COMMITTEE ON HOUSING, PLANNING & GOVERNMENT OPERATIONS
July 11, 2006, 2:00 pm
IN ATTENDANCE: Committee: Lois Bronz, Chair; Legislators Andrea Stewart-Cousins, Bernice Spreckman, Vito Pinto, William Burton, Judy Myers, Chair, Committee on Family, Health & Human Services.
Westchester County Staff: BOL: Barbara Dodds, Louise Gantress, Perry Ochacher, Melanie Montalto, Neema Mgwangulu, Sarah O’Brien; CEO: William Randolph; Dept. of Planning: Dana Sanchez, Deborah DeLong; Dept. of Social Services: Lee Jacobs, Housing Office, Marion LaFranco, Dep. Commissioner, Diane Stern; Dept. of Community Mental Health: Jennifer Schaffer, Commissioner, Tom Hibbard, Mark Giuliano. Others: The Sharing Community: Rev. Anthony Hoeltzel, David Booker; Dennis Hanratty, Mt. Vernon United Tenants; Westhab: Bob Miller, Ken Wray, Lynn Horner, Jesse Johnson; Westchester Disabled on the Move: Mel Tanzman, Meghan Schoeffling; United Way: Abi Morrison, Karen Bonaparte; Karl Bertrand, Westchester Partnership; Rick Hobish, Pro-Bono Partnership; Debbie Perkins, Community Housing Initiative; Daniel Griffin, Vietnam Veterans of America; Karen Schatzel, League of Women Voters of Westchester; Shelley Weintraub, Greyston/WHOC; Jane Perkinson, SHORE; New Hope for Tomorrow: D. Ahmed, Ibrahim Ahmed; Grace Church Community Center: Paul Anderson Winchell, John Rubin.
ITEM FOR DISCUSSION:
HOMELESSNESS: ISSUES, SERVICES AND TRENDS
Lois Bronz, Committee Chair, introduced the Committee and said the meeting’s topic is at the top of everyone’s agenda. Homelessness is linked to and closely follows affordable housing as an issue of great concern. No one involved with the homeless years ago would have dreamt that in 2006 we would still be talking about mounting homelessness. For this meeting, the Committee invited a number of individuals involved with the homeless in Westchester County to participate in a round table to learn who is doing what. She’d like to see more networking and a better understanding of the population.
Comm. Jennifer Schaffer, Dept. of Community Mental Health, spoke about the Westchester Partnership. 13 years ago the federal government changed the way entities can apply for Federal funding to help the homeless. They combined a number of federal grants into one application process at the same time they put a heavy emphasis on group cooperation, this included County Consortium, Mount Vernon, Yonkers, White Plains and New Rochelle. Prior to that time, everyone would individually compete for funding for the practice of Continuum of Care. The partnership consists of several government entities and monies received from the government are amongst various entities that include health and social services providers, and recipient organizations. Meetings take place throughout the year, public hearings are held to get public opinions on how best to address the issues of the homeless community. Individual agencies come up with a list of priorities and then submit a brief application of what they would like to apply for. The partnership forces everyone to work together and has applied for $11 million to date and has received $5 million in new money to fund expiring grants. Most of the money is used for housing. The kinds of things that can be funded include apartments, treatment services at shelters for the disabled homeless in collaboration with in-kind donations, supported housing programs, and supportive services. She noted that families that have multiple problems are at highest risk and are in critical need.
Karl Bertrand, Program Consultant and Co- Chair of the Westchester Partnership. He observed that there has been a dramatic reduction in the number of homeless living in shelters in the past two years. Families have decreased 59% and singles have decreased 27%. He attributes the reduction in families is due to the DSS Rent Enhancement Program for families introduced last year. DSS is now assisting families that have been homeless for a long time because they realize that the past system was becoming costly. Now families are moving into permanent housing. There are two issues that he believes are of concern. First, the housing retention rate among the families receiving permanent housing is not known. DSS needs to give the stats on how successful this has been since the program implementation—whether high risk families are still receiving family support services to avoid recidivism.
Secondly, he observed the reduction in the percentage of homeless singles is due to the fact that more are being denied use of the shelters. If individuals do not comply with the treatment or work requirements they are ‘sanctioned’ and must give up their beds. Another trend among the single homeless population is that numbers are down in the 24 hour shelters but increasing in the overnight shelters. These shelters social services that are given to more long-term situations. He suggested that larger and more 24 hour drop-in centers are needed and better outreach and transportation systems are needed to draw the homeless to the 24 hour centers. Mobile case managers are vital to follow-up with the homeless once they receive permanent housing. These services are already provided for the mentally ill and the county should look into how this level of care can be extended to include the homeless, particularly those with substance abuse problems. The chronic homeless residents should be a county concern only because it ultimately costs more to maintain them on the street (county shelters and jail costs). He recommended that case managers be allocated to these individuals which would save the county money in the long term. He also suggested that rent enhancement strategies should be given to singles too because they do not qualify for the family assistance program being offered by DSS. Substance abuse, he added, is the largest problem.
Deputy Commissioner, Marion LaFranco, Diane Stern and Lee Jacobs of the Department of Social Services. DSS works closely with non-profit organizations. They form contracts with non-profit agencies who are experts in this field. The programs have been successful for the most part. DSS prefers that the homeless not go into the drop-in shelters but go through the shelter system and independent living plan. At drop-in shelters the issues causing homelessness will not be addressed.
Ms. Stern said that although Westchester has 300 homeless families and 300 homeless singles, federal money is not there for singles. Efforts are being made by DSS to get the federal funding needed to provide permanent housing for single homeless individuals but available housing units are difficult to come by. Efforts to deal with the chronically homeless are being made but the jobless population is increasing. DSS has 16 single centers, 4 family shelters, and is trying to move families to emergency housing units to integrate them back into the community. 638 cases have been housed through DSS. Lee Jacobs asserted the homeless population is a monolithic and diverse group. Some are evicted and others have mental health and substance abuse issues. DSS tries to address the homeless individuals according to their problems and needs, before they are put into shelters. They use a housing-first model and a traditional approach. There are also other ways to attack the problem such as street outreach.
Reverend Tony Hoetzel, Executive Director of The Sharing Community in Yonkers which has 8 different programs addressing the needs of the homeless. These programs include street outreach, shelters, permanent and semi-permanent housing. He said that shelter beds are empty, but drop-in centers are exploding. There is a huge increase in the homeless outside the shelter system—why? He cited three reasons for the decrease in the number of homeless individuals in the ‘shelter system.’ 1) In Westchester, the impact of the Welfare Reform of 15 years ago is ‘treatment sanctions,’ i.e. if homeless individuals do not comply or go and receive treatment, their beds are taken from them, putting them out on the street. 2) Homeless individuals have to turn in all sources of income (SSI or SSD) and are given a small allowance of $22.50/bi-weekly which does not allow them to save. 3) ‘Diversion workers’ whose job it is to attempt to house homeless individuals by giving them a list of landlords to approach. He observed that this ultimately reduces the number of individuals receiving support services, but not the number of homeless people.
Paul Anderson and John Rubin of the Shelter Programs and Project Trust of Grace Church Community Center. The Center has been providing services for the homeless primarily in White Plains, but also throughout Westchester County for over 25 years. Grace Church currently runs two shelters, works with a number of different organizations and DSS housing services provides supportive housing through DCMH, HAPIWA. Anderson said that as service providers we have to pay keen attention to homeless trends and shift our services accordingly. Rubin stated that over the course of 7 months, the Center has seen 342 different cases. 50 have been housed in the shelter system, 4/5ths in SROs, 3 at the Job Core, 9 in drug treatment (2 have dropped out). Of 50 that are housed, 44 are still in the system, 6 are currently in jail. 40% have substance abuse problems, 25% are diagnosed Mica, 15% have mental health issues, 12% have medical issues, 8% have no noticeable diagnosis. Mental health needs combined with substance abuses requires teams of agencies. The CHOICE program is helpful.
Ibrahim Ahmed, New Hope for Tomorrow, talked about a lack of self esteem among the homeless—without permanent and decent housing, a job and a program that allows them to save enough to get out of the system, the homeless singles have lost respect in the community.
Bob Miller, Exec. Dir, Westhab: The homeless system is evolving in Westchester. There is no dedicated source of funding for support services.
Mark Giuliano, DCMH, CHOICE: High risk served by outreach and placement with many agencies working together. They are seeing more changes in DSS reaching into overnite drop-in.
Jane Perkinson, SHORE: Their main focus is to address the crisis of not enough housing units.
Karen Bonaparte, United Way: United Way has determined that housing is Westchester’s greatest need.
Shelley Weintraub, VP, Greyston Foundation: Urged a change in the sanction rules.
Daniel Griffin, Westchester Director, Vietnam Veterans of America said the VA works on the lack of self esteem with services, the main problem among homeless. The VA tries to train the veterans, find them a job with minimal earnings and help them to establish a savings account. Until the housing dried up, they were placed in permanent housing. The biggest problem the veterans had was paying the security deposit. They placed 75 individuals by cutting a check directly to the landlords. Computer training was another successful program.
Legislator Bronz concluded the meeting and said as a responsible community here in Westchester, we must recognize our role as part of the solution. This may be the first of a series of round tables that will help to develop a better strategy to make sure that we close all the cracks. Meeting was adjourned by motion of Legislator Pinto, seconded by Legislator Burton.
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