East County Regional Homeless Task Force Strategic Plan for

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Roland Nash
6 years ago
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East County Regional Homeless Task Force Strategic Plan for 2017-2018 I. Mission: To unify the communities of East County and work together to substantially reduce homelessness in our region. II.

1 East County Regional Homeless Task Force Strategic Plan for I. Mission: To unify the communities of East County and work together to substantially reduce homelessness in our region. II. Goals: 1. Reduce fractured offering of services and unify efforts to become more effective Strategy: Organize a regional task force for East County that helps to unify all sectors of the community and coordinates efforts, monitoring, and development of new programs Strategy: Develop communication channels to help unify efforts Strategy: Invite all sectors of the community to participate and coordinate efforts by development of a Regional Homelessness Action Plan 2. Identify key leaders who will take on key solutions for specific problem areas Strategy: Organize action areas into manageable sizes for successful outcomes Strategy: Identify key Homeless Issue Areas that can be managed effectively and identify any entities that are currently producing effective results and build upon those efforts Strategy: Check and plug gaps with programs that will address areas of high needs in East County 3. Communicate through marketing effectively in a unified way to Homeless Community, Business Community and General Community (This includes government, law enforcement, health, education, non-profits, other chambers in the East County) in an organized unified manner Strategy: Identify a key spokesperson(s) to address media regarding East County Homeless efforts 4. Coordinate efforts with Countywide homeless issue solutions, agencies and regional efforts Strategy: Work with Homeless Services Staff at City of San Diego, Countywide Task Force, other regional efforts (Crisis House is on this task force) Strategy: Produce homeless data to show results of efforts and share with partners Strategy: Ensure East County is a part of Federal, State and County grant requests to support efforts 5. Support solution providers to access and receive adequate funding and resources to implement meaningful solutions Strategy: Develop a budget to deal with the 1,000 homeless in the region that is sustainable Strategy: Work with solution providers to access key grant funding support, as a region and as a countywide effort 1

2 Key Considerations for Possible Development: How do we best coordinate and follow up on efforts to Run the East County Regional Task Force in the future and track Action Plan Results: Fund a full-time Director as the East County Regional Contact to spearhead the ongoing efforts to continually update and implement an action plan and manage ongoing results (Needs to be a unified effort not limited to one viewpoint) Reports to East County Chamber President who reports to East County Homeless Task Force Steering Committee who reports to Chamber Board. Communication to the Communities about what to do and how to help: Business Community: Chamber should work on a website Dashboard and a Social Media Facebook Page to communicate what businesses can do to deal effectively and in a unified approach to homeless issues General Community: Cities and County should help with public communications to reduce handouts and direct donations to appropriate entities who can help the homeless i.e. Churches, Crisis House, ECTLC Homeless Community: The East County Leadership Team is working on an app for communicating to the homeless where to go for services, called ConnectEC. App is being field tested for acceptance by the homeless community and is planned for implementation in July, Information Gathering and Sharing: Need consistent accurate information about homelessness in our region to help determine results of programs, current Point In Time Count has approximately 1,000 homeless in the region. Information from a variety of sources, crime statistics, # of homeless, # served by different services etc. Determine tracking data needs and share for communication to appropriate leaders and community Making First & Follow-up Contact: Police & Sheriff Departments Hot Teams Church Groups trained intercept teams Crisis House in El Cajon for VSPDAT Surveys Coordination in conjunction with San Diego Regional Task Force Homeless in need of services and ready for help & Long Term Housing: First Step: Process homeless folks through Crisis House Coordinated Entry System then they can access appropriate services by filling out a VI-SPDAT Assessment for input into the homeless countywide data base and access housing vouchers Crisis House should also be sure to refer people to local East County services not in their system to unify efforts like ECTLC and Salvation Army or Churches Crisis House should be identified as the First Step for homeless in the East County Region to access Short and Longterm Housing (They are currently receiving housing voucher allocations for long term housing based upon intake questionnaires) Help Crisis House to hire a full-time Housing Navigator to unblock the backlog of case management related to Assessments that have been done Work with new East County Animal Shelter and allocate up to four spots for Dogs of Homeless to be kept for free for up to 90 days Support finding Public and Private underwriting for Re Housing families in our region Reunification Programs with Families and Relatives Salvation Army will be the lead for East County s Reunification Program as a part of their existing program 2

3 A. Follow up with Captain Sean Kelsey to determine ongoing needs and to ensure funding is in place to support homeless B. Determine if there are any additional needs, and reach out to underwriters to help support the program C. Get San Diego Regional Homeless Task Force to adjust VI-/SPDAT Assessment to include questions about Reunification D. Help with Private and Public Sector funding for this program Shelters, Temporary Housing, Day Centers This could be Salvation Army, Church Leaders or City Leaders to lead this effort May need to change current City and County conditional use permits to allow churches to act as temporary shelters for homeless and to serve their needs if that is direction we want to go Should research if any motels might be converted to temporary shelters like the ECTLC model Should also look at other alternatives to convert older buildings into temporary housing or day centers for homeless as another option Should review showers for homeless and how we can make them available as well as bathroom facilities, get a portable shower dedicated to the East County Region to share with service providers Mental Illness, Addiction Issues, how we can help to coordinate solutions: El Cajon Collaborative has a program that addresses services for mental illness, possibly have them take the lead ECTLC also deals directly with addiction issues may be part of the solution We have other non-profits in the region who help mentally ill, engage and ensure they are working with the ECHTF in providing needed services and coordinating with other providers for a complete solution Healthcare needs to be a part of this along with the County of San Diego Health & Human Services A. Work with Fire Department and Police to give them more tools to send these folks to appropriate Services, get County of San Diego to unblock the backup at County Mental Health Services, not enough case managers and not enough beds B. Identify the best solution providers in our region to help with solution C. Work with Churches for outreach efforts and send to appropriate service providers Illegal activities and Crime by Homeless: Police & Sheriff Departments Lead efforts to deal with this issue A. Consider a communication plan to report crime in our region to impacted communities and how they can potentially reduce risk B. Chamber can assist with communication to business community C. We need this to be the Stick part of the solution, if people are unwilling to seek services and they commit crime, then police and sheriff should be able to do the maximum they can to reduce criminal activity D. Community needs to be aware to report criminal behavior and be a partner in the solution E. Make sure we have HOT Teams in appropriate places and enough staffing to support F. Develop a regional anti-panhandling program to communicate to public to support the solution not the problem and develop marketing programs to expedite Homeless Youth and Foster Kids: School Districts can be lead on this issue and address homeless youth and connect them with services 3

4 Community could provide support where needed, but schools need to communicate needs to task force so it can be included in communications efforts Develop an action plan to address the many different issues related to homeless youth in our school districts including community colleges, High School District, K-9 School Districts Volunteer efforts, Coordination: Need a volunteer coordinator to help fill needs regarding homeless solution efforts Volunteers for a variety of organizations and needs A. Data Collection B. Law Enforcement support C. Contact teams D. Social Services E. Healthcare Volunteer or staff Facilitator utilizing tools like an East County Regional Homeless Task Force volunteer portal and under the supervision of a ECHTF Director Specific initial Program Area Efforts to support the Strategic Plan: 1. Build a marketing program to communicate effectively to target audiences i.e. Business, Community, Homeless 2. Determine what data that is needed to measure effectiveness, benchmark and measure results, produce a report that supports different homeless programs in alignment with strategic plan and measuring resulting effectiveness 3. Organize first and follow up contact teams, offer training for volunteers and coordinate efforts as a region 4. Solve the services confusion, identify the best way to make it simple for homeless who want services to access them in an effective way that leads out of homelessness. Coordinate with countywide services and homeless outreach efforts in other regions 5. Develop and offer a Reunification Program that is simple and works and then share that information with all communities so they can offer this as an option for homeless with Salvation Army as the Lead organization 6. Shelters, Temporary Housing, Day Centers; Develop a program to address the short-term & long-term needs of homeless that may not be available today or may be available on a limited basis 7. Mental Illness, Addiction Issues; develop a unified program to address this issue 8. Illegal Issues and Crime; address where we are and measure results of law enforcement over time in dealing with these issues, help law enforcement by providing community resources needed to support them 9. Homeless Youth and Foster Kids; develop programs to help these kids and young adults and get them on a successful path by providing needed resources, counseling and support 10. Develop a job description and plan for the East County Homeless Task Force Management Structure A. Develop a job description for a Director for the East County Homeless Task Force 4

5 B. Analyze benchmark data and trends and adjust & improve the regional strategic plan C. Determine oversight organizing for this position & funding needs (Budget) 201 South Magnolia Ave. El Cajon, CA Phone:

Selina Toy Lee Director of Collaborative Community Outcomes, San Mateo County Human Services Agency, California

Session 1.02: Understanding your System: Using Program and System-Level Performance Measures Selina Toy Lee Director of Collaborative Community Outcomes, San Mateo County Human Services Agency, California