REALTIME FILE

Meeting ‑ CCSWW Tacoma‑Pierce County 
Coalition to End Homelessness

Friday, June 12, 2020

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Bibiana D. Van Dyk
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VAN'S CAPTIONING SERVICES
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Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) is provided in order to facilitate communication accessibility.  CART captioning and this realtime file may not be a totally verbatim record of the proceedings.

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>> Welcome, everyone.  I hope you enjoyed the video.  I have no idea what the yellow buzzer means, but everyone seems really, really happy in that video.  I am going to go ahead and think that was a good thing.
	I was actually looking for something a little weightier as we are sort of looking towards a lot of the racial strife in our community.  That sounds terrible, but Black Lives Matter movement, pushing a statewide strike today.  I think lots of efforts towards making the world a safer and equitable place for everyone in our community, and I don't know, it felt a little weighty, and this video felt a little less weighty, so I needed some happiness.  Somebody passed that along to me, so I pass it on to you.
	I have put together I think ‑‑ actually, I didn't put anything together.  People asked and I arranged an agenda for us that I think is going to be a worthwhile use of our time today.  We have Michele Thomas giving us kind of a brief legislative update.  She is with the Washington Low Income Housing Alliance, sort of in preparation for a discussion in a couple of weeks.  We've got the Health Department coming in.  We have Tacoma Pro Bono giving us some updates.  Joy Stanford is going to welcome us in.  Joy.
>> Good morning, everybody.  Gerrit asked me to start the meeting off.  Thank you.  I feel very privileged to do that.  As we are going through what is happening in our country now, it's weighed on me a lot as a woman of color, as a mother of two black young men, as a substitute teacher to many kids of color and watching the youth lead here in my own community of Gig Harbor, it's been pretty incredible, yet it's enraged me and frustrated me and scared me.  No doubt.  To just moments of tears and moments of what can I do.
	I think the silver lining of what we all do here on Fridays and throughout our week is pretty profound, and I think the silver lining of COVID‑19 is that we have upped our game in what we are doing, and we are finding ways to collaborate that we never found before.  So many of you have reached out to me and I have reached out to so many of you, and it's been an incredible collaboration, so I see that as the silver lining of COVID‑19, that we have been able to up our game and help more people and make sure that more people don't fall into homelessness, housing instability, mental health issues, whatever, whatever your thing or your service is, and I am pretty excited about it.
	I would like you can to just take a moment.  I got this from a friend of mine.  I do a couple of meetings a week with her, Erin Jones, many of you may know her.  I love what she does at the beginning of a meeting.  She has everyone close their eyes and just take a couple of really deep breaths in through the nose and out through the mouth.  This is just to center us and make us open to what we are about to experience, all of our great speakers.
	I am going to read a poem that's really given me an anchor to just hold onto and know that we are going to change the world the way what we are doing by all of our good deeds and all of our work.
	You may write me down in history with your bitter, twisted lies.  You may trod me in the very dirt but still, like dust, I rise.  
	Does my sassiness upset you?  Why are you beset with gloom?  'Cause I walk like I've got oil wells pumping in my living room.  Just like moons and like suns, with the certainty of tides, just like hopes springing high, still I'll rise.  
	Did you want to see me broken?  Bowed head and lowered eyes?  Shoulders falling down like teardrops, weakened by my soulful cries?  
	Does my haughtiness offend you?  Don't you take it awful hard 'cause I laugh like I got gold mines diggin' in my own backyard.  
	You may shoot me with your words, you may cut me with your eyes, you may kill me with your hatefulness, but still, like air, I'll rise.  
	Out of the huts of history's shame I rise.  Up from a past that's rooted in pain I rise.  I am a black ocean, leaping and wide, welling and swelling I bear in the tide.  
	Leaving behind nights of terror and fear I rise.  Into a daybreak that's wondrously clear I rise.  Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave, I am the dream and the hope of the slave.  I rise, I rise, I rise.
	I think we can start our meeting now.
>> Thanks so much, Joy.  We appreciate you.  We are going to start our meeting off with Michele Thomas with the Washington Low Income Housing Alliance.  Michele has been to visit us quite a few times.  Summer seems like the collect being and listening tour kind of moment, and as we head into that season I think most of us want to say a big thank you for the advocacy work that Washington Low Income Housing Alliance has been doing in Olympia.  Their fingers are in all sorts of good things.  So without any further ado, Michele.
>> Hi, everybody.  Thank you so much.  Thank you, Joy, for that beautiful reading as well.  That's a really beautiful way to start.
	So I wanted to come today to provide you with a quick update on what's going on around the budget and around rental assistance and to get your input on a couple of things.  First I will just start with a really quick update.  For some of you, this will be repeated information, but I want to make sure we are all on the same page.
	So right now with the state there is an estimated budget deficit of $7 billion.  Unfortunately that 7 billion is expected to grow with next week's Revenue Forecast Council official update, and that takes place on the 17th.  It's going to be on TVW if you are interested in watching, you all can.  That is the entity, though, that the legislature is required to balance their budget against, against their estimates.  So everybody has been anticipating and waiting for that official forecast.
	Regardless of whether or not ‑‑ you know, we can't predict what it's going to be.  Maybe it will be still at 7 billion.  That's not a great number.  It's an impact that is on the current budget of the state and on the upcoming biennial budget.  So $7 billion that's split between two budgets.
	Just a reminder on our budgets, each state budget is a biennial budget, so they live for two years.  We are in the last half of the current biennial budget.  We have three budgets in the state.  We have an operating budget, a capital budget and a transportation budget.  The capital budget is where the housing trust fund appropriations live, so we care a lot about that, but otherwise it's the operating budget that has all of the Human Services, homeless dollars and all the investments that I think make a huge difference in our communities' lives.  It's K through 12 education.  All the behavioral health, Medicaid spending.  But 75% of that operating budget is protected, meaning it cannot be cut, either by the state constitution or by lawsuits.
	So 25% of the budget that can be cut is where all the Human Services programs live, including housing and essential needs, TANF and other programs.  So that is why when budget cuts are on the table.  Structurally, Human Services are at such great risk.  As a quick aside I will say the rub is pretty huge because our tax system in Washington State makes poor people pay the majority of taxes, and yet when we come to a budget deficit even though they are paying the majority of the taxes, the services that our communities rely on and low income communities particularly rely on are the first to be cut.  So sort of think of that in the context of how doubly unfair the concentration of cuts on Human Services is.
	Of course we are organizing to prevent that, and we will continue to engage you and have conversations with you on alternatives to cuts, like progressive revenue and completely different pass forward.  I am going to put in the chat in a few minutes our current action alert, and I really request that you take action.  One of the top line requests is that the state have a different path forward, that they first do no more harm to our communities, that they enact progressive revenue and that they protect housing and homelessness and human services dollars.  So that's our current action.
	The other ask is also to invest current state dollars that are available through the federal government into rental assistance.  So I will talk about that in a second.  Quickly back to the budget, when the legislator convenes in 2021 in January, it's an odd‑numbered year.  They start to draft the next biennial budget that will go into effect that July.  And so if they don't make cuts to the current budget before that time, they will also be grappling with how to balance the current budget that will at that point only have six months left essentially.  They may have to make cuts to current spending and future spending, unless they carve a different way forward, like enacting progressive revenue to get us through this period.
	So we can talk more about progressive revenue later.  We don't have a ton of time today.  The thing I really wanted to make sure we focus on is that the governor's budget team, OFM, Office of Financial Management, required each state agency to go through a 15% cut exercise, and each agency had to submit two OFM what a 15% cut would look like for their agency.  Because of the way the Department of Commerce's funding is, the funding that they were required to submit, the cuts, had to come from that general fund state dollars.  The Department of Commerce doesn't have a lot of general fund state dollars that are discretionary, so they are not tied to like a revenue stream.
	So document recording fees can't be put up for cuts because that's a dedicated fee.  So each state agency had to look for their general fund funded programs or staff for cuts.  So Commerce doesn't have a lot of general fund funded programs, but they have one big one, so there are cuts that they put forward to the governor's budget office including a $16 million to HEN, which is unacceptable and would be devastating.  The governor has since then clarified to the legislature that this was just an exercise.  They are not going to take any action to implement the cuts without the legislature.  And the legislature at this point in time is not planning on convening until August, potentially late August, potentially even a little later in the fall.  Earlier there had been anticipation that there might be a special session as early as this month, but that looks really unlikely at this point.  Things can change I guess, nothing is set in stone, but what most lawmakers are anticipating it's not going to happen until August and when they convenient they will entertain cuts.
	Up until the time they convene it's important for advocates across the state to make sure that lawmakers do no more harm to our communities, and that they hear time and time again that they need to forge a different path forward that is different from the way they dealt with the Great Recession.  I think all of you will know and remember that the cuts that they enact back in the Great Recession still have not been made up for.  TANF has never gotten back to its pre‑recession levels.  We have never gotten there.  And once they cut programs, at all, but especially deeply, it is really hard even in good budget years when there is a surplus money, it's really hard to get those programs back to their funding level that they were at.
	And then the pre‑recession funding levels were too low anyhow.  It's not like everybody in the state had their needs met.  So we really as an organized constituency, as housing and homelessness advocates, really need to make our voices heard.
	One big thing that the Housing Alliance is starting to kick off, so many of you work with nonprofits, we are doing a nonprofit board resolution campaign to get nonprofit affordable housing organizations and homeless service providers to get their boards to pass formal resolutions in favor of progressive revenue.  We think this is really important so that we can show the legislature that our community has shown up, and that we are in support of progressive revenue and that we have their backs, but it's also really important because those conversations that take place with your boards can really go a long way in educating a broad community.  A lot of times board members are actually people who have money and may actually be ones who will be taxed themselves if progressive revenue is enacted, that's targeted towards higher income households.  So having those conversations can be really important.
	So stay tuned for that, and I hope that you will consider having that conversation with your board, and enacting a resolution like that.
	So the eviction moratorium that we have all fought so hard for had been extended, which is great.  It's new due to expire on midnight, August 1st.  So everybody is asking of course what comes next.  We need rental assistance in order to stave off a massive wave of evictions.  We need that to be timed, though, perfectly, so that we don't lift the eviction moratorium and not have enough rental assistance to stop people from losing their homes.  And so I anticipate that we will, again, be pushing for that eviction moratorium to be extended past that August 1st deadline because I don't yet see a world in which we are going to have the amount of money we need in order to prevent evictions from rising exponentially across the state.
	The HEROES Act that the federal government passed through the house is now sitting with the senate, has $2 billion in rental assistance for Washington State if it were to pass.  And that is what we and the National Low Income Housing Coalition estimate we minimally need to get households through the beginning of the recession in March through the end of the year.
	Obviously the state legislature at this point in time does not have access to that level of funds, but they do have some money.  And this is what's really important, and what I wanted to get your input on today.  So the legislature had about $2 billion in discretionary funds from the federal government from federal COVID‑related funds that are available, that's currently within the reach ‑‑ in the pockets of the state, that can be used for a variety of needs, including rental assistance.  There is a lot of needs in the state, so we have no expectation that they could spend nearly all of that or anything close to all of that on rental assistance, but rental assistance is one of the big needs in the state.  And so with the action alert ‑‑ I will put it in the chat right now.  The other thing we are asking is $300 million of the 2 billion that the state has be spent on rental assistance.  300 million is a number that has come out of conversations with a variety of entities that we think would be a good first step towards meeting the needs of the lowest income folks who have been hard hit by this economic downturn.
	So my question for you, though ‑‑ and I will just say that currently on the table there is conversations between lawmakers and the governor's office to invest some money in rental assistance, but what they are currently talking about is $90 million, which is not nearly enough.  It's welcomed, but, for example, if we only get $90 million, there is no way that we could stave off mass evictions if the eviction moratorium is lifted.
	$90 million with the extension of the eviction moratorium would do a lot of good in our communities, so we definitely don't want to say no to that, but we are pushing for 300 million.
	My question to you, though, and this is a question we are getting a lot, is if your community, so Pierce County were given a significant amount of rental assistance, how could it best be used?  How could it best get out quickly and efficiently throughout your community to folks who need it the most?  One of the big barriers to getting the rental assistance secured is a lot of questions about like, well, we can't get that much money in rental assistance out the door because nonprofits and counties and cities won't be able to utilize those funds, and the key thing about these federal dollars, they have to be spent by December 31st.  That's the requirement that came through with the federal government.  They are reimbursement only, so that's probably another barrier for a nonprofit.  You would have to first spend it and then get reimbursed.  So perhaps sitting with the county might be better.  I don't think at least the initial word we got was that the county, if the county got the funds from the state, they wouldn't have to deal with the reimbursement.  They would just have it.
	But if a nonprofit distributed funds they would have to ask the government for the reimbursement.  So anyhow, I would love to open up for a conversation and get your input on just your thoughts about that, like immediate sort of brainstorm about like what works in your county to quickly get money out the door, what lessons have already been learned from the coronavirus relief funds that your communities have seen.  What are best practices?  What are things we should keep in mind?  What are your requests?  What requests would you like us to bring forward as we are in conversations around rental assistance?
	So I think you all can unmute yourselves, and so I would love to hear thoughts.  I know you have a rental assistance program already in the city, in Pierce County, so how to replicate the good parts of that would be welcome.
>> So I will ‑‑ I just want to say the obvious thing, that if you are going to advocate for anything, you should advocate for some rational use of these funds.  It's totally ridiculous that it last to be used by December when this problem is going to go on longer, and I don't know if anyone is getting push back to that decision, but just because it's made already does not mean it can't be challenged.  To my mind throwing a bunch of rental assistance, short‑term rental assistance, at the whole country and expecting something to change by December is just plain stupid.  So my answer is, rental assistance is a very short‑term fix.  We need permanent affordable housing, and if there is any way to invest any of it to that, however that can be, whatever finagling needs to happen.  I also wonder do we have all these short‑term approaches, is anyone talking about the universal basic income, removing the interest deductions subsidies that are costing us $72 billion annually?  Is anyone even looking at the things that ‑‑ the systemic things that need to be fixed?  So I applaud you for doing the work that you are doing in the trenches and trying to move this money out the door, and Maureen Howard is always talking about getting that money out the door and into the county because it's going to help the economy, and I understand that, but I don't understand why there is not more push back to the decision that this money needs to be used by December and the ridiculous thing about being reimbursed, which makes it almost impossible for any nonprofit to engage in it.
>> Yeah.  I think it's too late to push back on that because the money has already been appropriated, so that would have been a federal government conversation.  I think their rationale is that they wanted this money to quickly hit the economy to try to stave off a Great Depression.  So they wanted the money to be in our communities quickly.
	There is, though, like I said, the HEROES Act that was already passed by the house, that is now sitting with the senate, is another ‑‑ would be a whole different wave of money, and there are some different ways that that money would be appropriated that wouldn't repeat.  Like, for example, if that got appropriated, that would have the same deadline.  And there is a push, you know, at the federal level for there to be more flexibility.  As you can imagine, the push back in that comes from unfortunately some more conservative folks in the senate.
>> What?
>> Oh, God.
>> What is happening?
>> We have been hacked.  Let's all leave and come back.
>> Yeah, we got hacked.
>> Oh, no, there we go.
>> Gerrit, did you deal with that?
>> We can't hear you.
>> Yeah.  I got it.
>> Thank you.
>> I can tighten the rein.
>> Can you fix the chat so we can get in?
>> Hmm.  I'll work on that.
>> I just want to say if we end up having to give any money back, that would be a good time for us to organize, and maybe even now because there is some talk that the money won't be spent, so I think another tactic right now would be to have one voice that says that doesn't make sense, it should be extended.  It is the federal government, but they are working for us.
>> There are thoughts, though, about if we can't get it extended after December 31st, how to get it into the community.
>> There is a program in King County, the Home Base program with money that came from the Mariners.  It went to United Way and some of it or all of it is available to the Fair Housing Justice Project in King County, which is the same as what we have in Pierce County.  So when they are actually dealing with individual landlords and trying to negotiate staying in the home or having to get out, they can just say, okay, we will take care of that back rent because the money is there, and get rid of fines, make sure you guys can stay.  That's happening.  It's been happening in King County for quite awhile.  If we had access to that, then I don't know where it would need to be for us to have access to it in the Housing Justice Project, but that's one way to efficiently get it right where it needs to go if we had access to the money, so.
>> This is Joy.  So I am going to piggyback on what Theresa was saying because can you say, Michele, that that money is like designated or pledged or spoken for, or whatever, and then there is this extended time to be able to spend that money?  That way December 31st, it's a hard date, but it's a hard date that that money has to be spoken for or tapped into or whatever.
>> [Indiscernible].
>> That you want, that you want.  So is that something else that can be [indiscernible] or are we beyond that.
>> Am I late?  Am I late?  Hello.
>> Wow, that was fun.  All right.  You got to ask me to get unmuted, so if you guys can raise your hands I can manage that a little better.
>> Something has happened in the chat, Gerrit.  It looks like it's been compromised now.
>> Oh, boy.  This is the first time we have had this, so I guess we have had a good run so far.  It's rather frustrating.
>> Why don't you just block the chat if we can.  We all have Michele's e‑mail address, and if people would just take the time to e‑mail her what they can't get in the chat today.
>> That's fair.  Michele, did I get you unmuted?
>> You did.
>> Cool.
>> Okay.  So do we want to keep going or did you want people to like get out and come back in?
>> I mean I don't know that that would help anything.  I think I can manage here, now that I've got more things shut down, we will just ignore the chat I guess.
>> Okay.  There is this Erin, you should probably get out of here, though.  Oh, well.  Anyhow, to the question, I think ‑‑ so, yes.  I mean I guess there is ‑‑ I mean I don't have a lot of control over the federal dollars, so I think ‑‑ I hear you all.  It's not a frustration that's not unshared.  Let's assume going forward that we are not going to be able to extend the December 31st deadline, how are we going to use these funds?  We would be unwise to say we do not like the parameters that have put on them, so we are going to shun the money.  Like this is an opportunity to invest in our community, so the question is how can we best do that.
	One of the questions or ideas that I had, so curious about any thoughts that you have about this, would be to make short‑term vouchers.  So for folks who are unable to pay their rent now and have been since March, and are likely to be the hardest hit in the recession and unable to get back to work quickly, maybe making short‑term voucher assistance.  One of the principles we probably all share is as this money goes out the door we want to make sure that it sustains the tenants' ‑‑ we need to prevent homelessness, so any ideas you have would be welcome.  I don't even know if people can pay attention with all these horrible screen images.  I am not sure how effective this is right now.
>> I am going to shut the meeting down and send out an e‑mail of a new meeting link and see if that improves things.
>> Okay.  Bye.
[Restart of new Zoom session]
>> It looks like some of us are back.  A couple people are having problems.  Ugh.
>> Sorry, Michele, I never did hear your answer to a that question.  If you could just send me something or your e‑mail, we can have a separate conversation.
>> All right.  We got about half back.  Do you want to continue back on, Michele?
>> Sure.  Joy, I think your question was ‑‑ actually, do you want to repeat your question?
>> So can we designate that money so, while there is a hard date of December 31st, is there any way to designate that money and be giving an extension for it to be spent?  So because there is like so many creative ways we could be using that money, but we need time to make that happen, and so if there wasn't such a hard date of, no, you got to have that money spent by December 31st, but what if you had something set up and trying to make something happen, it would give a little buffer to have that little bit of extension.  Is that possible?
>> Yeah.  I can look into that.  I think it comes down to what's the definition of spent out.  Right.  So, yeah, let me ask Commerce, and other budget folks, if they can figure out how to fudge with that a little bit.  I am not sure what accounting they are required to provide to the federal government by the end of the year.  They were required to provide something.  But, yeah, I think that's a good way to look at it.
>> That was definitely on the piggyback of what Theresa was talking about, because this is going to go so much further into past December 31st, so I wanted to honor what Theresa was saying about this is more of a long range thing and not such a short timeframe.
>> Yeah.  And I think the other problem is that this money is not going ‑‑ is not nearly enough to take care of the long range problem, so that's why ‑‑ the Housing Alliance has been working really hard to do everything we can to push our federal delegation to get the HEROES Act passed through the senate.  It currently has, like I said, it's 2 ‑‑ no, it's ‑‑ it's either 200 or 100 billion in the bill itself, but that would equate to 2 billion for Washington State.  Chuck Schumer, the minority leader was on the coalition's call on Monday.  If you are not familiar, they are our partner in the national efforts, and they have calls, multiple calls actually every week.  We have a tenant talk call, but every Monday they have a broad call for affordable housing and homelessness advocates, and they have increasingly had really powerful decisionmakers at the federal level on.
	I was happy to hear that Chuck Schumer said from the democrats' perspective that the housing and homelessness dollars that are currently debated act that the senate is now ‑‑ it's in their hands, that the housing and homeless component to it is really critical.  And that's not by happenstance.  Right.  That's because they have been hearing from their constituents, just like at the state level when our lawmakers hear from you, they are centering housing and homelessness.
	One silver lining is that our advocacy has really not only moved mountains in the past couple of legislative sessions, but it is somewhat creating like a buffer around housing and homelessness.  I am hearing ‑‑ so, for example, when that $16 million cut was put forward to the governor's office to HEN, I immediately reached out to a huge group of lawmakers, including several of yours.  Senator Darneille is a huge champion for HEN, and I heard back from a lot of lawmakers who said we will never let this happen, we will never let this $16 million cut happen, and that's only because of the education and organizing that we have all been doing for years, and that's not the reaction that housing and homelessness dollars got back in the Great Recession.  But we are going to need to keep that up in order to protect these investments because I mean if we see cuts at a time ‑‑ at this time where homelessness is likely to rise, like obviously it could have just catastrophic impacts on our communities.
	But, Gerrit, I don't know how much time we have left, so I will let you decide, but if anybody has thoughts, though, on how to get money out the door in the most efficient way possible in Pierce County.  I still would love to hear it, and I guess if we are running out of time you need to get on to the next agenda item, people can also e‑mail me directly.  I will put my e‑mail in the chat actually, too.
>> Perfect.  And your e‑mail is on the agenda when it went out.  If we could just send that off and probably get moving to the next thing.
	I don't know if this came up.  My brain has been in another place here, but the limitations, some of the limitations around the funding, like who has the ‑‑ did we talk about this, like if a federal agency has the mortgage or the loan or whatever, that that limits ‑‑ Maureen, can you explain that?  Am I making sense?
>> So in the CARES Act there is a separate moratorium on the properties that are federally backed.  It becomes more confusing in Tacoma because the rental assistance program that the City of Tacoma operates through LASA is actually the agency that operates, and units that are federally backed are not eligible.  So tenants in those units that have federal mortgages on them, Fanny, Freddie, FHA, are not eligible to participate in the rental assistance program.  That's unique to Tacoma.  That's not part of the relief fund.  It's really hard, I know right now, unless you are a money ‑‑ federal money guru sort of person, to sort of keep these straight and look for a perfect world.  It's CARES relief fund money from the state, that's what Michele is talking about, 90 million.  The risk of trying to go back to the feds and get this changed is that there are states that are already using that money to fill budget holes, even though it's blatantly illegal under the law.  The extent to which we can put our energies into doing what Michele asked us to do, and how could we get that money out in Pierce County efficiently, fairly, racial equity lens, all that sort of ‑‑ within this deadline.  I know it's imperfect, but I know it's better than zero.  So, and other money, the CDBG money, the ESG money, those funds have long timelines on them.  They can come in later, but right now it's how do we get the relief money.  This is the 157 million the county has, the 6 million the City of Tacoma has.  Every city has some.  So how do we get it out?  So Michele is honestly asking, the alliance is asking, the conversations are going on, so if we want to help shape how this money from the State of Washington that comes to the people that we are trying to help out in Pierce County, tell her, e‑mail her.  And there is no like stupid question, there is no wrong answer.  And thanks, Michele.
>> Maureen, Gerrit, Michele, this is Sherri.  As a nonprofit leader my biggest concern is, yes, having the money availability is needed and helpful, but we can't push out that type of money on a reimbursement model.  So why does that continue to be?  I understand the deadline, but why does that continue to be the traditional funding model that government entities use, especially with such a substantial amount of money that needs to go out and quickly?
>> If I can start it and, Michele, you can weigh in maybe, so first of all these are the terms of this money.  All right.  The discussion about what's a better model is a legitimate discussion, and we should have it, and if it's federal money we need to use the channels at the federal level.  This money, because it is reimbursable, then it sounds like there are two options.  One, as Michele said earlier, this is not HUD money.  This is Department of Treasury money.  Okay.  So if in fact Treasury will accept the money going from the State of Washington to Pierce County, county government, as evidence that the money meets that spending deadline, that's one potential solution.  The other one is if that doesn't work, and the money has to actually be spent and reimbursed, then we've got all the foundations.  We go to the Washington State housing finance commission, we go back to Commerce and say we need this much money in a pot.  We go to the lenders.  They got money.  We say we need a pot of money so nonprofits who want to do this rental assistance have a way to forward fund the money that they are going to have to request reimbursement for.  That's not an impossible scenario.
>> Just quickly, so that's something I put on the table with Commerce as well.  So what if the nonprofit played the role of qualifying individuals for rental assistance, but they don't actually cut the checks so you don't have to be get reimbursed, but the government that's a government entity, and the financial commission is an interesting idea, Maureen, so I don't know if they would be subject to the reimbursement requirement, but if a nonprofit qualified somebody and then the local government actually held the dollars and cut the check, like could that kind of partnership work, and what would we need to make that efficient and quick?
	So that's a workaround on this reimbursement problem that unfortunately, you know, I am not sure is solvable.  It's similar to the December 31st deadline, of those decisions were made when the funds came into Washington State, and we sort of have to meet the money where it's at.  Although I like Joy's question a lot, so what really does a spend‑out mean, so that's something I want to look at a little bit more and see if there is some wiggle room there.  Go ahead, Sherri.
>> Sorry.  So it seems to me that has anybody thought ‑‑ I love the idea of Pierce County being the one to cut the checks, and we already had our coordinated entry system in place.  Coordinated entry touches a lot of nonprofits.  I think the biggest belief that I have is that nonprofits have separate populations, so I am able to serve what Share and Care might not be able to serve.  So we are able to access a wider part of the population if nonprofits have funds availability.  What if we infuse money into our coordinated entry system and deputize other folks with Pierce County maintaining the money and cashing the checks for it?  Gerrit, you know coordinated entry, but that system is already in place.
>> It's got all the same reimbursement challenges that we are talking about now.  There is the cash flow part that's one piece, and just the amount of time it takes to get reimbursements.  I mean it's a challenge, right.  This window, as we extend the eviction moratorium, and as we continue to provide ‑‑ like if the federal government adds in continues this $600 a month or week rather with the unemployment, we keep pushing back sort of the date when the bulk of the rental assistance needs to happen.  We just kind of narrow the window with that December 30th deadline.  We seem to keep narrowing that and making it harder.  I think the coordinated entry system is probably too slow to get the reimbursements in the way it seems like we are going to need them.  But I think we are going to have to kind of wrap things up here because of the ugliness kind of pushed our timeline a little back, and this is a super interesting conversation, so you know how to get ahold of Michele, and I think she would be happy to have thoughts sent her way.  We probably should connect in with the county at some point.  I am not sure that ‑‑ I don't see anybody from the county on, unless they are on at the EOC.
>> One last thing for Michele, if there are people who are really interested in trying to figure out how something would work, are you available for like a one‑time sort of meeting or something?  Is that possible?  Maybe wait until the revenue forecast is out or something.
>> Absolutely.  Maureen, that's a great idea.  Maybe let's talk offline, but, yeah, I would love that idea, maybe a smaller group of folks from this bigger group.  That's a great idea.
>> All right.  Michele is coming back in two weeks for a more substantial listening session, so we will have a chance then, too.  And maybe I will have my act together and we will have a little less awfulness.  Wow.
	So thank you, Michele.  And I am going to go ahead and move over to Naomi with the Health Department.  We sent a set of questions about recommendations and guidance from the Health Department related to how we should restructure our shelters and whatnot, and with some responsiveness Naomi set some time.  I am hoping you are somewhere here, Naomi.
>> Can you hear me okay?
>> Beautifully.
>> I have been here with Ivan, who like just got up, so I am going to run back over here.  All right.
>> Perfect.
>> And I will put my glasses on.  Sorry.  Trying to catch up on the agenda.  Good morning, everyone.  Thank you so much for taking this time to allow me to have this time to respond to some of these questions.  I am going to try to quickly cover as many as I possibly can, understanding that we are on a time limit.  But also Gerrit and I have talked about us coming back and that would be the Health Department, so that would be myself and Manu Rodriguez, who is also [indiscernible].  For a more substantial probably 30‑minute presentation where we can talk about some planning moving forward and potentially some deeper conversations.  So looking forward to that.  Hey, welcome back.
>> Sorry.
>> So I will get right into this.  Apologies.  So, Gerrit, I want to go in the order that you sent these questions over, so I want everyone to understand this is just a random ordering, depending on the answers, were not in any particular order.  Sorry.  I am going to say that this morning's first call was a little traumatizing, so I am still trying to reel myself back in from that.  All right.
	So let's see.  One of the first questions was recommendations on the future of congregate shelters, so this question was on does the Health Department have recommendations in terms of designing potentially new shelters, what they might look like, or changes to shelters.  The answer so that is, no, we don't have guidance.  We are obviously still recommending social distancing.  The Health Department is taking a position on this kind of broader policy question, so it's really a balance with providing shelter for those who need it and the ability to leverage the resources that are currently available.
	The second question was around recommendations around design of congregate living in homeless shelters, so there was a number of subquestions in here, HVAC systems and air flow at shelters.  We support infection control at the Health Department, but this is not our area of expertise, so we would recommend that shelters consult with an industrial hygienist, and those are available, plenty of healthcare settings that hire industrial hygienists in terms of how to make air flow patterns in their facilities to work to their advantage, but we are happy to continue to support infection control within our county shelters.
	All right.  Third question, what are the Health Department's recommendations around using hotels house vulnerable individuals experiencing homelessness?  So this has been very effective in managing infection control.  Again, as I mentioned earlier with the question around changes in shelters and how those are operated, this is really a balancing act between housing the homeless and funding, and if it's cost effective or if it's draining resources.  So that, again, is something that I think each shelter needs to do in terms of their long‑term strategies, but we don't have a policy recommendation in terms of expanding those programs.
	All right.  Guidance from the CDC about comprehensive site testing of all homeless shelters.  So I do have some updates on that, which is that we have had a very limited capacity in the recent weeks in terms of what the Health Department has been able to do for testing and what we are calling universal testing.  So the only universal testing that we have actually done in the county has been at homeless shelters.  So we have either worked with long‑term care facilities around a specific outbreak, or they have done some of their testing independently.  The homeless shelters are the only universal testing that we have done, and we have conducted so far three of those.  So in terms of developing capacity on how we are able to do that moving forward, we are currently developing an RFP that is going out next week, and I will be happy to once we have a link to what that application looks like, wherever that is housed, I will be happy to share that with this group.
	But that is for us as the Health Department to be able to contract for more testing, including mobile testing.  So let's see.  So that is also using our CARES Act funding dollars, and the goal for that is to increase testing.
>> So can I ask a further question on that?  So you are saying that part of that RFP will be for probably a healthcare agency of some sort to do more comprehensive testing of shelters, like that will be included in something that you are asking for bids on?
>> It will be for more comprehensive testing that we will be able to ‑‑ we will then be able to look at testing, not just homeless shelters, but any other congregate care facilities or any other locations.  So this is a kind of a universal expansion of our capacity to be able to do testing, and that will also include mobile testing sites.
>> The intention is to do more.  We are not going to stop at three.  Our plan is to continue to do comprehensive universal testing of homeless shelters and other congregate living facilities dependent on an agency being capable of fulfilling the requirements in the RFP, but you are willing to put testing capacity and money behind that effort?
>> Yes.  That homeless shelters are a high priority to the Health Department.  They are not our only high priority population, but they are definitely one of our high priority populations.
>> Thank you.
>> Yeah.  Let's see.  So question number five, if someone is living in a congregate living facility and found positive for COVID‑19, would the Health Department recommend all guests in fact be tested?  It's going to sound like it's not really an answer, but it really depends on the investigation, and so, again, this is something that happens on a case‑by‑case basis with our disease investigation team, so if for some reason that disease investigation team deemed that everyone in the shelter had had close contact, then, yes, that would happen.  If when they did the investigation and contract tracing that person had not had what they deemed close contact with everyone, then they would recommend testing for the people that they have had close contact with.  So that is just a case‑by‑case basis.
	All right.  So the next question is on hygiene and sanitation, and would the Health Department consider minimal hygiene services for people experiencing homelessness across Pierce County.  So we do have some guidance that we posted around access to showers, laundry, bathrooms, handwashing, and obviously those are all important.  We don't have a recommendation for the quantities needed to meet the recommendations around general site sanitation and hygiene.  So, again, we don't have specifics in terms of how often and how many per population.
	There are some interim guidelines that the CDC offers.  Again, I will be happy to share that with the group.  It's just a link.  But that really is something that we are going to leave up to the shelter providers to understand in terms of their own particular populations.
	Something that we will consider as we move forward, especially because we do still have unsheltered, and so we have I believe a pretty comprehensive list of where we have stood up in terms of coordinating for access to showers so that's the YMCA, like three locations, the Sprinker location, a handwashing station in Puyallup.  Again, happy to share that information, but we don't have guidelines around exactly how many are needed and how often they need to have access to those.
>> This is Gerrit again.  So some of these questions are obviously leading questions, and so no government agency in Pierce County really takes responsibility for ensuring that sanitation is available to people experiencing homelessness.  This is just pointing this fact out that it would be really cool at some point if an agency took that on as an activist agency, and so that space remains unoccupied in our community, of somebody demanding, a government agency, demand that go our money get allocated to do some of these things.  So I am just throwing that out that that's an opportunity that the Health Department has available to it, which is to grow into the space and be a very vocal advocate for minimal hygiene for folks experiencing homelessness, and for a number of these other things.
	I know that doesn't need to be your agency.  That could be easily Pierce County government, our city governments where we have municipalities.  That could be the stating, right, but currently it's nobody, which is why we don't have those hygiene stations.  So that's a place that's not easy to fill as a government agency, right, or even any agency.  So the coalition will probably continue to be advocating that, but we don't have nearly the opportunity to be in the room with decisionmakers as a Health Department, for instance.
>> Thank you, Gerrit.  I will make sure that I take that feedback back to our leadership.  We definitely have recognized that sanitation and hygiene is important prior to COVID and obviously even more important now during this pandemic.  So I appreciate that feedback.
	All right.  Question number seven.  So this question was around creating teams to do contact tracing for people experiencing homelessness.  And there was an ask in this that staffing on contact teams with people with a history ‑‑ that staffing the contact teams with people with a history of homelessness or serving the homelessness was a recommendation that we could put forward in terms of having a lived experience and representation on those contact tracing teams, and, Gerrit, this is a fantastic idea, and I did share this with our recruiting staff, and we are currently filling those positions with Health Department and Pierce County staff, but as we move forward and start to pull in other staff outside of current Health Department and Pierce County staff, that we somehow include that into our recruitment.  So I have moved that suggestion up our chain of command, and it was a very welcomed suggestion, so I really appreciate it.
	All right.  Number eight, if the presence of antibodies ‑‑ if the presence of antibodies proves some immunity for the disease, will there be a plan for antibody testing.  This is a question that we get from a number of different populations across the board, and unfortunately we don't have substantial data on if antibodies proves any sort of immunity, and if it does, what the duration of immunity is.  So it might be that you have some immunity once you have been exposed, so for those of you who ‑‑ I guess assuming everyone knows, but antibody testing is different than live virus testing, so the antibody testing is to see if you have had COVID‑19 previously, although you are not symptomatic and would not be currently infectious.  The challenge around that is that there is accuracy considerations, and then there is the duration of immunity, and then actually just the verification if there is immunity.  So for all of those really important limitations, not a high priority at this time.  So that's a we will wait and see if we do get data from our medical research and studies that show that there is some sort of immunity once you have had it.
	All right.  Does the Health Department recognize testing guests prior to staying at a congregate homeless shelter.  The answer to that is, no, because there is no guarantee someone might develop symptoms after testing and become infectious.  So that person that you might be testing on Monday might actually be in a two‑ to three‑day window where they were exposed but they don't have enough of the virus to be actually triggering a positive on a test, which is why there are already concerns around false negatives.  So that's the incubation period where the virus is still incubating and hasn't actually reached a level of triggering that positive testing.
	The turnaround on testing can sometimes be long.  People can become infectious after testing.  And then really that recommendation would lead to testing every day because that's how you would need to be able to do that, which is why the Health Department focuses on symptom screening, maintaining infectious disease control guidelines, social distancing, and then identifying contacts after you have had confirmed cases.  So that is the best practices that we have.  We use those at all of our site facilities.  Ivan and I get screened every day when we come into the Emergency Operations Center.  We do not get tested every day.  We get temperature checks, we get screened.  We have hand sanitizer, wipes, everywhere.  And that is really the recommendation.
	All right.  Number ten, so congregate settings, keeping guests and staff safe, could run counter to the desire to respect clients' confidentiality.  This is really a question around how the Health Department will identify positive cases and potentially if there is a way that we could share that information with shelters who are accepting new guests into those shelters who may have tested positive and are moving from a shelter, out of a shelter and into another shelter.
	And so, first of all, when we do get a positive test in someone living in a homeless shelter, we share the name of the facility so they can help with the case investigation and contract tracing.  We do not share this information with other shelters unless we know the positive person also spent time there.  So this is the same for other facilities, for workplaces, this is a general guidance around how we share that information.
	We do work with facilities to share the information and identity in order to gather the information for contact tracing.  So case investigation teams handle the possible contact.  PHI, which is part of a COVID positive testing, can be shared among healthcare organizations, but it cannot be shared with shelters.  The Health Department is not going to be allowed to have, as Gerrit I think was suggesting on this, some sort of central repository where we could have the names of known positive cases that is not within our ability to do because of HIPAA regulations.
	All right.  Question number 11, Health Department chooses to identify facilities ‑‑ oh, 30 or more ‑‑ so this was a question around I think like the reason why we chose 30 individuals, 30 beds or ten positive cases to share and identified facility where these cases occurred, and that's really a standard that we have developed with our data team, and it's consistent with protecting personal identifiable information.  So we have a whole team of data analysts and epidemiologists who work with PHI data on a regular basis, and that is a standard that we would use to share data, and so that is not COVID‑specific.  That's not necessarily homeless shelters, because that includes all of our care facilities.  So that is the standard minimum threshold that we would use in any situation so that we can protect PHI, and that that's the level of aggregated data that meets the threshold that we can then share the name of the facility.
	All right.  Last question.  No.  Sorry.  Second to last question.  The Health Department has rooms unused at the temporary isolation and quarantine facility, and so basically it was an ask about using those rooms where we are not ‑‑ for potentially unsheltered and maybe some to have ‑‑ I think maybe some high‑risk homeless or unsheltered.
	So the isolation and quarantine facility is federally funded, and this facility because of those funding dollars does not allow anything but isolation and quarantine.  So we can only admit someone into that facility who is a person under investigation or who has been confirmed COVID positive or confirmed exposed to COVID positive.
>> So just for clarity, we are paying for hotel rooms that aren't being used, and so we can pay for the hotel rooms not to be used, but we can't pay for the hotel rooms to be used for people that don't fit the criteria?  Is that accurate?
>> We accepted federal dollars to put a facility together specifically for isolation and quarantine, and we did not put together a facility that was for any other purpose.  So whether or not we have those rooms filled or not is irrelevant to the fact that those dollars are restricted for that activity.
>> A good reminder I think for all of us to merge our funding streams together when at all possible so we can expand the number of people we serve.
>> Yeah.  All right.  So last question, so this is around the limited movement at congregate shelter ‑‑ for congregate shelter guests, and I think this is really asking the question of now that we are in phase two, what is the guidelines that we recommend around people moving around.
	This is really just a very, um, a very different population than anyone else who we would have in terms of the guidance around phase two.  So we do recommend that facilities maintain the spirit of the safe home guidance, and make those decisions based on the size of their shelter, the type of guests that they have, and what they feel comfortable with as their own policies.  So as you know in phase two, we are allowed to see up to ‑‑ well, allowed, but the recommendation is no more than five people, and so how each facility implements that policy, what we would strongly encourage is that they try to adhere to the spirit of that guidance, knowing that you have guests who are living in a congregate facility, which is different than those who are living in individual households, or with their own households.
	And I think that that is a challenge moving forward, so that's, again, another discussion that we would like to have at some point now that we are in phase two, and we have a moment where we can ‑‑ Manu and I can get together and think about what phase three and what phase four looks like, and how we can help our partners at the homeless shelters to be able to come up with policies that meet the spirit of that guidance.  So it might look different depending on the size of the shelter, but I think that we are open to having that conversation with each of those shelters to help them kind of think through what their guidelines might be.
	So with that, that is all the questions that Gerrit sent over to me, and I know that we have other things to get to on the agenda, and I do want to emphasize that we will be back either next week or the week after next with another presentation, and hopefully some more time for question and answer as we move towards planning phases of increased testing within homeless shelters and across the county for high‑risk populations.
>> Thank you.  Would it be possible to get what you just presented written out?  Maybe interlaced in with the questions?  Three reasons, one reason, some of us take information in better when it's written out, and then the other two would be related to people that have cognitive impairments that can make it challenging to understand orally‑presented information.  It's nice to have it written down as well.  And we also have people that are hard of hearing, although we do have captioning included in our meetings, it would still be good to have the phrasing exactly as you would like it.  Is that something that we can ask for?
>> Absolutely, Gerrit.  I have basically exactly what I am reading off of, I can cut and paste your questions and I have put down my own notes in there, so I will clean it up to make sure my spelling and grammar is perfect, and then I will send that out to you.
>> Very cool.  And the one thing that I would love to see is the ability, even though I heard your guidance on bringing people into facilities without testing because it could be that they are positive when they test negative, however, I would encourage thinking if that might not actually be worth doing because if I could stop somebody from coming into the shelter that is positive, that's a really good thing, even if I don't catch everybody that's positive, if I could catch one person that's positive before they come into a shelter, I have done a lot of saving.  I know it's hard to do things like that in large amounts, but, again, the type of congregate living that we find in our homeless shelters is very different than in any other facility in Pierce County.  Right.  In terms of the shared spaces for eating and sleeping and bathrooms, that it's not like a nursing home.  It's very much different.
>> Yeah.
>> So just ‑‑ think that through.  I get the logistics, I get the precedence, I get the complexity of it, but preventing somebody ‑‑ like our people go in and out of shelters all day long and they could come ‑‑ after being a month there they could be back and be positive, but that sense of people coming in, have gone through a heightened screening, perhaps including a test.  Just something to think about, if that might have enough benefit to make the hassle worth it.
>> Yeah.  I mean currently that is not our recommendation, and for the reasons that I highlighted, but there will be as I said increased testing available across the county as we move into the next month, and then into July, so there will be increased testing available.  And we will also give a plug right now, just because now I have the opportunity, the Kroger testing site, which is not the Health Department, but we are encouraging anyone who has been at a large event or demonstration, as well as anyone who is in high‑risk populations, including racial and ethnic populations, to schedule and get tested at the Tacoma Dome site, so that is free testing, it is a simple like four questions in terms of screening, and then you can schedule your appointment, so you really just show up, you drive up in your car.  I think you could probably schedule if you needed to transport someone, you could do that as well because there is a reserved time spot that you have, and we are ‑‑ we do want to make sure that that message gets out, that those who might have been at a higher risk of exposure because they have participated in a large group event or demonstration, and also our additional high‑risk and racial and ethnic populations across the county have that access to testing.
>> Cool.  Since we are running a bit behind, I am going to say since you are going to come back in a week or two, let's save our questions for then.  And thank you very much for the time and energy put into answering those questions.
	And I've got to be the nag that I always am and say how incredibly nervous I get when I see two people in an office sitting so close together not wearing masks, and it kind of continues to puzzle me that that opportunity for showing kind of ‑‑ that's certainly the image I get from the Health Department, is that we are in an office setting, except when we are alone in our office, that we ought to be wearing a mask, and so I just bring that up.  Every time I see that, I think to myself, hmm.
	So that's just me being a dick, so sorry about that.
>> It's okay.  We do our masks when we leave this room.
>> I will say the perspective on the camera, it does not show how wide this table is, but it is six feet distance if it was measured.
>> Yeah.  And when we leave the room we do mask up.
>> Opportunities for modeling best practices is all I am saying.
>> Good point, though.
>> Thanks, Gerrit.
>> Yep.  So thank you so much again, and we will look forward to getting the written version of that.  You can sent that directly to the coalition.  Even if you are not in the distribution, I will make sure is it flows out to everybody.
	We are going to slip over to a presentation that was requested by Tacoma Pro Bono, and I am excited to hear a little about what they are up to and what some of their needs are.  I think the world has probably gone topsy‑turvy for them, so without further ado, Laurie Davenport.  Thanks so much for making some time for us today.  And we need to get you unmuted.
>> Unmute.  Thank you, Gerrit.  Good morning, everybody.  I will try to keep it really brief because there is a lot of stuff we don't know, but I wanted you guys to know we apologize for not being here.  We did go topsy‑turvy.  We lost funding.  We had to go completely virtual from a model where we were pretty much in person, and we have done it.  
	So first thing to know is if you are not familiar with us, we are a civil legal aid provider in Pierce County.  We work with Northwest Justice Project, and Jennifer Ammons who works for us is on this call as well, and I want to introduce Casey Burton, who is our new staff attorney for the housing project also on this call.  
	We are dealing with a lot of unusual stuff right now.  First thing to know is we are available.  People have a lot of questions, if people have issues, not just landlord‑tenant issues, we have a form on our website, click on it, figure it out.  We will get back in touch with you, do an intake and get you connected with legal advice.  
	We are now in phase two, so we are beginning to have client appointments, which works much better like for landlord‑tenant issues because we usually need to look at documents to make that work, so that's starting to happen.  We have two full‑time Housing Justice Project attorneys now, and obviously we don't ‑‑ nobody knows for sure.  We are expecting the eviction moratorium to end August 1st.  Whatever happens, we are going to be at ground zero and it's going to be amazing.  Right now we are focused on prevention and information, we are focused on getting as much out there and helping as many people as we can so that we can avoid them ending up there in that courtroom asking for our help.
	On the other hand the state has put some money into emergency eviction defense, and we plan to be able to help everyone who needs our help in the courtroom.  We are working with the court for that.  We may end up using more than one courtroom.  We may end up limiting the number of people who can be on the docket at one time so everybody can actually get representation.  So that stuff is in the works.  It's not like it's all going to land on the same kind of inadequate system we had before.  We are going to be prepared.
	And hopefully we will be prepared to deal with other issues because getting people connected with rental assistance, getting people in a position where they can actually negotiate with their landlord and create a payment plan, if that's what comes up for them, we are working on all those different things.  So we are not just eviction defense and that's it, but that's going to be a really important part of what we do.
	Secondly, the important thing to know is that we have open to provide services and we are going to continue to be more open in areas where we can help people who don't right now have homes, aren't tenants.  We can help people who are homeless who may have an opportunity to get into housing.  We take care of legal financial obligations for people.  We are interested in helping people who have citations, who need to deal with those things.  Any of that stuff, including having a previous eviction on your record can keep you from getting into housing, and we are available to help with that.  So we want to hear from people who need our help obviously from clients, and we want to hear from all of you about what you would like us to be able to do, what we can do to help the people that you are working with, help your organizations.
	Tacoma Pro Bono itself and the housing project is not limited in terms of who we can help.  We have no funding restrictions, so we are here to help, and that's the main thing I want to say right now of we will come on a little bit later, maybe a couple of weeks, if you want us to give a longer presentation about what the end of the eviction moratorium is going to mean because it's complicated and nobody knows all the answers, including us, so we are available.  And my e‑mail ‑‑ I have a fly.  It's trying to ‑‑ [laughs].  I am being crashed by a fly.  My e‑mail is there, and if you want to just put off questions to e‑mail questions or whatever, that's absolutely fine.  I know we are way behind, so thank you.
>> It's all right.  I don't mind spending a little time.  We can toss our other updates out the window.  There was a question about what languages you have forms and information available in.
>> We have the ability to talk to people on the phone using a phone translation.  Normally when we see people in person we provide free interpreters.  That's one of the things we are working on is getting information out, not just in English, but we do have I think one notification on our website that's in Spanish for victims of domestic violence, but that's all we've got right now, so that's part of what we are working on.
>> There is a number of new COVID‑19 publications translated into some other languages.  I can't tell you exactly which ones, but we have made it a big priority to at least get everything into Spanish almost as fast as we get the English versions out.
>> And all the eviction stuff is in Spanish as well, everything that's in Washington law.
>> So where we can get copy of those documents?
>> We are talking specifically ‑‑ she was just talking about washingtonlawhelp.org.  Click on the area if that's what you are interested in.  It's a huge database of information.
>> Thanks.
>> I am looking for other questions.  I am not seeing anything come up.  We had a great presentation by you guys, probably a year and a half ago.  I am trying to think about the last time Tacoma Pro Bono came.  So I think that if we want to get something scheduled, I think really just even walking us through what a client would experience when I think can be really helpful for us as we discuss with our clients what resources are available and what they can expect.
>> Right.
>> I think the legal system is really disconcerting for a lot of folks, and that maybe that would be useful.  So if other folks have ideas, they could shoot them on to Laurie on Jennifer about what it might be worth hearing from them about how to get our clients connected in.
>> I do see a question about how to ‑‑ this is a big issue, how do you reach us, how do you get help.  Two things are available, where I think it's probably the most reliable.  You can call us.  We are not in the office right now, but if you leave a voice mail, it will be dealt with.  You can put a question on or click the link on the website, and that's for clients.  You can e‑mail me any time and I will get things to the right place.  As far as Northwest Justice Project goes, CLEAR is the best option, and it's all by phone, but there is also an online forum.  
	So try us first.  I think we are probably the quickest responder, and we are going ‑‑ that's another thing we are working on is specifically for people who have landlord‑tenant and eviction issues, we are trying to set up a hotline where people can get questions answered even if you don't have a case right now, just to get information out.
>> Laurie and Jennifer, I see you are on, too, but it seems to be that one of the things that might help also is sort of the local legal guide for dummies, if you will, something that a new outreach worker, a new housing navigator, a new, you know, whatever, person, could easily access.  And I don't know if you've got like a YouTube sort of option or something that you can just get when you need it that gives you the sort of basics, some of which you have gone over today, some of which you will do when you all come back to do something, but just to ‑‑ I don't know.  Maybe that's just me, but I think that would be helpful.
>> To make a little video, I think that would be helpful.
>> You can always delete it when it's not ‑‑ you know these things are date sensitive, so some techie can figure out how to do that.  Or even FAQs that as they come in from the field, even the Department of Treasury is doing a fairly decent job on that with the EIPs now, as they are getting real life scenarios, and outreach workers need to speak up, but I think that might ‑‑ you know, there probably are food bank people and people in the faith community who are interacting, people who aren't on this call, part of this group, who could find that helpful, tan would bring down the fear.
>> Right.
>> When you ask for just the basics, Maureen, are you talking about the basics of how to contact someone, who to contact, or the basics of kind of housing law at this point?
>> Or all of the above.  I don't know.  [Laughs].
>> Tacoma Pro Bono has been doing some town hall sort of semi‑trainings on the basics of housing law right now under the governor's moratorium, and you can certainly find publication on Washington LawHelp.  But whenever Laurie comes back and talks more about it, I would be happy to join in with that and let you know the hopefully more flushed out how do you call when.
>> To my mind it's like the last three feet sort of thing.  It's like how do I get from my neighbor just said X to whatever that beginning point is without having to find somebody to tell me that there is this ‑‑ there are trainings which may or may not have been recorded.  I don't know.  I mean, I don't know.
>> Right.
>> There is a huge fear out there I think, and the extent to which knowledge will bring down that fear, will free people to use that energy in other ways.
>> Right.  There is a lot of updated information on our website, including links to recordings.  So just go to our website and click on Housing Justice.  We are continuing to update that.  And there will be another public meeting soon.
>> Great.  Thank you.
>> Awesome.  So thanks again for an offer to come back and kind of give us a deep dive, so we will figure out something that we can schedule in.
	And we are going to slip into the next agenda topic, which is going to be a fun one.  So ‑‑ and a sad one, so.  As most of you know Emily Less with the Health Department is leaving us for the East Coast, but the things we do for love.  Melissa Moss is wrapping up her time at Catholic Community Services.  I expect she will come back in some other capacity, but we are absolutely going to miss her work at the homeless shelter here, CCS, and all the other places she has added to the community.  I wanted to open it up both in the chat and all live action here, if we could have a thank you so much for each of them, and I will ask Melissa and Emily to give us a few good‑bye thoughts.
	So let me hear it, folks.
>> I want to say that both of these women have made an impact in my life in the work I do, and I just approach everything they have done to smooth kind of this ‑‑ to make stronger partnerships with many of us in this group.  I also know that they both are leaving really, really difficult work, so I am hoping that in their closing remarks they will say what would they hope for from us in terms of helping their replacement.  How did we let them slip through that safety net so that they are leaving?  I understand that it's not just because the jobs were really, really hard, but that's definitely contributing to why there is kind of a turnover in such jobs.  So that's a long explanation, but mainly I want to say thank you both for all of the good things you have done in this community.
>> I like that when Emily comes to talk about what is going on and maybe a concern about a hepatitis A epidemic, that she walks in the room and she owns the situation.  She says this is what's going on, and this is what I need you to do exactly, and here is a piece of paper that says exactly what you need to do in English and Spanish, so get busy.  And then she comes to your shelter and walks you through to help make sure you are doing it right.  That's what I appreciate about you, Emily.  
	And what I like about Melissa, she oftentimes starts off a conversation talking about Joe or Suzy at the Nativity House Apartments, or some other place, as if I know absolutely every single homeless person that she has an interaction with because although she is the director and has three different shelters under her hat, she knows every single homeless person that she is serving and their stories, and what they need next, and that she just loves each one of them to death.  When they have a victory, it spills out of her and she gets to tell the story about how somebody was able to take what few resources we have to offer them and make a change in their life.  So that's what I appreciate about you, Melissa.  Some great stuff flowing through the chat.
>> I would like to say it's been a real joy to work with both of these women.  As a firm believer in the social determinants of health, it's great to understand that people on the frontline get it, and as a volunteer you show up to volunteer to do the right thing, but you stay because you love the people you are working with, and these two women were passionate and brilliant and productive, and always so positive, so I will miss them.  In fact, shall we make it a rule that nobody can leave this coalition without replacing themselves with an equally kind and wonderful and smart person?
>> Yes, the requirements of succession.  Emily, you want to ‑‑ sorry.
>> One second.  Emily, one of the things I really like is that you were here well before COVID appeared, and so you knew everybody, and everyone knew you, and I think that's been just incredibly important, that that relationship didn't have to be established.  And, Melissa, it's not just the folks that have been homeless and that you know by name, but it's the fact that you have been able to hire and support really good staff who keep those shelters operating and will continue to do so even when you are not there, so good things to both of you.  Thank you.
>> All right.  Emily, you got some closing words for us?
>> Can you see me?
>> I can see you and hear you.
>> Okay.  Great.  Well, thank you all.  I am like so moved by all these comments.  It's really sweet.  But first I also have to say things about Melissa.  Working with her has been so amazing.  I like you, Gerrit, am so impressed by just the relationships as a director that she has with every single person, the dedication.  I think during COVID I called Melissa on the weekend almost every weekend for three months and she is never still mad at me that I am calling her in the middle of the weekend.  Melissa, you really deserve this break and you have done so much work for our community, I am really grateful.  Gerrit, I agree with you, I think it's a very sad decision that I am leaving for the East Coast.  I am not very excited about it and I miss you all already.  It's been one of my best experiences at the Health Department, looking at the way you all build community and no one is paying you or requiring you to do this.  You have all really put a lot of time and dedication into showing up every Friday to this meeting and like building this very organic coalition, and really using it to maybe not take an official advocacy stance, but make it's available to everyone to come and participate, and you are all really strong housing advocates, and I have learned so much from all of you.  And just like breaking bread together and having that networking and communication time has been so powerful to see.  It's like one of the least bureaucratic things I get to do in a week, which I really appreciate very much.  I know that wherever I go next, whatever housing advocacy I do next, it's going to hard to find a group so dedicated in working together.  I am learned so much from all of you and I really appreciate what you have done.
	In terms of Theresa's question about what you can do to help a replacement, first of all I think I already did what you said, Jan, and I made sure we had somebody hired who is going to be even better than me, so I am excited that Manu has joined the team, and Manu is also really, really passionate about helping people, which is one of the many things that made us want to pick him in his interview.  So we are really excited to have him on board.
	In terms of helping him, the passion that you bring to the table is huge, and Gerrit you joke about how you are being difficult, but I think your passion really comes through, and the continuous requesting that you do from government and advocacy that you do is really powerful because it helps people like me and it will help people like Manu internally to keep putting the pressure on from our situation for folks to really step in and change things in government.  I just really appreciate that you all do that, and it's really, really helpful, so thank you for doing that.
	And I miss you all already.
>> You can always join us virtually, Emily.
>> I could, right?  Hopefully the virtual meetings will be over in, you know, not that long.
>> Melissa, what do you have for us?
>> So, I am actually on my way to a shelter right now to say to good‑bye to staff and guests.  I have been like ‑‑ it's been such an honor to ‑‑ I'm sorry, I am driving as I talk to you all.  But it's just been an honor to work alongside of all of you, and for Emily it has been such a joy.  Like even though there were so many calls every weekend, you are just like so supportive of me and my staff during times where we had positive cases, giving guidance, and just building that beautiful friendship and just like your honesty and transparency has shown through, and I am so honored to have gotten to know you and work alongside of you.
	For the rest of you guys, I have learned so much from everyone in the room, every time we met together, and seeing people that have the heart for our homeless community has like been the biggest joy for me.  I think that so much time, we get caught up in our work and we forget what the cause is, and it's the people, and you acknowledge them for who they are.  Yes, I know every homeless person I know and I celebrate their stories.  For me my passion is serve the community, and I just need to take some time off to kind of do some soul searching and kind of recharge my batteries because I feel like I can cannot do the work that I should be doing and serving our clients when I am not at my best, and so I am hoping at this time to kind of figure out where God wants me to be, whether that's going back to school, whether it's working somewhere else, things like that.  So I am just going to spend some time just resting and being with my family for a little bit, celebrating my daughter's one year [indiscernible] this last week, and getting ‑‑ to just be there and be present more.  So I think that for you, Maureen, when you are asking about what we can do for the next person coming in, I am praying that that person has a heart for the community that we serve.  I pray that they don't sit in the office and just get caught up in the contracts and the work and the financials, that they take time to spend time in the shelters and talk to people and hear their stories and know that we actually can learn so much more from the people that we are serving than any like schooling or classes or anything else can teach us.  And that has been the biggest learning thing that I have experienced over these past five years being at Nativity House.  So I just want to thank all of you guys for your support and your partnerships and coordination of services, and I hope that the next person that steps into my role is really involved in the coalition and partners well with our other shelters, and just really does things to focus the service on the guests and not for their own gain.  So that's it.
>> Ah, you know what we need on this coalition?  We need the accolades committee.  We shouldn't be singing people's praises as they walk out the door.  We should be singing their praises a little bit at every meeting.  So when you are ready to start the back patting committee, I am sure there is a better phrase than that, then just let me know.  We are going to miss you, Melissa and Emily.  But you can always come right back.
	All right.  I was wondering if we could just fly through some updates here, as this meeting dragged on a bit because of technical difficulties and jerks.  I would love to see if we've got any updates on safe parking.  Jan, that looks like it's you.  I don't see Colin on the call.
>> Colin is driving as we speak.  He is today I think submitting a grant request from the Greater Tacoma Community Foundation, and on the 18th, did anybody else get that e‑mail, on the 18th Valeri Knight is hosting a Q&A Zoom session for this particular issue, but I guess all grant requests.  But did anybody else see the time?  It just said the 18th.
>> It's 1:00 P.M.
>> Oh, at 1:00 P.M.  Okay.  So I will see folks then who attend that meeting.  But I think that like the Health Department and some other funding folks need to be perhaps convinced of the direct connection between COVID or any communicable disease, and homelessness, and that even though nobody wants to see people living in their cars, the fact is people do live in their cars, and while they are doing that can we be as humane as possible?  In my letter of support my last issue as a point of the importance, it is the humane thing to do.  This is offering a hygiene centers.  Especially considering the racial disparities as reflected in both those living homeless and those suffering a higher burden of COVID‑19.
>> Yes.  And Jan is heading up that committee working on safe parking, so if you have safe parking questions, Jan and Colin's e‑mails are both in the agenda.  Do we have any updates that we didn't hit on on the Emergency Operations Center?
>> No major updates from me, Gerrit.  Oh, yes, actually I do have something, sorry.  Camera back on.  And, yes.  So there was a update actually.  The Pierce County Emergency Operations Center is doing a cloth face mask project, and the intent of that is to get that resource to communities who fall under the 200%.  Yes, just like that one.  Just like this tie‑dye one that Naomi made from home by the way.  Custom made one right here.  Yes, we are trying to get that resource to those who fall 200% below the federal poverty level.  I am working with ‑‑ if you are interested and have not heard and have the bandwidth and capacity to distribute this resource to that population, connect with me after this call.  I would be happy to connect you with that resource.
>> Emergency Operations Center and the Health Department making it happen, folks.  Thank you for that, Ivan, and for that resource.
>> Of course.
>> Did you have anything else that you wanted to bring up, Naomi?
>> No.  I just ‑‑ in the spirit of acknowledging the work of both Melissa and Emily, I just wanted to chime in and say thank you, Emily.  You have left a very amazing legacy and we look forward to continuing that partnership, and cultivating those relationships, and that the Health Department has a deep desire to continue to be active partners in both the Pierce County coalition and with our homeless shelter provider partners.  So I appreciate all of the great work that Emily has done in her role at the Health Department, and I am looking forward to making sure that Manu is able to take that on and move it to the next level.  So, thank you.
>> Can I just say, Gerrit, too, just for one minute, Emily Less, thank you.  When we were first activated, we partnered and that's how I was connected to this coalition, and the wonderful work that Gerrit is doing, and I have learned so much from you during that short period of time.  And Melissa, I met you at the Nativity House recently and it was a pleasure working with you on that site as well, and good luck to both of you.
>> Oh, I do have one last piece of information to share, so we did ‑‑ we do have all but two results back from Tacoma Rescue Mission, and it did confirm that they have gotten those results back there, so I am happy to share that we are still at 100% negative.
>> So I want to say, something that's being done correctly, keep it up, keep up the good work, you guys.  I am blown away.  This is awesome.
>> Yeah.  Tribute to the people doing the cleaning and ‑‑
>> Yes.
>> And everything every single day.
>> Yeah.
>> Everyone, yep, from the clean crew all the way up, yes.
>> Yeah.  And also I just want to say that I would also extend that to the guests who are there, and their own just ability to embrace the guidelines and to do that on a personal level as well.  So, again, I mean there is a testament right there to the type of work that Emily has done to lay the groundwork that Melissa as done, as well as everyone else who tips to stay in those roles.  So fantastic work, and we couldn't be happier to continue to have that type of results back.
>> Awesome.  Thank you so much.  Erica, did you have anything from the City of Tacoma?
>> No, no major updates from me.  I do want to agree with everyone's praises for Melissa.  I absolutely love working with her and I just love her as a human being, and she will be missed greatly.
>> Cool.  Thanks, Erica.  And at some point we would love to hear what the city's plans are with their ESG funding that they got from the federal government.
>> Absolutely, yeah.  When the numbers are but to understand up, you will get them right away.
>> Any moment we can have some impact on that decisionmaking will be lovely.  I am going to skip ‑‑ is anybody else from the Human Services Department with the county?  Valeri Knight is usually here, but she is Harley Davidson riding right now, which seems like a bad idea in the rain.
>> I am just saying it's just Naomi and I currently at the EOC, so I wanted to let you know that.
>> Cool.
>> Yeah.  We are I guess representing them as well.
>> So I am going to go ahead and skip shelter updates.  My plan for next week since it's June 19th, right, which is an important day in race in this country, my goal for next week is to have a bunch of five to eight‑minute presentations by people of color identifying a continued issue that drives people of color into homelessness, and some action steps, or maybe just one action step for each one, that we can take.  So a problem, a solution and a lever we can pull, and I am looking for things that can be small solutions like can we just stop releasing people from the county jail at 5:00 A.M. in the morning, to could we have another $100 million for building some affordable housing in Pierce County.  So my ask is if you are a person of color, if you work with a person of color, if you happen to have some suggestions for people I can reach out to, I would love to have examples of these ideas from lots of different arenas.  From people doing domestic violence work, to people doing straight housing, to criminal justice, to the education system.  So any suggestions and get them to me and ‑‑ it would be lovely to have ten or 12 of these five‑minute presentations and work in some time to break into small groups and kind of talk a little bit about those and see kind of where that leads us.
	So action oriented, big actions, little actions, but a lever we can pull because it totally sucks that we have such a discriminatory system that we operate in, and we need to be aware of all the levers we need to be attempting to pull.  So I would ‑‑ again, just e‑mail me and we will get this going.  We've got a week to make it happen, and I think we can do that, so.  Without any further ado ‑‑ again, I want to apologize for having zero preparation for people hijacking our meeting with rather nasty images.  Like I thought, oh, well it can't be worse than a gyrating butt, but apparently putting a swastika up is worse, but I apologize.  I will have an action plan and I will spend some time reviewing what I can do to combat bad actors.
	So I hope you all have a chance to do a little marching today if that's your thing, to support the Black Lives Matter movement, and I will see you all next week.  Thanks so much.
>> Thank you, Gerrit.
>> Thank you, Gerrit.
>> Thank you, Gerrit.
[End of meeting]