Spring Lake Village

Spring Lake Village Forum on Homelessness

July 15, 2019

Conclusion

What is being done?

Local Perspective

2019 Point in Time Count

How can you help?

HOME Sonoma County

City of Santa Rosa's Strategies

"All homelessness is and ever will be, is the absence of an address..."

- Iain De Jong (OrgCode President)

What is the Point in Time Count?

What has changed since 1980s?

• Every year during the last 10 days of January, Sonoma County executes an annual Point in Time Count operated by ASR (Applied Survey Research)
• The 2019 street count was conducted on January 25, 2019, and in the following weeks a survey was administered to 2,951 unsheltered and sheltered individuals
• Additionally, a telephone based household survey was conducted to 1,132 households to understand the continued impacts of the 2017 fires.

City of Santa Rosa has contributed:

$3,600,000

• Be educated and advocate for real solutions
• Get involved through volunteering or donations
• Understand the professionalization of these services
• Cross-sector collaboration and networking
• Show up and support projects that will help end homelessness
• Acknowledgment of the person and the social issue

92% of mothers who are experiencing homelessness have experienced severe physical and/or sexual abuse during their lifetime, and for 63% this abuse was perpetrated by an intimate partner

Ending homelessness is simple: give people a place to live with the supports they need to stay there.

That doesn't mean it is easy.

But it is simple.

Children who are homeless are sick four times more often than other children and they go hungry at twice the rate

People who experience homelessness are three to four times more likely to die prematurely than their housed counterparts, and they experience an average life expectancy as low as 41 years.

• Housing First
• Coordinated Entry
• Street Outreach
• Housing Focused Shelter
• City’s Contributions to Social Issue
• Vulnerability Index – Service Prioritization Decision Assistance Tool (VI-SPDAT)
• Permanent Supportive Housing
• HEAP (Homeless Encampment Assistance Program)

This includes:

• Homeless Outreach Services Team
• Clean Start Shower Trailer
• Operation of Samuel Jones Hall and Family Support Center Shelters
• Housing First Fund
• Rapid Rehousing
• Risk Mitigation Fund
• Landlord Incentive
• Homeless Services Center (increased hours)

What homelessness looked like in the early 1980s....

What it looks like now....

Housing First Strategies

Catholic Charities' Role in Ending Homelessness

Psychology of Homelessness

Resources

Housing First is Evidence-Based

Housing First vs. Housing Readiness

Contact Information

What is Housing First?

Three Areas of Service

Outreach and Engagement

Trauma

Presentism

Housing First is an approach to quickly and successfully connect individuals and families experiencing homelessness to permanent housing without preconditions and barriers to entry, such as sobriety, treatment or service participation requirements.

Brain Injuries and Trauma

What is Trauma?

Evidence-based approach with a social return on investment:

• One study found an average cost savings on emergency services of $311,545 per person housed
• Another study showed that a Housing First program could cost up to $23,000 less per person per year than a shelter program
• It is a sound investment…for every $10 spent there is $21.72 saved

53% of those who are experiencing homelessness have suffered from a major brain injury

75% of those who experience homelessness have experienced a major trauma

All trauma contains three elements:

• It was unexpected
• The person was unprepared
• There was nothing the person could do to stop it from happening

Trauma can be physical, emotional or psychological

What is Functional Zero?

When the number of individuals experiencing a housing crisis is equal to or fewer than the number of permanent housing units available to them.

As you begin to normalize the experience of being homeless, your psychology re-adjusts and you begin to thrive within homelessness rather than trying to get out of it...

• GOALS: Access, Engagement, Focus on most difficult to serve, pathways to housing, and Building Trust
• Homeless Outreach Services Team (HOST)
• Conservation Crew
• Drop-in Day Center (Homeless Services Center)
• Clean Start Mobile Shower Trailer
• HEAP (Homeless Encampment Assistance Program)

By-Names List: Project HOPE

Palms Inn as a Housing First Example

Coordinated Entry System (CES)

What is Project HOPE (Homeless Outreach and Partner Engagement)?

Emergency Shelter

Housing Solutions

Team was formed to establish a “by names list” which includes those experiencing homelessness who are the most vulnerable and having the greatest impact on the Health Care System and the Criminal Justice System.

Team includes representatives from:

Coordinated Entry:

866-542-5480 or CE@srcharities.org

HOST Referrals:

1-855-707-HOST (4678) or

HOST@srcharities.org

www.srcity.org/homelesssolutions

• Catholic Charities
• Sonoma County Parks
• American Medical Response
• Kaiser Permanente
• City of Santa Rosa
• St. Joseph Health
• Social Advocates for Youth
• Redwood Gospel Mission

• Santa Rosa Police Department
• Sonoma County Parks
• Sonoma County Sheriff's Office
• Santa Rosa Fire Department
• District Attorney's Office
• Public Defender's Office
• Sonoma County Probation
• Drug Abuse Alternative Center

What does this all mean?

Jennielynn Holmes

Catholic Charities

707-800-2372

jholmes@srcharities.org

Tom Schwedhelm

City of Santa Rosa

707-543-3017

tschwedhelm@srcity.org

Partnership of Local Leaders...

Program Components

Landlord Incentives

• Family Support Center (138 beds)
• Sam Jones Hall (213 beds)
• Nightingale Recuperative Care (36 beds in Napa and Sonoma County)
• Rainbow House (34 beds in Napa County)

Example #2

Fictitious Name: Sabrina

Other Impacts

Reduction in Crisis Services

Example #1

Fictitious Name: Ross

Ross was identified by the HOPE team.

2017 – 80+ ambulance rides to an Emergency Room

2018 – 60+ ambulance rides to an Emergency Room

HOPE worked to get Ross into the Palms Inn. He was housed at the Palms Inn in January 2019. Since October 2018 he’s only visited an Emergency Room 6 times.

Sabrina had been living at Homeless Hill for approximately a decade.

• When the area was being secured, outreach workers saw a rat scattering over her tent. Her comment, “That’s nothing, you should see the night rats.”
• Reluctantly went to Sam Jones Hall. Started applying for housing voucher.
• Once learned she was pregnant, moved to Family Support Center.
• Catholic Charities staff located an apartment using City of SR Housing First Fund.
• Moved into residence in January 2019. Housed for the first time in a decade.
• Shared with outreach workers, “Only reason I’m housed is because you wouldn’t let me stay on Homeless Hill. Thank you for not letting me stay.”

Catholic Charities and Burbank Housing are leaders in providing support services and affordable housing. The project marks an innovative partnership, leveraging decades of experience and expertise to create a facility tailored to meet the needs of our most vulnerable neighbors.

After one year of operations (2016-2017) the following outcomes were found:

• Veteran's homelessness declined by 23%

• Chronic homelessness declined by 20%

• Homelessness in Santa Rosa declined by 16%

• Housing Retention Rate of 95%

• Admittance to the emergency room and in-patient hospitalization reduced by 45%

• Interactions with law enforcement reduced by 77%

• Ambulance transportation reduced by 56%

• Usage of crisis services such as suicide hotlines reduced by 98%

• Risk Mitigation Pool
• Sign-on bonuses
• Housing Habitability Fund
• Landlord-tenant education and mitigation
• 24/7 Response Line
• Master Lease

Rapid Re-Housing (Direct Lease)

• Short to mid-term housing assistance focused on obtaining housing quickly, increasing self-sufficiency, and remaining housed
• Core Components are housing identification, rent and move-in assistance, and case management services

Permanent Supportive Housing (Master Lease)

• Targeted to individuals and families with chronic illnesses, disabilities, mental health issues, or substance use disorders who have experienced long-term or repeated homelessness. It provides long-term rental assistance and supportive services.

Emergency Shelter's Role

Focus on Housing

We all have lived experiences that shape how we cope and react, and we can assume all we want about what people should be able to do, but the fact is people can't do what their brains are not ready or able to do.

Divert everyone that has a safe and appropriate alternative to shelter

Have a strong orientation to housing and nothing else

Be as low barrier as possible

Be a process, not a destination