Meeting Minutes
January 11, 2006

SOUTH CAROLINA COUNCIL ON HOMELESSNESS
Convened by the SC Department of Mental Health
Wednesday, January 11, 2006
SCDMH Administration Building, Room 320
Meeting Minutes DRAFT

In Attendance:
Anita Floyd, United Way of the Midlands
Wilbert Lewis, SC DSS
Caroline Carman, SC DHEC
Patricia Bradford, Dorn VA Medical Center
Gail Smith, SC Primary Health Care Association
Diana Tester, Office of Research and Statistics
Mike Chesser, Upstate Homeless Coalition/State Homeless Coalition
Arnise Moultrie, PPPS
Keisha Perry, Department of Corrections
Michele Murff, SC DMH

I. Welcome/Opening Remarks and II. Approval of November 9, 2005 Meeting Minutes

Ms. Murff began by reporting that John Connery would hopefully be able to join us after welcoming another group to the department. It was suggested that we proceed with the meeting by approving the minutes of the November 9, 2005, meeting. Ms. Murff asked if anyone had any corrections or additions to the minutes. Anita Floyd made a motion to accept the minutes and Patricia Bradford seconded the motion. The minutes were approved as written.

III. Work Group Reports

A. The Prevention Work Group - Ms. Murff reported that Ms. Grant was at a national conference today. Ms. Murff said that Ms. Grant plans to be a part of accessing technical assistance available to the Council on release/discharge planning through the Prevention Work Group. Ms. Murff then introduced Ms. Keisha Perry who is a coordinator for the Division of Substance Abuse in the Department of Corrections and works for Gerri Miro. Ms. Perry reported on a training that will be held at the Clarion Townhouse in Columbia next week on January 17th and 18th. It is an initiative of SVORI (Serious and Violent Offender Reentry Initiative) and they are looking for a cross-disciplinary mix of agencies to represent those that are involved in the initiative. The purpose is to better increase collaboration, communication, and coordination for offenders that are being released. They are offering fourteen (14) continuing education units at no cost and free lunch. They will have representatives from DAODAS, LRADAC, DJJ, all of the SVORI counselors, and Voc Rehab. Also, if anyone thinks that their agency would benefit from the training, they would be willing to come to your agency to present.

B. Anita Floyd of the Housing Work Group - Ms. Floyd reported that on the Housing side there were mainly updates and some news. The good news was that we had a very successful HUD Supported Housing Program funding cycle this year for the entire state. Ms. Floyd believed that all of the continuums covering all of the counties in the state were funded this year for the first time. There was only one project that was not funded. In spite of the fact that what we were eligible to pursue was less funding this year because of the way HUD structured its funding this year, we actually did well because we brought in $7.1 million dollars into the state which was quite a successful effort.

Regarding the State Housing Authority, there was a follow-up letter sent to State Housing that reiterated our suggestions on ways that agency could assist in housing homeless persons and families. To date, we have not received a response from State Housing. We have most recently focused on providing feedback related to homelessness to the Housing Trust Fund. The only thing that is being proposed is a change with the State Housing Trust Fund relative to homelessness to increase the maximum award to $300,000. They will also combine the shelter and transitional housing activities into some type of generic supported housing program activity. Other issues are emerging around the Trust Fund that we are sorting out and monitoring for now. What we are anticipating is that the competition for the funding will get severe because of the projected decrease in property transfers across the state.

Another point Ms. Floyd made was that there is a committee created under the Affordable Housing Coalition of SC to actually do two things. One is to raise awareness of the need for affordable housing including for special needs. The second is to advocate for increased resources for affordable housing. One of the things that we are exploring is increasing the amount that would go into the State Trust Fund with the idea that you would be able to access it for local governments or local coalitions for affordable housing. We want to raise awareness of the critical need for more affordable housing and that it is as critical as health care and education.

There is a Palmetto Housing Forum that is co-sponsored with State Housing Authority and Affordable Housing Coalition on January 24 thru January 26. Ms. Murff will be doing a breakout presentation on Special Needs Housing and Mike Chesser will be on the main agenda speaking on homelessness. On January 25th will be the first launching of some of the campaign. Robert Thomas who is the Region Three Housing Authority Director, and is also the President of the Coalition, will be doing a brief presentation. Ms. Murff commented that Ms. Floyd will be co-chairing the Awareness Committee of the Coalition with Robert Thomas.

Mr. Chesser noted we could be proud of the efforts made across the state to bring in the maximum dollars possible to address homelessness.

C. Gail Smith of the Services Work Group - The Work Group tried to meet in December but the weather and illness postponed their meeting so there was not anything new to report on supportive services. Ms. Smith said that she was also asked to continue to talk with the feds on accessing technical assistance. They had a conference call on January 5 to come up with a plan focusing on discharge/release planning. The group came up with a consensus in the early fall meeting that discharge/release planning and Housing First was where they wanted to put their priority. One of the things the feds recommended was since they had a reentry program that maybe they wanted to look at discharge/release planning and how it relates to ex-offenders coming back into the community. The plan should not be so broad to try and cover all of those entities releasing people into the community that may be at risk for homelessness. With that in mind, they are looking at focusing on reentry programs, discharge/release planning for people that are coming back into the community out of the penal system.

Several recommendations came out of the conversation, including developing a plan with a regional approach and a statewide approach. Ms. Smith said that she mentioned to the feds that we had several municipalities in the state that have developed their Blueprints (plans to end homelessness and we should include them in this technical assistance initiative. The bottom line is that we can access technical assistance through a facilitator and they will also provide best practice models from other states. Ms. Smith proposed the end of March or early April as a possible timeframe. They are recommending a one day session with at least a half day pre-planning. Ms. Smith said that she has a conference call scheduled with them on Friday, January 13, to take feedback from this group. The technical assistance contractor, Policy Research Associates, will be included in the call. Mr. Chesser asked why we are proposing a regional planning approach and Ms. Smith responded that she wanted to make sure we had buy-in across the state. Ms. Smith also feels pressure to spend technical assistance dollars allocated to our state. Ms. Smith thought that at least six weeks of lead time was necessary to make sure that we can get all the key people to the table. Ms. Floyd asked how we can ensure those kinds of commitments at the state level we need. Ms. Smith thought it would have to come on the Council's letterhead. Ms. Floyd wanted to be sure that we have the right Corrections, Probation, and key prison contacts attend, but the right people need to be identified and contacted in order to get their commitment to be part of the process. Ms. Murff thought that Rhonda Grant would be the person that could help move this forward. Ms. Floyd thought it would be helpful if the Governor would sign the invitation. Ms. Murff said she would speak to John Connery and maybe have a meeting to discuss. Ms. Smith also shared that she had received some information from Philip Mangano and wanted to let us know that there is some information on the website, Innovations and Tenure Plans.

There was a conversation at the last meeting with John Connery regarding SSI eligibility. Ms. Murff asked Ms. Tester if she had seen any data regarding Medicaid, comparing people being approved as opposed to not approved. Ms. Tester was not aware, but would explore. Ms. Tester said there is data about the single application. She said there are a lot of problems regarding that because of the different qualifying information. At one point different forms were gathered from a variety of agencies and the result was mind-boggling.

There is some discussion at possibly looking at a single eligibility system that would tie in to food stamps. Mr. Lewis confirmed that the Medicaid eligibility person is Rudy Long. More discussion followed on Medicaid eligibility. Ms. Floyd said that unfortunately she had not followed up with the USC Institute on Families in Society. Mr. Chesser asked if anybody knew what happens when somebody applies and are rejected in reference as to what type of follow-up takes place. Ms. Murff said that our Centers then review and see what happened and hopefully make some changes and resubmit. Mr. Chesser said that what he has heard is that just about every application is being rejected the first time around. Ms. Murff said she has also heard from some of the Centers and they know they will be submitting it a second, third, or fourth time. Meanwhile, this person has up to a year and a half wait. There is a manual that HHS published and it is on line. One of the things in the manual speaks of is some of the common reasons why applications get kicked back. There are many, varied reasons why the application is not approved. Ms.Tester thought it would be a good research project to pull off statistical samples and see what specific data is being rejected and find out if some type of pattern is emerging. Mr. Chesser asked if any of the Centers would have that information and if we could retrieve. Ms. Murff suggested a pilot of perhaps three different types of centers in urban or rural areas. There was also a discussion of entitlement specialists and the role they plan in getting applications approved. Ms. Tester mentioned if some type of pattern emerges it would be easier to fix than if the pattern varied from area to area. Ms. Murff said she would add this to the list of the things she would be speaking to Mr. Connery about. Mr. Chesser said he would follow up with the HIV folks and see what type of success they are having with eligibility and approval. The information would probably have to go back to Ms. Tester's office because of our contract regarding confidentiality issues.

D. Leadership/Accountability Report -With the absence of Mr. Connery, we tabled this report.

E. Diana Tester of the Data Work Group - Ms. Tester said that they did not have a data meeting in December partly because of the holidays and she also was off a good portion of the month. Ms. Tester again asked for information to update the website, such as photos, events, articles, information, etc. to enhance the website. Please send any information to Ms. Laura Kelley at laura.kelley@ors.sc.gov or diana.tester@ors.sc.gov.

Ms. Murff had asked Ms. Tester to talk to everyone about the meeting that she and Pete Bailey attended with the Coalition. It was an excellent meeting and they were invited to speak at the Coalition meeting and have a presentation about the "dream" to have a statewide database on homelessness that pulls extracts from the HMIS (homeless management information system) and they were able to share some of the data that they had from the Upstate Homeless Coalition to show them the things that may possibly help them in the work they are doing. They indicated a lot of enthusiasm from Coalition board members. Ms. Tester was charged with creating a template which she shared with Mr. Chesser. Mr. Chesser said that at the meeting he believed it was made clear to all the continuums that we wanted this project done. Stay tuned for more progress on this data initiative.

IV. Announcements

Ms. Murff said that she had received an e-mail from Sue Veer that she is on a three- month special project. Ms. Smith said it was her understanding that the project would run through April or May. Ms. Veer has been coming to the meeting on behalf of the SC Primary Care Association.

One of the things that came up at the last meeting was that we needed to plan an event for this year's Homeless Awareness week. It was suggested that the group do something this year, not just during Homeless Awareness week, but about homeless awareness. It could be an event, whether it is some sort of event that we co-sponsor with the Coalition or maybe have a legislative target audience. Ms. Murff thought it could be brought up at the Coalition's January meeting. Mr. Chesser mentioned that there is a national student campaign against hunger and homelessness and suggested if we could get the universities in the state to have something on the same day at least there would be a lot of activity. Mr. Jim Wallace was suggested as a keynote speaker possibly conducting a tour of the state since he has been a strong advocate. Mr. Wilbert Lewis asked if perhaps we can piggyback on activities that other agencies are doing. Various ideas on how to promote awareness followed.

V. Confirmation of Next Meeting Date/Adjourn

Next meeting will be held on Wednesday, March 8, 2006, at 1:30 PM. A notice will be sent to Council members as to when and where the next meeting is scheduled.

Meeting adjourned at 3:17 PM.