Board of Commissioners - Regular Meeting

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Bye. Bye. you 🎵 🎵 Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. . . . . . Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone.

Good afternoon, and welcome to the Budget Committee of the Whole. Today's focus will be on community services and support. On August the 25th, County Manager Lene Becker provided an overview of the proposed supplemental budget. Today, the community services and support service team kicks off a series of presentations that focus on performance measures for each department. The county performance measure process helps the county improve accountability to our community, understand the impact of budget investments, make data-informed decisions, and identify opportunities for improvement. Performance measures are already available for review online. in an open performance section of the county's open data portal. If you want more information about the performance measures presented today, check out the community service and support department dashboard, which have additional charts and background information. And so with that, I'll hand it over to Deputy County Manager Karen Francois to start our community services and support presentations.

Thank you, Chair. Good afternoon, Madam Chair, Commissioners, County Manager Becker, those of you here in chambers, and those of you joining and watching remotely. Before we begin the Community Services and Supports Department presentation, I want to just take a few minutes to put today's discussion about performance into the larger context of the budget County Manager Becker presented on Tuesday. You heard her say on Tuesday, you heard her talk about the significant fiscal pressures ahead of us. HR 1 is one of the most significant. It fundamentally shifts costs and responsibilities from the federal government to states and counties, particularly in programs like SNAP and Medicaid that serve some of our most vulnerable residents. For Ramsey County, that means additional staffing and administrative costs. potential new responsibility for a share of the actual SNAP benefit costs, and more complexity in determining and maintaining eligibility. And those impacts are just financial. Changes in eligibility and program requirements will affect residents directly, while also increasing the workload and operational demands on the staff who serve them. H.R. 1 is not the only pressure. We are also facing unfunded and underfunded mandates, increasing costs for state-mandated services, and other pressures that will continue into 28 and 29. As County Manager Becker said on Tuesday, the choices ahead will be more difficult and the tradeoffs more significant. That makes the conversation that we're having here today about performance even more important. Performance measures aren't simply numbers that we collect and report to the board. They help us to answer some pretty basic questions. Are residents getting the services they need? Are we getting the results we intended? Where are people waiting too long? Where are we seeing disparities? What can we do differently? And what are we getting the greatest possible value from the resources entrusted to us? Those questions matter in any budget environment, but they matter even more in the one we're in and the one we're entering. As we make difficult choices, we need to know what's working so we can protect it. We need to know what isn't working as well as it should so we can change it. And before our answer is simply to add more resources, we need to understand whether there are better ways to organize the work, simplify a process, use technology, eliminate duplication, or work differently across departments. And that's operational excellence. A good performance information helps us get there. We're already seeing what that looks like in practice. The work departments have been doing to improve service delivery, to reduce wait times, address backlogs, better coordinate services, and understand residents' experiences is also building our capacity to respond when circumstances change quickly. We've seen that very clearly in our recent work supporting residents affected by encampment closures. County teams have had to work across traditional departmental lines and bring financial assistance, housing, public health, social services, and other supports directly to residents. We've had to pay attention to what residents need, what is working, where are the gaps, and to be able to adjust quickly. That kind of response doesn't happen because of a single program or a single department. It happens because we have been building a stronger culture around outcomes, continuous improvement, and resident-centered service. There is also an important fiscal side to this. Performance measurement cannot simply be a tool for identifying where to reduce spending. It also needs to help us identify what we should protect. If an investment is producing meaningful results for residents, we should know that. If changing a process is saving time or reducing cost, we should know that too. And if something isn't producing the outcomes we expected, we need to be willing to ask why and what we should do differently. That is how performance information becomes useful for budget, budgeting, and decision making. So as you hear from our departments today, I would encourage us to listen for more than whether a particular measure went up or down. Listen for the story behind the measure. What changed for residents? What did we learn? What are we doing differently because of what the data tells us? And what does that mean for where we put our resources going forward? Because ultimately, that's the purpose of this work. As County Manager Becker noted on Tuesday, performance will help inform the next budget cycle and future decisions. Given the choices ahead of us, that connection between resources, performance, and results is going to become increasingly important. And I want to thank the board. Thank you very much for continuing to ask these questions and supporting this work. I also want to thank our department directors, and their teams, and our admin director, and our controller, and the Office of the Chief of Staff, as well as Central Finance, the executive team, and County Manager Becker. It takes real work to develop meaningful measures, examine your own results, and then use what you've learned to improve. The fiscal challenges ahead are significant. But if we stay focused on what works, remain willing to change what doesn't, and keep residents at the center of those decisions, we'll be in a much stronger position to make the difficult choices ahead. And with that, I will turn it over to our departments to make their presentations. Thank you.

Thank you. So we will invite Director Wilkins up to the stage.

Welcome. Hi, good afternoon. Thank you very much. I get to kick it off for the team. So the good news about going first is I get to set the bar. The bad news is I get to set the bar. Good afternoon, Chair, Commissioners, County Manager, and members of the public. Thank you for the opportunity to be before you today. Before I begin, I want to recognize County Manager Becker, Deputy County Manager Francois, our Administrative Director Dave Zafran, the Housing Stability Department, and for the Holsey Community Supports and Services Team for their support, feedback, and partnership in today's presentation. I also want to recognize our county partners, our community providers, and the residents who trust us to support them during these difficult moments in their lives. The results I'm sharing today reflect their work and their partnership and as well as their experiences. On any given night in Ramsey County, hundreds of people are experiencing homelessness or without a place to call home. But our work does not begin when somebody enters shelter. For many residents, homelessness begins with a housing crisis much earlier. A rent increase, a lost income, an unexpected expense like a medical bill or a car repair, or simply income that has not kept pace with the rising cost of housing that we're seeing today. That is important context for the important performance measures I'm going to share with you today. I think it's important to mention that Housing Stability Department was raised up on its own legs as a standalone department in 2020 during COVID. It was a time when Ramsey County and communities across the country were responding to an unprecedented time and emergency of homelessness crisis in our nation. The department was created at a time when homelessness response looked very different than it does today. It had significant emergency shelter and prevention funding at that time for that moment. The funding rules were also flexible and allowed more flexibility during that time. And there were a lot of endless emergency resources that were deployed and not necessarily built for sustainability. So now several years later and with new leadership, we are in a place where we have an opportunity to step back and look at our system and redesign it and look at it more intentionally. So when we talk about performance, I do want us to only ask, how many people did we serve? I want us to ask, are residents becoming more stable because of our work and our investments? And when someone does experience homelessness, how quickly and equitably are we helping them to return to housing and housing stability? I get to do my own slides. OK. All right. What do we do? Housing stability, I already kind of gave you the breast of how we stood up. It's a role that is larger than administrating individual programs. We help lead, coordinate and fund and improve Ramsey County's broader homelessness response. That includes working across county departments with the community providers to connect residents with the right housing resources and support. Housing Stability Department also serves as a lead agency for Heading Home Ramsey. That's Ramsey County's continuum of care. I want to distinguish the two. Housing Stability Department is the county department, while Heading Home Ramsey is the broader community collaborative. Our role is to help coordinate that work, but not do it alone. The links on the slide provide more information about both Housing Stability Department as well as Heading Home Ramsey in case you need to learn more in how those departments work together. The three measures that we selected look at different points in our housing stability system. The eviction prevention measure are asking whether we are keeping residents housed before homelessness occurs. The bundling measure looks at how effectively we coordinate our financial resources when a resident is experiencing a housing crisis. And the coordinated entry measure looks at how long single adults who are already experiencing homelessness remain on the priority list before connecting them to a housing opportunity. Together, these measures tell us more than the number of services we provide. They begin to tell us whether residents are becoming more stable, whether county investments are producing the outcomes we intended, and where the system still needs to improve. The measures I am presenting today are the same measures that you'll see reflected on the county's open data portal. My goal today is to add context about what the numbers mean for residents, what affects the results, and how we are using this information to improve the overall system. No three measures can tell the entire complexity of housing stability story. I want us to think about these as connected indicators of the larger system, but not as isolated numbers or systems. The first measure that we're going to look at is the average number of days single adults spend on the coordinated entry priority list. The reason we picked single adults is because that is a measure that we can track internally. One thing about the coordinated entry system that is unique in Ramsey County is that we have four entry points to that system. We have a family side, a youth side, people experiencing domestic violence, and single adults. Single adults' priority list is maintained by Ramsey County internally, and it's a good measure for us to take a look at. We connected this measure to racial and health equity and shared community power because race and ethnicity should not predict how long someone experiences homelessness. It also requires us to listen to residents, respect resident choice, and include people with lived experience as we redesign and look at coordinated entry. I want to be careful here because coordinated entry can be difficult to explain. The priority list is not a traditional first-come, first-served waiting list. People are not simply given a number and are waiting for their turn. Housing referrals depend on eligibility, prioritization, household need, the type of housing intervention that you require, available program openings, documentation, as well as resident choice. But that complexity does not mean the amount of time someone spends on the list does not matter. If someone spends hundreds of days on the priority list, those are not just days in a database. Those can be days in shelter. Those can be days outside. Those can be days doubled up or moving back and forth between temporary situations. And those are days that someone is experiencing homelessness. This data shows meaningful improvement in the overall average. At the same time, this number does not tell the whole story. Housing availability and system capacity have a significant effect on how quickly someone can move on the next phase or into housing. We also need to look underneath the overall average. Wait times remain different across race and ethnic groups. An overall improvement is not enough if these disparities remain.

Director Wilkins, a really quick question around the 2030 goal, which is, he said, it's 180 days for all. What do you mean by that? It's on the side, the sidebar, under key context.

Oh, Commissioner Moran, if you give me a moment as I walk through this, I will get to the number of what they mean, if you can remember your question so I don't lose it. Success means both shorter and more equitable wait times. Our 2030 goal is to reduce the average to 180 days for all residents while closing disparities in access and outcomes. So that was meaning that, as you can see, in 2030, we are trying to save overall that everybody on the list has a weight of 180 days or less to their next phase. So that's our anticipation that we would like to see in 2030. What is it now? Right now, in 2025, the average wait is 881 days. OK. I look forward to the plan. We currently have race and ethnicity data connected to the coordinated entry measure. For our prevention measures, we are also examining what demographic and geographic information is available so that we can better understand who is receiving this assistance, who is not, and whether any disparities remain. Our goal is not simply to manage the list better. It's to shorten the path to housing and make the list shorter. Moving on to our second measure, which is evictions prevented in eviction court. This is very specific to eviction court and not prevention in general overall. There's two different distinctions there. These are a measure we've connected to the resident-centered holistic support because preventing an eviction is about more than paying rent. It can protect a resident's employment, a child's education, access to health care, transportation, and the household's overall stability. We also know that if you are housed, it's important to keep you in that house because we have a vacancy rate of less than 2.5% here in Ramsey County. And so we want to keep people stably housed when we can. It is our goal to make homelessness rare. This is where that work really begins. Every eviction we successfully prevent represents a household that may never need to enter the homelessness response system at all. And that means shorter days. That means avoiding shelter. And that means eviction stopping before they even enter. Eviction can disrupt employment, school, transportation, credit, future housing opportunities, and a household's connection to their own community. Housing court intervention gives us an opportunity to resolve that crisis before it becomes larger and more expensive. Beginning in 2027, Ramsey County is making a significant investment of an additional $2 million of their LAHA funding to expand eviction prevention and housing support. This investment creates an opportunity and a responsibility to keep strengthening how we measure results. We should not only ask how many evictions we prevented, we should also ask whether those residents remain stably housed beyond their immediate housing crisis intervention. So we're trying to look at data at three months, six months, nine months, and 12 months to ensure that the household stayed housed, as well as give light touch case management to make sure that if they enter into another crisis, they're not coming back to us for additional support. This is where quality matters and why walking along the families really are helpful. Previous data shows us if we do emergency assistance, usually that's an emergency assistance. They receive rental help, but they don't receive any case management budgeting skills to prevent that crisis from happening again. This additional investment, the connections to community partners that operate the eviction court and prevention dollars have the capacities to provide that light touch case management that families need to make sure that prevention is sustainable.

OK, we have a question. Director Wilkins. Yeah, sorry.

Hello, hi. Hi. So we're kind of digesting in real time, but my question for you is, and perhaps I know we're in the performance indicators, but you said there's an additional $2 million that is going towards eviction prevention?

Going into fund eviction court. Eviction court. An extension for 26, 27 of the LAHA dollars investment. They're also, that is not mentioned as when we were talking about these, as many know that there is an additional five million investment from FHPAP funding, which I will get to in the next slide when we're talking about bundling of cases. but that's an additional resource, and that is not limited to eviction court. That's prevention overall.

So can I ask just a point of organization? Not reviewing the packet ahead of time. I want to make sure I'm asking my questions in the right order. I know we're having performance measures, but will there be discussion on specifics of the budget that interact with this in the slides, or do we just ask them as we go along?

The latter.

OK, so on our budget packet, when I'm looking at housing stability services, it looks like we go from $13 million in fiscal year 25 to the approved budget in fiscal year 26 at $16 million. And then the 27 approved budget goes down to $12 million. So is the $2 million from the LAHA funds additional dollars from a different? Are they not going? I'm just trying to square the numbers here with what she's saying.

I can direct it to some of our fiscal team. But the LAHA funds are there over a three-year period, if that makes sense. there's some accounting that we have to do into what year we sort of receive them versus when they have to be spent, if that makes sense. So I'm not sure exactly how it's showing up in terms of the distribution in the budget document. So we can either follow up or somebody else, or maybe, I don't know, Kelsey, if you can say something.

Yeah, we can follow up on the exact distribution of like, there's kind of multiple changes that are going to be happening at the same time. So we can kind of get that breakdown for you.

OK, and that's great. And I think some of that's helpful because, As folks who may be watching these presentations and seeing some of the documents, when you look at the high-level accounting of $1 amount for a whole department, it goes up and down, and it can be confusing to follow along. So just knowing that that information is in the budget, it's in the website, and we can do the digging and make sure we get that information.

Okay, thank you. Thank you.

I will mention in the last one, evictions prevention for court, you will see the increase up to 1,900 cases that is due to the increase in funding. Then we'll be able to serve more cases in eviction court. The third measure is the number of FHPAP, which is Family Homelessness Prevention Assistance Program, a state-funded program. These cases are really looking at bundled cases, where we're looking at emergency assistance, emergency general assistance, or other diversion resources. We connected this measure to operational excellence because it really shows how well our funding sources, our staff, and our community partners are working together While working together, the goal is to maximize our available resources, reduce duplication, use staff time effectively, and make the process easier for residents. Bundling happens when one funding source is not enough to resolve a household's housing crisis. Staff and providers combine eligible resources to close gaps and help the household remain housed. There are two sides of this measure, however, that I think are important to look at. On one hand, the increase shows that we are getting better at leveraging our available resources. The increased FHPAP and local affordable housing aid, aka LAHA funding, along with stronger coordination with our community partners, has allowed us to combine resources when one program cannot meet the full need and to help more residents remain housed. That is important because it maximizes grants and county resources, it strengthens partnerships, and creates more opportunities to resolve a crisis before it leads to homelessness. But more bundling does not automatically mean better performance. The increase also tells us that it's taking more money to resolve evictions or housing crisis. Also, there's larger rent and larger arrears that we are seeing. Our utilities and housing-related costs have increased. And one program's maximum benefit is not enough to longer close that gap. It also tells us something about scarcity. Even when we combine our programs, there are not always enough resources to meet every household's need. Bundling helps us stretch our available dollars, but it doesn't create unlimited funding. When several resources contribute to one case, fewer dollars may remain for the next household that is seeking help. There is also a significant staff capacity component behind the scenes when you're coordinating two or three funding sources. It can require multiple eligibility reviews, different documentation approvals, landlord communications, coordination between county staff and all of the providers, and careful tracking to ensure that each funding source is used correctly and adequately and equitably. This can also place pressure on individual agencies. A provider may need to hold a case open, coordinate with several organizations, help the residents gather their documentation, just to cover the gap with the flexible resources. But the coordination can produce a better outcome. But it does take real staff time and organizational capacity. So the benefits are clear. We are leveraging more resources. We're closing larger gaps. And we're helping more residents remain housed. The challenges are also clear that we need one system to sort of help us coordinate the bundling of these services. So there's less burden on staff. It's not just simply to bundle more but our goal is to coordinate our resources behind the scenes and also create a one-door approach for families So they're not going to several Organizations are the county to tell their prevention story over and over again that they're getting help in one Location and that they don't have to worry about all of the things it takes to bundle that they're not aware of Director Wilkins.

We have a question from yes, ma'am. Commissioner Jones

Thank you, Director Wilkins. I think you're doing a great job just articulating the performance measures and the goals connecting to it. I want to go back to the slide on the average number of days on the coordinated entry. And then also tying that in with the budget that you have laid out. We are seeing your department's budget shrinking and your goals are really to reduce and cut the wait time in half essentially. What is that strategy there? And then also, When you're looking at the context about housing capacity or like the housing availability, what types of housing are we looking for for residents? And also, are we tracking that about the types of housing that's needed to support families or individuals in this case on the coordinated entry list?

Commissioner Jung, thank you for the question. One of the biggest things that we are looking at to cut those days down is a system redesign. We have not had a coordinated entry system redesign since the inception of coordinated entry here at Ramsey County. One of those things are really having us take a look creatively, innovatively at the current system that we have, identify the gaps, the staffing needs, sort of the system challenges that could maybe tell us the bigger picture. So implementing that will take some time, obviously, for that to do that. But one of the things that I feel that we could do better with the resources that we currently have, which we do know it is a strained system and there is not enough resources. However, there are some creative things and other community partners and other systems that we could rely on. An example of that could look right now for the coordinated entry system. In order to get an assessment as a single adult, you have to be long-term homeless or chronic homeless. There are other people that are doing that a little different than we do in Ramsey County. One step is looking at housing problem solving, which means your pathway just isn't to get on the coordinated entry list. That might be looking at housing problem-solving model maybe pairing up with somebody to rent an apartment together it might be treatment might be your pathway out of the system and into a assisted living program if that fits your needs so we do need to look at the whole entire continuum but we have not explored the pathways such as rapid rehousing or transitional housing. We do have some permanent supportive housing stock. Another part of that system redesign is really currently looking at our stock. We do have some vacancies. Where people can move. We know if we get people moved from shelter into those vacancies, it opens up additional shelter beds and so on. So it's really looking at that system design. And it's hard to put a dollar amount even where we at without that design to show our deficiencies and some of our gaps. So that is where we're looking at decreasing that number. The other part is really taking a really good hard look at that list. It has not been looked at. And went through there's a lot of people that have self-resolved that have been housed unfortunately passed away So that will also contribute to us getting those waiting days down down longer Will you be working on that less or your team are is that the focus for this year or is that for next year?

I

Commissioner Jung, that is the focus for this year and next year as well.

Okay. And then the other part that I just wanted you to lift a name that you said really fast and just emphasize is the resources that's actually needed right now to keep someone housed. That even the bundling of those resources are not enough. Are you also keeping track about what is needed so that we can tell that story and share that with our state legislators?

Commissioner Jung, that is an excellent question. Yes, we are keeping track not only of the amount of money it takes to prevent the eviction cases, The ones that we get approved, the ones that get denied, the ones that are not eligible, we do get those dollar amounts when they do the eviction filing. We also have a place in FHPAP where we're looking at those dollar amounts as well when people come in. And so we are keeping that data.

So how much is that that's needed? As far as overall? Yeah, for this and also for coordinated entry. Okay.

Commissioner Jung, that's an excellent question. I would have to get back to you on prevention dollars. We do not have enough to prevent every household that is applying to eviction court and or even prevention services. So that dollar is hard to quantify. More dollars mean more cases. Doesn't necessarily mean that all of the evictions are... Resolved so I can get back to you on that number for the coordinated entry redesign We are looking at roughly 50,000 for the consultant to come and do that redesign and create that report for us for this year Okay, thank you Commissioner McMurtry then Miller

Thank you, Madam Chair. Really appreciate this presentation. My question mostly stems around looking at the entire housing continuum and the role that housing stability plays, but also knowing that there is a partnership internally with CED. So I wanted to allow some space to kind of speak to what that collaboration looks like and how that will also support the efforts that you're presenting to us today.

Commissioner McMurtry, that is an excellent question. Since I had started my tenure here at Ramsey County, I've worked really closely with CED, not only with prioritizing and developing the LAHA funds across the continuum, but also the investments that they are making is creating more affordable housing stock so that the families that are moving from that continuum have a place to move. And that permanent supportive housing, that affordable housing area, that is where a lot of those families will land. And the increase of that stock will also help see those wait days in 2030 go down.

Can you share with us what CED is? We use it, but just for those who are listening and watching, what is CED?

The Ramsey County Department. What do they stand for? Community Economic Development. OK, Community Economic Development. Yes. OK, thank you. The internal department. Yes. Thank you, Commissioner Moran.

Commissioner Miller.

Yes. So I just had a couple questions on the last slide you shared with us. When the first bullet point on what's changed with our increase in the FHPAP and LAHA dollars, is this is the work that's being done through our housing stability department or with the Heading Home Ramsey group as well?

Or is it a combination of both? Commissioner Miller, thank you for the question. So the Family Homeless Prevention and Assistance Program, FHPAP, is a state-funded program. Ramsey County is the grantee, and we have several grantees that we oversee in that work. And it is not through the Heading Home Ramsey Continuum. It is just through the Ramsey County Department individually. So we oversee those contracts with several agencies to do the work.

that are also usually involved in the Heading Home Ramsey continuum. Correct. OK. They sit on the board. So that's where I think some of the can happen. And the governing board. Yeah. And then with the redesign of the, which I think is a fabulous idea, as someone who used to work in community and had are one of my sister programs. I always use the coordinated entry list. I've heard many times about the frustrations with the coordinated entry system. Will that be developed in collaboration with community as well, so with the partners at Heading Home Ramsey, or will that just be an internal in department redevelopment?

Commissioner Miller, that's an excellent question. And it will be done broadly with community partners, service providers, live expertise, as well as the heading home Ramsey governing board will lend to that, community members. It will be done not just internally with Ramsey County, but with all of our partners and community.

Perfect. Thank you so much. Commissioner Jefferson.

Yes, back to the budget. I think that I just wanted to follow up on the question from Commissioner Zhang. Not that I am opposed to us finding cost savings. In fact, that is a big part of what our role is going to be in the next coming years. But on the housing stability, when I see that it went from fiscal year 25, we were at, let's see, $13 million again, and then it went to $16 and $26, and now it's down to $12. And I guess I would just like to know, was there specific investments that were built into $26? I'm just curious to hear that narrative, the story of development of that.

Yeah, I can take that, Madam Chair, Commissioner Jevonsing. So because this is such a grant-heavy funded department and the grants are allocated to us each year by the sales tax, We don't account for them till they come in, if that makes sense. And then you see some of our budget adjustments for various departments through the request for board actions. So the budget is a snapshot in time, and we do our best understanding of what we anticipate and know is there. But in the case of LAHA in the second year, what you're not seeing in 27 is those LAHA funds. So we've accounted for, in 2026, the LAHA funds. We have not accounted the 2027 LAHA funds. So those will get put in the budget when Director Wilkins will come back at some point with 2027 RBA to say, this is how we're going to spend the money, including the eviction court plan as well. So we kind of do it a little different for every department. Some are able to project. Like when I was a workforce director, we kind of knew what our allocations were in workforce. And so we sort of could put placeholders in there, generally knowing the formula. In a case where there's some of this fluctuation, we sort of wait a little bit. And we want the board to be able to drive a little more the policy side of that too as well, through either board workshops or through the actual RBA. Does that help? So there's not a reduction in housing stability's budget in 27.

That helps me tremendously. And the reason why I bring this up is because now, in this particular year, there's been a lot of concerns about how we are supporting housing stability. And I wanted to make sure there wasn't some kind of significant programmatic changes that were a drawback from our commitment to that. So just knowing that this is a when the LAHA funds get recorded on the books is very comforting to me. Thank you.

Okay, Commissioner McNerney.

Thank you, Madam Chair. To kind of piggyback off of what the county manager mentioned, knowing that grant applications play a big role in the funding of housing stability, with the passage of the new federal housing law, are there potential opportunities that we're looking into as a county that we could potentially get additional funding, or just want to get a sense of how that law will impact potential funding opportunities for this particular department?

Thank you, Commissioner McMurtry. So we've been tracking a lot of the work being talked about at OMB around just federal grants in general and sort of the different restrictions that might come. In addition, as part of our overall kind of frat work that we've been tracking around all federal funding, you know, around the NOFO for the continuum of care, that's another area where there's grant funds for housing. I mean, housing funds are kind of in multiple agencies, honestly, in the federal government. I think a lot of that is tied up in court, and we have been active with our county attorney's office to protect our rights to ensure that we are able to access grants that align with our values and to ensure that we are being really thoughtful about what types of funds we take in order to ensure that we're able to serve our community based on the needs that they have, if that makes sense. So obviously we are significantly, this is a significantly grant funded department. Federal funds are a big part of the work of the department and of the continuum of care. However, this is a moment where we're in a little more of a protective state than an overly exertive, like being able to find grants state, just because of the tenor of the federal grants, if that makes sense. Yeah. That's awful.

Continue.

The numbers are important, but they do not fully show what it feels like for a resident to navigate the system or what changes when the system works. The first story on the slide that I called out comes from a Ramsey County eviction court client who was trying to remain housed. I want to share it in the resident's own words. My car broke down and I had to get it fixed so I could keep getting to work. That put me behind on my rent. I applied for emergency assistance and got denied, so I started calling around, trying to help, trying to look for help. I went to three different places and had to tell the same story every time. I didn't know which program I needed, I just knew I needed help with my rent. This resident was not thinking about which county or which grant program they needed. They were really trying to solve one immediate problem, how to catch up on rent, how to avoid losing their housing, and how to keep their job. From our side, we may see separate funding streams. From the resident's perspective, it's just one crisis. The second quote from a Ramsey County coordinated entry client, having a home changed everything. I can think about work, my family, and what comes next instead of just getting through the day. That is the outcome behind the coordinated entry measure because reducing the days on that list matter because it means a resident can move from surviving homelessness to thinking about work, family, and housing stability and dream about what comes next. These both examples show both sides of the continuum, helping a family remain housed before homelessness occurs, but also helping them return to housing after their homelessness crisis. When I step back and look across all three measures, I see four clear directions for our work. First, prevent earlier. We need to expand eviction prevention and strengthen housing stabilization before residents enter homelessness. Second, simplify access. We need to coordinate resources and reduce the number of systems that residents must navigate to receive help. When staff can assess the full need once and identify the right combination of resources, we can reduce duplication of applications, repeated eligibility reviews, unnecessary referrals, and efficient staff time that we have spent moving a resident from one program to another. Third, we need to shorten the path to housing. We need to reduce the coordinated entry time. We need to strengthen our housing pathways and make better use of our available housing opportunities. We need to address racial and ethnic disparities in access and outcomes and look at other housing stability and create more affordable housing pathways. Fourth, we need to continue redesigning the system. Our response needs to work across prevention, outreach, encampments, shelter, coordinated entry, stabilization, and permanent housing. This is also a stewardship strategy. Better coordination helps us maximize our federal dollars, our state grants, our local affordable housing aid, and our county resources. It reduces duplication and makes sure that we don't leave grant funds on the table, that we're using our dollars where they're applicable, and that we're using the right funding for the right purpose. Shelter is an important emergency intervention, but it's not the entire system. Housing is the long-term outcome. The question is not only how we improve our individual programs, it is how the overall system could operate differently to produce better resident outcomes and make the best use of our public resources. When I step back and look at all three of these measures together, I do not see three separate programs or three different pathways. I just see housing stability system. I see where we have an opportunity to prevent and to get somebody housed. I see residents trying to navigate resources that we built as separate programs, even though they're experiencing a crisis. And I see people who've already entered homelessness waiting far too long for a pathway back to housing. That is why these measures are important. They help us understand what our investments are, what is changing for our residents, and whether the system is improving and where we can and should do better. Our goal is not simply to report performance. It is to use what we are learning to make homelessness rare, brief, and non-recurring, and to build a system that is easier for residents to navigate, more equitable in its outcomes, and more effective in how we use all of our public resources together as a community. Thank you.

Thank you. Commissioner Jefferson.

Thank you so much for reminding us what the work that's going on behind these numbers. One of the questions that I have is I know that earlier this summer, some of our emergency housing and our shelter dollars and things like that were driven by decisions that were happening within the St. Paul community. And I guess I want to broaden out to the idea of heading home Ramsey as a broader collective of partnerships. And then so that's the first part of my question is just how many of our other local municipalities and other governmental entities are participating in that as our partners in this work? And that's kind of a predecessor to the second question, which is as our municipalities are going through their own comp plans and other kind of things, what are specific things in your world and your piece of the housing continuum specifically could be supportive housing and other things that we can be educating and walking alongside our governmental partners as they're envisioning what's right for their communities and encouraging them to help us meet our goals at the county.

Commissioner Jevonsingh, thank you for the question. The Heading Home Ramsey intentionally asks every municipality from every county, or sorry, from every district in the county, so suburban is included in the seats on The steering committee in the work groups as well as on the governing board is representation. A lot of those are either through service providers or the school district in which they serve or where they're coming from. And they have a very active voice at those tables. I also would say to your second part of your question, there are lots of conversations. For example, another city has reached out, a city of Ramsey County, that said we have LAHA dollars that we would like to combine to stretch again for some of those bundling cases. That's an example of how that education can be helpful. Also, when we are looking at expanding either shelter capacity, affordable housing units, really giving them education as to where to find the resources to increase that stock would also be really appreciated so that we have places when people do get housing vouchers that they could use those vouchers at, even if those are in our suburban cities in the county. That education is really important and goes a long way to work along the continuum.

Thank you.

OK. Director Wilkins, one quick question on the expenditure side. The supplemental budget, your request for $227,000 going into 2027. And maybe I missed this. Can you share with us what those dollars will be spent on? It's $227,000 going into 2027. Under the supplemental proposed budget, there's an increase of $227,000. Can you share with me what that means? What is that there?

That is actually moving the director of admin salary from a general account into the service teams. So we're just kind of shifting that FTE and cost between where it was budgeted for in 26 into the appropriate service team, which is CSS, rather than housing stability specifically.

All right. Thank you. All right, so if we don't have any further questions, I want to thank you for your presentation and your work and the work to come. The coordination and the support to stabilize families is crucially important. I know it's of strong value for the county, and I just look forward to seeing the work in detail and the coordination that's going to happen and get us in a better place.

Yes, thank you. Madam Chair, before we wrap up this, thank you, Dr. Wilkins. Thank you for being the new director and starting us off this year. That is wonderful. You set a great bar, so thank you. I just want to acknowledge, Commissioner Jefferson, your original question about when to ask the budget questions. Certainly, everything we've done here is perfectly appropriate and is what we can and should be doing. I neglected to say that we will get a presentation on the addenda. that is in your folder tomorrow from budget director Luis. So it normally kind of flows with the operations service team. And since they're going tomorrow, we decided not to kind of start with that today. So just know some of the agenda things that were changes will be covered tomorrow a little more thoroughly for you. But obviously, you have department questions. Those should be addressed along the way here. Thank you.

Yeah. All right. Thank you. So we want to welcome Director Ali Ali, who's going to present on the financial assistance services that we have here in Ramsey County.

Please introduce yourself and go ahead.

Thank you, Chair. Good afternoon, Chair, Commissioners, County Manager, County Manager, and other staff, and the fiscal team, and the members of the public. My name is Ali Ali. I'm the Director of Financial Assistance Services Department. Thank you for the opportunity to discuss financial assistance services and our supplemental budget performance measures. I want to start by recognizing our FAS employees. The progress you will see today reflects their professionalism and commitment to Ramsey County residents. As policy changes increase the value and the complexity of our work, we remain focused on balancing workloads, strengthening staff capacity and accountability, and sustaining timely and effective service delivery. Ultimately, our performance is measured not only by the numbers, but also by the experience and the outcomes of the residents that we serve. As we review our current performance, we are also preparing for the significant operational and financial impact of House Resolution 1. These changes will increase eligibility workload, affect how residents maintain access to essential benefits, and require careful implementation over multiple budget years to come. Today, I want to focus on what those numbers tell us about residents' experience. Are residents able to access our services? Are they receiving the help they need? Are we delivering services timely and effectively? And are we improving over time? Financial Assistance Services administers more than 10 public assistance programs that help Ramsey County residents access food assistance, health care, emergency assistance, child care, and other essential supports. These are state supervised and county administered programs governed by detailed state and federal requirements. Our staff determine initial and ongoing eligibility by collecting information through applications, interviews, and required verifications. We also connect residents with other county and community resources to address needs beyond the programs we directly administer. Residents can access our services through service centers, community partner locations, telephones, and online options. Our service centers became part of FAS in 2025. This closer alignment gives us an opportunity to provide a more coordinated and holistic experience, helping residents address their immediate needs while also identifying other services that may support long-term stability. Performance measures are more than reporting requirements. They help us understand whether residents are better off because of our work, whether we are using public resources responsibly, and where we have opportunities to improve. The first measure looks at how long residents wait from the time they arrive at the service center until initial navigation. The second looks at the percentage of residents who reported receiving the help they needed. The third measure is whether we process SNAP applications within federal timeliness. And the fourth examine is whether emergency assistance and emergency general assistance funders are helping residents secure permanent housing. Because of the nature of our work, these four measures connect closely with three Ramsey County's strategic priorities. Operational excellence, resident-centered holistic support, and racial and health equity and shared community power. Together, these measures help us understand access, service quality, timeliness, and housing stability. They also strengthen our accountability to residents and our county, state and federal partners. This core accountability will be critical as we move toward broader implementation of House Resolution 1. The results you will see today are not achieved by financial assistance services alone. They reflect the One Ramsey County approach and the partnership we have with housing stability, workforce solutions, public health, social services, community organizations, healthcare providers, landlords, and many others. You will also hear a common theme throughout this presentation, continuous improvements. As demand grows and residents' needs become more complex, we are continually improving our processes, strengthening partnerships, investing in technology, and making data-informed decisions so we can better serve Ramsey County residents. This measure that you can see on this slide tracks the time from when a resident arrives and checks in at the service center kiosk to when they begin meeting with the staff member for initial navigation. In 2023, the average wait time was 14 minutes. It increased to 22 minutes in 2024, reflecting a significant backlog, delays, and limited staffing capacity. In 2025, we brought the average wait time down to 16 minutes. That improvement shows that our operational changes are beginning to make a difference. We have strengthened staffing coverage, adjusted workflows, expanded service center options, and improved the connections across our service centers and entire FAS eligibility operations. We are moving in the right direction. but we still have work to do. Our goals are 13 minutes by 2028 and 10 minutes by 2030. Residents can also check current wait times on the county website before visiting a service center, helping them decide when and where to seek in-person assistance. Ultimately, our goal is not simply to move people through the building faster. It's also to reduce barriers, provide timely access, and ensure each resident is connected to the right service when they need it. This measure tells us whether residents felt they received the help they needed when visiting a service center. It also reflects our commitment to ensuring that Ramsey County is serving residents holistically and meeting their identified needs. The result was 93% in both 2022 and 2023. It declined to 87% in 2024 and improved to 90% in 2025. Our goals are 93% by 2028 and 95% by 2030. Historically, this information came from an annual service center survey. Beginning in late 2025, we moved to a real-time tax survey. This allows residents to provide feedback shortly after receiving services they need and help us identify concerns and make improvements sooner. This measure is not simply to produce a satisfactory score. It helps us understand whether residents received meaningful assistance and how we can continue strengthening coordination, communication, and effective service delivery.

Director Ali, we have a question from Commissioner Magnotri.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Do you know what the sample size is for the surveys? How many folks are we getting to complete the surveys to get these numbers?

Good question, Commissioner McMurtry. So we have been tracking the numbers because this sample of the survey reflects only the people that came to our service centers in person. As you can imagine, we serve more people through virtual services. So the numbers have been increasing. From 2025, I don't have the number in front of me, but that was about 431 people in 2025. which is much increase from previous year. I think it was 300 people in that time. But this is something that with this in a tax-based survey, we believe that we can capture more on time.

The data is... One moment, Director. Commissioner Jeppesen.

Yeah, back to that last slide. I'm just curious how the survey is. The one question is basically looking at the time that somebody, you know, is waiting in line to when they get help to did they get the help. Does this mean that the reason why they came in to get help, that they received the services that they need or they got the information that they need? How are we navigating that? If I come with a need and I come to you to answer a question, I might get information that answers my question, but that might not necessarily actually get me the assistance that I need. How is this worded and how do we gather that information? What are we looking at here?

Very good question, Commissioner Japanesi. So this merger, the detectives or trackers, people that came to our service centers in person for how long they have been waiting. There's some historical context in this tracking. During our peak times when we had a huge backlog and delays, we have seen a number of people waiting in wait times for a very long time. So that is significant improvement to make the connection as they came. So it depends from one person to another. Some people, they just need some general information. Some, they need that help. So the intent of this tracking is not about the complete resolution. It's about the connection that we were making with the staff member.

Good to know. It's a deeper question than what I'm asking, which is when people come to us from help, do they receive the help they need? And that's beyond a survey you can do after being at the service center. But I just wanted to make sure that that's what we were tracking. Thank you.

That's correct. The data is important, but residents' comments help us understand what their experience feels like. These comments you see on the slide bring the performance measure to life. Residents described the staff as friendly, helpful, patient, and respectful. They also appreciated receiving clear information and being connected to the resources they needed. I want to recognize our FAS staff in service centers for the work they do every day. often helping residents navigate complex systems during stressful times. We also know that not every experience is positive. The real-time survey gives us quicker feedback so we can recognize what's working, identify concerns, and make improvements sooner. Our goal is to listen, learn, and use the resident voice to strengthen service quality and responsiveness across FAS operations.

Director Ali, could you go back to that page there? Because I am like fully impressed with those remarks that you received from someone you serve. Can you read what residents voice, what they said?

Yes, Chair. I can repeat that. So resident described staff as friendly, Okay, helpful, patient, and respectful. And the second one. Resident described staff as friendly, helpful, patient, and respectful.

This is what I read. The young man working to provide housing assistance provided me with such amazing assistance and really blew me out of the water with his knowledge and his patience, gave me hope for the future for myself and the resources I needed to attain that future.

That's an awesome report.

back of the service that was provided. Just to read that, because it hasn't always been that way. People have been frustrated. They have waited in line for a very long time. Assistance has not always been. So I just want to show from how the service center has improved the lives of people that come to ask for help. And so I think it's worth reading that. Commissioner McMurtry. Thank you, Commissioner.

Thank you for that, Madam Chair. And I think it is very important to lift up the voices from residents who have had these good experiences. I also want to make sure that we are hearing or getting a sense of how we're gathering information from staff as well. This work is hard, and they're reaching folks and communicating with folks at some of their lowest of low moments, and that at times will cause for emotions to run high, that they then have to manage that on top of managing helping out the individual. Do we gather in any... consistent input from staff on how they're feeling throughout these experiences as well if they're you know getting the resources that they need that they are also feeling safe in these environments what does that um does that look like from our end as we um continue to do our due diligence to help these residents uh to make sure that that staff are also filling the support that they need

Thank you, Commissioner McMurty. This is a very, very important question. For the last few years, FAS has been going through a lot of transformation, including in our culture change, including staff support. We have been investing in staff to do more training, providing more resources, more tools they need. We have completed more than 160 staff that went through in our customer service training to support them. We are also working on to continue to reduce the case loads that they have so they are able to manage more cases more effectively, the people that they serve. But this work, as you say, is very, very, very difficult. It's very, very challenging. It's very rewarding being a public servant. It's easy work to do. So we know that. We know the challenges. We are trying to bring all resources with your support, with the board's investment. We continue to make changes. We have seen these changes as we have seen for the last few years. So we appreciate the support that continues to come from this board.

County Manager Baker.

Yeah, thank you, Madam Chair. So before we move off of the service center directly, I thought I'd just put a pin in the evolution of the work at the service centers, because I've been with the county almost eight or nine years now, and I know some of the board members remember some of these conversations, but I think it's important to just recount some of these conversations. We went from having a lot of discussions about where to deliver services. Some of you remember we had a significant study around just the physical facilities of how we do service centers. We continue to evolve that. We continue to do that today as we have now been talking about more mobile or other services. That's been a journey. And why I wanted to stop here is because of what Commissioner Moran was saying. This work constantly is evolving to making sure we meet the needs of our residents. I remember significant conversations about the persona and the skill set that we need for navigators. The board had significant conversations about the type of qualities we wanted to see. And I've seen Ali and his team really, in partnership with lots of supportive departments in the organization, We have transformed the way we do this work, both in terms of the physical places where we're doing it, how we're doing it. Obviously, COVID and some of the moves that we've done really has evolved how it's not just about FAS in terms of how we use the service centers now. the customer service training, and the way we've thought through the navigator role. I mean, those are all parts of the story that get us to today, and I think the evolution of even the feedback from residents on the previous measure, that was some feedback from the board. At one time, I think in a previous measure when this came through, it was a one-time of survey point in time that we did once a year i think and the board said you know that doesn't seem like a quite the measure we want we want to make sure we're having a touch point and so i just want to keep saying we're this is operational excellence we will continue to improve i appreciate commissioner jevons saying wanting to ask a little more like are we asking the right things are we centering the right things it is an ongoing effort um the fact that we are texting folks using no weight inside that you can go online and see how long the weight is like you can at like the urgency room. I mean, it is a big, these are leaps and bounds for the county in terms of how we've improved. And so I just really want to thank Ali and his team, but the rest of the county too. This has been a big, significant lift for all of us to make this transformation, but there's more work to do. And so I just want to say even these measures themselves, when you see them again maybe in two years, maybe we'll be at a point of maybe looking at them slightly different to get a little deeper into how we've improved. But I do really appreciate that. It's a journey, right? And we've seen a lot of change, especially Commissioner McGuire, Commissioner Ortega. I think this has evolved a lot since when we delivered services on the fourth floor of the East Building. So appreciate that. And before we transition, it's just good to know that's what multiple budgets have done. It is not a one budget situation. You have invested significant capital and other resources that we've evolved, the physical locations and added FTEs over the creation of Navigators, and this is sort of the journey of that. So, thank you. Yeah, good work.

Thank you. Thank you.

Go ahead, continue. Moving to the next slide, this slide measure tracks expedited and non-expedited SNAP applications processed within federal timeliness. Federal standards require expedited SNAP applications to be processed within seven days or five business days. and regular applications within 30 days. The federal benchmark is 95% for both measures. As you can see on this slide, our historical results reflect significant challenges over the past several years, including backlogs, staffing limitations, and the need to modernize our workflow processes. In 2025, 23% of expedited applications and 70% of regular applications met federal timeliness. By March 2026, those results had improved to 46% for expedited applications and 87% for regular applications. This represents meaningful progress, although both measures remain below the 95% of federal requirements. Since last fall, we have reorganized the work and assigned a specialized team to focus on expedited applications for residents with the most urgent food needs. I want to thank the county board and the county leadership for the investment in FAS. Those investments, as we just talked about, strengthened our staffing foundations and increased our processing capacity. We are now preparing for the additional workload resulting from HR1. The 17 and a half newly positioned that were just approved, including four and a half ATEs dedicated to SNAP program, will help us manage increased eligibility reviews, reporting requirements, and administrative workload. Our responsibility is to translate this investment into improved timeliness and measurable results through focused training, workload management, accountability, and operational improvement.

Commissioner Jefferson.

Yes, I know that we talked about extensively the impacts of HR1 when we looked at the addition of those new FTEs to support this work. But I think seeing the performance measures here really puts a stark viewpoint of what happens when these roles, these mandated administrative services are not properly funded. And the idea of when when additional administrative requirements are placed on the counties and if we do not then have funding or resources dedicated to meet those new administration, what happens with these service delivery times and what happens to getting people connected to services that they are eligible for and then have a right to be able to have those supports as part of broader programming decisions throughout at our state and federal levels. Um, and I just, I want just to, to, to highlight that the idea of, you know, we get a lot from our, our constituents who say, well, if they don't fund it, then just don't do it. And I think that the balance of one, we'd still have the responsibility to do this work and to do it with fidelity and to serve our community. But also when these, when these programs, our piece of this eligibility of these programs goes on under resource, um, how, how, um, it impacts our community. And when we properly resource them, as you see in your improvements in 2026, what that can mean for community. And so I'm very happy that we're tying these performance measures with our budget allocations. And it's a good time to be able to see how these numbers directly do impact community and how they receive our services. Thank you for highlighting that, even though all these numbers don't make us feel really great. But it is a direct reflection of what happens when more work comes without the resources to meet that.

Thank you, Commissioner. The more investment that we get, the more we can improve the operational excellency. And we continue to challenge ourselves and see where we can make those changes that could have this impact for. So investment matters and outcome matters.

We have another question. Commissioner Miller, then Commissioner Zong.

Are these numbers tied to our error rate and reimbursement from these numbers here?

Very good question, Commissioner Miller. So SNAP application processing timeliness does not have tied to the fiscal impact. That is the payment error rate. However, this also could be a penalty. We don't know the details, but this is a corrective action plan that we are, federal government, you know, monitors.

Okay, thank you.

May I go first? Yes, please. Thank you, Madam Chair. I just have a question about this, about some of the trend here, and if you can explain a little bit, also provide more of a narrative on what's happening here from, I guess, to 2020 to up to now. We're at 46% for 2026 for the timeliness on the expedited SNAP applications. May you explain kind of what was happening in between 2022 and 25 there?

Very good question, Commissioner Jung. So as you can see, this time is very close to when we were under a public health emergency, under COVID. During this time, many SNAP or public assistance programs were waived. So many programs were not subject to the timeliness. So we were living under that time. We allocated our resources to do other work. So at that time, there has been a lot of waivers when it comes to those trackings, and that's why you can see these numbers. And that's one aspect. Another aspect, that time we also experienced a significant overflow of workload because we have seen many people who came to our services, and then that's when we changed it now from in-office work, from hybrid work, so there has been a lot of change in operations.

Okay. Yeah, I'm just trying to understand that too and some of the rationale because also like if there were changes in policy at all from the state at that time. Mm-hmm. Were there changes in policy from the state during the COVID or even pre-COVID?

There have been some waivers when it comes to, for example, interviews during COVID times, and there have been a lot of changes when it comes to how people apply. Also, we had another measure, which was a 24-hour screening, which was put on hold now. That's not applicable anymore. So there have been a lot of policy changes. Since our public health emergency ended, many of those policies have been resumed.

OK. All right. Thank you.

I think I want to follow up on that question around the expedited snaps, because those numbers are really low. Very low. So what is getting in the way of that? Is the request to individuals to show proof of something? I mean, what is it? that these numbers are so low?

Very good question, Chair. So application is, you know, as you can imagine, most of those applications, they came via, you know, online. It could be either through MinBenefit. This is an estate, you know, platform that people can apply the benefits. or they could be mailed in to us. So applications, they go a different life cycle. They've been submitted through either this platform or dropped off as a mail delivery or maybe sent by fax. And it takes time to screen those applications. There is a timeline. It gets very close. This is only five business days. So as I said, Indicated earlier in our process, we do not have a consolidated, streamlined process how to screen these applications. So now we do have a dedicated team that screens these applications. That's why you have seen some significant improvement in 2026. And we hope this is going to continue. But this is another challenge that we have. Because of the number of applications that we receive per week, you may not have the staffing that can match with those numbers. So it may take a few days until we touch that application to screen it.

OK. So you currently have a process in place for improvement. Great. We can't see right now because we're seeing N26. So the data will be coming later on.

Yes. So we have seen improvements so far, but there is always two months behind until we get the results. But we continue to see the results since we have created this dedicated team. Great. OK. Thank you.

Commissioner McMurtry. Thank you, Madam Chair. And this may be a question for the county manager. We know that in this past legislative session that we got funding from the government on tech modernization. What impact will will we see potentially with things like the application process with SNAP through the tech modernization that could help improve numbers? And also, what exactly is the process and the timeline for when we will eventually start seeing those dollars and improvements to tech throughout the county?

Yeah, thank you, Madam Chair, Commissioner McMurtry. I think that they are just in the very early stages of operationalizing a plan. We can certainly follow up. As I mentioned at a different board meeting, there's a few work groups that are really key. There's kind of a statewide advisory group. I know AMC has a group, which Commissioner Miller and our CIO, Chetan Ganachar, are going to participate in. Since that money was just recently passed, I do not believe that we should put a lot of eggs in that immediate basket. I mean, yes, we are very grateful for those funds, but as I think I've mentioned to you individually, to some of you even publicly, I do think this is a moment where Ramsey County should explore some conversations with Hennepin and with others to talk about how we can maybe patch into other enhancements that other people have invested in. We have not, technology-wise, invested in sort of anything beyond kind of what the state has really given, as that accurate statement, Director Ali, generally. And so I know we invested in some casework and some things like that. But we have not really modernized it in the sense of where we could sort of invest. We've been sort of waiting on the state like the rest of the state, really. And it probably is time that we just, because of how big we are, the people we serve, we need to start seeing some of that as well. But I do think, you know, this lull that you're talking about, and we can dig into more. I was trying to find, you know, obviously Dr. Ali did present the same measure. I think this measure was in 20, or was this, this isn't a new measure for you, is it? Okay, so maybe we can go back. And I remember we had a workshop as well where he talked quite a bit about expedited staff too. So I appreciate that maybe we've moved on to being better and we've kind of closed the book on this measure This particular chapter where, you know, I think both the department, the supports that were kind of given countywide, also maybe some of the support you needed from the rest of the county wasn't fully locked in here. And we now have kind of got a path forward and we're looking ahead. But I definitely understand that you might want to know the context, because we don't want to repeat the past either, right? But you can recall, like, I think about 24, 25 is when I remember Commissioner Ortega's like, I think I need, like, a phone line just to handle the things, dedicated just to handle some of these questions, right? So you've seen some of that lesson. It doesn't mean we're perfect. There's obviously days where, you know, somebody hits a gap. But we have certainly... And I think this shows optimistically the trajectory of where Ali's department is going. And those have come with some new investments. But also, I think some of it is just one Ramsey County mindset where we're like, oh, this is not just Ali's and his department's challenge. It is our countywide challenge. And we did embrace that with great enthusiasm. bigger, I guess, in the last year and a half. So does that help? I mean, we should probably just double check to make sure some of the things that were hooking us up don't show back up again, Ali. But I think you've done a good job sort of getting us over a significant hump here.

No, I appreciate that. I think that's helpful. And I wanted to just name that to get more context around we've seen the passage of this new money, but it's not going to happen immediately. There's still more time. A plan has to be developed before we start. seeing the new tech being rolled out. The other piece I wanted to touch on real quick is I know that we approved the additional FTE a couple of weeks ago. The other component that we heard in your presentation, County Manager Becker, idea of doing more cross-training. Will that also be a part of the plan here as we think about getting up to that 95% to ensure that we have more employees who are able to do this type of work and to fill in when we see potential backlogs?

Commissioner McMurtry, that's the plan. One thing that I will add before I comment about your question here, what County Manager talked about to your previous question, there are some initiatives that's going on now that we believe that is going to help about how applications came through our system. Any technology, any investment, any upgrade that does not connect our system to the state system, it will not deliver any good outcome. What I mean by that, we work through a state system called Maxis. I'm sure you know that system. There are a couple initiatives that's going on now. One of them is M2M. It's a mean benefit to Maxis. Mean benefit is the platform that people apply for public assistance programs. There is a plan going on to integrate that system into Maxis. it will eliminate a lot of administrative work, and the information will pop up very quickly in Max's system, which could eliminate some steps. When that's going to happen? Maybe next year. There's a plan going on. Another plan in terms of system modernization is called Snap Forward. So this is script-based system that they're working on to upgrade to eliminate some administrative services. And I heard that there is demos that are happening right now. So we may see this quicker, but I don't have timeline. So there is work happening behind scenes. And this is not something only Ramsey County deals with. This is a greater regional issues that each county is grumbling with. And hopefully those modernization systems will change the way that we do the work today. For your question about in terms of the investments and the staffing, will that number of positions help us reduce this? That's our aim. We believe not only additional FTEs will resolve all our problems, but we have to revisit in our internal workflow process and make adjustments and system improvements and see how that is going to show the outcome that we are looking for.

Connie Manning. Yeah, thank you. Just one last. When Ali got to talk, then I realized what you gave me the window to say. So I'm going to do it now. I appreciate the modernization. But let's be honest with the state, if anybody's listening, right? I mean, this system is 87 counties trying to do something that we maybe could rethink. So while I was kind of into our own numbers, this is a moment to kind of get above that about our advocacy, right? And I do think one of the things we were able to at least convince the legislature on was to set up this work group about roles and responsibilities of our human service system. This is a conversation that should be had. There was a day when everybody had to go to their county building. and fill out paperwork and do things. Now it's a different system. And if we're going to invest money in modernization, great, we should. But we should also look at, does this need to be done at a county level? And who should be doing this work as a way as we try to save ourselves in the midst of all these things coming at us? I'm not saying this is the thing, but we need to look at something. I mean, I think we've seen some things of this. At the end of the day, people have said, OK, are you guys going to go fight for CPA? Are you going to go fight for this? Are you going to go fight for that? I am just saying, it is the same bill for us. It's our property taxpayers are going to pay 47% of whatever that is. So yeah, let's have a conversation about five or six things and just start taking some of this burden away. So I do think this is an interesting conversation, because we don't need 87 ways 87 counties are having conversations of how this is hard. And so thank you for that question, because I think it allows me to at least just publicly again say, as Ramsey County, we want to have this conversation.

So I would agree. There's lots of conversation at a few of those tables about modernization, our system and technology. And there was money that was allocated that went directly to DHS that did not come into the counties, and they allocated more dollars But the conversation is that it would take at least two to three, four years before we are up and ready to even use that technology. And so I would really agree with the county managers that we have to save ourselves and maybe start having conversation internally, or maybe with our partners from Hennepin, whoever's doing work differently. about how we can do our work more efficiently and effectively and quickly to serve people. Because if we're relying on the state, it's going to be a while. It's going to be a bit. That's just the way it is. And right now, we know our system and technology is so old that sometimes they can't even talk to each other. And the burden that it's putting on staff to have to close out, to come back in, to look at a green screen, We can't hire staff quick enough to stay to deal with our old system because our young people are coming out of college and they're like, what is this? What is this technology that we're using? So I'm hoping that we have improved some from those days. But it's going to be a while before it is ready to move out statewide and countywide.

Yeah. I just want to add a vote to that. Yes. Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm so glad. Commissioner McGuire. Because Commissioner McMurtry, you bring up a really good question. And when we say the county's got money, we hardly got money. But the state got money. that they didn't use yet or wherever it is for a statewide system, which I think we all agree should happen, but we don't know when that's going to happen. And so then they said, oh, okay, you want money, so we'll give the counties money, which they gave us like a pittance to do. I mean, it's not even enough to do one county, and it gave it to all the counties. And was it by grant then, or how was that even going to be distributed? I don't even remember this small amount. Was it like $16 million for the whole state for counties to do what we need to do? And we should be doing it together because we shouldn't have 87 systems. And yeah, I'm so glad we started a work group and that we're part of that. And it is frustrating to know that this work just needs to get done. And the state is giving us a little Band-Aid here and there. It was $15 million for the whole state. $15 million for the whole state, which we could use, which is not even enough for one county. So anyway, it's a great issue that we do need to keep working on. But I agree, we should just do our thing with other counties, Hennepin, and get a system that we can make work for our And it is hard to attract new people because nobody wants to work in the system that's there now. It's too old and antiquated. And computers, it's not where people want to be putting their time and energy. So thank you, Madam Chair. And I'm glad we had this conversation.

And it's very frustrating. But I like these numbers. We've been very ambitious. We're going from 23% in 2025 to 95% in 2028. So we have some work to do to get there, for sure. OK, continue.

Thank you. So our fourth measure looks at housing stability. The percentage of emergency assistant and emergency general assistant funders issued to support permanent housing emergencies. When residents came to us for emergency assistance, they are often facing one of the most stressful moments of their lives. They may be behind on rent, facing eviction, experiencing utility crisis, and unsure where they will sleep for the following month. FAS administers emergency assistance and emergency general assistance to help residents avoid losing their housing and prevent more costly crises. EA and EGA are state-funded programs available for a variety of urgent needs, including housing and utility assistance. The percentage supporting permanent housing has varied over time. reaching 69% in 2025. In that year, we distributed more than 4 million through emergency assistance and emergency general assistance programs. Of that amount, 2.7 million addressed housing emergencies, helping approximately 1,850 families and individuals remain housed. As housing costs continue to rise, demand for this critical assistance remains high. This measure shows how our department is responding to housing needs. More importantly, it tells us how many residents were able to stay in their homes or find stable housing with help from these programs. Our goals are 67% by 2028 and 64% by 2030. These goals recognize that EA and EGA need to remain available for many types of emergencies while still maintaining a strong focus on housing stability. Financial assistance alone, however, rarely resolves the full housing crisis. Residents may also need housing stability services that Director Wilkins talked about earlier. Workforce solutions help. Behavioral health services, public health, childcare, and community-based support. By working across departments and with community partners, we can address multiple needs at the same time and give residents a greater chance of remaining safely housed. Looking ahead, we will continue using data to better target resources, identify disparities, strengthen partnership, and improve equitable access. and refine our processes so eligible residents receive assistance they need as quickly as possible. This measure demonstrates how coordinated services and partnership can improve residents' outcomes while reducing the need for more costly interventions.

I'm sorry, Commissioner Miller.

Thank you, Chair. Quick question. I know that the EA and EGA are state-funded programs. How is those dollars figured out? Is it an allocation? Is it off of population? Is it off of residents who are on our program? Or is it a formula that is distributed through the counties? And then my next question then goes into, do we add dollars to, like levy dollars or other program dollars to that support as well?

Very good question, Commissioner Miller. So EA and EGA are two separate programs. EA comes from TANF program, which is an allocation that received from the state. And this goes through Workforce Solutionist in our program area. And there is a Workforce Solutionist and FAS agreement between the two departments to share those allocations. FS received 80% of that funds, and Workforce Solutions got 70%. And this is also tied to the MFIP caseloads that Ramsey County carries that need to know employment services and program administration. UGA comes directly from the state allocation, and the state determines about how much each county receives per year. And whether we add additional, we don't add any levy As a process, I don't recall adding it, but we always work with other departments to transfer funders from other departments. For example, working with Housing Stability, we were able to transfer some program funders last year to EGA program. And this year, as we speak, there is a process that we are transferring some funders from Workforce Solutions to support EA program. So that's how we do one Ramsey County approach.

Thank you. OK. Commissioner Zong. Thank you, Madam Chair. I just have a question about this, too, because are we is this helpful information for us in terms of getting the funds out? Because they have strict guidelines already, too, and a criteria. So 100 people can apply but may not be eligible, and then you'd be at 0%. So that's why I'm asking, how has this data been helpful to your department?

Very good question, Commissioner John. So EA and EGA, they're highly regulated programs. Ramsey County and all other counties don't have any flexibility to change the policies and who eligible for. We do, however, determine about the frequency. It depends about how you want to use up your allocation. We have able to define and interpret the policy in certain ways, EA only, not EGA. But you're correct because the way that the system is set up anyone that applies for public assistance, they have to use for combined application form. There is a question on the combined application form that asks, do you have emergency? And when people are coming to us when they need food, when they need healthcare, when they need other services, yes, there's emergency. But emergency program policy, it's someone who's losing their home, someone who's facing utility shut off. That is what defined EA. So most people who check EA for years may not be needing actual EA program. That will do. So this measure focuses on how much we used for housing emergency versus how many people applied, if that makes sense.

Right. And what I'm getting at, too, is they have to meet a specific criteria already. Correct. Shouldn't the data that we are looking for is of the eligible applicants? How many are we processing or approving?

The area that we are focusing with housing stability to help people maintain their housing is one eligibility portion for EU and EGA program. There are many other areas people can apply for emergency assistance, such as electricity, such as damage devices. So this is only focusing on this part of housing. housing stability because this ties to greater Ramsey County strategy priority to make people have stability in their housing.

Okay. Okay. Commissioner Jenison?

Yeah. So I'm following up. My question was very similar to that, which is I was trying to figure out what this is actually measuring. Is it the population of folks who are coming and the needs that they have. And then this is just reflecting that, since the requirements are pretty prescribed. Or I guess I'm right there with Commissioner Zhang. I'm not really sure, except for measuring maybe how we are educating on which box to fill so that the number of people who check that box. I guess I don't really quite understand how this is helpful. I'm just curious if there's, I mean, maybe I'm just not, I think I'm in the same boat where if this is just saying of the people who applied, these are the people who met those requirements and those are prescribed. What information then do we gather from that that helps us improve our operational excellence?

What we wanted to communicate here is how many people this state-funded program is that Ramsey County administration is supporting Ramsey County residents to maintain their housing. So this is tied to housing stability. This is tied to preventing homelessness. This is tied to people's long-term well-being. So what we are trying to measure is how people are remaining in their housing. If they don't get these fundings, then now they're not going to be stable, and they may be losing their housing stability.

I won't belabor the question. I'm still about where I was when we started, but we'll follow up. Maybe we can do a side note later.

All right, go ahead. So we will provide more update about this now to be more clear about this. Looking ahead, our focus is on focusing on Department's transformation. while improving all four performance measures and strengthening the resident experience. Our priorities include investing in employees and leadership, modernizing technology and operations within what we can control, strengthening county and community partnerships, building a continuous improvement mindset. We must also strengthen our core services so we can withstand upcoming federal policy and fiscal changes under H.R. 1. Some of these changes are still developing, but we know they will increase workload, complexity, and fiscal impact. Finally, I wanted to recognize our FAS staff. They continue to serve Ramsey County residents while managing complex needs, demanding workloads and continuous policy changes. The progress reflected in these measures is a direct result of their professionalism, resilience and commitment to public service. We will continue using these measures to guide decisions, strengthen accountability and improve the experience of Ramsey County residents. Thank you.

Commissioner Miller.

I think I just have a question more or less for maybe you, County Manager. If there's some confusion around this performance measure, can we maybe change the performance measure and have one that shows us maybe what we're looking for? Or, you know, if this performance measure is not very useful, let's change it.

Thank you, Commissioner Miller. We can have those conversations. Let's talk about maybe what they're trying to achieve, and maybe it's a description problem, or maybe it actually is more kind of telling a story that we're not articulating well. So let's talk about that with our policy team, and we'll figure that out. So thank you. Appreciate that. And to be clear, Ali has a financial assistance annual report. There's a lot of other measures. So three measures for all the departments is not indicative. of all the measures that they have. We generally tried to curate three that told kind of a unique story in particular, especially around strategic priorities. But if you go on Open Data Portal, click on either department or the strategic priorities, there's a multitude of stories. And some departments have annual reports, if that makes sense. Yeah, it does. Thank you. Thank you.

All right, so I just wanna thank you, Director Ali Ali. Okay, we have another question.

One last question. Ali's finished, right?

Mm-hmm.

I didn't wanna interfere with your presentation. I have one question which really only pertains, I'm not even gonna say to any of this. Are we tracking how many folks will fall off the rolls in the next year? Are we planning to track that in any way?

How? So, Commissioner, do you mean under HR1 impacts?

Yeah.

OK.

So this is still in our implementation. Detail is still continuous. There's many things that we're still waiting from the state to provide us how many people will be impacted. We have an estimate about how many people in certain program areas will be impacted. But there are different programs. There is a Medicaid or medical assistance impact, and there is also SNAP impacts. So we do have estimate about how many people will be impacted by SNAP program, about 7,000 people that will be impacted by policy changes. But how many people will fall off the system? We don't have that data yet. OK. That's what I assumed.

I think it's important that we know Because that's how we're going to tell the impact. So we could work more on that. But I think it's important in this environment that we have a handle on what are we. I know that some states and counties have already started reporting back and are looking at anything from 20% to 50% reduction. So, I mean, that's devastating in Ramsey County.

So, Commissioner, some states said that they started implementing HR1 earlier, and they have already seen, you know, the changes. So, Minnesota, for example, medical assistant changes will not happen until January 2027. So those are the times that we started seeing that if there is any significant change.

But I want us, you know, I just don't want, I'm not looking for a simplistic answer. I don't know what the state gives us. That's number one. So I shouldn't be. But if we had 100 last year, and this year we have 50, So to say we lost 50 folks is, I want to go beyond that. I want to know, what are the areas we're losing them in? Because we could be working against ourselves in other areas where we're investing resources. What's the story? We need to be able to see where we are.

To that point, if we went from 100 to 50, I would want to know is that because we were successful, in other areas so their actual economic opportunities had lifted and they've succeeded in that way? Or was it that we have cut them off from benefits because of new eligibility requirements? Or, and this is what I'm very concerned about, or the additional administrative burdens or ambiguity or other barriers where people are just unable to keep up with the type of administrative sludge that they put in place.

My assumption is the latter, and I want to affirm that.

Yeah, and to be able to know the impacts and where else we should be advising our other community partners, because those needs will still be there. And what does that mean for our greater ecosystem?

Commissioner Zahle.

Yeah, I just want to put another pin into the question that Commissioner Jeven-Singh and I had about this, because I'm just a little bit perplexed about it too, because I know that we have restrictions around the emergencies, but one of our goals around holistic support, resident-centered holistic supports, meaning that people are identifying to us that they have an emergency, but even though it doesn't fall under the county programs, are we actively working with partners to get them to that resource? So that's a better measure for us on the things that we can control that I think that it would be more helpful for us.

Commissioner Jenison.

And it gets back to my earlier question of did we answer their question or we get them the help they needed? Because sometimes the answering the question is 95%. We said, yes, here is your local provider. And the follow-up is, and were they actually able to get the help they needed?

All right. So I just want to thank you. Very good questions. You know, hopefully we can get to a place where we can get the answers that the commissioners are asking, right, so that we can be able to tell that story, see where we are and where we're going. And I just want to end by looking at your performance measures and the strategic outlook and just highlight, you know, summarize the last point that you talked about, which is improving what is in counties' departments' control, and influencing what is in state and federal control. And so we end with that, that there's more work to do. There's more partnership to be made. And I think together we can just make a difference. So thank you for your work and your leadership. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. We're going to take a 10-minute break, and then we'll come back after the break to work on workforce solutions.

I should say, we came in late. ¶¶ Thank you. So, Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Amen. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. ¶¶ Thank you. you

We should wear pink and low cut shirts next week or something.

You want to gavel us back in? So I just want to welcome Director Davis from Workforce Solutions. And so if you don't mind introducing yourself and continue.

Thank you. Good afternoon, chair, commissioners, county manager, and members of the public. My name is Catrice Davis, director of Workforce Solutions. Thank you for the opportunity to share the Workforce Solutions performance measures aligned to the 26-27 budget. Today's presentation will highlight the Workforce Solutions department measures that will improve outcomes for residents and the efforts we will put in place to achieve them in partnership with departments across the county and in community. Before we begin, I would like to take the opportunity to thank the individuals that have contributed to the development of the measures being presented today. County Manager Becker, Deputy County Manager Francois, Director of Administration Dave Zafran, and the Community Services and Supports Admin Team, and multiple Workforce Solutions staff and partners, including our Workforce Solutions Deputy Director Joseph Aramji, Workforce Solutions Planning Manager Michelle Belitz, and our Workforce Solutions Evaluator Bekele Aramu. American Indian Administrator Nicole Bean, and each of you, the county's board of commissioners for continued support and investment in workforce services. Workforce Solutions, in partnership with the Workforce Innovation Board of Ramsey County, provides programs and services to connect residents to jobs and strengthen the economic vitality of residents and businesses. Our department serves two distinct groups, job seekers and employers. Key programs and services offered to residents include the Minnesota Family Investment Program, or MFIP, employment services, Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act programs, Minnesota Dislocated Worker Program, CareerForce, and Community Career Labs. Services are provided in person and virtually and are designed to assist with job placement, credential attainment, and support services to reduce barriers to employment and connect residents with in-demand high-wage employment opportunities. Businesses and employers also gain support connecting to our local workforce through Ramsey County Means Business, the county's business-focused website, as well as the Inclusive Workplace Cohort, Midway Job Fair, Youth Job Fair, and other events provided annually. As we continue to prioritize the services that we are currently providing, we are also realistic about the impacts of HR1, as well as shrinking state grant funds, but we remain optimistic that the performance measures you will hear about today will demonstrate how, as a department, we remain invested and committed to improving the conditions for all residents. Workforce Solutions performance measures were developed collaboratively to tell the story of how our department is advancing board investments, reducing fiscal pressures, and improving outcomes for residents. To ensure that as a department we demonstrate the impact of our work on residents, we have made considerable data improvements to ensure that we are consistently tracking and reporting employment outcomes across workforce programs. By tracking employment, we will be able to demonstrate whether residents are experiencing greater economic sufficiency. We believe the four measures presented today will also enhance accountability and transparency in overall program performance and county investments. Workforce solutions performance data combined with comprehensive program evaluation and surveys to gather participant feedback will ensure that we are providing quality services and positive resident experiences. Additionally, these measures will create transparency on what is working and where improvements can be made. The four measures listed on this slide align with county strategic priorities alongside goals outlined in state, regional, and local workforce development plans. The first measure, percentage of MFIP participants exited to employment, aligns with the county's racial and health equity and shared community power strategic priority and demonstrates whether the county is helping residents on MFIP transition off of assistance into employment. Employment is among one of the most important indicators of success for employment and training programs such as MFIP and is essential to reducing economic disparities. Annually, more than 60% of MFIT participants in Ramsey County are from black, indigenous, and people of color communities. And on average, only 40% of BIPOC participants transition from the MFIT program into employment.

What's that number again?

40. 40? 60% of MFIT participants in Ramsey County are from BIPOC communities, and 40% transition from MFIT program into employment. As shown in the demographics on this slide, African American and American Indian employment tends to be lower compared to other racial ethnic groups. And when further broken down compared to all MFIP recipients, these outcomes become more disparate, which is why employment amongst these two groups remains a priority focus for Workforce Solutions. MFIP is one of the county's largest programs impacting residents. Currently, we have approximately 3,000 families actively working with employment counselors on both our internal MFIP teams, along with eight vendor partners and the county's public health department. In 2027, we will closely track MFIP employment for all participants, as well as for African American and American Indian residents, to reduce racial employment gaps, and to support residents in transitioning off of MFIP and into self-sufficiency. The goals for this measure have been set based on average annual performance outcomes over the last five years and have been adjusted to ensure that they are realistic and attainable within the current service delivery model. The second measure, percentage of MFIP families engaged in MFIP holistic family support services, aligns with the resident-centered holistic support strategic priority and shows whether families are accessing comprehensive supports designed to address barriers to employment and family stability. MFIP Family Holistic Support Services is a holistic approach to serving families on MFIP by integrating career pathways with well-being and support services. Workforce Solutions, alongside a network of community partners, provide culturally responsive support at locations in St. Paul and suburban Ramsey County, ensuring families have the tools they need to achieve financial independence and thrive. In 2025, we had the opportunity to facilitate a board workshop alongside Public Health to feature the positive impacts these services and additional career pathways have on increasing employment and financial stability for MFIP families facing significant barriers. Since that workshop, additional investments through American Rescue Plan Act funds have ended. However, both Workforce Solutions and Public Health continue to work together to provide these services using TANF consolidated grant funds. The grant dollars continue to provide wages and cover support services such as tuition costs, professional clothing, and transportation to families participating in holistic family supports programming. In addition to individual employment outcomes for families on MFIP, tracking family holistic support services will help us assess and better understand the extent to which these services positively impact MFIP families as they work towards transitioning from MFIP into employment and ultimately achieving financial stability. These services are designed to empower participants to take charge of their personal development, economic stability, and build a more connected community. Family holistic support services support American Indian, African American, and families with documented disabilities who are receiving benefits. To provide these specialized services, in 2026, funds were awarded through a competitive RFP process to hire the Network for the Development of Children of African Descent, or NIDCAD, and the American Indian Family Center. By partnering with community-based organizations, the county is intentionally responding to the cultural needs of residents and ensuring that employment services are rooted in traditional values and needs to meet the unique needs of these populations. The goals for this measure have been set based on the average annual performance outcomes over the last five years and have been adjusted to ensure that they are realistic and attainable within the current service delivery model and grant allocations coming directly from the state.

Commissioner Givison.

Yes. You highlighted some of the specific groups and our intentions to meet their needs. I'm wondering if you could be more specific on what types of significant barriers are being addressed through a more holistic approach to helping families.

Yeah. The partnerships that we are, or Commissioner Jevonsingh, the partnerships that we've established with NIDCAD and American Indian Family Center, as well as HIRED, are providing direct services to those unique groups. They are addressing the specific needs by providing mental health services, transportation supports, child care assistance, and other culturally responsive needs. of each of those communities. For example, NIDCAD has a parent power literacy program and is integrating more of the personal development aspects needed for folks to be successful in employment and in life alongside American Indian Family Center doing specific services that identify work skills beyond kind of the traditional aspects that we see showing up through our partnership with DEED, and looking at some of the ways that social-emotional learning and community connectedness can help to support individuals in employment, both entering into jobs and retaining employment as well, when they feel kind of connected and supported in their work and in community.

Thank you for that, and one of the reasons why I wanted you to get into some of those specifics is because I am quite concerned about the impacts that we've been talking about HR1 on the caregivers throughout our community, the folks who take care of family and kin informally. It's not part of their necessarily paid work, but as those needs in community grow, it will be. become another barrier to folks who are in those roles to participate in a more formalized work network. So I appreciate that there are programs like that that may be helping families address some of those barriers to work as well.

Can you share with us what those numbers in red mean?

Oh, the numbers in red, Chair, the numbers in red identify the goals that we've set. So for 2028 and 2030, when we're looking at the percent of MFIP families engaged in MFIP whole family support services, that just highlights the goals that we hope to achieve in 28 and 2030 over the next few years. And then the racial, ethnicity, or disaggregated data percentages highlighted in red are the goals that we hope to achieve in serving those specific populations who are receiving holistic support services and making sure that we're reaching those with the greatest need.

Okay, so it's like an increase. Yes. It's going to be more intentional work support. Yes. Commissioner McGuire.

Thank you, Madam Chair. So yeah, just some clarity. So on the page before that, the percent of MFIP participants employed, is this an increase? Or this is just like when we say 2% and 4%, is that the total of people that we want employed? Or is that an increase? I mean, really, is it that? We're not employing very many people. Am I reading these numbers correctly? I mean, this is a huge deal. I'm thinking that that's a goal of this program, is to get people up and out. And employment is a huge issue, as you know. So, but this is, I mean, I know we want achievable goals and we'll keep improving on these, but it's, yeah, they're pretty, is it pretty standard for there to be this low? I'm pretty surprised, actually.

Commissioner McGuire, just to clarify, this measure, there is, a slight typo. So percent of Minnesota family investment program participants exited to employment. So there is a higher percentage of individuals on MFIP who are employed while receiving MFIP services, either working part-time or full-time. This measure is really designed to track those who have exited from MFIP whose income no longer allows them to be eligible for MFIP, thus demonstrating how many individuals are actually entering into sustainable employment to achieve self-sufficiency. That is ultimately kind of our north star of MFIP employment services and making sure that folks are not dependent upon benefit long term but are entering into economic stability. So the numbers here are flat. We're not looking at a significant increase due to some of the factors that I'll talk about in a moment related to funding as well as some of the policy changes, but rather for us to be able to maintain and to continue to provide that individualized and kind of holistic approach to helping folks transition off of benefits.

And Madam Chair, yeah, I appreciate that clarification in what this is looking at. Because people on MFIP are working. And if maybe we had a higher minimum wage for some of these people, they could exit off some of these programs. But they can't afford their child care, their housing, and everything, and live on a small salary. It's just too much. To exit off MFIP requires a lot of things to happen. But it's really the systemic inequities we have in how much people make and how much cost to support a family. So yeah, a number of these people are working and on MFIP. And it's just that the jobs aren't able to support them. Thank you.

Commissioner Miller?

I see we're on this page. Do we already do the next slide? Because I don't want to jump ahead. I moved back.

No, I moved back.

You moved back. Okay.

Well, I think we already did the other.

Okay, I just wanted to make sure. So a couple questions. On this slide right here, do we know... When we talk about the American Indian families or the African American Indian families, and you can see how that number goes up and down a little, do we know are these families that have been on the program for multi-years and are now just utilizing the whole family support? And then also, does this work tie into the work that we're doing with our family coaching programs that we are supporting as well? Because I know the American Indian Family Center is not a partner with the Economic Mobility Hub that is supporting the family coaching. And I'm curious if that overlaps or ties in somehow.

Thanks for that question, Commissioner Miller. This is just tracking specifically those participants who are actively engaged in the family support services programming. There is intersection with some of the other programs that you've named, but we haven't been tracking that explicitly within this performance measure. And I absolutely can provide additional data and follow up on kind of the number of individuals who are engaged in this program as well as others who might be receiving MFIP and are accessing additional programs and services.

And then one thing I do want to just name and just say are I know that for the Native American community, like you said, we partner with the American Indian Family Center. But have there been other agencies interested in holding that contract or that similar contract? And why do we only partner with one? I understand that they've held that contract for many years. And I'm just curious as what does that look like going forward?

Yeah, thank you for that question, Commissioner Miller. The selection of the partners for this specific service and element of MFIP is selected through and goes through an open RFP process and competitive bid. And then they are awarded after a comprehensive evaluation process. It is open to any organization that is interested in applying and going through that. And each year we select based on a variety of different criteria. And so it's who emerges with the opportunity to serve. based on what that application is asking of partners to deliver. It is possible that in the future it could be awarded to other organizations. We've seen that happen with other partnerships as well. So it's not a matter of awarding because they've been a longstanding partner. It's the competitive process and selection.

Perfect. And I think that is all the questions I have.

Commissioner Miller, I think Accountant Becker has a response to one of your questions.

Yeah, thank you, Madam Chair. And I just want to acknowledge, I know we talked about some of the transformative investments we've made with our American Rescue Plan Act that we sort of carried over into our kind of operationalized into our 2027 budget because we see them expiring here at the end of 2026. And one of them is the family coach model. And so we, as part of the biennial budget, we did put over a half a million dollars into family coach. I understand that there is reduced funding happening in the MFIP program, but I just do encourage the department to work closely since this is a mandated program. We recognize the value of whole family supports and see that it is the wraparound services that can help a family stay employed. And I do think this is one of those cases, and those of you, we should have a workshop on MFIP actually because it's been a long time. and look at some of the support index and some of that. But I also think this is one of those programs that hasn't really changed since when we started income support programs, cash assistance. And I have a lot of feelings about this program, but it does what the system does in terms of holding people back. And it's really things like Family Coach that re-engineer the system to really think about what families need, because they need less government and more community. And that's what the family coach model really is designed to do. I will say that one of the toughest things about this program in terms of, I think what you were saying, Commissioner Miller, is these are folks that are still on the program. It's a five year. People can be on it for five years. They can come on and off. I think the real difficult thing is once you start getting progress and making more money, you know, that benefits cliff is very real. And so there have been lots of conversations about how that can be re-engineered. I mean, one of those things is to ensure you have the when you actually finally get over a threshold where you're stably employed, you finally have your kids in child care, the government sort of comes out from under you. And this is where maybe community could be beneficial, right? And so we see in the Indian Hub, American Indian Hub, the value of family coaching. Families for Life is our African-American family coach. So I just encourage, Catrice, that you continue to work with. that investment, because while your funding is going down, we did put significant money in Family Coach, and that should directly align with this family program, if that makes sense. So let's keep that conversation. So I'm glad you brought it up, and it gave me a moment to call out that 2027 investment, because that is pretty significant. That was another thing we operationalized. Really, we only operationalized very few things. In 2027, it was appropriate response, and then this was really the other really big one, so I wanted to highlight that for the board.

Thank you. Commissioner Magnetri.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I want to go back really quickly to the slide on page 23. I know that we talked a lot about the decline and the really low numbers for American Indian and African American. But I also want to highlight the significant drop from 2024 to 2025. for the Hispanic community. Is there any insights as to why we saw such a drop from the 25% to seven?

Commissioner McMurtry, that's one that I would probably have to look into to kind of demonstrate or figure out kind of why those percentages have dropped pretty significantly from 24 to 25. I don't have that data with me today, but we definitely could follow up with that.

Thank you. Okay. Commissioner DeZong.

Great Thank You madam chair um may we just go back to the percent of Minnesota family investment program participants employed I Just had a question about like you know just across the board the percentage is really low and are we measuring Like new employment that they have from participating in the program I

Yes, Commissioner Zhang. We do track multiple kind of factors of employment entering into part-time or full-time employment, whether that's new or they've been in for a period of time, which would be kind of the retention of employment for those on MFIP. You know, I think the data that's demonstrated here, it's intentional to kind of call this out because it is relatively low. And it's an area that we want to see improvements on. And so incrementally, we're committed to improving the number of people who exit into employment off of MFIP. And we're kind of moving in a direction by tracking this to demonstrate the direct connections to employment that those participants are having. Historically, we've also had an opportunity to report out on some of the other programs. And so we've kind of separated MFIP from dislocated workers or some of our WIOA data to truly highlight where there's opportunities for growth to support residents to entering into employment. So the percentages here are low and some that we aspire to improve over time.

And so this is current MFIP participants who are not working?

It's MFIP participants who have exited into employment, meaning they're no longer eligible for MFIP because their income has exceeded the eligibility criteria. So there are separate measures for those who are on MFIP and receiving those cash benefits and other services while also being employed. So we do have a higher percentage of MFIP participants who are working. This is specifically those who are transitioning into economic stability.

OK, great. And do you have a number on this? Because the percentage is just really low, and I just don't have a grasp on how many total. Yeah, I can provide that as follow up as well. OK, great. Thank you.

All right, Commissioner Miller and then McMurtry.

Okay, while we're still on this slide, do we know the participants that exited off, did they utilize training programs or other support services that we offered versus them utilizing career advancements on their own if they were already working part-time or they were already in school versus, hey, they're starting at zero, they got a job, they went to a training program, right? Do we have that type of data as well?

Commissioner Miller, yes, we do. That quick answer is yes. And again, 100% of individuals who are referred to MFIP employment and services are receiving kind of high touch supports and are assigned to an employment guidance counselor that is a county employee who's providing the ongoing support, setting goals with each individual participant around education and employment. to help them achieve the goals that they're setting for themselves and their families. And then we also do connect those participants to programs and services that we are providing directly through our contract-funded partners, as well as those are provided internal to the county and within the broader workforce ecosystem based on individual interests. For example, you could have a participant who's interested in customer service training or is looking to go into an office assistant position. And so we could connect them with another partner who's providing that training. Our employment counselors would be working with them directly. to participate in that program, reduce any barriers that would prevent them from successfully achieving and completing that program, and then helping with the job search process as well. So they're getting that high touch kind of wraparound support from beginning of coming into our program and then transitioning into employment and beyond.

That's awesome. I just want to follow up and say I think that's an important part or an important piece that we try to communicate somehow during this budget season or even just going forward is that our participants that are on this program or some of these programs are employed. They are working hard to exit the program and use it how it's intended to be used and it's not abused, you get a lot of that misinformation or that misconception that people utilizing these programs are abusing them. This is really important data, and I think it's really important that we somehow find a way to make sure we tell that story.

That's awesome. Commissioner Mametri.

Thank you, Madam Chair. How do we define economic stability? And I ask that because, you know, folks who are, you know, no longer qualifying for MFIT may hit a threshold where they, you know, maybe deemed economically stable, but we know that that may not still be the case. So is there a situation where we're still getting folks falling through the system because they may be numerically deemed economic stable of reaching whatever threshold is set, but still... is unable to afford living with the current cost of living in parts of our community. So I just want to get a little bit more understanding on what we mean by economic stability. And is that something that is said by us as a county? Is that by Minnesota statute? And are we having issues with people continuing to fall through and not get the help that they need because they have now hit some arbitrary number.

Great question, Commissioner McMurtry. If I'm answering that honestly, economic stability is a subjective term, and it is interpreted differently depending on the stakeholder, partner, and or individual. who's receiving services. So I would respond to that by saying that for us, economic stability is entering into employment that's an in-demand, high-wage industry or sector that allows for a person to maintain self-sufficiency. That's maintaining housing, employment, and other basic needs without the dependency of economic assistance programs. and being able to maintain that long term. That is harder to achieve, and so I think what you've called out is really the benefits cliff that we're really thinking about and constantly working to, because it's a complex problem where we do have individuals who, by way of wages and earnings, no longer are eligible for services, but it doesn't mean that they're economically stable, right? And so how do we, I think as County Manager Becker called out, how do we connect with our community organizations to continue to provide those wraparound services when folks are no longer eligible for economic assistance, but there may be other programs and services available to them to help maintain that self-sufficiency and economic stability beyond the programs that we provide at the county. Thank you. Just to highlight some of the positive impacts that these programs have been having, this slide highlights the testimonials from staff and participants of the programs that have been integrated into our MFIP programming and MFIP holistic family supports model. MFIP participants engaged in the Workforce Holistic Family Supports Model receive cash assistance, which is temporary support for eligible pregnant women and low-income families with minor children. Most recipients participate in job training, education, or other approved social service activities to help them gain skills and move toward long-term stability. Our employment counselors offer personalized guidance, ensuring that individuals receiving assistance have the resources and support they need to achieve their career goals. In 2026, just to highlight again, we had an open RFP process that issued funds to some of those partner organizations mentioned earlier. And the voice of residents has really contributed to the positive program improvements and enhanced partnerships to ensure that each program participant receives high quality services from staff. Additionally, our holistic family supports is a unique MFIP offering that provides those additional opportunities for eligible participants. that align, again, to their individual employment and economic goals. I just want to briefly read one of the impact statements or testimonials from one of our participants provided by one of our individual placement support counselors. Evie is a single mother of two six-year-old disabled twins. While in the IPS program, she has earned her associate's degree from Century College and will be continuing her education at St. Kate's this fall. She is working part-time while maintaining school and her children's doctor's appointments on a weekly basis. And I just want to highlight that because those who are participating in this program, as I mentioned, have unique situations, both with their children and for themselves. And so being able to respond to some of those day-to-day needs while also maintaining employment addressing the complex medical needs of their children as well as themselves is a significant positive impact that these programs and services are having on families, and they're able to achieve that independently. The third measure, percent of residents serviced at career labs from low-income Ramsey County zip codes, aligns with two of the county's strategic priorities, intergenerational wealth and economic justice, as well as resident-centered holistic supports. This measure advances these two priorities by demonstrating who is accessing walk-in county workforce services and whether we are reaching residents in communities with greater economic needs while also supporting equitable access to community-based and culturally specific workforce services. Since its opening in March, the St. Paul CareerForce location at Ramsey County Government Center has been one of the most used locations across the state. And CareerForce is our comprehensive one-stop center where county staff serve job seekers and employers alongside state staff. This location is open five days per week and is where we serve majority of our customers. In addition to the CareerForce location, the Workforce Solutions Career Services team provides drop-in services at two additional locations, Roseville Library and Maplewood Mall. Career labs are adjacent to county service centers and provide those walk-in services and employment services to anyone in need. Measuring the percent of individuals from low-income zip codes allows the county to both assess who is accessing career labs and career force, and to ensure that the services provided are reaching individuals with the greatest need in our community. The zip codes listed in this slide are those that were tracked in prior years, but do not include all low-income zip codes in Ramsey County, so it's not a comprehensive list. Low-income zip codes are classified by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development as having an area median income or household income of 80% or less for the geographic area or meets the income eligibility standards as determined by the commissioner required for a household to receive financial assistance from a federal, state, municipal, or utility program administered or approved by the department. Adding this measure along with others will also help with tracking residents who may be impacted by HR1 work rules related to SNAP and Medicaid. In partnership with the Department of Employment and Economic Development, DEED, as well as financial assistance services here at the county, we will monitor who is entering career lab locations to assess any emerging trends that could lead to service improvements or potential changes for those impacted by HR1 work rules. The goals for this measure have been set based on, again, on the average annual performance outcome over the last five years and have been adjusted to ensure that they are realistic and attainable within the current service delivery model that combines both state and county methods for tracking participation at CareerForce and across county career lab sites.

OK, Commissioner Jefferson, let me just say that the hope is to have you, it's 3.50, to have you to end by 4 o'clock, because we have one more.

I'll keep this quick, then. I do appreciate that you have set goals that meet the current grant dollars and your current ability of fulfilling the program. I guess the question I have is, if an administration's goal is to move people from, let's say, a small town to a big city, the social safety net programs into a workforce. Have you seen the dollars move from, if they've been taken from this pot and put into workforce pot? Have you seen additional investments in such an activity? Commissioner Jevin's saying no. Thank you.

The fourth and final measure is the number of residents who complete the public pathways program and gain employment. This measure aligns with the county's operational excellence strategic priority and demonstrates whether county investments lead to county jobs. Public Pathways has been a longstanding investment coordinated in partnership with HR to achieve the county's goal to complete talent attraction and retention efforts, demonstrating our one Ramsey County approach to building our internal workforce. The goals for this measure have been set based on the average annual performance outcomes over the last six years and have been adjusted down slightly to account for the natural attrition within programs and decreased funding that has resulted in an overall reduction of opportunities offered. Lastly, I'll just briefly mention looking ahead, Workforce Solutions will deploy upstream strategies to identify tangible changes and maintain existing services. These strategies include enhanced collaboration across departments, leveraging existing funds to reduce financial pressures, community collaboration and engagement, specifically within communities where we are seeing the most disparate economic outcomes for residents, such as African American, American Indian, and families on MFIP. In closing, the workforce solutions performance measures presented demonstrate how we are working to advance one Ramsey County, connecting residents to employment, addressing barriers, and providing culturally responsive services. Thank you again for your time. At this time, I'll welcome any final questions.

All right. Any questions? All right, so I think I had one quick question. But I think I'm going to pass. You can follow up later. All right, so there we go. I want to welcome Director Ross here to speak on veteran services. Please introduce yourself and proceed.

All right. Thank you. Good afternoon, Chair Moran, commissioners, county manager Becker, and members of the public. I'm Christina Ross. I'm the director for veteran services. Thank you for the opportunity to present today. Before I begin, I want to recognize Deputy County Manager Francois, our administrative director, David Zafran, a program evaluator, Joseph Desinclos. He's probably gone now. And of course, our veteran services team and our CSS team for their support, feedback, and partnership for preparing today's presentation. I also want to thank the board and County Manager Becker for your continued investment into veteran services. and thank the veterans and the families who trust us to serve them. Today I'll be sharing three performance measures that help us answer three questions. Do residents know about us and are they accessing our services? Are they receiving the services they need when they reach us? And are we helping them take steps toward accessing the benefits they've earned through military service? Throughout the presentation, you're going to hear me use the word residents, and I'm referring to veterans we serve, surviving spouses, and eligible dependents. I'll start with a brief overview of veteran services and our role in Ramsey County. So under Minnesota law, Veterans Services is a Ramsey County local resource for helping eligible residents access benefits and resources earned through military service. Our role includes helping residents navigate, understand, and apply for federal, state, local benefits such as disability compensation and pension, health care enrollment, survivor and burial benefits, property tax programs like the disabled veterans market value exclusion, housing resources, and other benefits. Veterans also come to us dealing with justice involvement, financial hardship, or other barriers, and we work across systems to address those alongside their benefits needs. But our work goes beyond a single benefit or an application. Veterans may come to us with needs that cross multiple systems. Oh, sorry. I forgot my assistant to do that. OK, thank you. So we work across systems to address those alongside their benefits. Now I lost my spot. We provide services in several ways. through in-person, which is at Plato and our Maplewood Service Center, phone, virtually, through home visits, and at community partner locations. So residents have multiple ways to connect with us. With that overview, I'll move to our three performance measures for today's presentation. So on the slide, you'll see our three performance measures. We intentionally selected these three measures because together they reflect the resident's journey through veteran services. They follow a simple progression. Are residents finding us? Are they receiving the services they need? And are they taking action toward accessing an earned benefit? Each measure connects to a Ramsey County strategic priority. Together, they help us understand whether county investments in staffing, outreach, training, technology, and service delivery are leading to better access, service quality, and outcomes for those we serve. They also hold us accountable by showing what is working and where we still have opportunities to grow and improve. The first step in that journey is access. Our first performance measure focuses on equitable access by looking at percentage of residents who connected with our office for the first time. We previously tracked the total number of residents served and that told us about our workload, but it didn't tell us whether we were continuing to reach veterans and families who have not used our services. In 2025, 27% of the residents we served were new to our office, slightly below the 2020 to 2024 average of 29%. Our goal is to return to 29% by 2028 and increase that to 31% by 2030. But this measure isn't simply about getting more people through our doors. It helps us understand, again, who's finding us, how they're finding us, and what happens after that first connection. New residents learn about our office through other veterans and families. Word of mouth is probably our primary referral source. They learn about us through other county departments, community and veteran organizations, and outreach activities. These multiple pathways matter because veterans don't all enter the system in the same way. Awareness also matters because having benefits available doesn't mean veterans know that they're eligible, understand how to navigate a complex system, or know where to go for trustworthy assistance. Some of the most heartbreaking conversations we have are with veterans or surviving spouses who paid an organization sometimes thousands of dollars for claims assistance that's available through our office at no cost. That is how this measure connects to racial and health equity and shared community power. For us, equity isn't simply making a service available. It means understanding whether veterans across our community can actually find it and access it. Available demographic data has limitations, particularly for veteran populations with smaller numbers. We use it as one tool, not as proof that we've achieved equitable access. It's to help us ask who we are reaching, who we still may be missing, and where outreach or community relationships need to be strengthened. A good example of our recent work with veterans of the Secret War in Laos, also known as Special Guerrilla Unit Veterans, recent Minnesota legislation established access to state veteran benefits for eligible SGU veterans through targeted outreach community partnerships, a claims clinic, we've helped Ramsey County SGU veterans to understand their new eligibility and navigate the process to access those benefits. We're also learning that a first connection doesn't always result in a benefit application. And that doesn't mean the interaction was unsuccessful. Some applied for disability compensation or other VA benefits. Others needed help researching an existing claim or connecting with another organization better positioned to meet their immediate need. Ultimately, the value of this measure is not simply the percentage of new residents served. It's whether we're creating multiple pathways into veteran services and connecting each resident to the right support for their situations. Going forward, we'll continue strengthening referral pathways and community relationships and improving how we document what happens after the first connection. But access isn't only the first step. Once residents reach us, are they receiving the services they need?

All right, Commissioner Jevenson.

Yeah, I just wanted to thank you for the outreach and the education that you do to allow veterans, their families, and survivors to know what they are eligible for, what they have earned through their amazing service to our country. Before working at the county, I provided older adult services through the White Bear Lake area schools. And we provided education all the time. And when the VA benefit person from Ramsey County would come, it was a wonderful time for those individuals to collect. They would hear about potential things that they might be able to access in the future, be able to realize that perhaps the role they served years and years ago was now the reason for hearing loss and that those expensive hearing aids would be available and help through your services. And also because you were partnering with our local service organization, if there was something that wasn't part of their VA benefits, because they were there, our own a benefits person or a person who was guiding people to the local resources was able to give them additional access. So this work has been going on for a while. And I also want to say that locally being able to have you come out to the Maplewood Service Center and different places like that has really helped. I had an individual just very recently asking about burial services at Fort Snelling. And before I could even get back to him, He had gotten something from our offices reminding them of services. He was able to go into the Maplewood Mall, and within a couple of days, he got what he needed. And that's really what we're hoping for. So I just want to thank you so much for that type of outreach. It's really important.

Thank you. Appreciate it. So this performance measure. So our second measure tracks the percentage of veterans who report they received the services they needed. In 2025, we changed this measure from general resident satisfaction to a more meaningful question. Did you receive the services you needed? Because of that change, 2025 establishes our new baseline. 96% of survey respondents reported that they received the services they needed. We're encouraged by that result, but we also want to hear from more residents. Increasing survey participation and using that feedback to improve responsiveness and the overall resident experience are priorities for us moving forward. This measure aligns with operational excellence. For veteran services, operational excellence isn't simply completing a transaction or processing an application. It means providing knowledgeable, consistent, and responsive service. Meeting a resident's needs rarely happens in isolation. It's often the result of our staff coordinating directly with county, state, and community partners, which is part of why we track this as a shared outcome, not a transaction. Veteran benefits are complex, and they often can change. So staff training and expertise are critical to providing residents with accurate guidance and effective assistance. But performance data gives us only one view of the resident experience. Resident voice helps show what receiving the services someone needed can actually mean in their life. So here's a quote from one of the veterans that we had served. So this veteran reached out while she and her son were at risk of losing their housing. What stands out about her experience is not only that her immediate need was addressed, but how it happened. Veterans services staff and our county partners worked together, stayed in communication with her, and helped stabilize her housing. Her experience is powerful, is a powerful example of what we mean when we ask whether residents received the services they needed. It also reinforces that we don't do this work alone. Veterans often come to us managing several things at once, housing, financial stability, health care, and many other things. Through our previous work within health and wellness, and now as part of the community services and supports, we've built strong relationships across county departments. Together with our community, state, and federal partners, these relationships allow us to provide more coordinated, resident-centered support rather than expecting veterans and their families to navigate multiple systems on their own. So those partnerships are particularly important in our work toward an effective end to veteran homelessness within the Ramsey Continuum of Care. We want clear pathways so veterans who are experiencing or at risk of homelessness are identified early and connected to veteran services and the appropriate housing resources. That pathway works both ways. Partners connect veterans to us, and when a veteran comes to our office with a housing need, we can quickly connect them to a broader housing response. And while we want to address the immediate need that brings someone to us, We also want to identify benefits that may contribute to the residents' longer-term stability. And that brings us to our third performance measure.

And before you do that, Dr. Ross, I'm just wondering, have we reached 100% of veteran homelessness?

Say that one more time, please.

Have we reached the goal of 100% veteran homelessness?

That's a great question, Chair Moran. So it's to reach 100% of veteran to no longer be homeless. It's a matter of working together with our partners across Ramsey County and which one we're doing. So we have the Homeless Veteran Registry. And just because we reach an effective end to veteran homelessness, it doesn't mean that a veteran's never going to be homeless again. It just means that we have put together a process where if someone comes into homelessness, they will have a pathway forward and out within 90 days. So there's certain benchmarks we have to meet in order to declare an effective end to veteran homelessness. And we're very close, by the way. Probably the fourth quarter of 2026, but I can't make any promises.

Very close, though. Very, very close. Okay. Commissioner McMurtry. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Going back to the the percentage of veterans who report that they received the services that they need. One thing you mentioned was a hope that we're able to increase the level of participation in the survey. Out of curiosity, what is the current level of participation do we get from those veterans who we serve?

Commissioner McMurtry, I'm so glad you asked because I actually have that information with me. I just have to find it. Okay, it's right here at the top.

Okay, found it.

So I can give you the 2025 results. So in 2020, and these are just in-person surveys that we do right now. So of the total in-person visits, we had 1,557. Of those, 434 did survey responses. So that's about 25. 28% rate. So what we're hoping to do is increase them by potentially doing text and doing it to all of our appointments, not just in person. So we do a lot of virtual outreach and different things like that. So we're meeting them out in the community. So we're hoping to increase that. We also have a passcode on it right now. So we're thinking of taking that passcode off, which then they can just do the QR code and take the survey.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Let's see. I just want to first say thank you so much for being able to capture and work with residents so directly and intimately. Just having this resident voice is so important for folks. And on the topic around housing and homelessness that Chair Moran mentioned here, what has the role of our department been around the encampment and also doing direct engagement out on the ground to see if there are folks who are veterans or a family of veterans that could also be eligible for services? Sure.

Commissioner John, so glad you asked. We have a joint powers agreement, a full-time position. She's a veteran outreach social worker. And she is working with our encampment team right now. So she goes out there once or twice a week with the team. I think they go out there three times a week. She's engaged with them usually one or two times. But we also have information that we give to the outreach team so that they do identify a veteran. They know where they can find us. And then she's out there once or twice a week and can meet with them individually. We're also at the St. Paul Opportunity Center. We're at Union Gospel Mission. We're at various libraries throughout the week as well. And then our office at Plato and Maplewood Service Center.

OK. And is that a question that we're actively asking all the residents, too, that we're encountering? I believe former Commissioner Martinson said that the term, it's like, have you served in the military? Or are you a veteran? That there was a difference in how people responded, whether or not they identified as a veteran. And that you would have to say, have you served in the military?

Right. Yep. So when we talk to other departments and community members, we're asking them to ask if they've served in the military, not if they're a veteran. Because the veteran definition can be very broad. People can term it different ways. So, yep. Okay.

Yeah. Yeah, that's great. And it's just really important as we think across one Ramsey County that we're doing that cross-training, but also being out in the community to help serve them. this department would be able to help leverage additional federal funds if folks were enrolled or didn't participate in those programs. We can leverage more funding and support for them if they have served in the military. Okay.

All right, you can continue.

Okay.

All right. I think we're on measure three.

Okay.

All right, let me just remember where I'm at. All right, so our third measure is the percentage of veterans who served, who applied, veterans served who applied for at least one qualified benefit. As county veteran service officers, we have a responsibility under Minnesota law to help residents access and secure benefits available to them because of their service. We chose this measure because it helps us understand whether residents are moving from receiving information and guidance to taking action toward accessing a benefit they're eligible to receive. In 2025, 30% of the veterans we served applied for at least one qualified benefit, compared with 25% in 2024 and 16% in 2020. Our goal is to reach 33% by 2028, and 38% by 2030, building on that progress as we strengthen outreach and referral pathways. This measure connects to Ramsey County's resident-centered holistic supports priority. Veterans don't come to us as a claim or a single need. Depending on the resident, the appropriate support might include VA disability compensation or health care, survivor benefits, state financial assistance, or a combination of benefits and resources. Many of those benefits can provide ongoing income, health care, and other supports that contribute to long-term stability. I also want to be clear about what this measure tells us. Submitting an application is an important step, but it isn't the final outcome. Every application represents a resident taking a concrete step toward accessing income, health care, or another earned benefit While that is meaningful progress, the outcome we ultimately want to understand is whether residents successfully secure those benefits and how those benefits affect their lives. So we can track outcomes for the state benefits we submit. Our federal VA outcomes are harder to track. Since those systems don't integrate with our case management system and we're not automatically notified of every decision, manually cross-referencing every submitted claim against federal award letters would take a significant amount of staff time away from directly serving residents. So improving that data connection with our federal partners, rather than closing the gap manually, is where we're focused next.

All right. Commissioner McMurtry and then David, did you want to?

OK.

I'm sorry. Oh, okay. Sorry.

Yes. So one of the questions that I have, you kind of led right into it, which is if part of your goal is to connect our local veterans to the services and the eligibility of things that they're eligible for, and you talked about a technical or IT kind of data issue with the federal government. I guess one of the questions that I was going to ask is I know that there have been Severe cuts in the VA staff positions at the federal level, some 40,000, I think. The last time I counted, it could be more since then. How is that impacting your ability to connect local veterans to the services that they've earned, or the programs and eligibility of the services? Sure.

Commissioner Jebin-Singh. It's a good question. There has been a lot of cuts within the federal VA system. However, so this can be a really deep question and a deep answer. So those cuts haven't necessarily impacted veterans, per se. So I'll give you an example. When we file a claim, a federal VA claim, Prior to this current administration that we have right now, it was taking about 160 days to get a claim from submitted, developed, awarded. Right now, it's taking about between 75 and 81 days. So it's actually going quicker. But what we are finding on our level, and this isn't to... talk dirty about our VA. But what we are finding is that there's a lot of errors in these decisions that are coming back. So if we don't take the time to review the claim, read everything, we're reading the letters, the compensation exams, everything to really understand why it was denied. And so we're finding a lot of errors in those things. And what that does is create more work for us, because then we have to file an appeal. or a higher level review. So all of that takes time. So what we focus on in our office is, again, going back to operational excellence to make sure our staff are highly trained, know the M21, the 38 CFR, so that we can go in there and submit really good claims the first time so that they're not coming back and we have to file all these extra things.

So they're quickly being returned, but are they quickly being denied?

Not all the time. But when they are denied, it's usually because of an error. OK, on our end as far, or no, on that side.

Error rates are a big thing, so it's not unique to. I don't think they talk about those. OK. All right. Well, I really appreciate that context because, you know, we hear about different cuts and we hear how it's impacting people. And I think the idea that we continue to walk alongside our veterans to make sure, regardless of what is happening in the greater landscape, that you're helping them get what they've earned. So thank you for that.

Thank you. Yeah, Madam Chair, Commissioner Jevenson, I think some of those cuts are... kind of ancillary to the work that we do and not like directly like what kind of Dr. Ross is talking about. When I was reading about it, it has something to do with sometimes the federal veterans preferences where like we hire a lot of veterans on the federal level. And so there's like been a little bit of a walk away from some of those preferences, investments, if that makes sense. Obviously, VA hospitals, we're not responsible for a hospital. I also did hear there was some things related to a suicide hotline. So I think there's a lot of things that have to support veterans. And not all of them touch the county directly, but they touch veterans in the community, if that makes sense. So I don't want to overspeak, Director Ross, but it seems like there's a lot of things. 40,000 people, obviously. are supporting the infrastructure of the livelihood of veterans. You know, maybe not necessarily in reimbursement processing directly, but you've even indicated there's a little bit of a hiccup, you know, with some of that. So, thank you.

Commissioner McArcher? I don't have a question. Okay, good. All right. Okay. Director Ross, you want to? Closes out or are we done?

Almost done.

Okay.

It's holding a little bit longer. So as we look ahead, our performance measures are helping us identify three areas of focus. First, we'll expand access. We'll continue strengthening outreach and referral pathways while exploring more intentional approaches, such as social media campaigns, community presentations, and partnerships with businesses and veteran employment groups. We'll also continue exploring other strategies to reach veterans who may not already be connected to traditional veteran networks. Second, improve outcomes. We'll work to hear from more residents by simplifying our survey and expanding it beyond in-person visits through options such as text. We're also developing an internal dashboard using Microsoft Power BI to help us identify trends, documentation gaps, and quality assurance issues. And we're beginning conversations with our federal VA partners about opportunities to improve access to claim outcome information. Third, respond to changing needs. Changing changes in federal or state veteran benefits can also create new eligibility and demand quickly. So we need to be able to update our knowledge, workflows, and communications as those changes occur. We'll continue investing in staff training and expertise while strengthening our One Ramsey County and external partnerships. The county's investment in more equitable compensation has also helped us recruit and retain experienced staff, directly supporting the consistent, knowledgeable service residents depend on. There are challenges particularly reaching veterans who aren't already connected to veteran networks and obtaining consistent federal benefit outcome data. Those challenges reinforce the importance of collaboration with our community, state, and federal partners. So as I close, these These measures help us better understand whether Veterans and their families can find us, receive the services they need, and make meaningful steps toward accessing the benefits they've earned. Just as importantly, the data helps us identify where we can improve, and that shows how we intend to use the measure moving forward. I want to thank the Board and County Manager Becker for your continued support of Veterans Services. our partners for their collaboration, and our veterans and families for trusting us to serve them. We're proud of the work we're doing, and we know there's always more we can learn and improve. We remain committed to ensuring Ramsey County veterans and their families can access the benefits, services, and supports they've earned. So, thank you. And I'm happy to answer more questions. Love answering questions.

All right. Well, we want to thank you, Director Ross, for your work and Thank you for your leadership. We so appreciate it, especially in the area of veterans. We appreciate you. So commissioners, members of the public, county manager, DCMs, DCM of the community service and support service team, I just want to thank you all. I want to thank the community services and support team, for their presentation today and for their commitment to improving the lives of Ramsey County residents by connecting them to benefits, housing, employment, and veteran services, and more. The closure of the encampments in St. Paul has highlighted the acute need for these services. And a special thank you goes to the community service support leaders and staff who have been instrumental in the county's response. The service team continues to step up and demonstrate the county's ability to be creative and nimble in how it connects to residents and services. So for all the next presentation will be tomorrow. August 28th from 9 to 4. It's a long day.

Come prepared to stay.

The county operations service team will present their performance measures. So as a reminder, we want to encourage public participation in the budget process. You can participate by attending a public hearing, contacting your commissioner, or submitting a written comment to the chief clerk office. Instructions on how to participate and a full schedule of upcoming meetings is posted on the budget and finance page. of Ramsey County website. Thank you all for staying in this, participating in this, and being great partners and support for the residents of Ramsey County. Enjoy your evening and see you tomorrow right here at 9 o'clock. Thank you all.