 So I'm Jane Helmseter and I'm the facilitator for the meeting this evening and for the Chinden County homeless alliance and Why don't we go around this way and introduce yourself? Hi, I'm Marcell again. My work at CEDAW at the City of Burlington and I work mostly on that collaborative application for the COC and with that public support housing I'm Chanel, I work with Marcell at CEDAW, I'm the acting CECA for that. I'm Jenny Davis, I work for Chinden County City. I was with Yielding United Places for one two months. I mean, so do we work with Yielding County? John Fitzgerald, I'm cleaning up temporary shelters. Stephanie Smith, coordinated entry. Very do you have an agency of human services? Oh, oh, yes, you had an announcement. Yeah, and I have an announcement which is the Outreach and Membership Committee pulled together this list of acronyms. And I'd love to pass this out for two reasons. One is we're trying to make a meeting more inviting. And if you, so even if you know all the acronyms, if you could correct the things that we get off, we put sort of plain language definition best we could from what we could find online. So, and it's super welcome. And Kerry is the acronym Buster. So if somebody says something that she doesn't think everybody knows about, she will call them out on it. Thank you. Thanks. We're doing announcements. If you have something, yes. My name is Jason Burrell. I'm a social worker with the Department of Veterans Affairs and also the chair of the statewide Vermont Veterans Committee on homelessness. And two quick announcements. One is we have a permanent supportive housing program, PSH, which is referred to as the HUD-VASH program. There's a bunch of acronyms here. U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, VASH, Cancer Veterans Affairs, Supportive Housing. We have that program run statewide throughout Vermont and also the four counties in New Hampshire that we cover. As of last Friday, that program is currently on pause for any referrals or new admissions to the HUD-VASH program for a number of reasons. One is largely like many agencies are suffering from for staffing capacity issues with current vacancies and some very soon to be vacant positions in different regions in Vermont. And so we have had to make the decision to that referrals for the VASH program on pause for the time being. And also we have a number of veterans that are being supported in the program who are currently homeless and in search of housing and others who have unfortunately returned to homelessness after being housed that are being supported in that program throughout the state. So I'll update this group when referrals and admissions that program restarts. And then the other piece of that is around staffing announcements. We have two job postings currently posted. I did send them out to the listserv the other day. If you have any questions about either of those positions, one of them is based in White River Junction. The other one is based here in Burlington. And I'm happy to talk with anybody who is interested or might know somebody who's interested in either one of those two positions. Hi, I will belong with SSVF of the University of Vermont and the Veterans Committee on any veterans. So this is from the state of Vermont. Hi everyone, my name is T. Benara. I'm a Queens Sport Liaison. I'm the director of the service court at AIDS Law. Stephanie Bixby, the director of run-off systems for the Brownham Housing Authority. Hey, Taylor T. Bo, Champlain Housing Trust. Will Towns, Spectrum and Family Services and the co-chair of the Chinook County homeless lives. Thanks, Sarah. I'm Sarah Russell with the City of Burlington and the co-chair of the Chinook County homeless lives. Thank you. And you have one comment. Yeah, so we have a second for any folks who have lived experience in the community. And I, there we are, there's Travis Prudin waiting at the corner. If anyone just wants to go through the chavis then we'll be able to organize the stipend. And we're going to go around the back and forth. Sure, you are indeed. Yeah, I'll start. Myles McGirman, I'm here from Seneca, Welch's Office. I'm from the state rep from the south end of Burlington. Noah Harman, representative from South Burlington, most of the human services. State rep Kate Logan from Burlington, overland and downtown. And also the director for the Vermont Coalition, runaway and homeless human programs. And in every South Burlington City Council, I'd like to hear from you. I'd like to know Bill, interested in citizens. Sure, not this time. I'd like to see the citizens on the edge of the door. Barbara Rods, a top girl who came up with him. I was more of an advocate. Hi, I'm Brigidus, and I live in the South Burlington City. Hi, I'm Brigidus. I'm from the Santa Sanders office. I'm from the Champlain Valley Office of Economic Opportunity. Yes, if you're an individual with limited experience and you would like $25 piece of stipend, please come and see me at the end of the meeting. The only announcement I have on the act of shooting community action is that July 3rd is the first day we will begin distributing farmers market coupons. It's a very popular program, and we will be doing specific actions for the act of community shelter as well. Brigidus, I'm with a new place. Karen Kanger, Burlington resident. Jasmine Hurley, housing minister, director for the City of Buenos Aires. Courtney Ferrell, from London. Christy, domestic violence survivor, homelessness survivor, and victim of ongoing crime. Hi, I'm Derek Sousa, case manager from Agile. I'm Karen Kattenstine, state rep, District 14, Burlington. Hi, I'm Angela Arseneau, a state rep from Williston. I'm also Angela. I'm Angela Izzo. I didn't know there was this many organizations that are trying to work on homes, probably I am homeless and I've been homeless since 2020. I haven't been helped by some of your agencies, but I've actually been failed by more of your agencies than I've been helped. I'm Suri Roth and I'm a state rep from Colchester. Thank you. Thank you for entertaining us with your, with who's here. Yes. If there's anyone that doesn't want to be a part of the film, I'm going to do this, either tell me or say that last year. Okay, so if anyone does not want to be seen on film, you can either let Charlie know or move your seat to the end over there. He won't be filming in that area. Yes. I have a city manager and city councillors wishing to watch live. How might they do that? So, site. That's on YouTube, on the CCTV YouTube channel. Keep looking. Thank you. Okay, this is not, okay, the tear duct is not working because this room is not only as Wi-Fi internet and I can't get it here. So it's not working. So I can't plug into the wall, which is my path. Because it's not working. You have to order ahead of time. So if you didn't order it anytime, I can't get the Wi-Fi to work. This is, so I'm recording it. You're recording it, so people will be able to see it afterwards. Please send our apologies. Lesson learned for the next time we have a meeting in this room. Thank you again for being here. And I'm assuming that many of you are here because you care about this and it certainly had a lot of news almost every day. There's something about what's going on with homelessness in the state of Vermont. I'm just really happy to see so many people here to join, joining what we're doing. If you would like to be on the email list and have information regularly, please do sign in. I know that everybody did, but if you are interested, please do. And I hope we'll be addressing many of your issues. We're having a regular meeting and then we will have a time at the end for people to raise issues. But I just want to let you know there will be voting happening. There will be three items that we have to vote on tonight. And members who are voting members have those little cards and they will be raising those cards to those. Any questions before we move on? Yeah, hi. I noticed in the meeting invitation that there is a link for folks who want to put this thing. Yeah, it's not working. And I think Charlie explained it. Well, I heard that, but I thought that might be something. Yeah, thank you. Well, we're going to move right along to the Notice of Funding Opportunity. And I think that's yours, Marcela. Let me just send an email out to everybody. Would you like me to shift? Why don't we go to the Strategic Leader? Sure. It's a very quick vote. We hope. So every year, a hard release is a funding opportunity. And every year we establish, thank you. We establish a committee, a subcommittee of the CCHA for reviewing a no-phone and reviewing the applications for funding or applying for within the no-phone. I'm not a voting member of it because we've received some of the funding, but I kind of staffed the committee. So we sent out an notice to see who would like to join our Fabulous Banking Committee. And now I have some sturdy volunteers. New ones. Yes, and thank everyone. So we're basically with this motion just voting to accept that membership this year. And those are really the only updates in this policy, is just the membership and the dates. If when a hard release is the no-phone, we need to amend our prioritizations. Then we'll come back to you with that, but we just want kind of you to get this piece out of the way so we can move forward. So the motion, the vote that we're asking folks to vote on tonight is the CCHA Ranking Committee plus approval from the CCHA Steering Committee to accept the amendments to the Banking Policy and Procedures. The release of the FY23 no-phone may require changes to the hard and CCHA policy priorities and any changes will be returned to the Steering Committee for approval. If I could get a second. Are you making the motion? Sarah made the motion. Is there a second? Thank you. Did you get that? Yes. Thank you. Is there any further discussion? And this was sent out so folks probably have read through it thoroughly. It's all good? Excellent. I'd love to have folks who are all in favor raise their cards. He looks like 18. Any opposed? Abstentions. Thanks. I'm always happy to answer questions if anyone has any questions about the HUD. There's just a funding opportunity that comes out here. Thank you. Thanks. And we have the strategic planning committee. Nicole and Sarah. Do you want me to go? The strategic planning committee has been plugging along with development of our five-year strategic plan. And the most recent, we have been a little bit stalled because of all that has been happening. We did get a no-cost extension from Diana. our consultant that we've been working with to continue this work into June. Most recently we have finished just about our outreach to we held focus groups. A lot of you attended those and we also have done some outreach to people with lived experience and are working on compiling those notes. We actually had really kind of amazing turnaround, we did a lot of outreach to people with lived experience at meals around and I would say probably got feedback from nearly 50 people with lived experience, which I think is pretty impressive. So we're working on compiling those notes to inform our priorities and then we'll be hopefully presenting those priorities within our new strategic plan at our meeting next month. Anything to add? That's perfect. Perfect. Good to hear. Just people have questions. Do you think that this will be ready to present? What do you guys think? We're hoping to present a draft at the steering committee in July. July, okay. So we're in the home stretch and needed a little bit of extra time to do the actual outreach component and wanted to make sure we did a really robust effort to connect with the people with lived experience. Thank you. I know there's been a lot of work done on that. And for people who also don't know regularly, we meet on Thursday mornings, the first Thursday of the month at City Hall in Burlington from 8.30 to 10.30. 9 to 11. 9 to 11. 9 to 11. 9 to 11. 9 to 11. 9 to 11. 9 to 11. 9 to 11. 9 to 11. 9 to 11. 9 to 11. 9 to 11. Thank you. Thank you. Emergency Motel Update. I think this is one that many people are interested in hearing and I understand the commissioner might have come tonight but something came up. So we have Terry Duquette Hoffman, who is the field director for the agency in Chittenden County and represents the state. And thank you for sharing an update. Thanks for having me. So I'm just a few disclaimers as we start. Sorry, it's a little hard to see there, huh? I work for the Agency of Human Services, the Department of Children and Families is one of our six departments. So I'm sure folks will have questions. I'll do my best to answer them. I won't know all of the answers for specific Department of Children and Families policy, but I'll find them and get back to you. And I also wanna just mention because this is a public meeting and a community meeting, I started a little bit more basic, so I'm not meaning to be redundant with folks who've been in 85 meetings with me and I've heard this a lot of times. So just as a foundation here that Emergency and General Assistance Program is run through the Department of Children and Families and it's existed in Vermont for several decades. One part of this program is the hotel program. This program during the pandemic grew from a program that served a couple hundred people to a program that served a few thousand people. The goal during the pandemic was really to ensure that people were housed and that people were housed independently. So really there was a reduction of congregate shelter environments. The program is a program of last resort and it's just a shelter first program. So folks are only eligible for this program typically if the shelters are full or if there's some reason why the shelter environment would not work for them. I know many of you know this very well. Sure. And then I also just wanna say just personally and I think I can extend this for our whole agency. The ending of this program has huge impacts on communities because one of the things we saw with this expanded pandemic program is that homelessness is a much bigger problem in our state than we realized. So this program really shed a light on that. Going forward, the program during the pandemic was mostly funded through federal funds that have ended now. The legislature has voted to return to the pre-pandemic levels of funding which means that the program is radically restricted. I also really impact it. I understand that this has a huge impact on children and families and especially the Department of Children and Families is very aware of the impact it has had on that. So I'm gonna go to the next slide. I wanna first point out there's this website which I'm sorry, I shouldn't be the font a little bigger now, I'm realizing. This website is a website that the Department of Children and Families has pulled together with and do you know if you wanna click on it? I don't know if that's possible but with resort updated data, weekly updated data policies are changing by the minute right now. And so updated policies. And then also this has just general updates about the program and different work that's being done to address homelessness by the agency. A couple of things that I'll highlight and this for those who've heard me a million times some of these are kind of new which is that there is a relatively new to me policy that I've just learned about that on July 1st any households who have housing vouchers will actually be given 120 days in the motel to find housing. So not the 28 or 84, but 120. The difference in days of eligibility can be found on here. If you scroll down Chanel a little bit this is a question that I've got sorry a little bit more. This is a question that I've gotten a number of times how do I know if the person I'm a little bit more? Sorry, a little bit more. There we go. How do I know if the person a little bit more? Sorry, how do I know if the person I'm working with is eligible for 28 days a day or an 84 days a day? And this highlights the category of eligibility that folks who fall into to give those two stays. So just wanted to mention that to folks if you're not sure what category the person you're working with is in economic services or I often can help you figure out what category they're currently in. One thing to say about categories is for the last two years people have been entered in the category that's kind of easiest to document, right? So it's hard to document that the person has been evicted under a catastrophic category because it involves court people work often. So a person might be documented under another category but eligible for that category. So that is one thing that economic services is working to do is to update that. But if you're working with someone and you feel like that they're not documented in the right category or if you are someone who feel like that's not my category, please do reach out to economic services. And if you can't connect with economic services do feel free to reach out to me. Let's see, what else do I wanna make sure to say? And then another big change that I think most folks are aware of but I wanna just make sure is that on July 1st folks will be asked to contribute 30% of their income towards housing again, towards the hotel stay again. They're at the end of this PowerPoint and I think we're gonna send this out Chanel, is that true? Okay, there's a link to the GA rules because there's basically a chart that says like if you're a family of this size anything under this amount won't be considered in that payment towards your housing and that changes depending on the household size. But that's just a little information about that. Sorry, I try not to go too long here. And then a little bit of data because I think that's what we wanted here. So approximately 140 households had their stays through economic services no longer paid for on June 1st. That was folks who were in hotels under the adverse weather category. That some folks are still in the hotel, some folks have left. It seems so that that has happened. Of the folks remaining in hotels in Chinden County, you can see here as of six, five, I believe this data is from there's 213 households. That represents 68 families with a total of 121 children. And then as you can see on July 1st of those 213 households, 94 will receive 28 days of hotels staying paid for through economic services and 114 will receive 84 days of housing paid for through economic services. So, you know, a side note on that, any housing that someone pays for themselves in that period doesn't count towards those 28 or 84 days. Just so that people know that. And, okay, next slide. So just I wanna highlight a few efforts that have happened in the last few months to half year really, more than that now, to prepare for this transition. But as many of you have heard me talk about the teams of folks that were a collaboration between folks at the Agency of Human Services and local housing case managers. They began work going out to hotels, working with folks who were in hotels. Starting, the project started November 1st. I think people started to get to the hotels through December and January. And then I wanna just say that effort, that team-based care effort is gonna start to ramp down on July 1. But one of the things that we really learned as an agency from that effort is how important that work was. And both the team-based work and the going to where people were. So that'll be a key priority in the agency's work going forward. And I just wanna send a huge shout out to the housing case managers who joined from a number of community agencies. And I'm worried if I missed you off, I will forget someone, but you know who you are and I do too. And I probably should do it more publicly, sorry. And then, you can go to the next slide. More recently, bringing us to right now, there was a letter of interest memo that went out just a few weeks ago, despite the incredibly short timeline and turnaround. We received over 50 letters of interest, just so you know that isn't, if you have a project and you're interested in putting forward a letter of interest, that June 1st date is a soft date, so please still do get it in. So what we're doing with those letters of interest now, I don't know how clear this was to everyone. So the letters of interest were not just to the agency of human services, but rather to state government. So there is a panel of folks that work across agencies of state government that are looking at the letters. They started looking at them actually this week. So our communities, I do know that Chittenden County is top of the list to look at our letters of interest. So we should hear from folks pretty soon on those letters of interest. Yeah, that's what I was, that's that. You're joking about that? Yes, yep, absolutely. And then the other piece that if you wanna, Chanel, if you wanna just go to the next thing. The other piece that we've done is as an agency is put out, this is as an agency, we put out a request for proposal for agencies to support staffing of congregate, semi-concugate, and existing shelters. Those responses are due June 11th. One of the things we realized is that A, if we're gonna set up congregate shelters, there is not bandwidth like staffing. We already talked about staffing shortages in this meeting. And we, our existing shelters need to have as much support as they can. And that might look like us helping with staffing there. So that RFP is for both existing shelters, currently existing shelters, and any new shelter development that happened either ongoing or short-term. Next slide. And I have now, I think gone over my 10 minutes, I apologize, but please reach out with any questions. I put the DCF communications list email on there because they'll probably be able to give you really detailed communications. You can always reach out to me as well. And this, that is the link to the full general assistance rules with that chart that I highlighted. Thank you. People have questions. I'm going from there. I think we're going to, Jason. Going back to the piece of information because it was new to you around those with housing vouchers. So they still have to meet the, all the other criteria as of seven one, or is it just if they have a voucher, then they have that criteria. First question. Let me ask that. Okay. And then the other part of that is the 120 days that they have in the hotel does, never mind I answer myself. Okay. Just one question. Thank you. I'm going back to you. Sorry about that. Zero? This is really complex. And I'm wondering how this is being communicated to people in motels. Like are they receiving? Cause I know we had heard that some motels, the motel manager actually received the letter and then like sometimes it got passed on to guests at the motel. Like are letters going directly to people in motels? Is it up to case managers to have to decipher this and then share with folks? Like how are people to know this, especially around this voucher piece, which I feel like is new. And I appreciate your question, Jason. I'm just wondering how do people navigate this? That's a great question. And it's an ongoing challenge to be honest. One thing that I've heard from the department of children and families is that we do not consistently have updated addresses. So though there have been a lot of efforts to mail things out that often ends up in much later returned mail. So there are a few different efforts that I think we've been using. One is the passing things out to hotel managers as I think many of us have experienced. Some hotel managers are able to be very supportive of the folks who were there and that can be variable depending on where you're at. We are really working to get information out to housing case managers. It's constantly changing. So our housing case managers are like, I just can't speak highly enough of them. Y'all actually have a lot of you in the room. So that is one of the strategies we're using. Also trying to push the information out and things like the website, things like that. Economic services benefits workers are still going to hotels on a rotating daily basis and trying to meet with everyone they can to check what category are you under? What does that mean? That's two economic services workers who just kind of rotate hotel to hotel every day. Those are the primary strategies that I'm aware of. I'm sure there are others that I'm missing. I'm wondering if there's a possibility for economic services to provide like TA session to housing case managers so that they can ask all of the questions and feel like they have the knowledge to be able to share with folks. I just feel like there's a lot of things changing and it's definitely super hard to keep up. So that's a suggestion I have. Another question that I had as we were listening to your presentation is around people with evictions. Like, is that within a certain timeframe? If somebody entered the motel program in 2020 due to an eviction, does that still qualify them for the 84 days now? Or does the eviction need to be within a particular period of time? Like, is it that criteria that qualified them to enter the program initially? Does that still stand, I guess is what I'm saying. I'll have to find, I'll have to ask that. I think it does, but I want to make sure about that. The other thing I want to mention, this may not meet folks' needs, but Monday morning there are open office hours that DCF has and everyone here is welcome to come to those. So that would be a good venue to ask those questions directly of their policy makers. And is this a statewide meeting? It is a statewide meeting, yep. The last question I have that I don't know if you can answer this or not, but I feel like I just need to voice it is that we know that roughly 70 families, households, excuse me, plus maybe give or take were placed out of county. And we still have no idea who those families are and don't know what to expect on July 1st or 28th or 120 days after that or whatever that might look like. Also for those families that are in Motel, out of county with vouchers, how will they conduct housing search in Chittenden County if that's where they want to come back to? Like I think that out of county piece is information that we like desperately need and I don't know how to get our hands on that. Well, I mean, this is a very DIY approach, but one thing I'm aware of is the balance of state does track people in like where people want to go in their coordinated entries. So we could ask all of the other balances of state and come up with that list. I mean, all of the other coordinated entries in the balance of state and come up with that list. So economic services did not, they did not track. So when somebody from Chittenden County had to be relocated to another county, there's no record of that. No, there is no record. Okay. You got it all? Yeah. Sure. So now late for that meeting on Monday morning we'll put it in the notes so that people can just come and see us. I mean, we have a lot to be able to answer this or not, but I just wanted to put it up there. They know this was just a letter of interest, but you can leave this over 50 potential responses to it. And one of the things that I didn't see in the letter of interest and I don't want to make this on the website, but nowhere in it does it talk about a dollar cap and how much money is there to spend if we're talking about the entire state of Vermont. How much money is there to really report the issue? That is a great question. So it's kind of a two-part answer. There is maybe a three-part answer. In the vetoed budget, there was a $12,000 earmark that was going to $12 million. $12 million. That's not your watch. $12,000 would not go very far. $12 million earmark that was for the transition in this program. That being said, A, that was vetoed, but we do expect there to still be some sort of earmark. That being said, many of these projects that came forward can be funded in other places, like with existing funds or outside of the Agency of Human Services. So it's a little bit, it's hard to come up with an actual figure of the available resources because if some of the projects kind of fall outside of that, we might be able to access other funds. Does that make sense? It's a little loose. It's loose, exactly. And the proposals are loose in the amount that they're allowed to report. Yes, yeah. And they didn't have to, and many of them weren't. Some of them were very detailed and very in the weeds. And some of them were very big pictures. So the goal of the LOI was to see, OK, this community has this idea. Let's work with this community to make this idea happen. Do you ever like the slayers when they jump in on that? They're focused on you. More than $12 million. More than $12 million. OK, OK, OK. OK, great. You might as well, you're here, right? Are there other questions? Yeah, Jason, who do you remember? Do you know anything or can you comment at all about the like up to $3,300 deposit that some people are supposed to get and how like as a direct service provider, I've only learned about this from a few media articles. I didn't know it was a thing. I've talked to some of my clients about it. And they've talked to the hotels who've just said, no, you don't get it. And that was the end of it. But it doesn't feel right because I think they probably should get it. So I don't know if you know. How do we get information about that? Of who and how and what the process is? Yeah, OK, so I have a few, a short answer, which is, I think it's worth reaching out to economic services if you think the person you're working with is eligible for that and they didn't get it. So it was a kind of tricky thing. It was for people who were in the transitional housing program only for at least four months. And it had to be really four months in one hotel. So if they moved in those four months and weren't in the next hotel for four months, they aren't eligible. But if that was the case, then the hotel needed to either return the money. Sorry, if that wasn't the case, the hotel needed to return the deposit money to economic services. So economic services would have documentation of that. If that was the case and they didn't get their deposit money back by the end of April, that's when they were supposed to get their money back. I know that many people didn't get it back till last week, but they were legally supposed to get it back at the end of April. Then they should have gotten a letter indicating the damages that they received. And so the Economic Services Office can help folks determine all of that. And local office, they should get into the local office, not state office. You can also email me. I mean, I'm getting a lot of emails. OK, yeah. All right, great. Thank you. Copy her. I'll write to her. I'm going to put it down here. Any other questions? You know this is a. Yes, hi. This is awesome. I'm just wondering, do you have a plan A and plan B for what if the budget passes or if the budget doesn't pass? I really, I'll have to get back to you on that one. I am not. I don't know. I'm sorry. OK, I'll be on the spot here. Carrie saw the local. OK, director. So OK. She's not the one down there making these rules. She's just here. Yeah, I just knew that they were. Yeah, no, it's a really good question. Yeah, yeah, that that you probably should send it up. Yeah, yes. Thank you so much. I can feel bad. I see when I can't see. Hi. You mentioned representative Arson, and you mentioned that team-based care will ramp down on 7-1. And I just don't know what that means. Can we flush that out a little bit? Sure. Yeah. The hope is that we can transition to local housing case managers as much as possible. And we are actively working on that. But what happened with the team-based care is that benefits worker, several benefits workers at economic services, several workers from higher ability and several VCCI nurses left their jobs and were back filled either with temp staff or with no one to go into the motels. They have to go back to their jobs. So that work in the hotels can't continue in the way that it is now. So part of what their effort has been in the last month and a half at least is making sure that everybody's in coordinated entry. So they have a chance to have a housing case manager, which just, like many of the folks in the room who know how challenging that is, people come in and out all the time, and it's hard to connect folks. But that's what it's going to look like, like trying to connect folks as much as possible and pass people on. There's lots of triaging, looking at more vulnerable folks and really making sure that we can build a team around them and things like that. Does that answer your question? Yes, I think so. And so was that put together because there was COVID money to do this? There was no money. I don't think. And the data, they must have some significant data from the work that they've done as teaming around some of those clients. I do think so. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. It's a problem from a foreign time. I'm wondering, does this mean that all the organizations around the table will be absorbing that responsibility? Yes. Yes. Yes. And in reality, throughout this, they have had that responsibility. And it is an under-resourced system. Yes. So Megan Emery, South Burlington City Councilor, I've become aware that there's been a lot of assistance funneling to Burlington. I'm curious to know if there is needed assistance in other communities, or if Burlington could truly cover the needs of the people who are seeking housing assistance. The LOI was available to any municipality in the city to submit a proposal to access funding support. Those that have responded, are they going to meet the need? We have not received any response. So I work for the city of Burlington. You haven't received a response on our LOI at this time. But this is good. So I don't know. This is the Chittenden County homeless allowance. It covers all of Chittenden County. So the homeless individuals in other communities would be part of this as well. Right. And I'm not as close to others as you are. But I know that the mayor put out a call for other communities within Chittenden County to step up their efforts. And so I just wanted to know more about that need. We here in South Burlington could participate, which I am seeking avenues to do so. Yes, absolutely. What is the level of need that is there? So are there enough support, for instance? Are there case managers who could be on site? That kind of question. Absolutely. I think that we could maybe, I think this is an important conversation to have. And I really want to have it. And I think that for context, we do have some time at the end of the meeting for forum. But it would be good for you to understand the LOIs that have been submitted. So now we have the data. And you can understand how we're responding. And then we can certainly tell. I think it's an ideal time to talk about gaps and how we can pull together. We'll have it screwed up earlier than you can. But your friends will tell you. And much of the time you've been working on this. Yeah, so just as a follow-up on case managers' questions, because I happen to have been in the case managers meeting this morning, could you just really quickly say how many case managers I see our colleagues from COTS over there and where a lot of the hotel case managers are based from? Like, how many case managers do we have across the county, working in all of the hotels across the county? I know that there's a wait time of six to seven weeks to get case managers. So I'm just wondering, kind of, what the gap is as well. Yeah, I think Stephanie has an answer. Can I just quickly say it is not too late? South Burlington, if you want to put it in LOI, it is not too late. It's not too late. Sorry. I don't have the count off the top of my head, because there are particular case managers with different roles. And there are people who are, their private case managers is not really housing, but they do operate in that. So I will say out of COTS right now, I believe there are three motel outreach case managers and the supervisor covering the motels. There are three case managers out of Safe Harbor. There are four out of CVOEO. And I believe three out of steps as well. Four, yeah. So there are a couple others in other places. And they're more at covering the shelters at COTS as well. But it's not enough. And to be honest, we hold the list of people looking for case management. And it's really unfortunate to be not able to connect people seeking services. And we got 20 referrals in the last two days for case management. And only a couple of them were not eligible for it. So there's a lot of people in a very high need right now. So any additional availability and support and positions would be more than welcome by the community and by the case managers? How do you get about six weeks? I don't know what it is, but it will be going. We did really well in getting it down below a month. And then I think now it's going back up again. So, yeah. Travis, I'm sorry. Eric, did you want to jump in for Alex? I'm sorry. Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. And I'm the acronym bluster. The only thing I'm going to say in all the case managers, I was from the case managers in the service room and you know this, is that while there is a backlog of folks looking for assistance with housing navigation, the reality is that once you start working with someone, it does not result in housing quickly most of the time. Simply because the case managers and the housing navigators have worked to get someone ready to rent. We can make certain that they have all the documentation that they need, that they've filled out all the applications for possible subsidized housing opportunities. And there will be this weight, certainly because there is not enough affordable housing to meet the needs of the folks experiencing hopelessness for housing instability. I'm aware of the time on this, but this is really important. No, no, it's not European. This is why people came tonight. So thank you for the conversation. And I would ask if there's any other questions before we move on that are burning. And if not, we can come back at the end of the meeting. Yes. Do we have an approximate number of the need for safe spaces or beds that we don't have now? Just again. In terms of who doesn't have a, like who's going to need a bed soon because of the end of the hotels? Is that what you're asking? Or who needs one like tonight? Okay, so. You're going to be reviewing the pit. That's the next item. Yeah, so we can approximate that based off the beds we have versus who we currently have is experiencing, the households we have experiencing homelessness. So we can approximate it, but obviously that doesn't mean we have everyone or that there's ebbs and flows all the time, so we can definitely get an approximate number of who needs a bed. So let's, shall we shift? And talk about the point in time pit is the point in time count. Sorry, we're putting them down just to make clarification. So that number isn't available like on a website or if it is going to become available like how do we get that information? Which number are you asking? Just to review the, no as question. So are you asking for the number of people who are unsheltered currently and then the number we anticipate to be unsheltered? Yeah, just trying to find the number. Okay. So according to the reports from the outreach workers, we've been meeting with them every other week or so and checking in with them in Chittenden County, they're seeing around 80 people who are outside unsheltered. There is no shelter capacity. So there's a lack of at this point, at least 80 shelter beds. We also know that people may have gotten that $3,000 security deposit and they may be paying somebody to sleep on their couch or therefore or paying, self-paying at a motel for a little bit since the end of June 1st. So I think that as time goes on and people no longer have access to that, we're gonna see even more people outside who are unsheltered. As far as the data on the 21st, what Carrie shared some of that up here on the screen, I know that that's changing all the time but according to the data that we have, there was about 318 people that would exit the motel program on the 28th. Now with this extension for the voucher, for people who have vouchers, I don't know how many people have vouchers so I can't say that but if we see 300 people exit motel on the 28th, that's gonna be the capacity that we have to fill in addition to the folks who are outside. So hundreds of people. And there are families with children. Yeah, exactly. Yes. All right. So, Steph, are you, I believe, do you have my PowerPoint? I did send it to you but I can send to you again. Let's start with the point of time. Yes, that's when you get that. So we have many sources of data around folks experiencing homelessness. The information that Stephanie has for us is for that coordinated empty system which is our kind of live ongoing system that's working folks directly and recording where they are and why they're down. What I'm gonna talk to you very quickly is something called the point in time count which is a highly required count that's conducted once a year across the country. And we just published the statewide report on from that point of our previous chending county. I'm trying really hard not to use any act. You're doing so well. We've just had a homeless allowance meetings. We've reported on our local like that Chetland County quick count but this is the statewide report. We thought it was a useful source of data for our community to see at this meeting as well. So you can find it, you can find all of these all of this information on the CCHA website. But this is the 10 year count of people experiencing homelessness across the state. Blue line is across the state, orange line is the balance of state which is everywhere but Chitending County and grey line is the Chitending County line. So you can see what happens in this imperfect count which is conducted once a year and what has happened across the last 10 years and where we are today as a result of the pandemic. There is a small amount of analysis in the reporting of why we think we are where we are which I hope will be helpful. So please feel free to take a look at that report and come back to us with any questions. So could you just scroll through? There were a couple of things that particularly stood out. Not the next slide, thank you. So this is our sheltered and un-sheltered count. As I said, this is an imperfect count that's conducted but it's the best we have. Our sheltered numbers are more perfect than they have ever been because we had good reporting because of the number of folks who were standing at staying in the hotels and the hotels. Our un-sheltered count in 2021 there was no un-sheltered count because of the pandemic and we've been kind of building back up and we're seeing an increasing number of people in the count of folks who are experiencing homelessness un-sheltered. And then the next slide is the families. So this is by household type and this was one of the other major points that come out of this year's big count. Was that increased info families experiencing homelessness and the chitinning county numbers for that were with a total household count of 553 households. There were 82 households of the children experiencing homelessness. And that's a, you can see we've had significant increase in those numbers. Is there anything else to add to that already? Questions if I do? Yes. I found out really recently about this pit count and what surprised me and you can tell me if you know your graphs fix this somehow. But the pit count is done once a year and it's done in January, correct? Yes. So if it's done in January, most people that are unhoused are not outside because maybe they have the adverse weather. So it helps us to get a lot more out here at town because we know what they are. But I'm saying at this that then it looks like we don't have many, many that are homeless. And people are using that typically once a year saying, oh look, Vermont, they don't have a, so this is the federal requirement to do this count on this particular day. We know that we need better information about what's happening across the year. So the Chattanooga County Homeless Alliance, we have an outreach committee. We bring together outreach workers at the moment twice a month. So that we're kind of doing an informal count at that point. It's not, again, not a perfect count but by bringing the outreach workers together and talking with the folks who are working, the folks who are unsheltered and the people who are at the community resource center or the COTS resource center where you have a better idea than that, yeah. And you're right, Angela. Yes, we agree with you. Yes, it is also that anyone who is in motels under adverse weather condition or under any GA general assistance eligibility, they will be counted during the point in time count because that counts as high defined homelessness but you are correct that naturally speaking, there may be people who are doubled up because of the weather perhaps not counted by this process. That's always been a bit of a flaw in the point of time as Marcella said, it's not a perfect system but it gives us a one night snapshot, yeah. And we really do rely much more on our coordinated entry as she says, passing over to Stephanie because that's our kind of live months to months data and information. But I think it's important for everybody to remember that doubled up by federal definition is not homeless and that's a hot topic to debate but if somebody is crashing on somebody's couch, HUD does not define that as homeless, so we can't count that. And for those of you who are not familiar with HUD, this is the thunder for our homeless coalitions, we have two, we've talked about the changing county, homeless coalition and the balance of state. We have two in this state, that's where our grant funds come in. They have incredible requirements that Marcella and her team pull together that we send in for our NOFA request for proposals for the upcoming year. And the pit count is one of these things that's a requirement for us in order to get funding through. And if anybody's worked with federal grants, you know that as bad as the state ones are, it's much worse. Much worse. So the coordinated entry, though, if you wanna shift to that, are you able to? Very close. Yeah, it was. I believe, are there any other questions before we shift to coordinated entry? Cause this is really how we do contract. Everyone is, everyone we can get into the coordinated entry system in order to find out about what their needs are and hear the work with their case managers to get what they need specifically. No? Other questions? So the other thing I could do if we're not quite ready for that yet, it's just to flag one piece of information that's also on the Gender, County, Homeless Alliance website is some resource documents that we'll put together in that by the Homeless Alliance for folks who are working in outreach or anyone who's working directly with, who may be looking for resources for folks who are experiencing homelessness. So we just had a list of bathrooms, toilets, food access, food access, and where folks could get loads of hands and counseling supplies as well. So that's, you'll find the links to those on the front of the CCHI website. All right, so I have here the, a chart showing the month to month count of households enrolled in coordinated entry. Currently we have 620 households enrolled in coordinated entry system. Over the last year, typically we have gone from, in July of last year we had 599 all the way to 726 in October. And right now it's been pretty steady since last November around 620 households that are enrolled. So I wanted to just highlight a number of families because that is a population that is particularly vulnerable. We have currently 69 families as of the end of April enrolled in coordinated entry. This is more of a larger number than we had previously. July of last year there were 46 all the way up to 74 in November and December. And currently we are as of April at 69 households. And families are defined as a household with a minor child, so a child under 18 years old. Okay, and then I wanted to show the number of households we had moving into permanent housing over the last year. Last year, as you can see, there was very little movement to a really difficult degree moving households into any kind of permanent housing this year. It's gotten a bit better, but it's not anywhere near where we would like it to be. So far this year we're moving in around 20 to 25 households every month into permanent housing that's both through coordinated entry and through other means through their case managers. In December, the 52 households moving in that was largely Zephyr Place, which we did in collaboration with CHT, Champlain Housing Trust. People have any questions? That's the slide, so questions? Do you have a sense of like houses that are coming online like in the next six months? Yes, we have, Sarah has a list. Yes, so we track the development of homeless dedicated units. And in Chittenden County by the end of 2023, we'll see 112 new homeless dedicated units come online. And we're doing robust outreach efforts to landlord, say, Burlington Housing Authority is working on that. And we're also hoping to bring more homeless dedicated units online through the VHIP program, Vermont Home Improvement Program. Although to date that's only, I think that's yielded five units in Chittenden County with another, I think maybe couple planned so far ahead. So we do keep track of that. Thank you. All right. Thank you. We are behind it now. It's moving into the letter of interest I think is going to be in my door. This might be. Yeah, I do. So the LOI or letter of interest that Carrie spoke about, we are going to hear presentations from community providers. And I listed, I made the agenda, I listed the ones on here that I knew about. So if one of your agencies is submitting an LOI and it doesn't appear here, I apologize. And we'll make sure that you have time to present what you have submitted. So we, knowing that the June 1st, originally the June 1st deadline was a hard deadline. And now we've learned that it's rolling, which is great for folks to get their letters in. But knowing that it was a hard deadline, we wanted to submit a letter of interest, really a proposal to the state to, on behalf of the Chittenden County Homeless Alliance. We pulled together a group of stakeholders and talked through kind of this idea of what happened. People certainly provided a wealth of input. There was suggestion to include a staff position and along with this proposal. And it was reviewed widely by the stakeholder group that represented social service or case management providers, housing providers and our designated mental health agency among others. The proposal that we came up with that was submitted pending final approval at our meeting tonight, essentially recommends that the vulnerable populations in motels, including families with minor children, people receiving hospice or home health services and seniors who are 65 and older, extend motel stay until we can house them in a way that is extremely coordinated and rapid. It was a great segue, your question around affordable units. And I think what we need to begin doing that hasn't been done is align the state's emergency response services with the ability of local communities to house and to respond. I think that what we've experienced, I don't want to speak for nonprofits, but I think what we've experienced is that the state makes decisions about when a program is going to end or when it's going to start or who's involved in that program. And it doesn't take into account the work that we do. So every single time that there's a change to this program, the case managers at all of these agencies have to rapidly learn something new and shift. And so when we talk about the amount of time that it takes house somebody with those constantly changing regulations, it is impossible to catch up, let alone, like redirect all of your work and your caseload. And I think that, I guess I want to say, well, we have representatives in the room. I want to say that I think that the work that case managers do is heroic in all of this. There are not direct service for writers necessarily here in the room, but I feel like we need to, one of them right there, like we need to acknowledge that that work is incredible. And so with this proposal, what we are advocating for is that these vulnerable households that would not survive on the streets would not do well in a congregate emergency shelter setting of which we do not have that in Chittenden County right now to extend their stay and then house them in a way that's very strategic and rapid. With those 112 units coming online, we know we can make a really huge dent by prioritizing populations that are in motels and move them out of motels. And I think that that is the permanent solution that we're advocating for instead of emergency response constantly if these households, first of all, if they, I can't imagine somebody receiving ongoing home health services from a tent. I can't imagine parents trying to raise children and get them to school and bathe them in a locker room and on costs in a gym. And that's just unacceptable. And I think that's the spirit of this is that we cannot support unsheltered homelessness for these vulnerable subpopulations. So we're advocating to extend that stay until we can house them. We know that we can do it based on the housing data that we have. We know we can house 25 households roughly, 25 households roughly a month. We know that the units are gonna be there because we have new homeless dedicated units coming online in addition to other affordable housing units as they become available. And it's an investment that around 1.7 to $2 million over a five to eight month period, knowing that we've already spent $190 million on this project. Like let's see it through and get to a place where we can transition households to permanent stable housing. I want to, so that is the proposal. I feel very strongly about this. I hope you all do to do as well. So we are also requesting within this proposal, we have a loose budget together for one FTE position to coordinate this whole process. And so what we envision is having a spreadsheet which Stephanie and Kerry have already been working on that can be filtered instantly. This household needs a subsidy. BHA has the subsidy, but the person needs a unit. Oh, this housing provider has a unit. There we go. And so I think we're seeing this work really pretty rapidly and well coordinated. And I think it's a great opportunity for us to work with in partnership with AHS, I think. So are there questions about their proposal? Or should we, I want to say that I did want to amend our vote. It became, I became aware that the motel fuel program that is operated here locally in Chittenden County, it would needs to be included that those households need to be included in this because they would also lose housing. So I talked to Nicole today. There's roughly about eight families or so in that program that will lose shelter in 90 days from their point of entry. So I'd like to amend this prioritization policy to include all of that whole pool of families as well. So, what questions do we have? Yes. I just want to quickly say FTE stands for full-time equivalent. Thank you, Carrie. Yeah. Yeah. Have we identified the number of households that fit? And I'm just curious what that's to say. Yeah, so we have, I guess the data that I submitted. So as Carrie said, the data changes like daily. The data that we submitted within this proposal included 56 families with 115 children. We just heard that that was 68 families with 121 children. That included, I think at the time, 15 people who were 65 and older that included two people who were pregnant but were not in their third trimester because that's the qualifier. And... So what program did you say for pregnant? Two. Two. Do we have four pregnant households? I think Carrie, based on the data that I saw the other day. Again, those households are only eligible for 28 days in their third trimester. Third trimester is typically not 28 days. So I don't know how you budget around that. I don't know what that looks like exactly. And then we had 92 people with disabilities. And I think 20-ish of those at the time that we submitted this had home health services and one was receiving hospice care in the motel setting. Again, this is a fluid number. It's a fluid number. So I think that we would need to look at the data. Again, we haven't heard any response from the state and this data does change. But at the time that we submitted this, we were looking at around 160-ish households that we would. And that's how we created the budget that we submitted to AHS. The budget reduces the number of households in... Reduces the number of households in the hotels incrementally by 20 or we provided two scenarios, 20 or 25 households being house per month to recognize that. So we've submitted that budget to AHS. I'm happy to share the public documents. I only have state numbers. Great. Okay. Any other facts? The numbers are coming up tonight. Okay, great. Yeah, Jonathan. Hey, Jonathan. I have a concern about the prioritization because we have families in shelter who are employed, working on their housing, have vouchers in hand. So I don't want to see them excluded from this process either. If they're working hard toward their health and we're going to ask them to get to the back of the lawn now, it doesn't feel right. So just like we want to include folks from SES, I would want to include folks from shelter in this CET priority. How many families is that? Well, we have 15 at the time. We have nine right now. Nine. And I mean, I think... As folks move from, many of the folks we have in the shelter now came from the motels just because they were seeking additional support. So as people move out of shelter, we're likely, if we're going to fill that spot again, likely with somebody who's in a motel. I do want to say the language of that doesn't say they have to be in the motel pool of that vote. It does say that. It does say that. Okay. And I mean, I think Jonathan, I know that COTS has family housing that's coming online this year and only 50% of those units will be agreed to go through coordinated entry, which means that the households that you're working with will have exclusive access to those households or to those housing units. So that's, well, it's 50%, right? Yeah. Yeah. Those won't be online until March, right? And February. Great. March. Okay. Shelter stays are limited. Shelter stays are non permanent housing. So folks can't stay in a shelter forever, right? Right. I think this is an important goal. And I would ask that we amend this to include you folks from the shelter. How long are our family? I mean, my understanding or awareness, I guess, is that families within your shelters don't have like a concrete exit date. So they would in theory have more time within the shelters. You can't keep people in shelter. And definitely we have a 23 family wait list. Where are those families? In the motels. Which is great. Or if they're in a motel and move into shelter and the prioritization isn't there, then they're gonna be stuck in the shelter. So we're leaving out the same, it's the same demographic we're talking about, the wording excludes families in shelter. And I think that's wrong. What is the capacity between the two shelters for families? Because I don't think it's that many more households, to be honest. So, I mean, the majority of them are already in the hotels. And I think if we open up a spot in shelter, we're gonna be moving somebody out of the hotel every time we do that. So I think it would have the same impact. I think you also find from a housing provider perspective that somebody coming out of shelter historically has had more support. And they tend to move in with a little bit more support. And do tend to have a more successful tenancy. So, I think you would see them be able to move quickly and you would see that natural progression of the filtering out of the motel, which is the end game of this whole thing right now, right? It's to move. So these people don't have to wind up on the street. We're moving them either into permanent housing or we're getting them connected, moving them into shelter to move them into permanent housing. That's the whole basis of what we do. So I don't disagree with what Jonathan is saying. I do think that there's a way to wrap your shelter families into this and still get your end result of moving people from motels into, so they still have a roof over there out of some kind. I'm wondering, Jonathan, as we think about shelter and those units that you have coming online, if what we're talking about is a community-wide coordinated entry system, which I heard you were really in favor of, with those units, why not make those units available to the entire community as a resource? So that, because I think that would make sense in alliance with this. This group has already gone through and we've done our MOU for the building that's been online. That's not the issue here tonight. The issue here tonight is the families that are in shelter not being excluded from this letter. I think it's also the families that are in motels not being excluded from housing resources that are project-based in the community. They're not excluded half are available through CV and half are available through COPS referral. So it's open to everyone. Oh, is it? Half is open, yeah, half is open, yeah. Jason? A lot of them are open to families who need the housing. Right, but not utilizing our coordinated entry system that you've been advocating for. Yeah, it's not an issue on the team, but I think the issue is using community resources for the entire community. And if that's what you're advocating with having shelter guests access the same level of priority that the rest of the community is, which I think is reasonable, then we should be making housing opportunities available to the entire community in the same way. Jason? So hold the foot, yes. Yeah, it's about this prioritization. So it's really, I do have a question going back. I think you said there was 112 units that were coming online. Is that, are some of those units, well, are they all, there's units that are in that mix that are gonna be able to accommodate families, I would assume, okay. And then I guess I wanna just have a question about this proposed prioritization and the impact that it has on the current veterans prioritization that this community has adopted and how that may or may not shift the community aim of achieving functional zero by the end of this year. So I wanna know how this proposal impacts the current prioritization policy that's in place. Before you answer that though, I wanna just say that I know there was some disagreement and folks had had varying opinions on whether or not prioritization was the right direction to go in. And I'll just say that it is 100% the right direction to go in. In December, we had 36 veterans that were experiencing homelessness in Chittenden County. Stephanie and I and Will just met yesterday. We have 18 veterans that are experiencing homelessness in Chittenden County. And I don't have the data right in front of me, but the majority, if not all of them were housed through the prioritization policy with another five to six that are waiting, they're approved, they have a voucher, they have an apartment lined up, they're just waiting to get the keys and sign the lease to move in. So we're gonna be in the very low teens in less than six months time from when the last prioritization policy was reviewed. So I just wanna put a plug out there that prioritization for population groups works. And we trialed the veterans prioritization policy to see what type of an impact it would have on our community. And then we have the data to support, to show that it works. And my frame from the very beginning was to try and we have to start somewhere and let's take the information and the lessons learned and apply that to other populations. And that's what we're doing here. And I think it makes good sense. I just wanna know how that might impact the current prioritization for veterans. And I think that, and I'll just say that I do think that whatever the answer is of how that might have an impact on the veterans prioritization policy that I am in full support of shifting if that's the direction to go in to be able to meet the need of the community seeing that we have had a positive impact and can learn something from that and really make a difference on other members of the community. Thanks, Jason. Thank you. I really appreciate you saying that. I think that our goal with this, and I get to jump in, you know, for sure I'm doing all of the talking, but our goal with this is to prevent children and families and super vulnerable folks from being unsheltered. And I do think that it's going to Trump that will Trump the veteran prioritization policy that we adopted and that is really tough because I know that that's something that we have like rallied around and really worked toward. And I think that we can't in good faith allow children and families to become unsheltered. And so it would impact that policy for sure. And it's hard because we're close, right? So I hear you on that. And, you know, I would hope if any of the veterans who are in motels fall within these, you know, within these vulnerable population groups, then they would certainly have, you know, access to that prioritization policy. So, yeah, I just wanted to speak up for the clients that I work with that, you know, for prioritization, it's really important to them. A lot of my clients are disabled, you know, they have issues with any relation. And, you know, they really can't go to a congregate shelter. I'm really worried where they're going to end up. They cannot camp, you know, do mobility issues. They can't get into bunk beds. They need ABA rooms. They can't do stairs and a lot of the shelters that, you know, that provide and we'd be able to do that. So I really hope that we can be prioritized to find some kind of help. Thank you. So, yeah, is that okay? Sorry, just a few clarifying questions. So when you're talking about prioritization, it's not just children and our families with children. It's also vulnerable over 65. People with mobility issues, et cetera. And then of all of the people exiting the Motel program, how many of them are actually in coordinated entry right now? Because I had a meeting today with Harbor and I think maybe seven of them aren't currently in CE. So if the prioritization happens, it's through CE. It's only through coordinated entry. That's correct. And I think that, thank you for naming that because that's something that is really clear in our proposal is that this only includes families who are engaged with case management and who go through coordinated entry. So if a household is not willing to engage in coordinated entry and not interested in obtaining case management, then this will only go through coordinated entry. Yeah, that was my follow-up question just because there are families that aren't interested or folks within the hotel programs that are not interested in case management. And it seems like that needs to be a part of the next step because to make them successful in permanent housing. I agree. Thanks for your question. Also it's coming from the state government from my committee, that there are people who don't know about the coordinated entry, that they're not able to access it. I'm sure some don't want, of course, but there are also people who just fall into the cracks. I mean, I think that we're, I don't, I can't speak to that because I'm not going to motels. Carrie, maybe you could, or something. Yeah, I can speak to that. So we get a list from the state of everybody in the hotels locally and we do a lot of outreach to people, but it is really difficult to find some people. There's the Cost Motel outreach team that's out there. There's other outreach programs. There is one of my staff who goes out to the hotels. We are also supposed to get referrals every time somebody gives permission for us to have their name that gets permission for COTS and CBOEO to have their information and we will reach out to them three times to establish contact and do an intake. We have lots of people who will go to where somebody is. We do, like last summer, one of my staff was out at the beach doing assessments with people camping. Like we are out in the community and so we do our best to make contact with people where we can and we have drop-in hours and all of that kind of thing. So it is, we are trying really hard. I don't know, I know that the messaging changed when they go in, they're not told to ever reach out. They're told they will get a letter and I think that's unfortunate because then if they both send a letter, send the referral to us and they ask people to reach out if something happens and one of the two things doesn't happen, they still get connected. So we do our best. We have, like I have those lists to go off of so there are people we've made upwards of 10 plus outreach attempts over the course of months. And so we do our best with what we have. Additionally, I'll say that there are people who don't give permission to share their names, so we really do not know that they're out in the hotels. We have no way of knowing that and so they are included on the list and our referral is not sent our way. So there are people who may be out there with no connection to anything. And that's really unfortunate but we can't force them to engage. But if you are aware, if you become aware of someone who is seeking help, you can call CBOAO the front desk. There is a referral form also that's fillable in PDF form on the CCHA website under coordinated entry so you can send a referral directly to us and the email is on the bottom of the form. The email is also set on the website and submit directly to us the person's contact information. If somebody doesn't have any contact information, the CBOAO address is where they should drop by. Mondays through Thursdays, we have drop-in hours and if somebody's not able to meet with them to do an assessment at that point, we will schedule one for a different time with them right then. So either any of that way of getting connected, definitely. So as soon as they're assessed, they're entered into the CE system and would get the priority. They don't need to have to wait that six, four to six weeks for case management. No, no, yeah, they would be entered, enrolled and be up for particular things. Yeah, it depends on, they don't need to wait for case management and we also give information when they do their intake on first steps, they can do that their case manager will start with them once they're engaged with case management, which includes things like getting IDs and applications, if they're interested in an application, we can put that off and get them to them as well, so. If I can just add to that, taking some of the things that we have learned from the veterans' prioritization policy that the first six months of the policy really weren't useless. I mean, to put it bluntly, with the veterans' prioritization, because we have the phase system and through coordinate entry and folks need to be added to the UNICU for certain types of resources and that wasn't happening for our veteran population. And so I think there does need to be some level of work. Yes, their people folks would get prioritized by being in coordinate entry, but they also have to go through some of those other steps through CHRC, Committee Housing Review Committee to be able to get to that place where their name gets pulled from the list and plugged into a housing opportunity. And so whatever that looks like, one of the things that was really a detriment to the veterans' prioritization policy not being as successful as it is now at the very beginning was because the veterans were not moving through those phases and we're not getting added to the UNICU at the early stage that they needed to. So whoever is doing that, whether it's the clients in the hotels themselves or support staff that are dedicated to helping them move through those phases as quickly as possible, that's really what makes the prioritization work and what makes it successful. We can set the policy, whatever that policy looks like here today, but there's still some other additional work that needs to make it actually work for the client. Awesome, thank you, Jason. And I thank you for what you said earlier. I think when we are looking at this, this is truly a community issue and when we talk about prioritization as we have with veterans, it does mean that other populations are going to be slightly deep prioritized. But I think we can all agree that we can't have 121 children sleeping on the streets at the end of July. So I think we're asking a lot from the state, right? And we just, we need to get on the same page as a continuum of care here and really like all be bought into what we're gonna do here. So, seems to me that, at least I haven't heard any disagreement about that aspect of things, what we're talking about is the scope of the prioritization and where we cut it off. Elaine. No, I just wanted to ask about this. I think it's a really valid challenge to get out to the sheltered families. Yeah, I don't think that there is an, yeah. I'm just thinking about that. And I think one of the things that we're navigating right now is flexibility and being able to respond to families needs also when we're talking about this. So, with ESD programming ending, there's like a hard and fast date for that, which we're trying to advocate for more. And hence the prioritization because that day isn't necessarily going to get extended just because we're advocating for it. And that's one of our limitations also in our motel pool funding is we have to have consistent exit length of stays for folks and a specific amount of money to pay for that programming. And so that is one of the reasons why I was advocating as well is because it's kind of that same space. Whereas when folks are in shelter, it is definitely not a permanent housing option, but we can engage and be more flexible and supportive when we have that autonomy. And that's just hard, I think, to navigate when you're looking at state funds and state regulations. And so prioritizing folks who are going to be impacted by that does make sense to me. So we haven't resolved this, what we're talking about over here. I just, I would ask, what would it take? Would it be enrolling in coordinated entry the families to be engaged in coordinated entry and then doing the same assessment that the other families who are in hotels are doing with that? I think it's definitely through coordinated entry. I don't think that families from shelter should be excluded. I don't think anybody is disagreeing with that. I guess where I'm coming from is that if we're gonna include all of these folks in a community-wide system for prioritization through coordinated entry, I think that I would like to ask COTS if you are willing to also include all of the units in that family development in coordinated entry so that the whole community has access to those as well, that feels like coordination. And so I guess that would be my request is that I know that you signed that MOU, but you have the decision-making to change that. And I think if we're looking at all of the families accessing all of the resources available in the same way, then it makes sense for all of the families to have access to those resources at that property. So all of the families in the family shelter are enrolled in the community? Absolutely, we are. Great. You were talking about that exclusion. It doesn't exclude them. It opens the way it's working. I guess what I'm saying is that I think that it's totally reasonable to include those families in coordinated entry. And my request to you is that can we have access to all of those units at the new Main Street Family development for all of the families in the community to be able to access those? I can't make that decision, because we have a board of directors that I requested and that building has significant and non-public, privately raised funding, almost a third of the construction costs to be prior to that. That's why I can't, right? So I can't say yes. Okay, well, I would love for you to consider that because I think that if we're to the board and then we can refer to it, but I can't, I can't make an honest comment for that. And, you know, when individuals and families go through the coordinated entry process and they do the risk assessment, right? I mean, people are given a sign like a level of risk. And is that not the way that they are then placed into? Yes, that is true. I'm curious, yes. Except you can always change the priority, so. Well, we're still prioritizing based on vulnerability. Right, it's still vulnerability. Right, it's just a category as opposed to the level of vulnerability. Okay. So I guess with all of that, oh, is there more, Jason? Yeah. And so we have a question over here. Sorry. I'm gonna make a motion. Yeah, I think my question is probably related to the motion. So does the actual, does the policy is whatever the motion is, is that the policy or does the coordinated entry committee have to develop the policy like we did with the Veterans Prioritization Policy? It was an actual policy that was presented to this group. This would be, this is putting the car, a touch before the horse. I would defer to Stephanie, but we are adopting this policy and then would direct the coordinated entry committee to like execute it. Yeah, it's, there is no way, there's only one way to do it. So they like, I mean, I could write it up and we can vote on it again, but it's not, it's, yeah, it wouldn't change anything. I will, because I already, yeah, it is one way to do it, so not, so. We're voting on two separate things here though. Yeah, but we can't do one without the other. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Sorry, and then I have another question. We're talking about, they're gonna get growing off the time. So whatever the motion is for the Prioritization Policy, as you said that I, behalf of the Veterans Committee and the support of it, what does that mean in terms of, we don't, nobody has the crystal ball, but like what does that mean in terms of the future with regard to the Veterans Prioritization Policy? Is that something that comes back to the table for discussion at some point in the future? Is that like, hey, it worked and did we learn some things from it and it moves on? Yes. What does that look like? I would say we would need to see like we get through this, we see where we're at, like if the numbers continue to decrease, maybe we don't need it anymore. If they go right back up, maybe we do. So then we would revisit that. Is that fair? Mm-hmm. Cool, thank you. Yes, I just have a quick question that we haven't touched on and I won't take up too much time, but in reference to the Choices for Care and individuals who are receiving home health services for Prioritization, is it, I think I saw that a few different ways, but is it on Choices for Care and receiving those services or is it eligible for, so just speaking about older adults who have applied for that program, who have met clinical criteria for needing nursing home level care, often there's a very long delay between that clinical approval and total approval for the program, which is often just processing financial paperwork, so not related to someone's functional need. Just what I thought it stated and how it will reflect on that. It would be reflected on people who are in the motel system who are receiving home health care at this time. And so receiving home health care, is there any parameter around that? And so one of the difficulties that we have is home health care going into those settings and being able to consistently serving those individuals, especially when they're switching locations frequently, is there any kind of parameter around that or? I don't know if I understand your question. So we serve a number of individuals who are older adults who may have had to relocate many different times to different motel settings, so receiving continuous services is not always possible, given staff and shortages of care, so they have the program. So they're eligible. For the services, but they may not be consistently receiving them, which doesn't mean that they don't have a significant need for those services. They're just not able to be. Carrie, Carrie, can answer. Yeah, well, okay. This doesn't answer the warned thing and it's a little bit out of order, but I just want to mention that that is that this list, that the list that Dale is working on and that we've asked that, sorry, Department of Aging and Independent Living is working on specific number of folks who are either pending, right, CFC, or folks who've been identified who don't even have applications. And so Department of Aging and Independent Living is looking at expediting those clinical assessments and then Department of Vermont Health Access is looking at expediting those financial assessments. So if you can get permission to give me their names, let's just make sure that I have them because regardless of what happens here, right, like the hotel isn't a great environment for people who need help with their ADLs. Yeah, absolutely. That was my thought question. If not, I can refer to that, I'm sorry, that's okay, so thank you. Just taking all the words right from my grave. You have an answer. I have a thought. So I'll put it up. Based on some of the things that we're talking about. So if we want to include all of the folks in this list, not just the folks in the hotels, that's what is on the table as well here, right? Can we identify prioritization Jonathan? You were saying you had a long wait list for folks coming into Family Shelter. Could they, could folks that are in the motels, are they already prioritized to move into shelter? Yeah, they're prioritized based on the vulnerability. So this period is not, but the motel stay is not a category of it itself. I just think that that could potentially speak to trying to rapidly get folks out of the shelters and speak to that concern is if moving out of the shelters means somebody from the motels is moving into the shelter, that could support that. Would that be a potential? Deal. Look at that, this is actually it. All right. Re-write it. I did. Okay. Yeah. Okay, let's do. We're gonna make a motion. Last question, last question. Yes. I don't make sure that I caught what we were in. Receiving or eligible. Okay. That's it. Is there a motion? Okay. So I, I have heard, I guess so what I need to, I need to say the original motion for, and we need to do the prioritization first. And then we need to do the LOI. And I would say too that I'm gonna also amend the motion around the prioritization is that, that if, if our LOI isn't approved, I don't know where this leaves us with the, with this prioritization policy. So I'm gonna say that I think depending on the outcome of our proposal to the state, we need to come back to this. Because if everybody is no longer in the motels on July 28th, then this is the way it is. Well, if we have 121 kids on the street, we should probably definitely prioritize them. Yeah. Then we will be prioritizing children who are un-sheltered. Yes. Okay. So the original motion I'm going to make is for the prioritization policy. Do you want me to read that? And then you read the amendment. And then I will read it as amended. All right. So we are proposing adopting a CE prioritization policy for mainstream resources that focuses on the vulnerability of populations that cannot safely access congregate shelter. These identified populations, families with minor children, households with choices for care and households 65 plus, will be prioritized for mainstream resources ahead of all other populations due to their particular vulnerability within the ESD Motel program. And... Do we have a second one? Yeah, someone's... Can I make you an amendment? Yeah, you're gonna have an amendment. I would like to make a family amendment. No, because somebody else offered it to you. Oh, yes. Okay, well, I'm gonna just say, though I would amend that to the CCHA proposes adopting a coordinated entry prioritization policy for mainstream resources that focuses on the vulnerability of populations that cannot safely access congregate shelter. These identified populations, families with minor children, households who are receiving or eligible for home health care and household 65 plus will be prioritized for mainstream resources ahead of all other populations due to their particular vulnerability within the ESD and domestic violence motel program and within family shelter. So that's the change at the end there. So second. All right, so now we have an... We have a... I accept that amendment. Yeah, thank you. All right, and do we have a second? A second. Thank you. Thanks. All right. Any further discussion? All those in favor? Sure. I read all right. Sure, I was almost one through the ceiling. I see 16. Any opposed? Any abstentions? One abstention. Thank you, Carrie. Sorry, I was making that. Thank you. That was wonderful. Excellent. Thank you. Okay. So the second motion. Go ahead. Yeah, we're requesting execution of the letter of interest to be submitted, which it already was, to the Vermont Department of Children and Families on behalf of the Chinning County Homeless Alliance in response to that ending of the ESD emergency motel program. I think that motion. Travis, is there a second? I got two of them. Ooh. It's Jason. Jason, we're going with Jason. I'm sorry, that was fresh. Thank you. Any further discussion? Okay. Now all in favor? 16. Opposed? Abstention. One abstention. Carrie, thank you so much. I just want to say one thing. What? Before we move on. What? I really appreciate the conversation that we've had and I feel like this has brought new perspectives and new jobs that I totally appreciate you. And we may not always agree professionally, but I appreciate your perspective always and respect you. And I want to say that for the folks who are here listening to this, our representatives here, I hope that you're taking in how horrible these decisions are for us to make. And like that we're talking about 56 families and 121 households, but they're like, they're humans. There's hundreds of people. And I think that like prioritizing, having to choose between a family in a motel and a family in a shelter, or a family, I mean, it's like an impossible decision. And so I just want to say like I, you know, that I'm really glad that you got to see this tonight because these are like the really super painful decisions that we have to make all the time. That's good. So thank you. Thank you, thank you. We have, yeah. This is really just great. So if you ever have another meeting as you get recorded, you have to make sure that you speak up, especially in the corners, because if a microphone's at a difficult time, in case you get bad news, if those people are probably not hearing what you're saying. The second thing is, as far as the humans are concerned, nobody watching this knows who any of you are. So if you don't say who you are, and then make a comment, then you're basically... Perfect. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Sure. Yes, yeah. That's why we're all here. I know, right. Exactly. You know, if you're in the building, there's so few stories that would be more making there. And we're trying to deal with administration that wants this over. And the Senate that is not coming to the table. And so one third of the government alone can't function, and there's a lot of work. Everyone, we have to pool our resources here. Correct? Yeah. And we're trying to figure this out, because as much as we can, try to pressure the administration. I have reliable reasons. There's some more information's coming up very soon. Things are fluid. We know. None of us are happy about it. Yeah. I wasn't implying that. I'm just happy that you're here because I think it humanizes like the way we're on the ground. I wasn't trying to say like, thank you guys, I'm just trying to stick facts in there, and we're all working on it. Yeah. Probably in the 50s. Right. Okay. Thank you. Thank you as right. All right. This last item that people need to present, yeah, just a couple of minutes. We're ready to go for about just a couple of minutes each. I think it would be really important for each of the organizations to just give a brief, this is what we're proposing. Just be quick. So at the top of the list is pathways for Mott. Lindsay, what do you got? Yeah, do you want to come forward? Hi everyone, I'm Lindsay Mays. That's a pathways for Mott. And I'll be quick, just for folks that don't know organization pathways is a statewide non-profit organization that comes to end homelessness using their housing first model. We also do community health work throughout our state. We put in a response to the agency of human services letter of interest. And we gave them three options of varying scale. The two that are relevant to this committees that has continued work are, we put in, essentially we put in expanding our partner support of housing network through Housing First, right? So we put in a very large proposal to scale to the ever-evolving need in all our communities across the state which would be reaching into communities that currently don't have any housing first permit for housing to pass with and also significantly increasing our capacity in Chippin County. We really think, you know, doubling our capacity in Chippin County would get us a lot closer to supporting the households that are needed. Our level of support, I'll also say, right? So we can work with households of any size. We certainly do work with families. We have many single adult households as well. And the population that we support in permanent support housing are folks who are usually exhibiting really long term homelessness and also for whom intensive support services, right? Like we do community-based support services indefinitely, you know, long-term are the right fit to meet their housing stability needs. So that was sort of a large proposal and we also put in a smaller and maybe more attractive proposal targeted at Chippin County that would be about half, half the size of about a 40% additional household capacity. So, yeah, we'll let you know as you hear things. I just want to really, really briefly say that it's not on the agenda that we had talked to you all about our proposal with half of our economic opportunities proposal. We have put in for some staffing. We talked about it more as an organization and with OEO when we decided to also apply for some rental assistance through that program. So we're hopeful outside of this process that we'll be able to have more capacity to serve households with rapid recovery. Thanks, I love it. Sarah, do you want to talk about the city? I'm sorry, I'm tired now, but... So the city of Burlington submitted an LOI last week to expand emergency congregate shelter. We proposed a location of One-O-Way Cherry Street, the state office building in Burlington as that was had the closest proximity to services and resources and transportation. We proposed operating that until we provided an annualized budget. However, that will be prorated as we would transition that whoever was not housed in that program, we would transition those folks to the adverse weather conditions program in December. So this is a short-term temporary shelter to prevent unsheltered homelessness with which we are seeing. We're proposing 50 beds there, which is her question, which is definitely not adequate. And we are also proposing our co-located day station there as well that would be accessible to up to 75 people and hope to provide meals and could also serve as an additional cooling site within the city during the hot summer months. So we do, the city does not operate shelter. It is not our expertise, but you're telling me to speak louder. But we would likely, if there was not an agency who wished to assume operations, we would consider either utilizing one of their proposals that the state received for staffing support or contracting with a staffing company and have set our budget accordingly to that. And as a former state employee, I love the idea of 108 cherries. I mean, it's great. I just want to go on, I just want to go on and I can say in that. Thank you. Travis, you want to talk about CBOEO? Hi, my name is Travis Coolin, I work for the Champlain Valley Office back in the community, that's the T-shirt. We've been at our proposal for $407,000 of us a week's budget from July 1st through June 30th. I should say this one year. Our services at our community resource center, CBOEO currently has a homeless outreach team which consists and fully fat of eight positions two are located at now, and five services primarily, the Elmwood Community Shelter, three are primarily located at community resource center, which is co-located with Feeding Chittenden. And then we have two outreach, street outreach, depending on what part of Chittenden County are in field outreach, staff who visit encampments and deliver meals out into the community along with other services. Again, this proposal is fully fund the four full-time equivalent positions, a coordinator and then the three positions of the community resource center. The resource center is currently serving about 3,600 meals a month between dining in and takeout. And today, this calendar year, we've served over 1,400 un-duplicated households that are using services there. It's both staffing that we're asking for, as well as around $50,000 worth of direct service dollars, which goes to things like feminine hygiene products for basic needs, first aid kits, survival gear, things along those lines to support people experiencing homelessness as we work with them to try and get them ultimately housing opportunities. Thank you, Travis. Crystal's not here, but Steph, you're gonna talk for BHA. I'm going in, I just wanna warns that I do not run the services department at BHA. I run rental assistance, so I'm pinching in for Crystal. The Burlington Housing Retention Department put in a LOI for a person to do outreach efforts for people, specifically around Burlington Housing Authority's waiting lists. They can actually physically go out with our laptop and check, because they have access if somebody's actively on our website. On our waiting lists, and if they're not, facilitate helping them fill out those applications to get on those waiting lists. They've also been collaborating with Cricket Wireless and Verizon Wireless on getting phones into hands of people who need it, because we're also finding that getting in contact with people is very difficult. And lastly, they're working on a series of workshops to hold for community service, support people, case managers around, all the work that you do and all the stress and trauma and all the stuff that you have to carry with you to help reduce the staff burnout, as we've seen across Chittenden County. We're losing staff left, right and center due to just massive burnout from everything that you see and have to do on a daily basis. So that was also wrapped into this as well. Cool. I'd also like to just plug to our federal representatives here that, you know, if you could really go back and ask for more regular housing choice vouchers for our communities, not the boutique ones for people that have to fit in a certain box, it would be super helpful and it would allow us in this body to be a little bit more nimble because a lot of people have to fit into certain little boxes for the subsidies that I have available. And one in particular is elderly. I don't have enough vouchers to house elderly people and they're really stinks. So I just want to put that plug out there selfishly. Super point. Really good point. Yes. Thank you. Wow, applause. That was so great. See if I don't get that. All right, now Taylor, you're up. Okay. Steve, you're here for a night. I'm generally here, but I don't speak. So I'm just going to... You can speak today because Mike's not here. Yes. Just going to go ahead and lucky you off. Okay, so specific to the LOI is it was like an expansion of our current MOU and contract with Economic Services at Harbor Place. So expanding that contract from 30 to 40 rooms and then we would add an additional 12 rooms across the street at Harbor West, which was currently, well, we're currently working to reconstruct and demolish, but before we do that, have those available for six to nine months for families that are experiencing homelessness. So would those, would that alleviate, would those families be transitioned from the motel program into those units? I think the idea, and I may be wrong, I think the idea was to expand that to the hotel system. So the households in motels could move into those transitional housing units? Yeah, I guess. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, that's fine. 59, 59. Yep. And then just an additional side note, there was some extra data that I was given. We have 10 units in turnover right now for folks that are experiencing homelessness. We have 20 units at Braber and coming online in September, three at Stuart that are available right now. And then with the VHIP program, Vermont Housing Improvement. Yep. Some programs. We have 40 units already funded for rehab or new unit creation and the deadline for completion is 1231, but some will be ready this summer. An additional five in rehab, that'll likely be done by the 21st of December and then potential for 20 more units that could be funded. Yeah, that's great. Thank you. Thank you. And the Braber that you mentioned, those are, we've already entered into MLU, the steering committee for those units. So those are homeless dedicated units. And those are within the 112th that we talked about as our VISTA. The 112th. Yeah. The VHA subsea to make them affordable. Thank you. Definitely. They work very well together. Are there questions about any of those presentations? Thank you. We've gone beyond and I know you're here. Yeah. There it is. Or any other. Yeah, did we miss anyone on the agenda? I don't think so. The LOI. For the LOI now? No. Okay. That's a wall. Oh wait. You. You. You. Here. There's an LOI for more Jennies. You're none of us. Thank you. Other thoughts? Yeah. I'm sorry. Do you want to say what you're doing? Yeah, I actually, I'll go. Okay. I don't think you're going home. Thank you for your attention. We can hang out if we're going to. The camera will go off and we can hang out here for a little bit of time to chat a little bit. But thank you so much for coming up. This has been, I think, our most successful community meeting ever. And I really appreciate for the work that everyone is doing in this community to help move us toward ending homelessness. Thank you. Thank you. Have a good night. Have a good night.