Knoxville City Council invited the Ten-Year Plan to a workshop last Thursday evening to discuss the TYP’s communications plan and to hear from Brad Greene, the systems engineering consultant who is helping to refine the system of service delivery to people who are homeless. We’re grateful to City Council for the opportunity to provide a significant update, and we’re also grateful for the meaningful engagement offered by Council members in attendance.

Council held a public forum at the end of the workshop and several members of the community spoke, most of them to express support. One remark calls for some illumination.

In his public forum comments, Ron Peabody reported that Sam Tsemberis’ New York-based group, Pathways to Housing, had housed a mere 600 people there. Mr. Peabody asked how can that be considered success, given the size of New York’s homeless population.

Once again, Mr. Peabody misinterprets and misuses data in what seems to be an effort to create false impressions. The report that Mr. Peabody referenced was Pathways to Housing’s 2007 annual report (you can get your own copy here at Pathways’ Research Library), which notes 585 people housed by their organization. What Mr. Peabody appeared to insinuate in his use of this figure is that Tsemberis, a noted leader in the Housing First movement, and his organization, Pathways to Housing, represent the failure of the Housing First approach.

What Mr. Peabody left out of his analysis is the fact that Pathways to Housing operates in a number of cities, and that the number reported in their 2007 annual report is for their organization in all those locations. Mr. Peabody insinuated that the referenced number was the sum total of people housed in supportive housing in New York City. This is a substantial misrepresentation.

In fact, New York City has made great strides in reducing chronic homelessness and serves as an excellent example of the success of Housing First. Pathways to Housing is only one of many organizations offering permanent supportive housing in New York City. According to New York’s 2009 Continuum of Care report to HUD, NYC has 13,167 Permanent Supportive Housing beds for single individuals, 6,299 for mixed populations, and 4,651 PSH beds for families.

Dr. Tsemberis is a nationally respected leader and researcher in efforts to end homelessness. In fact, he was a featured panelist at a HUD conference in Atlanta attended by TYP staff member Michael Dunthorn this week. In Dr. Tsemberis’ presentation on “Housing First” as an important component of the national effort to end homelessness, he noted that research evidence continues to demonstrate that Housing First yields high residential stability, with 85% annual retention rates in this type of housing; reduction in residents’ utilization of publicly resourced services; improved mental health status for residents; reductions in drug and alcohol consumption, and cost effectiveness as compared to the status quo.

Thank you

Thank you for taking the time to be engaged with the issue of homelessness and our community’s work to address it. If you have questions or concerns about anything related to the TYP, please do not hesitate to let us know.

The most recent quarterly Ten-Year Plan Advisory Board met Friday, September 24 at 8am at the Knox County Public Defender’s Community Law Office. The bulk of the meeting’s time was spent reviewing preliminary work on a statement of vision, mission, and values for the evolving Ten-Year Plan “version 2.0.” Brad Greene was the primary presenter and led the conversation.

A document was distributed for discussion, and its first paragraph reads: The community of service providers to homeless families and individuals in the city of Knoxville are in the process of developing a detailed, coordinated plan for the system of services that will allow us to work in a more effective and accountable way to serve individuals and families. This design process is part of evolving and improving upon the nine principles of the original Ten Year Plan. The following is an overview and explanation of the overall vision, mission and values of our newly designed system.

The TYP underscores that this statement of vision, mission and values represents an evolution of the nine strategies published in the TYP adopted by the City and County in October 2005. It represents some of the best of what we’ve learned in implementing the TYP over the past three years, and is a natural progression based on that knowledge. It also represents a significant reorientation of the homeless service delivery system to better coordinate its efforts to make them more efficient and effective. We’ll be talking about this a lot more, in a lot of different places, over the next several months.

2. City Council workshop: September 30

Knoxville City Council has scheduled a workshop to hear from the Office of the Ten Year Plan to End Chronic Homelessness.

The meeting will take place starting at 5 p.m. Thursday, September 30, in the main assembly room at the City-County Building. One topic of discussion will be the TYP’s efforts to communicate more effectively and more frequently with the general public on the goals of the TYP. Another will focus on the emerging TYP “version 2.0” discussed above.

The workshop is open to the public.

3. Community outreach update

The TYP seeks opportunities to engage neighborhood and civic groups in outreach activities. This week we conducted our sixth public conversation on Wednesday, September 22, and presented at the Island Home Park Neighborhood Association the following evening.

Our sixth public conversation took place at the Cansler YMCA from 6-7pm on Wednesday, September 22. The topic was Who Are the Homeless? and the main presenter was Dr. David Patterson of the UT College of Social Work. He was joined by Stacia West and Jennifer Lantz, who work at KnoxHMIS, Knoxville’s Homeless Management Information System. The conversation was very informative and the meeting was quite well-attended.

We’ll hold our seventh public conversation, and probably the last one of 2010, on Wednesday, November 17 at New Harvest Park, which is located close to Knoxville Center mall. Deborah Taylor of KCDC will discuss the role KCDC plays in making affordable housing available to people who need it, including people who are leaving the streets and moving into permanent supportive housing. We’re always looking for opportunities to converse with groups in the community about the TYP, the work already being done to end homelessness in our community, and what will be needed to move the TYP towards completion. If you know of groups who’d be interested in hearing from us, we’re interested in hearing about them. Please contact our office and let us know who we can call.

4. Flenniken update

City Council last Tuesday night denied an appeal of a Use-on-Review decision by the Metropolitan Planning Commission that allowed an increased number of spaces in the parking lot and allowed changes to a planned addition to a proposed permanent supportive housing development at the old Flenniken School.  The denial of this appeal means that work on this development can proceed, and that’s what’s happening.

Southeastern Housing Foundation continues with general clean-up work, including asbestos and lead abatement. All necessary permits have been issued, and the work is being carried out by a qualified contractor with decades of relevant experience. The neighbors in the area surrounding Flenniken are being kept aware of what’s going on at the development site by regular communication provided by Southeastern Housing Foundation.

Thank you

Thank you for taking the time to be engaged with the issue of homelessness and our community’s work to address it. If you have questions or concerns about anything related to the TYP, please do not hesitate to let us know.

Southeastern Housing Foundation has begun general clean-up work, including asbestos and lead abatement, at the old Flenniken School. All necessary permits have been issued, and the work is being carried out by a qualified contractor with decades of relevant experience. No construction activity will begin at Flenniken until after the appeal of MPC’s Use on Review decision is heard by City Council on September 21, 2010. The neighbors in the area surrounding Flenniken are being kept aware of this information by regular communication provided by Southeastern Housing Foundation.

2. Sixth TYP public conversation is this Wednesday

Our sixth public conversation is scheduled to take place at the Cansler YMCA from 6-7pm on Wednesday, September 22. The topic will be Who Are the Homeless? and the presenters will be Dr. David Patterson of the UT College of Social Work and members of his staff. A lot of this conversation will focus on HMIS, the database that is so useful in helping us to understand people experiencing homelessness in our community. We’ll follow the same basic format as usual. First half hour presentation, second half conversation about the subject. Please make plans to attend.

We’ll hold our seventh public conversation, and probably the last one of 2010, on Wednesday, November 17 at New Harvest Park, which is located close to Knoxville Center mall. Deborah Taylor of KCDC will discuss the role KCDC plays in making affordable housing available to people who need it, including people who are leaving the streets and moving into permanent supportive housing.

3. Advisory Board meeting reminder and work plan for review

The next quarterly Ten-Year Plan Advisory Board meeting is scheduled for Friday, September 24, 2010, at 8am at the Knox County Public Defender’s Community Law Office.

2. Community outreach update and invitation

3. Next public conversation happens September 22

4. Myths and Facts About the Ten Year Plan

5. Safety Center in the news

1. Low-Income Housing Tax Credits: Working with the Tennessee Housing Development Agency towards a favorable Qualified Allocation Plan

Developers of affordable housing can use 9% Low-Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC) to help finance development of housing for residents with low incomes. These tax credits are important because they can take care of the lion’s share of the financing for a development and greatly reduce or help to eliminate its debt.

LIHTCs are competitively awarded through an application process informed by a document called the Qualified Allocation Plan (QAP). Every year, the TYP seeks to effect the QAP to make it easier to obtain LIHTCs for supportive housing developments, and every year the QAP changes incrementally. You may remember that we were successful in getting a special set-aside of funds in the 2009 QAP for permanent supportive housing for the homeless, and we won funding for Flenniken Housing that year under that set-aside. Without the special set-aside, our application would have been much less competitive.

This year the Tennessee Housing Development Agency (THDA) is completely overhauling the QAP for 2011. The TYP has been present in Nashville during this process to ensure that people who have special needs have a voice as THDA considers changes to the QAP. We are doing everything we can to ensure that permanent housing for people who have disabilities remains a priority in Tennessee.

2. Community outreach update and invitation

The TYP seeks opportunities to engage neighborhood and civic groups in outreach activities. This week we spoke at two Rotary Club meetings, one on Wednesday, September 8 and one on Friday, September 10. Attendees were genuinely interested, expressed compassion, and asked good questions. Audience sizes at both events (~20 people), which is a great size—it facilitates good conversations.

Later this month the TYP will be carrying on our next public conversation at the Cansler YMCA (see below) and we’ll be speaking with the Island Home Park Neighborhood Association the day after that.

We’re always looking for similar opportunities to converse with groups in the community about the TYP, the work already being done to end homelessness in our community, and what will be needed to move the TYP towards completion. If you know of groups who’d be interested in hearing from us, we’re interested in hearing about them. Please contact our office and let us know who we can call.

3. Next public conversation happens September 22

Our next public conversation is scheduled to take place at the Cansler YMCA from 6-7pm on Wednesday, September 22. The topic will be Who Are the Homeless? and the presenters will be Dr. David Patterson of the UT College of Social Work and members of his staff. A lot of this conversation will focus on HMIS, the database that is so useful in helping us to understand people experiencing homelessness in our community. We’ll follow the same basic format as usual. First half hour presentation, second half conversation about the subject. Please make plans to attend.

4. Myths and Facts About the Ten Year Plan

A citizens’ group supportive of the TYP called Citizens for the Ten Year Plan has a new page up. It’s called Myths and Facts: Common Myths About the Ten Year Plan,

Does supportive housing just enable addiction? No, and here’s how we know. Does a housing first approach to ending homelessness actually save communities money? Yes, and here’s the research to back it up.

We appreciate the work being done by Citizens for the Ten Year Plan. The awareness is growing in our community that we can end homelessness rather than simply manage it. We thank Citizens for the Ten Year Plan for their help in getting that good word out.

5. Safety Center in the news

Last Thursday, Knox County officials held a meeting at the County Detention Center about a proposed safety center that would divert people arrested for public intoxication and people with mental illness arrested for nonviolent offenses through a treatment-oriented alternative to jail. You can read more about it here at KnoxNews.

Recognizing that treatment is less expensive, more humane, and more efficacious than incarceration, the Ten-Year Plan to End Chronic Homelessness envisioned such a facility when it was published back in 2005. Such a “detoxification center” is discussed on pp. 34-35 in the TYP document.

We are pleased that the proposed safety center also recognizes that permanent supportive housing is a vital community asset that must be available in sufficient supply for a safety center to be truly effective.

Thank you

Thank you for taking the time to be engaged with the issue of homelessness and our community’s work to address it. If you have questions or concerns about anything related to the TYP, please do not hesitate to let us know.

Jon Lawler, Director
Ten-Year Plan
http://tenyearplan.org
jlawler@cityofknoxville.org
865-215-2154

You are respectfully invited to the TYP’s fifth public conversation meeting. It will take place at the Cansler YMCA tonight, Wednesday, August 25 from 6-7pm and will address the topic of addiction treatment in the community as that treatment relates to the TYP.

Hilde Phipps, Director of Adult Addiction Services, Helen Ross McNabb Center, will be the main presenter. She will speak for the first half hour, and that time will be followed by a moderated half hour for questions and comments.

2. Community outreach brief

The TYP seeks opportunities to engage neighborhood and civic groups in outreach activities. August has been a busy month. Here’s a brief presentation of where we were and who we spoke with.

• August 11: Mayor’s Council on Disability Issues (CODI) panel. Taped panel discussion for broadcast on CTV.
• August 12: Nucleus Knoxville. Presentation and discussion.
• August 13: North Knoxville Business Association. Panel discussion.
• August 19: Oakwood Lincoln Park Neighborhood Association. Presentation at regular meeting.

The more we can engage in informative dialog about the TYP, the better. If you know of groups who’d like to know more about the TYP, please let them know about us and/or let us know about them.

3. Upcoming News Sentinel Round Table

The Knoxville News Sentinel has invited participants to a round table discussion at the News Sentinel’s offices on August 25. This round table will focus on the TYP. Participants will include Roger Nooe, Professor (Emeritus) U.T. Knoxville College of Social Work; Bill Lyons, Sr. Director, City of Knoxville Department of Policy and Communication; Jon Lawler, Director, Ten-Year Plan to End Chronic Homelessness; Ron Peabody, leader of TYPChoice, a group that opposes the TYP; and Stephanie Matheny, leader of ProTYP, a group that advocates for the TYP. We look forward to the round table, and appreciate the News Sentinel’s interest and invitation.

Thanks

Thank you for taking the time to be engaged with the issue of homelessness and our community’s work to address it. If you have questions or concerns about anything related to the TYP, please let us know.

MetroPulse
Frank N. Carlson wrote last week’s MetroPulse cover story about the TYP. It’s very well-crafted, thorough, and fair. We encourage you to take the time to read it and pass it on to others. Carlson’s piece focuses attention on some of the controversy surrounding the TYP, and it also serves as a good introduction to the TYP.

We appreciate MetroPulse’s timely and thorough engagement with the issue of homelessness. Wherever its readers are in their thinking about the TYP, this piece will be very informative.

News Sentinel
Last Tuesday’s News Sentinel contained an excellent editorial on the TYP. It gave a good summary of the issue of chronic homelessness, the origin of the TYP, and what it is. As we all know, chronic homelessness and the context in which it exists are extremely complex. Implementing the TYP is anything but simple.

The comments after the editorial, in which Scott Barker, Editorial Page/Community Voices Coordinator, plays an active and evenhanded role, underscore the challenge of communicating about the plan.

The piece calls for a mid-term, community-wide re-engagement with the TYP. “…if the Ten Year Plan is the best approach to getting the chronically homeless off the streets, and we remain convinced that it is, then it will stand up under scrutiny. That doesn’t mean, however, that its implementation can’t be refined if necessary. Now, halfway through the plan’s projected life, is a good time to have a community-wide discussion about this community-wide problem.”  We couldn’t agree more.

2. Flenniken: Use on Review, working group forming, meeting cancellation

Last Thursday, MPC approved Southeastern Housing Foundation’s Use on Review (UOR) request for the Flenniken Housing development by a vote of 8-4. The vote was a positive shift from last summer’s UOR denial by MPC in a 12-1 vote. We commend MPC for its focus on the land-use issue before it, and are pleased that the developer is now one critical step closer to converting a blighted property into quality apartments that will help to end chronic homelessness in our community and that will be an asset to the community surrounding them.

The TYP has held meetings with residents of the community surrounding Flenniken School since spring of 2008. The last two, held at the South Knoxville Community Center, covered a wide variety of topics, including concerns about community safety and the site plan for the Flenniken project.

We appreciate the time invested in these meetings by everyone who has attended. We have listened to the concerns of residents near Flenniken School and of individuals from other parts of Knoxville, and we have answered a lot of questions. We have learned a lot in these conversations and have hopefully communicated good information about the prospective residents of Flenniken Housing and the role that housing will play in their rebuilding their lives in the community.

At these meetings, many questions focused on the Ten-Year Plan in general.  At the same time, we have been unable to devote appropriate attention to the concerns and questions of those individuals, institutions and businesses who live and work in close proximity to Flenniken.

Therefore, for now, the TYP will cease holding general meetings on the Flenniken project; the meeting previously scheduled at the South Knoxville Community Center on Monday, August 16, was cancelled. Individuals in South Knoxville and elsewhere interested in learning about and discussing the various elements of the TYP are encouraged to attend the TYP’s citywide public conversation meetings.

Since the Flenniken project will soon become a reality, the emphasis now needs to be on building relationships among those who will be involved in and live near the apartments. To that end, Knoxville Leadership Foundation/Southeastern Housing Foundation, Flenniken’s prospective owner, is in the process of developing a working group made up of stakeholders in the Flenniken development.

The purpose of this group will be to foster good communication among the owner, key service providers, residents of the community surrounding Flenniken, and other stakeholders. The ultimate goal of the group will be to help Flenniken integrate well into the community, and to help its residents to be good neighbors in a good neighborhood. We anticipate this working group being up and running this fall. Stay tuned. We’ll keep you informed of its progress.

3. TYP speaker’s bureau developing

One way we hope to reach neighborhood groups, civic groups, service clubs and other community organizations is through a speakers bureau made up of supporters of the TYP. If you know of any such organization you would like for us to contact about speaking, would you please let us know?

Please email your suggestions to Robert Finley.

Thank you

Thank you for taking the time to be engaged with the issue of homelessness and our community’s work to address it. If you have questions or concerns about anything related to the TYP, please do not hesitate to let us know.

The TYP office has been working with its advisory board to shape goals and strategies for year 5 of the TYP’s implementation. These goals and strategies will drive a detailed work plan, presently in development, that will inform the day-to-day activities of the TYP office for the next year.

Goal #1: The TYP Office will focus its communications strategy to: (1) educate the citizens of Knoxville and Knox County regarding the importance and value of ending chronic homelessness; (2) foster an open communications environment with on-going dialogue between the citizens of Knoxville and Knox County and the TYP staff; and (3) build consensus and develop community champions for the TYP that will help the city, county, and TYP staff effectively achieve the plan’s objectives.

Goal #2: The original TYP to End Chronic Homelessness will be updated through a “center-out” process which will involve all community stakeholders.

Goal #3: The Ten Year Plan Office will partner with other organizations to ensure that permanent appropriate housing options are increased.

The TYP will complete this work plan and present and discuss it at the next TYP Advisory Board meeting, on September 24.

2. TYP Speakers Bureau developing

One way we hope to reach neighborhood groups, civic groups, service clubs and other community organizations is through a speakers bureau made up of supporters of the TYP. If you know of any such organization you would like for us to contact about speaking, would you please let us know?

Please email your suggestions to me or to Robert Finley.

3. Public conversation reminder; request for input on locations

You are respectfully invited, as always, to the next community conversation meeting which is scheduled at the Cansler YMCA on Wednesday, August 25 from 6-7pm and will address the topic of addiction treatment in the community as that treatment relates to the TYP.

We would also like to solicit your input on good potential locations for these important meetings. The Cansler YMCA is a wonderful venue. It’s easy to get to, the meeting room is a good size, parking is easy, the location is central enough, and the price is right (free). The people there are also very good to work with. We have, however, received feedback from more than one person that it would be nice if we could move our public conversations around the community instead of staying with one location.

We’d like to get some input from you on some other good locations for public conversations about the TYP. As much as we can, we’d like to keep them relatively close to the center of the city for the sake of convenience. We need meeting space that can accommodate 40-70 attendees, with reasonably comfortable seating. It is best if we can avoid large open spaces like gymnasiums because it’s much easier to hear in smaller rooms. Any sort of building is fine: church, office building, community center, union hall, etc. Cost is a factor—we’d like to keep it as low as possible. We can do our own setup and bring our own sound equipment.

If you have ideas, please pass them on to Robert Finley.

Thank you

Thank you for taking the time to be engaged with the issue of homelessness and our community’s work to address it. If you have questions or concerns about anything related to the TYP, please do not hesitate to let us know.

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.

1. Flenniken Housing: Parking variance request withdrawn. Southeastern Housing Foundation, the TYP’s nonprofit real estate development partner and developer of proposed permanent supportive housing at the old Flenniken School, has withdrawn its request for a zoning variance that would have permitted a smaller parking lot than what zoning requires. The project will go forward with a 58-space parking lot.

2. Recap: Compassion Coalition’s Salt & Light Luncheon. On Thursday, June 24, over 150 attendees at this luncheon learned about the Ten-Year Plan and how the faith-based community is engaging with its movement to help end chronic homelessness.

3. Recap: TYP Advisory Board Meeting. The TYP’s AB held its quarterly meeting on Friday, June 25, five days prior to the beginning of a new fiscal year. There was an update on housing placement numbers for the past two years (302 formerly chronically homeless people remain in housing), a discussion of next year’s goals, and a presentation by and dialog with Stephanie Matheny, a Knoxville resident with over a decade of experience developing affordable housing, including permanent supportive housing, in Seattle.

4. Preview: Public Conversation #4. The TYP will hold its next public conversation on 6pm Wednesday, July 21 at the Cansler YMCA.

Southeastern Housing Foundation, the TYP’s nonprofit real estate development partner and developer of proposed permanent supportive housing at the old Flenniken School, has withdrawn its request for a zoning variance that would have permitted a smaller parking lot than what zoning requires. The project will go forward with a 58-space parking lot.

Here’s the press release, dated June 29, 2010:

The Office of the Ten-Year Plan to End Chronic Homelessness announced today that Southeastern Housing Foundation, a non-profit affordable housing development organization, is withdrawing a request for a zoning variance for the old Flenniken School project following a public meeting with area residents. The public meeting was held June 21 at the South Knoxville Recreation Center. Residents clearly felt that there were parking issues with other developments in the area.

“We wanted to build fewer parking places because we believe they won’t be used and that the money to build them could be better spent. We also were concerned about unnecessary concrete which could be green space. However, the number of spaces is clearly an issue with the people who live nearby,” said David Arning of Southeastern Housing Foundation. “District Councilman Nick Pavlis also expressed his concerns. Therefore we are withdrawing the request for variance and will build all 58 parking places required by Codes.”

“We are committed to communicating more with the entire community and to listening to what they say,” said Jon Lawler, Director of the Ten-Year Plan. “If we can make adjustments based on what we hear, we will. That’s an important part of the process.”

The TYP has also committed to a monthly meeting with residents of the neighborhood close to Flenniken. The next one is scheduled for Thursday, July 29 at 6pm at the South Knoxville Community Center.

2. Recap: Compassion Coalition’s Salt & Light Luncheon

On Thursday, June 24, approximately 200 attendees at this luncheon learned about the Ten-Year Plan and how the faith-based community is engaging with its movement to help end chronic homelessness. Grant Standefer, Compassion Coalition’s Executive Director, pointed to some of the successes of the TYP.

• Knox County CAC’s Homeward Bound housed 255 homeless persons in 2009, 80% (202) of whom have remained in housing after one year. 99 of these were chronically homeless, and of those 77% (76) remain in housing after one year.
• Volunteer Ministry Center has housed over 250 previously chronically homeless in permanent supportive housing since July 1, 2007. 91.2% remain in housing.
• Prevention is a focus of the TYP. Four CAC case managers have worked with 263 residents of KCDC public housing units. None of these residents have been to the streets. Prior to CAC’s efforts in this area, an average of 67 per year were being evicted to the streets.

Jon Lawler described the TYP, the fact that it seeks to end homelessness by providing otherwise inaccessible resources to people who are chronically homeless (disabled individuals who have been homeless for a long time) mostly through the means of permanent supportive housing, and that the end goal is to empower people to integrate into the community. He underscored that this approach is demonstrated to be effective by research and also by our own local experience. He mentioned that the TYP is aligned with the federal government’s approach to the issue of homelessness.

Lawler encouraged members of the faith-based community to focus their attention on efforts that contribute to ending homelessness and helping formerly-homeless people to form healthy relationships (Circles of Support), to support those who are doing the work, and to attend public meetings and advocate for housing.

Jessica Bocángel shared three stories of Circles of Support teams. Circles of Support is a mentoring program sponsored by The Compassion Coalition. It pairs one resident of permanent supportive housing, a “neighbor,” with a team of five “mentors” who meet with their neighbor on a regular basis for an agreed-upon period to build friendships. It’s not always easy, but the program is successful. Circles of Support mentor teams are increasing in number, and are helping people who had spent years living on the streets to build healthy relationships and experience “wholeness, reconciliation, and reintegration into the community.”

Standefer encouraged the faith community to respond to the TYP by keeping communication respectful, honest, and open. He encouraged patience as the TYP seeks to implement a “complex, complicated process.” He also offered a handout with several specific ways to for faith communities to connect and get involved in the work.

In addition, Stephanie Matheny announced that she is working to form a pro-TYP group called Citizens for the Ten-Year Plan. They plan to be the citizen voice in support of the plan, and against the referenda if they end up on the ballot. The group was founded by Bill Snyder, Sheryl McCormick, Ray Abbas, and Stephanie Matheny.

Matheny is in the process of collecting a list of names of people who support the TYP.  She plans to put the list on a website — only names and zip codes, not their other information. Citizens for the Ten-Year Plan will also use the emails to form a listserve to announce meetings, ask people to write to council members, etc. She said, “This is not a “petition” – it is not directly related to the referenda and has no legal significance. We just want to be able to demonstrate that there are many of us who would like to see the TYP succeed.”

Ms. Matheny got about 60 signatures at the Compassion Coalition event (as of July 6, 115 people have signed up) and she would like to get several hundred before the website goes live.

3. Recap: TYP Advisory Board Meeting

The TYP’s AB held its quarterly meeting on Friday, June 25, five days prior to the beginning of Year 5 of the TYP’s implementation. There was an update on housing placement numbers for the past two years (over 300 formerly chronically homeless people remain in housing), a discussion of next year’s goals, and a presentation by and dialog with Stephanie Matheny, a Knoxville resident with over a decade of experience developing affordable housing, including permanent supportive housing, in Seattle.

Three over-arching goals for Year 5 were discussed.

1. All stakeholders in the plan will be effectively engaged regarding the plan’s ongoing implementation.
2. The original version of the TYP will be updated to reflect the specific systemic improvements resulting from the TYP’s work with Brad Greene (the conceptual design will be developed into a specific working document via the involvement of all the stakeholders).
3. Increase the housing options available to the entire homeless population.

There was a brief discussion of how these goals would be shaped with Advisory Board input (see item 1 above) and of other stakeholders who should be invited into the discussion. Advisory Board members pointed out that this goes beyond an “update” to the TYP. We’re at a natural halfway point, a great deal of progress has been made, especially in the area of interagency communication and cooperation, and this is a good time to open up the discussion to a lot of input from the public. There was also strong agreement among Advisory Board members about their desire to increase the level of discussion, reflection, and input from the Advisory Board.

The Advisory Board requested a weekly update from the TYP office. (An update will also be prepared for City Council, County Commission, and for the Homeless Coalition. It will be published on the Ten-Year Plan’s website, too.)

Stephanie Matheny addressed the Advisory Board of her eleven years’ experience developing affordable housing, most of it serving the homeless, in and around Seattle/King County, Washington.

• King County’s efforts to address the need for supportive housing began in 1992, when their health department realized that the same people were cycling over and over through detox.
• There was housing available at the time, but all of it required sobriety and was not effective, and they came to realize that they could house people and at the same time reduce public cost and public inebriation.
• When Matheny’s group began planning the Wintonia Apartments in King County, they held dozens of public meetings which were invariably painful and difficult.
• They made changes to their plan along the way, with public input, began operation in 1994, and has achieved great acceptance by its neighbors, which include a private school.
• Residents still drink, but far less than when they were homeless, and costs to the public have been reduced significantly.
• Case management to client ratio was approximately 1:25 in the beginning.
• Seattle has voted a housing levy to make more local funding available for affordable housing development.
• Seattle developed and still uses a detailed public notification process for affordable housing developers.

Three top lessons from Seattle about supportive housing development:

1. Expect opposition to any proposed supportive housing development. It will be significant at the outset, and some folks will never come around.
2. Mistakes will happen. The development process is extremely difficult.
3. You can’t give up just because people in the community are not happy about it.

Matheny also offered these suggestions:

• Help people understand that there’s a big difference between site control and a finalized purchase. Site control does not equal “done deal.” Contingencies are wide open before purchase.
• Do as much due diligence as possible before announcing site control—there is no sense in arousing concern before developer knows he’s interested in moving forward with the site.
• Outreach to the community must happen before closing the purchase, but not before obtaining site control.
• Tout the successes of the TYP. The interagency coordination achieved is a huge success.
• Try to figure out a way to de-stigmatize residents of supportive housing. They are not homeless anymore, after all.

There was some interaction between Advisory Board members and Ms. Matheny, and the next two Advisory Board quarterly meeting dates were announced.

4. Preview: Public Conversation #4

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.

We’re thinking ahead about potential topics for these public conversations, which have been quite well-attended. We are considering addressing the subject of substance addiction treatment at the next one, which will happen in August. As always, we value your input on this. Please let us know what you think.