Homeless Trust Board - Regular Meeting

I got the peanut gallery out here. I got my son here. I got to make it seem official. Can I get a motion on the minutes, please? Got a motion, got a second. Any comments, questions, or changes? Scrivener, errors. Seeing none, all in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion's adopted. Reasonable opportunity to be heard the floor is open anybody wishing to be heard on any item on the agenda Can be heard at the present time Anybody wishing to be heard? Yes, ma'am.

But look, at the end of the day, There's never for women Thank you so much Anybody else? So, at the start of every meeting, we always start with minutes, we always start with . And then what we do occasionally are . Thank you. My voice is so loud, I just figured everybody could hear. And the peanut gallery over here on the left, who I tell all the time to bring it down just a bit, played right to it. But we do something called Good of the Order where we recognize folks that have been with us for a long time. We recognize people who really make a difference in our community and the work that th

Thank you. Thank you. OK, Rosetta, you're on. And for two seconds worth, I don't know that anybody's ever taken the time to explain to you all the significance of the Galaxies. The uniqueness of the food and beverage tax is we get to move the money where the need is greatest. We get a HUD grant. We need it. We get a state grant, we need it. We get a legislative grant, we need it. But it always comes with strings. You gotta spend it here, you gotta spend it there, you gotta do it this way. The uniqueness of what it is and the resources you provide allow us to do what needs to be done to really

It lets us stop what we're doing, like I did downstairs, and addressing High Life Acts concerns. Thank you.

Thank you. You see, if I shout out, the chairman has a favorite word, everybody in this room is gonna shout out Free. And then if I follow it by he has a favorite phrase, they will all shout out, yes, he's cheap and frugal by due to the taxpayer's money. You provide that for us. Thank you. All right. We are on to business. Ms. Millett, you are recognized on 4B, Continuum of Care Request for Applications. Please.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So US HUD came out with its annual competition, the Continuum of Care Program Competition. They released the NOFO, as it's known as, on June 1. We issued a local RFA as the collaborative applicant. We will seek proposals from the community and then come back to this body for approval or disapproval of our recommendations. This NOFO marks a dramatic shift from permanent housing to transitional housing and support service only programs. HUD has outlined the following goals, improving outcomes, improving innovation and accountability, restoring balance to the COC, i.e., the

Got a motion by Judge Lightman, got a second by Carlos. Are there questions or comments? This is an after the fact ratification. Are there questions? Are there comments? Ms. Millett, just simply for the record, you mentioned litigation. That litigation did not initiate in this community, correct?

That was a yes, that was a no, that was a two-sided answer. The answer to the question is the chair never asks questions he doesn't know the answer to. The answer is the litigation did not initiate in Miami-Dade County and the trust is not a plaintiff in the lawsuit. And it was simply an identification that there is litigation pending somewhere in the United States, not in our community, challenging the no-fault. With that explanation, any questions or comments? Seeing none, all in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion is adopted. We are on to numbers to 4C. Car 4 needs to leave if

Thank you, Mr chair. So, in for the fiscal year 2024, nofo, it was intended to be a 2 year competition to cover 24 and 25 and allow to plan amend systems, et cetera. The 24 grants have passed. and the 2025 grants need to go into effect there was litigation with the 25 nofo hud ended up issuing a nofo even though it was supposed to be a two-year cycle we went through that process this body approved recommendations The litigation continued, and HUD said on May 21st, we're just going to renew all grants in the portfolio. This includes the Youth Homeless Demonstration Program grants for us. This i

I also want to mention Commissioner Bastian as this is a time-sensitive item has agreed to be the prime sponsor of this item before the Board of County Committee a motion to adopt please got a motion by Judge Lightman got a second by Esther questions comments questions comments See none all in favor signify by saying I saw your lips moving Esther All in favor signify by saying aye Opposed motion is adopted. We're on to 4D please

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So as this body knows, we received a planning grant in the amount of $325,000 to begin to rethink our homeless prevention system. We are doing this in partnership with a randomized control trial operated by University of Notre Dame, Right at Home, Destination Home. This is a national initiative with only a select few number of communities selected to participate.

10, but I think they've added 1 or 2 more since so it's very exclusive. So. The assistant director and I, Manny went to a conference in San Jose earlier this month, not a conference at convening of the right at home partners. And we were notified that we will receive 7M dollars over the course of 3 years. to implement this targeted homeless prevention initiative this body has not yet seen the budget but we are also putting some recommending some local food and beverage dollars a million a year for three years so we can do this randomized control trial study the outcomes in a in a very comprehe

Motion, please. Got a motion, got a second, got a third and a fourth. Floor is open for questions or comments. I just simply want to reiterate to everybody, you've heard my excitement since we first got the initial reach out that we were going to be included in the right at home opportunity. I remind each of you and those that may have missed a meeting or two that this fits right into where we are. We are the poster child for what these folks are doing. This is about how we prevent homelessness from growing once we solve the problem. This is about how you find it, meet it at its location, and

Thank you, Mr. Chair. In the prior item, I forgot to recognize Dolores Holly with Housing and Community Development. She put us on to right at home. She was at a conference, paid for by herself, heard about the initiative, said, I have a continuum for you. So I appreciate her putting this. Thank you for doing that.

I did as well. Moving on. And before you go, Chief, it's really an example of of an employee who works in the county who had no obligation, no responsibility to advance us and did it. So when, when you all on the 29th floor do employee or violent, you know, employee recognitions, I would certainly from the chair like to recognize her. If there's any opportunity in your office to recognize her, I would simply encourage it. So Vicki, go ahead please.

I would also like to recognize Chief Burgos and Judge Leifman for the monumental task of having our Board of County Commissioners unanimously approve with Chairman Rodriguez's leadership the funding needed to open the Mental Health Center. As you know, we had a $1.1 million prior commitment approved by this board in the center. There were some challenges in moving the item forward. The administration came back to us.

Would you remind the board what the 1.1 was to go for, please?

So we talked about a service layer. We also had a conversation earlier in the week. It may offset the cost of a couple of crisis stable, crisis stable utilization beds, but there's more conversation to come. So we will have conversations. We want to be able to make sure that we can tie the activity back to food and beverage funds so we do not violate the statute in any way. Thank you, Mr. Chair. So the administration came back to us when there were some challenges in moving the item forward and said, can we further leverage food and beverage funds for the benefit of homeless and people being d

Need a motion? Got a motion. Got a second. Carlos, you're recognized. Okay. So got a motion, got a second. Judge, you're recognized.

FIRST OF ALL, I WANT TO THANK OUR CHAIR'S INCREDIBLE LEADERSHIP AND EFFORTS TO HELP MAKE THIS HAPPEN AS WELL, AS WELL AS OUR EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, MS. MELETTE, AND THE INCREDIBLE COLLABORATION FROM MANY OF THESE PEOPLE, INCLUDING JACKSON AND THE MAYOR AND MY DEAR FRIEND TO MY LEFT. IT REALLY, TRULY HAS BEEN AN AMAZING COLLABORATION IN 22 YEARS. Regarding the collection of data, just so you know, and we can work with this, we already have funding through a grant and we've already contracted with the population health department at the University of Miami. And they will be collecting significant d

Mr. Chair, one more comment. You're recognized, Your Honor. I don't want to lose sight of the most important part of this. It truly will help us fundamentally address the last group of people on our street that we have not been able to help. Um, we receive the court receives a list every single day of individuals with serious mental illnesses who are arrested, who are eligible to be diverted into treatment. And over the last five years, there's about 16,000 of those individuals, but narrowing them down to the top 1000. We sent them to Vicki, and of course she did an amazing job and compared th

Your Honor, thank you. I'm proud to call you my friend. I'm proud to call you my partner. You know, it's interesting. because by the look around the room, there are only two of us here that were here when Charlie Crist signed that thing and converted it from a fee simple interest to a dollar a year deal. You will remember I was somewhat on point on that, and here we are almost, not quite 20 years later, but pretty damn close. I think we're butting up on 18, so thank you for your leadership. I'm remiss, Judge, if I don't recognize Scott Hansel and the Chapman board in particular. When we were r

You got that right. Hear, hear. See no further comments or questions. All in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion is adopted. On with the next item is 4F, which is the Camillus House restructuring. You're recognized, Vicki.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. On May 24th, we received a letter from Camillus House expressing some financial challenges. and seeking to return contracts to the homeless trust effective July 1. we have been working with them very closely to find a way forward with this little impact to households in the continuum as possible and I I'm going to walk you through a couple of those changes The trust owns property in Homestead on the Air Reserve Base. There are three projects on that property, St. Michael's, Mother Seton, and Verde Gardens, all three of which are operated by Camilla's House. St. Michael's

Give me one second, please. Biggie. I need a motion to adopt first.

But let us get to the proper posture. I will give you that opportunity. I need a motion. I got a motion. Do I have a second? I got a motion and a second and a third. Carlos, you're recognized. And I'm going to... I want to pause for one second before you do. If there are questions for Mr. Gloria, we will recognize... him to answer any questions if you have any. I am not necessarily encouraging him. I just want you to be aware that Mr. Gloria is in the room. Also, Scott Hansel is in the room on the Chapman side if there are any particular targeted questions to them. And Carlos, before you speak

To Vicki and Shannon, not to me, if that's okay. And I don't want anybody to think that was adversarial. That is our effort to always protect on the conflict side. We have providers on our board. We dismiss you from the room for a reason, and we side on the side of caution, and I completely defer to our lawyer. I try not to play lawyer on this. So with that, Scott, if you want to go and get whatever Carlos's question is, I would recognize you as a non-member of the board from the out of order, even though we're beyond reasonable opportunity to be heard, I would recognize you from the podium if

And look, you know, we've been in business 35 years, folks. Every now and then over the 35-year history, we've had a provider that had challenges. Camillus' challenges are unique to them at the present time. They have been extended. It's unproductive to be critical, as it would have been on any other provider along the way over the 35 years that may have had some struggles. We're working through it. I assure you that this memo, the substance of the memo, the components of the memo, have eaten up an inordinate amount of Vickie's and our team's time over the last six months. I think we're gettin

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So we have just begun receiving deeper documentation to better understand the financial picture of the organization. We expect additional documentation today, and we have every intent of reaching out to the office, the auditors here in the county, to take a closer look at the documentation we are provided once it's in the door.

Scott, to further respond to Carlos' question, I remind everybody we're a 27-person community, diverse board, diverse in every aspect of what our community looks like, both from an ethnic, from a professional, from every aspect of what the community should want in a balanced board. We got a banker on the board for a reason. He's excused from the room, doesn't mean we should dismiss a concern he has. If Ms. Millett and our team, Maria, Vicki, Manny, Terrell, believe we need a third party audit, an outside audit beyond what is being reviewed by Vicki, our team, and the county's audit team, we wi

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm sure you'll be able to provide much more color commentary than I will on this item. It was a harried session, but they got to a budget for 2627 and we did well, we have a 1M dollars to continue our acquisition and renovation efforts for disabled adults and seniors experiencing homelessness. A property has not yet been identified. We were awarded 275 dollars. thousand dollars thousand dollars for bridge for bridge housing and services this is a project that's currently ongoing at the salvation army specialized outreach funding an amount of ninety thousand dollars we di

Okay, so this is a unique motion. This is because the governor has not acted on the budget yet. The governor will not act on the budget until probably Monday. I know a lot of people think he's acting today. He is not. So this is a, what I would almost consider to be a pre-approval, if you will, motion of an item to be awarded. The chair is comfortable enough that these amounts will be approved by the governor. I've had direct conversations with the governor and his staff multiple times as recently as yesterday afternoon with a direct conversation with the chief executive officer of the state d

Yes. Extreme heat is underway. Uh, we have protocols and policy approved by this board for when he takes effect. Our first heat advisory was on June 19th and we've had probably six, seven, eight days of heat since then, where the heat index is 105 for two or more hours. And in some cases, 110 for two or more hours. We've received very generous donations of water from Valamo and No Days Off. I know 7-Eleven is also preparing to send us water. We're grateful for those. We provide those supplies together with supplies provided to us by Derm, which include cooling towels, electrolytes, sunscreen.

Very good. On to system performance measures, please.

Mr. Chair, I'm going to give it to Mr. Soraya.

You are recognized. Good morning. Good morning.

All right, questions or comments? You're welcome. Please, microphone.

Do you recognize, Judge? I just want to add that the facility is also something to write up about as an example of where we're going, and that will be a major attempt to get this number down significantly. So I think it's just another area that helps us going forward.

Very good. See no further questions. We'll move on. Point in time, please.

Mr. Chair, we've shared with the board the unsheltered numbers, but have not shared the total homeless numbers, both sheltered and unsheltered. So we did see in the January count an increase of 33 people or 1% in total homelessness. But as you know, in unsheltered homelessness, we reported this before, we saw a 38% increase. And in sheltered settings and other temporary settings, we saw a decrease of 293 individuals. So our net is 1%. Obviously, unsheltered is an emphasis of ours. Um, we do not think there's been a tremendous surge as we said before in unsheltered homelessness. We think the st

Okay. Any questions of Ms. Malak? What's the date of the pit count, please?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. August 27th is our summer census.

I want to make sure everybody has it on their calendars. Okay, next item, family with minors. Please, the report.

This is good news, Mr. Chair. Finally. I'm glad to talk about this. So when we received the Bezos $5 million grant, we decided to rethink how we deal with family homelessness. And we work with our private sector partner, Chapman Partnership, and we sort of made them point on all families entering the system. so that they could do an assessment on families, try to divert or prevent homelessness whenever possible. They're also working closely with Hermanos de la Calle, who's done tremendous work on families. So we took a look at... You can see on the back page of the item how we're doing. The to

This item was deferred from the last meeting, Mr. Chair. These are just reports on three cold weather activities. I won't go into them in detail since we are now in heat season.

Good. Questions for Ms. Maslow? Well, no questions, full complete, all answers, who, what, where, when, how, and why. Thank you. See you Tuesday. You got that right. Thank you. We have Tavaye, the better part of the dynamic duo. Come on up, Chapman.

Thank you. Questions and comments. I must tell you all the jobs program stuff that they're developing is really a big deal and has become a difference maker. It started with the underlying and they're just growing it dramatically. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Next item is our executive director's report and the economic indicator.

Thank you, Ms. Chair. On the economic indicator, national unemployment is at 4.3%, state unemployment at 4.8%, and locally 3.1%. Department of Labor reports in Miami-Dade 44,689 people out of work. The homeless helpline in the months of March and April received more than 11,000 calls. 5,500 of those were for persons at risk of homelessness and 2,700 people homeless in Miami-Dade County. And now I'll move on to the executive director's report. Thank you, Lisa. Please join us if you can, board, when we have our Hideaway Bay event. Our summer census, as I said, is on the 27th. We did host tours f

Guys, we got to finish, please. Are you done? Okay. Other comments or questions? Did I hear you give them the percentage increase month over month in the indicator report? Because I don't think I did. The percentage increase month over month on money?

You are correct, Mr. Chairman. I know how you like to hear this. Month over month for May, up 15.62%. Collections for May were 4.3. To date, collections, 33.1 million. Any other questions? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you for that correction. Thank you. I was making sure. Well, you think I don't listen? I thought you were testing me. Oh, no.

Thank you so much. I did hear about that incident and I, I appreciate all that was done by the commissioner as well as the outreach teams. And I believe, uh, building management though. Thank you, Mr. Chair, man, you are.

Thank you. Um, I'm sure you're aware of it just in case you're not Vicky. City of Miami has been piloting a co-responder. The City of Miami has been using, has been piloting this co-responder team, which is made up of a police CIT crisis intervention team officer, a psychologist, and a peer. And they're doing an amazing job. And when you have cases involving people that are more acute, they send this entire team out, and I don't know if we're coordinating with them because they're almost all homeless, and I want to make sure that they have access to what we have and vice versa.

Other questions or comments? Seeing none, the meeting is adjourned. Minutes, we're done? We're done first before I did reasonable opportunity to be heard, Maggie. I wouldn't let you down.