Travis County Commissioners Court
Tuesday, November 29, 2011 (Agenda)
Item 8
Number 8, receive an update on bureau of justice assistance justice reinvestment initiative grant application.
>> good morning,
>> [indiscernible], I'm here with cathy mcclardy, project manager for the justice reinvestment project.
this has been a long journey that we've had with the urban institute, kathy will talk about our new partner, we thought that we would come to you.
we announced recently in an email, that we have been selected one or four sites as adjustment reinvestment site.
I will ask kathy to give you all a quick update on how we are doing.
>> good morning, judge, Commissioners.
>> good morning.
>> as roger stated it's been a very long road, we've been involved with justice reinvestment through the urban institute since February of '09.
it started out as a jail population management project.
urban institute came in, looking at our data, helping us identify ways that we could manage and control our jail population.
one of the key drivers that had been identified was our frequent fliers.
these individuals who cycle in and out of our jail.
and so we set our minds to trying to develop plans where we could take those frequent fliers and somehow have an impact on our jail population.
urban institutes, justice reinvestment work has merged with the bureau of justice assistance, justice reinvestment initiative, taken on a large national scope.
in that merging the opportunity to apply for grant funds through bja became available to us.
so in -- this year, 2011, we were given the opportunity to submit an application to the bureau of justice assistance for potential funding and technical assistance.
in September of this year we submitted that application.
and it was an application for a little over $450,000 that would fund the support piece that would complement permanent supportive housing targeting those -- those homeless individuals who as I said cycle in and out of our jail, also suffering from mental illness or substance abuse.
we received news in early October that we had been selected as roger said, one of four sites who have been able to advance to the justice reinvestment initiative phase two.
we are very proud of that.
in addition to three other counties ...
los angeles county, california.
we're in, we're in the running.
we are really excited about that.
we have been partnered for the center for public policy.
our technical assistance provider.
in addition to providing that technical assistance and hopefully pass-through funding, they are going to help us take that and fine tune it into an implementation plan, a detailed budget and a scope of work.
we should be submitting that very shortly and hope to have positive news and be able to bring back to the table and to all of the partners who have been working with us very diligently for months, even years, be able to bring that money to the table to assist these individuals.
I would like to take the opportunity if the court doesn't mind to go ahead and acknowledge those partners who have been working with us.
the Commissioners court, you guys have supported us and you've had a lot of faith in our efforts, we really appreciate that.
in addition the Travis County judiciary has also been a big support.
atcic, Austin Travis County integral care has been huge.
caritas of Austin.
the city of Austin.
the corporation for supportive housing.
the downtown Austin alliance.
echo.
the foundation communities.
seton health care family and Travis County agencies such as adult probation and pretrial services, the county attorney, the district attorney, and the sheriff's office have all been huge supporters.
they are our partners, we want to really continue to move forward with these people and make this happen for our community.
I just wanted to bring you guys an update.
we don't actually have the funding at this point.
planning and budget has been kept in the loop.
once the funding comes down, we will involve them, we will come back to the court once we are awarded money and go back through the process.
we wanted to make not only the court but the community aware that we have positive things in the work.
>> that's great.
>> thank you.
>> first of all, congratulations to all of you.
it's been -- everybody that's been involved in this, it's tremendous because it's really -- it really does extend a little beyond the norm as far as assisting folks, especially those persons dealing with -- having to deal with the jail, incarceration type of situation and reducing those factors.
>> yes, sir.
>> really, we owe you all a round of applause in my opinion for doing such a great job along with the Commissioners court, we give ourselves applause, too, sometimes, you know.
but it's just a real big deal here and of course I just wanted to ask, the phase two of this, let me ask this question -- when was the grant -- when will the grant money be made available in when will you expect --
>> it's my understanding that the grant money -- it really falls back on us in developing as I said that implementation and that detailed budget.
the time table has kind of been put back on us.
the center for effective policy, I get the sense, is willing to work with us as quickly or as slowly as we need to.
one of the things we need to keep in mind while the units of housing are actually there, they are kind of being staggered in.
we want to be able to bring that money for those supports in, in a complimentary manner to the housing so we wouldn't necessarily be in our best interests to get all of this money at once and then them say go and spend it.
we want to be able to spend it along with the housing to be able to benefit and actually maximize.
>> just a ballpark inkling of when it may be -- even if it's just one component actually the phase two, not the phase one, but the phase two of this component that we have here, the implementation phase of it, it would be good to maybe have some idea of when we could expect the first phase of $450,000.
>> I would say early, early 2012 is not unreasonable at all.
we have already started our work with the center for effective public policy.
had a -- had a conference call the Friday before thanksgiving with a lot of the stakeholders around the table.
that of course the -- was the question that a lot of people in our community are asking how quickly can we get this money?
and we can get this money pretty quickly.
once we have that application in, I mean, as early as early 2012, we can start accessing the money.
>> and I just want to ask you one question, the court had a bunch of questions for you today.
>> please.
>> but I'm concerned about the homeless population, especially I think the majority as far as -- as far as I've been able to determine, a lot of the homeless population here of veterans.
and it's a significant number of veterans.
how is that working, is there a relationship between what we are doing here and the jp public planning, what we're doing here, is there a direct -- a direct relation with our veterans programs that we already have on board, you know, we came with the veterans court, we came up with a whole bunch of things to try to place these veterans in positions where they can be made whole.
and since -- since the jail -- since the majority of a lot of the homeless population as far as I'm concerned is -- it's been brought to my attention, are veterans.
how does that intertwine into what is being brought here today or is there a relation?
maybe that's the question, is there a relationship?
>> I understand that Travis County is very concerned about the veterans in our community, including those homeless individuals who served our country.
and it's actually an issue that I put some thought into.
I absolutely think there will be overlap.
these individuals will be targeted are going to be the high, high, high utilizers of not only our jail but of our emergency rooms and other systems. And I think it's very reasonable to assume that many, I can't say all, but many of these individuals will also be homeless vets.
so I think.
>> exactly.
>> while our direct target population is not veterans.
>> no.
>> I think just by the nature of what we want to do, there will be veterans who will be impacted in a positive manner by what we can offer.
>> okay.
I want to make sure that that relationship is still there.
>> it is.
>> of course, we have a lot of serious challenges.
mental challenges along with just so many other drug abuse challenges, these -- these repeat.
>> absolutely.
>> -- situations and the effort to introduce a jail populations, we have to, it's imperative that we address these concerns.
that's just part of the questions.
like I say, the court is probably full of a whole bunch of questions, I just wanted to lay that out.
thank you.
>> it's a good thing to point out, thank you.
>> economic.
Commissioner Eckhardt.
>> thank r this and justice planning.
the one question that I have, I'm so gratified with our relationship with the effective public policy institute.
I wanted to know, or wanted to hear from you all I do have an inkling of how this is working, how we are working with them because this is such a population that absolutely needs our help, but it's a very difficult population to help.
what part of our relationship with our partners is going to look at -- at -- at measuring outcomes?
>> well, that's exactly what they're going to help us do.
the center for effective public policy is not only going to help us with our statement of work, they're going to tell us what performance measures we should be implementing, what outcomes we should be measuring and helping us evaluate the use of this money to see how effective it is.
what we want to do as a community, not just us, is come back to you, the city council, a lot of different stakeholders, tell you if this is a strategy that's really going to impact this population.
>> I can't thank you enough for that perspective, because we can't afford to -- to blow this either financially or -- or socially.
>> [laughter] so -- so I really appreciate that component of the project.
>> and I think we're also very fortunate in addition to having the expertise of the center for effective public policy just the partners, through the nature of the collaborative work, we have some experts in the field who are so far ahead of us, they are the true experts in the field.
we're really going to be able to tap into that knowledge.
they are 100% on board.
>> [one moment please for change in captioners]
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