Committee Report CR-4

The Human Services and Veterans Committee conducted a public hearing on October 21, 2015, beginning at 3:12 p.m. in the Sullivan Chamber.

The purpose of the hearing was to receive a report from the Department of Human Services regarding the plan to move forward with the recommendations brought forth by the Charrette on Homelessness.

Present at the hearing were Councillor Marc C. McGovern, Chair of the Committee, Councillor Nadeem Mazen, Councillor Craig Kelley, Commissioner Robert Haas, Richard C. Rossi, City Manager, Lisa Peterson, Deputy City Manager, Annie Nagle, Aide to Councillor McGovern, Robert Haas, Commissioner, Christine Elow, Deputy Superintendent, Fred Cabral, Sergeant, Officer Eric Helberg, Cathy Pemberton, Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker, Matt Nelson, Community and Strategic Partnerships Coordinator, Cambridge Police Department (CPD), Ellen Semonoff, Assistant City Manager for Human Services, Shelly Chevalier, Planning & Development Manager, Liz Mengers, Homeless Services Planner, Mike Payack, Planner/Contracts Manager, Department of Human Services Programs, Annie Nagle, Aide to Councillor McGovern, Wil Durbin, Aide to Councillor Kelley, and Paula M. Crane, Deputy City Clerk.

Also present were Mike Johnson, Deputy Executive Director, Cambridge Housing Authority (CHA), Elaine DeRosa, CEOC, Cheryl-Ann Pizza-Zeoli, Paula Kusher, Mary Shannon Thomas, Clinical Director, Eliot, Larry Gottlieb, Caitrin Thornhill, Jamie Goulart, Peter Daly, HRI, Ronit Barkai, Transition House, and Joseph Carparco.

Councillor McGovern opened the hearing and thanked all present for their attendance.  He stated that the purpose of the meeting was to update on what is happening regarding homelessness and what can be done to better support the homeless as well as next steps moving forward in areas where more work is needed.  He thanked those present for their work with this group.  He stated that the homeless are part of the community and are part of what makes Cambridge the City it is.  He stated that many homeless come to Cambridge because of the services that are provided as well as the respect that they feel from the people who work with this population.  He stated that he is glad that people who don't feel safe in other places feel safe in Cambridge.

Ellen Semonoff stated that many people in attendance at the hearing are key providers in the city who are conducting critical work and are deeply engaged.  She stated that it was in a January 2015 meeting of this committee in which there was discussion about the current state of the City regarding homelessness and the need for further planning processes that would bring us to what can be done next.  She stated that with the support of the steering committee she expects to be able to say more about what needs to happen by year end.  She stated that although the urgency is great, planning takes a long time.  Ms. Semonoff introduced Shelly Chevalier who gave an overview of the Strategic Action Plan on Homelessness (Attachment A).

Ms. Chevalier stated that the Planning and Development Division of the Cambridge Department of Human Service Programs and the Cambridge CoC began working in early 2015 to implement a community engaged process to address homelessness in Cambridge.  She stated the objective was to conduct a thorough, thoughtful, and intentional review of potential implementation strategies and do it in an open and authentic manner.  She stated that an intensive planning process was chosen that is intended to propose tangible action steps in a relatively short period of time.

Ms. Chevalier stated that as winter approaches it is certainly an appropriate time of year to reflect on this topic.  She stated winter is an especially difficult time for those without homes.  She stated that in 2005 the City of Cambridge published the Ten Year Plan to End Homelessness in Cambridge.  She noted that the plan outlined a framework for housing and services to prevent and end homelessness in the city.  She noted that the plan also identified obstacles to achieving success, including the regional nature of homelessness, the high cost of housing, a lack of subsidies and other funding, and the needs of the people the system serves.  She said that since the plan's release ten years ago, the number of individuals experiencing homelessness has remained relatively stable despite the work that has been undertaken to overcome these barriers.

Ms. Chevalier stated that there is an important connection between homelessness and housing.  She stated that it was not going to be enough to merely engage in a conventional planning process and they needed to approach the issue differently.

The conclusion was that the conversation needed to be broader and engagement of more people in the conversation so they looked at potential models and became acquainted with the Corp for Supportive Housing who has an intensive process called Charrette.

She stated that the process began by gathering a Steering Committee.  She stated the importance of gathering a cross sectional and diverse group with different types of expertise and were committed to the idea that half of the committee would be homeless service providers and comprised of representatives of government services, health fields, City departments, the faith-based community and the Department of Public Health.  She noted that the Steering Committee spent five months, alongside CSH and Continuum of Care staff, providing local context, identifying issue areas, conducting community meetings to gain community input, outreaching to involve others in the community and coordinate Charrette logistics.

The work of the Steering Committee also included the formation of six issue areas that have become the conversation of the focus during Charrette week.  She explained that the Steering Committee met every two weeks with the goal of determining 6-8 areas that would become the focus of the Charrette.  She said that the Steering came up with 8 areas and then held two meetings and presented themes and got feedback.  She explained that based on feedback, they refined some of the ideas.  She said that the concept of a Charrette is to create an environment where you are bringing local expertise, national expertise, and having members of the community to be engaged in the conversation.  This is called a fishbowl model.

Ms. Chevalier noted that Charrette Week kicked off on September 15, 2015 with two full days of intense dialogue.  She noted that the conversation focused on six identified issue areas with draft recommendations for each of the six areas: Serving Frequent Users of Emergency Services, The Housing First Model, Strategies for Increasing Investment, Increasing Housing Supply for People who are Homeless, Services and Policies to Prevent Homelessness and Service Navigation and Systems Coordination.  She added that these six issues are only ideas that have not been vetted or analyzed for feasibility.

Ms. Chevalier explained the Charrette process.  She stated that to condense planning time while involving a broad range of stakeholders, Cambridge engaged the Corporation for Support Housing (VSH) to facilitate this work using the CSH Charrette process.  She said that the CSH Charrette is designed to help communities address key issues in ending homelessness at the local level.  She stated that the CSH Charrette provides a fast-paced but thorough exploration of the critical aspects of developing plans and action steps and added that the CSH Charrettes capitalize on local and external expertise as well as the community organizing principle of engaging stakeholders in a dynamic process.  Ms. Chevalier stated that the goal of the Charrette was to produce a feasible set of recommendations to inform the Cambridge Strategic Plan on Homelessness and noted that after the Charrette process, the project begins the process of developing an action plan leading to implementation.

Ms. Chevalier stated that the staff of the Human Services Department will be reviewing various forms of input from the Charrette process and will work with the Steering Committee to draft the Cambridge Action Plan on Homelessness.  She added that the draft plan will be available near the end of the year and available on the City and City of Cambridge websites and include a public comment period.

Fred Cabral stated that in June of this year, the CPD had its first stakeholders meeting.  He stated that this was an opportunity for organizations and providers including the CHA, Caspar, Elliot, and Riverside to speak generally about how the CPD is serving the homeless population in the city.  He stated that they are working on fostering better partnerships with providers.  He stated that these meetings are beneficial and stated that next year these meetings will occur on a quarterly basis.

Shelley Chevalier asked Sergeant Cabral about the outreach effort for the meeting.  Sergeant Cabral stated that Cambridge had 1 or 2 homeless deaths almost a year ago.  He noted that these individuals had significant mental health issues.  He noted that he attended a meeting in June at the Cambridge Health Alliance and explained that from that meeting the idea of multi-disciplinary outreach endeavor was borne.   He explained that different organizations reach people in different ways.  He noted that the organizations have different skill sets.  He stated that two police officers are dedicated daily to working with the homeless population.  He noted that on September 2, 2015, small groups worked together to visit certain parts of the city to reach out to people who may be falling through the cracks.  He stated that the plan is to continue this outreach on a weekly basis.  Kathy Pemberton added that this has been successful, yet difficult work.  She added that they reach out through the squares, down the river, on train tracks and throughout Central Square.

Shelley Chevalier stated that there was identification of a group of 20 individuals who are high utilizers.  She noted that they have made commitment to house and provide services to this group of individuals.  She then told about an initiative through the San Francisco Mayor's Office called The Navigation Center.  She explained that this community had the issue of people camping in certain issues.  She stated that one of the things that they have done is that they were able to obtain a location and specifically invite this group of individuals who were camping out and invite them to come to The Navigation Center which was different than a shelter.  She stated that the homeless were allowed to bring partners and pets and were able to store their belongings.  She stated that this created some infrastructure for those that would not reach out to conventional services.  She stated that this model is a work in progress but is a very interesting concept.

Ms. Chevalier stated that in most urban communities a small number of people with complex, unmet needs who experience homelessness are frequently involved in the criminal justice system, and also frequently use shelters and emergency health care.  She stated that they often have long histories of homelessness and untreated or poorly managed mental illnesses and addictions.  She stated that their frequent stays in county or city jails, shelters, hospital, and sobering centers result in extraordinarily high costs in multiple public systems but fail to improve the outcomes for the individuals or their communities.

Ms. Chevalier spoke about the Housing First Model.  She stated that this is a well-evidenced practice for vulnerable populations who experience long-term homelessness as well as other homeless household who experience homelessness primarily due to economic reasons.  She stated that this model is particularly effective for chronically homeless individuals and frequent users.

Ms. Chevalier stated that many issues discussed throughout the Charrette were dependent on the addition of new resources or repurposing of existing resources.  She noted that Cambridge has a base of wealth that remains untapped for the homeless response system.  She stated that the participants explored innovative investment strategies and models, some through new methods and new investors.  She stated that they heard over and over during the Charrette that it doesn't make sense that Cambridge is a community with so much resource yet we cannot do more than we are doing from a resource point of view.  She added that at this point a majority of the funding for homeless service system comes from federal sources.  She explained that there is a renewal process in which HUD will be creating a tier system.  She said that programs in the secondary tier are at far greater risk for being funded.  She explained that in the second tear are programs in the amount of over $500,000.00.  She said that if we are going to do what we need to do, we need to be thoughtful of diversifying our resources.  She said that it cannot be all federal, municipal, or philanthropic resources.  She stressed the importance of figuring out how to combine those types of resources.

Ms. Chevalier stated that addressing the issue of affordable housing is difficult in a community with a market as tight as Cambridge.  She explained that without an adequate supply of deeply affordable and supportive housing, ending and preventing homelessness will be an ongoing struggle for providers and the homeless.  She spoke about the model at the CHA that is based on contracting with non-profits in the sponsor-based model and stated that possibility of expanding this program.

Ms. Chevalier stated that prevention of homelessness in Cambridge is two-fold: 1. Preventing individuals and families from ever entering the homeless response systems; and 2. Preventing future episodes of homelessness for formerly homeless individuals and families placed in stable housing.

Shelly noted that Cambridge recognizes that successful strategies and outcomes are dependent on other systems of care participating in the effort to prevent and end homelessness.  She said that a coordinated access approach can improve the targeting of the appropriate level of services and housing to people in need.  She stated that HUD requires the City to be developing a coordinated access system that makes it easier for people to navigate services and prioritizes people with the highest needs.  She stated that they have begun the process to figure out how to make modifications to make it easier for those who need access to service.

Ms. Chevalier stated that the objective is to have a very action-oriented roadmap for the next 1-3 years.  The timing works well so there is opportunity for that work to flow into the citywide planning process.  She stated that they are going to resource gaps so part of the real work is figuring out what to prioritize and how to address gaps that exist.

Councillor McGovern asked how the City can lends it support to tackle larger issues of transitional housing, job training, substance abuse, with the immediate needs.  He stated that in December he spoke with a woman about transitional housing and she stated that she just wanted blankets.  He noted the need to have a long planning process to talk about complicated issues but said that we must still address immediate needs.

Mary Shannon Thomas stated that there is a great need for public toilet in Harvard Square.  She stated that this is part of her concern when talking about planning processes.  She stated that people will die before housing is built.  She stated that although the city is making the commitment that it is going to move quickly and decisively on a timeframe that will work for people who are suffering, some of their clients will not last that long.

Councillor McGovern stated that the education piece is very important.  He stated that sadly, sometimes the people that we work with are not always easy to work with.  He said that there is a stigma that can be attached to people.  He said the importance of sharing stories to help people understand that these are real people who deserve to be treated with dignity and respect.  He stated that it is easier to make a political case for seniors or low income.  He asked how best to educate the general population about stories of the people that they are trying to allocate resources to.  He said that this is a missing piece.  He stated that he does not want this population shortchanged when the City Council makes choices about housing and what the criteria is.

Mr. Rossi stated that the issue of homelessness must not rely solely on the shoulders of the city.  He stated that unfortunately this is not the city's only problem.  He noted that there are problems in many areas that require money and funding.   He said that the Cambridge is doing good work and has never shied away from important issues.  In response to Ms. Thomas' comment regarding a toilet in Harvard Square, Mr. Rossi stated that there have been construction problems but the City is making good on its commitments.  He added that the federal and state governments are not present at the table.  He stated that as City Manager it is his obligation to maintain balance in terms of all the needs of the community.

Councillor McGovern stated that the City of Cambridge does incredible things and the expectation is that because Cambridge has resources, we should be doing more.  He asked about more immediate gaps as winter approaches.

Paula Kushner, NP, stated that the most immediate needs are emergency shelter beds in Cambridge for the homeless.  She said that with the closing of the Long Island Shelter, there are many more people on the street.  There is already shortage even though it is not tremendously cold.  She said that what is needed is a clear plan.

Ms. Semonoff stated that the data from the shelters is that there are currently empty beds.  She stated that the data provided suggests that shelters are not at maximum numbers.  She said if it is the case that there are no beds, it is something that must be discussed.

Cathy Pemberton asked if the data is received weekly by DHSP.  Ms. Chevalier responded that there is some time delay in reporting.  Cathy Pemberton stated that she learned at a recent meeting that Boston shelters have been full and Fr. Bill's in Quincy has been full as well.  She noted the need to start looking at hospitals.

Mr. Rossi asked the cost of funding one bed.  Larry _____________ responded that Pine Street has 100 homeless individuals on the floor right now.  He stated that shelters are chock full.  He explained that while every shelter has a different rate of reimbursement, there is a standard of $25 per night per bed.  He added that because shelters have variety of services, the amount of the resources in each facility is different.

Larry _________stated that the faith-based communities are great and they have a lot of space.  He said that some of these organizations coming together could think about some type of temporary arrangement which could be staffed by volunteers or paid staff.  He said that there is a lot of unused space during the nighttime hours.  He stated that homelessness is like unemployment - it goes up, it goes down but it does not go away.

Mary Shannon Thomas stated that warehousing is cheap.  She stated that it is much easier for clients to sleep outside if they do not have the coping mechanisms to stay in a shelter.  She stated that there is more success if the environment is smaller in size.

Councillor Kelley stated that this is an unsolvable problem and it must be emotionally draining for providers.  He said that he is a member of Christ Church Cambridge where they had bathrooms utilized by the homeless for years.  He stated that after increased undesirable activity they had to make the choice to close the bathrooms.  He stated that this is not something that can be solved with volunteers or "on the cheap."  He stated that the homeless need to be supported by people who know what they are doing.  He stated that in the planning process a number could be picked to provide beds somewhere.  He noted that this is not a problem that the City Manager can just solve as he and his staff need to be given specifics.  Councillor Kelley encouraged planning and stated that putting people in housing without associated support services is a recipe for disaster.  He added that he is eager to work on the issue moving forward and thanked the providers for their mental stamina.

Mr. Rossi stated that stated that homelessness is a topic that is being discussed all the time.  He stated that ideas must be vetted thoroughly and then determine a plan of action.

Marc McGovern stated that he refuses to accept that homelessness is an unsolvable problem.  He stated that it is fixable, though difficult.  He asked how many shelter beds are available for single persons.  Ms. Mengers responded 220-225 without seasonal shelters.  He stated that it should not always be the churches stepping up.  He stated that we cannot count on volunteerism and doing this "on the cheap."  He stated that the Harvard Square shelter is run by Harvard students and it does not have the feel of the "us" vs. "them."  He stated that the restriction list at Albany Street can be between 20-45.  This winter we will find that we need more emergency shelter beds.  He stated that if you are looking at Albany Street to take more, they are understaffed and under prepared.  He stated that some shelters feel like the guests are being treated with dignity and respect.  He said that he feels that at the Harvard Square Shelter.  He stated that there is a punitive culture that is taking place at some shelters.

Eric Helberg talked about possibility of developing a database so shelters could give notice of availability.  He noted that generally the CPD only calls CASPAR as they don't have access to faith-based shelters.  He stated that the CPD would be happy to work with shelter providers to work together in the event a person needs a bed.

Liz Mengers stated that the idea of a database of available beds is the vision that was discussed.  She noted that many of the challenges are tied back to some of the strings attached to federal money.  She stated that all shelters are required to enter utilization data yet the technology is not nimble enough to utilize it in such ways as they would like.  She stated that there are workarounds that they are starting to explore.  She noted that the shelters are willing to be at the table and there is commitment to work towards that goal.

Eric Helberg stated that what they do need is commitment from the shelters.  They work with CASPAR and in the past they have been very accommodating.  If they need something, they make it happen.  He stated that he does not know the names of person running faith-based shelters.  A commitment via formal request as part of winter emergency program that says consideration will be appreciated when contacted by service provider.  MM asked if the city can facilitate a conversation in planning better for the winter.

Councillor McGovern stated that it is ludicrous to think that outreach officers don't have contact information of shelters.  Commissioner Haas stated that clients that Officers Helberg and ____________ deal with are clients who won't qualify for any shelters other than CASPAR.  Councillor McGovern stated that it is important to make sure that those on front line have all information available to them.

Liz Mengers stated that they maintain resource guide that is updated with all resources available.  It is web-based anyone can go on website and get information from every shelter in the city.

Councillor McGovern questioned how information is being disseminated.  He noted that the War Memorial has opened during the winter when there were bad storms.  He stated that he received an e-mail from the City explaining that this was taking place.  He asked if this option is only available for people who lose power or could it be utilized by the homeless as well.  Ms. Semonoff stated that the War Memorial was utilized by some homeless persons and elderly.  She explained that when the City has used a City building as a shelter it was because an emergency occurred during non-school time.  She stated that she does not think that the City has any city buildings that could be utilized unless school is closed and not in session.  She did note, however, that youth centers have been used during overnight hours to house people while looking for where they could be placed.  She stated that they had to be out of the youth center by 10:00 a.m.

Commissioner Haas added that most people that utilize shelters during an emergency have a home to return to but the homeless do not.  He stated that there is a more complicated set of plans that must be put in place.

Councillor McGovern stated that he would like Ms. Semonoff to set up an informal meeting with shelter providers.  Ms. Semonoff responded that there are a group of people on the street on a weekly basis and she suggested that a good first step would be to meet with these people.

Joseph Caparco stated that he is concerned about the homeless.  He said that he attended many of the charrette meetings.  He stated that he wants to see more action.   He said that a lot of good things have been said and solutions proposed.  He stated that the Harvard Square Shelter is considered one of the better shelters.  He stated that we need to have a volunteer group that will be committed to the homeless.  We cannot look at them as "those people with so many problems."  He stated that we do need to think of the winter and temporary places such as schools as well as staff or volunteers who would clean the area after use.