REALTIME FILE

Meeting ‑ CCSWW Tacoma‑Pierce County 
Coalition to End Homelessness

Friday, May 22, 2020

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>> Welcome, everybody.  We are going to start in a minute or to.  I've got story time to welcome you all in.  
[Story time}
>> Welcome, everybody, to another edition of the Coalition to End Homelessness.  I am glad you were able to join us.  That was Grayson reading.  One of my little recreational activities is I am on a board for Community in Schools Tacoma, so that's trying to bring kids and books together in a time when they can't physically get together with kids, and I just ‑‑ I guess I was looking at that, and the first thing I thought was, I bet that kid probably has a home he is living in right now because he probably couldn't pull that off living in a tent or in his family's car.  And I think our work is really making sure kids like Grayson have the opportunities that so many of us had growing up.  
	And I am excited for all of our work and I am excited to hear about what's going on today.  I had a really light agenda coming into this meeting, but, like yesterday, all sorts of folks had stuff they wanted to talk about, so I was really excited to do introductions and hear about what's going on with everybody, but I filled up the agenda too much.  Maybe we can put that off until another week.
	We are going to start off the meeting with meeting three organizations that put grant requests in to the county to start providing motel vouchers for families experiencing homelessness.  These are three organizations familiar to most of us, but I am excited they took up the challenge of doing something unusual for them to serve folks that are already serving.  We are going to hear from three different groups, Our Sister's House, Vadis, and Communities in Schools Peninsula.  So we are going to just jump right on in with Joy, with Our Sister's House.  Joy.
>> Hi.
>> Welcome.
>> I'm Joy Sendagala from Our Sister's House.  So we did put in an application for the COVID‑19 grant, and even though we have Our Sister's House in the name, we are not a shelter.  What we do is we provide motel stays and we also have started ‑‑ we all know the housing crisis is really bad out here, so we've started doing something kind of unusual.  We will go on like ‑‑ we have partnered with Shared Housing, so we go through them to find housing for our clients.  So if they don't have any space available, there is lots of people on Facebook, Craigslist, to share and sell rooms to people, so we will help our clients find housing through that as well.
	So the grant that we applied for hopefully will be receiving in the next couple of weeks.  We are able to provide a motel stay for up to five days for any victims that are fleeing domestic violence while we try to get them into a shelter.  So the goal is to get these victims to be safe and to begin planning long‑term Safe Housing for these clients, so we are hoping to be able to assist these clients in the next couple of weeks.  We are also planning on using that money to help clients if they need help paying rent, if they need help with utilities, just anything that can possibly come up, we are planning to be able to help pay them, or help assist them with that emergency funding.
>> Cool.  So you are mostly helping clients that you are already engaging with, or do you want to get referrals from other organizations?
>> Yes.  Please refer clients to us if.  If they are experiencing domestic violence we are able to help them in any type of capacity that they might need.
>> So I put your e‑mail on the agenda.  Is that the best way to get ahold of you, or could you put something in the chat, your preferred way that we contact your organization?
>> You can definitely contact me through our e‑mail, and I will put our website down in the chat.  We have had one of our advocates who is completely amazing who revamped our website.  Even if you are just looking for resources, we have a resources page that has all the current resources that we have on hand and we provide and give out to our clients, so people are basically able to get their own resources through our website.
>> When we talk about domestic violence, some of our funders only provide resources for intimate partner violence and other of our providers provide resources for really any violent, dang just situation in the home.  Would you guys sit on one side of that spectrum?
>> No.  We sit on all sides of the spectrum, it doesn't just have to be IVP.  As long as it's domestic violence, it could be mother and father ‑‑ well, child and parent.  It could be anything.  We work with different families who are experiencing domestic violence from their teenagers, so it could be any type of domestic violence that we help out with.
>> Cool.  Thanks.  Does anybody have any questions for Our Sister's House?  If you could put your contact in the chat box, somebody asked.  Great.  Our next presenter is with Vadis.  I suspect she is familiar to most of you, but Sandra.
>> Good morning.  I am Sandra Iverson with Vadis.  You probably know the work that we do with Housing for Success, the Reach Program.  We also collaborate with the ACT Program, so we are really big on the collaboration, and we are with the young adults [indiscernible], and we are out of our wheelhouse with the shelter, but we have been doing this for awhile and felt like we could take this on and wanted to do our part also in this COVID crisis.  So we have just begun putting some young adults into hotels with the vouchers.  So far we have three.  Our goal is 14.  And it's been awesome.  We have kind of had a process and it's been making sure they are going through the coordinated entry, through the coordinated entry system, or through the ACT Program, so they've got some case management or they have some goals setting, and know that they are going to be into their housing, whatever that looks like, for that particular person, and then we are placing them in a hotel.  And our goal is a week at a time for each participant, although I think we may have some ‑‑ I am already seeing a few struggles and it may be extended, but everything is kind of case by case I believe is how we are going to process this.  Again, this is a new area for us.
	We were really lucky to partner.  Devon with the ACT Program had done some research and hooked up with Hometown Suites, which has three locations, Tacoma, Puyallup and one on the peninsula, and I am assuming that must be Gig Harbor.  I haven't looked up the address for that one, but long story short is the price is phenomenal, $57 a night, and they are suites, so they have kitchens, which is really conducive for our participants because they can bring in some of their food and do a ‑‑ I have been in the rooms and they've got a cook top and a fridge, so really financially it's great for our participants, also.
	So I am trying to have that fit work out.  Of course we are going beyond if the need is for someone else to go into a different hotel, that's going to work, also.  I don't know.  Maybe through this we will have some great contacts with hotels that will give us these great rates.  We are going to keep working on that.  It's just good for the future to have those contacts and to have those rates going forward, whether it's COVID or not.  But, yeah, we are just kind of just getting started.  So we are ready and the really great thing is that hotels work 24/7.  It's insane.  Last weekend I was working and I usually don't work with Vadis for the weekend, but they work all the time.  If somebody needs in, we are able to do that.  I am not even leaving my house, so it's super easy.  They give me their name, hooking them up, they show their ID when they get there and it's flawless.  Yeah, so we are pretty excited about that.
>> Great.  And that's serving just youth?
>> Yeah.  So far because of the contacts with the youth, obviously that's the area I am working in, so that's all the contacts we are getting.  Yes.  I had reached out to Valeri and said, hey, is this for any age?  She said, yes, for any age.  Everyone that I work with is in youth programs.  I have reached out to Coffee Oasis, too, and let them know we have this going on.  Those are obviously minors, but they do have contacts.  I slowly ‑‑ it's been a busy week but I have been trying to reach out to a lot of different programs that have the young to let them know what's going on.
	Yeah.  So I feel like we are going to be really busy with the under 25s.  Think it's going to definitely ‑‑ the small grant that we have will be busy.  Just like in two weeks, we had actually five and a couple people actually got apartments during that mix, which was really cool.  So I am kind of hesitant to go on to the adult population because I feel like this youth population we are going to be filling it pretty quickly for that need.  So as I said, it's just really kind of a learning as we go.  Yeah.
>> What about pets?  Do you guys ‑‑ if the hotel takes pets, you are okay with that?
>> Yeah.  Yeah, absolutely, absolutely.
>> And couples, is that something ‑‑
>> Yes, yes.  Couples is fine, and mommies or daddies with kiddos, yes, absolutely.  That's not a ‑‑ yep.
>> Just saying yes, that's what I am hearing.
>> Yep, yep, yep.  [Laughs].  There is no nos with this really, which is a beautiful thing, and thank goodness because we all need that right now.  So, yeah, I haven't had ‑‑ there is not a lot of barriers basically.
>> Cool.  I had a question from Theresa Power‑Drutis that I may have missed from earlier.
>> No.  Actually, I just put it up.  You are very observant.  This is a question for you and for anybody who is doing these hotel vouchers right now, all three of you.  What's your projected length of time this program will go on?  How long do you expect you will be able to continue?
>> Well, the grant is until September 30th, but Valeri is on, she can speak to it a little bit more than the three of us.
>> Yeah.  So the grant is through September 30th currently.  Hotels and motels are eligible with the newest CARES Act funding, which goes through December 31st, but everyone who received that first round of Commerce dollars was funded through September 30th.
>> So is anyone using it to purchase places so that we have something after the new year begins?
>> Not with the Commerce dollars because that was already allocated and it was only [mic cutting out].  That's above my pay grade.  I know they are talking about it.  I have not been engaged in that conversation.
>> I find it a little alarming that ‑‑ I understand it completely that we are beating the bushes for people to come into hotel rooms now, and at the first of the year we are not going to have anything for anyone.  There is a part of this which is just ‑‑ you know, is it possible that some of that CARES money could be used by an organization that actually wants to invest in this in the long‑term?  And who are you and how can we help you?  Because that's the more logical use of the funds.
>> I can speak to that a little bit if I can just take a second.  I am Wendy Wojtanowicz here today representing Communities in Schools, but I am also on the board for Harbor Hope Center, and we did get a grant about two months ago where we did purchase a home in the Key Peninsula, Gig Harbor area, so we are servicing students.  That home is particularly for girls.  So we can take up to six girls ages 14 to 20, sometimes we push 21, and then we do have a home not too far from that home where we have boys and that home is currently full.  I do have two openings for two girls, so some of the county money is going for long‑term housing.
>> And I am doing a little shopping, so I have asked the commercial real estate broker to look around for motels or hotels for sale in Pierce County, and apparently there is none so far.  If you have any leads, you can shoot them to me and I can get him working on that, but otherwise it doesn't seem to be available.  There is some interest in that Theresa.  How it comes to fruition, I do not know.
	Anyway, that was Wendy with Communities in Schools Peninsula.  Why don't we have you ‑‑ ooh, wait.  I got a question from Joy.
>> Can I go back to Sandra?  What is the name of your agency and how many rooms do you have currently available?  I've got a vulnerable adult who is needing some mental health because she is ‑‑ I think she is just depressed.  You would be, too, if you lived in your car.  I need to get her out of her car as soon as possible.
>> Right.  So 14 is what our goal is.  Right now we only have three in hotels.  So obviously we have wide open funding at this point, yes.
>> And the best way to get ahold of you, maybe you said this, is just the Vadis website.
>> Yes.  My e‑mail, sandrai@vadis.org.  Super easy.
>> It's on the agenda.
>> Yes.
>> You may have said this.  They have to go through coordinated entry, correct?
>> No.
>> Well, they don't have to.  We are making sure that they go through coordinated entry and are getting a plan for housing.  We are not just putting them in hotels and hey, let's hang out for a week.  That's not the plan of this.  It's to give resources, to give them direction, to get them hooked up with who they need to hook up with.  Yeah, it's not just, here, have a week and hang out.  That's not the goal here.
>> None of the CARES Act funding and none of the Commerce funding required coordinated entry, so they are all self‑referral, who they are already working with, organizational referrals.  We encourage everyone to connect to coordinated entry, but not in order to serve them.  We want you to serve them first, get them in a hotel and make sure they have an exit plan.  You do not have to go through coordinated entry to get into a hotel/motel.
>> Let's swing on Communities in Schools Peninsula.  Again, Wendy, if you have not met Wendy before, well, you get to today.  She is a rock star.  Let's hear what you guys are up to.
>> All right.  Thank you.  Communities in Schools is we are currently serving families on the Key Peninsula, Gig Harbor area, which is amazing because we haven't had a lot of resources out here before, so we are super excited about being able to offer this to some of our families.  Communities in Schools in the Peninsula School District, we have 15 schools in the district.  We have site coordinators in eight of those 15 schools.  When COVID started and school was let out, all of our site coordinators took on additional schools so that we could service our entire community.  So that's kind of who we are serving.
	We are also offering some of the hotel vouchers to families who have found themselves homeless.  A lot of those families have come from where they were already living with multiple other families and just with ‑‑ I think just with being housed for so long with more than too many people in the house that that created some issues.  So we do have ‑‑ currently we have three families in hotels that we are looking to place in the ‑‑ and we like them to stay in our area.  That's the cool thing about this.  It used to be before that if we had a family in the Gig Harbor area, we would have to accepted them to Tacoma or Kitsap.  So the family being able to stay in our area and connect to resources is super amazing for us.
	Not only are we helping them with housing, but we have been able to support them ‑‑ [dog barking].  Sorry.  We are providing food, clothing, shoes, art supplies has been a really big thing in our area, just keeping students busy and fed.  The other cool thing that we are also doing, and this is a little bit aside from the housing, but we are providing some support for parents.  A lot of parents are stressed out so we are providing parenting tips to support those parents that are now teachers amongst everything else.  So that's been a really cool service that we have also been able to offer.
	Community in schools has a great partner called harbor in hope and those are two housing that I was talking about before.  I happen to be placed as Peninsula High School, so we have three high schools in the Gig Harbor area and it's been amazing that when we have students that are in a homeless situation to be able to ‑‑ you know, where are you?  I will be there in 15 minutes and come pick you up and we can place them directly into whether it's the home for males or females, so that has been really game‑changing for our area.  Any questions?
>> It is quiet.
>> [Laughs].
>> There is some clapping going on, though.  Again, I think it is so notable ‑‑ there is another agency, the Salvation Army ‑‑ no.  Saint Vincent de Paul also has a grant to do some of this work in.  I asked Valeri for contact information.  She gave me a telephone number and not an e‑mail address.  I don't like making phone calls, but I will make a phone call and invite them to come.
>> I will send you their e‑mail, Gerrit.  I'm sorry.
>> It's not you.  It's me.  We've all got issues we are working through.
	We are going to shift on over to Goodwill, but before that we have a little poll.  We are going to do some polling later, but with the anniversary yesterday, I am sure all of you know, of the empire strikes back, 40 years old, I just kind of thought to warm us up to how polling works again, we would do a quick poll as we transition to Goodwill about what is the best "Star Wars" movie.  So we will have that sitting up here as we hear from Kennedy I hope, but probably Kelly.
>> She just heard her name.  She is like, hey, who is talking to me?  Hi, everybody.  How are you doing?  I'm Kelly from Goodwill if we have not met before.  I just sent out an e‑mail through the whole coalition.  If you open that e‑mail there is a flyer attached to that, which is what I am going to talk about today.  Actually, I have an added surprise.  I am going to talk about ‑‑ I will get to that.  
	So Goodwill, we have been working so hard to figure out how we could support our community during COVID, and it has been an absolute challenge, as everything has gone virtually now.  So what we do is we opened up a financial ‑‑ I am laughing at your poll, Gerrit.  It's cracking me up.
	What we did is we opened up a digital Work Opportunity Center is what we are calling it, and the first class we launched is personal finance.  So it's basically if you are familiar with our financial education course prior to COVID, where it was 10‑hour course, that you come into Goodwill and take that class, it's virtually the same thing except the great thing about this is it's actually accessible through any smartphone, any Internet‑connected device whatsoever, so whether it's a phone, a tablet, a computer, so long as you have some kind of Internet, you can get through this course.
	It's very self‑paced.  Some people have gotten through it in about an hour.  Others, like myself, took about three‑and‑a‑half hours, and that's with two kids going, what are you doing, Mom, what are you doing, which was actually great conversation because we go through a lot of good topics.  It's definitely personal finance 101, so very basic stuff about budgeting, different kinds of investments, savings.  It has this what is your money color is one of the first assessments that we do, which is pretty exciting, and I will tell you your money color changes on your mood, which is pretty ‑‑ it's pretty interesting stuff because what your mood does is it really affects the way that you are spending or affects the way that you are saving.  What you are going through life also affects all of that.  So we talk a little bit about that as well.
	We also used the calculator.org.  If you are not familiar that, I suggest everybody check that out, but I would hope you do it through our personal finance course, but that is county‑specific as far as what your budget is, how much you are bringing in, what you are receiving in childcare, what you pay in rent, it goes on and on and at the end it actually tells what is a liveable wage to kind of keep up with what you are doing.  It really just covers the basics, but it's by county, which is really, really amazing because as we know Pierce County is different than King County, Thurston County, you know, and so on.
	So our personal finance course, we did continue the Tacoma Public Utilities partnership, which is really exciting.  We didn't know if we were going to be able to do that.  So what that is ‑‑ I will tell you how to do the personal finance course in a second.  So if you take this course, again, self‑paced, so anywhere from an hour to three hours basically, and you are a Tacoma Public Utilities cuss temper, you qualify for any of the income‑based payment plans and/or are age 62 and over, or if you have used any emergency assistance through the public utilities, go through our course you will get an $80 bill credit.  That is taking a little bit longer to post.  It will probably post to your next bill or even the bill after that.
	So there is more.  If you qualify for all of that, and then you e‑mail us at foc@goodwill ‑‑ I will put that in the chat box.  You can open up to 60 to 90 minutes on one‑on‑one finance coaching, which is done over the phone, once you are done with that you get another $80 bill credit.  So all in all you are anywhere from two to four hours talking about your personal finance, you come out of it with $160 bill credit for TPU.  So pretty easy stuff.  You can the personal finance course any time, anywhere.  I am watching all your guys' comments.  I got to stop that.  [Laughs].
	So definitely pretty exciting.  So it's really easy actually, and I am going to put it in the chat box.  But, again, I did let ‑‑ I did send out the thing, so you are going to text FOC register and make sure there is a space, register.  Typing is so hard with a child in my hands.  To 56512.  And absolutely everybody is welcome to do that.  It's super easy.  You go through the registration process.  For you guys today if you wanted to take a look at the course and you are texting it right now, you can do that without registering.
	So that is personal finance.  Pretty good stuff.  So hopefully ‑‑ not hopefully.  Actually, we had a worst case scenario.  We thought when we launched it last week, worst case scenario a hundred people will sign up for this class.  As of today we have had 1,200 people.  So our worst case scenario was blown out of the water, but we are doing it, though.  We are getting a lot of results.  A lot of people are commenting on what could be different so we are change it go virtually twice a day, we are going through and changing it a little bit to make it fit for everybody.
	And that's about it.  Any questions on personal finance?  And then I will jump to my surprise.  [Laughs].
>> No questions about that specifically, Kelly, but I was watching TV this morning and the mayor of Dallas, Texas, was on talking about their virtual jobs fair.  They were using chat rooms to talk to different employers and all that sort of thing.
>> Yeah.  Thanks, Al.  Well, that was not my surprise.  I wish it would have been, but Hire253 on June 25th is going to be postponed in person.  We are looking at ‑‑ we are looking at a platform.  There is about three platforms floating around out there right now that can hold 50 to 70 employers, and that's what they do.  It's like there is a lobby and they break out into rooms.  It's really cool software.  So we are definitely looking into that.  I just had a conversation about that yesterday, so a lot of partnerships there with ESD, WorkForce Central, to make that happen.  So we will get it there.  So hopefully in August or maybe in July around my birthday, we will hold the next Hire253 in a totally different manner.
>> Well, check out what Dallas is using.  It might be ‑‑
>> I will.  I am writing it down right now.  Is that a Dallas Goodwill, Al?
>> The person on TV was the Dallas mayor.
>> I am totally about to e‑mail him.  I know I will.
>> I am certain you can find his e‑mail address if you Google Dallas whatever.
>> Perfect.
>> A question from Theresa.
>> Kelly.
>> Well done.  I just wanted to say if you are interested in another partner, send people who are un‑banked my way because Maureen set up this wonderful thing with the Seattle Credit Union and I am happy to work one‑on‑one with people.
>> Yeah.  Thank you for that.  And actually to bounce off of that, we are still offering ‑‑ so if a participant goes through the personal finance course and signs up for that extra 60 to 90 minutes of financial coaching, we are still doing those twin account credit cards, which is a secured credit card where a client makes a payment of roughly $25 a month for a year and at the end it's matched another $300, so they have a $600 credit card at the end.  
	What's exciting about that during COVID, we have seen people's credit scores jump in three months ‑‑ I mean from very low credit score to up over 600, really, really fast.  So we are finally starting to clear people that started those credit cards awhile ago.  But we had two people in our Goodwill programs buy a home during COVID, which is interesting.
>> That's wow.
>> It's working, it's working.  It seems so basic, but it's really working, so.  Any other questions?
>> It looks like you are free.  We need Goodwill now more than ever.
>> I am not done yet, Gerrit.
>> Oh, the exciting announcement, yes.
>> Yes.  Okay.  Gerrit, you already know about this.  So on June 5th we are going to be doing a disaster distribution event at Goodwill.  I am going to send out a flyer to all of you, and I wanted to cover this today so that you know the answers to these questions.  So the flyer is going to target the eastside as a 98404 community, but all of you on the coalition are absolutely welcome to sign up.  We are going to be giving out things such as baby wipes, cleaning supplies, children's clothing, tents, air mattresses.  What am I missing, Gerrit?  There is more.  I know, right?  And it's all in cases.  Okay.  So when you see the flyer come out, please register immediately.  Do not procrastinate.  We only have 30 spots.  We will be able to do a separate event later on, but the first one will be on June 5th.  So click on those links on the flyer that I will send out probably later today.  It might be Monday.  And get your organization ‑‑ it is organizations only, no ‑‑ yeah.  Organizations only, and we really, really are targeting the eastside, which is about the most underserved, underrepresented community in Pierce County during this time, so definitely we want to get some stuff over there.  But don't procrastinate.  Click those links.  [Laughs]
>> So that's basically free stuff.
>> Free stuff.
>> Useful things for our agencies to be providing to our clients.  Again, with the focus on serving the eastside, but we've got stuff to get rid of.
>> Do the churches qualify as organizations under that program?
>> Absolutely.
>> Would you like the Ministerial Alliance know about that?
>> On my list.
>> Or Mike, could you, or somebody?
>> Yeah.  Thanks, everybody.  It's good to see you.
>> All right.  A question from Maureen.
>> Maureen is muted.
>> Oh, God, I forgot the question.  I hate getting old.  Oh, no, I know.  It was a comment.  I think it's really important, Kelly was talking about the secure credit card.  I think it's really important that we have a range of options for people who are currently un‑banked.  It's not one against another, not one better than another.  Just like for those of us who are banked, that we look for the best fit for our own situation, so I think that's just really important.
>> Yeah.
>> Thanks.  All right.  We are going to move on over to discuss safe parking efforts to get that going in the county.  Before that I have one more poll.  Again, this is just practicing.  Another options in polls is you can select more than one thing, multi‑select, so I put this great poll together and we can test that out while we hand off to Colin DeForrest, who is going to talk about Janet Runbeck and Colin's efforts to get safe parking in Pierce County.  Mr. DeForrest, who you are all familiar with who abandoned us for Olympia who is now a freelancer and making his skills available in Pierce County again.  Yay, Colin.
>> Hello.  Thank you.  Yeah, I am actually dealing with ‑‑ I am still dealing with Olympia stuff right now.  I don't know if you heard, but we had placed like a bunch of individuals that were in quarantine from COVID from our mitigation site into a hotel and the hotel like burned down this morning or last night, so I am kind of getting calls and details and trying to assist with that, so pretty scary situation down there in Olympia, and really unfortunate.
	So anyway, thank you.  It is great to be back in Pierce County and doing [mic cutting out].
>> We are kind of losing your audio there, Colin.
>> Let me know if [mic cutting out].
>> Not so good.
>> Does it sound better there?
>> A little better there.
>> Well, if you can't ‑‑ let me know if you can't hear me.
>> Do it.
>> Okay.  Stop me if you can't hear me and I will have Janet take over.  So basically what we have been doing is we had a great conversation last week with some of the partners.  What came really clear to me out of that conversation is there are going to be multiple safe park/camping programs that I think we move forward with in Pierce County.  My charge is to really [mic cutting out].
>> Not so good.  All right.  Janet, it's you I think.
>> Take over, Janet.
>> Right.  When in trouble, call a nurse, right?
>> Right.
>> Okay.  Colin started this by saying that we had a great meeting last week, actually had two good meetings.  The first one was with everybody who ‑‑ it was two Fridays ago that Gerrit did breakout sessions and one of the breakout sessions was on safe parking/new shelters and it turned out there was a lot of interest in safe parking.  I think two of our breakout sessions focused on that, and people sent me their contact information if they would be interested in pursuing conversation outside of this format.
	Last week we met with everybody, and unfortunately Richard Berghammer didn't get my invitation, but I think there were eight agencies that came and talked.  From there we are getting closer to designing a pilot program that will be borne out of COVID, and with the idea of sustainability.  Because safe parking need will go on past COVID.
	Yes.  So I ‑‑ Theresa is an amazing voice for those who have no voice.  So in fact Theresa got us a great resource, a manual from Santa Barbara, which apparently is coming my way.  She's got a copy.  With different ideas and all things to consider.  So that is happening.
	Right now we've got some great discussion going on with the Methodists.  Don't you love the Methodists?  So Pastor Shalom has sent out a messaging throughout the Methodist universe here in Pierce County, and we had a very productive, exciting meeting with the pastor from the first United Methodist Church at Lakewood.  From there we are exploring all the different partners that could fill in the options, such as we know that any safe parking needs to have access to showers.  Valeri from the county has been wonderfully response sieve as far as letting us know who's got showers.  We are going to pursue that.  And you also want to talk to all your major stakeholders, so we are in conversation with the Police Departments, with local council people, and we want to get support from everybody who has a concern or a preconceived notion of what safe parking means in their neighborhood.
	So that being said, it's moving along.  Colin and I want to get this first draft done and in a grantor's hands by next week.  We have been saying next week for the last three weeks, so we are going to do it, Colin, by golly.  So I am going to jump off here.  If anybody who wants to be involved in this conversation did not ‑‑ Rich Berghammer called me last night.  We had a great conversation.  He is quite familiar with the Santa Barbara model, and I am going to rely on him for some real direct first hand observation.  And anybody else that wants to join in, just go ahead and send me either privately in chat or in my e‑mail or contact me through however you feel contacting.  So, Colin, did I miss something?  Oh, the big thing was MDC has agreed to be the fiscal agent?  Yay, yay, yay, yay.  Okay.  Super.
>> I think you covered most of it.  I don't know if you can still not hear me.  But, yeah, that covers most of it.  So good stuff.  The goal is we are going to get a draft in and we just want to get something going, and then be flexible and adjust, and once we have that pilot project out there and that model, then I think other models can bounce off of that.  Really excited about the faith‑based support, Associated Ministries has said they will support us.  Comprehensive has said that they would be willing to do coordinated entry assessments on site.
	So a lot of conversations to follow up, but the goal will be that we get a grant.  So I am kind of representing MDC in this process if you are wondering what my role is, and our goal is to ‑‑ as Janet said, we are going to get that grant application with Greater Tacoma by the end of the week.  Thank you.
>> Thanks, guys.  I am not seeing any questions.  I always want to sort of encourage us not to ignore the good for the perfect, so people in cars, they don't have a place to go to the bathroom, they don't have any security, they don't have access to food, they have difficulty getting to case managers and they don't have showers.  I would hate for us not to put a safe parking plan out because we offered them security and food and a bathroom and not a shower, but I am sure you are thinking about all of those things.  Exciting that the Methodists are putting some energy into serving folks.  Thanks, guys.
	We are going to slide into the advocacy update with Maureen.  You can tell me to punt it later on if you want.
>> That's okay.  Thank you, everybody.  Good morning.  At the national level the Heroes Act did pass the house.  Now this is the $3 trillion COVID package that will ruminate through the senate until there is some bipartisan agreement for some part of it, at which point Mitch McConnell will bring something forward in all probability, and the challenge will be to keep money for housing and homelessness in that act.  Denny Heck's bill is included, that's $100 billion, as in boy, for rental assistance.
	At the state level the Washington Low Income Housing Alliance will have a sign‑on letter to the governor.  I expect that that will include an extension of the eviction moratorium.  I think we are all hoping that.  The Department of Commerce has that $40 million in shelter out for comment and they are trying to get that money turned around as quickly as possible.  So watch for a quick deadline for proposals on that.
	They've got $23 million in the most recent CDBG allocation that went out only to states, territories and tribes, and I don't know if that's going to be a statewide program or money that's distributed to local counties or cities.
	Then the other thing is that there was a speaker on the Alliance's call this week.  Linda Olson from the statewide Coalition Against Domestic Violence.  And for the folks working on safe parking, one of the things that she put forward as an option, sort of a safe car program for domestic violence survivors, so you might want to follow up with her about that if the shelter options are full.  She also had a safe hotel kind of option.
	At the county level, the county authority has authority to make the decisions over the $157 plus million relief fund, the coronavirus relief fund, and I want to come back as a retired general and make 120 grand to advise the county exec from now until December, but my inside voice.  [Laughs].  Anyway, in case you missed the article in "The News Tribune."  So there is $6 million in rental assistance, and we are going to do a few polls on that I think in just a moment.
	I sent out a ‑‑ kind of my thoughts on considerations for a rental assistance program of that size to the full coalition list, and I didn't get any feedback, which maybe is good, maybe it's not, but anyway the challenge is going to be to get that money out, and get it out within the timeframe of the end of December.  We are asking the Department of Treasury, U.S. Department of Treasury, whether in fact we can use that CARES money to capitalize a rental assistance fund, and we don't have an answer yet.  That could change the dynamic.
	John Barbee talked at the Continuum of Care meeting earlier this week.  He talked in terms of concerns about getting that money out.  One is agency capacity.  The second was a marketing or what we might call outreach to make sure everybody knows, and knows how it works, who is eligible.  And then a way to respond to applicants.  I really pushed that the programs I have seen across the country that I am impressed with have an almost immediate response to an applicant to make sure that they can get documents uploaded, that sort of thing.
	John made a comment also that I thought was worth keeping, that the county ‑‑ that Human Services people are scouring the county to identify needs, and so if you have not been part of one of those conversations, we all have his e‑mail, and just tell him what you think the needs are.
	Capital projects right now are not going to come out of the CARES money, but that could change.  I think sooner or later they are going to use the money.  With respect to the stimulus checks, the economic impact payments, Theresa has a new plan and she offered to me one‑on‑one with folks who want to apply, and she is doing a telephone screen to make sure they've got those basics in place, that they've got a Social Security number, that they've got an e‑mail account, that they've got ‑‑ either they have or they have access to a smartphone.  So we've got three accounts now, so that's like from zero to three is 300% increase, and the glitches are still being word out, the technology glitches at Seattle Credit Union's ends.  Theresa things once the glitches ‑‑ she is through that, then it will be possible for people to apply themselves.
	There is a lot of information now coming on the immigrant community and the whole federal public charge, and I am not an immigration expert.  Those of you who work with folks who are probably in those communications.  There is also fair housing, fair housing considerations with COVID‑19, with shelters, especially with new shelters coming on line, new programs coming on line, make sure people have that information.
	I am getting feedback.  I don't know ‑‑ somebody else ‑‑
>> There is a phone number that's not muted.
>> Okay.  Somebody needs to mute if you would.  Thank you.  And then on evictions, remember no evictions through June 4th, no threats of rent increases, none of that.  That's all illegal.  You send that right to the Attorney General and you contact the housing ‑‑ you know, Northwest Justice, the Washington tenants's union, if it's in the city, but we have to prepare.
	So Gerrit, do we have our little rental assistance polls at all?  Do you want to do those?
>> We do have those polls.
>> Okay.  So before we ‑‑ just before we do them, one more thing.  Maybe Kelly and MDC, those of you who do financial counseling work of any kind, but there is enormous fraud in the Employment Security Department for the state.  It looks like it is tied to the Expedia data breach that many of us are in from a few years ago.  You can prevent anybody from using your Social Security number to apply for Washington State unemployment by going to Employment Security's website, and there is something called SecureAccess Washington, and basically you put your information in.  You don't have to apply for unemployment.  You just get it in there, and that blocks anybody who is trying to fraudulently use your information.  This is a big deal in Tacoma and in Pierce County, and it takes an enormous amount of time to deal with it.
	So make sure that you watch your credit report.  You can watch it free every week if you are caught in this fraud.  Even if you are not, watch that credit report.  Change your passwords.  Put some fraud alerts on your credit cards, on your banking account, that sort of thing, because you don't want to be caught.
	And while we are talking about money, if are somebody whose household income is like 50,000 or less a year, put every penny you can into savings.  Free everything you can on a credit card so you have access to credit if you need it.  Plan ahead.  There is a huge danger.  Car loans are going to be 0% again like they were in 2008, all this sort of stuff, but if you do not have an emergency fund, now is the time to do it.  You got to prepare.
	Now rental assistance.  Okay.  Polling.
>> All right.  First question, when assistance is needed, when do you believe your clients will have the greatest need for rental assistance?
>> And you can check more than one.
>> Maybe.
>> Maybe.  Or maybe not.  [Laughs].
>> I said some is multi‑select, others not.
>> Okay.
>> If I can throw a question in while you are doing the poll, the Ministerial Alliance is wanting to submit something back.  They are not quite sure who to talk to?  Who is the best person to talk to in terms of submitting for CARES money?
>> I think they talk directly to Valeri, to Jeff Rodgers or to John Barbee, or to Heather.  I mean they can talk by e‑mail.  Valeri, maybe if you are still on, maybe you can suggest the best beginning place for them.
>> Yeah.
>> That entire staff is really available via e‑mail.
>> We try, Maureen.  We try very hard.  Feel free to send them to me and I will either loop in the appropriate people, but I will definitely respond immediately and then respond with whoever needs to be engaged in that conversation.
>> Okay.  Thank you.
>> All right.  There are some results there, Maureen.
>> So we are getting now, which is really interesting because that money didn't go out quickly under the city or county's initial programs.  So it's 31% is now.  The next bump is July, and then ‑‑ my guess is that reflects the end of the state eviction moratorium.  And then after that it's August.  And either we can't think about thinking ahead, because by the time we get to September it's 13%, October 3%, November 0% and December ‑‑ thank you.  Let's have another one.  These are terribly unscientific.
>> How much rental assistance should be provided?  You can check many on this one.  These are complicated ones.  This is Maureen's brain on full display here, the complexities of the world.  A fixed amount, like $1,000 per month.  The actual amount of rent, up to fair market.  The third option is tenant pays 30% of income, rental assistance program pays the balance.  And use the Housing Authority's Section 8 HOP, where a third of your income goes to rent and the rest is covered by the voucher with utilities.  Does that sound close?
>> Yeah.  And it's not like there is a right or wrong.  It's what's appropriate in our community.  I don't even know that the city or the county when they ‑‑ you know, if they are intending on funding like one agency per geographic unit or multiple, I don't have any idea.  I just think it's our opportunity to think about what works for the people that we work with, or with whom we work.
>> And I can tell you, Maureen, the county, we received a lot of applicants for rental assistance, so it depends on who comes in for dollars.  We can't fund an agency on Key Peninsula if nobody applies for those dollars, but we don't have a cap on the amount per person.
>> All right.  So what did we get back?  We got 51%, tenant pays 30% of income.  The rental assistance programs pays the balance.  46%, the actual amount of rent up to fair market.  32%, use the Housing Authority's existing calculations.  Or the last one is a fixed amount, only 20%.  Thank you.  Do I have any more?  I forget.
>> We got a bunch.  We are doing this all day.
>> All day.  Goody.  Landlords should be required to work out a rental repayment plan.  Yes or no.
>> This would be for clients that have fallen behind in rent? 
>> Well, it could be for clients behind in rent, but also if the landlord is going to get the money for a client's rent.  Should the landlord be required to work out a rental repayment plan with that client?  Especially the option is it's only a thousand dollars, some sort of fixed amount, the tenant still owes something.
>> Yes.  That was a quick one, 94% yes, 6% no.  Valeri, you can tuck that away.  And whoever is on from the city.  Landlords should have proper business license, state, and in some case, local.  Yes or no.  If you are a landlord in the City of Tacoma, you have to have a business license.
>> You are saying in order for rental assistance funding to go to a landlord, it can't be an arrangement where someone is under the table renting their mother‑in‑law apartment.  It needs to be a proper ‑‑ that's kind of what you are saying?
>> That the landlord has a business relationship that's public with the City of Tacoma or whatever the state requires.  I don't even know what some of these requirements are.  Yeah, it can't just be that I am renting a room to Valeri's 18‑year‑old son if she has one, and we are just doing that as friends, and so I put in ‑‑ he puts in for rental assistance and I get a check.  I actually have a business license with the City of Tacoma to do that.  Yes 66%, no is 34%.
>> Interesting.
>> Are we done?
>> No.
>> Oh, God, more?  Did I give you more?
>> We will go faster.
>> Okay.  There should be basic minimum housing quality standards.  Yes or no.  Just like there are for the ‑‑ I think Rapid Rehousing has those.
>> Somebody is living in a closet and doesn't have a safe exit in case of a fire to go to Colin's story?  Maybe we shouldn't be providing rent assistance there?
>> Certainly not with public money.  Yes or no.  Oh, it went away.  Yes.  No.  Yes, 89%.  No, 11%.  Yay.  Okay.
>> Two more.  No, one more.  Last one.
>> Okay.  There should be written assurance of ongoing housing stability.
>> Explain this one.
>> So should this rent assistance be in a context that keeps ‑‑ that that tenant has some assurance that they are going to continue to be able to remain housed.  The landlord is not going to turn around and give them a no‑cause eviction the next month.  Yes or no.
>> Part of the ‑‑ rent assistance is keeping somebody long‑term housed.
>> We want to keep as many people housed as long as possible, as long as that housing is safe, appropriate, that sort of thing.  And the yeses are 88%, and the nos are 12%.  Hey, thank you.
	You know, if you are going to put in a rental assistance proposal, talk to the funders, figure out, talk to each other.  There may be a statewide rental assistance program.  We don't know.  The alliance is working with the Washington Tenants Union and some others on that.  
	So let me just check this really quickly, but Jennifer Ammons, thank you.  You can get a free weekly credit report, right now annualcreditreport.com, even if you are not a victim of identity theft.  Thank you.  And I think that's it.  Thanks again for letting me do this.
>> All right.  Theresa had a question.
>> It's more of a comment, that those questions were ‑‑ a lot of them were black and white in nuanced territory, so there is a part of me that reacts in the same way that Gerrit did about the adequate ‑‑ the perfect getting in the way of the adequate or something.  I think if we create a bar that's so high that it removes some of the housing that's possible for people to get, that would be the ‑‑ the bar would be going too far in that direction.  So I think most of those I would answer in most cases.
>> We as a community, I have listened over the whatever, three or four years I have been in homeless land, but many, many conversations about this particular topic is what we consider substandard housing better than living on the streets, and it's definitely a challenging question to answer.  Right.  Is somebody better off in an apartment with some mold or in a tent on the street without a bathroom?  And it's a bummer we live in a world where we have to live with those two kind of lesser desirable options in general.
>> Or do we have more choices now because of the funding that is available than we had before that?  The state of Vermont stopped homelessness, suspended homelessness, using the CARES Act money that's available and the other types of funds that are available, and they've got 2,000 homeless people in hotel rooms.  The population of the state is 630,000 people.  Three times the size of Tacoma, two thirds the size of Pierce County.  So it's ‑‑ I think it's an opportunity to think about thing differently than we have been able to in the past.  Just like the folks who began our agenda today.  We didn't do this before.  We have never done this.  We have always wanted to be able to do something, so I just think it gives us an opportunity.
>> Great.  As long as we are talking about rental assistance and homeless prevention, thanks, Maureen, for putting those polls together.  That was fun.
>> I will try and close my brain for awhile.
>> I would love just to kind of pop around and get some quick updates on the different homeless prevention.  I didn't solicit if any of these folks were able to ‑‑ Yuni.
>> I have a quick update.  We are still having some challenges with landlords responding.  I think that one of the things that we are really struggling with when we get them on the phone or connect with e‑mail is the restrictions on mortgages backed by FHA, Freddy Mac and Fannie Mae.  Many of the people are property managers, not owners of the property, so that's kind of an evasive question for a property manager to go back and ask the property owner about their mortgage and their loan, so I have given that information to the city and requested that they reconsider that part of the eligibility.
	The other thing is I would say about 50% of the we have made contact with, they have self‑resolved their rent issue.  They have disclosed that they feel they are going to have trouble in June, so we have put them on a wait list and asked them to check back with us on June 1st, after June 1st, to let us know where they stand there.  
	The other thing we are running into is if they do have the proper evidence that they are eligible for unemployment, they are receiving it and now they are over income.  Everybody else, they are struggling with the unemployment.  We have seen so many nightmare cases.  And I feel helpless right now because I don't know how to help these people.  There are people who started receiving payments and they should have been able to get them continuously, and then they just stopped.  I have talked to other people where when they went to go file their claim, someone had already fraudulently filed in place of them, so now they are having to fight that off.  So it's really been challenging.  We decided to create a self‑declaration form so a client can actually just write a statement on what they have experienced, and then we can use that to assess their situation, and that's helped get the checks rolling out.
	The other thing, too, is that we're finding that in some of the communities of color there is a little bit of mistrust.  I have heard some feedback that there are people from the black community that are really weary about feeling tracked.  I have even had a few people tell me that they have talked to people who are feeling like anything that's COVID‑19‑impacted related, that there is a possibility they will be tracked and chipped even.  So there is a lot of scary situations for people.  So we are trying to really pay attention to the language in our messages out, especially because we are working with people where we said we would not be asking about immigration status.  So we are trying to make sure that we are not using the word "documentation" a lot in our language so it doesn't counted contradictory to what we are trying to do.
	I put another request to the city to reconsider the fact that were people who were on unemployment in January and March who filed, and they were unable to go and try to gain new employment due to COVID.  And we have documentation of their last pay stub.  We have documentation they worked all last year.  And the challenges they are having getting new employment, so I ask that we start considering those households as well.  Also to consider households even if they didn't lose employment, if they were unemployed, do they have documentation or demonstration that they have been trying to get employment because I think that we have to consider the people that were unable to access employment, not just the ones who lost employment.
	So those are some requests that we put in there, and I am waiting for the city to send me a response back.  And I can give you an update next week to let you know if they let us lower some of those restrictions.  And we did confirm that we have been able to refer out ‑‑ well, we referred out ‑‑ let's see.  I believe it was 38 families to MDC, and then about 26 to the Multicultural Family center and they have all been able to make contact with those clients.
>> Thanks.  The Multicultural Family center, if you are not familiar, you should be.  You guys have run under the radar in some way and do so many cool things, so I am pleased to have Roxy to talk about the work in homeless prevention and maybe a one‑minute plug for your other cool programs.
>> Thanks, Gerrit.  So I did receive a lot of referrals from Yuni for our homeless prevention program.  So it speaks to a little bit around we don't have as many restrictions it our prevention program because it is a pilot, and so we are kind of just seeing the best way to serve families of color because we prioritize with our prevention program families of color and black families because we know that we are disproportionately represented, and there is typically not case managers that represent us when they come into, you know, homelessness or housing instability.  
	The whole idea with this program, we work with two other agencies in the community, Tacoma Ministry Alliance and Saint Leo's, and we all represent the communities that we are serving, but we don't have as many restrictions around serving folks, especially right now.  I am seeing a lot of people come through that have never had to look at their housing as being unstable, so they don't really know how to navigate the system now.  Prior to this I was working with people that know the system and they know like what they qualify for, what they don't.  Now I am working with people that don't know the system as all, and they have never filed for unemployment, things like this.
	So it's very much a client‑focused program, so I work with their strengths and then walk alongside them with trying to navigate all these other systems and what they may qualify for.  A lot of people don't even know like the TPU assistance and like a lot of folks did not know what they should be applying for.  So that's just ‑‑ yeah, what I have been working with them, we try to keep it as close to $600 in flex funds.  We don't want to of run out of funds before this grant it over, and we knew during this time we are going to get a lot more clients than we typically do.
	And we also have ‑‑ like Gerrit said, we have a ton of programs.  We have about 20 programs out of multicultural.  One of them is our transitional housing.  So we have tiny homes on site that serves families and we have our recovery home that is for women and their children, so they can either be reunified with their kids, or trying to be.  And Recovery Café is one of our programs, so that is right across the street from the tiny house village on MLK, and we are also doing case management over there.  And so those are our housing programs.  And we also do family support, childcare.  We have now become a food site, too, during COVID, so we receive fresh lunches and grocery boxes.  We are a diaper bank as well, clothing closet and any kind of household needs.  So basically if your clients need anything, send them to us and we will probably be able to serve at least one of their needs.
	And I believe my e‑mail is already in the agenda.  I can put it in the chat just in case, too, so that if anyone wants to send their families to me or any clients that they think may need additional funds to be matched with other things they have applied for, we have been doing that a lot, too.  They have received funding from somewhere, but it's just not quite enough, so we have been matching other agencies for rental assistance.
>> When you say families, this is Building Changes money, so household has to have a minor in it in.
>> Yes.
>> One adult, one minor.  They don't have to physically be in the home.  It could be a mom or family that has a child that was removed by CPS, so they don't have to physically be there because we are working towards stability in the family.  Housing will create stability, and they could be reunified possibly.
>> And people who are pregnant?
>> Yes, they would be included.
>> Awesome.  Thanks.  And, again, I didn't really hit other folks up, so I don't know if Jessica is on from Share and Care, or if maybe Valeri, if you have any updates on what's going on with their funding and availability.
>> Yeah.  So Share and Care is still accepting applications.  They still have funds available.  We have worked with them over the last week to really lessen those restrictions, so like a lot of the barriers Yuni has told with us as well as other folks are the same barriers Share and Care has been seeing, so really working with folks who were unemployed before COVID, who can't get employed, so they may be eligible.  There is no requirement ‑‑ we try to lessen as many requirements as we can.  We are constantly checking in with Share and Care to see what are the barriers.  If you have suggestions or if you are hearing issues that are additional barriers, let me know those so I can share them out.
	We currently have $3 million ready to go out for rental assistance to hopefully multiple different agencies.  That's a chunk of money.  [Laughs].  So we are ‑‑ the application evaluation committee meets on Tuesday for those round one.  Announcements will probably go out as fast as Monday at the latest.  We can't serve a rental assistance on Key Peninsula if nobody from Key Peninsula applies, so on and so forth.  I encourage multiple agencies to apply for dollars.  Let's work with the best way to get the applications.  They are short and sweet, as easy as the county has probably ever been able to do.  We don't ask a lot of stuff because the need is there.  I can send out more updates if you would like.
>> Cool.  That was great.  I don't see Rob on with MDC.  My understanding is they still have funding available.  And I don't see Sean Dennerlein with the Pierce County Veterans Bureau, but I believe they have funding available as well.  So all of that is moving along.  Yeah, Valeri, I cannot say how much I appreciate the county's quick distribution of funds, the very public process that we are seeing funders that I wouldn't have expected to be applying, and expanding their services.  I used to think having one agency running Rapid Rehousing, what more efficient thing could you possibly have.  As I grow up, right, I see how each different agency is serving people in ways that a single agency just couldn't.  So the complexity of all these agencies is a hassle, but I think it's a necessary evil because each one is serving people that other agencies may simply not be able to because of real barriers or the perceived barriers of clients or their geographic location, all of those things.  So really kudos and hats off for expanding the number of people doing the work in the community to the county.
>> Thank you.
>> And for being visible.
>> Thank you.  We wanted to make sure ‑‑ thank you, thank you.  From the county, this is not a me, this is a us.  So we really want to make sure that every population ‑‑ because we know folks of color are the most impacted right now and we know they are not applying, so we want to make sure that we have an agency that they trust.  We know the number one place people go when they need rental assistance, the first stop is the church, so we are encouraging everyone to apply and work together so this can be a regional solution.  So it's been a phenomenal chance to work with communities of schools peninsula.  I drive right by them and never chatted with them, and we have communicated a ton in the last two weeks.  The county is learning a lot and we are going to come out of this with a lot of lessons learned and ways we can improve the process as we go.  It's a challenge, but I think we are up for it.
>> Thanks, Valeri.  I was hoping somebody would be able to provide an update on the Continuum of Care meeting, but Maureen and I are going to tag team on this.  James obviously leads this, but is off today.  And Roxanne and [indiscernible] are both active with the coalition and on the CoC, but not able to make it today.  The first half of the meeting is done.  Valeri, maybe you can chime in with stuff we don't cover well.
>> Thanks.  I as a member the public was there for the beginning of the meeting, about the first 45 minutes before the Alliance's weekly call.  I have talked already about what ‑‑ some of what John Barbee presented in his part, but United Way was represented giving an introduction to a project that they are involved with with DSHS on basically restructuring the Human Services delivery system.  And I was impressed with the presenter who goes by KC.  Some of you may know him.  But I also thought that the answers were worth us thinking about, and we might want to invite him, or somebody, to do the same thing in one of our meetings.  Because we collectively operate in a system that is part of that whole Human Services system.  Just the unhoused or marginally housed part of it.
	So these were the three questions that he asked the group.  What is working for your clients?  What is not working for your clients?  And are you seeing any new inequities?  And I thought the interesting thing on what's working, James is off today, but he talked about communication strands being quicker than they were before, that you can convenient a meeting of folks virtually fairly easily because nobody has to go anywhere physically to do it.  You just have to find a spot.  So he is finding that, and he said like the shelters meet every day at 3:00 just for ‑‑ it might just be 15 minutes, but just something that was not happening, did not maybe need to happen before.  And talked about virtual connection with clients, that he felt like some clients were interacting better and were more responsive virtually than they were face‑to‑face.
	And Valerie from Associated Ministries talked about that their data shows that they are serving more people of color through diversion via technology than they were before.  I don't know what any of that means.  What's not working, as we all know not everybody has the same level of technology or access, so you eliminate a lot of people.  Also the problem with PPE, that really gets in the way of any kind of individual outreach or one‑on‑one work.  If the agency doesn't have enough PPE to be able to do that.  Dr. Jackson talked about the fact that he can no longer do the wellness checks, the sort of informal wellness checks he was doing with the folks at Beth will he them Baptist at their shelter.  Valeri, back to AM, people working in offices used to have that conversation at the cooler, but when you can turn to the person next to you or wherever in the agency and have a kind of off‑the‑cuff conversation.  Inequities, technology, technology, technology, transportation, with the limitations on public transportation and the fears for taking it.  And then the fact that local motels are now family shelters and if people don't have phones or enough technology, they get stuck there.  They can't move on.
	I am going to turn it to Gerrit and anybody else, but I really encourage us invite United Way to sort of maybe do that with us, too.  It didn't take that long.
>> Yeah.  It was an interesting exercise.  I listened in.  A good chunk of the meeting after that was spent discussing the strategic plan that was just passed by the county council, and goes to the state.  That had a lot of things stripped out that some of us were a little unhappy to see out of the strategic plan.  I think it became a bit more of a checking the box with the state, and a little bit less of kind of a comprehensive plan that a lot of us would love to see.  That aside, a lot of that work is still on the kind of plan for the Continuum of Care, and so discussion was made about the different subcommittees and getting those kind of built out a little stronger.  So there is an equity subcommittee that's pretty strong, which is largely a product of this coalition.  There is the veterans committee which has been very active for the last five years, and it's driven heavily by the VA's funding requirements around the supportive services for veterans program and the HUD dash, which is the veteran ‑‑ oh, my God.  Anyway, permanent supportive housing, rapid housing and supportive housing that the VA funds, basically requires that.  Interesting about these committees, they do not need to be chaired necessarily by someone on the Continuum of Care.  They can be chaired by anybody and members can be anybody.  So a general public can have a real active role.  The Continuum of Care needs to support those committees and have a committee member on them.  So there is a lot of opportunity.  
	And those different committees, let me see if I can look it up, a membership committee which probably wouldn't be super exciting to me, but a lot of people would like that.  The veterans, racial equity, the government subcommittee, and I think they are going to be kind of launching out some other groups to kind of focus on some of the specific tasks that they have in front of them.  Valeri, if you want to touch in on that.
>> This is Erica.  I am actually on the equity subcommittee and the membership subcommittee, so ouch on saying it wouldn't be fun because it is really exciting.  No.  [Laughs].  No.  In all honesty and seriousness, it is an exciting time for us because we have put in a lot of work in the membership subcommittee about bringing on more diverse members and what retention looks like, and really trying to take an equitable lens, and especially having folks who have lived experience sitting on the board, and so that is something that we have been putting a lot of work on.  We actually just met yesterday, so this is really good timing.  So if anyone is interested in being a part of the board and has some questions, feel free to reach out to me.  I know there was a subcommittee James was looking for specifically for support on stability I think.  He was the only person on the [indiscernible].  I can't remember, I don't have the list in front of me right now, but if anyone is interested in working and partnering with James on this stability subcommittee, I think that would be a really good opportunity for folks that are on this call as well.
>> Thank you.  And this is a public body that has influence over funding and can have far broader influence.  Our Continuum of Care is not nearly as robust as it is in many communities, and I think that it's an opportunity for us to throw our energy and our emotions and intelligence and expertise into something that can really strengthen our homeless response.  So I hope you look and find a committee that matches up with something you would be interested and putting time in on.  They can't do shelter funding better if they don't know how shelters need to be run better, if we aren't active in the subcommittees.  I mean they can.  There are smart people out there.  Just a shout out, we can't lament the work that group is doing if we don't like it.  What we need to do is get involved and be part of that team making things happen.
>> And also quite committed to restructuring, reorganizing, so that it can be more effective both in terms of local services and drawing in HUD funds.
>> Spot on, Al.  The Continuum of Care has requested HUD TA, so we have the first meeting on the 29th.  That's going to go over the roles and responsibilities, what is the structure recommended.  As we know, the CoC as a whole scores in the average range each year, so Spokane and Snohomish get far more CoC dollars than Pierce County even though we have a larger population.  The performance measures are being tracked.  So I will put together a list of all the subcommittees.  I can even do a quick description and who is in charge and I can send that out to the coalition, probably not today because I have just decided I am taking the afternoon off, but first thing Tuesday I will send that out to everybody so you can be in touch and figure out which one fits your needs.  I will get that out to the whole group on Tuesday.
>> Thanks.  That TA is provided by [indiscernible], which I have worked on with veteran things and they are a spot‑on, smart organization, so they are going to really provide some good feedback and some good tools I think for the Continuum to pivot to be more vital to the community.
>> Agreed.
>> I have a dream that someday all of our funding would go to a central body like the Continuum, so we took care of our providers, that one provider didn't need to go to seven different funding sources to keep operating a program, but maybe they could go to one body and that would smooth things out.  That's not today or next year or two years from now, but maybe someday.  Because that's the way some communities work and it's pretty cool.
	All right.  We finished up drafting our letter of recommendations for the CARES Act funding, and we sent that to a bunch of people, including the City of Tacoma City Council and the Pierce County Council and Human Services staff in both of those areas.  We are having it distributed in a few other channels as well.  Initial feedback from the county has been positive.  County Councilmember Ladenburg connected in with the Human Services director and they are meeting next week to talk about some of the recommendations, and so that's pretty neat.  That's everything we talked about a couple weeks ago, simmered down by Megan Capes and Rosemary Powers and some help from Theresa and Maureen and a little tiny bit from me.  I think we were able to really highlight some of the areas that are kind of low hanging fruit and some of the harder things that we need to be funding some that's exciting.  And Doug Richardson, the county councilmember as well, his office provided some encouraging feedback that they were making that a priority to work with county staff on looking at those recommendations.  Hopefully the Continuum of Care can fold some of that together.  	John Barbee recommended that the Continuum look at maybe making some funding recommendations, and I hope that the coalition's recommendations can kind of be a starting point for them, or at least a reference in that work.  So the county didn't really provide much of a response to us, but they will, and so that's something that we will be hearing in the next week or two.  So I think as they work with county council members they will have a little bit more for us.
	But, yeah, good job, folks.  All sorts of things I just ‑‑ I marvel at the expertise that folks come out with and the ability to get things in the right people's hands in a timely manner.  You know, it's fund to have those set of skills available, and to support our more vulnerable members.
	Are there any questions about that?  We are going to slide into some government updates.  I see that Carrie with the Health Department is here.  Carrie.  Or I don't see Ivan.
>> Hi, it's Carrie.
>> Oh, great.  I did kind of speak up on you like that.
>> I was on Brian's ‑‑ we are on the big TV.
>> Ah.
>> So hold on one second.  You have to mute us so we don't have an echo.  Oh, there we are.  Okay.  All right.  I am going to mute myself from my computer.  Okay.
>> Welcome.
>> Yeah.  Hi, everyone.  So I have two updates, and it's basically changes on staffing.  So number one, I will be moving over next June 1st to the case investigations and contact tracing team, so next week will be my last week with the homeless response team in the community branch.  And I would like to introduce to you one of our newest Health Department members to join the team, and this is [indiscernible] Rodriguez.  Can you see him?  And he will be assuming the role and responsibility that Emily left.  So he will tell you a little bit about himself.
>> Hi.  As Carrie mentioned I will be at the Health Department as a consultant with the communicable disease division.  Thank you for contributing to this important work and especially the folks with the equity concerns during this response with our community members experiencing homelessness.  And I just look forward to strengthening existing relationships and building new relationships with community members, with your clients and the providers in my line of work.  I am experiences with Latino and [indiscernible] and LGBTQ communities.  I look forward to this work and Carrie spoke highly of this coalition, so I look forward to working with you all.
>> Thank you.
>> Thank you.
>> All right.  And if folks have questions.  I see Ivan down there.
>> Hey, Gerrit.  No major updates out for EOC as far as pressing updates from our last time.  Our community branch continues to work with providing CARES Act funding, applications are under review, and our Sprinker Recreational Center is operational.  Our logistics section continues to receive PPE resources, and we continue to distribute those out of the EOC, and our communications section recently presented to the Asian‑Pacific Islander community by Zoom meeting to discuss equity and COVID impacts and such.  And, yeah, that's the latest.  
	Oh, our Temporary Care Center is still in operation, began operation April 8th.  To date we support 25 guests, have supported up to 25 guests in that facility.  Back to you, Gerrit.
>> Thank you, Ivan.  I don't see any questions.  So, valley, did you have some additional updates for us?
>> Yes.  As Ivan mentioned, Sprinker is open for showers five days a week.  There is no fee, Monday through Friday from 10:00 to 2:00.  They are not checking IDs.  We just finalized contracting with Sherri Jensen as Valeo and YMCA, so three locations open for showers.  That's so exciting and I am so thankful.  I know, Sherri, this has been such a process.  [Laughs].  So we got there.  Whoo‑hoo, team!  So that was huge.  We have completed testing for the COVID‑19 at CCS and Nativity House as well as Puyallup.  We have a set testing date for Tacoma Rescue Mission coming out in the very near future.  We are multitasking and e‑mailing as we chat.  This is the next phase of that.  
	Three locations, Puyallup, Lakewood, Tacoma are the three YMCA locations that will now be open.  I will send you the schedule.  One is going to be open two days a week and flow through the three locations.  Sherri can send that out.  They will also give the hours.  Sherri's program includes food, coordinated entry, outreach there.  I really need you to stop.  He is vaping.  So we are going to implement all of those things.  So it's pretty exciting.  It's a new thing.  It's ‑‑ we are still all new at this.  If you have an outreach team or coordinated entry set, let's connect with Sherri and get you at the same locations they are at.  We want folks to walk away with services and connections.  The goal is to get everybody housed.  You are not safe homeless, you are safer housed.  That's the goal.  Some pretty exciting things down the pipeline.  Sanitation and hygiene conversations will continue across the county for additional locations.  If you know of a good spot or you have a church in the area, reach out to me to contact the folks to get more services across the county.  I know, it's been so busy.
>> Sometimes I feel like, does everybody know this now or do I need to repeat this announcement?
>> Yeah.  Repeat it, repeat it.  I will send it out constantly.  I tell everyone on every phone call I am on.  Everybody we see, we say it again.  Any person who may not have heard it, it will be heard.  Feel free to share it.  That's how we get the most valuable information.  We want you to know everybody experiencing homelessness, next week they have a safe place to take a shower.
>> Will the city and the county be putting this out on the websites and can we put it out on our website?  Because it would be nice to be able to direct people to an address.
>> I know the county is putting it out on their website as well as through a social media blast.  I think Sherri is going to do some stuff as well.
>> The county does one of the better jobs of putting information out, superior to what the city does.
>> That's Carrie Moore, the communications.  I don't even know how show does some of the things she does.  She is great.
>> We are finalizing the schedule and program with YMCA today, so Darcy has been extraordinary, so thankful for the partnership that we have.  I will be sending out a schedule as well as some program information, but the goal is to provide lunches, we have laundry.  We work with all of the local laundry ‑‑ we have laundry cards.  We have all day bus passes, we have food.  So the goal it is to offer as many resources as possible.  Once we finalize the schedule, I think it's pretty much finalized, but I will send out an e‑mail today and, Gerrit, maybe I can talk more about it next Friday.
>> Cool.  Thank you, Sherri.  Are you in a hammock?  Is that what that is?
>> I am in a hammock.  I am going back and forth.  It's our reading corner here.  I notice Al started in a bathrobe but now he is dressed.  Did I miss something?  Is there an exciting moment in the video think didn't see?
>> I decided awhile back I should exercise one of my lifelong fantasies and go to a business meeting in my bathrobe, so this is the day, but I decided that was enough.  I put my shirt on.
>> All right.  Yeah, I think Sherri is also a little confused about what a staffing agency does.  That sounds like ‑‑ it sounds like needs are coming in front of Sherri and she is pivoting to meet those needs, so hats off to entrepreneurs.
	All right.  Now we are going to get into some shelter updates.  I had a quick note from Luiz, he had to take off, but they are still doing coordinated entries, a bunch of them, intakes, outreach is still going on.  If there are any questions, you can reach out to Luiz.
	Melissa, I saw you were on.  Do you want to do a Nativity House update?
>> Can you hear me?
>> I do hear you, Melissa.
>> There you go.  Hey, everyone.  We are still operating doing meals outdoors right now.  We have got all the test results back from the pilot program, and all of our test results were negative.  That was staff and guests, so that is amazing, and we celebrated that.  We spent some time on the phone with the Health Department yesterday just getting guidance on how we can safely bringing people back to shelter in a little bit, so we are implementing that tonight and we are going to try bringing in new guests tonight.  So we are just going to do more screening.  We've got the shelter set up to physically distance appropriately.  We still have the hotel running with individuals there, and case managers are partnering with FHN as well, and kind of a competition to make sure we have everyone in shelter that has a diversion or coordinated entry conversation right there.  
	For those of you guys that don't know, my last day will be June 15th, and I know, Theresa, don't do that.  [Laughs].  I just want to say it has been a true honor and pleasure working with you guys.  I don't know what I am going to do with myself.  I am going to take some time and just breathe a little bit, but it's been fun to be a part of this organization with all of you guys.  There are is many amazing brains in this coalition and I am going to truly miss those things.  Maybe you guys will see me somewhere else after this.  I don't know what my next steps are, but I am just going to enjoy some time off and sit in the sun and spend some time with my family, so just wanted to let you guys all know.  That's all I have.
>> Thanks, Melissa.  You are going to be missed.  I realize we don't provide any pay of any sort, but it's really rewarding work here.  You can get a review of this as an employment opportunity from Maureen or Theresa or other people that put a lot of time in for free.
	I actually skipped over Erica.  It was totally in my head that City of Tacoma was next and I felt flat on my face.  I am so sorry.  City of Tacoma updates.
>> That's okay.  If anyone wants to join me grieving the loss of Melissa when she steps out in June, let's do it together because I absolutely ‑‑ I love Melissa and I echo what Gerrit said.  We are going to miss you very much, working with you, so, yeah.  Let's have a separate Zoom meeting so we can all commiserate.  [Laughs].
	So I won't take that much time because I recognize we only have about 15 minutes left.  I do want to touch base.  Last Tuesday the council meeting started open public comment for our consolidated plan.  Public comment closes June 2nd.  I think that's going to go to full approval.  Our consolidated plan is kind of our five‑year plan with HUD, for use of our HUD dollars.  I would encourage, it's a lengthy read, but kind of our plan around housing the use of our dollars around homelessness.  If you want to read it and provide excellent to us, please do that.  We will not be having council on Tuesday because we are closed on Monday and recognizing Memorial Day.  Our special council meeting is this Friday ‑‑ or today this, Friday.  Oh, my gosh.  I am like everyone, my days just blend together.  2:00 the special council meeting is an update on our budget for the next biennium, '21 and '22.  We will be having a town hall on June 4th around the new tent site.  Is it okay if I send you, Gerrit, the postcard or attach to the notes or something so everyone can have information on how they can dial in and par pay the in the town hall for that?
>> Or you can send it right to the coalition yourself.
>> Okay.  I didn't want to overstep, so I will share that to everyone.  It is virtual.  It's Thursday, June 4th, from 6:00 to 7:30.  There is contact information on it if you have additional questions.  I want to make sure anyone who has questions about the site, that is the opportunity to dial in and ask and get the update.  I am having technical difficulties right now.  I am trying to send the postcard, but my computer is not being friendly.
>> Does anybody have some questions for the city?  Is there a way that we might be able to have next Friday's meeting giving a little feedback to that plan?  Is there any way, without me putting much effort into it, that maybe we could kind of get a little presentation on what some of that ‑‑ those items are?  Are we too late in the process?  Or kind of get a presentation to us about that separate from us kind of going to a city‑sponsored kind of opportunity?  Does that make sense?
>> Yes, it does.  Let me check and I will follow up with you.  Okay?
>> Yeah.  It would be nice to make an easy way for this group to do that.  I know you published the times and it's easy to sit in on a city council meeting, and the Friday ones are fascinating.  I was just talking to Tanisha [phonetic], and she says everybody needs to go to those Friday ones.  A lot of transparency.  The city is giving detailed information about their finances and the really hard decisions they are having to make.
>> That's very true.  I will see if we can get something just for you guys in regards to TEMS and see, but I still do encourage people to dial into the town hall as well.  Yeah, I will follow up with you.
>> TEMS and the larger five‑year plan.  Anyway.
>> Oh, the consolidated plan?
>> Yes.
>> Ah, got it.  I will do that.
>> That more so than TEMS.
>> Sure.
>> I think we will be fascinated with TEMS, too.
>> I will look into that and let you know.
>> Great.  And I don't see other questions.  So I don't think ‑‑ so I am going to go back to shelter updates.  You all know how to get ahold of Erica, so if you've got stuff I am sure you can send it on her way.  Same for Valeri.  And anyone?  I know James isn't here for Comprehensive Life Resources.  Anyone else from comp want to do an update on the Youth Shelter?  I am going to open it up.  Any other shelters want to give us an update?  Just unmute and start talking.  Because I am not seeing Greg with Coffee Oasis, Altheimer, I am not seeing anyone from LIHI or Helping Hand House, so we have ourselves another ten minutes of meeting time, but I guess we are just going to go ahead and wrap up early.  So thanks, everybody.  Al has a comment.
>> Remember awhile back the Human Rights Commission did a survey of hospital financial assistance procedures.  I want to remind everybody if you have clients that have to get hospitalized or get services at the hospital, they should be asked if they need financial assistance, but if they aren't asked, they should ask.  Because it's going to end up ‑‑ some people are going to end up with quite expensive bills in some of these cases.  So hospitals do have provisions for subsidizing healthcare, and I encourage people to be aware of that and to ask the hospital if they need to go there.  It will not work in urgent care settings.  It will work in family practice settings.  But just remind people.
>> Not just clients.  There may be many people still on the call who if it's Multicare, you are in.  They go up to 500% of poverty, and that's a decent income level.  CHI Franciscan goes to 300%.  Don't hesitate to apply.  It makes a huge difference.
>> A lot of the health agencies, it is their process to ask that question as you are checking in, so I have experienced it at several places, so it's part of their intake to ask you that question, but you are right, if they don't ask, Al, people should ask.  But most of them are really good around here, in Tacoma and over here on this side of the bridge, so.
>> Really dicey one might be the emergency room docs because they are a separate entity.
>> It depends.  Having just taken almost a $300,000 bill down to $90, I am pretty good at this.  [Laughs]
>> Sometime you can negotiate with them even though they don't technically have to offer charity care, and people are certainly welcome to contact Northwest Justice Project if they are having problems getting charity care approved.
>> The other thing I have discovered is that with some of the medical groups that contract within the larger system, they may honor the financial aid from like Multicare in my case, but you have to send a copy of your letter to that specific medical group.  So it's like a job.
>> Awesome.  Theresa had a comment.
>> Actually, now I have two.  The first is that, yes, it does work for everyone if you follow it up.  As Maureen said, you have to write the people and follow it up, but last year I went to the hospital for the first time in my life, other than when I was born, and Franciscan not only saved my life, but they didn't charge me a cent for it, not anything, not even a co‑pay.  So know that they are doing their job, and they were really active in trying to get me to sign up for that, so it's ‑‑ just so you know, they are good.  
	The other thing I wanted to say was from earlier in the conversation the technology piece, there is a tech equity thing here that I don't know if anyone is championing that, but if you are I would love to help.  I don't know how many of you were around when Tacoma was talking about being a free Internet city, but that was just this wonderful idea that then they ditched entirely, the baby and bath water thing happened, but now is the time to revisit that.  If there was ever a time when being connected to the Internet was a survival issue and should be a public utility issue and treated exactly like a public utility, it is now.  So I think we have some momentum to change this.  I don't think the environment that we are living in is going to change drastically in December or the December after that and the December after that, so I am encouraging anyone that can put that into your bag of things you are trying to work on, tech equity, universal access to the Internet, seems like a no‑brainer, and a low hanging fruit.  If we do it together it will be a lot cheaper than doing it individually.  Thanks.  That's my speech.
>> Following up, the Healthcare Authority has a good model for the hardware part and also the minutes where they provide the laptops to the providers, they provide the phones to the clients and they provide so many minutes per month, and they got I think 4,000 donated phones, that sort of thing.  So there is a model there to build on for the hardware part and the minutes part.  The Internet part is another piece, but maybe there is a place in the county's CARES money, if you think about ‑‑ all right, Sherri Jensen, start thinking.  On the small business, from a business perspective, there is a ton of money set aside for small business, nonprofits are small businesses.  Maybe there is a way to get some ‑‑ to get bulk phones and tablets or laptops or whatever, if people are so inclined to just put that on the table.
>> That would be great.  Our little nonprofit has spent more money on technology since this started than we had in our budget, so it would be a real gift for someone to take that on.
>> Well, also take on ‑‑ you know, think short‑term.  That short‑term money.  But some IT professionals hired under that CARES money, they are not budgeted, so they are eligible, and maybe serving ‑‑ available to any interested nonprofit within the coalition sort of thing.  I mean maybe that's a way ‑‑ maybe that's something ‑‑ Valeri, are you still on?
>> I know some grant money has been targeted.  Like the Furniture Bank did some online chat technology with a $20,000 grant from the Cheney Foundation, so I think that some of our funders are realizing technology is a tool during this COVID‑19 period and are willing to fund particularly projects, large and small.  So think about that.
>> You are a techie.  Think about it.  Look at the Healthcare Authority, what they are doing.
>> All right.  I think we are ready to wrap this up.  I have a two‑hour bladder, and we are referring the end of its capacity.  If no other indicator is wrapping it up, I will go ahead and use that.  Enjoy the three‑day weekend, everybody.  You all deserve it.  Pretend you are going somewhere amazing.
[End of meeting]