Travis County Commissioners Court

June 26, 2012 - Item 16
Agenda

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Number 16, consider and take appropriate action on request from U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration on Children, Youth and Families on grant application, partnership to demonstrate effectiveness of supportive housing for families in the child welfare system.
Judge burn was nice enough to invite the county judge to a meeting last week and at that meeting the county judge got to talking and didn't know when to stop.
The next thing he had recommended is that we partner and file this application for a minimum of half a million dollars up to one million, right?

>> Yes, sir.

>> And in a letter to the Commissioners court I tried to set out the background as well as a copy of a letter, email, I sent to judge byrne after I chatted with sherri fleming and roger jeffries indicating what the county might be able to do if the Commissioners court supported us.

>> Yes, sir.

>> Should I keep talking or stop?

>> I think you are right on track, judge.
If you'll allow, it's a pleasure to be here, judge, Commissioners, thank you very much for this time in front of you and also thank you, judge, for coming to our meeting last week.
This opportunity was brought on our attention by katherine quinn from caritas.
She is going to tell you a little about the opportunity and we have life works and Sam greer with us today to visit with you as well.
C.p.s.
Is also in the audience as well about the need.
I wanted to very -- on a very thumbnail sketch just brag about this community.
I'm judge darleen byrne and I preside over the c.p.s.
Docket in Travis County.
I was awed, jo katherine emailed me about this opportunity and we sent out emails and within four or five days had some of the most amazing community leaders and partners drop everything they have come to a meeting to wrap our minds around seeking good services for the children and family that are involved in the child welfare system.
So our community makes me proud every time I turn around with regard to their willingness to step up to the plate for those that need this kind of help.
I wanted to quantify a little about the need.
I don't think it's lost on you with regard to the need.
Katie gallagher parker, my staff attorney, prepared a very brief snapshot of some recent data trends.
I think they were sent out to each of you and are in your packet and those should be hopefully up soon on the monitor.

>> You don't see it but we do.

>> They are down there.
We've got the -- I really want to kind of focus very quickly because I want to tender the floor to these other professionals that know a lot more about the needs of our community than even i.
I would like to go probably to the last two slides, katie.
One that indicates the total number of children involved in the child welfare docket today.
With a snapshot going back to may of 2011.
What is frightening about the graph that you are seeing is the upward trend of that graph.
We, as you see back in June of 2011, we hit a peak above 1200 children that are court involved in the child welfare system, meaning that those children, they have been -- there are allegations pending in my court and judge hathaway's court that those children have been abused and neglected by the people in charge of their care.
We were at a peak in June and looks like we are trending that way in may as you see that number going up.
The last slide that I wanted to show you too is also frightening and as I look at this, it makes me tired.
The -- the graph, the line that's green is the one you should pay attention to.
These are actually new lawsuits or the lawsuits that are pending right now.
Not the number of children but the number of cases, meaning court traffic, lawyers being appointed, this is indigent defense, as you know.
The county is so generous in providing good quality attorney care and representation for these families.
What is staggering, as you'll look back at 2011 is the blue line and 2010 is the red line.
And at this same time in those two years, the numbers go down.
This isn't -- this is not school time.
Often many of our referrals come while children are in school.
And so usually during the summer things slow down.
Please notice the green line.
The green line is showing the trend of new lawsuits coming into my courtroom on a monthly basis.
And it's going off the charts.
Where we've never been before.
So I wanted to just let you know that there is a huge need and a lot of it I see it play out every day, stability in housing is critical.
And with that I'm going to turn it over to jo katherine to let her tell you a little about the grant and then these other wonderful folks to tell you about the other needs and the partners that you may have if you choose and are willing to support the county being a part of a partnership and collaborative.

>> Thank you, judge byrnes.
I became familiar with this model because the corporation for supportive housing and the robert wood johnson foundation in partnership with child protective services in new york city had just completed a pilot project where the -- the activities, the strategies that are defined in this grant process, that -- that is the model that they used to design this program that they are trying to replicate in other communities now a year later.
They had fantastic outcomes for families that were served in the way that this grant describes.
And so it really is a model evidence based practice.
They studied it, they showed all positive outcomes for every household.
And primarily they targeted families who were involved in child protection in the child protective services system due primarily to housing instability.
That was really the underlying factor that was creating instability in the family was that they lived in the state of either homelessness or near homelessness and it just created a lot of problems. So that was why, of course, it caught my attention at caritas because our mission is to create housing stability for individuals and families.
And this grant is about providing the services.
It's very well funded.
There's a high potential for a good level of funding that would very adequately fund the services that are described here.
What -- what we need to bring to the table as a community is the housing.
And we know that's always a steep challenge to bring, but at caritas we have 20 units of housing that we're willing to bring to the table.
We have to come up with a total of.

>> .
And we are engaging both the Travis County housing authority and the Austin, city of Austin housing authority to talk to us and perhaps come up with some housing choice vouchers that can be put to this effort.
All of that is in process.
But just in an overview, what this program does is, number one, it houses families who have a history of homelessness and instability in their housing so that they don't live with this constant fear that they are going to be losing their housing each month.
They are in stable housing.
And then services are offered in that housing based on each family's need.
So that's a range of services.
Sometimes that's going to include mental health, substance abuse services, psychiatric services, counseling services for the children and, of course, c.p.s.
Will bring in their array of services that bring in the children's needs.
So it's a real opportunity to work with people in a stable setting and be able to provide this comprehensive menu of services that goes to the family stability and keeps them stable.
This is not transitional housing.
This is permanent housing.
This is housing that has no time line on it so they, again, as I said before, there's not this fear that at some point this house ing is going to run out.
The housing is guaranteed to in effect.

>> But the grants do not cover the housing.

>> That's correct.

>> They cover the support services that these families need, basically.

>> That's right.
And that is to undergird the house something they don't lose the housing.
There are any number of things that would happen in a family's life that would create an eviction.
And the point of the services is to surround the family with these services so they are stable and they don't put their own housing at risk.
I would say say as rare as -- as hard as it is to find housing in Austin, the dollars for services are even harder.
So I think susan would --

>> That's a trend in funding to cut back dramatically on the support services so that's a hit the community has taken so it's a real opportunity for us to build up that safety net.

>> And susan mcdowell with life works has a track record of building great things out there in east Austin.
They have a beautiful facility, if you haven't seen that already, it's stunning.
And have led some great capital efforts, grant efforts and that's the reason why we have susan at the table to assist and it's to find those resources in the community to put the 50 homes together that this grant would require.

>> Right.
And I think, too, one of the good news pieces about this grant is it's designed to be collaborative, which is a very good match for our local community of service providers, all of whom bring a different thing to the table.
And likewise we run a number of mental health programs specifically designed for families who are at risk, c.p.s.
Intervention, psychiatric services as well.
Caritas with the housing expertise and the case management.
We're very fortunate a lot of people want to come to the table to put together a very, I think, competitive application.

>> I think so too.
We keep saying 350 housing units.
The grant requires a minimum of 50.
If we could get up to 125, I assume they would bless us if we get funding.

>> Even better.

>> And this is one -- this is a grant that you have to compete for, but we think that with our collaborative strategies already in place we think we would do well.

>> We believe so, yes, sir.
At the first meeting not only were these folks there.
We had saint louise house foundation communities, we had wide array --

>> C.p.s.

>> C.p.s., certainly they were there.
And I'm sure I'm for getting some of the others but we had quite a few folks that came immediately to be at the table.
The city of Austin was represented as well as the first meeting and showed great interest in collaborating together.
So what are we asking is I suppose whether Travis County would be willing to be a partner, assisting us in putting the grant together.
I understand that we have some space potentially that we made be able to put into the collaborative near the housing authority on one of our properties if we had a project manager, if we won the grant and had a project manager that needed space.
That type of support with -- would go a long way in making us even more competitive showing that Travis County is also one of the partners supporting our pursuit of this grant.

>> Both roger and sherry insisted that I add that the county has no interest in serving as fiscal agent and they would be happy to learn that too.

>> That came loud and clear through your email, judge Biscoe.

>> But again I think the good news is that we've got a number of partners at the table who are capable of filling that role.
We're pretty early in getting to the bottom of all of the requirements of the r.f.p., but I think within a couple of weeks we'll have the rules identified.

>> And for the project manager, we think if we get the grant funding would be available for the project manager position from grant funds.

>> Uh-huh.

>> And our pledge was to help with the space for the project manager if funded.
And roger says he's got space at his shop and sherri and roger believe that newly acquired space from the Austin housing authority would be best, plus the housing authority would be right there at the location.
And so hopefully they will collaborate with us.
Actually you all have chatted with them already about housing.
The other thing we would assist with putting the grant application together, but what surfaced last week is that we file grants routinely, so some of the basic background information we should be able to put our hands on fairly quickly, right?

>> Yes.

>> I made it clear Commissioners court would have to approve our situation, right?

>> Yes, you did.

>> Questions?

>> I think this is an appropriate entry point for to us start knocking down the more than -- probably more than 40,000 unit deficit we have in affordable housing in the community.
Of course, the c.p.s.
Docket is a very good starting point.

>> And there is no local commitment to keep this going after the grant runs out.
Right?

>> No, sir, I don't believe --

>> But if it's working, we ought to.
I mean, if it's working as well as we think it will.
But there is certainly no obligation to the feds to do it.

>> It does not appear so, sir.
No, sir.
Not from the grant documentation that jo katherine has already reviewed with her grant writer.
So we hope we can count on your support.

>> Questions?
Move approval.
Discussion on the motion?
Miss quinn recently was promoted, executive director of caritas.

>> Yes.

>> We'll know who to call when we need help in the future.

>> Thank you, judge, Commissioners.

>> All in favor?
That passes by unanimous vote.
Thank you all very much.
We look forward to working with you.
If you don't know ms. Fleming there she is on the front row eagerly anticipating the opportunity to participate.

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