quarters on 2019 (January-June) 43 families called for shelter-the majority of those families were living in their vehicles. Of those 43 families, 18 have moved into permanent shelter. • After Miriam's presentation Kyla stated that after the departure of Dana Riel the open Committee position was posted on the Auburn website and that there were several application recently submitted and that there had been several application that had been submitted in previous months. The goal is to have application reviewed and phone interviews completed in the next month. Kyla asked if there were any Committee members who would be interested in being a part of the selection process. Barb and Jason both expressed interest. • Kyla asked if since the joint City Council meeting would be held in mid-October if the Human Service Committee member would prefer to meet twice in October- once for the Joint Meeting and again for the regularly scheduled meeting- or only once for the Joint Meeting and keep the November meeting as scheduled. The consensus was to meet twice in October and cancel the November meeting because it is so close to the Thanksgiving holiday. • Jason proposed that the Committee members consider who to elect for the Vice- Chair position in order to elect someone in September. IV. ANNOUNCEMENTS • Joint Council meeting on Monday, October 14th, 2019 • Human Services Committee Meeting, October 28th, 2019 V. ADJOURNMENT The meeting was adjourned at 5:08 p.m. APPROVED THE 23—day of cp :6014eA, , 2019 --.7 Jas n Berry, Hu rd. Committee Chair Jeff, , ' evelopment