HHH: "50 Now" Program to Provide "Housing First"

*****Update: January 8, 2015
There is a local group called "SLO Housing Connection" that has a link to some sources for the "Housing First" model that you can read about by clicking here. The SLO Housing Connection non-profit is run by SLO locals with a wide range of experience in this area, led by tireless homeless advocate Mary Parker. I encourage you to support the group and donate to them if you can (I just wrote a check to them!).

Above (click to enlarge): An article without an image is boring, IMHO. Since I don't have any photos to go along with this article, I included an image that I took of the crystal clear ocean waters at Catalina at the Isthmus in August 2014.

*****Update: January 3, 2015
The Tribune Newspaper ran a story on the 50 Now program by AnnMarie Cornejo on January 3, 2015, which you can read by clicking here. 

A few highlights from the article. These quotes help to illustrate why I am so passionate about supporting homeless causes and creating affordable housing:
- 50 Now program provides homes for the chronically homeless
- Britta Daigneault (age 45) was homeless for 6 years before this program
- She (Britta) was previously married with 2 kids, living in a home with a job
- “But when you become homeless here, everyone sees you differently.”
- “I (Britta) was in a state of panic, anxiety and shock,” 
- She (Britta) said she was raped five times.
- “I took a beating, both mentally and physically,” 
-  “I made enemies quickly because I talked to the police,”
- She (Britta) was Dumpster diving and living in a field by the airport 
- 50 Now takes those with the greatest risk of dying on the street
- The 50 Now clients face a host of mental health and medical issues
- “The thought of losing this (program) … to me that would be a death sentence,”
You can reach reporter AnnMarie Cornejo at 781-7939.  

*****"50 Now" Survey Results: 9/25/2014 Update

The “50 Now” program collected 297 surveys in total of the “unhoused”, which have all been handed over to T-MHA (Transitions Mental Health Association), who will be doing case management for the top 50 chronically, vulnerable homeless.  They have assured us that they also plan to engage with ALL of the people who were surveyed, since all have some needs that they could use help with, besides just housing.  Below are some current statistics from the campaign.  If you are interested in helping follow through with some of the people you interviewed see the bottom of this email for ways you can help. 

Current Statistics from the 50Now Campaign (as of Sept. 16, 2014): 
10% of those surveyed were Vets.
4% of those surveyed were under 25.
The average age of those not vulnerable was 46 ½, the average of those that were vulnerable was 50 yrs. old.
7% over 65 years old, some over 70.
14% in Foster care at some point.
81% had been in jail at least once in their lives, 94% of top 50.
86% answered yes to mental health, or had signs of mental illness according to surveyor.
68% answered yes to substance abuse at some point in their lives.
78% were living in this area when they became homeless, and the remaining people had some kind of connection to this area.
60% have dual diagnosis.
520 ER visits in last 6 months.
124 inpatient visits in last 6 months.
On an average the top 50 have been homeless for at least 8 years.
Those on top 50 were spread out very evenly throughout County:  20% from North County, 26% from South County, 28% from SLO and the rest from institutions.

Housing: T-MHA has already acquired 16 units of housing in SLO and Atascadero for this project, and last I heard they were hoping to get 12 more in Paso Robles, so half of what is needed may already be secured!  The HSOC Housing Committee is working on possibilities for this as well, including looking at current vacancies in the County that may be usable. 

Some Next Steps: 
Volunteer Opportunity: January Point in Time Count.
There will be a Point in Time count (probably) in January in which teams of people will go out into the field to count and survey ALL homeless people in the County that we can find.  

T-MHA Client Mentorship Opportunity:
Also, T-MHA has mentioned a mentorship program, in which volunteers would work with clients on things such as finding donations for bedding, furniture and kitchenware once housed, and helping them through the application process with landlords, who they are currently identifying. Also see: www.slohomeless.com.

*****"50 Now" Program: 9/3/2014 Update

Sue and I attended a meeting on 9/3 conducted by Laurel Weir (Homeless Services Coordinator, Department of Social Services San Luis Obispo County).  The meeting was a feedback session to share information gleaned from the two weeks of surveying the homeless for SLO county's "50 Now" program (links to descriptions of the program provided below).  Please note that Fatte's Pizza generously donated pizza for the meeting because they were inspired by the hard work of the surveyors!  Based upon their donation and apparent support for ending homelessness, please patronize Fatte's Pizza whenever possible, and you can find out more about them on their home page by clicking here. The meeting lasted for 2 hours, and Sue and I attended the entire meeting. Ms. Weir's assistant, Nicole Holst, showed up later in the meeting. Ms. Holst played a key role in the surveying portion of the 50 Now Project.

Okay, what did we learn from the meeting?
- Another round of Surveying the Homeless for the 50 Now program will take place in January 2015. Anyone interested in helping with this next round should contact Ms. Weir at lweir@co.slo.ca.us Weir or Ms. Holst at nholst@co.slo.ca.us. Ms. Weir indicated that she is looking for volunteers with some experience either working with the homeless, or some other sort of social services background.
- The 8 page "Consent and Authorization" form needs to be streamlined and shortened. 
- Ms. Weir presented some preliminary statistics on the survey results, including:
- Expects the total number of homeless surveyed to be around 260+ (213 have been entered into the project database so far).
- 80% of those surveyed have spent time in jail.
- 85% of those surveyed report experiencing mental health issues.
- 115 of the 213 scored in the "vulnerable" category; average age of those rated vulnerable was 51.2 years old.
- There were very few "refusals" to take the survey (unfortunately, one of the refusals was mine).
- Hope to survey more of the "vulnerable" in the January 2015 round of surveys, as we believe that there are more out there.
- I found out about a group called "Volunteer SLO" (somehow affiliated with United Way) and am trying to find out more about this group. Their email address is: http://www.volunteerslo.org. I left a voice with Rachel and am hoping to get a call back. Would like to put info about "Volunteer SLO" onto our meetup.com website group "The Common Good", which I encourage you to consider joining.

*****"50 Now" Program: 8/29/2014

I sit here writing this article while supervising all night at the local homeless shelter overflow. After spending a nice evening visiting with the homeless clients at a local house of worship, this experience gives me a useful context for writing yet another article in my series on "Housing, Hunger and Homelessless". Please read on.

The county of San Luis Obispo recently signed off on funding for a new local program to provide housing to 50 homeless people. The program is called "50 Now" and is based on the "100,000 Homes National Program" that you can read about by clicking here. 50 Now is based upon a new and popular model called "Housing First" for solving homelessness, which you can read about by clicking here.

Below is a summary of the Housing First model being used by the "50 Now" program in SLO. This is copied from the "100,000 Homes Program" link above: 

Previously, homeless service providers worked to offer medical and mental health care, addiction counseling, job training and countless other services to people living on the streets. This occurred before housing would be provided. The unfortunate result was that very few people ever escaped the streets.

100,000 Homes communities believe this traditional approach is backwards, and the data agrees with them. Countless studies have now shown that we must offer housing first, not last, if we want to help people out of homelessness. The bottom line is that it is just too difficult to battle addiction, take care of serious physical and mental health conditions or find steady employment while simultaneously battling homelessness. 

Housing First is a simple philosophy that dictates that the most vulnerable and chronic people experiencing homelessness be offered the choice to move into permanent housing combined with available supportive services right away. It discourages imposing conditions on permanent housing, whether related to health, employment or sobriety. The Housing First approach also tends to be much cheaper for taxpayers than allowing people to remain homeless. 

The August 27, 2014 edition of "The Tribune" features an article on the front page of the paper titled "Homeless plan starts with a number: 50". You can read this article by AnnMarie Conejo by clicking here.

I support the "Housing First" approach, and support the "50 Now" Program. The "100,000 Homes" program created a survey to use in selecting the most vulnerable homeless people in our community. Those who scored "highest" in the survey would be picked to participate in the 50 now program. The survey seeks to determine which homeless are most likely to face death, and thus most in need of "housing first".

I participated in the survey portion of this program. First, I took a 2 hour training course conducted by Laurel Weir (SLO County Homeless Services Coordinator) and Nicole Holst (Administrative Assistant to Ms. Weir). Then I was assigned to work with the C.A.T. (Community Action Team) to go out into SLO city open space areas to conduct the surveys at various homeless encampments. I was looking forward to meeting the CAT police officers (Officers Jeremy Behrens and Jim Fellows - jbehrens@slocity.org, jfellows@slocity.org). When the day came for doing the surveys, Jeremy was on vacation so I only got to meet and spend a little time with Jim. 

For whatever reason, after about an hour, Officer Fellows had more pressing duties, and left. He turned me over to "Ranger Dan" Dixon (a city employee with the parks department, I believe). In the course of about 3-4 hours, I met with 4 homeless campers, and 3 agreed to take the survey, with 1 refusing. As stated previously, I support the "50 Now" program, but I was disappointed that they apparently didn't need me to help do more of the surveying. Between the training course and the time in the field, it turned out to be an inefficient use of my time (note: I'm still glad that I participated). I had expected to do about 15 surveys, but did only the 3, and never got called back. Either they needed me far less than expected, or they were unhappy with my survey work and didn't call me back. Anyways, my understanding is that the rest of the volunteers and staff completed about 200+ surveys in total so far. [UPDATE - 9/8/14: expected survey total will be 260+].

The Tribune article on the 50 Now program had some interesting statistics on the surveys that were conducted: Of the 200+ people actually surveyed, 80% have been in jail, 21% in prison, 85% have a mental health issue. Of these 3 statistics provided by Ms. Weir, the 85% mental health issue statistic sticks out the most.

The county of SLO is providing $1,900,000 for this project. Assuming 50 participants, that comes to $38,000 per person for the 3 year program. Though it seems expensive, it is likely that without this program, the city and county of SLO would be spending more than that in the same 3 year period on these people. Those expenses primarily take the form of health care, mental health services, law enforcement, and court expenses.

*****Less Affordable Housing in SLO 7/5/2014: 

Thanks to prominent local physician, Dr. Rene Bravo of SLO, for bringing this to my attention.

Cal Coast News recently reported on the fact that the SLO city council recently voted to continue to reduce the amount of housing available in our city. You can read more about it in the Cal Coast News by clicking here.

There is massive demand for affordable housing in the city of SLO, but city policies discourage affordable housing. SLO encourages business to move into the city, but not affordable housing. Why, you ask? Because there are hefty fees to be collected from businesses, but apparently not fees to be collected for affordable housing (either that, or the per unit fees are so high that it is economically not feasible to build). Because of the high level of artificial demand created by city policies, zones and fees, people are turning to illegal housing units. 

The city makes it appear that this is caused only by unscrupulous and greedy property owners wanting to take advantage of defenseless low income renters to line their own pockets. In reality, the demand is created by Cal Poly students and low income SLO city workers seeking housing they can afford, but is not readily available. Out of absolute desperation, they will rent ANYTHING they can afford - illegal or not.

Let's look at some facts from this Cal Coast article:

Between 2008 and 2103, city inspectors caught 61 unpermitted conversions of spaces inside homes into bedrooms. They also discovered 57 unpermitted conversions of guest houses into independent living units and 153 conversions of garages into living spaces. But, city staffers say many more illegal conversions are taking place, and they are struggling to catch violators.

The city is struggling to catch low-income workers barely getting by - oh my, how noble of them. When the city closes down an unpermitted space, the renter is, in many or most cases. dumped back out onto the streets.

Why do they not get permits? Because of the unaffordable fees involved, as well as the high probability that their request will get turned down due to zoning issues or NIMBY complaints.

The planners said that the unpermitted conversions create safety hazards and parking issues in neighborhoods, in addition to, at times, violating density limits.

Density limits are artificial creations of the city. Around the country, more forward thinking cities are allowing affordable green micro-housing units (200 - 400 square feet) that are actually affordable for the working poor. Why can't we do this here?

The city now has code enforcement officers patrolling neighborhoods, but legal restrictions, such as the Fourth Amendment, prohibit them from merely entering properties out of curiosity.

Yes, the city of SLO has used our sales tax increase to hire "neighborhood wellness" police to make sure we put away trash cans. As far as I can see, our neighborhoods look no different now then before we hired these neighborhood snoops. And darn, those constitutional rights of ours just get in the way or unrestricted snooping on the public.

Plus, I am against the SLO sales tax increase because it is disproportionately hurts the poor. The poor spend a greater percentage of their income on sales tax than the middle and upper class. Find a more equitable way to tax us, or better still, find a way to get by with the money that you do collect. We are paying every city administrator, average police, and average fire employees six figure incomes in a small rural town like SLO - we can't and shouldn't pay big city salaries in our small city, IMHO. Disagree all you want - I believe we can fill these slots with qualified applicants for far less compensation. "Any fool can spend money - only a wise person can save it".

“No matter what we put in any of these regulations, we’ve got to encourage people to call us and tell us when they see something going on in a house that they feel is an inappropriate conversion,” [Kathy] Smith said. “People take for granted their right to change their household anyway that they feel, especially when they can get some rental income out of it.” Councilwoman Kathy Smith said the city should aid its code enforcers by encouraging residents to report property owners who break the rules.

I think Kathy Smith is a good city councilperson, but...its one thing to report a suspicious person who might be a terrorist poisoning our city water supply or blowing up the railroad tracks...but turning in your own neighbors for solving a problem that the city created (lots of jobs and little or no worker housing)...I just won't do it and neither should you. Support affordable housing in all its forms, including "home sharing" that the city is fighting hard to eliminate before it even gets started.

*****5/1/2014 Mentally Ill Benefit from a "Home First" Approach.

Please check out this article: THE ROCK REPORT: SLO County Health Leaders Focus on Housing to Treat Chronic Homelessness, Mental Illness. We have a local non-profit that has fought valiantly for our local mentally disabled patients in order to get them treatment and support recovery. That is being fought currently at the Sunny Acres site (owned by SLO County) in San Luis Obispo. Neighbors have been given questionable facts and ignored Transitions-Mental Health Associations track record in similarly-sized neighborhoods in San Luis Obispo.

Here is a quote from the article above:

“The ‘Housing First’ approach has emerged as a favored policy [most effective?] in addressing issues of homelessness. … ‘Housing First’ places people into permanent housing and then provides behavioral health treatment, case management, and other services needed to allow the clients to stabilize in place and to maintain their housing. The model does not require people to be well before putting them into housing, nor does it require clients to participate in any services other than case management as a condition of receiving housing. The ‘Housing First’ model is considered by HUD and other federal agencies to be a best practice for ending homelessness among those who have been chronically homeless, because use of this model consistently demonstrates a decreased use of emergency services, criminal justice resources, and many other public services.”

Locally, we have a non-profit organization that serves the mentally disabled living in our community. That non-profit is called Transitions-Mental Health Association (TMHA), and you can visit their web site by clicking here. In addition, they are in the early stages of developing one more support facility that you can read about by clicking here. TMHA uses an approach similar to the one described in the "Rock Report" above - that is, a "Housing First" approach.

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