HomeMy WebLinkAbout2018-05-24 Housing & Human Services MIN
Ashland Housing and Human Services Commission
Minutes May 24, 2018
CALL TO ORDER
Commissioner Chair Rohde called the meeting to order at 4:30 pm in the Siskiyou Room at the Community
Development and Engineering Offices located at 51 Winburn Way, Ashland OR 97520.
Commissioners Present: Council Liaison
Tom Gunderson Jackie Bachman
Rich Rohde
Sue Crader SOU Liaison
Erica Franks
Heidi Parker
Linda Reppond Staff Present:
Gina DuQuenne Linda Reid, Housing Specialist
Carolyn Schwendener
The Commissioners introduced themselves to potential new Commissioner, Erin Crowley. Ms. Crowley has recently
moved here from Portland. She is a Pastor with plans to plant a new Church this coming year. Ms. Crowley has
been involved in affordable housing in both San Diego and Portland. She has a deep desire to help support others
flourish in life with justice and equality.
PUBLIC FORUM
Audience member Rachel introduced herself. Rachel was attending this meeting because she is taking a US
Government class at Rogue Community College and one of her assignments was to observe a Community meeting.
APPROVAL OF MINUTES
Reppond/Crader m/s to approve the minutes of the April 26, 2018 regular Commission meeting with one minor
correction. Voice Vote: All Ayes, motion passed with correction.
H&HS COMMISSION GOAL REVIEW AND DISCUSSION
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The Commissioners reviewed the goals that were set at their annual goal setting retreat on December 13 of last
year.
Goal: Bring Mental Health services to Ashland
Reid commented she was interested to hear that Options is having a mental health provider come to the
Ashland Community Resource Center on a regular basis. Its only for a short amount of time, three hours
a week, but it’s a start and perhaps those hours will increase over time.
Goal: Funding for a Shelter Coordinator
Parker explained there is Emergency Shelter Grant money earmarked from HUD to fund a shelter
coordinator but it has not happened yet. A new development has occurred requiring the imputing of new
information on each guest into a software program called Homeless Management Information System
(HMIS). Parker is hopeful they can start this summer to get the people who will need the shelter in the
winter months pre-registered.
The Car Camping Program is still moving forward. Rhode stated that the Quakers have expressed their
support behind the program but do not have a space available at this time. Rhode acknowledged there is
community groups out there looking for other congregations that could be supportive as well.
Gunderson reported that Rogue Retreat is gearing up to have a county wide shelter. The Executive Director
of Rogue Retreat, Chad McComas, has identified a property located in the County owned by Jackson
County. There have been concerns expressed that it might be difficult for Medford to accommodate even
more homeless people. In January of 2017 Rogue Retreat opened the Kelly Shelter providing winter shelter
for the homeless. Parker commented that once the Kelly Shelter opened the Ashland Shelter saw an
increase in guests, due to the Kelly Shelter being full.
Reid has been attending the Continuum of Care meetings. She pointed out that the County has the
possibility of losing funding because we have not met the criteria HUD has placed on the funds. New
criteria states that housing has to be along the Housing First Model, no one is turned away for any reason
and all participants in the Continuum of Care must adopt that policy, stated Reid. Everyone must also use
the HMIS system.
Parker read an article in both the local papers today that implied the reason Ashland and Medford have so
many homeless is due to the services they provide. Commissioners felt that this article was misleading.
Both Eagle Point and Central Point conveyed homelessness is not an issue for their communities. Reid
called attention to the Jackson County Homelessness Task Force preliminary results in which the Point in
Time count found 732 homeless people identified the night the count took place. This is an increase of 99
people, a 15.6% increase from last year, making it the highest count in seven years.
Goal: Support Porta-Potty project
Reid will speak with Public Works Director, Paula Brown to see if they have made any headway with this
and report back at next month’s meeting. Parker spoke about a conversation she had with a local
businessman who is not happy with the way in which the porta potty is set up. He has noticed the porta
potty is often locked so people can’t get in them and he frequently has to clean up around it. He inquired
as to why the City of Ashland hasn’t invested in some nice public restrooms for the people downtown? The
Commissioners would like to see that happen and Parker pointed out there are new designs in public
bathrooms which could help with issues raised in the past. The City of Portland has bathrooms where the
bottom is open allowing the ability to see people’s feet keeping them from camping in them. Parker would
like to see this Commission pursue and bring to the Council a report that shows what different options cost
including ideas of what other communities are doing. Bachman brought to the attention of the group there
are really nice bathrooms at Ashland Creek Community Gardens located on Hersey Street. Unfortunately,
homeless people have started moving into those restrooms so they are now being locked at a certain time.
Commissioner DuQuenne volunteered to do research on porta potties and report back.
Goal: Land Bank
Rohde announced that the City of Talent is having a public forum on housing solutions tonight. They list a
number of policy options, two of which are land banking and land trusts. A group called Grounded Solutions
is doing a two-part webinar on land banks and land trusts.
Parker commented the City has done so little for affordable housing and without the land not much progress
will happen. The City is currently purchasing two pieces of property, Oak Street and Briscoe School. No
one has talked about setting that land aside and actively build on it, commented Parker.
Parker discussed the need for workforce housing and affordable housing in our Community. If we made it
a goal to identify one piece of land and if we were able to build one affordable housing unit it would be
awesome, stated Parker. The entities that own large pieces of buildable lands in Ashland is Southern
Oregon University, The Ashland School District and the City of Ashland. If some of that land could be used
to build affordable and workforce housing it would really make a difference to our Community. It was
suggested to put together a packet of information to share with all the players involved or bring them
together and have a presentation given by Rob Justus, the developer who spoke at the Housing Forum a
couple of years ago. Put on next month’s agenda.
Goal: Increase DHS child care providers and family-friendly childcare
Franks inquired where would be a good place to start and whom could she speak with regarding this goal.
Reid suggested starting with the Childcare Resource Network. They train childcare providers getting them
through the licensing so they can get rural development food financing to be able to provide food for the
children. They can take DHS payments. Franks emphasized there are child care providers established
but they don’t have a facility to operate out of. It was suggested that churches are an ideal place to start as
well. They often have the space and appreciate a little extra income. Franks will do some research on this
and get back with the Commission.
Goal: Mental Health Services
Gunderson asked the question, what is the population we are talking about serving? We have plenty of
mental health therapist in private practice but we are not talking about the people they serve, remarked
Gunderson. Reid is on the La Clinica board and she said the subcommittee brought up the possibility of
utilizing the services of the medical van. They offer mental health counselling in the van. The problem with
the use of the Van is that they never know who is going to show up and what their needs will be. Another
issue is though the clients might have Oregon Health Plan coverage they don’t necessarily fill out the
paperwork in order to allow La Clinica to get reimbursed.
WINTER SHELTER COMMITTEE UPDATE
Reppond updated the Commissioners regarding finding a location for the emergency shelter. There is a fairly broad
based group of people who are working on different fronts, explained Reppond. The groups are looking at all
options, existing properties, tent structures, yurts, domes, warehouses, everything is on the table. A subcommittee
is working on identifying the criteria of what they need the shelter to have. (being on a bus line, having adequate
bathrooms, etc). A subcommittee is looking at the car camping possibility and working with faith based groups to
develop more car camping options. A group is working on asking the Governor to create a State of Emergency
state wide for housing which could open up some options. Also is a funding sub-committee and a food sub-
committee. Reppond confirmed that in order to have the shelter open in November a location will need to be
identified by July. The next Committee meeting will take place on June 6, 2018 at 7:00 pm at the Library. See
exhibit A at the end of the minutes with the Sub-Committee information.
SOCIAL SERVICE GRANT PLAN REVIEW AND DISCUSSION
Reid informed the Commissioners that the Social Service Grant process will take place again in January 2019. The
Strategic Plan goals were intended to be reviewed periodically to make sure that the funding priorities were meeting
the needs of the community. Reid received feedback from grant applicants, St. Vincent DePaul and Maslow, saying
that the process is really difficult for small nonprofits to be asked to keep coming back for such small grants. Reid
invited them to come to the next month’s meeting to provide the Commissioners some input from their point of view.
Crader felt this is one of the easiest grant processes to apply for requiring very little reporting. If the process is to
bothersome or too little funding don’t bother to apply, commented Crader.
The Commissioners reviewed the Strategic Plan to determine if the key priorities were still what needs to be funded.
The Commissioners agreed with all the priorities but it was suggested as a Commission to choose a couple priorities
and communicate that to providers.
At the next meeting Reid will provide a calendar showing the timeline of what needs to happen between now and
January. The Commission would like to hold a forum in late September or October to discuss the community needs
and what the providers are seeing. An invite list needs to be generated and inviting the councilors is crucial.
LAISION REPORTS -
Council – Bachman emphasized the importance of connecting with the Council on the Social Service grant process.
She asked the Commissioners for their ideas on how to do that. Bachman is able to have input to the other
Councilors with individual meetings. She explained that in order for a topic to get on the Agenda it must first be on
the “look Ahead” and can take three or four months before getting on the actual agenda.
The Commission had the idea of putting together a questionnaire for the Councilors and each Commission member
would meet with a Councilor and interview them. This would also give the Commissioners an opportunity to educate
the Council on CDBG and the Housing Trust Fund. The information would then be brought back to the Commission
for discussion. Reid will generate a list of all three programs with the priorities and let the Councilors prioritize them
based on that list.
Staff – Reid, Rohde and others have been working on bringing a conference on manufactured housing to Southern
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Oregon. The conference will be held on Thursday October 4at Ashland Hills Hotel. 8am-9am will be registration
and breakfast, 9am to 4pm will be the program followed by a reception from 4pm to 6pm. Rhode added the
conference is focusing on preserving our mobile homes for affordable housing and how to stabilize them and make
them sustainable and discuss the option of residence owned parks.
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Reid announced Project Community Connect will be held next Friday June 1 at the Medford Armory from 9:00 am
to 4:00 pm. PCC is a one-day fair for homeless and at risk individuals and households. It includes entertainment,
raffles, lunch, tons of service providers, health care, veterinarians, clothing, judges and amnesty courts, just to name
a few. In the past the event has had up to 600 people attend. Reid encouraged everyone to attend as this is an
awesome event.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Parker shared at the Jackson County homelessness taskforce meeting Mary Ann Baker, who works with the State,
brought together land owners and developers to discuss the difficulty in constructing affordable housing. Parker
shared with them information on our Housing Trust Fund. It appeared they were not aware of it. Many of them
would like to do affordable housing but cannot financially afford to.
Gunderson reported that Karen Logan, himself and a couple of others met with Interim City Administrator Adam
Hanks, the Mayor, The City Attorney and a City Planner to talk about tiny houses in Ashland. Adam is scheduling
a couple of dates for interested parties, Councilors, the mayor, City staff to visit Hope Village in Medford. Getting
people in and seeing how a well-run program will be beneficial to the efforts to do tiny houses in Ashland.
Gunderson encouraged everyone on this commission to take a tour of Hope Village and see what they are doing.
UPCOMING EVENTS AND MEETINGS
Quorum check - Everyone should be here at the next meeting.
Housing and Human Services Commission Regular Meeting – 4:30-6:30 PM; June 28, 2018, at 51 Winburn Way.
ADJOURNMENT
The meeting was adjourned at 6:30 p.m.
Respectfully submitted by Carolyn Schwendener