REALTIME FILE

Meeting ‑ CCSWW Tacoma‑Pierce County 
Coalition to End Homelessness

Friday, April 3, 2020

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[Due to technical difficulties, approximately the first ten minutes of the meeting was unable to be transcribed and is not included here].

>> I can't find anything, it's crazy.  So if anybody finds where you can find glycerin gel or aloe vera gel and alcohol, please pass it along to me because I am on the hunt.
>> Great.  Thanks so much.  Cynthia.
>> Hi.  I just want to say I am so impressed with the work that you are all doing.  My role is as an advocate.  I particularly work statewide on homelessness, but also in Tacoma‑Pierce County with the League of Women Voters, so my job as I see it is to stay on top of what's going on so when advocacy opportunities occur I can help.  In the meantime staying on top of stuff means that I am amazingly impressed with all of you.  Thank you for what you are doing.
>> Good morning.  Dawn Anderson.  Seeing how we can assist our members and providers in this time of need.
>> Hi there.  Yep, I guess I never heard what you were asking us to like actually say about anything.
>> Something going good, something you need help with.
>> You know, things are going, so that's it.  Things are going, I'm dealing with it, just like everybody, so thank you.
>> Awesome.  David Carr.
>> Hello, my name is David Carr, representing the Tacoma‑Pierce County Health Department.  I am the community outreach branch and we are trying to address the need of individuals experiencing homelessness, and I say our most ‑‑ the challenges we have right now are supplies, supplies, supplies, so thank you very much and have a nice day.
>> Thank you.  Fatima.
>> Hi.  Can you hear me?
>> Yes.
>> Okay.  So I am with Capital Human Services, Homeless Development Services, and I guess one of our biggest needs right now are volunteers.  We have been getting a lot of food and food donations for our Nativity House and Stability Site and the hotel that we have, but we only have two cooks and they are working overtime to try to feed all locations and prepare food for them.
>> This is dawn again from Capital Community Services.  I want to check in.  Did you say the crisis team was out to talk to you?  Was that how you heard about that?
>> All right.  Thanks, Fatima.  I am going to Gerrit.  What an amazing name.
>> I am going to laugh because this is my partner's name.  This is Sammy.
>> [Indiscernible].
>> I knew you would love that.  Something I am super excited about right now amidst everything going on is Building Changes, senior manager education strategy.  We just dropped a survey to 599 across Washington State to assess for needs and surveying students experiencing homelessness.  We are hoping and we know that it will be connected to a philanthropic fund that will drop money into school districts.  The response date on that survey will be April 10th, so we are going to be putting together an evaluation around what the needs are out there and see how we can get to that population.  It's also going to include youth and young adults, the people partnered at this moment are Treehouse, OHY, the [indiscernible] Foundation and Building Changes, so something to keep your eyes on first for students experiencing homelessness in Washington.  Good to see some of you.
>> We are going to go to GEllis.
>> Hi.  Just checking in.
>> Excellent.  Thank you.  I am a little lost here.  Greg Holman.
>> Hello.  Greg Holman, Associated Ministry, rapid rehousing.  I will tell you our entire team is up and running from home.  We continue to do new intakes.  We have actually housed clients during this time and we have actually gotten clients employed during this time.  So we have been going full steam, matter of fact we will probably start taking on more referrals next month.
>> Awesome news.  Mr. Walker.  Hmm.  Not ‑‑ there we go.
>> Okay.  I think I'm good now.
>> You are good.
>> I am Greg Walker, area director for Pierce County, we operate the Serra House, which is a shelter for 13 to 17‑year‑old youth, and things that are going well for us, we are really kind of pleased with our facility because the youth have individual rooms, and we have the ability to keep people separated and practice social distancing pretty well, so we have had relatively few hiccups.  The biggest challenge we are facing is keeping a group of teenagers engaged and understanding that they need to maintain social distances and that this probably isn't going to end any time soon and we have to find ways to make life interesting in an isolated environment.
>> Well, thank you.  I am going to circle back to Bonnie Rico.
>> CLR, foundational community support.  Our whole team is working from home, and the housing part of that is actually doing pretty good.  We are talking to clients on the phone and we are still trying to help people find housing and believe it or not there are a few landlords out there that are willing to do things right now, so slowly, slowly, we keep chugging along.  It's good to be here, even if it's on zoom.  I miss the paste Reese.
>> It does feel strangely intimate.  I am kind of enjoying this little check‑in.  Mr. Pogue.
>> Good morning.  I am James Pogue, and am I on?
>> Yes.
>> Cool.  I thought I saw the mute sign.  I have to ask 12 times if you can hear me for one meeting, so that's my quota.  I am James Pogue, executive director for homeless services at Comprehensive Life Resources.  We are on the agenda later, so I will give updates later.  We have foundational community support which Bonnie is part of, doing work remotely, taking clients as well for that Medicaid service, and then we have our outreach team that for the most part has whittled down to our forensic team which we have sent information out about our forensic path and forensic hearts program, and I can give more updates later.  We are starting to work with the Health Department about getting the necessary PPE for our regular street outreach team to get out there.  We haven't had adequate equipment, so we have not done face‑to‑face.  We have been taking phone referrals or e‑mail referrals and following up that way, but if we can get the equipment necessary we will do street outreach again.  I have a lot of cool things going on for the shelter, which I will save for the update.  And we need masks, specifically the surgical or N 95 masks.  So anything we can do to get equipment, we will take.
>> Thank you, James.
>> Thank you.
>> Jeannie.
>> Are we still on James?  Want to check in and say hi to everybody.  I am the state senator from Tacoma, but I also serve in that capacity on the Homeless and Housing Security Committee, and I am just wanting to say thank you, all of you, for the amazing amount of work that you are doing to try to help people become housed and through this virus crisis, so I am pleased to come today to kind of get people's impressions about what's going on if there are questions I can follow up and get more information, I am ready to write down my to‑do list.  So let me know what I can do for you.  Thank you.
>> Excellent.  Love the offer.  Janelle Walter.  Janelle?  Okay.  I'm going to go for Joy.
>> I didn't think you knew I was here.  [Laughs].  Hey, good morning, everybody.  Shared Housing Services.  We are still diligently working and housing folks.  We have been pretty steady since all this began, but we do have some major guidelines for people coming in.  They need to make an appointment before they come, and we are not really letting anybody through the door unless they knock, and then when they do come through the door it's one at a time and they are staying in a certain front area by the front door.  So we are still here.  We are still matching people up to share affordable housing, so remember us.
>> Thank you.  Mr. Seaquist.
>> You there?  Oh, boy.  Something happens where I unmute ‑‑ 
>> Oh, gotcha.
>> Larry Seaquist.  Like Cynthia, I really admire the work you are all doing.  Cynthia and I have convened separately a very sizeable group of people around the community to think about the immediate reaction to the crisis, and obviously in view of the political and legislative leadership need to think about moving beyond just the reaction of the number of infections, you know, and chasing a virus.  We've got to think about downstream of the homeless problem and because clearly we are going to have a lot more homeless coming in.  So if you've got ideas about that h I would love to hear from you.  Thank you very much.  We will keep you posted.
>> Thank you, Larry.  And lenscha, I don't know who that is.
>> I am working from home, it's been a bit challenging.  Can you guys hear me?
>> Yes.
>> We still are working.  Challenges would be having two children home while I am working from home, but we are still doing our best to help our patients.  That's all I got.
>> Great.  Thanks so much.  Luiz.
>> Good morning, everyone.  Hear from the Rescue Mission.  We are still working on all our campuses.  If you need us, give us a call.
>> Awesome.  Thank you, Luiz.  Mary with the Parks.
>> Hi.  Mary Anderson with Metro Parks Tacoma.  I guess we've been doing our best to accommodate folks that are out in the parks, and been working with James to try to set up a shower program for the tents.
>> Great.  Thanks so much.  Maureen.
>> Hmm.  I might need to do something clever.  Maybe she is on the phone line and I will catch her in a few minutes.  Melissa.
>> I am ‑‑ can you hear me?
>> Yep.
>> Director from [indiscernible] services.  [Indiscernible] Benedict House and now our hotel, so I think like everyone else just trying to keep my head above water.  Staffing, trying to hire staff as quickly as we can, getting people in the shelter that want to come and work and just trying to navigate not having our Day Center open anymore and places for individuals to go during the day.  We are still doing our feeding program, so we are doing breakfast and lunch during the day, and then we have the handwashing station outside that the Health Department has let us use and we have had some porta‑potties that were delivered again day since our last batch, they kind of demolished them in like two weeks and the company that was lending them to us decided they didn't want to work with us anymore.  I am trying to make it all happen.
>> Great.  Thank you.  And we are going to go to M. Haney.  And that didn't work.  So Mr. Yoder.
>> Good morning, everyone.  Associated Ministries.  We are plugging away as my colleague Greg said.  Most of our team is ensconced at home and doing our work as usual.  We have a few open office hours in our building for people who need to walk in for screening or diversion appointments, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday from 11:00 to 3:00 if anyone doesn't have any other way to reach the housing counselor, they can come to our office and still see ‑‑ still be met by a live person, most likely put into a room and talked to our staff via phone, but they will be using our phones in one of our rooms if that is necessary.  I have been encouraged by the communities' response.  My predecessor, the legendary David Alger has started a GoFundMe campaign, that's all his doing, but he is the activist type, as many are.  They want to do their part, so he wants to try to raise funds to basically help us have a little bit more resources available at our Community Connection Resource Center, which we used to call our family emergency fund.  
	Obviously we all know, it's been said, Larry mentioned, there is going to be a tidal wave, a tsunami growing off the coast that's going to hit us, I think especially around May 1st when the next monthly rent is due, there will be so many people with so many needs, so to the extent that we can build up just these extra small emergency funding sources, and get those out there, there will be many, many crisis needs to meet and just encouraging the community step forward in big ways and small to put together resources to help us anticipate this growing need.
>> Thank you.  We are going to give Rowan a try.
>> Hi, everybody.  Sherri, Rowan is my daughter's name.  So Valeo has been pretty busy.  Staff are working from home, we are doing virtual intake.  We have evolved with the challenges.  We are now partnered with MDC.  We are partnered with Salvation Army to work with COVID impacted folks, so MDC will have a COVID positive shelter.  We have been kind of quiet about the work we are doing but we are looking for additional staff to come in.  We are providing [away from mic], working pretty closely with the Health Department.  We have extended our eligibility to include anybody whose employment has been negatively impacted by COVID, so if you know folks who are looking to work and open to working in an impact shelter, please have them reach out.
>> Great.  Thanks so much.  I am going to try to unmute you again here, Ms. Haney.
>> Hi.  Thanks so much.  Sorry.  I actually hung up instead of unmuting myself.  [Indiscernible].  I wanted to touch base with all of you today to kind of see what the state of services were in the county, so that I can keep our team up to date for any of our patients who are currently experiencing homelessness.  So thank you for having me.
>> Great.  Roxanne.
>> Hi.  I have just been out here on the peninsula working with different groups, so it's just been great to see everybody come together out here.  We are limited, no dig to the coalition, so please don't take it as that.  It's just been great to see everybody come together, and as Larry said we know we are ‑‑ we need to look forward so that's what everybody's been doing, and that's all I've got.
>> Awesome.  Sarah.
>> Can you hear me?
>> Yes.
>> Great.  My name is Sarah, with the Sexual Assault Center for Pierce County.  I am the coordinator our sex trafficking program.  We currently aren't offering any in‑person services, but both of our hotlines are still running and we are looking for resources for our clients just because a lot of them are experiencing homelessness and don't really have a lot of places to go right now.  Thanks for having me.
>> Thank you.  Stephanie Glover.
>> Hi.  Can you guys hear me?
>> Yes.
>> Perfect.  I will keep this short and sweet.  I am pretty sure my cats are fighting in the other room, but I am here with STS from Comprehensive Life Resources.  There is not a lot I can say that Bonnie and James haven't covered.  This is a hard time that we are going through and really challenge to go see the impacts, that this is really affecting our community, and I am really grateful to be with a network of providers that are doing such good work and continuing to stay strong for our community and it's very, very heartwarming and thank you and everybody just keep up the good work.
>> Awesome.  Sheila.
>> Good morning, everyone.  Happy Friday.  I am program coordinator for economic security for all at the Goodwill and thankful that I am still employed during this whole issue, and I have been working closely with Kelly Blucher and Maureen in compiling an ongoing resource list for homeless service providers, so not only do I want to give that out to the LISTSERV, but also anybody who has anything that they want to add to that list, links, whatever.  We are updating it every week and then I will be sending it out probably Monday sometime, so please send any updates for me.  Much appreciated.  Thank you.
>> Dr. Power‑Drutis.
>> [Laughs].  No one calls me doctor, except you.  A couple of things on a high note, this community I live in, the Hilltop urban village ‑‑ I am Theresa Power‑Drutis with New Connections, and this community I live in is a very tight community.  We started a thing that I want to recommend to people.  If you know your neighbors, every night at 7:00 P.M. one of our neighbors sets up Zoom and any of us who are available check in, and it's been one of those most heartening things during this period of time for me, just to be so tight with my neighbors is kind of intimate, to be seeing everyone's faces as you are talking.  
	So low point is that Guadeloupe House has stopped doing their dinner temporarily, they said for the next two weeks.  I am on cooking duty for the third week and I am ready to go on it.  I hope they will do it again with handing out the to‑go boxes like we have been doing the last several weeks.  But if you are used to coming to the Tuesday dinners, please let them know it's off for the next two weeks.  And the last thing, there are a lot of things people have said that I would love to brainstorm with you about because we are facing many of the same things.  We are still taking women out of the prison.  We have had to totally change our program, which is ‑‑ because we are all about people getting out into the community and getting independent, and now we are having to have people stay in and try to be creative, so if anyone ‑‑ if there is any chance to have a brainstorm about some of those things, several of you mentioned about trying to find things to keep people creative and joyful in the face of being grounded, I would love to have that conversation.  [Indiscernible].  What fun.
>> Thank you.  Tiegan.
>> Did you say Tiegan?
>> Yes.
>> Hi, everyone.  Good morning.  Tiegan from City of Tacoma.  I know Allyson [indiscernible].  Also I have a six‑year‑old singing in the background of my house.  I spent the last couple of weeks really helping the shelter operations because as many of you know they were not 24‑hour programs, so I have been working to support them and get them up and running so they can operate on 24 hours, seven days a week, so that's been a lot of work, but also very rewarding and very important work.  
	So I will keep that part brief because I know Allyson is going to go into it more.  It's good to see all of your faces.  Sorry mine isn't up, though.
>> Todd Hobart.
>> Hi.  Are we doing check‑ins?
>> Yes.
>> Okay.  If Brian already checked in for Safe Families, that takes care of it for me.
>> Great.  Welcome.  Troy.
>> Hello.  My name is Troy, and I am an intern at the Nativity House in Tacoma.  I have been out of state for about a month, but I have been watching everything what's been going on, and so I am just back, now back here this week getting used to the new shelter processes and getting used to learning how to work remotely with my supervisor and creating a work process to work with the clients remotely to try to work with my caseload that way.
>> Great.  Thanks.  Valeri.
>> Hi, Valeri Knight with Pierce County Human Services.  The last couple weeks have been crazy.  We did get the state plan approved, the Department of Health, Pierce County and City of Tacoma so that 1.6 million that was initially released, we got word this morning that was approved by the state.  I will e‑mail that out so everybody can see what's approved.  I do know we are getting ready to release application for that 1.6 million in the next hours, no more than a few days, so that's your tidbit, so a super easy application.  If you filled out the Healthcare for the Homeless Funds, it's very, very similar to that one.  So just kind of keep that in the back of your mind that that will be coming soon.  We are going to leave it continuously open just in case other sources do become available, we will keep a streamlined process to make it as easy on everybody as possible.  Other than that, I am here for questions and how I can best support you.
>> Thank you.  Mr. Rose.
>> Hello.  I am [away from mic] and we are trying to do our best to support our community right now, so we have a couple of COVID clinics [away from mic] and doing what we can to help.
>> Great.  Thanks.  Zoe.  Going for Zoe.
>> Hi there.  I work with Tacoma mutual collectives and I am here to hear what's up with everyone.
>> Great.  Okay.  I am going to do a few more names and kind of work myself ‑‑ I've got ‑‑ let's see.  [Indiscernible].  Did I already do you?  Mr. Brown.
>> Can you hear me?
>> Yes.
>> This is Alan Brown, director of Family Housing Network with Catholic Community Services.  I want to just remind folks that coordinated entry is still up and running strong, as it is at Associated Ministries.  The good news is we seem to be actually having a greater percentage of successful homeless diversions doing them in these circumstances by phone, so that's great.  And people can still drop into our Day Center to get set up with coordinated entry by phone, or dial 211.  We would like to look for a way to make that phone call for coordinated entry have a more immediate response rather than having people make an appointment.  The other good news I will share is just want to thank the Health Department and David Carr for their support in providing, helping us get some supplies for our Day Center, our Day Center for families is still open.  It is a challenge to ‑‑ we don't have a lot of space to keep people separated, but that's still up and running.  The other challenges I think about are more ‑‑ a couple of community challenges, one is how we help people complete the census, and the other thing that I wonder is how people without a home are going to get their stimulus checks.  That's it.
>> Thank you.  Catherine Garretson‑Bilnoski.
>> So I have a degree in psychology and a [indiscernible] certificate a couple years ago.  I work with [indiscernible] and mostly I am here because I am looking for ways to ‑‑ because I have my fingers in knowing what's going on at the grass roots in my area, but I am looking for ways to know what's going on in my area and potentially with food insecurity coming up, so want to be on top of that now.  [Laughs].
>> Great.  Thanks.  Mr. Boitano I am guessing.
>> Thanks, guys.  Chris, Nativity House.  Our team has been reaching out to our clients via phone, which has been a challenge.  If anybody knows how to get ahold by phone of our friends out on the street, that would be appreciated.  Here also to listen in for what resources are still available to our guys.  Thanks.
>> Thanks, Chris.  I am going to give Kenny a try.
>> Hey, everybody, this is Kenny from City of Tacoma, just listening in to hear what you all are doing.
>> Awesome.  Reanna Bettencourt.
>> Hi.  My name is Reanna.  I work for the Tacoma‑Pierce County Health Department in the Healthy Homes Program, and I am here to listen in and get some updates and see what's going on out there.  I am working from home.
>> Cool.  Thanks.  All right.  I am going to try the different folks on the phone.  I am going to do your phone number and see if that works.  I am going to go for phone number last four is 8679.  It will be like a do you know your phone number game.  The answer is, no, you don't know your phone number game.  Dang it.  We will try another one.  0206.
>> Hi.  Can you hear me?
>> Yes.
>> I didn't expect to be connected.  This is Stephanie with Catholic Community Services, Family Housing Network.  I work on the data team.  I am working from home supporting the case managers that work with Catholic Community Services, and I really appreciate everybody's work that they are doing in this time of ‑‑ I don't know what to call it, but I appreciate you all.  Thank you.
>> 0901.
>> Hi.  This is Juanita Perez, a case manager with the Rescue Mission, and what I am hearing from our guests is just concerns with childcare organizations being closed, apartment management offices being closed, and potentially job resources that they would usually reach out to being closed, and so they are concerned who is being in compliance with our guidelines at the Rescue Mission, and so I am here to help get some resources that would assist them.  Thank you.
>> Thanks.  2846.
>> This is Sherri again.
>> All right.  9207.  All right.  0848.
>> Hi.  This is Rosemary Powers with New Connections.  I am on the Key Peninsula right now and trying to figure out some ways I can be supportive staying inside a little space, so I am here to keep up with what's going on and thank you so much for all the work you are doing.
>> 7071.
>> Hi, it's Jenny from Inside Passages.  We are fully up and running; however, my navigation team is providing services over the phone.  We are accepting referrals from anyone who feels they have a client who could use our services.  You can contact me directly at our ‑‑ on my cell phone actually 360‑789‑7071, and I can answer questions in regards to eligibility, services that we are currently offering.  Right now we are just focusing on providing client supportive services, so we are doing our best to find landlords who are still providing services, same as many of you have said right now.  We have found some that are still doing things electronically or over the phone to get clients housed, and provide any other services we can right now, but we are still taking referrals, to feel free to give me a call on that number if you have anyone that you feel we can support during this time.
>> Thanks.  9207.  Did I already do that one?  All right.  I have unmuted all of the phone numbers, so if I didn't get you, can you chime in?
>> Hi.  My name is [indiscernible] from the Rescue Mission Family Campus, and I am just calling to check in to see about the community news.  And things are going well at the Family Campus.  We have had a huge outpouring from the community, which has been amazing.  So many people have been supportive, and our staff is working so hard to make sure that the families have what they need, so things are going really well.
>> Thank you.  All right.  I am going to mute all you guys back up.  I am going to hand it off to the Health Department.  A bit of a time constraint, so we are going to jump right into that.  And that would mean I would have to actually unmute her.  All right.  You are on.
>> Can you guys hear me?  This is Cindan.
>> I think I lost you, not hearing anything.  Please stand by.  Okay.  Can you hear me now?
>> Yes.  Oh, great.  Thank you.  My name is Cindan with the Tacoma‑Pierce County Health Department.  During the COVID outbreak I am community branch director in the Pierce County EOC, so I am working with Carrie and [indiscernible] and Dave here.  I understand you wanted a Health Department update on what's going on.  
	First I will say that obviously the Health Department is [indiscernible] and so we are activated in an emergency situation at multiple levels, and many of us have very different jobs to do.  For example, in my formal day‑to‑day life I direct the [indiscernible] with the Health Department, so I am not a homeless housing, I will say that right up front, but I am learning today.  
	What I wanted to report out, so, again, high level, the Health Department is coordinating the disease investigations to this outbreak.  They are coordinating with the healthcare system, hospitals, on capacity, bed capacity.  The community branch that I am directing, we are primarily focused on working with you all as homeless service providers.  We are concerned about sanitation and hygiene for people living homeless, and we are coordinating with Pierce County Human Services and City of Tacoma Neighborhood and Community Services to try to have a better coordinated response and in terms of helping you all understanding the funding out there and how we can get resources to you through the department of Emergency Management.
	So that all being said, specific to people who are living homeless, we have been, again, working on kind of three main things.  One is assisting you all however you need us to with getting additional space for either social distancing and/or isolation and quarantine, so I think many of you heard that yesterday the MDC facility on Tacoma Avenue opened up a temporary expansion shelter and this is specifically for people who have been diagnosed ‑‑ people living homeless that have been diagnosed with COVID, or they have symptoms and they are awaiting test results.  So, again, the Health Department is coordinating with the healthcare providers to get people to identify as homeless and who are positive into that facility.  We have been kind of troubleshooting it, putting people into the White House that is across the street from the Health Department, other motels, but now we do have an actual site.  So thank you MDC for getting that up and running, and so that's a big thing that we are working on.
	Also taking [indiscernible] of all the locations of temporary shelters.  We update that daily, at least daily, sometimes it changes two or three times a day, to try to keep it accurate as to who is doing what during this very strange time.  So if you don't already get that from Dave or Carrie, let one of them know and they can start passing around that list to you all.  We make sure it's updated with your information.  
	Then next, hygiene and sanitation, we have already distributed out Health Department staff around that, the county and city have both also as you know distributed sanitation and hygiene resources.  We are coordinating with other places like the City of Puyallup EOC, other folks where needs are popping up for those kind of handwashing stations, showers, we have been working with the YMCA.  We expect their Tacoma downtown facility to open April 8th.  That's the tentative start date.  And then other community shower hours that we are looking at, Lakewood, Puyallup and Sumner.  So we are working closely with the Y again to try to get them funding so they can open those showers.	And also follow health and safety protocol, so that their staff and any clients who use the showers remain safe.  
	And then let's see.  There was one other thing.  Homeless outreach teams.  James, you heard James, you heard others talk about working with the Health Department to try to get that out if they aren't already still doing the outreach, and so we are coordinating with our health and medical folks to either provide medical staffing, although I don't think that it's possible given the staff shortages that we have among public health nurses, but either possibly using our Medical Reserve Corps, who are volunteers, or at the very least providing a training to those of you on your staff who are doing homeless outreach so that you can be trained on how to stay healthy and safe during this time when you go out in the field.  So we have a list of things and supplies that we are trying to get to James and his folks and others to continue doing that homeless outreach work.
	So I think that covers the major things that we are working on.  Are there questions at this point?
>> I had this dream of having it so you could raise your happened like the actual feature in Zoom, but I totally failed in putting that together.  Apparently you can say things like yes and no.  So definitely yes icon up there if you want to talk.  Oh, look, you can raise your hand.  Wow.
>> Yes.
>> I guess I can't raise my hand but everybody else can.  Thank you, Zoom.  Theresa.
>> Okay.  I'm sorry.  Right now I got to put this on pause.  There you go.  So I have a question about the safety thing that I am just shocked that with all of the ‑‑ many times we have been asking for a Safe Lot that in this time it's not happening.  I am hoping some of the funds will get used to create a Safe Lot right now.  My front yard is a Safe Lot and it's not safe.  So all of these big ‑‑ we are just overwhelmed right now, partly probably because of all the closures, but we have ‑‑ our whole street has become a giant garbage heap and we have all these RVs and it's just crazy.  Please, please, a Safe Lot with garbage control.
>> Yes.  Sorry.  Again, I am not a homeless [indiscernible].  You have to tell me where this is happening and what organization you are with.
>> So I am with New Connections, but it's not about New Connections.  It's about my neighborhood.  I happen to live in the same neighborhood as ‑‑ well, I live in that Hilltop neighborhood, and we have had a longstanding problem with no place for people with cars to go, and other cities have dealt with this and it's not easy, but it's better than what is happening.  It's not just my neighborhood.  There are many neighborhoods who are facing this.
>> Okay.  Yeah.  Thank you.  I will raise that concern with Linda Stewart with the City of Tacoma because it is Hilltop that all kind of is in her jurisdiction, so I will absolutely raise your concern to her.  We have raised it to her many, many times, just so you know.
>> I appreciate that, and we will do our best.  I mean I am not sure what more I can do other than to raise it again to her.
>> I want to tell you I am really pleased with what you are doing.  I know I sound a little fierce.  I really, really approve of what you are doing.  I don't understand why this one low hanging fruit has not been picked.
>> Right.  Okay.  Again, I will advocate on your behalf.
>> Thank you.
>> You are welcome.
>> All right.  I am not seeing any other hands raised.  I set it up so you can unmute yourself, so if somebody else wants to unmute yourself and ask a question, now would be a great time for that.
>> Unfortunately I only have five minutes and I have to leave for another meeting.
>> Zoe.
>> I posted this in the chat.  I talked to the city and they are not planning on putting handwashing stations or bathrooms at any of the encampments like CDC recommendations.  They are saying they are only going to put them outside shelters that have closed for daytime hours.  Yeah.
>> So if I am hearing it, the need is for happened washing stations, hygiene, out at the encampments.
>> Yes, which is the CDC recommendation.
>> Which is what?
>> Because that's the CDC recommendation.
>> Right.  Okay.  And, again, are you talking about encampments within the City of Tacoma or throughout Pierce County?  What's the ‑‑ do you have any specific information from like your outreach activity where you have seen these things?  That would be really helpful.
>> Yeah.  So the city keeps a map of encampments that's publicly available, but they don't tell anyone that they do that.  So they do know where at least some people are.
>> Yeah.  Okay.  So you are primarily talking about the need ‑‑
>> The City of Tacoma, yeah.  That's the area I work in.
>> Okay.  Great.  Thank you.  And that's another reason why we really want to get these outreach teams up and running again so that we can have eyes on the ground with ‑‑ you know, so we can track these specific needs and then figure out how to address them.  So thank you.
>> A question from Maureen.  Are you implementing CDC's guidance for unsheltered people, no sweeps, individual housing units for high‑risk people?
>> Yeah.  Sorry.  I am having trouble hearing.  Are we implementing the CDC guidelines?  
>> No sweeps of homeless encampments.
>> No sweeps, yeah, yes.  So we put ‑‑ we sent out a letter signed by our Director of Health a couple of weeks ago, sent it out to our community partners and the city representative saying we strongly recommend that no sweeps occur.  We did check in with our [indiscernible] of law enforcement people here in EOC and heard from everyone that [indiscernible].  So if you know of any sweeps that are happening, let us know because we are being told by law enforcement they are no longer doing that.  They are not doing any of it.
>> Just as an FYI, the city does not have that message.
>> Tacoma?
>> Yes.
>> This is Allyson with the City of Tacoma.  Yes, we absolutely are not performing any encampment sweeps [indiscernible] and providing outreach and services to individuals in encampments making sure that they have access to healthcare needs if possible.  Thank you.
>> Gerrit, can you let people know that they can raise their hand if they click on the participant button down at the bottom of their screen, if they click on that they have the capacity to raise their hand.
>> Sounds good.  Thank you.
>> So I am not sure that I heard all of that, but what I can say is we can absolutely bring this back up with Tacoma Police Department and verify that the message gets out again.
>> All right.  Theresa.  You had your hand up?
>> Can you hear me?
>> Yes.  Oh, Maureen.
>> I finally got the buttons right.  Listen, thanks for that information on the guidance that went out and the response.  Allyson, thanks for your response.  I think it would be really helpful if we could get a copy of the letter that went out to the jurisdictions because we have been asking for response for this for a long time and haven't gotten it.  I think the thing that we would want to add is that when law enforcement engages folks who are unsheltered, in addition to identifying people who obviously have ‑‑ or are exhibiting some medical needs, but to try and identify the same group that CCS and TRM did, folks by their age or underlying conditions are high risk, even if they don't exhibit any COVID‑19 symptoms, and to figure out a mechanism to get those folks into hotel rooms because there is no shelter for them, but to try and do that.  And I am just ‑‑ I am delighted to have this information and I will be sure to share this in the ‑‑ not just state, but national groups that I am part of.  This is huge.
>> Yeah.  I completely agree with you.  One other thing to note that a temporary care center, which is open to anyone, not just people living homeless, but a temporary care center will soon be opening in southeast Tacoma.  The latest ETA that I have heard is next week, like next Thursday, so I know Council Member Beale has been looped into this, other council members.  They have started doing site tours.  When that hotel is up and running, then it will be available for people living homeless and a resource.  Again, our idea, let's get those outreach teams out there checking in with people, looking for symptoms, letting them know of available resources.
>> All right.  I have a question from Janelle Walter.
>> Yeah.  I haven't introduced myself yet.  I was running two meetings at the same time.  But I do know you are talking about something I have been worried about this week, and one is the sweeps.  And the city has told me as of yesterday that they have not communicated that to the police department, and so I am wondering why the miscommunication because I have a written e‑mail right now, has that been communicated to the Tacoma Police Department, and I was told no by the city manager's office.
>> Yeah.  Again, communication is so hard in this time.  I can tell you from the Pierce County EOC that the Tacoma Police and Fire have been very involved in the temporary care center that's opening in southeast Tacoma next week.  Now for the MDC temporary expansion shelter, which is open now on Tacoma Avenue, we did have some miscommunications.  We do believe now everyone is informed of what's happening at that site with Tacoma Fire, Tacoma Police. 
>> Thank you.  And then one other question is during the city council meeting [indiscernible] is saying that there is a noted difference between temporary care centers and temporary expanded shelters and he mainly was saying that temporary care centers are not being ‑‑ going to be utilized for houseless folks except for by exception, and would be placed in temporary expanded shelters instead.  Can you expand more on that?
>> Sure.  I think ideally because people living homeless as you all know have ‑‑ often have multiple needs, special needs, they need additional care.  Our first choice would be that someone who is positive and is living homeless would go to the MDC center because they have that specialized additional care.  If that fills up and we no longer have a safe place to house people at that facility, then they will go into the temporary care center.  Does that make sense?
>> It does.  So the temporary expanded shelters, are those allowing for specific isolated units, or is that just the greater unit itself?
>> Yeah.  Hold on just a second.  Why don't we start our meeting at 10:30.  Okay.  I just delayed the other meeting that I am going to so I can keep answering your questions.  So temporary expansion shelters, and we can send you all the definition.  It's actually on our website, but we can send it to you.  Folks in the room are writing down what I am promising, right?  Thank you.  We will give you the definition.  Temporary expansion shelter is strictly for people living homeless.  So it can include isolation and quarantine beds.  It can include social distancing.  So we are counting, for example, Tacoma Rescue mission moving into Bellarmine Prep, their social distancing in the gymnasium.  We are calling that a temporary expansion shelter.  Temporary, meaning it's not going to last, expansion means you need more space, and a shelter specific for homeless folks.  Again, there could be multiple reasons for temporary expansion shelters.  That's the big difference.  A temporary care center is specifically for anyone who doesn't have a safe place to either isolate or quarantine themselves, and that can be a number of situations, a crowded house.  You know, a vulnerable population, someone who is vulnerable living in the household, those kinds of things.
	Does that help?
>> Yeah, it does.  Thank you.
>> All right.  Theresa, you had your hand up?
>> That was just about the letting people know how to raise their hands.
>> Okay.
>> I am finished with that.
>> I got it all cleared out now, and I don't see anything else, so thank you, Health Department.  Just a bit of an ask for the Health Department, you guys might think about putting together a little zone of quietness for your conference calls.  There is a lot of background noise that sort of leaks in, so maybe you can find a closet, that might be beneficial for us hearing on this end.
>> Yeah.  Thank you for that.  Okay.
>> All right.  No other questions?  I think we are going to head over to Valeri Knight or to Allyson Griffith for a county or city update.  Valeri, you kind of gave an update.  Do you want some more time?
>> No.  I think we are good.  You are all going to hear about Share and Care here in a moment, which is super exciting.  I will send out the plan that was approved by the Health Department and the state and the City of Tacoma.  It outlines the 1.6 million.  Other than that we are here to help and support, and I am here to answer what I can and what I don't know I will get for you before the end of the day.  If there is any questions specifically for the county, let me know.
>> All right.  Allyson.
>> Hi, everyone.  Allyson Griffith with the City of Tacoma.  I think that Cindan touched on the majority of everything we have been working on with both the Health Department and the county.  There is a question about rental assistance and what the city's plan is since the county has launched their program.  At 2:00, Neighborhood and Community Services will be making a presentation to council for our city council, and part of that presentation will be regarding our rental assistance approach, so we are looking at that and probably looking to launch relatively shortly, but just want to give you that heads‑up that they will be meeting today at 2:00.
>> Awesome.  Do we have any questions for the city?  Theresa.
>> Hi.  So, Allyson, I just have a question.  We are talking about no sweeps and I know that 311, when they get called, tell us it will be ten days, possibly, before anything can be done, and it would be really great if they would be frank with people and say nothing will be done, and it would also be great if the city would put out something for not just for the partners, because neighbors ‑‑ I am the main communicator with my neighborhood and that's really ‑‑ really it would be good if the city had a web presence that helped people understand what's going on because it is hard, and it's going to help people if they understand the rationale behind it and if they see you are doing everything you can to provide other pleases for people to stay.
>> Thank you, Theresa.  Appreciate the commentary.  We are working on updating our messaging back to folks who make complaints in 311 so we can be more clear on what we are able to accommodate at this time, so I appreciate that.
>> All right.  I am not seeing any other questions, so thank you, so much, Allyson and Valeri, and I don't know who is going to be presenting for Share and Care House, so hopefully you will unmute yourself and provide us a little information.  Or they are not here.  Valeri, you want to provide a little bit of information on that contract?
>> Sure, yeah.  And whatever I get wrong, you have to forgive me ahead of time.  So the best way to contact Share and Care is through 211.  They also have their own e‑mail and a phone number specifically for rental assistance program, and it is for folks who are currently at risk of homelessness.  They are housed so it is not for folks who are experiencing homelessness.  This is a true prevention program for anyone outside the City of Tacoma.  It has a [indiscernible] requirement of 15% or less.  With low income that will not be hard that to achieve.  Up to two months of rental assistance.  A lot of programs will cap like 500 or 700.  Share and Care is the primary, really working out on a case‑by‑case basis how to get to folks without doing face‑to‑face, so a lot of e‑mails and phone calls and collecting the minimal amount of information as safely as possible.  That's up and running.  It's not a ton of money.  I think it's going to go really fast so we will have to see where it lands after that money is gone.  [Phone ringing].  That's my boss, multitask.  It's only up two days, so hopefully if there is any additional questions I can answer or we can get you connected with Kathy or Charlene over at Share and Care.
>> Not seeing any questions for you.
>> Okay.
>> Awesome.  I want to slide into some updates.  We did a little bit of that as we started off, but maybe I will ‑‑ do you have anything else you wanted to mention, Melissa, about Nativity House?
>> No.  I think things are running as well as can be expected.  Our case managers are trying it figure out how to go back to doing their case management inside the shelter and at the hotel as they have been covering shifts and kind of running the shelter with the new expansion site, so trying to figure out how we can do some coordinated entry and get things back up and running since we kind of pulled them and are using them to keep things going at the hotel that's going 24/7.  So just trying to coordinate meal deliveries to that site, and then like the rest of you guys said is our volunteers are kind of dwindled out and not able to help in the kitchen as much.  It's put an added strain on our poor kitchen staff, so we have our one cook in the morning and in the evening and trying to still provide meals to the community as well as the Stability Site, and the hotel.  It's just been a little bit of an added burden to them because we depended so heavily on volunteers coming in and bringing some of those things.  So just adjusting to some of the new things that are going on and trying to be as creative as we can, and just kind of know that each day is going to probably change and we will just go with the punches as we make it through this, so.
>> Yes.  And punches they do feel like, don't they?  James.
>> Yes.
>> For the Beacon shelter we have full time to the Beacon site at 415 South 13th Street at the corner of 13th and faucet.  Last night we had ‑‑ our typical capacity is 40 during the normal times and during inclement weather it's over 50.  We are trying really hard to accept everything.  We have we are short staffed, and in the comment section we relinquished our rehiring freeze because we need more shelter staff.  If you are looking for temporary work or permanent work and want to work in a shelter in a high risk place, please apply or send somebody to apply.  Maybe I will connect with Sherri later.  We are offering three meals a day.  We have had an awesome partnership with Tacoma Rescue Mission, who has offered us dinner as long as I have been on the team, and starting next week, Alma Mater, which had to close during the virus, is catering three times a day, so they will start catering our meals.  We will have a press release and Q13 is covering it sometime next week, so really excited.  Jason from Alma Mater has been an amazing partner.  We are paying them a meager amount for the food, and he gets to put a couple of his employees back to work, and of course we get amazing food.  So we are very excited about that.  
	As Mary said earlier, from Metro Parks, we don't have showers on site and I really want to thank Sea Mar, specifically Frankie at the Healthcare for the Homeless Clinic, who has been giving us a shower to use daily, but one shower in 15‑minute increments, we can only do four and eight showers a day depending on the staffing level.  We have been working with the YMCA to see if they have the bandwidth to open up their facilities, or People's Center or the Y behind our building.  The longer and harder we try to encourage people not to leave the site, the more we need people to leave the site, each to just go get a shower, just something planned, scheduled, to get people off campus.  We are doing a lot of stuff on the Beacon Center to keep people engaged.  We are bringing telehealth, but we don't have on site work, so we are trying our best to be creative.  Anything else I can answer?  I mean we are working really hard.  We have 24/7 program with a bunch of teenagers that would be hard during normal times, we add into it we don't want them to leave anywhere, and just this underlying pressure going on.  For the most part we have 80% of our participants are amazing in, they bought in, they are grateful, and the rest of the group we are having probably appropriate level stress and behaviors.  So a lot of work but anything I can say or do, any questions about the Young Adult Shelter.
>> Yep, got a question from Sheila.
>> Who?  I don't see ‑‑ there are so many questions here.
>> Sheila.
>> That was actually for Valeri and Valeri answered it.  Thank you.
>> All right.  Joy?  You had a question maybe?  Joy?
>> Yes.  Can you hear me?
>> Yep.
>> Yep.  Hey, I had a question.  What was the approximate amount that Share and Care ‑‑ what was the total amount that they got that they are doling out for that rental assistance?
>> $250,000 to start.
>> Oh, God, that's going to go fast.
>> Yes, ma'am.
>> Okay.  And the entire Pierce County?
>> For everyone outside the City of Tacoma.  They have a different rental assistance program through the City of Tacoma.
>> Thank you.
>> You are welcome.
>> All right.  Theresa?  Oh, I lost you.
>> Can you hear me now?
>> Yes.
>> So first, that's great about Alma Mater.  They have been great neighbors to us, too, and I am glad they are doing that.  I wonder if Melissa could get in on that action somehow.  But the other thing I wanted to say, two things.  One is that we are putting together some card‑making kits to keep people entertained.  I don't know if that would be useful with any of the other shelters, and I don't know how many I could do, but it's something that we are capable of doing and I am sure I can get some help with it, so that's one thing.  The other is that we have kits that we are putting together that we have given out to people when they get a new place, so anyone who is getting housed, who needs like housewares and things, we could do that.  I only have one inflatable bed, but that is available.  The third thing is about Melissa with the food preparation, we have some volunteers who are asking about cooking and I don't know if the Health Department has put anything out about how to manage offsite cooking or food preparation so that when it gets delivered it's ‑‑ people can be assured that it's safe.  So if some of those guidelines would be put out plus the things that would be most useful and how many people they would be cooking for, if you could write something up about that, I would be happy to put it out to my network of volunteers.  People are at home.  They have some time on their hands.
>> One more update, sorry, Gerrit.
>> Jump in.
>> I had a case manager, Danica, e‑mail out to the coalition about pro bono vet care.  We have taken an animal ‑‑ not a service animal, a dog, much larger than our normal kind of desired size, and we just want to make sure the dog is also healthy and safe.  It seems to be doing fine, if anybody has an answer for that, the dog's behavior is fine, but if we can get veterinarian care, if anyone knows of an option for our dog to get some normal routine checkup, that would be awesome.
>> Wed a question from Catherine.
>> Yeah.  I wanted to know if the speaker on the youth program could either post his contact info in chat or message me his contact info.  Some ideas what to do about that, keeping him occupied.
>> I am putting it in the chat box.
>> All right.  Luiz, do you have anything else you want to say about the Rescue Mission?  Or Allyson.
>> For the Rescue Mission, same thing, we got a lot of challenges on personnel.  We have done some creative ways to fill that gap, like Melissa we are using shift managers.  We have some absenteeism.  That was expected.  But we keep going at it.  I appreciate Melissa, James and Valeri, everybody who actually comes in and played on the team, I appreciate it, because that's the only way we can get it to move forward.
>> All right.  Thank you, Luiz.  I don't see any questions for you, but we know where to find you.
>> [Laughs].
>> The last conference call, Luiz was in the passenger seat of a moving vehicle.  Are you sort of moving from location to location, undisclosed?
>> When you have five campuses, you got to move around.
>> All right.  Alan, are you going to do an update on FHN?
>> The Family Day Center at 5050 South Tacoma Way is open, and it is one way to get an immediate coordinated entry conversation as well.
>> Thank you, Alan.  Mr. Huff, any updates on Bethlehem?  Or anything else?
>> I don't know that Mr. Huff is here.  I just assumed he is always here.  I don't think we have anyone else from MDC.  Oh, Cece is here.  Do you have anything, Cece?  I will go ahead and take that as a no.  Greg, did you have anything else for Serra House?
>> Oh, we are doing good.  The only thing is we do have beds, so if you know of anybody under the age of 18, 13 to 17‑year‑olds, that are looking for a place to get inside, we have bed space.  We have some limitations, they can't be involved with the foster care system, but we are doing everything we can to be as accepting and low barrier as possible with that limitation put on us by the state.  So if you got people, send them our way.
>> Cool.  Cece?
>> No, I don't have anything on any of our shelters right now.
>> All right.  I didn't see anyone from LIHI or from Helping Hand House, so I would love to hand it off to you, Maureen.
>> I think I figured it out.  Can you hear me?
>> Yes.
>> All right.  Eventually I will get the video ‑‑ or the camera part working.  So I am Maureen Howard, and I am a long‑time housing and homelessness advocate, and I try and keep tabs on policy, funding, resources, that the frontline folks may not have time to do.  And so it's follow the money time, folks.  So I put out yesterday a fairly complete e‑mail on the federal money that has already been allocated and the cities and the state and the county have been notified of what they are going to receive, and also some of the guidelines for use.
	One of the real issues about the money that's coming and how fast some of it is coming, and the waivers that are included, like no public process required on some of this money, is that to the extent possible I just think we are going to have to trust the people who normally manage these funds because they are coming in predictable funding channels to act in our best interests, and to use ‑‑ to match the money up most efficiently.  Sometimes that can be a real challenge if you have different types of money, each of which has the same range of potential uses.  So I think it's the ‑‑ shelters are in conversation with the funders, then you just need to make it as clear as possible exactly what you need and how to ‑‑ how you need that money to come, and so that it is a minimal burden on you.
	And then they will figure that out, but if you don't tell them, they won't know.  They only know what they know.  Okay.  So HUD money is coming.  The IRS, the individual money, the checks, the $1,200 checks, so part of the problem with this money coming so quickly, and the varying conversations coming from the White House and then coming from the different cabinet secretaries, is that it's an 800‑page bill, the CARES Act, and even so there is huge amount of room for change within it.  And some of this is ‑‑ some of the guidance is changing on a multi times a day basis, so I will be on a call and you all have the information, you are all welcome to join this national call on Monday, but it's ‑‑ part of it is supposed to be on this cash assistance part and how we get it to people who either haven't filed taxes in the last couple of years because they are not required to, or whatever reason they did not, and who are without an address, and so if you e‑mail me any questions that you have between now and Monday morning, then I can look for the answers for those questions.
	The money has a life.  My understanding is all through 2020.  So if we can't get it to every homeless or otherwise eligible person in the next month, don't panic.  We have some time here to figure out how it will work.  And the Small Business Administration money, which is all in terms of small businesses, which means 500 employees or less, was released at midnight to great confusion.  Nonprofits are eligible for this money, but this is under ‑‑ under most conditions it's loan money at favorable terms, but if you have not ‑‑ if you are a nonprofit, it's not familiar with a banking relationship around a loan.  This could be a challenge.  It doesn't mean it's impossible, and I have some ideas on how we might work on that.
	With respect to the state, so the alliance, and again you have the invitation always to participate in the Wednesday 10:00 meetings with the Department of Commerce, we had about 250 people on the call last Wednesday, Ted Kelleher sounds like he needs a four‑week nap, but in addition to the money that Valeri spoke of earlier, part of that 30 million that Commerce put out so quickly in response to COVID, they are continuing to do their regular housing and homelessness business, and everything else they do, so the organization is [indiscernible] are receiving grant awards, all that sort of thing.
	Now one of the things we don't know is we don't know at this point, at my level, we don't know, probably at Jeannie Darneille's levels, we knows, what the expected impact of the change in the economy will be to the state budget.  What they have told us the governor will review budget implications of remaining bills that he is seeing very carefully.  So he did this week sign the 6378, which is the clarification and expansion of tenant protections, which I am not going to go through.  If you are a tenant person, then we can link up with Washington tenant's union, with the Tacoma pro bono, with Tacoma organizing, with elder at the city, with the Fair Housing Center and get that information on specific to your needs.  
	There is a sign‑on letter to the governor from the Washington Low Income Housing Alliance that I sent out last night and I sent it again this morning because it went first as an organizational sign‑on, but there is now a link where you can ‑‑ you don't sign the letter, but you can send the letter as an individual, and it will go to your elected officials, your representatives and your state representatives and state senator as well, and so this letter is about rental assistance, it's about extending the moratorium on evictions, which the governor kind of gave a clue to that on "The Rachel Maddow Show" the other night when he said we will have to do something about that.  
	So we are asking for the governor to extend that moratorium an additional 30 days, and to fill gaps in the current moratorium.  Right now the moratorium does not speak to the accrual of fees.  So landlords can continue to accrue fees, which if you work with people at the risk of homelessness over their eviction status, you know that sometimes the fees are more than the actual rent.
	We want the moratorium to apply to fixed term leases that are expiring because we are seeing people get evictions based on the fact that their 12‑month lease is up and it's not going the month by month, and also applying to manufactured homeowners who rent their lands and a variety of other technicalities.  We would like a temporary freeze on rent increases.  The other thing the alliance is trying to collect, and the links are there and what I sent out last night and again today, they are trying to collect data and they are trying to collect stories to use to keep making the case on a statewide basis how we can keep as many people housed as possible and prevent as many evictions as possible.
	If you are a case manager or you work with clients in some way, and your clients have an income, encourage them to pay the rent.  All right.  The stay on evictions does not mean they shouldn't pay the rent.  If they have the ability to pay the rent, they should pay the rent.  And one of the things we are all watching is Mike Yoder and other folks have spoken about, we do not want a falling off the cliff into homelessness at the end of the eviction stay, however long it lasts.
	So the other thing on ‑‑ so locally, so the fund that Dave Alger set up and Mike Yoder has agreed to manage through Associated Ministries is basically a fill the gap.  So part of it is based on what I have seen come over the coalition.  You know, when somebody comes out and you know they have exhausted all your usual suspects looking for help, and here it is, and it's like how do we do this, and so it's meant literally to fill the gap.  And David doesn't know how much he will ultimately get, whatever it is it will go back out to folks.
	So the other thing that I learned yesterday thanks to Valeri, and maybe some of you know this already, I didn't.  I sent out an e‑mail with the report, but the Greater Tacoma Community Foundation and United Way now have this Pierce County Connected Community Response, and there was almost 5 million in the pot for the Pierce County Connected Fund.  And the link is in the document I sent out with the name on it, the Pierce County Connected Community Response, daily report.  The link is in there, takes you right to the application page, tells you how to apply, what the money can be used for, and it's important to apply because this is one way that this particular group, the philanthropic community, is collecting information on needs.  So this is not a lifetime project.  They are very clear, and in that report they say exactly they are going to exist as long as there is a need, and when the emergency is over then they are going to close this up and finish.  So I think it's pretty exciting, an addition to what we have by way of community response, and I want to make sure everybody knows about it.  
	And there is a housing‑shelter‑homelessness pod.  They are working by pods.  The other two are food and childcare, and Amanda Russbrook [phonetic], who is the city line person, is reaching out to shelters to find out needs, and I also told Erika Tucci at the Cheney Foundation is coordinating this.  She is like the incident commander, and so I told her I would pass on whatever I heard on the coalition's calls or saw on the list.
	So that's it for the moment.  If you have questions, if you have ideas, if there is a decent way to get information to you, please do let me know.  And if you want to be on the other list, the Maureen's Musings List, which is more where I say what I think, then please do that as well.  So I cannot thank you enough for the amazing work that all you frontline folks are doing.  It's just astounding.
>> Thanks, Maureen.  Great.  Greg had a question for you.
>> Yeah, Maureen.  A request.  And I think you probably already know this, but I wanted to say it in a more public forum and ask people that have the ear of our elected officials help carry this back, the SBA loans available for nonprofits, as a leader of nonprofits and having been responsible for managing budgets for a lot of nonprofits, the offer of a loan that might be forgiven is essentially making it foolish for anybody that's really devoted to trying to live within their financial means because it's not like we have deferred income that will catch back up later that will allow us to repay loans, and taking out a loan that might be forgiven, but also might not be forgiven, is a pretty irresponsible thing to do, especially with the tight budgets that most of our organizations are already living on.  So while it sounds good, the practicality is what they are offering right now is something that really doesn't help, at least small organizations I am involved on.  If we can get our elected officials to understand we need a better solution than a proposed loan by the SBA, otherwise I don't imagine a lot of small nonprofits are going to apply.  I can't apply for something I know I don't have the means for and do it in good faith.
>> No.  I think that's good guidance, but I also ‑‑ I feel like it's incumbent on me to say what's out there.  I think there are two things.  One is I tried to work with Representative Kilmer's office because he happens to be ‑‑ I am in the sixth congressional district, and I thought that his staff had a better handle on nonprofits than they do, but he is very open, he is very accessible, and I think the four representatives who cover Pierce County are as well.  Yeah, I think I would probably start there.  I am not saying don't go to Maria Cantwell, but certainly this bill, the CARES Act, became more working people, beneficial with house additions, so I think maybe that's a better way to go.  And to educate them about the real needs of nonprofits of varying sizes because I think they honestly don't know.  The more ‑‑ if you have a line of credit, you are paying some interest on it.  You look at it and say is this a better deal or no, that's your call.  But I think there is an opportunity to educate the congressional staff and elected folks.  That's one thing.  The other thing is I think the other place to go is to this community Pierce County Connect Fund, and say this is what you need, and maybe what you need is the interest taken care of, that it's ‑‑ the loan is a viable option and you ask them to write down the interest, and that would be a perfectly normal thing for many foundations to see a request like that, if they are at all involved at any kind of financing with nonprofits that have big capital projects or something like that, that somebody writes down the interest so you can get the money that you need.  
	So I think that it's a matter of how do we protect the homeless response system, irrespective of the size of the nonprofits.  It's not just for April.  Okay.  Look ahead.  Jeannie Darneille put out on her e‑mail today a really good small business crisis planning document that a nonprofit could take real quickly, and I can put that out to folks and you can just sort of adapt.  You download it and walk through it.  Now maybe there is something for shelter focus, nonprofits, I just don't know.  On a quick review this was a pretty good walk‑through of what you needed to think about.  But we need to ‑‑ to my mind, you all frontline people are taking care of people who are homeless and people now who are about to be, and you are trying to keep people you have gotten housed housed.  That's one layer.  The other layer are the staff.  Just listen to the people who said we are redeploying our staff.  We don't have case management services because we have staff running the shelters, is anybody willing to work, we've got openings, so there is a piece.  How do we keep the staff that you all have already trained and vested in and how do we keep them so at the end of this they are still here?
	And then the other part to me is the organizational part.  How do we secure the nonprofit structure irrespective of its size?  And I just think, you know, everybody doesn't have to try and do everything, but I think that we have to keep our eyes on those different pieces.  So that's my script.
>> Awesome.  Thank you, as always, Maureen.  Do we have any other questions?  Then I am going to go ahead and say thank you.  Thanks to everyone for all that you are doing, and let's have another awesome week, and I would love again some feedback on any changes to format or presenters you would like me to arrange.  It looks like we have a comment from Theresa.
>> Just a quick thing.  I don't know, because I was on the phone for a little part of this, if it was talked about the governor it talking about vetoing some of the funding that we all expected to come through.  I wondered if there is more about that.  I don't know if Jeannie is still here.
>> Yes, I am.
>> So do you know what I am talking about?
>> I do.  Do you want me to make a quick response to Maureen's statement about the budget?
>> I would love that.
>> Please.
>> Just it's pretty bad news.  We have been receiving as you can imagine a real uptick in the number of people applying for unemployment compensation.  That number has gone up from typically about 7,000 a week.  Last week it was 134,000, and this week it was 184,000.  These are new applications for unemployment compensation.  You think about our regressive tax structure, you know that we are heavily dependent on sales tax revenue, and gas tax revenue, and so you can imagine that we are not making the kind of revenues that we built the budget thinking we would have.  We are hemorrhaging about $200 million a week in a reduction in income at the state level.  We think this amount as it ‑‑ as we try to grab our own kind of bell curve in the impact on the community and whether or not people can go back to work, we are looking at the most optimistic, perhaps unrealistic of the chasm is about $2.7 billion down in revenue, up to the more likely number of $4 billion down in revenue.  And that does not even address the issue of the fact that we've got this increased caseload.  
	We also have TANF applications up, food stamp applications have gone way up, and we are working to ‑‑ we had authorized some backfilling of some of the cuts that were expected on the federal level.  I am doubtful now that those are going to be taking place, but looking at ways to expand the existing services that we have.
	So, yes, the governor is signing bills.  If you watch his bill signing, which is every day at 2:00, today would be a very good one to watch.  I believe he will be talking most about the budget which he will be signing today.  He has been vetoing sections of bills before he signs them that are prescriptive in terms of how much money needs to be spent on XYZ bill.  He is unlikely to be ‑‑ we are unable to picture how we are going to close the books on June 30th for the state.  So we are sitting on pins and needles, as all of you are, about what's ahead of us.  And we know that we are going to need to figure out some way to have a special session probably by ‑‑ I don't know.  You don't know.  It's very hard to put a timeline on anything.  But so we expect, though, that we will not be implementing new programs in the way that we have passed bills to do.  
	The governor is suggesting about ‑‑ I want to say ‑‑ let me see if I've got my notes here.  Sorry, I didn't write it down in an easy place.  But he is talking about making cuts right now in these many vetoes that he is doing of about $200 million.  We added about $900 million in spending to existing programs in the supplemental budget, so there is still ‑‑ so there still will be some hopes for that new money.  And the cuts that I mentioned, the 2.7 to 4 billion, that's a four‑year outlook and we expect we will have to figure out a way to get through our existing constitutional mandates for having balanced books as we go along, but we recognize that we are going to have to be very flexible and creative during that time.
	So I hope that gives you a little bit of a look at what we are dealing with.  I would be happy to keep you abreast of that information as I get it, but you will probably ‑‑ if you want to call in at 2:00, I mean not call in, but you can go on Facebook and get in on the governor's proclamations at 2:00 today.
>> Thank you, senator.  That's rather sobering.  I think we knew that's going to be the case, but it's a little bit shocking to hear some of those numbers.  All right.  But we've got clients to serve, and let's all head back out and do the good work.  Thank you, everybody.
>> Thank you.
[CART session ended]