Title
Draft Meeting Minutes - September 22, 2016
Body
DRAFT UNTIL APPROVED
Social Service Human Relations Board
Minutes of the Regular Meeting of the Social Service Human Relations Board, September 22, 2016
1. CALL TO ORDER AND ROLL CALL
President Williams called the meeting to order at 7:05 p.m. Present were Vice-President Blake, and members Hyman, Sorensen, Chilcott, Hastings, and Jenks.
2. APPROVAL OF MINUTES
The minutes of the special meeting of August 25, 2016, were approved as presented.
M/S Hyman/Sorensen Unanimous
3. AGENDA ITEMS
3.-A WELCOME OF NEW BOARD MEMBER KALE JENKS
President Williams welcomed Kale Jenks to the Board, and invited him to tell the Board about
himself. Member Jenks thanked President Williams and shared with Board members that he is
the ýDirector of School-Linked Services at Alameda Family Services and looks forward to working
on the Board. He added that he had already attended one of the Assessment & Awareness
Workgroup Community Needs Assessment Survey meetings.
3.-B REVIEW AND PROVIDE INPUT ON CITY OF ALAMEDA’S ACTION PLAN IN RESPONSE
TO INCREASED HOMELESS ENCAMPMENTS
President Williams shared that in response to homeless people living on the streets of Alameda, in particular those living in encampments, City staff have drafted an Action Plan that they would like the Board to review, discuss, and provide feedback and suggestions. A copy of the action plan was included in the packet.
Speaker:
Doug Biggs, Executive Director of the Alameda Point Collaborative (APC), shared that he has been attending the meetings to develop strategies to serve Alameda’s homeless living on the streets. He said that, while the current plan includes services for all of these individuals, these efforts are more of a reactive plan in response to calls to the City regarding homeless living in encampments, primarily those at the future site of Jean Sweeney Open Space Park. He added that it was important for the Board to weigh in on the development of proactive policies for serving Alameda’s homeless population.
Mr. Biggs has partnered with Operation Dignity (OD), the organization with which the City is contracting, for a number of years, the housing for veterans at APC is managed by OD. OD has been providing street outreach and other services to the homeless in Alameda County for more than 20 years. OD currently has similar contracts with Oakland and Albany. OD will be present in Alameda two or three times a week engaging Alameda’s homeless individuals OD will create a matrix for the City to better understand how many homeless people are living on the streets, and will gather information regarding how long each person has been homeless, and other data that will assist in identifying their service needs. Most are interested in case management services and housing.
There are currently some housing units available for veterans, and APC is also looking to allocate some housing. The County has a Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) database which uses a Needs Ranking System, and it’s important to get all those homeless people identified on the list.
The City is convening a neighborhood meeting to allow for feedback and discussion on these initial plans and provide general information about homeless referrals on Tuesday, September 27, at 6:30pm, at the Mastick Senior Center
In response to questions, Mr. Biggs shared that;
• Some of the homeless individuals have lived in Alameda all of their lives, and some have been homeless for five years or longer.
• SSHRB’s latest homeless count was 18 individuals, and 30 have now been identified. A possible reason for the increase is homeless sweeps in Oakland, across the Fruitvale Bridge and on the other side of the Posey Tube which may have brought some people to Alameda.
• Most housing built with partial Federal Funding requires the housing be available to all homeless, but some preferences for Alameda homeless might be possible.
• While there have been suggestions to establish a permanent encampment at Alameda Point, there are not enough services in place at APC.
President Williams shared that programs like Housing First work, and that services are not effective if not tied to housing,
After a brief discussion, a motion was made to accept the Action Plan in Response to Increased Homeless Encampments, and ask that, in its implementation, every homeless person engaged be enrolled in HMIS, and that OD services include housing options with a priority to homeless Alamedans, and, whenever possible, the housing be in Alameda.
M/S Williams/Hyman Unanimous
3.-C REPORT ON RESPONSE FROM PRESIDENT WILLIAMS’ “OPEN LETTER TO LEADERS OF THE COMMUNITY”
President Williams shared that the “Open Letter to the Leaders in Our Community”, agreed to by the Board at its August meeting, had gone out to the media, AUSD and community organizations advocating for social justice, and the Alameda Police Department and Police Officers Association on August 24. To date, we have received positive responses from AUSD’s LGBTQ Roundtable, Black Achievers Alliance, and ALCANCE Latino Roundtable, and Dr. Laura Rose, one of the conveners of Alameda’s All Faiths Coalition. Chief Rolleri has let the Board know that he is available to be part of the conversation at any time. She added that we will wait to see if there are any responses from the community when the letter is published in the SUN and Alameda Journal, and then reach out to all who responded and discuss next steps.
3-D . WORK GROUP PROGRESS REPORTS
Assessment and Awareness Workgroup
Member Blake reported that the Workgroup met with Doug Biggs on August 30 to continue
development of the 2017 Community Needs Survey (CNS). Mr. Biggs advised the workgroup to
structure the survey so that it ties in with CDBG service allocations and to look at other cities
who created surveys based on their CDBG programs. He added that services/questions should
be within the purview of SSHRB. He agreed to share the draft survey at the November meeting
of the Executive Directors Roundtable.
The workgroup will also share the draft survey with appropriate city boards\commissions and
other community groups, and also work on assuring that the survey is available in a number of
languages. Questions regarding services that would qualify for CDBG funds but currently may
not be receiving funds because of cutbacks are also planned to be included.
Human Relations Workgroup
Member Hyman shared that the Human Relations Workgroup is continuing to work on a final
report for the Quality of Life Survey that was conducted in 2015.The plan is to provide the report to
the Council after the first of the year.
Ms. Hyman added that the 3rd Annual City of Alameda Community Service Awards nomination
Forms are due today. The awards event will be held on Thursday evening, October 27, at
the Alameda Elks Lodge, and will take the place of the Board’s regular October Board meeting.
4. BOARD/STAFF COMMUNICATIONS, NON-AGENDA
5. ORAL COMMUNICATIONS NONE
6. ADJOURNMENT
The meeting was adjourned at 8:45 PM
M/S Sorensen/Chilcott Unanimous
Respectfully submitted by:
Jim Franz, Secretary