Sonoma County Continuum of Care
Quarterly Membership Meeting
Thursday October 16, 2014
1:00 – 4:00 PM
Minutes
Attendance is listed at the end of these minutes.
Brown Bag Lunch Session: Safe Parking Programs
Melissa Struzzo presented an overview with discussion on the Catholic Charities Safe Parking Program.
She is the new director over the program and indicated the program now offers 6 scattered sites, many
of them small church parking lots. She invited any agencies or business to contact her if they are
interested in the program and providing space. The program offers two meals for participants,
breakfast and dinner and drive thru of the sites all hours of the evening by staff of the program. There
have been no reported incidents of security issues.
Melissa reported that most participants are new to being homeless and all must go through the intake
process at Catholic Charities before being given access to a site. Discussion centered around the Santa
Rosa Police citing people within the city limits; unless they are repeat offenders are typically given
referrals or asked to move on. In the unincorporated areas of the County, people can legally sleep in
their cars on public property.
1.
Plans for Winter Weather
Mark Krug presented information and led discussion regarding the County Winter Weather Response
Plan for special efforts to aid unsheltered persons in winter weather conditions. The County Plan was
spurred by last December’s cold spell that somewhat chaotically led to winter weather service
expansions. Because Catholic Charities had already developed a model service plan, the County plan
builds on Charities’ plan and focuses on engagement of County resources and communications when
weather triggers are met. Throughout both plans there is a distinction between seasonal efforts (such
as winter shelter expansions) vs. weather-triggered efforts. The SCCDC will be the lead agency in this
communication plan. Part of the SCCDC’s responsibility will be to keep a comprehensive listing of
winter weather activities that will be made public as cold weather arrives. This Plan goes to the Board
of Supervisors on November 4th; there were questions about when and how the input could be
contributed to it. Because the timeframe to submit to the Board was very short, written input would
be taken if provided almost immediately. All should note the County plan is a work that can be
amended as needed, not set in stone.
Jennielynn Holmes explained that Catholic Charities will open its Sam Jones Hall winter expansion on
November 5th and they will remain open until March 31st. Warming center and mobile warming
stations will be up and running as required when the temperature reaches 38 degrees or lower (or
soaking rain, designated “code blue”). Catholic Charities is setting up a designated 24/7 cold weather
hotline and a volunteer cold weather response team. They are gathering cell phone numbers to build a
text alert system when cold or wet weather triggers are met. Other seasonal shelter expansions:
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Sonoma County Continuum of Care, November 6, 2014
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2.
Redwood Gospel Mission is organizing a “nomadic shelter” to rotate among churches. 30-40
people will be accommodated per night; they will need to congregate at the Gospel Mission
and will be bused to that night’s location.
Sonoma Severe Weather Shelter will follow a similar model for up to about 25 persons;
registration will be at The Haven in Sonoma.
Community & Family Service Agency will have 40 beds per night at the Guerneville Vets
Building, beginning December 1st.
COTS will have up to 30 seasonal beds available at the Mary Isaak Center, all winter.
“A Portrait of Sonoma County”
Beth Dadko, Department of Health Services, presented a slide show on statistical data and information
gathered on the health of the people of Sonoma County, published earlier this year as A Portrait of
Sonoma County. She led a discussion of how the study’s findings relate to homelessness, and how they
can inform prioritizing services. Discussion focused on the study’s “Agenda for Action” regarding
geographic targeting of affordable housing and homeless prevention resources; a need to increase
smoking cessation efforts among homeless persons, who have a very high rate of smoking; and the
importance of supporting youth connection to schools to mitigate and end youth homelessness. The
PowerPoint slides will be posted on the CoC wiki.
3.
National Alliance to End Homelessness
Katrina Thurman and Cat Cvengros gave a report on the National Alliance to End Homelessness annual
conference in Washington DC in July. The presented information they gathered on homeless youth
nationwide and strategies to end the cycle of homeless children. They discussed the sex trade that
preys upon newly homeless youth, and best practices that have proven track records around the
country. While the national trend is to abandon the transitional housing model, for homeless youth
this model is still relevant. The PowerPoint slides will be posted on the CoC wiki.
4.
CoC Competition News
The Continuum of Care application period is open with a 44-day window to submit a complex
application. Jenny Abramson announced the new project selections:
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A permanent supportive housing bonus project to be submitted by the SCCDC in collaboration
with the to-be-announced Homeless Outreach Team operator (36 beds); &
A permanent supportive housing project to be submitted by SAY, providing Sponsor-based
rental assistance to 8 chronically homeless, transition-aged youth.
Over the next 2 weeks Jenny will review all applications to ensure they are complete and ready to be
submitted. The project is due October 30th.
5.
What Will Coordinated Intake Look Like?
Teddie Pierce and Jenny Abramson presented the progress of the plan and Teddie showed the sample
screens in ETO of how the intake process will look, what steps 211 will play in the initial contact role,
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Sonoma County Continuum of Care, November 6, 2014
and then once referred to a provider, what their process will be to complete the full intake. For more
information, see “A New Front Door for Homeless Services – Coordinated Intake and Homeless System
Entry Planning in Sonoma County, CA” at http://sonoma-county-continuum-ofcare.wikispaces.com/Coordinated+Intake+Task+Force.
6.
CoC Work Group Focus: Vocationalizing Homeless Services Presentation
Jennielynn Holmes, Jenna Garcia and Allison MacDonald presented a slide show of their project which
encompassed many hours of work on a new Wiki site. They plan to have it ‘live’ in February 2015. The
site delivers COTS and Catholic Charities’ workforce development curricula to all homeless services
staff, to allow all agencies to utilize these materials to aid homeless persons in their work towards
gainful employment. As a key strategy of the 10-Year Homeless Action Plan, as this project is
completed the working group will refocus with a larger reach.
Next Quarterly Continuum of Care Membership Meeting:
Thursday January 15, 2015 1:00 – 4:00 PM
Community Development Commission Office
Attendees:
Jenny Abramson, SCCDC
Celeste Austin, The Living Room
Georgia Berland, So. Co. Task
Force for the Homeless
Tom Bieri, Community Support
Network
Gale Brownell
Rick Cafferata, Cloverdale
Community Outreach
Committee
Albert Castellon, Sonoma
Overnight Support
Cat Cvengros, SAY
Beth Dadko, So. Co. Dept. of
Health Services
Clara Else, So. Co. Task Force for
the Homeless
Shaydra Ennis, Co. Co. Human
Services Department
Sarah Finnigan, 211
Helen Frater, Santa Rosa
Community Health Centers
Jenna Garcia, COTS
Mary Kay Gerski, Community &
Family Service Agency
Jed Heibel, COTS
Jennielynn Holmes, Catholic
Charities
Stephanie Hopkins, Community
& Family Service Agency
Mike Johnson, COTS
Sienna Johnston, IFSN
Robert Judd
Emily Krispin, North Co.
Community Services
Mark Krug, SCCDC
Kelli Kuykendall, City of Santa
Rosa
Anita La Follette, Homeless
Action!
Jennifer Lake, YWCA
Adrienne Lauby, Homeless
Action! & EACH
Marian Lindner, SAY
Allison MacDonald, Catholic
Charities
Len Marabella, Catholic
Charities
Jean Marquardt, SCCDC
Casey McCue, Buckelew
Programs
Margarita Ortiz, DSLC
Cheryl Parkinson, The Living
Room
Gary Pierce, So. Co. Behavioral
Health
Teddie Pierce, SCCDC
Pamela Powers, Community
Action Partnership
Adrian Ramirez, Cloverdale
Community Outreach
Committee
Cindy Rich, SCCDC
Ronit Rubinoff, Legal Aid of
Sonoma County
Victoria Scafuto, VASH
Jeff Severson, Sonoma
Overnight Support
Melissa Struzzo, Catholic
Charities
Katrina Thurman, SAY
Kristi Topracki, Buckelew
Programs
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Sonoma County Continuum of Care, November 6, 2014