Community Development Advisory Committee

CDAC ConPlan Public Hearing Minutes Social Service Agencies March 31st – 3:00 pm Norwich City Hall - Room 335 Committee Members: Les King, Edward A. Derr, Robert McKeon, and Lynn Norris Service Organizations/Persons in Attendance: Deborah Monahan (TVCCA), Tom Hyland (Martin House/Thames River Community Service), Jim Landherr (NFA), Jackie Owens (NAACP), Shiela Hayes (Norwich Brand NAACP), Lisa Shippee Deborah Monahan, Exec. Director TVCCA Basic needs. Lisa Shippey oversees housing. Increase in assistance for housing, food and fuel assistance. TVCCA will take approx 10,000 apps county- wide, 23% of which are Norwich residents. Food stamps have been distributed. Non-duplicative funding – gaps in services. TVCCA gets 10 million per year for energy assistance. FEMA also assists for utilities. Return on investment for the city of Norwich. Ex: Norwich gave $30k to get families out and into apartments, creating productive residents of society. Most requesting assistance are first timers and newly unemployed. Not your typical client. Lisa Shippee TVCCA HPRP Homeless Prevention and Rapid Re-housing Program. There are 6 regions. We are the only region that does not receive municipal funds. Part of stimulus spending from Obama's plan. Two sources of funds: one to provide housing and the other to assist families to get back on their feet and into apartments, etc. Response request was overwhelming. Their contract states they need to service 30-40 households annually, over three-year period of approximately 113. The gap between unemployment benefits kicking in is where people need assistance. Eligibility is that they show there is or will be a way to sustain themselves. One time assistance is that they aren’t to keep coming back for further requests. Money goes directly to payee, not the client. Average payout single/family was about $2800. They need to be able to sustain themselves after one time funding. Funds have gone for rent, storage expenses, moving expenses, food, hotel nights, utilities. Maximum $2500 single families $4000. 600,000 New London and 400,000 to Windham. Info line fielded 8,900 calls across state of CT, as this is primarily where initial contact for those in need begins. Basic needs are on the rise, and funding is decreasing. Support Housing is a solution to homelessness. Ninety eight percent of Martin House residents have mental illness. Thames River Family Program is for single female parent families. Keeping the family unit together is key, regardless of medical/physical issues. Homeless prevention is strongly stressed. Within the first 6 months they used funds that were allocated for a three-year period. This grant was meant to go out ASAP as part of the Stimulus Plan and that is what TVCCA. Although an exorbitant number of families were assisted, there is still a large population of people needing basic needs assistance. The committee funding this program will not eliminate the situation, but will alleviate some financial burden and get these people back on their feet. Financial planning and teaching clients how to budget is shown/taught. There is a definite distinction between TVCCA’s Supportive Housing Program and HPRP. Supportive Housing clients are long term where as HPRP is just a quick fix. An assessment is done to determine if the client can support themselves going forward and are not cases such as substance abuse, psychological issues, etc. those people need case managers. Most common HPRP client has exhausted every financial opportunity before coming in to request assistance. Transportation is also a problem. The majority of the clients rely on public transportation, rides, etc. Lack of transportation can pose a problem being gainfully employed. TVCCA works with many other agencies such as Madonna Place. Jim Landherr/NFA Two points are: economic development and thus creating jobs. Also mental health support needed. Day to day life is a struggle. The current mental health services provided by the city of Norwich is backed-up. Creating yet another “program” would be useless. Feels that small financial amounts are just a band-aid. We need to encourage education and being gainfully employed through economic development in the City. The area has lost unskilled jobs to overseas companies. Losing the manufacturing employee that focuses more on a trade/skill rather than the college route but works their ranks up through a company. ESL: The schools see students coming from other districts that did not provide ESL services even so much as long as three years of being in another district. We are looking at approximately 30 different languages. Adult education is overwhelmed and can’t accommodate all the requests. The intent is to set up the non-traditional class by doing it online with software that will teach conversational language. It is their opinion that increasing funds to a larger sum, thereby eliminating the smaller groups requesting CDBG funds would be more effective. Comment that students should not be allowed to drop out of traditional school and go to Adult Education. There is not enough structure in the Adult Education Program, mostly computer work, shortened hours. However, they still receive an actual “high school diploma”. The student’s ends up disadvantaged. A transfer to Adult Education does not constitute as a drop out for the departing school. Shiela Hayes, NAACP Specific agencies have been identified as those that should be eliminated from funding thereby increasing the funding to fewer, larger agencies getting a better result. These larger organizations need to work together and not pitted against each other. For example Deb Monahan does income tax assistance and there are parents that need to fill out the FASFA form for their child’s education – she has grouped the service and the pilot a success. VITA site targets families $50k or less. The organizations/programs specifically listed on Ms. Hayes memo is what NAACP is advocating to eliminate these little organizations. Last weeks’ faith based meeting clearly exposed a duplication of services to the committee. These smaller organizations should be melded with a limited number of larger agencies. Doling out small amounts of funds is in essence watering down the effect and the net result is nil. There is an obvious lack of communication amongst agencies to the point in which their very existence practically going backwards. Norwich lacks a family and youth center now that the YMCA is closed. There are ample locations to have a family and youth center. NFA typically does not charge for use of their facility. It is cost prohibitive to use the public schools. Custodians need to be paid, lights are on, etc. We are losing our youth because there is nothing here in Norwich to entice them to stay as part of the larger community. Norwich is divided on what the priorities are. Also the Route 12 corridor needs some infrastructure modifications that will include new businesses to come in that can have 25+ employees. These potential businesses could guide our youth’s education path, perhaps altering what public schools, NFA included, teach/train. The application process would need to be altered to include what other minute agencies are going to collaborate with the larger agency to avoid duplication of services. There needs to be a way to measure the outcome, checks and balances. Strategies may need to be modified initially to attain overall goals, but eventually we hope to see the community at large move forward as a single entity.