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Human Services Commission Auto captions

Wednesday, February 21, 2024

6:30 PM · 59m 58s
Topic tracked across meetings:
2023 Human Services Grants Annual Report 4/4
Section
Topic
3. APPROVAL OF MINUTES
3a
Minutes of January 24, 2024
packet pp.3–4
Staff report:
APPROVAL OF MINUTES a) 01-24-24 Human Services Commission Minutes Page 1 CITY OF ISSAQUAH Human Services Commission 6:30 PM Steelhead Room, 235 1st Ave. January 24, 2024 MINUTES SE, Issaquah
4. AGENDA ITEMS
4a
Human Services Division Introductions
20 min · Monica Negrila, Human Services Manager · packet pp.5–19
Topics: Equity
Staff report:
Provide an annual performance and outcome report on 2023 Human Services Grants.
4b
2023 Human Services Grants Annual Report
40 min · Monica Negrila, Human Services Manager
Topics: BudgetEquity
5. REPORTS
5a
Chair and Commissioner Reports
Topics: Boards & Commissions
5b
Youth Report
packet pp.21
Staff report:
• City Council Services, Safety, & Parks Committee– February 27, 2024 Human Services staff will go before City Council Services, Safety and Parks Committee to provide an update on the Human Services Strategic Plan implementation and introduce the discussion on long term options for the Emergency Housing Pilot program. Updates regarding the Human Services in the Comprehensive Plan will also be presented.
5c
Staff Report
0:16 introduce
0:18 our yes would love to introduce you we
0:21 have public comments tonight good
0:22 evening Commissioners good to see you
0:25 all uh we have from St Vincent samamish
0:29 uh we have uh Burke here with us tonight
0:32 to make some public comments so join
0:34 us people so whenever
0:44 you St Vincent Paul is one of the um
0:47 which bucket did it fall under I should
0:49 know this emergency financial assistance
0:51 thank you that's a good yeah so it's
0:53 they provide emergency financial
0:55 assistance in particular rent assistance
0:57 and utilities and uh as you may remember
1:02 or know from our grantees we currently
1:04 fund uh the St vincenta Paul in isqua
1:08 but we do not uh provide funding to uh
1:11 to the samamish uh group although as
1:14 Burke you're going to hear from from bur
1:16 in a minute uh they do find a good
1:19 pocket in isaa it's the the 29 zip code
1:24 in Isa and so they provide quite a bit
1:26 OFA
1:28 resid
1:33 Ron Zeno our
1:35 president Le to be here as well I assume
1:37 he will get here but he was going to
1:39 give me a rousing
1:42 introduction that did
1:44 you Ron Zeno oh I yeah he's the
1:48 president of our our
1:51 group so as you know we are members of
1:53 St Vincent de fall from Mary que Peace
1:56 Catholic Church in
1:58 samamish and we're here to do is to
2:00 announce Our intention to request Grant
2:03 assistance from the city of
2:07 isqua and as we just talked about the St
2:10 dity Paul mission is to provide
2:12 emergency assistance financial
2:14 assistance uh to families living within
2:16 the boundaries of our Parish which in
2:20 the case of St
2:23 of um Mary Queen of Peace includes both
2:26 the city of samamish and Northwest
2:32 isqua the area of Northwest isqua is
2:35 outside the parish boundaries of St
2:38 Joseph's Catholic Church therefore there
2:41 St jul has not service that area and it
2:44 it falls into our
2:47 responsibility included in that area are
2:50 some significant housing complexes which
2:53 would include the YWCA Family
2:56 Village isqua View Lara
3:00 for Timbers arkill and the islands at
3:04 wih Haven Apartments and population
3:07 density in these areas is is high and
3:11 they are certainly not strategical
3:12 single family
3:16 communities uh in 2023 our assistance to
3:19 is residents for things such as rent
3:22 utilities gasoline food and other
3:24 Essentials total
3:27 $68,500
3:29 similar assistance to samamish Residents
3:32 was
3:33 64,500 so about
3:35 $4,000 less than we were providing to
3:38 isar
3:41 Residents the assistance to samamish
3:44 Residents was uh greatly offset by a
3:49 $35,000 grant that we get from the city
3:51 of isal that's buy anyal Grant it's good
3:55 for two
3:56 years um we got no grant money from from
3:59 the city of isqua primarily because
4:02 we've never asked for that
4:04 assistance we've now reached a point
4:07 where we're going to need to do that U
4:11 res for assistance from samamish isqua
4:14 have grown over time we had all this
4:18 devilment lot a lot of new people in the
4:20 area a lot of uh people are section 8 or
4:25 uh similar situations and they need
4:28 money
4:31 so for us to uh better
4:33 assist the both communities we're
4:37 prepared to ask for a grant for 2025 and
4:43 2026 if you have any questions i' we
4:45 have
4:46 to dodge
4:49 them thank you so so much for for um
4:53 speaking to the commission typically
4:55 during the public uh comments the
4:57 Commissioners do not uh ask questions
5:00 um but definitely if if there's anything
5:02 we would be happy to follow up um and
5:05 then um H and I will be in touch with
5:07 you and Ron I know we communicate via
5:09 email when the Grant application opens
5:11 um and so we'll provide any support that
5:13 we can on out and so thank you so much
5:16 and so I know you said that Ron might be
5:18 coming if it's coming I'll ask the
5:20 commission if they would like to hear
5:21 another public and then we can come back
5:23 to that with no problem if that going to
5:25 be that the Commissioners wanted to yeah
5:30 thank you thank you so so much for speak
5:34 tonight and for all the work that you're
5:36 doing supporting residents
5:40 absolutely thank you and I think that
5:42 concludes I did not hear from anyone
5:44 else about other public comments for
5:46 tonight okay all right so we're going to
5:49 move on to the approval of the
5:52 minutes and and L commission as well you
5:54 read over the minutes I realized we
5:56 skipped over the call to order just
5:58 wanted to let you know that Preston uh
6:00 is not gonna be here tonight and then
6:02 Mory also had a p emergency so please
6:06 keep him in your thoughts um but um
6:09 other than that all Commissioners are
6:11 there and we have C thank
6:13 you um okay appr of the minutes does
6:16 anybody want to make a
6:17 motion this would have been for the
6:19 January 24th meeting you can take a
6:22 minute if you want to read
6:35 ground I move that we accept the
6:37 as you just made a motion yes okay
6:40 anybody want second second is there any
6:43 discussion sounds like it's probably
6:45 going to be unanimous approval everybody
6:47 that approves say
6:50 I okay I think it's approved unanimously
6:55 thank all right now we're going to move
6:57 on to Human Services Division and
6:59 introductions and
7:02 updates and we are ready to do
7:04 introductions and updates but I just saw
7:06 someone coming in and I think that's
7:10 wrong commission would you like to hear
7:13 another comment that' be
7:24 great would like to make
7:26 another one but if you're you just
7:28 you're welcome to
7:31 just down but just briefly Shar you know
7:36 I'm new to the St Jens dep Society I've
7:39 been with this four years but I'm
7:40 president last year was my first year
7:43 and uh being a finance guy you know I
7:46 took a look at the finances and where
7:47 the sources were coming from and and
7:49 quickly realized that there was kind of
7:51 a disconnect between who we was serving
7:54 and you know and money so the boundaries
7:56 are kind of weird the way it's done with
7:59 with irishes versus conferences and we
8:02 realize that we have a large portion of
8:04 isqua that you know uses about 50 55% of
8:07 funding so I just thought it would be
8:09 worthwhile to you know ask and make sure
8:12 people were aware of what was happening
8:14 and how we serve people so far so um
8:17 just that was really my my point just
8:20 see if we could get part of the grant
8:21 money this year appreciate the
8:24 consideration sorry for being
8:27 late thank you for being here and
8:29 welcome to stay for the remainder of the
8:31 meeting or you're welcome to however you
8:32 would
8:34 like well I knew and I talk a lot on I'm
8:37 Trish oh
8:38 yeah abolutely
8:44 okay so on to Human Services updates and
8:48 introductions commissioner since uh we
8:51 had new Staffing and all sorts of new
8:53 programming I thought that it's a it's a
8:54 great opportunity tonight for me to come
8:56 and roduce some of our new staff and and
8:59 give you some updates on where we are
9:01 and and so um I want to step back a
9:05 little bit to provide you a little bit
9:06 of overview because I know some of you
9:09 are newer uh and also a lot has changed
9:13 uh in the last few years so I'm GNA go
9:16 way back to five years ago when I first
9:18 joined the city um I was h a staff of me
9:22 and myself and I and the Human Services
9:25 functions at the city at that time were
9:27 really limited to the grants that we
9:29 were giving out the community right uh
9:31 fast forward a couple of years ago we
9:34 really um uh started um increasing and
9:38 creating a division um the the Human
9:43 Services uh currently focus on a wide
9:46 range of different uh programming that
9:49 we do as direct service providers at the
9:51 city um so we are very fortunate we
9:53 started initially with um a homeless
9:56 outreach program uh then we piloted Al
9:59 behavioral health program we had one
10:01 then two staff for that the behavioral
10:04 health program worked uh in supporting
10:07 the the work of the police department in
10:08 any 911 calls that the police would get
10:11 that were uh behavioral health related
10:13 not criminal in nature so that's how we
10:15 started that program with one staff and
10:18 then the homeless outreach program was
10:19 ready to help us inform what does
10:21 homelessness look like and is a start
10:23 connecting with and house community
10:25 members um so we started those programs
10:28 built in 2020 21
10:30 2022 and um last year you may recall
10:33 city council approved additional funding
10:36 to create actually a community or a
10:38 correspon program uh that essentially
10:41 it's going to be a four person team that
10:43 again combines about homeless Outreach
10:45 and behavioral heal uh so Works directly
10:48 with the police department and also
10:50 helping respond to homelessness in in
10:52 our city so we are very very close to
10:55 having that four person team we are now
10:57 at a three person team thank you I have
10:59 met and heard defy before um about Amir
11:02 he's our longest employee he started
11:05 with us in 2021 but just recently a
11:08 month ago I'm happy to to say that we
11:10 also hired lisay Monahan who's here with
11:13 us tonight and then Brandon Parker um
11:17 both of them started a month ago and
11:18 then just last week we promoted uh
11:20 Brenda to the supervisory position so
11:23 that four person team includes a a half
11:26 supervisor who's going to be also doing
11:28 Direct Services and supervision so
11:30 that's Brenda's role so it's not a half
11:32 supervisor it's
11:35 supervisor a lot of C uh and then uh
11:40 very very honored to work with both
11:42 Brenda and ler Lis and Amir are the
11:45 coordinators currently um on the team
11:48 and we are hiring for the um uh last the
11:52 fourth person and last position part of
11:56 the team so I invite you to just
11:59 introduce yours also little bit uh they
12:01 both bring a we experience uh in working
12:04 with children and adults and all
12:06 different that I don't want to still
12:07 just show some they introduce themselves
12:10 but I'm just so happy to have them on
12:12 the team
12:14 awesome okay hello everyone nice to meet
12:18 you all um I'm wec monan originally from
12:22 San Diego California um moved here to go
12:26 udub um hopefully she'll get in yes um
12:31 uh before this work I was in sish County
12:34 um working in the dependency system uh
12:37 um with the close with the courts um for
12:41 um children who've been removed from
12:42 their homes due to abuse and neglect and
12:44 prior to that I was a counselor at
12:46 echoin children center um providing DBT
12:50 therapy for all the juvenile juveniles
12:53 there so I'm excited to uh now work for
12:57 the city um that I've lived in for the
12:59 past six years so I'm excited to um help
13:03 my community with direct service so
13:06 thank you look forward
13:09 to interacting with you
13:12 all thanks up since I'm kind of hid me
13:15 back I'm Brenda Parker and I am new to
13:18 the community fairly new um lived in
13:20 North Bend for a short time but first
13:23 time at isqua um my background is in
13:25 mental health I've been a therapist for
13:27 about 13 years and I've worked in all
13:30 different environments so inpatient
13:32 outpatient intensive
13:34 outpatient Alcohol Services all kinds of
13:37 different settings and then most
13:40 recently I was doing private practice
13:43 and I just found that I I was doing T
13:45 Health and I just found it to be very
13:46 isolating and so I decided to get back
13:49 into the community and um be working
13:52 face to face with people again really
13:53 excited about that really excited to be
13:57 stepping so quickly into this role as
13:59 supervisor so it's a bit of a learning
14:01 curve for me but I have wonderful
14:04 teammate here with me and another one in
14:06 the office and
14:08 new so yeah just looking forward to
14:10 being here and I just want to say too
14:12 having been in this community just a
14:14 short period of time I've lived all over
14:16 I've lived in Nebraska Oregon Idaho
14:20 California all kinds of places and I
14:22 feel more a sense of community Ina than
14:25 I have anywhere so I think that says a
14:27 lot for the that you've done and just
14:30 the the feeling that you get here it's
14:32 special so thank you for having me
14:36 thanks for being here thank you so much
14:38 so any questions Commissioners or
14:41 anything related to to the behavioral he
14:45 and homeless Outreach team soon to be
14:47 the
14:48 community we are playing with a name yet
14:50 we don't have like an official
14:53 very Community response team for now
14:56 it's a generic what we are is that the
14:59 name Community response team so it's not
15:01 final that's kind of how gener name you
15:03 like it yes thank you for that we should
15:06 probably come up with a few and bring it
15:07 back for you to both
15:09 and on a few so yeah we can cut all red
15:13 [Laughter]
15:17 tape yes thank you I'll make a comment
15:20 uh commissioner farta I would say thank
15:22 you I really do uh in terms of
15:24 investment around mental health and
15:26 community and and so forth you I work in
15:28 the system at s homish County in terms
15:30 of probations and what probation
15:32 programs there and I've always seen such
15:33 a lack of you know more you know if it's
15:36 substance use it's mental health if it's
15:39 mentoring if it's education employment
15:41 and I see more cities working towards
15:44 more of an investment towards City
15:46 responses so this is super cool to see
15:48 this happen in real time and kind of
15:50 have more investment with our kids and
15:52 families onto adults so I appreciate for
15:55 you both coming in for them in regards
15:57 to uh
15:59 responses to our
16:02 community thank you so much for sure and
16:05 I think I'm also very proud and very
16:07 humbled very grateful for for the city's
16:10 initiative and investment uh especially
16:12 for the size uh of our city um
16:15 definitely um I think the commitment uh
16:19 to Human Services is shown we have a
16:21 pretty um good team for for the size of
16:24 our city so are you in the middle of the
16:27 hiring process for the fourth or is that
16:29 application open yes we just opened the
16:32 application on Friday we are in the
16:34 middle of hiring so if you know someone
16:36 please send them I was try to send it to
16:37 some circles yes please yes uh and we
16:40 can I can follow up it an email if uh if
16:42 you would like to it's uh thank you
16:45 little pet I'm
16:48 sorry things crawling over
16:51 [Laughter]
16:57 me Serv I
16:59 [Laughter]
17:05 go oh maybe not the
17:12 door there it's a giant I could see from
17:16 over here and I'm so Happy's
17:17 [Laughter]
17:23 like yes they all over oh yeah they are
17:26 all over okay thank you so much man
17:30 related it take
17:32 [Music]
17:34 that thank you Manny yes thank you okay
17:38 so uh those are a couple of updates on
17:41 on the behavioral and and um homeless
17:44 Outreach team um this is also part of
17:48 the the staff report but I'm going to
17:50 give you now the report so since I'm
17:52 giving you an update about the entire
17:53 Human Services um on the emergency
17:55 housing program as you may recall we
17:57 have uh we started that in July it's uh
18:00 it's essentially our shelter first
18:02 shelter in isaa it's an emergency
18:04 housing program um that is going well
18:07 going strong we continue to have uh
18:09 three staff providing a sday coverage um
18:13 for the program we currently have 13 uh
18:16 participants in the program uh so far we
18:19 served about 23 uh benefited from the
18:22 program um uh you will see again um next
18:27 week actually are going to the city
18:30 council services safety and Parks
18:32 committee uh to provide an update on the
18:34 Strategic plan uh you may recall we
18:37 talked about that here last month but we
18:39 are also going to begin conversations
18:41 with with City Council on long-term
18:43 planning for the emergency housing
18:45 program uh because that program is
18:47 currently still in a pilot uh phase um
18:51 it's uh we have approval for funding uh
18:54 until the end of this year until
18:56 2024 uh we would like to start committee
18:59 conversations and conversations with
19:00 city council and and hope to provide
19:03 some options for long-term planning for
19:06 the in the 20125 2026 budget proposal
19:10 that's going to go to City Council uh
19:12 next fall so more to come you will hear
19:15 more from us on that but also if you
19:17 have questions if you have thoughts if
19:19 you have concerns ideas we would love to
19:22 hear them but we will bring that item
19:24 back here I do have a question you said
19:26 that um you've served 23 M and there's
19:29 currently 13 so 10 have been involved
19:32 and then they've moved out yes so 10
19:35 have been involved and they've moved out
19:37 um and what are those 10 doing all right
19:40 just in general right yes so they are
19:42 doing a combination of different things
19:44 three successfully moved to permanent
19:47 housing I believe four or
19:50 five have been connected with families
19:54 they were typically from out of state so
19:56 for a period of time if you may remember
19:58 remember um we had a set aside room a
20:02 standby room for the police department
20:04 to use and so that room was used for
20:08 short periods of time when somebody uh
20:11 needed a place to stay but shelters were
20:13 not available they were involved with
20:14 the police and the jail was not the
20:16 place for them right so then often we
20:18 would use that standby room for that and
20:20 then most often those participants had
20:23 family connections maybe in another
20:25 state that we provided that connection
20:27 and they moved out so we had a of those
20:29 and then unfortunately we also had two
20:31 that were unsuccessful so they
20:32 transitioned out unsuccessfully uh so a
20:35 combination of of things um but
20:39 overall uh a lot of good Lessons Learned
20:41 From the program and um I think a very
20:44 very helpful resource for the community
20:47 here locally 8% not a bad start yeah yes
20:53 no no but we had a lot of good we
20:56 actually just were talking today about
20:58 some of the lessons learned that were
20:59 surprising for us as as we didn't know
21:02 what we didn't know when we first
21:03 started right um a lot of community
21:06 members um you know we might interact
21:10 with them on the streets or in the in in
21:13 in encampments or they might come to our
21:15 office but we really didn't start
21:16 learning uh some of the challenges that
21:19 they didn't know they were having until
21:20 they actually moved indoor right uh so
21:23 after after being outdoors for five six
21:27 or more years
21:29 um people even forgot the concept of
21:31 doing laundry for example you know
21:33 sometimes it was even difficult like
21:35 especially as they were used to just
21:37 having clothes and wearing them until
21:39 they weren out like sometimes bringing
21:41 IND door and trying to even just graspy
21:44 the things that we take for granted or
21:46 going for the first time in a restaurant
21:48 and trying to um to order things
21:51 somebody came and shared with me saying
21:53 I haven't been in a restaurant for 23
21:54 years I don't even know what to do with
21:56 the menu right so they're just like some
21:58 of those skills that that we take for
22:01 granted and they come normal to us that
22:03 that it takes a long time to transition
22:06 and those these are I'm just giving you
22:08 a couple examples because when we
22:10 present we present data but it's so hard
22:12 to capture this information in a
22:14 quantifiable data and and and be able to
22:17 share the story and how important it is
22:19 to have a safe place to stay and it
22:21 might take longer to even look for a job
22:24 because first we need to learn how to do
22:25 laundry yeah or how often we should
22:28 shower just because you're just you lose
22:30 that skill when you don't when you're
22:33 only thing is
22:34 survival no I assume
22:37 that M Parker was it be helping in in
22:41 that real too is that part of there so
22:45 right now uh Brenda and L work in the
22:47 community response program so they do
22:50 connect and coordinate with the
22:51 emergency housing program but mainly as
22:54 using it as a resource if we have
22:56 openings or just coordinating with the
22:58 team team other than that Brenda and L's
23:01 role is going to be really primarily to
23:02 respond to every time we get calls from
23:05 police or dispatch when they receive 911
23:08 calls and somebody's in crisis they are
23:10 going to go to respond to those I have a
23:12 question does the housing participants
23:15 um are they assigned social workers
23:18 after they complete the program yes so
23:21 part of the program requirement for them
23:23 is to work with one of the so we have
23:25 currently three full-time staff who help
23:26 with that so there each assigned to at
23:29 least one of them and so um so then they
23:32 work on different goals we actually use
23:35 a wellness wheel model to where they
23:37 have um seven or eight goal areas that
23:41 we encourage them to develop goals in
23:44 like one is uh mental health and
23:46 physical health and one is employment
23:48 and housing and emotional and spiritual
23:50 health um and so yes they would work
23:52 oneon-one with that person okay good
23:55 yeah then in addition we also do a lot
23:58 of like meal provision and um workshops
24:01 and all sorts of activities happening
24:05 there I find it interesting that um I
24:08 feel that ahead of the game because
24:11 we're not the only city that's having
24:12 problems with homelessness and that sort
24:15 of thing so um I like to see this going
24:18 on Good Start good love the program
24:22 that's I'm always asking questions no
24:25 please ask thank you so proud and I have
24:27 nothing to do with
24:32 can't take credit for any of it but it
24:33 makes me so proud of our city yeah proud
24:36 of of our city I think for sure um it's
24:40 a we took a leap of faith because it's
24:42 you don't often see shelters managed by
24:44 a city by a government entity and
24:46 definitely we learned a lot of lessons
24:48 that there are so many things that we
24:50 would like to do and we cannot do
24:51 because we are a city right um and so
24:54 most often um shelter programs are
24:57 managed by nonprofit
25:00 providers um but it was important for us
25:03 to try it in isqua because we heard that
25:05 it's needed and so I think um definitely
25:08 we have a lot of lessons learned but
25:09 it's so needed and what's the number
25:12 that's needed at this point that's a
25:15 great question Manny so I think
25:19 probably uh being able to increase
25:21 capacity and maybe having a capacity of
25:24 like let's say approximately 30 I think
25:26 would make a bigger dent in in uh in in
25:29 in our city um and I you know so so I
25:35 think that answers your
25:37 question but it also always changes um
25:42 whether right people transition and also
25:45 again we lucky we made a dent I think
25:48 because so over the last couple of years
25:50 with homeless Outreach um we are able to
25:53 really move since we started to
25:55 move nearly 40 people into permanent
25:58 health in before we even started this
26:00 program so we made a dent in those who
26:02 are local um isar residents who are
26:06 unhoused um we we made a dent in in that
26:10 now the challenge though is the
26:12 emergency housing program is a resource
26:15 but because of the location we are at
26:18 Motel 6 where the motel also functions
26:21 as a motel it's not everybody's a good
26:24 fit for that program right so even if we
26:27 increase capacity to 50 or 100 not
26:30 everybody's going to be a good fit for
26:32 that so it's a resource so that's why I
26:35 think my my
26:38 response but no great conversation great
26:41 question so more to come definitely this
26:43 year on on this topic and please don't
26:45 hesitate to continue to ask the right
26:48 questions and let us know
26:51 how
26:53 um hey I think that's it and then in
26:56 terms of our Hanah you know is out but
26:59 you are going to you're about to get
27:00 very very busy as early as next month
27:02 with the human services Grand cycle
27:04 opening so definitely all you're going
27:06 to hear about it's going to be that in
27:08 the upcoming months so I'm not going to
27:10 provide much of an update other than
27:12 just reminding you that the the
27:14 application process opens early March
27:16 it's going to end it's going to close in
27:18 April and then starting in April you're
27:21 going to become become very very busy so
27:23 thank you so so much for all the work
27:24 that you're about to do in the upcoming
27:27 months
27:29 now are there Commissioners that are um
27:31 here today
27:33 or human services are as transition out
27:36 of new Services there are we losing
27:39 anybody oh if we're losing anybody I
27:42 don't believe we are losing anybody I'm
27:44 I end but I wrote Hannah an email saying
27:47 that I was interested in continuing so
27:49 yeah so thank you so this is part of uh
27:52 again this was going to be one of my
27:54 reminders during the staff report but we
27:56 are here so uh I'm going to tell you
27:59 let's connect I know Hannah's coming
28:00 back next week uh but the applications
28:02 for the board and commissions are open
28:04 now so you would just need to reapply
28:07 I'm happy to connect and send you the
28:08 link if you don't have it but that's the
28:10 only thing um so it sounds like we're
28:14 not losing any Commissioners unless
28:16 somebody else would like to leave
28:18 probably not and we have one vacancy
28:20 already we have one vacancy alternate so
28:22 we are going to try to fill that vacancy
28:24 to provide you more uh uh more muscle so
28:28 you don't have to read as many
28:32 applications so uh and so then last last
28:36 note on that because it's related um on
28:40 March
28:42 25th uh there has been an equity
28:44 training scheduled that falls on a
28:47 Monday uh the equity training has been
28:49 scheduled as a joint um meeting with as
28:53 a joint training with the other
28:55 commissions on the east side well
28:58 Redmond samamish and
29:00 Kirkland um it seems like the um
29:03 provider who is doing the workshop is
29:05 only available on that day so that's
29:08 going to be the only day I'm working
29:10 however with with my fellow Partners on
29:12 the east side to make sure that the
29:13 meeting is provided in a hybrid format
29:16 also because right now it's only in
29:18 person in Redmond and I'm like during
29:20 rush hour that's going to be an hour 40
29:22 minute driving is not going to work for
29:24 our commission so I'm working on that if
29:27 push comes to when that's not available
29:29 we'll do something else just an our end
29:31 so that's something that would be open
29:32 to the to to all of us yes to all of you
29:36 yes and what time on the 2 I don't have
29:38 yet those details I asked exactly about
29:41 that and we don't have those details but
29:42 we'll let you know but in the evening
29:44 it's probably in the evening most of the
29:45 time it's in the evening so I would
29:46 imagine 6 6:30 that's all offer to
29:50 Commissioners Commissioners yes yes so
29:53 the the yeah the Human Services
29:55 Commissions on the side the five
29:57 commissions
29:59 would it be the same train we had like
30:01 two years ago um similar probably yes
30:05 very similar so it's just to help you
30:07 with having an equity lens to the
30:09 granting
30:13 process
30:15 sorry um okay any other questions
30:22 or okay we moving ready to move to the
30:26 next okay wasn't sure if you'd already
30:28 moved to
30:32 it thank you for that actually I think I
30:34 drive my staff crazy too because we have
30:36 an agenda and we start and then I
30:40 always I'll connect connect are we
30:43 moving to the Human Services annual
30:45 grants annual report now yeah okay thank
30:48 yeah I so appreciate you commissioner
30:52 V so for this I actually have a
30:56 presentation that Hannah put together
30:58 before she left on vacation she was like
31:01 Monica you're going to need help take
31:04 this um I'm so grateful for her work
31:07 thank
31:08 you bye
31:12 bye
31:17 okay so H put together as you know she's
31:21 coordinating all differents and um at
31:24 the beginning of each year uh we do an
31:27 annual report on the previous year's
31:31 grants
31:33 so that's what we have here for you
31:36 tonight and so providing you first going
31:39 back just as a refresher and background
31:42 you may recall that um for this previous
31:45 funding cycle for 2023 and
31:49 2024 uh we had allocated about
31:54 $556,000 per year so a little bit over a
31:57 million dollar for the the two
32:00 years um and th those funds went to
32:06 support 34 different organizations
32:09 across 42 programs so you may recall
32:12 that one organization May apply and may
32:15 receive funding to more than one program
32:18 especially some larger organizations
32:19 might have Behavioral Health Services
32:21 and they might have shelter services or
32:23 they might have a combination of food
32:25 and and other services right so um the
32:29 equivalent uh of residents supported
32:32 with the funding was about 4,000 close
32:34 to 5,000 residents um and we always say
32:38 the equivalent because these are never
32:39 unduplicated residents um so it's just
32:42 an an estimated number um uh based on
32:46 that we calculate based on the amount of
32:48 funding that that we have available and
32:51 based on the cost of service of each
32:53 organization um and the reason why it's
32:56 never duplic
32:58 unduplicated is because let's say two
33:01 organizations May support the same
33:05 resident but they count as
33:08 two I don't want to get to complicate on
33:11 that uh so the funding that we provided
33:15 by priority area and as you recall these
33:18 are our Focus areas based on the
33:20 Strategic plan and these are going to
33:23 continue to be our Focus areas for the
33:25 next funding cycle so on the housing
33:27 Continuum Community Resources physical
33:29 and behavioral health and language
33:31 language access and cultural
33:33 Services um so as you can see it's a
33:36 pretty even distribution of the number
33:38 of programs that we
33:40 funded um and also the amount of money
33:44 that we provided is
33:48 um not completely um even but it's
33:53 comparable compared to the number of
33:55 programs that applied and then they
33:58 received
33:59 funding um any questions so far
34:03 about
34:07 this
34:08 okay so when we look at the performance
34:12 of our grantees and the the contract
34:15 management portion that Hanah provides
34:17 we look always at timeliness in
34:19 completing their their reports to the
34:22 city
34:23 completeness uh right and accuracy did
34:26 they meet their Service Unit goals and
34:28 did they meet their resident goals um so
34:31 each agency has at least one uh Service
34:34 Unit goal uh and some agencies can have
34:37 up to three Service Unit goals um so for
34:40 example let's say um we talked about
34:43 emergency financial assistance tonight
34:46 um so an organization may say okay they
34:50 received $220,000 and for those
34:53 $20,000 um they commit to serve let's
34:56 say 40 isqua resident
34:58 and the Service Unit goal might be
35:00 related to uh utility payments and
35:03 another service goal might be related to
35:05 rent assistance um and so that's how it
35:07 trickles
35:11 down so in terms of timeliness and
35:14 completeness uh 93% of the programs that
35:18 we funded submit submitted their reports
35:20 on time and all of them uh were correct
35:24 and
35:25 complete often we do have uh agencies
35:29 probably the biggest challenges with
35:30 them submitting reports on time or
35:32 complete is often Chang in Staffing or
35:36 just not enough um not enough support
35:39 and most often if they are not able to
35:41 submit the reports on time we do get um
35:44 an email asking for an extension um not
35:47 all the time but
35:49 um and it's not a big you know we
35:53 understand it's
35:56 difficult um
35:59 so at the time when when this report was
36:01 done we didn't have all the data in for
36:03 the fourth quarter so um actually I
36:07 think we did There's yeah we just forgot
36:10 to change the numbers
36:12 that three quarter four so it is at the
36:15 end of quarter four
36:18 um so 83% of the programs met their
36:23 annual service goals and 177% did not
36:27 meet so out of the 42
36:29 programs
36:33 um do we know which service areas um
36:37 they did not meet the goal we do we do
36:40 we have that information I don't have it
36:42 on the slide here I can look it up for
36:44 you tonight if you know yes I just
36:46 didn't want to call out agencies and
36:48 shame them in in the meeting but area
36:52 yes we do so that's why we know for each
36:54 organization and we just yeah again we
36:57 just our goal is to provide a technical
36:59 assistance and work with the
37:00 organizations and they don't need them
37:02 and uh that's why yeah don't want
37:06 understood certainly we I can follow up
37:09 you would like yeah uh the nice thing is
37:12 though is that as you saw a couple of
37:14 slides ago our funding was really um to
37:18 to with the funding that we had we
37:20 anticipated that we will support uh
37:23 closely uh you know a little bit over
37:26 4,000 residents right um but the funding
37:30 actually went and supported 15,000
37:32 residents so most of the time you know
37:35 our organizations that we support they
37:38 leverage the funds that we give them and
37:40 so then that gives them the opportunity
37:41 to really increase their support to more
37:44 residents so I think that's a big
37:46 takeaway and and for you as a
37:48 commissioner as Commissioners to know
37:50 that most of the time the funding that
37:52 you give is not just um cut and dry it's
37:55 going to be really leveraged so
37:59 um but uh kind of surprising and
38:02 something that we kept an eye on this
38:04 past year the isaa food and clothing
38:06 bank stand out as serving a lot more
38:09 residents so um really in the past uh
38:13 even during covid um the past few years
38:16 they were serving two
38:18 3,000,000 two 3,000 residents per year
38:22 and this year they served 7,000
38:24 residents so crazy it is crazy it's not
38:27 a number that we want to see go up right
38:30 ideally we would like to see the number
38:32 go down um also meeting with with food
38:35 and clothing bank staff they they share
38:38 that more and more people they don't
38:40 they don't feel that they only serve
38:42 lowincome people um more and more they
38:45 do serve people who um have been laid
38:48 off and um are more like the the middle
38:51 middle class population that struggles
38:53 especially with the inflation and the
38:57 last couple years have been
39:00 hard uh any questions so
39:08 far uh so I just calleded out one of the
39:11 highlights
39:14 and um really I know Hannah works really
39:18 closely with all the organizations and
39:20 she is um um take such a big pride in
39:24 the fact that organizations sometimes
39:27 they are so busy in providing their own
39:29 services but then when they get a chance
39:31 to connect with other
39:32 organizations um just that ability to
39:35 Network and and share resources with one
39:37 another has been very very helpful um so
39:41 uh hanah's role a lot is try to also
39:43 connect not just residents to services
39:45 but connect organizations to
39:47 organizations that has been
39:50 helpful uh so continuing some some other
39:54 highlights just a few call outs U for
39:56 some of the local Services you all know
39:58 the isoka meals program uh serving meals
40:02 uh from uh the Community Hall here uh
40:05 theyve really served in 2023 335
40:09 unduplicated guests so that's also
40:11 another speaks volume to the number of
40:13 people who need and receive meals and
40:16 then uh volunteers serves over nearly
40:19 7,000 meals and this does not include
40:22 the weekend meals program I just had
40:24 recently they served about a th000 meals
40:27 also for the year so
40:31 um quite a few people receiving also I
40:34 want to highlight and give them a big
40:36 shout out in our emergency housing
40:38 program we also um our participants
40:42 um um access the meals program and and
40:46 receive meals from from them as well so
40:49 we utilizing
40:51 that um few highlight stories um crisis
40:58 connections uh you know Regional
41:01 organization um they have the 211 they
41:05 have now also the uh 988 uh suicide line
41:10 and also um provide all sorts of
41:17 regional services and access to
41:20 information and services so on their end
41:23 they they the Highlight related to them
41:26 is that they were able to increase their
41:29 salary for their their staff the wages
41:31 to their salary by nearly 20 30% um so
41:37 um for a nonprofit to be able to do that
41:40 um uh and and have minimum wage provided
41:44 to their staff at $25 an hour that is
41:46 big because that has not been the case
41:48 in nonprofit so um definely that's
41:51 something hoping that more nonprofits
41:54 are able to get there but it's not that
41:55 easy to get there right
41:59 some of the challenges as you already
42:02 heard uh say the the need increasing in
42:05 number of residents served and needs
42:07 have been
42:08 increasing um increase decreasing
42:11 funding donations uh you might have
42:13 heard this we noticed this last year as
42:15 well um and you heard me say that that
42:18 needs uh expand Beyond uh residents with
42:21 low income um one of the things if some
42:25 of you were here during the
42:27 pandemic but we talked a lot during the
42:30 pandemic that um we we are not so
42:34 worried in human services about pandemic
42:36 years because during that time when it's
42:38 a moment of Crisis everybody pitches in
42:41 everybody helps out donations tend to
42:44 increase there's also some federal aid
42:47 that comes onetime funding we always
42:49 worry about three four years down the
42:51 line and that's where we are now um
42:54 because all the onetime funding and
42:56 emergency funds that available at the
42:57 federal level are drying out um those
43:01 who were able individual partners and
43:03 and private donors and those who go to
43:06 churches and parishes they no longer
43:09 have uh that ability to keep on donating
43:12 so this is when we see a decline in
43:14 donations and an increase in needs and
43:17 we see also the aftermath like
43:19 especially um I know that even at isoc
43:22 Community Services um um there were so
43:25 many layoffs in the TCH tech industry
43:28 and now we are starting to see also the
43:30 the um consequences of those as people
43:34 uh find it harder and harder to go back
43:36 to to work and
43:38 so something to keep in mind and
43:41 something good information for you to
43:42 have as you're going to look at the uh
43:45 the grant applications that we are going
43:47 to receive in the next couple of
43:50 months um so we talked a little bit just
43:53 a few highlights about the the continued
43:56 increase that the Isa food and clothing
43:58 bank uh you may recall they did a winter
44:01 code Drive is that reversed should it be
44:04 212 to
44:06 880 880 codes were provided to 200
44:12 people does that make sense or 200
44:15 families probably actually probably
44:17 something yeah something yeah bet it was
44:19 family families I think it's families
44:25 yes yeah so the number codes that they
44:27 gave away it was an 88% increase for
44:30 2028 yes yes it's families it has to be
44:34 families unless somebody got four Cotes
44:37 four codes but that would mean that yes
44:39 too many everybody got four quotes that
44:43 Cod that doesn't make
44:45 sense yeah and as you know the food bank
44:48 also provides the the school power
44:51 packs and then their holiday gift
44:55 program supported near nearly 2,000
44:57 children from 700 families so I'm pretty
45:01 sure I'm 99% sure that the 8008 to 12
45:05 200 families that makes sense because
45:07 they volunteered and and they did give
45:09 anywhere from one to four Coates
45:10 depending on what time you
45:12 arrived how many were remaining to
45:15 provide per
45:18 person um again we talked about this job
45:22 loss and inflation I'm always ahead a
45:24 few slides ahead I don't yeah this
45:28 yes St Vincent the Paul yes uh here on
45:30 the screen though is St Vincent the Paul
45:32 the St conference as H conference so
45:36 this is if you
45:38 remember speaking of onetime funds right
45:41 last year last March just a year ago uh
45:44 city council approved onetime emergency
45:46 funds totaling $200,000 these were
45:50 outside of the granting process uh and
45:52 then we divided them to isqu Community
45:54 Services St Vincent the Paul and the the
45:57 YWCA in samamish um so these are some of
46:00 the numbers and how many households were
46:03 were served with those
46:07 funds um and then just a brief reminder
46:11 for you on the next steps as
46:13 Commissioners the applications open
46:15 early March we have uh March 20th it's
46:19 our next Human Services Commission
46:21 meeting when we'll do an overview and
46:23 review to prepare for those applications
46:26 it's not here on the screen because I
46:27 just learned today about the March 25th
46:30 Equity training more information to come
46:32 on that April 8th the applications close
46:36 and then our Human Services Commission
46:38 meeting on April 17th you should have
46:41 the summary of the grants
46:43 available C to give you the the
46:46 summaries to give you access to the
46:49 applications um
46:53 so I think that's about it questions
46:57 concerns what would be more helpful for
46:59 you as we move into this next page what
47:02 would be less
47:06 helpful I love the Highlight that um
47:10 Hannah included in there about the
47:12 higher level of cooperation between
47:14 organizations I can't find this slide
47:16 right now um because I just I feel like
47:18 that benefits everyone so that's I was I
47:22 she saw that and included it in the
47:25 report yeah
47:27 sure so many times even I remember for
47:30 just more recently for the Strategic uh
47:34 Plan update we did a few focused groups
47:37 uh and we had nonprofit come nonprofit
47:39 organizations come to those focused
47:41 groups and it was so interesting to see
47:43 how oh I never heard about your services
47:45 I never heard about your services let's
47:47 connect and try to leverage this right U
47:51 and then as you you know all of you know
47:53 from welcoming week having the resource
47:55 Fair how much one of the the biggest
47:57 highlight of that was organizations
47:59 saying I didn't know about these
48:00 organizations I learned so much so we'll
48:03 definitely continue to do that since
48:05 help
48:06 home do you think that we'll approach um
48:10 evaluating these applications similar to
48:13 how we did it two years ago where people
48:16 will be broken off into groups and
48:19 groups will have different you know the
48:22 different they will focus on maybe one
48:25 vertical yeah yeah yeah that was
48:27 something that worked I think in the
48:29 last two application Cycles so
48:31 definitely we'll talk more about that uh
48:33 next month but I think that worked and
48:36 so we would love to recommend to
48:37 continue that um you know when I first
48:41 came to the city every Commissioners
48:44 every commissioner read all the
48:45 applications and they they right and so
48:50 um you still you will have access to all
48:53 the applications and if you have the
48:54 time to put in please by all means it's
48:56 not that you're not going to have access
48:58 but it's also asking a lot from a
49:00 commissioner to to read 80 to 90 or 100
49:03 application so dividing them in groups
49:06 and having you know it gives you more
49:08 time to if you read 15 to 20 it's more
49:11 meaningful time and and then you also
49:14 trust your fellow Commissioners that
49:15 everybody did their their job in their
49:18 own bucket area
49:21 right
49:25 so you heard I don't think yeah it's
49:29 it's asking a lot from a volunteer group
49:31 to to to read that many especially when
49:33 all of you have fulltime jobs and
49:36 families and other
49:43 commitments thank you thank you for that
49:45 report okay you're very very welcome
49:48 thank you just the
49:50 same hey are we ready to move on yes
49:54 okay we're probably doing pretty good
49:55 with time yeah
49:58 um okay the chair and commissioner
50:01 reports does anybody have anything that
50:04 want to report out
50:11 on it might come to you
50:14 later
50:16 yeah and then we don't have a youth
50:19 report or you do we don't have a youth
50:21 but we do have a small youth report um
50:24 so um Preston is on um midwinter break
50:28 and so I'm so happy that he's enjoying
50:30 that but he did let me know that they
50:33 are working on their conference and
50:35 actually he sent me via email the event
50:38 bright application for their youth
50:40 conference so I'm GNA follow up and send
50:42 it to you via email um if you're
50:45 interested uh he was welcoming um people
50:49 to sign up and attend and so that's the
50:52 youth
50:54 update thank you for that and thank you
50:57 Preston to giving us a report even
51:00 though he's not here I know isn't he
51:02 magical like that
51:08 yeah okay well thank you so in terms of
51:12 Staff report I gave you most of the
51:14 staff report that I had but I do have
51:15 still a couple of things uh the most
51:18 important one coming up this weekend uh
51:21 February 24th and 25th here at the
51:23 community center uh Black History Month
51:27 celebration we have an art exhibit in
51:30 collaboration with
51:31 Onyx uh and then also with a few
51:34 community members who worked really hard
51:36 and and creating it the the exhibit goes
51:39 on from 10:00 a.m to 400 PM in the
51:42 afternoon there will be uh free uh
51:45 desserts and beverages until supplies
51:47 last but there's going to be peach
51:49 cobbler and banana pudding and all
51:52 things that oh my gosh you need to go
51:54 and try them out um also on Sunday at 2m
51:59 as a closeout ceremony there will be a
52:01 small gathering some artists speaking
52:04 about their art uh the the organizers uh
52:08 having some closing remarks and mayor
52:10 Paulie will also be there with some
52:12 closing remarks so if you have a chance
52:14 and if you're interested definitely you
52:16 can go there all weekend long but also
52:18 on Sunday at around 2 pm um for the
52:21 close out
52:22 ceremony um so excited about that
52:27 Manny are you doing anything with your
52:29 art I is it going to be
52:31 there um no
52:33 um not
52:36 this what you were saying Monica
52:38 reminded me that I think there are C
52:40 just a couple of art pieces of the
52:41 historic show Station 2 for Black
52:43 History Month if anybody's interested
52:46 I'm not sure I can't remember the hours
52:49 uh I'm no longer part of the Downtown
52:51 Association but I still received emails
52:54 so okay no yes that's great great and
52:57 yeah I think I saw something on the
52:59 website but I don't know exactly times
53:01 and
53:02 hours on the DS
53:06 website website is there
53:09 great okay and other than that
53:11 Commissioners we talked about the equity
53:14 uh training on March 25th more
53:16 information to follow up via email uh we
53:19 talked about board recruitment so I'll
53:21 follow up with uh Huma and if you know
53:23 anyone else who is interested in uh uh
53:26 serving on a border commission at the
53:28 city the applications are currently open
53:31 and they do close I believe uh early
53:34 March so there's some time and then more
53:37 information is coming out in The Insider
53:39 all of you should receive The Insider
53:41 you are receiving The Insider right okay
53:43 thank
53:44 you uh we talked about the emergency
53:47 housing program we go to the city
53:49 council services safety and Parks
53:52 committee next week so that really
53:54 concludes my my S
53:58 part sounds
54:01 good okay other business or
54:04 announcements or anything for the good
54:06 of the
54:11 order it's going to be springtime when
54:14 we meet next right will be
54:17 Springtime busy huh so we're gonna be
54:20 busy with
54:22 the I was just doing a headcount of who
54:24 had done the granting before the four of
54:27 us yeah right and then then Mory yeah
54:31 yeah yeah
54:33 okay it's you guys will learn a lot I do
54:38 have a question so will it be next
54:39 meeting or at some
54:42 point not at a meeting
54:45 where the groups the vertical kind of
54:48 subject matter groups are decided yes
54:52 does that process work that's such a
54:54 good that's a good good great question
54:56 thank you reer so um first step we'll
55:00 reach out to you via email to ask if
55:03 once we receive all the applications and
55:05 we are going to see all the
55:06 organizations we are going to share that
55:08 with you and we are going to reach out
55:09 to you to let us know if you have any
55:11 conflict of interest so if you're
55:13 serving on a board of any of the
55:15 organization or if you're volunteering
55:17 with any of the organizations or if
55:19 you're working with any of the
55:20 organizations you're not going to be
55:23 allowed to make recommendations for that
55:25 so that's that's can be the first step
55:27 once we identify where there are um
55:30 conflicts of interest then usually
55:32 Hannah and I we're trying to do the math
55:34 and saying Okay so this person cannot
55:36 review the uh the housing Continuum and
55:39 this person cannot review the behavioral
55:41 halt one and so we are going to try to
55:42 assign you to buckets just based on that
55:45 and then we are going to send it out to
55:47 you and say okay these are the buckets
55:48 based on the conflict of interest are
55:50 you okay with all of this so then once
55:52 we have that then then we'll proceed so
55:55 that's a little bit of math and arts
55:58 combined to that if that makes a little
55:59 bit of sense yes um but to answer your
56:04 question um yeah Manny myy and I were in
56:06 a group together and we had several
56:10 meetings outside the
56:11 normal commission meeting
56:14 yeah so um probably so because you're
56:18 gonna start working in small groups so
56:20 we have the regular monthly meetings so
56:22 March April May June probably July we
56:26 are not going to have a regular meeting
56:28 because June and July is when you're
56:31 going to meet in your smaller meetings
56:33 and probably we'll come back in August
56:34 as a larger meeting where you're going
56:36 to make your recommendations uh to the
56:39 rest of the the groups and then we'll
56:41 finish the recommendations in August or
56:43 we'll finish them in September but
56:45 ideally we should finish them in August
56:47 so we can give them hand them to Mayor
56:50 poy for them to be included in the
56:52 budget wasn't August an off month last
56:54 year yes
56:56 is it is okay oh I it just depends it
56:59 just depends on the work right depends
57:01 on the workload yes uh probably this I
57:04 mean we can always look if Commissioners
57:06 are out on vacation we can look at
57:08 having a special meeting that's sometime
57:10 not at the regular meeting in August um
57:13 but especially for this year typically
57:15 August is not an off meeting July will
57:17 be but but typically it's because you're
57:19 are too busy with yeah friends so yes
57:24 and usually in a group so depending on
57:26 how many we have we have two three
57:28 people in a group and the group comes to
57:31 agreement amongst themselves yes with on
57:34 that subject
57:36 matter um set of applications and then
57:39 presents to the lar yeah okay and if I
57:43 remember correctly didn't you and
57:46 Hannah kind of come up with your
57:48 recommendations for how the money should
57:50 be split among the verticals yes so we
57:53 do a little bit of work on that end and
57:55 so so what we did and what we'll
57:57 probably continue to do so we have the
57:59 exact amount of dollars or approximate
58:02 uh amount of money and then we look at
58:05 how many total applications we received
58:08 and how many applications we have in
58:10 each bucket so then typically then we
58:12 assign let's say if we had 30 out of a
58:16 100 applications 30 in one bucket then
58:18 we might align assign about 30% of the
58:21 funds to that bucket and the same so we
58:24 assign percentages based on the number
58:26 of applications that were
58:28 received um and then we also do a second
58:32 depending let's say if you
58:36 recommend depending we are gonna say
58:38 okay so you have this much money to
58:40 recommend but then as we work with the
58:43 different groups if we hear that well
58:45 this group really has let's say 30% of
58:48 the funds but they maybe they don't want
58:51 to make recommendations to 30% of the
58:53 applications but this group needs more
58:55 money we can also transfer money from I
58:58 do remember that yeah yeah felt pretty
59:01 well last
59:03 year last year last time seems like just
59:07 last year it seems like this
59:11 year I don't know how many times we uh
59:15 we met up off three times two or three
59:19 times three there might have been times
59:21 when you and mor and I met too I can't
59:23 remember yeah yeah a lot of reading
59:28 offline
59:29 yeah
59:32 so okay any other questions or any
59:36 other concerns okay okay the meetings
59:41 are
59:42 Jour it's like a record
59:55 Trish