1. Coming up this Wednesday: Public Conversation #4 — Mental healthcare services delivery. The TYP will hold its next public conversation on 6pm Wednesday, July 21 at the Cansler YMCA.

2. Reminder: Neighborhood meeting about Flenniken Housing. The TYP will dialog with residents of the neighborhoods close to the Flenniken School about safety on Thursday, July 29 at the South Knoxville Community Center.

3. In the news: Transport of people who are homeless to Knox County. The TYP’s response.

The TYP will hold its next public conversation at 6pm Wednesday, July 21 at the Cansler YMCA. The topic will be mental healthcare services in the context of permanent supportive housing. Sheryl McCormick, Coordinator, Recovery Training Services at Peninsula, will present for the first half-hour with Q & A to follow.

Ms. McCormick, as a person who has experienced homelessness and who lives a full and active life with a psychiatric disorder, brings a unique and extremely well-informed perspective to this conversation. McCormick says that recovery would not have been possible for her if she’d been warehoused or otherwise segregated. Community integration, with housing built out in the community, is critical for the success of people with mental illness.

We encourage you to attend this important conversation and to invite people you know to attend with you. This is an excellent opportunity to gain a more complete understanding of how mental healthcare services are delivered in our community and why they are such a vital component of our own Ten-Year Plan’s strategy to end chronic homelessness.

2. Reminder: Neighborhood meeting about Flenniken Housing

The TYP will dialog with residents of the neighborhoods close to the Flenniken School about safety on Thursday, July 29 at the South Knoxville Community Center.

The last time we met was on June 21. At that meeting we discussed establishing a regular meeting concerning Flenniken Housing. Attendees agreed that a monthly meeting on Monday* evening would be appropriate, and that the meeting should continue to take place at the South Knoxville Community Center. Attendees also generated a list of potential topics for those meetings. It became apparent at that time that the most significant concerns shared by Flenniken’s neighbors are related to the over-arching issue of safety, and that is what the meeting on the 29^th will be about.

*Please note that this meeting had previously been scheduled for Monday, July 19. It was changed to Thursday, July 29 at the request of a City Councilmember whose schedule did not permit attendance on the previously-scheduled date.

Again, we encourage you to attend this meeting and to invite others to join you. Safety for residents of permanent supportive housing, as well as for their neighbors, is of vital concern no matter where it’s built.

3. In the news: Transport of people who are homeless to Knox County

We spoke this week with reporters for local television stations about the recent news that officials from some counties surrounding ours have been sending people who are homeless to Knox County. We sent them the following information:

• The TYP’s reaction to news that some surrounding counties send people who are homeless who get discharged from jail to Knox County so they can obtain shelter.
  • To keep this in perspective, Knoxville is a mid-sized city situated within an area that’s historically rural. We have all kinds of resources here. That’s true of any city like ours.
  • People come to Knoxville from surrounding counties for a lot of different reasons: healthcare, jobs, educational opportunities, and more.
  • Are people who are homeless from surrounding counties going to come to Knoxville to gain access to services here? Sure. I’d probably want to do the same thing if I had no family, friends and other resources available to me if I fell into homelessness nearby.
  • Contrary to an often-repeated myth, we are not a unique magnet for homeless people from all over the country. Over 60% of the people who experience homelessness in Knox County list an address in Knox County as their last permanent address, with just under 80% having their last permanent address in Knox or one of the counties that surround Knox.
  • Our situation is very similar to most other cities of our size in our part of the country.

• The TYP’s reaction to the Sheriff’s response to learning that KCSO employees were meeting their colleagues from other counties and bringing people discharged from jails to homeless shelters in Knox County.
  • Sheriff Jones was very responsive and acted fast to resolve the situation just as soon as it came to his attention.

The July 9, 2010 edition of the Knoxville News Sentinel ran a front page article titled Ashe against idea for park to be future site for homeless residence. This article contains some elements that are unfortunately misleading. We have spoken to the reporter about our concerns. We want to make it clear that we are not pursuing any development of permanent supportive housing at Lakeshore Park and have no plans to pursue a Low-Income Housing Tax Credit application for Lakeshore in 2011.

2. Reminder: Public Conversation #4

The TYP will hold its next public conversation on 6pm Wednesday, July 21 at the Cansler YMCA. The topic will be mental healthcare services in the context of permanent supportive housing. Sheryl McCormick, Coordinator, Recovery Training Services at Peninsula, will present for the first half-hour with Q & A to follow.

Subject: Ten-Year Plan public conversation: Cost of permanent supportive housing

Meeting date and time: Wednesday, May 19, 2010, from 6:00-7:00pm

Meeting location: Cansler Family YMCA , 616 Jessamine St., Knoxville, TN 37917

Contact: Robert Finley 215-3071

The Office of the Ten-Year Plan to End Chronic Homelessness would like to invite the public to a public conversation on Wednesday evening, May 19, 2010 from 6:00-7:00pm at the Cansler Family YMCA (616 Jessamine St., Knoxville, TN 37917; 637-9622). We’ll be discussing the cost of permanent supportive housing. Bill Lyons, Senior Director of Policy and Communications for the City of Knoxville, and Jon Lawler, Director of the TYP, will present during the first half of our time. The second half will be reserved for questions and conversation related to the subject of costs related to PSH.

This is the second in a series of similar public conversations. The Ten-Year Plan office (TYP) has heard from community members in many different venues that we need to be more open and transparent in our communication about the work we’re doing to end chronic homelessness. We agree, and are committed to an open dialog and a clear and open process of developing and implementing solutions to chronic homelessness.

We would like to keep these meetings concise, to respect the time commitments made by attendees. We’ll offer them on a regular basis, and invite presenters who can speak to their areas of expertise and to the roles that they play in support of the TYP. We’ll open up the floor for questions and conversation on the specific issue being addressed, and we’ll ask attendees for ideas about subjects they’d like for us to address in future public conversations.

The TYP held a public conversation on Wednesday, April 28, 2010 at the Cansler YMCA about case management in permanent supportive housing. Bill Lyons, the City of Knoxville’s Senior Director of Policy & Communication, acted as moderator. Ginny Weatherstone, CEO of Volunteer Ministry Center, and several members of VMC’s staff along with a resident of the Jackson Apartments, a PSH apartment building owned by VMC, presented led the discussion about case management in PSH as practiced by VMC. The meeting was well attended, and the conversation was very good.

I’ve transcribed my notes from the conversation below with very few minor edits for clarity.

Meeting Notes

[These are my notes. I tried to capture as much of what was said as I could. If I've misrepresented anything here, or left out something you believe to be significant, please mention that in the comments below this post.]

Attendees included all City Councilpersons except one who was recovering from a medical procedure. Two Knox County Commissioners were present.

Bill Lyons, Senior Director of the City’s Policy & Communications Department, acted as moderator. He defined this meeting’s topic as being focused on case management in permanent supportive housing (PSH), and said that this meeting will be the first of a series to fully explain and dialog about the components and strategies connected with our community’s efforts to end chronic homelessness. The format of this meeting was one hour. The first half hour was mostly used for presentation, the second half hour was for conversation with attendees.

Ginny Weatherstone, CEO of Volunteer Ministry Center (VMC) presented. VMC views case management as the road from homelessness into housing. case management is a very big topic. Other agencies do case management, and there are many ways to do it. Tonight we will skim the surface, and our discussion will be focused on how we do case management at VMC.

We believe in the effectiveness of the case management we do. It works. Case management for us is facilitated coordination of services at a community level. Case managers connect their clients with the resources they need to take control of their lives, and are focused on the goals of the individual client. Case management is about empowering them to meet their goals. Case management is a way for you to go from one place to another place that you could not have gone on your own.

Homelessness is characterized by chaos, noise, uncertainty, lack of safety, lack of privacy, proximity to illicit substances, lack of trust, no autonomy, little responsibility and very little accountability. This is the environment within which a homeless person must work to regain control of his or her life, and to gain the stability necessary to live a good life in the community. For some people, it is impossible to cope with the challenges of life on the street, and with the challenge of trying to get off the streets.

Housing changes this environment completely. Life in one’s own apartment is characterized by safety, security of person and possessions, calm, privacy, autonomy, high levels of responsibility and accountability because residents pay rent and must abide by the terms of a lease agreement. All of can be very positive, but can also be extremely difficult for a person who has been homeless for a long time. Not all of them can get there without help.

Case management is about building and maintaining relationship, and this happens in steps.

• It begins with an individual’s expression of the desire to leave homelessness.
• An individual assessment is performed and the person is matched with a case management. At VMC, the end goal is always housing and becoming a part of the community.
• Secure the documents that are necessary for gaining access to housing. This can involve many different kinds of agencies and can be very daunting. case managers help  their clients navigate the bureaucracies involved.
• Apply for housing. In our community, there’s not a huge supply of appropriate housing. There’s usually a wait, and that lag time is productively used. It lets the case management client relationship build.
• Once housing is obtained, case managers help clients get the stuff they need and help them move in and get established.
• Case managers help clients to find and get to all of the services they need to help them meet their individual recovery goals and stay successfully housed.
• Case managers facilitate basic skills development. These can be related to many different things, such as skills related to successful employment, managing money, healthy diet, etc.
• Case managers engage in advocacy on behalf of their clients.
• Case managers visit clients often in the client’s apartment. This is a critical component of the ongoing assessment. It lets the case management know immediately if the client is experiencing any kind of issues that might affect his or her ability to remain successfully housed on the path to recovery.
• Case managers help clients find people who will help them feel good, have fun, and do things that are interesting and fulfilling. We’re really talking about helping them find and make friends with people who are different from their old associates.

Case management delivery is cost efficient when clients live close together. Sometimes the first case manager engaged by a client will make a “handoff” of that client to another case manager who is attached to the residence.

Case managers also plan and conduct activities that foster a sense of community. This helps residents decide that their housing is something that they really want to keep, to decide that “I want this to be my life and it’s worth working to maintain it.”

Two case managers, Megan Lappas and Matt Nance, and one of their clients, James Johnson, comprised a panel.

Challenges: Megan Lappas: One of the biggest challenges faced by case managers is that there is not enough housing. it is hard to instill hope when move-in is far away. Navigating bureaucracies is hard enough for case managers—imagine how challenging that is for a person who lives in the chaos of the streets. Matt Nance: The case manager’s fight is the fight against the tide of the chaos of the streets.

Megan Lappas: Our presence helps to keep people calm at Jackson Apartments, but so does the sense of community among the residents. Matt Nance: Community is a strong reinforcer of cohesion. “Don’t do bad things here because that will mess up what we’ve all built and are doing here.”

James Johnson: We depend on case managers for good advice. They’re not too authoritative. They’re kind of like family members. You can trust them. My apartment at Jackson Apartments is a blessing. I don’t know what I would do or where I’d be without it.

Dr. Lyons established ground rules for the second half. No reason for anyone to exceed 3 minutes with their comments/questions. Stay on the topic for this evening. Other than that, there are very few rules.

Della Volpe: Will the family atmosphere translate to 57 units? Matt Nance: It’s like a dorm experience in college. Lots of small interactions create the sense of community. That doesn’t happen necessarily because of big events.

Joe Minichiello: Does federal money restrict zero tolerance policies?  Ginny Weatherstone: Good case managers know what is in a lease. Most leases address disruptive behavior, not alcohol consumption per se. If a case manager suspects that a person is going to be a disruptive presence because of issues related to any addiction, then that person will not be placed in that housing. Not all homeless people are addicts, though, and not all are alcoholics. It is very important to note this. Only about half the residents at Jackson Apartments, for example, are mentally ill. Members of this population are all disabled, but they are also very diverse.

Dan Smith: Where does the sustaining funding for case management come from? Bill Lyons: It doesn’t all get secured at once or from one source. Ginny Weatherstone: We get grants from the City and the County for case management funding. Plus, VMC has embraced this as what we do. We fundraise. We’re increasing our pursuit of grants. We do much else to raise money for this work. Also, we will not provide ALL of the case management for everyone in PSH. Helen Ross McNabb, for example, does a great deal of excellent case management in the community, and they seek funding in many of the same ways we do. It’s just what you have to do.

Ginny Weatherstone: We know that what we do will save the community money, but that the effect of that savings will be cumulative and will not be immediately apparent. We will see it down the road when the jail doesn’t have to build another pod, for instance. You’re not going to immediately notice a savings to the community when just one person is housed, though.

Whitney Stanley: Are there separate approaches to case management and separate restrictions for people who are chronically homeless as opposed to those who are just down on their luck? Ginny Weatherstone: The latter would not be housed in a PSH development. Are there tighter restrictions on people in PSH? A better way to think of it is that there is a lot more supervision.

Is disability income used to pay for treatment? Ginny Weatherstone: Yes, part of the treatment.

Is this housing really permanent, or is it more transitional? Ginny Weatherstone: It is whatever the resident needs it to be. One of our folks at Jackson has been there for 15 years and will probably be with us for the rest of his life. Others have moved out much faster. It all depends on their needs.

How diverse is the chronically homeless population? Ginny Weatherstone: Very. They are disabled, but their disability is not always caused by addiction and it’s not always caused by mental illness. I mentioned before that only about half of the residents at Jackson have mental illness. We have some residents whose disability is simply the result of a physical impairment. Some are very young and some are elderly.

Nancy Mott: I have a concern about our progress moving forward. The old way was very expensive and it was less effective. I have brought some resources to help people understand this and would like to hand them out. They address myths about Ten-Year Plans, statistics on savings. You cannot treat addiction in people who are living on the streets.

Ron Peabody: Can disability recipients work? Ginny Weatherstone and Matt Nance: They can work, which scales back the disability payments for which they’re eligible.

Joe Minichiello: I’d like to ask James if I may where he is from and why he is here. James Johnson: I’m originally from Florida. I came here looking for work, and after I got here, I couldn’t find work and found myself homeless.

How are case managers trained? What kind of turnover do they experience? How stressful is the work environment? Megan Lappas: We have very low turnover at VMC. Our training occurs on a constant basis. The stress is pretty high, but the work is very rewarding.

Is two hours per week per client a sufficient amount of time for case management delivery? Megan Lappas: Different clients have different needs. I might have a client that I need to see on a daily basis, and I might have others who become self-sufficient enough that I might check in with them once a month. They’re very diverse in their needs and that affects the intensity of engagement. Matt Nance: We also maximize our efficiencies. For instance, I might wait until I’ve got a group of 4 or 5 clients who need to go to the Social Security office, and then get a van and take them all there at one time. We look for ways to do that kind of thing whenever we can.

Commissioner Brown: How do you make sure that meds are being taken? Megan Lappas: Some clients are responsible enough to take them on their own. Some get PACT (Programs of Assertive Community Treatment) supervision, which is for people who need more intensive mental healthcare. Sometimes the solution is as simple, and effective, as getting them an alarm watch to remind them of when they should take their medication. Matt Nance: The home visits we do let us check very closely on how this is going. We can see if a bottle of medication is being consumed at an appropriate rate. We can check on the condition of their apartment. All of those things will tell us if we have an issue that we need to deal with. Ginny Weatherstone: Also, not all  PSH residents are mentally ill. There is also a very high incidence of diabetes, hypertension, and we have to watch those things too.

The last question related to cost, and I didn’t really get much on paper about it. I think someone asked how we “arrived at a figure of $7M.” Someone else asked why Minvilla was not bid, I believe. The answer to the latter is that Minvilla’s construction contract was bid twice. (The contractor is making excellent progress on Minvilla, btw.)

Bill Lyons wrapped up our time by pointing out that the pro forma for Flenniken was presented at a recent City Council meeting, and it shows that no local tax dollars are in its funding mix, which is made up of private dollars invested via purchase of tax credits, grants, and federal dollars already appropriated for like purposes, allocated by the City and the County. He thanked everyone for taking the time to come out, and for the good dialog.

The next public conversation will be held at the Cansler YMCA from 6-7pm on Wednesday, May 19. The topic will be cost of PSH. We’ll follow the same basic format. First half hour presentation, second half conversation about the subject.

Meeting date and time: Wednesday, April 28, 2010, from 6:00-7:00pm

Meeting location: Cansler Family YMCA , 616 Jessamine St., Knoxville, TN 37917

Contact: Robert Finley 215-3071

The Office of the Ten-Year Plan to End Chronic Homelessness would like to invite the public to a public conversation on Wednesday evening, April 28, 2010 from 6:00-7:00pm at the Cansler Family YMCA (616 Jessamine St., Knoxville, TN 37917; 637-9622). We’ll take an in-depth look at case management in permanent supportive housing. Ginny Weatherstone, CEO of Volunteer Ministry Center, Inc. will discuss VMC’s approach to case management in PSH, what it is and what it is not. Delivering case management in PSH is the main role VMC fulfills in support of the TYP. Ms. Weatherstone will present for the first half of the meeting. The second half will be reserved for questions and conversation related to the subject of case management in PSH.

We are committed to this being the first of a series of similar public conversations. The Ten-Year Plan office (TYP) has heard from community members in many different venues that we need to be more open and transparent in our communication about the work we’re doing to end chronic homelessness. We agree, and are committed to an open dialog and a clear and open process of developing and implementing solutions to chronic homelessness.

We have heard specifically that citizens would like to have a better understanding of case management, service delivery, permanent supportive housing development, costs to implement the TYP, and other elements of the plan and its implementation. In order to help that happen, the TYP is offering this series of public conversations to present details about these specific elements of the TYP. We would like to keep these meetings concise, to respect the time commitments made by attendees. We’ll offer them on a regular basis, and invite presenters who can speak to their areas of expertise and to the roles that they play in support of the TYP. We’ll open up the floor for questions and conversation on the specific issue being addressed, and we’ll ask attendees for ideas about subjects they’d like for us to address in future public conversations.

The neighborhood organizations representing the Kingston Hills and Kingston Woods neighborhoods held a meeting on Thursday, March 18, 2010 at the Arnstein Jewish Community Center. Bill Lyons, the City of Knoxville’s Senior Director of Policy & Communication, Jon Lawler, Director of the Ten-Year Plan to End Chronic Homelessness, David Arning of Southeastern Housing Foundation, Bruce Spangler of Volunteer Ministry Center, and several representatives of area neighborhood groups were in attendance. There was also lively public input from community members who asked questions and made comments.

I’ve transcribed my notes from the meeting below with very few minor edits for clarity. I don’t want to use this post to editorialize about the meeting, but I will say that we took away several important points and some recommendations upon which we intend to act as soon as possible.

1. Quite a few attendees expressed the belief that the Ten-Year Plan (TYP) needs to do a much better job of communicating with the public about the TYP, specifically
   1. good and comprehensive estimates of costs to implement the TYP,
   2. clear and specific descriptions of case management and delivery of other services to people in permanent supportive housing,
   3. the history of the TYP and who participated in its creation.
2. Many attendees said that they’d like to see the TYP get out more often. They suggested that we conduct much more frequent and regular meetings with the public to explain the TYP and its approach to addressing chronic homelessness, and to get input from community members, answer questions and address concerns.
   1. We are committed to re-starting a public dialog about the TYP. We’re not entirely sure what shape that should take, so our next community meeting will be for the purpose of getting input on that. This next meeting is planned for Wednesday, April 21. We’ll get more details out about that meeting very soon.
3. It became clear at this meeting, as it has been clear at every single other one that I’ve attended, that the jargon surrounding the issue of chronic homelessness is very confusing to many members of the public who don’t live with this language every day. The TYP needs to find ways to disambiguate the discussion.

Meeting Notes

[These are my notes. I tried to capture as much of what was said as I could. If I've misrepresented anything here, or left out something you believe to be significant, please mention that in the comments below this post.]

The meeting’s moderator was Gene Patterson, and was structured to give the Administration and TYP time to present, Ron Peabody and homeowners’ association time to present, followed by a question and answer session.

Bill Lyons commented right after Mr. Patterson’s opening remarks, and expressed Administration’s commitment to an open and transparent public dialog about the TYP. The more we talk the better. We want to speak with you not talk at you. We want to work towards understanding, addressing, and contextualizing the controversy.

• National context–deinstitutionalization. Ten-Year Plans were established in 2003 and most of them stressed Housing First. People who are chronically homeless have no chance of getting off the streets and staying off unless they are first helped to find their way into Supportive Housing. Research show that housing first is the best approach in “most places.”
• The nationwide movement towards ending homelessness is bipartisan. Fundamentally, there are not competing views: there is a broad and deep consensus as to supportive housing being at the heart of the solution. The prior emphasis had been on delivery of emergency services, the kind you see a concentration of in Knox County in the Mission District. The services available in the mission district are specifically for homeless people who are experiencing a housing crisis.
• But residents of permanent supportive housing (PSH) are not homeless. There is absolutely no evidence that property values are lowered by PSH. On the contrary, residents of PSH are good neighbors because they are motivated to change their lives and because of the support they get in PSH.
• We’re working on a siting process. What is that? That’s what we want to find out. Whatever that process looks like, we’re committed to these inseparable moral imperatives:
  • We have a moral imperative to address the problem of chronic homelessness in the most effective way.
  • We have an equal moral imperative that no neighborhood is harmed by the development of PSH. If we believed PSH would harm neighborhoods, we would not do it. It’s as simple as that. This approach is not based on faith–it’s based on evidence, and its success is demonstrable.

Jon Lawler followed Dr. Lyons.

• TYP was established to end chronic homelessness, but it has several other objectives:
  • Reduce duplication of services, which is happening in Knoxville as we better-coordinate service delivery.
  • Fully implement HMIS (Homeless Management Information System) so we know our homeless population, the services they need and the services they use. HMIS is now widely deployed, and we now know more than ever about who the homeless are, their issues, and the environments in which those issues are being addressed.
  • Increase the accountability of people moving into PSH in order to prevent more people falling into homelessness. This is being accomplished right now through the placement of case managers in KCDC properties that are presently being used to provide PSH. Case managers at those properties have reduced evictions to the street from over 60 in one year to zero in the first year of implementation.
• Mr. Lawler gave the official HUD definition of Chronic Homelessness and then defined people who are chronically homeless as people with mental health, substance addiction, or other disabling issues whose lack of access to the resources to address those issues leads to homelessness. PSH provides support network that was missing before.
• PSH is a safe, secure apartment. The case manager relationship is integral to the PSH model. The case manager is the resident’s broker of supportive services to ensure success in housing. Every individual has a service plan to ensure that they reach their potential.
• Success in PSH means that residents have the opportunity and are empowered to become vital members of the community.
• Mr. Lawler said that the TYP is working.
  • In the past 18 months, we have housed over 300 people who used to be chronically homeless in PSH, and our retention rate is approximately 90%. That’s better than the national average of 84%.
  • In that same 18 months, there have been no evictions to the street at the KCDC towers in which we’ve placed case managers.
  • HMIS is being used by every major service provider
  • We have more PSH in the pipeline.

Gene Patterson spoke next to acknowledge members of City Council, County Commission, and other officials present at the meeting.

Ron Peabody presented a PowerPoint display titled Components and Costs Ten-Year Plan 2010. Tonight we want to talk about what it would cost to implement the TYP. Mr. Peabody said that he could not find specific information related to cost at the TYP website, and that he’d had to extrapolate costs based on his own independent research. After presenting, Mr. Peabody called for community forums to discuss costs.

John King, a local attorney, spoke next. He said that there are other approaches to addressing the challenges of chronic homelessness that are just as effective as Housing First. He didn’t offer any specific discussion of these alternate approaches. He addressed site selection and said that there needs to be “better due diligence.” Pedestrian access is nonexistent at the Teaberry site. This group of people is special-needs and they need special transportation networks. The Teaberry site wasn’t optimum. Review of any potential PSH site should include input from fire, emergency, law enforcement. Should be engineering review “very early on.” Access to public transit. Given the problems that these people have, we should require that any site proposed for housing for the chronically homeless should have sidewalk access to public transit. Access must be close so that these people aren’t endangered. Suggested appraisal very early in the due diligence process.

Don Daugherty followed Mr. King with some remarks advocating a centralized housing-with-services facility at the old Baptist Hospital site in South Knoxville. He said that we don’t want to leave this problem for future generations to have to deal with it. The TYP hasn’t been able to meet expectations. Scattering homeless across the county may not be the best idea. Proposes a central location services and housing. We’ve got other locations we could use: Rule, Oakwood, Brownlow, abandoned retail facilities. The TYP isn’t the only option.

At this point, Mr. Patterson opened up the mic for questions and comments.

Joe Creighton (sp?) is a  pastor and a psychiatric chaplain. Haven’t heard anyone say that they’ve asked the homeless what they want. Self-regard is a fragile thing. Putting people who are chronically homeless into a community where they’re not wanted is a  bad idea because it can lead to harm, especially with people who are mentally ill or who are addicts.

• Bruce Spangler, who supervises case managers at Volunteer Ministry Center (VMC), spoke about the wrap around supportive services that PSH residents need in order to succeed in housing and in the community. Case managers make the vital connections for their clients with these services. Mr. Spangler mentioned that he is the person who will be responsible for case management services at Minvilla.
• Jon Lawler made the point that the TYP works with VMC to provide case management in PSH developed in conjunction with the TYP.
• Bill Lyons reinforced the point that delivery of supportive services is an integral part of PSH.

Rodney Beverly said that these facilities would house patients with chronic conditions. He asked how we would ensure that people in these dwellings will not carry on in those conditions. What method ensures their good behavior?

• Bruce Spangler responded that people who live in PSH are residents, not patients, and that residents have to honor the terms of their leases. If they present a danger in housing, state law allows eviction within three days.

Ron Ashford referred to one of the numbers in Ron Peabody’s presentation on costs. He said that we needed to be cost-effective.

• Jon Lawler responded that if we have 800 CH people living in Knoxville, we are spending $32,000,000 to maintain them in homelessness ( at a cost of $40,000 per person per year). The cost to the community drops substantially when a person is housed.
• Bill Lyons mentioned that the costs to taxpayers are located in incarceration and consumption of other emergency services, and those things drop dramatically once a person is in PSH.

Robert Burgess asked how many people we serve who are from outside of Knox County.

• Jon Lawler responded that if a person falls into homelessness in a neighboring county, comes to Knox, and decides that for whatever reason this is where he or she wants to stay, then they’re going to stay here. This happens all the time in cities like ours that are surrounded by mostly rural counties, which are relatively undeveloped, less-populated, and can’t offer the array of resources for which all kinds of people, not just those who are homeless, move to cities. HMIS shows that for 80% of the homeless people who receive services in Knoxville, their last permanent address was within a zip code beginning with the 37 prefix; 59% had a last permanent address in 379. In any event, we don’t ask where people are born before offering them services, and we will serve anyone who is here.

Kelly Rafferty asked about case management and treatment. Not clear on medical needs. there are no clinics located in West Knox–all that stuff is located close to downtown. Will you build a medical clinic centrally? How do residents see providers?

• Bruce Spangler responded that case managers make sure their clients get to the services they need, wherever they live and however it has to happen. He listed several transportation alternatives. He also said that VMC considers 1:25 to be a reasonable, manageable case manager to client ratio. He underscored that case managers coordinate care, but that they are not themselves care providers. Care providers are the mental health care providers, physicians, dentists, employment specialists, etc.

Sheryl McCormick said that she lives in Rocky Hill. She’s got a psychiatric disorder and has been homeless. She would not have been successful if she’d been warehoused or segregated. Community integration, with housing built out in the community, is hugely important. The TYP needs to mount a strong community education campaign.

Dr. Reuben Pelot said that if you’ve never worked with people who are truly homeless, you’ve missed an opportunity. The homeless people he’s worked with are some of the most delightful people he’s ever come into contact with. The thing that keeps people from interacting with the homeless is fear, and that’s unfounded. Dr. Pelot welcomes what we’re doing and thinks it’s very positive. He applauds the TYP.

Don Byerly is a Professor (Emeritus) at UT. He wholeheartedly endorses the TYP. As a geologist who lives nearby, he already knew about the earth problems at the Teaberry site. He pointed out that no due diligence was done at the Meadows, which is now having a lot of soil-related problems. He also mentioned that sinkhole damage is very costly. He recommended having a geologist examine any properties considered for PSH development.

• Bill Lyons addressed the issue of real estate purchase contracts and likened them to putting down earnest money on a house. He mentioned that the day the option on Teaberry was executed, we made it public. We want to be early, transparent, and immediately initiate meetings with neighborhoods surrounding any potential PSH site. We’re committed to discussion, early in the process, to address suitability of any proposed site. As soon as we found out about the sinkhole, we investigated. Dr. Lyons repeated the commitment to early discussion.
• Gene Patterson asked if what had happened at the proposed site at Debusk had influenced the decision to become more proactive about communication related to site suitability.
• Dr. Lyons responded that earlier experience showed us that we didn’t have a rational place for input/access to elected officials. City Council can then vote, very early in the process, explicitly on site appropriateness, as opposed to voting on funding or some other issue, much later in the process.

Harlan Hannah spoke of his own experience of homelessness and suggested that most of us, if we had to forgo one or two paychecks, would experience homeless too. Knoxville people want to be in on every piece of what the TYP is doing. Want to track it, costs, etc. Mr. Hannah suggested that the almighty would bless us if we seek to address the problem of homelessness. The challenge is a big one, but so was the World’s Fair, and we did that. We just need to roll up our sleeves and get this done.

David Howard expressed personal appreciation for the TYP. He said that he is not qualified to say that it’s a bad idea to do this plan, but that he can say how it looks. If the Teaberry site had not been taken off the table, the TYP and the Administration would have been walking into a lions’ den tonight. The concept of exporting an urban problem to the suburbs just doesn’t make sense. The choice of the Teaberry site without public conversation was shocking. We do have a moral imperative to fix the problem. The way this happened was flawed, insensitive, uncaring, callous, and demonstrates Government arrogance towards its citizens.

• Dr. Lyons responded. This is a community problem, not an urban problem. The only people who even get considered as PSH residents are people who have demonstrated commitment. And we’re talking about where people will live. Those stereotypical problems won’t be here. Without the right motivation, people will not become residents of PSH. As to people who do come to live in PSH, they’re not in shelters. PSH facilities are safe. They feature controlled access, which means you’re not going to have a resident inviting a gang of friends over to drink Jack Daniels in his apartment. A well-managed PSH development is simply not detrimental to the community.

Joe Thompson mentioned that he’s got a brother in Nashville who works at a church, and lives in an old Sears building that has been converted into small apartments. Residents there have pulled themselves up. The apartment building has given them a place to have a permanent address, get off the streets. Not sure if there’s something like this in the TYP. If so, they need transportation as a first criterion. These are not people you need to be afraid of. I would like to know how you’re doing funding here.

• David Arning explained that SHF is the nonprofit affordable housing development partner of the TYP. We always look for convenient access to public transit. Essentially, residents of PSH are looking for the same things you’d be looking for if you were looking for an apartment. We do ask homeless people what they want in an apartment.

Clarence wondered why we don’t reopen Eastern State? What is the difference between the TYP and Habitat for Humanity? What about jobs? Due diligence?

• Mr. Arning explained the 90 day free look before any money at all was even put down. We do go through the process of due diligence as a conscientious developer for every property on which we propose to build PSH.
• Mr. Lawler explained that Lakeshore is not going to be restored to its formal size/function because of civil liberties, etc. As to Habitat for Humanity, a single family, owner-occupied home is simply not appropriate for people who need PSH; they need a small apartment.
• Dr. Lyons further addressed due diligence. Site control is first, then due diligence. When we begin this process, we’re entering a covenant with the community, the neighborhood, to stay engaged at the beginning of the process, in the middle of it, and after a development is completed and occupied. We need a better way to listen to concerns and to better explain what we’re doing along the way. We must, and we will, ensure that there are no negative consequences for the neighborhood.

Kyle Stooksbury asked if this approach (PSH/TYP) is Federally-mandated.

• Dr. Lyons explained that it is not mandated, but that it is a Federal priority. A lot of it is accomplished with private dollars, and because it is not a Federal mandate, there’s no danger that Federal funding for it will be withdrawn.

Stephanie Matheny expressed disappointment that PSH will not be developed at the Teaberry site. She lived in Seattle WA for 11 years developing PSH projects like the one proposed at Teaberry. In 1992-’93, she worked on the Wintonia Apartments there. The Wintonia contains 92 units: half of residents were chronic public inebriates and the other half were the chronic, long-term homeless. The developer held many community meetings, and much anger and controversy swirled around the project. But now, Wintonia is a success and is embraced by the community. In America, we have long, national experience with concentrating very low income people in relatively small areas, and we’re now spending billions of dollars tearing that housing down. But housing must be proper to its context. You do multifamily development in multifamily areas. In Knox County, we’re working towards a siting process. Every time a new PSH site is proposed, there’s a lot of concern expressed. The TYP is at fault because they’ve been too short on specific information. The TYP must cover all the bases in this conversation, and must address all the concerns.

Brad Fultz  asked how many homeless people are in Knoxville right now.

• Mr. Lawler responded that in a given three month period, there are 1100 people in our community who would benefit from PSH [a large subset of that number are people who are chronically homeless] and 870+ people who are episodically homeless will receive services in Knoxville.

Robin Zollin-Brown is a social worker. She suggests that the 1:10 client:case manager ratio is not good, and that we should have smaller facilities and more staff.

• Bruce Spangler responded that VMC’s present client:case manager ratio is 1:25, and that there are awake staff on site [who are not themselves case managers] in the Minvilla and Flenniken facilities 24/7. Rev. Spangler suggested that without this kind of case manager involvement, it’s not supportive housing.
• Mr. Lawler said that, yes, the 1:10 ratio does appear in the TYP document, but practitioners here believe 1:25 is a very good ratio, and very workable.

Diana Ritter asked if it were true that four sites have been rejected. She said that she was under the impression that if the TYP didn’t have a site under control by December 31, 2010, that the TYP is dead. She asked if that is true. [Actually, neither of those things is accurate.] Ms. Ritter said that PSH would really improve the area but that she has run into a great deal of irrational fear. We must embrace this solution. It’s a “we’re all in this together” moment.

Elaine Davis asked if it is true that a chronically homeless person, whose cost she pegged at $45,000 per year, will really only cost the community about $17,000 per year once that person is a PSH resident. She asked if that includes “all the variables.”

• Mr. Lawler answered that that estimate is all-inclusive, including the cost of the facility. He said that our goal is to build PSH debt-free so that the facilities can be operated with the highest level of efficiency.
• Ms. Davis asked if the developer would come back and ask for more public dollars to do rehab on PSH facilities.
  • Mr. Arning responded that the owner would protect his investment in the property by managing it very well, which will necessitate hiring a property manager who has experience managing these kinds of housing developments. Likewise, the owner will hire an organization to deliver case management services.
• Mr. Lawler restated the commitment to hold meetings with the public, and to stay engaged with the public.

Tim Hutchison said that he is a believer in helping people close to the mission district, because that’s where the services are already located. He suggests that the TYP get out into the community for meetings in advance.

• Mr. Lawler pointed out that the services available in the mission district are focused on helping people who are in crisis, and who are homeless. The TYP is focused on meeting them there and helping them move beyond crisis and into stability in PSH.

Dan Smith said that we’re all responsible for not being up to speed on this. He suggested that the TYP could be public-inputted to death, and that we should land on a number of people who are chronically homeless in our community and stick with it. Be up front with the community about the true cost of homelessness and the true cost of implementing any plan to address it.

Written comments submitted at the meeting

First commenter: Why hung up on splatter effect? Why not go to Baptist Hospital? Much more cost-effective. Centrally located to services. Less expenditure per year. If not Baptist, why not Lakeshore? Lots of land available, already owned [by City]. Originally chartered for similar usage. Safe environment. People need to know about this plan. Don’t ask us to endorse and pay for something that is so secretive.

Second commenter: 1. How is funding planned for such projects? 2. How can addicts and alcoholics be integrated int o a community which has mentally ill, depressed, handicapped? 3. If people are “homeless” (inferring unemployed), how can they be expected to pay any rent, etc. 4. I think the cost $40,000 for for 450 sq. ft. is ABSURD!  5 Why can’t unused school buildings, old Baptist Hospital, McClung Warehouses be renovated? 6. $38 million a year to support approximately 1200-1400 people is ridiculously expensive!! 7. [A certain private citizen] should consider contributing one of his buildings for the homeless.

Third commenter: How about 5th Ave. Motel being remodeled for the homeless? I passed by there this morning and crowds in each side of the sidewalk with cell phones, cigarettes in their ears and mouth, whose paying for all this? Why can’t they go there?

The Ten-Year Plan Advisory Board meets quarterly. The TYP AB offers guidance and acts as a sounding board for the office of the TYP. At every meeting, the TYP staff present a progress report. Click here to review those reports and to learn more about the AB.

The TYP AB’s next meeting will take place on Friday, December 4, 2009 at 8am at the Knox County Public Defenders Community Law Office, 1101 Liberty Street, near the intersection of Liberty and Division Street just off Sutherland Avenue. This meeting is open to the public, as are all TYP AB meetings.

This meeting will feature an important presentation about the TYP’s work with Bradley Greene & Associates. This work addresses as a system the homeless service provider network in Knoxville and has significant implications for the TYP and its mission.

The below announcement is from Grant Rosenberg in Knox County’s Office of Neighborhoods and Community Development.

As has been discussed here and elsewhere, the Ten-Year Plan is committed to a scattered-site approach to developing permanent supportive housing options as part of our strategy to end homelessness in our community.

Southeastern Housing Foundation, a local nonprofit affordable housing developer, has a contract on a piece of property deep in west Knox County that is appropriately zoned for multifamily housing.

The proposed development is for 23 units of permanent supportive housing. The units will be small apartments configured for independent living. Residents will sign leases and pay rent, and will be able to keep their apartments for as long as they want to and can abide by the terms of their leases. They will also receive supportive services to help them remain successfully housed and to rebuild their lives in the community.

The meeting described below will be the second public meeting to address this proposed development. The first occurred last night at the regular meeting of the Council of West Knox Homeowners.

PUBLIC INFORMATION MEETING TO DISCUSS PERMANENT SUPPORTIVE HOUSING AT 125 DEBUSK LN.

WHO
Mayors’ Office of the 10 Year Plan to End Chronic Homelessness
Southeastern Housing Foundation
Knox County Office of Neighborhoods & Community Development

WHAT
Public information meeting to discuss the proposed development of permanent supportive housing for chronically homeless individuals at 125 DeBusk Ln.

WHEN
Thursday, November 12, 2009 at 7:00PM

WHERE
Frank R. Strang Senior Center
109 Lovell Heights Road
Knoxville, TN 37922

BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Knox County, the Mayor’s 10 Year Plan to End Chronic Homelessness and Southeastern Housing Foundation will host an informational meeting regarding a proposed development of permanent supportive housing for chronically homeless individuals at 125 DeBusk Ln. Funding for the acquisition of the site is on the November 16, 2009 County Commission agenda. Representatives will be on hand to answer questions about the 10 Year Plan, Permanent Supportive Housing, and the funding and development of the site. Several County Commissioners may be in attendance.

For more information contact: Grant Rosenberg Office 215-4751/Cell 755-3065

The TYP AB’s next meeting will take place on Friday, June 26, 2009 at 8am at the Knox County Public Defenders Community Law Office, 1101 Liberty Street, near the intersection of Liberty and Division Street just off Sutherland Avenue. This meeting is open to the public, as are all TYP AB meetings.

The TYP AB’s next meeting will take place on Thursday, April 2, 2009 at 8am at the Knox County Public Defenders Community Law Office, 1101 Liberty Street, near the intersection of Liberty and Division Street just off Sutherland Avenue. This meeting is open to the public, as are all TYP AB meetings.

Please note that this is a change of date. The TYP AB had been scheduled to meet on Friday, March 27.