RIVER VALLEYS CONTINUUM OF CARE MEETING MINUTES MARCH 15, 2018 OWATONNA

RIVER VALLEYS CONTINUUM OF CARE MEETING MINUTES MARCH 15, 2018 OWATONNA Covering the Counties of: Blue Earth Brown Dodge Faribault Fillmore Freeborn Goodhue Houston Le Sueur Martin Mower Nicollet Olmsted Rice Sibley Steele Wabasha Waseca Watonwan Winona In Attendance: Andrew Pietsch, Blue Earth County Human Services Angela Knudson, South Central Human Relations Center Barb Durbahn, SCHRC Carrie Erickson, ICA Christina Fort, LSS Cindy Norgard, Salvation Army Dan Watson, HOPE Coalition Jan Karasch, Salvation Army Jen Theneman, Partners for Affordable Housing Jennifer Prins, Three Rivers Community Action, Inc Jennifer Sorg, Ruth s House Joy Watson, Rice County HRA Julie Anderson, Steele County Transitional Housing Justin Stotts, Owatonna HRA Kara Hoel, Women s Shelter and Support Kate Hengy-Gretz, Minnesota Valley Action Council Katherine Cross, Three Rivers Community Action, Inc Larry More, Three Rivers Community Action, Inc Liz Young, Hearth Connection Mary Earley, Community Action Center of Northfield Mary Vrieze, Southern Minnesota Regional Legal Services Mathias Antony, DFO Community Corrections Michele Merxbauer, Olmsted County HRA Nancy Bokelmann, County of Mankato Nicole Brown-Watkin, Center City Housing Pricila Andrade, Family Service Rochester Randi Callahan, Three Rivers Community Action, Inc. Roger Martinez, person experiencing homelessness Sheila Alba, SCHRC/Project Home Sophia Franco, person experiencing homelessness Stacey Klempnauer, Northfield Union of Youth Sybil Betsinger, Community Action Center of Northfield Tasha Moulton, LSS Tammy Moses, LSS Trent Fluegel, Center City Housing Victoria Heun, Salvation Army, Mankato Recorder: Norma Ortiz, Three Rivers Community Action, Inc. Facilitator: Nancy Bokelmann, County of Mankato Three Rivers Community Action 1414 North Star Drive, Zumbrota, MN 55992 Telephone: 507-732-7391 Fax: 507-732-8547 www.threeriverscap.org Reasonable Accommodations Are Available ADA

Welcome, Introductions, Announcements: Julie Anderson - On March 22 nd at 6:30 there will be a town hall meeting in Owatonna to discussing experiences with homelessness. Christina Fort Garden Fair, June 2 nd in Olmsted County at the historical center. Kate Hengy-Gretz Project Community Connect will be held on April 17 th at the Verizon Event Center in Mankato from noon to 4:00 pm. Are expecting up to 600 guests and up to 80 providers. Approval of January Minutes and February Agenda Motion to approve the February Minutes and the March agenda by Michele Merxbauer. Seconded by Kate Hengy-Gretz. Motion unanimously approved. Committee Activity Highlights Performance Review and Ranking: 2018 HUD CoC Funding Round The funding round will likely begin in June, a little earlier than expected. The committee is working on updating the policies. There will be a new excel HUD form same information will be provided, but will only be in a different format. Completing renewal project reviews before NOFA comes out in May. Projects should be prepared for an early May review process. The equal access form was always asked for, but never scored. This year, they will be scored. Coordinated Entry: Rapid Rehousing Pilot Within CES There is a new CES pilot for only RHASP providers. It was requested at the last FHAPAP Advisory Committee that there be a pilot project to serve those with higher scores. That pilot will run from February to August, with the possibility of extension if there is not enough data to determine effectiveness at that time. The proposal includes selecting prioritized households within the typical PSH range, but who either 1) select an area with no PSH availability, or 2) were denied PSH for not meeting extent of homeless requirement or other basic eligibility. Actions Identified Review and respond to data quality actions if received by ICA or CoC. This is important for required data submissions to HUD. HUD CoC funded projects seeking renewal should plan for an early May review process. To measure effectiveness, we will look at the percent of exits to homelessness after entry, percent of exits to Permanent Housing, and percent of exits to with increased income. Case workers generally meet with RRH clients once a month, but with the pilot project they will be trying to meet with those higher scoring clients at least twice a month, and more if needed in a household. These adaptations will be documented. Data & TA: HMIS Updates Data quality items to prioritize: Have been monitoring the data quality of those in shelters that were a part of the Point in Time count. Carrie Erickson emailed providers on data quality a few weeks ago, and has since created a new report that is now available to all to check data quality. Page 2 of 6

Agency Check-Ins: ICA is launching an effort to meet with all of the HMIS providers in 2018. Carrie will be contacting all providers to set up dates to meet. These check-ins are only meant to understand whether the provider set ups in HMIS make sense, and whether people understand how those are set up and why. Executive: MN Housing Application for CoC Planning MN Housing is now accepting applications for Continuum of Care Planning Expenses. It has been shifted from a calendar year, to July to June. One thing required is a motion to approve submitting the application from the CoC. The application does not commit our CoC to actions in addition to what we commit to HUD. Funds are used to match HUD dollars to cover staff expenses, equipment, travel, and training. Mary Vrieze made the motion to approve the MN Housing application for CoC Planning. Michelle Merxbauer Seconded. Motion unanimously approved. Regional Transportation Coordinating Council Grant Application The Minnesota Department of Transportation and the Department of Human Services are looking to create Regional Transportation Coordinating Councils across the State. The focus of the councils is to address barriers to transportation that individuals and agencies have in the community, such as transportation for people with disabilities and transportation for seniors. The RTCC intends to support partnerships and strategies that allow providers to coordinate better to provide people more choices of where and when to travel. The application itself is a one year application to do planning (to create an RTCC). The geographic area that Three Rivers is looking to apply for is Region 10, which includes 11 counties in SE Minnesota. Are looking for letters of support from lots of entities to place in the application, to identify that there are transportation needs for people underserved and that, as a group, the effort to improve those options are approved. : Who is applying for Region 9? Can the CoC pass a resolution to support the Three Rivers request and an application anticipated for Region 9 (applicant unknown)? Transportation coordination is important across the region for our clients. Nancy B and Jennifer were unaware of an applicant for Region 9. Actions Identified Jennifer will provide a support letter to be signed by a CoC Co- Chair. Jennifer will reach out to R9DC to determined if there is an RTCC applicant for Region 9. Nancy B will ask colleagues at the EDA in Mankato. A support letter will be provided for the Region 9 applicant if identified. Mary Vrieze made a motion to provide a letter that the CoC endorses and supports the Three Rivers request for support for the RTCC proposal to MnDOT for region 10 and for the applicant, if any, for region 9. Kate Hengy-Gretz seconded. Motion unanimously approved. Page 3 of 6

CoC Confirmation Process for 2018 MN Housing Apps MN Housing funding round is open for Multi-Family projects Again this year, applicants for projects that include units for homeless persons have to receive confirmation from the CoC. This confirmation process applies to projects that are coming this round, but applies to any project that is going to be requesting a CoC signature or approval for an application, e.g. Bridges, LTH services, etc. Requirements for confirmation: 1) A written project description and 2) a presentation from that project applicant at one of our meetings. There is an online form that asks for basic information about the project and the questions are focused on the supportive housing piece of the project. New this year: Strongly encouraging the project applicants to include a local Continuum of Care member in the project presentation. (A service provider member, an agency that provided input on the project design, or a member that knows about the project.) : In the last two years, we ve identified during this Confirmation process that proposed rent levels sometimes exceed HRA payment standards. This results in people with very low incomes being excluded from affordable housing developments. This is a growing problem and project applicants don t seem to be paying attention to it. How can we address this? We can make a point to ask applicants. We can submit comments to MN Housing on their Qualified Allocation Plan (QAP) used to evaluate projects, including some with homeless units. The comment period for revisions to the QAP is open now. Jennifer will send out instructions for CoC Confirmations to all known developer contacts. CoC members can pass the information along to other project applicants identified. Jennifer will draft comments for submittal to MN Housing during comment period for QAP revisions. Executive Committee will review and approve submission. Kate Hengy-Gretz made a motion to send comments on QAP to MN Housing regarding the issue of rent levels exceeding payment standards, with the comments to be reviewed by the Executive Committee. Andrew Pietsch seconded. Motion unanimously approved. Homeless Day on the Hill Debrief Larry More met with Senator Dave Senjem Doing his part in trying to give funding for affordable housing but taking into consideration that there are requests all over. Larry also met with a local representative from Byron who mostly discussed numbers and statistics. Sheila Alba met with five legislatures One was a definite yes for support, while others were willing to listen and gave the encouragement to keep on them. LINK attended Foster Day on the Hill where youth were able to learn how to advocate for change. Hope Coalition were given two definite yes of support from both their representatives. Not all are able to advocate but it is important to tell stories, to make sure that there are enough examples across the state to help those who are able to advocate. Visit the MN Coalition for the Homeless website for the link to share your stories. Page 4 of 6

Upcoming HUD TA Projects Rapid Rehousing HUD is surveying CoC providers regarding standards, processes, and operations for RRH. Some of the questions include if we have standards for length of assistance that we provide for Rapid Re Housing, and if there are any differences on how we do that based on location or population need. The focus is on single adults, adults with children, youth, veterans, and people that qualify as chronically homeless. RRH providers should be prepared to respond to a survey from HUD if received. Preferences in HUD-Assisted Multifamily Housing HUD announced that TA is available for CoCs to develop partnerships with HUD-Assisted Multifamily Properties. Have had some outreach from the field office in terms of HUD assisted properties that haven t been able to fill their units, most in smaller communities, and looking to connect to coordinated entry to ensure full occupancy. This technical assistance process is aimed at building some connections locally. More details to follow when available. HUD CoC Youth Homelessness Demonstration Grant Approved a group to work on the youth grant, including Tammy, Melissa, Jinny, Scott and Andrea. This application is to be selected as a demonstration community by HUD. If selected as one of the 11 in the nation, there is a minimum of $1 million that will be allocated to the region to develop a youth specific action plan to reduce homelessness. Application is due April 17 th. Currently working on mapping out the response system as well as completing some outreach to additional providers since there is a requirement to have agreements to work and plan together with child protection in the counties we are applying for. Will be targeting for Blue Earth, Olmsted, and Rice Counties. Julie Anderson made a motion to create a youth action board and provide full CoC membership for participants. Kate Hengy-Gretz seconded. Motion unanimously approved. They are looking for a coordinated community response on ending youth homelessness. There are five primary objectives build national momentum, evaluate the coordinated community approach, expand capacity, evaluate performance measure, and establish a framework for federal program and TA collaboration. SPARC Project Update and Next Steps October of last year, some State staff became aware of an opportunity to be part of a national research study to analyze racial equity impacts in the homeless response system. A statewide project wasn t possible but a few communities could participate. Through the statewide network of State programs and CoCs, communities could submit proposals to participate. Communities that applied and were selected by the statewide committee were Mankato/Blue Earth County, Hennepin County, and one more region in Northern Minnesota. Hennepin County is currently ahead in the project due to them gathering money before the application process. Blue Earth is currently fundraising for that. $20,000 is needed to complete this study. Agencies are invited to participate in the SPARC kick-off meeting in Mankato on April 5 and 1pm at Government Center Plaza. Contact Nancy if you need more information. Page 5 of 6

The study will identify system inequities and develop different tools and educational opportunities to address those inequities. On April 5 at 1:00, there will be a meeting in Mankato to inform local agencies about this project and look for funding that can be matched. All are invited. The National Alliance to End Homelessness shared a report by the SPARC research on racial disparities. If you are interested in the project, that would be a great background piece. CoC Plan The Executive Committee is looking to create a document that would be our CoC Plan that is clearly connected to all our priorities, information collected from the Point in Time count, etc. The plan incorporates our existing commitments for 2018. It does not create new goals we haven t already approved for this year. Will review draft of the CoC plan at the next meeting for approval. The plan proposes a 10 year process, with our CoC identifying specific strategies for annual work plans. This will help us focus our work. The 7 principles of the statewide Heading Home Together plan that we adopted 6 months ago are incorporated in the plan. Jennifer will distribute the plan for review before the vote at the April meeting. Andrew Pietsch made a motion to adjourn the meeting. Kate Hengy-Gretz seconded. Motion unanimously approved. Next CoC Meeting: April 19, 9:30 am 12:00 pm. Minnesota Action Council, 706 Victory Drive, Mankato Room 131B&C Page 6 of 6