Activities and Opinions

Jimmie Harden called the meeting to order; George Gardner said a prayer.

Jimmie Harden gave the Treasurer’s report, copies available. Asked for agencies to pay their dues of $100.00, up from $25.00 in years past.

Jean Harden ran through the minutes of September’s meeting. Approved.

Dr Hogan of Hogan’s Harvest spoke. They have 8 beds, work with women released from prison in life skills training and jobs. No contact info given.

Mary Lea Zamora spoke on prisoner Re Entry Team. They meet the first Friday of every month at 1 PM to share information on what services are available to ex-offenders as well as hearing from them what needs they have. Next meeting is 1 PM November 6 at the Mental Health conference room at Health and Human Services. She noted Anchor Faith’s intent to buy Lantern Lodge.

Jessie Badger updated the group on Alpha Omega House, housing for pregnant women. They are holding a fundraiser raffle of a vintage Mercedes and a banquet November 5 at 7PM Anastasia Baptist Church. Tables of 8 for $300.00 or individual tickets for 25-30$. 347-9807 or 823-8588.

Murray Middle School volunteer passed out posters about “Brooklyn” a play about homelessness to be performed by the students at MMS on November 6 and 7 at 7PM. Tickets are $7.00 adults, $4.00 students.

Speaker for Rapid Re Housing and Neighborhood Stabilization Program was a no show.

For the second year in a row, the continuum of care was approved unanimously without anyone asking to see it.

Renee Morris, St Francis House, reminded everyone of the gala on November 21 to benefit SFH building fund. They are also selling Christmas cards designed by children from Parish School: 10 for $10.00

Mary from PUSH outlined the unsheltered homeless count planned for November 4 through the 14th throughout the county. She asked all agencies to count and survey their sheltered population and she asked all present to send tips on unsheltered people to count.pushsjc.org This project is supported by all three local law enforcement agencies, the United Way and the University of North Florida. Training will be held October 20 at 7PM and October 24 at 5PM at the Galimore Center. Information will be made available to the point in time survey in January 2010, the mayor’s planning committees and the US Census in March 2010. Someday the Record might print the article about the above that was submitted October 9.

David Hoak, United Way, updated the group on the mayor’s committee progress. They identified the following needs:

1. more affordable housing
2. broader support from the community
3. better data
4. a focal point facility
5. a relocation of St Francis House

Gardner adjourned the meeting around 130PM.

Approximately 25 people attended the ESHC General Meeting at the First Methodist Church on King and Riberia. Jimmie Harden opened the meeting at 12:09 and George Gardner gave the invocation.

Visitors introduced themselves including Lisa Duncan from Healthy Families St Johns, Rev Arian Martin from Jesus’ Ministry International, Josh Staton, ESHC worker, Betty Melon, RN and Wildflower Clinic speaker and Maureen Tomasello, observer.

No one from the county per se, St Francis House, Betty Griffin House appeared to be present.

Jimmie noted copies of the ESHC balance sheet were available at the front.

Laurel ran over the minutes from the last ESHC general meeting updating the group on the Neighborhood Stabilization Program grant, mentioned the as yet unknown amount of money coming to SJC from the stimulus and reviewed the point in time survey count. For the first time I can remember the minutes were then approved by the members.

Jean Harden reviewed some correspondence about homeless children statistics from the National Center on Family Homelessness.

Speaker Lynn Baker, RN, gave a presentation on Good Samaritan’s 10 year history in our community and it’s current project of raising 250K for the expansion of the Wildflower Clinic currently operating in West Augustine. They have 170K now and will continue fundraisers like yard sales. Betty Melon, RN, is the clinic coordinator at MLK and Lovett Street. Currently they want to expand services at both clinics which depend on volunteers. They need one medical doctor/nurse practitioner and a nurse per shift. Hours currently are 6-8 PM on Thursday and 9-11 on Saturday, with pap smear clinic on Tuesday by appointment. Call 904.829.1962. Services are first come, first served with SJC residents served first. Patients must be uninsured or cannot get government assistance. The dental crisis is really serious with a current wait list of 11 months! Betty said even Medicaid patients would qualify for dental services. They are seeing a huge increase in demand due to the publicity surrounding their fundraising.

Rev Arian Martin from Jesus’ Ministries International presented a packet detailing their services to the community including free miracles, signs and wonders, healing and deliverance (casting out demons), hospital and nursing home visits, emergency transportation, emergency housing, rental assistance. Six double sided pages of sins they assist with is included in the packet. They are located at 255 W King Street and operation is from 9AM to 5 PM. Website is www.jesusmi.org and phone is 904-377-9351.

Lisa Duncan spoke of the Children Home Society of the Healthy Families program. They provide parenting skills to pregnant women and parents with kids under 3 months. It is a country wide program, free and voluntary and they get most of their clients from referrals through an assessment tool used by other agencies.

Ann reported the 4 new transitional houses are going up on Smith Street and invited anyone to come by and see them. They will be ready by June 1.

Jean Harden reported the NSP funding was to be released today with no word yet on amount for SJC although 25% will be to purchase foreclosed properties to turn over to non profits for low income rental. This was discussed in Tom Crawford’s two prior presentations.

Jean also said the Salvation Army was the only entity interested in distributing the Homelessness prevention funding. She thinks it’s a 3 year grant and introduced Major Vicky to the room.

Jean mentioned the BrAIves Fund, money to get returning veterans hired but has had no word back from local veterans organizations. Upon my questioning, she stated the money will be handled from Jacksonville.

Laurel noted that UNF is still compiling data from the point in time surveys and that this information will be ready next week and she will email it out to members. She also stated training on the HMIS is free to any agency who wants to use it to track services to our homeless and encouraged member agencies to sign up.

Major Vicky, Salvation Army, noted an antique car show and flea market for 6/6/09 at Francis Field to raise money for local food pantries.

Meeting adjourned at 1:06PM

Please remember, these are not minutes, just notes I take for PUSH members to keep up with what our lead agency on homelessness is doing.

- Mary

Prior to the meeting, I confirmed with Jimmie Harden that there would be time for questions following the agenda. He asked if there was something I wanted to discuss prior to the meeting and I declined, referring to PUSH concerns about mayor's commission on the 10 year plan and coordination with ESHC's 10 year Plan.

About 30 people attended, comprised of members from the continuum of care, employees of ESHC and residents of ESHC's transitional housing.

George Gardner opened the meeting with prayer.

Jimmie Harden gave the treasurer's report by referring to a packet available. He noted land being cleared Monday in anticipation of the building of the 4 transitional houses on Smith Street on the Chapin campus. He stated the financial records were being readied for the CPA whose report should be done by April 3.

Minutes: The minutes from the last meeting were not available. Since the last meeting involved the point in time training conducted mere days before the actual count, he determined to just file these for the record without approval.

Wildflower Clinic update: Laurel, ESHC program coordinator/Executive Director, gave the new hours for the clinic in West Augustine. She noted the director had the flu and would be available at the next meeting.

Point in time count and survey (Jan 27, 2009): Laurel stated a preliminary count of 1370 homeless, a 10% increase over 2007. About 200 surveys were sent for analysis to UNF with results expected within a month.

HMIS: Homeless Management Information System: Laurel noted the stimulus funding will require agencies accepting funding to use this system. Training on the system will be conducted 2/26 from 10-noon and 1- 3PM at the main ESHC office at 523 West King Street. A final training will be 2/29 at 10 AM regarding 2009 issues.

Tom Crawford, SJC Housing Authority was the main speaker today. He has a great grasp of the funding streams currently in process, noting a 50k allocation to the Wildflower Clinic. He indicated the time frames are tight to acquire upcoming funding and use it. The plan is to implement the Housing Finance Authority to purchase foreclosed properties with 25% allocated to home ownership and the rest to non profits for low income rental management. He anticipates 3 funding cycles and hopes to start acquiring by late spring. MaryLea asked if community land trusts are eligible under these programs but Tom said they aren't encouraged to do that under federal provisions. George questioned ratio of high end to low end properties. Tom outlined how properties will be selected by census tracks and realty reports to get areas hit hardest by foreclosures, then house price. Tom explained the money is
allocated by need and larger counties and municipalities will get more than SJC based on the rating scale. He expects 20 to 25 units in the first go around. Neighborhood Stabilization Programs will be the vehicle and properties will not exceed 85% of appraised value. Non profits applying will need to prove 5 years experience managing low income rental properties but cost to non profits is nil. His plan is to get these properties under consideration quickly, get them out and approved quickly and get in line for future funding. HFA will ID qualified non profits. The properties going for sale for qualified first time buyers (non homeowners for at least 3 years) will be handled by HFA. Tom mentioned coordination with Habitat for Humanity for rehab assistance. Shelters will not qualify. Transitional housing must show at least one year residency; Betty Griffin would qualify for example.
Currently plans are to use non profits for rental properties only. MaryLea asked about specific housing for former offenders and did churches qualify? Tom restated any non profit must show history of 5 years of low income rental property management to qualify. Although the application process for the funding is very time limited, once funding is received, the agency has 4 years to complete the project.
Jean Harden noted criteria for HUD funding: numbers of unemployed, numbers of food stamp recipients and number of evictions. SJC is a non formula county; our funding comes through the state. She stated SJC will have to wait to see how much money we will receive for homelessness prevention. Currently the Salvation Army uses its funding for rent and utility assistance. SJC contract manager Gary Schwab estimates 500k for our county; Jean feels we are on the low end of the spectrum and may not be competitive enough to acquire the full amount. Of course, an accurate point in time count would have been helpful in this pursuit but more on that later.

A number of listed fundraisers were mentioned.

St Francis House: Renee Morris deferred to Holly Yelton to discuss the mayor's commission on ending homelessness through a 10 year plan. Speaking extemporaneously, Holly did a good job outlining the mayor's alignment with current federal USICH (US Interagency Council on Homelessness) which has a template many cities in the nation have adopted to end homelessness. She updated the group on the mayor's last meeting, indicating sub committees were being formed to address different aspects such as fundraising and church/agency outreach. She noted 24k raised to pay a United Way employee to conduct a needs assessment. This seemed to cause some confusion among members present who I assume thought the ESHC had this information.

The meeting was coming to a close when Jimmie called on me on behalf of PUSH. I disclosed the following:

USICH formed in 2002, Florida held statewide workshop 2003. ESHC presented their 10 yr plan to city/county commissions in 2006, ESHC delivered our SJC 10 year plan to PUSH in May 2007 after numerous requests. That document, dated May 2007 is currently on our website as the SJC 10 year plan.

PUSH discovered last week the SJC 10 year plan is not even on the HUD approved list although Broward City, Alachua, Hillsborough, Miami-Dade, Miami, Seminole, Jacksonville, Tampa, Pinellas, Key West and Tallahassee are all listed as having viable 10 year plans.

My question and concern involved the mayor's group reinventing the wheel. I stated the 09 point in time count was seriously flawed with no indication any camps were fully counted. Jimmie got defensive and began to shut the meeting down. Holly wanted to confirm the 1370 count as accurate as she will need valid information to move forward on a viable plan. I asked what the ESHC had been doing for the last 3 years. Jean indicated there was no money to pursue enactment of their "plan".

In the interest of time and the current issue being discussed I did not feel it prudent to address the following but am providing it here for PUSH members' information:

1. The point in time survey was flawed and incomplete. Some agencies refused to survey their own clients and volunteers (some from PUSH) performed this function instead of going out into camps and other areas. This was denied by ESHC. I did state you cannot count the same people you count at 445 AM at labor pools again at 500 PM by serving pots of chili.
2. PUSH member witnessed three private donors questioning the location of a flat screen TV donated to a specific family in the transitional housing campus. They were told variously that the items often go "into storage" for future use to "often donated items are sold for drugs". The worry now is the distribution of donations, particularly now in light of the Bike Collective donating bikes to residents on that campus.
3. Why is the ESHC currently on its 6th program coordinator in the past 3 years?
4. Why was a one year volunteer "fired" after calling the state with concerns about waste and abuse?
I was going to ask the board of directors if they felt they had acted efficiently and effectively over their 10 year existence. I was then going to propose the ESHC current board of directors be dissolved and reformed under county supervision but never got to go there.

Interestingly, after the meeting, several residents came up to us with numerous reports of code violations in the transitional housing which are not being addressed. Last year, after the whistleblowing effort by PUSH, the state stepped in and conducted unannounced and announced inspections to ensure the 71k they were allocated last year for repairs were done. (they were) PUSH will re contact the state contract manager with these reports and a request for re inspection of some of these properties.

Clearly PUSH is acting as the watchdog over this lead agency to make sure what little money is still available is used as contracted as well as private donations being used for the purpose for which they were given. Help us anyway you can to keep the mayor's commission work and the ESHC funding in the sunshine. Email any information to admin@push.org

--Mary Lawrence

Four members of PUSH were present at a meeting at United Methodist Church on King Street to learn survey and counting techniques in order to volunteer in the 09 Point in Time Homeless Survey for St Johns County.

About 40 people showed up and signed in to participate, many of whom had never done such a survey/count before. Several Flagler students were there. Prior to any training, Jimmy Harden called the meeting to order, welcomed new people and George Gardner gave a short prayer. Jackie Harris Rude related minutes from the Homeless Vigil and Dinner honoring our 14 dead homeless citizens. Minutes were approved. She also noted that the US Census needs accurate counts of homeless camps by 3/29-3/31 and encouraged everyone to report camps to the ESHC. Jimmy Harden gave the treasurer’s report, indicating the first draw on the $400k for new transitional housing off Chapin and Smith was released at the end of December 08.

Tim Cheney, research director from UNF, conducted the training, going over the team leader’s count sheet, a list of safety and courtesy tips and the actual survey. This survey is revised from the one used in 06 which we found unwieldy and too long. It has skip functions in the event of a NO answer which will save time and simplify questioning. It was impressed on the group to maintain personal space, remain respectful and always within sight of the team leader, among other tips. The plan will be to divide the county into zones and send out teams of 2 to 3. The team leader will be responsible for strictly counting homeless people. The surveyors will complete the questionnaires with willing homeless. Hopefully there will be enough “goody bags” to go around since they encourage survey participation. ESHC would probably still welcome donations of socks (white), toiletries, toothbrushes and paste to make these up. Interestingly, UNF will collate information from the count sheets and surveys and deliver a report to SJC/ESHC adding a level of professionalism to the effort this year. They have done Duval county and are used to dealing with larger numbers of homeless people.

As 1 PM approached, many had to leave to return to work or other commitments. There was some confusion as to assignment of zones and teams. I plan to email ESHC and request areas I am familiar with. Other PUSH members, Al, Sonda, and MaryLea may do the same if they have not been assigned.

My personal feeling is that there were not enough people present to accomplish this work. The survey/count will occur 1/27 from 530AM to 830PM in many areas: a long day in a big county. It may be worth an email to the coalition to see if they need more help and you are available for a few hours on the 27th.

homelesscoalition[at]comcast.net

An accurate count is imperative for future funding for programs.

--Mary Lawrence

Eight homeless people died in St. Johns county in 2008. The administrators at ESHC feel this number is inaccurate. There are more homeless deaths than are reported, these are the people we know about:

Norman Kidd (47) natural causes
Bernice Nimmons (52) cancer & heart trouble
Christopher Bradley (24) train accident
David May (55) reasons undisclosed
John Lynch (62) alcohol poisoning
Jack White (60) undisclosed
James Lydon (40) undisclosed
James Prenis (56) bicycle accident

PUSH and all concerned citizens will continue to work to lower the numbers and ease the situations that we can in 2009. United We Stand

--Cyndi L.