HomeMy WebLinkAbout2012-02-08 Homelessness Steering_MIN
DRAFT Minutes
February 8, 2012
Ad hoc Homelessness Steering Committee
Ashland Public Library
4:00 - 6:00 p.m.
Attendance
Ayers, Parker, Lewis, Rohde, O’Bryon, Hopkins-Powell, Voisin (Council liaison), Slattery
(Council Liaison) Reid (City staff)
Absent
Saldana
Call to Order
Parker called the meeting to order at 4:05 p.m.
Approval of Minutes
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Hopkins-Powell/Rohde m/s to approve the minutes with corrections of the January 23 meeting.
Agenda Item #4: Chief Holderness gave a presentation on the Fontana California TEN-4
program and the Community Assistance Program
Chief Holderness noted that the issues are different in Ashland than the issues that these
programs worked to solve in Fontana. The TEN-4 model came out of a problem solving
methodology. The effort began with officers meeting with churches to find out what they were
seeing. The Methodology that they used was known as SARA:
Scan: What is the nature of the problem?
Analysis: Why Fontana? Talked extensively to the homeless, found that Fontana was not
usually their ultimate destination. But, because of the major transportation hubs in Fontana it
was easy to get to and that there were a lot of churches offering free (maintenance) services to
the homeless. It was easy to be homeless in Fontana so they stayed.
Response: Went to the churches, let them know that they were empowering the homeless to
remain homeless. Asked those offering services what their goals were, what they were trying to
accomplish as a community. Everyone agreed that it was to get people off the streets. They
pooled their resources. Designed and developed a processing center and established a committee
to develop guidelines and procedures for the program.
Assess: Used baseline information from before the implementation of TEN-4, i.e. the
number of complaints, crime states, and the # of homeless. Then Compare those numbers
annually to rate the success of the program. In the first year the TEN-4 program assisted 652
people with their program. 54% of those assisted remained in housing, 10% dropped out of the
program.
The TEN-4 program was eventually replaced by the Community Assistance Program (CAP).
This program utilized a $20,000 grant from the City of Fontana and was hosted by a partner
church that provided office space and a meeting room. The CAP program applied the same
philosophy as the TEN-4 program, providing Rehabilitation programs to help move participants
out of homelessness. The CAP program specializes in connecting people’s needs with the
people who have the needed resource or service. The CAP program worked to get people
registered with services, held an annual resource fair, and held monthly meetings with service
providers and community partners to network and work on finding solutions to their participants
problems. The CAP program also offered several life skills classes, most of which are taught by
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volunteer police officers. The CAP program operates on an annual budget of approximately
$40K.
Hopkins-Powell asked what about the participants with issues of mental illness, how did 10-4
deal with them?
Holderness answered that when possible the program tried to get those participants with issues of
mental illness some counseling, and tried to connect them with the necessary resources. Often
those with mental illness were allowed to go through the program multiple times, unlike others
who where only allowed to participate in the program two times.
Slattery asked whether the Fontana programs received any resources or support from the County,
or were they just instituted/maintained alone by the City.
Holderness replied that the Fontana programs did utilized county resources, mainly in the form
of services and program coordination. Employment Department representatives and other
County and State service providers provided outreach efforts on site weekly.
Both programs came out of the police dept. then were run by community volunteers only
requiring on average approximately one hour a week of staff time to maintain the program after
initial set up.
Agenda Item #3-Report from Regina Ayars, RE: Plaza Merchant Interviews and Discussion
Ayars interviewed several of the plaza merchants to find out what the merchants were seeing as
bad behavior on the plaza. Some specific comments were: that aggressive panhandling was
when the people panhandling spoke. Many of the merchants mentioned that they would really
like to see more police presence downtown. Many people had high praise for former officer
Terry De Silva who formerly patrolled the downtown and worked out of the downtown police
annex. Some felt that the downtown annex is being underutilized. Everyone interviewed stated
that they have had to call the police at least once about an issue with the homeless.
Ayars asked Chief Holderness if there is a plan to get someone, like former officer De Silva in
the downtown again.
Chief Holderness replied that at the beginning of last summer there were a lot of complaints and
once that second person came on board the complaints went away. Once the budget is passed
there will be funding for two officers in the downtown, but it won’t be implemented for a while.
There will be community service officers in the park/downtown this summer.
Agenda Item #5-Discussion with Chief Holderness about possible ways to address bad behavior
in public areas
Slattery asked Chief Holderness how an exclusionary zone would work.
Chief Holderness replied that an exclusionary zone would apply to individuals who have
recieved a certain number of violations, after reaching that number they would then be trespassed
from the downtown area for a specified period of time. Based on police data, this would apply to
a small group of repeat offenders; the vast majority of the homeless population has no interface
with the police department. Chief Holderness stated that currently the issue for the police with
regard to behavior in the downtown is that there are very few repeat offenders, but of those
offenders there is no reprimand to deter them from engaging in bad/unacceptable behavior.
Currently the only tool that the police have to use is to issue class B violations, which do not
carry jail time, only fees and fines. Most of the repeat offenders do not pay the fines or have any
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intention of paying the fines or completing community service to work off the fines. An
exclusionary zone may provide enough of a negative consequence to compel better behavior in
the downtown.
Hopkins-Powell stated that lately she has been hearing a lot of stories and hearing a lot of mental
illness. If a person is clearly mentally ill, and the police get called and they find that the
individual has a warrant, then the police are required to take them. How do we deal with these
people, who suffer from mental illness, trespassing wouldn’t seem like a deterrent to them.
Chief Holderness replied that the mental health system is terribly broken, there are not enough
resources for those experiencing mental illness, currently there are only 16 beds throughout
Jackson County to house people experiencing mental illness. Chief Holderness did state that in
his experience even mentally ill people have a sense of right and wrong. They would be able to
understand what being trespassed would mean.
Audience Member Coyner stated that the community needs to come together to tell the problem
people that this behavior is unacceptable. Coyner expressed concern as to whether there might
be room for abuse should an exclusionary zone be enacted.
Agenda Item #6-Goal Setting exercise
The Committee members made suggestions as to what goals they would like the Committee to
focus on over the next two and half months, and then ranked the goals individually using dot
stickers.
Goal #1: Identify specific behaviors that are not welcome in Ashland, Identify a strategy to help
people change their behaviors and develop a plan for consequences.
Goal #2: Ask the Council to extend Committee, develop a narrative through community
outreach and information.
Goal #3: Identify a day center location; identify an agency to run the day center.
Goal #4: Identify a management plan and what facilities/services a day center will provide.
Announcements
Community Works has offered to sponsor Heidi as the volunteer for the La Clinica Medical Van.
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The Van is scheduled to be at the Methodist Church on February 21, from 1:00 P.M. to 5:30
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P.M. rather than February 14 as originally scheduled. It will be first come first serve.
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A 3 listening post site will be operating at the UCC church on Mondays from 8:00 A.M. to
10:00 A.M.
Meeting adjourned at 6:10
Next meeting dates
February 27- City Council Chambers, 1175 East Main 4:00-6:00
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March 14 –Ashland Public Library 4-6 PM
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