Commission on Aging - Regular Meeting

Good afternoon, everyone. This is Jefferson convening regular meeting of the York County homelessness task force. I'm here with you in the room with several of our colleagues from all government by along with staff members from each of the municipalities and county government as well. We'll go ahead and call this meeting to order. And our first order of business is to adopt our minutes.

It was sent out by missus Keller's team minutes. So if everyone will just take a couple minutes to look over and let us know if you see any adjustments that need to be made to those minutes before we move to adopt. We'll note that adjustment. Present virtual communications. So after that, anyone else seeing any adjustments that needs to be made?

We're ready. We're. Okay. There's a motion. Thank you, Johnson. There's a motion to approve the second. Second. Second by madam vice chair. Any discussion on the motion? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any against? You guys have it in that motion. Thank you. All business, we'll discuss funding legislative updates. We're gonna recognize miss Neil, our COC program manager.

Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you so much for being here today. We're gonna just

Jennifer Kim. Uh-huh.

So I'll just really today is about just kinda giving an update and overlay about kind of the so, again, if a lot of people impact my financial support for these nonprofit aides, I'll put that to the majority of this work. Again, looking at how that impacts not just here, but you'll see that also in that in that known gases, you see the food and nutrition, SNAP, and Medicaid. So just understand that that same population that we're also talking about, you're the same familiar things that are also gonna happen to those that are. So there's a combination, and there's a correlation of what's happening on that. And as you are looking at the screen, you can see here where here's the proposed budget from the president's budget.

So what's happening in the house proposal versus the city? There's a conversation now and a lot of advocacy around it that stays that way. However, there may be something that HUD right now is changing, and they require that agencies would have to reapply for this fund. And then if they reapply, what they communicated to us just recently in July was that these are going to be the top items that's gonna be. So as you can see, it's talking about treatment and recovery, reducing homelessness, reducing return to homelessness, increasing the earned income for participants, funding for new projects types, street outreach and transitional health.

So that is somewhat of a shift and that has not happened today. So we are still waiting. So maybe on Friday the week or something, or we may not. But just to know that this is kinda in place now. So after the funding runs out agencies are working from will carry them through 2025 and some of 2022.

But if we don't if there's not a new NOFO, then those agencies may not have further information.

Change of funds. Administrative Okay. Yep. So

we did went to Brenda also just to keep in mind some of the grants c o the COC grant agreement, which are what we call the COC for no go contract. So, of course, in all of the grant agreements, it does talk about that if you sign the agreement with the contracts with Hood, you must adhere to all the that may come up. You're agreeing to comply with all federal anti discrimination laws. Certified has no programs promoting DDI in violation of any applicable laws, not use of funds to promote gender or listed in the borders. Not not excuse me.

Use of funds to fund Oh, I'm sorry. Okay. Also talking about the use of funds to fund or promote abortion even though that most of the agencies that we are that deceive funding don't don't somehow are participating in that, but there's also some of the language that is also being placed. Most of the agencies that are in the COC world typically are not affected by that, but that is a part of one of the grievance that you will not use. And then also, of course, around immigration information and then the discriminate discriminate not to discriminate, I'm sorry, against any organizations based on religion if in if and when selected sub recipients.

And so they have also made sure to remind us that if once you're signing the new grant, that the how the first model will no longer be held as a responsible for finding that will happen in the school.

That's a huge shift. Mhmm. That's a huge loss for

for them the house in the first. So they in a nutshell, funding is it won't be interrupted? Or

Not for not as of today. So all of this all of the items that we're talking about will force. These are in the current agreement. So when when agencies had to sign their current contracts, they were agreeing to all of these items already. So the current contracts, which are the ones from the grant from 2024, so they're they signed the grant that they're accessing about is that COC was definitely one of the things they wanted to put altogether.

CBD CBDG was also one of those things as well, but no one is included about what's happening makes sense on that. What we are sure of is that if if for some reason, the government has planned federal to the state, then there may be some additional money being given to what we call under emergency solution grants to maybe define some other things, and that would be how people will have access. But what those funding restrictions or directions or priorities will be, we're we're

unsure. What's the compliance mechanisms

that need to be made for compliance. And So we do have some

compliance guidelines.

That's all we got.

Right? Oh. So it's it's it's very subjective and open to interpretation. You anticipate that the the organization's receiving funds are gonna have to do anything different. We get spend more time, or and if so, would they get more administrative funding to handle this?

So they're

they're they're more limited on how much administrative funding that you can use. And, the goal is to really be more service head heavy. So But Of course, we would help them with technical assistance around the items that they need to be in compliance with. As once we get a move we get some clear direction about where we're moving to, we can we will definitely be working with the funding agency moving forward way before it's time for us to come out and monitor these to ensure that we're successful. Right? Because the goal is to maintain

and sustain our communities. Organizations have to kind of be filled up to do the more administrative work.

There's no additional administrative work. Correct. Remember? Yes. So a

lot of the things that I was just saying is that a lot of these are unfunded mandates. Yeah. Yeah.

I'm not asking too, though. I do have a question for this, H, because you all are working with folks in this space and everyone on the condition of navigating just all of this year. Any insights and, again, I'm throwing this on the left foot. It's not a. Any insights in terms of what you're seeing, trends on how people are trying to navigate this while also have a fidelity to to admission and.

That is a good question. I from where I sit within CSH, I don't know if there's been enough time for us to recognize any patterns or for communities to make make attempts at maybe redirecting because the guidance right now is limited to these couple of bullets. There is no clarity to Sherry's point. Nothing no instructions have come down from HUD except for in the form of these are the new standards. And so from my seat, I think it's too early to tell what communities are doing, but it's all different. Yeah.

I think in my from where I sit on the Southeast Region, there has been a couple of things happening. So it's a whiplash effect, right, from all the things that's coming down. But in places like Florida, not here, talk to you all, but they are also battling the encampment issue. And so I think this is a compile thing. And quite honestly, I think the communities are still in whiplash mode, and they're trying to figure out if this money leaves.

But I do think it's been a call to action for what you all are doing here, which is how can we come together if this program if a EO gets signed tomorrow and they cut ESG, how are we as a community going to to be the resource and come together? So we have heard a lot community centers, and this is nothing new. Talked we've talked to the COC and you all about scenario planning and really being intentional in understanding what those programs are in your community, understanding what they do. Because, again, if that happens, you're you're really gonna have to accommodate for what the existing programs as well as still service the gap to really move the mark like you want to move. So, that, like you said, too early to tell.

A lot of the flagship right now.

And I think what we can do, sorry, is as we work, that communities are pivoting, trying out new things, maybe moving in a certain direction with something tangible, we can take a while with that and then back to this group. Yeah.

Put our name on it first.

Talk to your local jurisdictions, and talk about how to explain it together. Just like they said, talking about, you know, just kind of with the scenario of, like, what would we do if we could do what it's gonna be, who's gonna be there, who's gonna be at the table,

just wanna add a resource. So the consortium, Mary Durbanan, has done a lot of work over the past ninety to a hundred and twenty days around the battery and all the phone calls in County, Oh,

okay. I think oh, I'm sorry. I missed it. Yes, I did. So this was the as I had mentioned earlier when we were talking about the trends, this was the survey that we did.

We've done we did one in the 2025, but we did it also in late winter winter and spring. And so when we these were some of the responses that came from the agencies that will be updated. So staff salaries, operational support, training and education, emergency financial assistance, advocacy, And so that will be in that what is their. Most of the agencies, even when we did the one in the summer, it really just talked about that they had to cut the staff or certain how they provide the service.

So I know that originally it was because the vaccine had services at the total of that. But then So it's like Then part of it part of it is that I'm worried that whatever day we get at the federal level may not be

Yeah.

I just it's it's it's interesting. You talk about that, and I I can really dig the ball in both organizations. I mean, there's great great contingency plan, but those are all people who've done who've wanted to become someone else, and that's okay. You do it at mass like that. Would just hit on and this is what I was about to tell y'all at kind of the specialty I'm monitoring this.

At City, though, maybe not as much for us. But if people are not as employed just in the aggregate, so that's much funding in homes. People didn't really need that social safety net. Right. Social safety net shouldn't.

So part of me is wondering how many more people are reaching out needing that social safety net while at the same time social safety net shooting. And I I know there's really no way to prepare entirely, but somehow if we're not looking at it, it feels like we're about to hit a curve here that's entirely unexpected. And and I'm just I I got a lot of thoughts here about how to process this. And meeting other folks that are about to go to your social services and ask for food stamps and need housing assistance and need all that right at the time where this economy is not if if you like tariffs and people are gonna build more factories, it's probably still gonna be here for another however many months and years. So I I am worried about what that means for how many new folks who provide on the job in the greatest this nonprofit and public sector is shrinking at the same time that social safety measures are shrinking.

I I don't I don't I don't really have one. I don't really have a statement there for y'all, but I guess my brain is processing all this real time just to know what this means for our community. I mean, if you you wanna talk about the best way to prevent crime down the road is to make sure that people have access and opportunity. Not an investment. Yeah.

And, look, I'm not trying to can't find a job. All these things will compile, you you wanna put exclusion truly into me. So that keeps our whole community safe

and well. That that is what you're saying. It's real. Right. We are gonna be faced with this.

And your next slide kinda talks about some of this, I think. Yes. Well, I would you wanna say something? No. I know that part of what we've talked about is the only way to try to get through this curve or wall is for those to just to be creative here.

So maybe, Sherry, if you got anything else on this, you can transition us to the next discussion.

So just wanted to so everybody's whoo, breathe. That was heavy. Right? It was a lot to hold in the space, but that's the reality, and we we hear that a lot. We're we're hearing it everywhere.

And so but I think it starts with what we're doing here. So, again, you're already at the table. I think there are communities that I've been working with that are still trying to have conversations about how to get to the table. So we just have to have gratitude for where we are and and working together in this moment. With that, I think when we're talking about resources, what we started, if you remember way back when, when we started the work, we had a financial, start we did a surveying to try to understand those resources and have a a really picture great picture in Delford County of what those resources are, what program, COC, even parked outside of the COC.

So where we're in now, Naomi is going to be working with a contact. We're kind of working on this transition plan. So there is a need for the financial dashboard to be updated. We wanna talk about maintenance. What does that look like to continue surveying the community to under make sure you have the resources, accurate and the financial understandings of the community accurate?

Because there's two parts to the dashboard. There's the resource dashboard, and then there's the financial, dashboard. So, we are just in conversation now about what maintenance looks like. Naomi is actively working to update the resources. So in the next couple months, I would say we will have a bit I guess, a final product that we can discuss, you know, if and and your pleasure if you wanna discuss, what does maintenance look like, but we'll have something to transition as we continue to have the conversation about resources and scenario planning and understanding where the money is at, real time in each of these sectors.

Okay.

With that, we'll move into, the strategic planning process. CSH has been supporting the COC strategic planning committee. We are joined by Doctor. Palmer. We're joined by Sarah, who are going to co facilitate this presentation and this summary for you all with us.

And also acknowledging there are a couple of strategic planning members in the back of the room. Thank you for being here. So we will give a brief overview of how we got to this moment, and then

we'll pass it on for

the rest of the presentation. We have gone through a couple of different mechanisms to get to this point in this conversation now. We created CSH created the SWATO analysis at the very beginning of this year. We referenced that. The qualitative information that would need to forming that SWATO report, I think we talked to maybe 36 to 40 organizations both within and outside of the COC.

We referenced that report as well as the needs and gaps analysis done in 2021 by Cloud First. There is a lot of overlap between those two reports. And then we also have, over the past two years, been engaged in conversation with various POC members, POC board, executive leadership, various committees, and have compiled information themes, things that we've heard over time, leading us to this moment of supporting this USC strategic planning committee and developing their new strategic plan. What we ended up with as a committee are these six priority areas that you're seeing on the screen, and we're gonna go a little bit further into each of those. But at a high level, we have culture and communication, partnerships, funding, programs and initiatives, performance, and lastly, governance.

Doctor. Palmer, I'll pass it

to you. This is my favorite slide presentation. I was excited to see this. I'll just say that CSA put us through a, what I would say, a robust process. We had homework.

We had assignments and all those kinds of things, but I think it really did help us get to this place. So you're looking at the alignment between the homeless task force priorities and the COC priorities that emerged out of the the strategic planning process. And so you can see the the alignment with culture and communication, other partnerships as it relates to funding, programs, and initiatives. What I will say for the COC as it relates to programs and initiatives, we also had kind of two sub areas. One was housing inventory, and the other was homelessness.

You can also see the connection between performance. For the COC, there were three ways that we looked at performance. One was system performance as a whole. We talked a lot about our own performance as a COC and then also agency performance, meaning the funded agencies. One of the the priorities that's unique for the COC in comparison to the task force is governance.

We talked a whole lot about the fact that we are a volunteer led entity and that there are quite a few documents that we're expected to work within the parameters of. And so we have a priority focused on focused on governance. The methodology that you so the the very first bullet point, Maya touched on this a few minutes ago, but the consultants led us through a, I think, a really process where we had a really, really good cadence. We got we were grounded in looking at these particular items as it relates to make a set establishing a context. And so when I look at that first bullet and thinking about what we did, it was more or less a meta analysis where we referenced the SWAT o or the SWAT analysis.

We reflected back on the needs and gaps analysis. Some of us, when we reflected back on that, were reminded of all that we had to do for that. And then, also, there was feedback from the strategic planning committee as it related to what we saw in those in those documents. And so that was a pretty significant process. We also looked at the strategic plan that expired.

We looked at the one year addendum to that plan that we that the county supported us in securing. So we took a look at that. And might I add again that we also brought back to the group information on knowingly. I went back and looked at my calendar to just count how many work sessions we had. I think I stopped at about

10 or 12. There could

have been more, but we had quite a few we engaged in quite a few of those. Another part of the process that the consultants assisted us with was drafting the goals. So the way that we did that is we were assigned a priority area. We there were about two of us working on each of each of those goals or those priorities that turned into goals. The goals were then drafted.

They were brought back to the group by the consultants, and then we switched off. So if you if you engaged in creating the goal statement, then you did not, for that same goal, write and identify the action items. So it was a really good process for that. The the consultants reviewed and edited those goals, and then brought those back to us in a listening session that we had yesterday with the membership and the board, and we'll provide feedback.

Okay. So I'm gonna take it over. I'm Sarah Rothflinger. I'm the executive director for the focus. For those that don't know me, I have been involved with the COC for more years than I wanna say. I've served on the board. I'm on the board now. I've been the board chair, serving lots of committees and so and so. So, I'm happy to see us where we are now and have been working on the strategic planning committee. So I'm gonna go through the goals now.

So our goal number one, governance. Right? You have to have, good governance to move forward and really wanna focus on improving the functionality of the COC, with consistency, clarity, effectiveness, our governance charter. You know, we talk about meetings. We gotta update that.

Oh, this isn't the life of that, and really making sure that all the MOUs that we have, the written standards, our governance charter all kind of align, and we're really following that throughout our meetings. There's a lot of big decisions that are made at the CSC. It affects funding organizations, folks in our community, the most vulnerable. And so we need to make sure that we are, following all of all of the things we're supposed to. And at any point, if you guys have any questions about any of these goals or want more detail, then please feel free to interact with me.

That's totally fine. Our next goal well, I wanna say something else about governance too. Part of that goal is also helping our CSC membership really educate them about what's going on, barriers in our community, gaps in services, kind of data, and things like that. So that's that'll be part of that goal as well. Next is partnerships.

So enhancing our partnerships in the community. A lot of the organizations that are part of the COC have really great partnerships. The COC does as well. We wanna leverage those existing partnerships and bring more people to the table. So our business community, the religious faith based community, and those that are maybe in other silos doing this work and coming together, we are all so passionate about serving this population and really coming together and seeing how that we can make our work stronger and and improve the functionality of the CSC and, decrease the.

The next is our performance. So improving system performance, CSC performance through data quality, again, leveraging partnerships, and successfully moving individuals and families into housing and having some specific metrics for that, even if there's a goal that we have that is maybe a little high and maybe hard for us to meet, but we need to identify why can we not meet that goal? Because this is a standard across communities. And is there something going on in our community? Is it that the folks in our community who are working can't get a lease because of income, because there aren't enough jobs at the levels that folks can afford rent, or is it because we don't have enough affordable housing for?

You know, why are our our organizations are doing this work and and hitting the ground running that, okay. I've got these clients. I've got the money to house them, and and what's going on? So really trying to identify where those gaps are and having that good quality data so that at any point, if one of you wanna know what's going on, where are we seeing, what are our numbers like, that we can pull up the HMIS system or pull up the binding list and and give some a good look at what's going on in our community right now and how to support our nonprofit organizations, especially some of our smaller organizations who really have a hard time with data entry in that capacity because it does work. You know, when you're working with someone in crisis and sitting down, hang on.

I've gotta enter, you know, enter all this data so we make sure we have it. There's that balancing act. So how can we as a COC help support those agencies that struggle with that so far if he does have that data?

And, of

course, the, some of the metrics I'll mention, how seventy five percent of all individuals and families on the binding less than ninety days for rapid rehousing is 75. So, metrics like that that are are hard to meet. And then, of course, decreasing the individual and family recidivism rate and to an inclusive of 550% are some of the metrics that we'll meet at. Next, culture and communication. So and and this is something that has, you know, I'll say it has needs needs improvement throughout the CSC over the past few years, and I feel like we're we're improving and trying to find ways to do that.

But how can we as an organization or or a group or a body be transparent with what's happening again and bring the culture of really engaging those with lived experience into meetings and decision making? Because, you know, we talk a big game, and we try to do that, but I don't think we're good at it. Maybe certain pockets of organizations, but as a COC, it's definitely a weakness for us there. And, you know, just having engagement from our membership that that you wanna go to the. Because I know, and, honestly, I felt that too, sometimes threading the meetings because things are coming up or, you know, you're gonna rub someone the wrong way or there's disagreement because we're all passionate about this.

We all have very strong views about how things should be done. But, one, make it a community that comes together that's stronger and not conflicting with each other is really important. Next, goal five, programs and initiatives. So reduce instances of homelessness by coordinating data driven person centered programs and initiatives that promote housing stability and equal access to resources. So really thinking through, you know, where are the gaps? Where do we need more services? You know, we'll talk some about suite outreach. That is somewhere in our, you know, in our community. We don't have a lot of services for it. So trying to figure out how to make this program stronger, where can we build capacity, where is there a need, and and and focusing on reducing homelessness.

Next, funding. Implementing some fund development fundraising strategies to increase avail available funding to reduce the instances of homelessness. And that kinda goes back to how do we leverage those partnerships, and how do we bring opportunities to the table? When we can come together and maybe find a resource and work together on something, we may be able to find a better solution than maybe just an individual agency on our end. So how can the CFC you know, it's always looking for more money because all of these all of these services, they're not cheap or you know? But we're doing the best that we can with what we have, but

bringing more

resources to the table to meet all of the needs. And we know that you know, we just talked about all of the changes, and I know that we're kind of all in the edge of our seats waiting for some funding decisions, how's the Medicaid sector? How is this gonna affect the folks in our community? Is there gonna be a crisis? How can we prepare for that? How can we be ready when when those things do drop? And I don't know that the sky is hot right now, but, like, it might be. I don't know. So, you know, being ready for that and and and supporting our community or our agencies. Any questions about any of those strategies?

We have certain actions under each item. We didn't provide that in-depth plan to you all today, but we definitely do a timeline for trying to meet the goals and who's responsible. Person meeting. And so, I know that it was sent out by CSH today to, some of our CSC members to be able to give some written feedback if they weren't able to be at the meeting or some things that they thought about after the meeting. And we hope to present that to the CDC board of membership in September.

Okay. Just wrapping this up. So, again, I think, Mayor Difference, it always says working upstream is, you know, is long work. So I just wanna acknowledge that what we've been doing. There's been a lot of collaboration and readiness work.

So, you know, what we've been doing, this task force is continuing to do best practices and providing case examples to strengthening systems and understanding. Guilford County has, currently Guilford County is the lead applicant, the the lead the CA, as we call it, and they coordinate or COC system. NC five zero 4, which is your COC here, is currently drafting the strategic strategic plan, and the priorities align with the jurisdictional strategic priorities from the SWATO. The county officials recently approved additional staffing to ensure the, implementation and maintenance maintenance of strategic priorities between the COC and task force. So, again, building the capacity for that collaboration ongoing.

And then lastly, the COC is working in part we'll we'll work in partnership with task force in leading priority areas.

Is is there anything else coming through in terms of questions, discussion, or anything? I said a big thank you to everyone for being a part of today. We appreciate you, Doctor. Foam, and being back. Somehow, I you were chair. I thought when we started all this. And so when I saw you again, it just felt right. I'm I'm recognizing that you were back. I just thought you had never left us. And so thank you for coming back.

Hope everyone on the team, not sure if they'll have a chance to speak with you. Did you have anything to add to the discussion I made? No. Just that the the more, you know, I think, rapid response community, so, like, childhood for instance, they are moving to solely Alright. If if there's nothing else, we'll need to go ahead stay on this adjourned.

Thank you all so much.