Eastside Interfaith Social Concerns Council Minutes

P.O. Box 662, Bellevue, WA 98009-0662
June 14, 2011

The meeting was held in Bristol Hall of St. Margaret's Episcopal Church on June 14, 2011, beginning at 12:00 noon.

AN OPENING REFLECTION was provided by Dave Emery of Bridge Disability Ministries.

SELF-INTRODUCTIONS were made by 17 members and guests.

MINUTES of the May 10, 2011 meeting were approved as distributed.

TREASURER’S REPORT: EISCC Treasurer Pat McDermott (pmcdermott@amnis.com) provided a written summary:

At 5/31/2011 cash balances total approximately $92,000. Nothing unusual was noted during the month. Monthly patterns of income and expense are consistent with prior periods.

Two men graduated recently from CFH’s housing program. They are staying in their apartments, but are now able to pay market rate instead of relying on CFH’s subsidy. These are the kinds of success stories the program works for.

The shelter is full with 47 men currently in housing.

CFH is looking to lease another shared house. This has been a successful model for the program.

THE SOPHIA WAY: Sophia Way Executive Director Helen Leuzzi (425-463-6285 or director@sophiaway.org) provided a written report:

First I want to thank all of you for your kind wishes as I recovered from my surgery. I appreciate it deeply and am happy to report that I am 100% up to speed!
Today, I am not with you as we kick off our new shelter at St. Luke's and celebrate the opening of the Holly House. At our next meeting I will look forward to reporting further on these capital projects.

Mark July 12 on your calendars. The Sophia will be the organization highlighted at the Bellevue Parks movie showing of Despicable Me. Families will love the show and we will be handing out education materials. We hope to see you there. The show begins at 7:30.

Also, we would like you to note to your congregations that The Seattle Foundation is giving a prorated matching program to any financial donations brought in on June 23rd. If your congregation was planning to give, perhaps you might like to grow that gift by taking advantage of this opportunity.

The Sophia Way continues to try to grow and stretch to meet the needs of women without stretching beyond our ability. We thank you for all you do to aid us in this endeavor to help homeless women.

I look forward to speaking with all of you at our next meeting.

Helen

CONGREGATIONS FOR KIDS: CFH’s Nancy Jacobs (info@congregations4kids.org) reported that the program is seriously gearing up for this year’s Good Start Back to School program. The Bellevue School District is currently compiling the list of students who will need backpacks and school supplies. The number is expected to be about the same as last year (c. 1,800).

Participating congregations will be turning in their donations starting August 8th. There are 29 congregations participating.

REFRESHMENT COORDINATOR Betty Spohn gave us the names of the good folks responsible for bringing in today’s shared food items: Sandy Lewis, JoAnne Way, Warren Marquardson, and Betty herself. Many thanks.

WEEKEND SHELTER FOR EASTSIDE HOMELESS YOUTH: Julie McFarland, Director of Homeless Youth Services for Friends of Youth reported some great news!

You will remember that Friends of Youth operates the Landing, the Eastside’s Homeless Youth Shelter at the Bellevue Family YMCA, but this is a weeknight shelter only. Now there will be someplace safe for these young people to stay on the weekend as well.

From now through August 2011, the Landing, will be hosted by Lake Washington United Methodist Church on Friday and Saturday nights. The Landing serves up to 15 youth ages 18-24 per night and provides a warm meal and safe place to sleep.

FRIENDS OF YOUTH is seeking congregations interested in hosting the Landing for weekends beginning in September 2011. If you would like to find out more information, please contact Julie McFarland at (425) 869-6490 x314 or email her at juliem@friendsofyouth.org.

PROGRAM:
THE TEN-YEAR PLAN TO END HOMELESSNESS IN KING COUNTY – MID-PLAN REVIEW:
Bill Block, Project Director of the Committee to End Homelessness reported on the success to date of the 10-year plan as well on the challenges that remain.

The Ten Year Plan to End Homelessness in King County, introduced in March 2005, set ambitious goals, including increasing housing for homeless people by 9,500 units in 10 years and realigning the homelessness system and related systems such as criminal justice and foster care. Even as we struggle with a prolonged recession, a review of the goals and achievements under the Plan to date shows major achievements.

• Every year since the Plan’s implementation, nearly 3,500 households have been helped to permanent housing, equaling more than 18,000 households in total between 2005 and 2010. Some households found housing through traditional paths, but many found it through systems changes created under the auspices of the Plan:
• Use of evidence-based practices when developing prevention, rapid rehousing, permanent supportive housing, and multiple innovative service and housing models to help people exit homelessness
• Housing First that recognizes the need to rapidly house everyone, rather than wait for ‘housing readiness’
• Funding of over 4,500 units of Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH) through a cross-jurisdictional coordinated funding process
• Coordinated entry to newly created PSH units for vulnerable, homeless individuals
• Implementation of a Landlord Liaison Project that has substantially increased access to private market rentals
• Diversion programs that interrupt the institutional circuit of jails and psychiatric hospitals
• A highly functional Funder’s Group that issues a consolidated Notice of Funding Availability which, in 2010, included 22 different resources totaling $56 million.

These wins should be celebrated. A tremendous amount of personal, political and financial capital went into creating this level of success. Few communities with Ten-Year Plans have achieved as much at this point in the process.

That said, we must ask ourselves, why are there still so many homeless people? And, more important, what do we need to do differently to achieve our goal of ending homelessness by 2015?

One new circumstance coloring our efforts and results is the current recession, which is far beyond anything anticipated in 2005. Its effects are substantial, from reduced employment opportunities and family stability to deep cuts in housing and human services funding at the federal and state levels. Ending homelessness will be extremely difficult without restoration of the federal and state cuts, and a return of federal investment in housing supports to the levels, proportionate to the need, that existed in the 1960s and 1970s. Strong federal and state advocacy is therefore needed. Until that level of re-investment occurs, certain local programs can help defray some of these cuts and create some opportunities in the private market, but the ability to overcome those cuts is well beyond the level of power that the Committee to End Homelessness (CEH) currently wields.

We must not, however, let the recession serve as an excuse or derail our efforts. In late 2010, just over half way through the Ten Year Plan, the governing bodies of the Committee to End Homelessness embarked on a Mid-Plan Review. This review included a revisiting of the original goals and a broad evaluation of successes and shortfalls in meeting those goals, focused on six key areas: Governance; Prevention; Housing and Services; System Change; Integration with Other Systems; and Political Will.

The review resulting in recommendations for action going forward that fall into three broad categories.

First, there are the overarching, and closely linked priorities of Performance Measures and Accountability (including responding to the HEARTH Act); continued Production of Housing and Services; and maintenance and enhancement of Political Will.

Second, there are opportunities that arise because of changes or initiatives at the federal level: the Affordable Care Act (Health Care Reform), which could dramatically change how we address homelessness; the National Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness;  and the Five Year Plan to End Veterans Homelessness.

Finally, there are the system changes, either building on existing work or by way of new initiatives, that we must make if we are to achieve our goal: completing the Homeless Families Initiative; revising Emergency Housing for Single Adults so that it becomes a path to housing; better addressing Homeless Youth and Young Adults; creating better systems to address Immigrant and Refugee Communities; and engaging other systems in System Level Prevention.

Even as we commit to implementing these essential new initiatives, several questions remain under discussion, principally whether to reset our timelines to align with the National Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness, and how to structure our efforts to best engage the knowledge, wisdom and influence of the Governing Board. These discussions will continue concurrently with implementation of Mid-Plan Review recommendations.

The way will not be easy, but we know what to do and how to do it. We have seen our point-in-time homeless count drop in each of the last two years – even in the face of a massive recession. It will take new investments, but we have shown that those investments save money and create healthier communities. It will take re-aligning existing funding in accordance with the teachings that our data system provides, and holding accountable all parts of the system, funders and providers alike. It will take cooperation across systems, something that we are increasingly seeing in our region in unprecedented ways.

For the complete Mid-Plan Review Report visit http://www.cehkc.org/Mid-PlanReviewReport.pdf,

ANNOUNCEMENTS:
BRIDGE DISABILITY MINISTRIES: Bridge Disability Ministries will hold a Sunday Evening Celebration for people living with disabilities and friends Sunday, June 26th, 4-6pm, at John Knox Presbyterian Church, 109 SW Normandy Rd, Seattle, 98166. Dinner will be provided. There is no charge, everyone is welcome and volunteers are very much appreciated.  Call (425)885-1006 ext#118 or email  lindam@bridgemin.org for more information.

A CLOSING REFLECTION EISCC President JoAnne Way offered the following reflection from Dorothy Day:

People say, what is the sense of our small effort?
They cannot see that we must lay one brick at a time,
Take one step at a time.
A pebble cast into a pond causes ripples that spread in all directions.
Each one of our thoughts, words and deeds is like that.
No one has a right to sit down and feel hopeless.
There is too much work to do.

NEXT MEETING: Tuesday, July 12, 2011, 12:00 - 1:30 p.m.
PROGRAM: EASTSIDE TIMEBANK – Learn more about this innovative program that works like “like an old-time community where neighbors help neighbors, connecting through high-tech tools.” The time bank is based on the idea “that each of us has unique gifts, talents, and resources to share, and we all have needs that others can fill.”

LOCATION: BRISTOL HALL,
ST. MARGARET’S EPISCOPAL CHURCH
4228 FACTORIA BOULEVARD SE
BELLEVUE (ACROSS FROM NEWPORT HIGH SCHOOL)

Brian Anderson, EISCC Secretary