I think we could 12 probably go down to maybe 18, would be a 13 good number. I think we're in the 14 ballpark. In fact, our ratios are probably at or a little lower than a lot of other jurisdictions of our size.
They are? Okay. If you could give me the total number and get it through the Chair, I'd appreciate it. Thank you, Commissioner.
Thank you very much. 180 4/11/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC. Are there further questions? (No response.)
Thank you very much. Maybe we've questioned you out. You may stay, if you'd like, Mr. Evans.
Thank you. Thank you, all. MR. McPHERSON: The next office is the Office of Emergency Services and Shelter.
I thought we were all OSH, ladies. My favorite department. Good afternoon.
Thank you very much. We're happy to see three women in power here today. Always a pleasure. Please identify yourself for the record and begin your testimony. Thank you.
Good afternoon, 181 4/11/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC. distinguished members of City Council. My name is Dainette Mintz and I am the Deputy Managing Director for Special Needs Housing and Director of the Office of Supportive Housing. I am here today with Leticia Egea-Hinton, the Deputy for Operations, and Roberta Cancellier, our Deputy for Planning, Policy and Administration. The function of OSH is to plan for and assist individuals and families in moving toward independent living and self-sufficiency through Philadelphia's Homeless Continuum of Care, the Office of HIV Planning and Riverview Home. I am pleased to offer this testimony on the Division of Social Services - Office of Supportive Housing budget request for Fiscal Year 2008, as well as on the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead for Philadelphians experiencing homelessness and the agencies and departments dedicated to serving them. As presented to Council, the 182 4/11/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC. proposed Fiscal Year '08 budget for the Office of Supportive Housing is $97,850,920, of which $37,911,333 is in the General Fund and $59,939,587 is in the Grant Revenue Fund. The proposed Fiscal Year '08 budget includes two significant changes from the Fiscal Year '07 budget. The first is the transfer of administrative responsibilities for the federally funded Shelter Plus Care homeless rental assistance program from the Office of Housing and Community Development to OSH, representing 255,198 of that funding. 9 million to address an increase in the family emergency housing census and use of temporary emergency housing space by the reopening of the 43rd and Chestnut Street and Acts Masters family programs and, two, to relocate the Family Intake site to Broad and Arch Streets due to the Convention Center 183 4/11/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC. expansion. Continuing essential operational responsibilities and working under the Mayor's vision of ending the need for anyone to sleep on the street, the budget request for OSH reflects efforts to achieve these goals. The Fiscal Year '08 budget request will enable OSH to manage an average of 2,830 emergency housing beds, nearly 1,800 beds in transitional and permanent supportive housing, and provide emergency relocation services for up to 2,000 individuals. This request will also support a total of 198 all fund positions. 5 percent increase from the number of positions filled in our agency in December 2006. This increase is the result of the additional staff needed to manage the Shelter Plus Care program that was transferred to OSH from OHCD. 184 4/11/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC. The increased single and family census necessitates the increased Fiscal Year '08 budget request. The increase in persons experiencing homelessness can be seen as a result of increasing poverty, the prevalence of low-wage and the absence of living-wage jobs, rising housing costs, and declining federal supports and resources. On our streets, City outreach teams report a rise in the number of unduplicated individuals contacted, reflected in the annual average street count of 375 individuals living on the streets of Center City. This represents a 16 percent increase from the previous year's annual average. Yet amid increasing demand, we secured the safety of our homeless residents this winter by ensuring that no 21 one would be forced to remain on the streets during cold and inclement weather. To achieve this, OSH again utilized neighborhood recreation centers and successfully launched three overnight 185 4/11/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC. cafe sites. Although this mandated a funding increase in annual operating expenses, it will provide a safety net for winter seasons to come. Against this backdrop of documented and increasing demand, the City is entering the third year of Philadelphia's Ten-Year Plan to End Homelessness and continuing to reform the way services are delivered to individuals and families experiencing homelessness.
In particular, efforts are focused on strengthening partnerships across the Division of Social Services and within the faith-based community to compassionately and assertively engage individuals and connect them to appropriate services, treatment and cost-efficient long-term housing opportunities. The higher Fiscal Year '08 budget level supports these objectives to strengthen Philadelphia's response to the experience of homelessness through collaboration and 186 4/11/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC. targeted initiatives. However, please note that to maintain successful momentum, we must simultaneously work to address a compounding problem. We must work to increase the available stock of safe, dignified and affordable housing opportunities. The decreasing availability of affordable housing, along with rising energy and healthcare costs, has made it nearly impossible for many of our residents to make ends meet. 9 full-time jobs at minimum wage. Due to this widening gap between income and cost of living, large numbers of Philadelphians can no longer afford safe and secure housing and are, therefore, seeking housing assistance or emergency housing placement through our agency. Available assistance is far 187 4/11/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC. surpassed by the demand for affordable housing, which now exceeds 60,000 needed units. Our Fiscal Year '07 accomplishments: In Fiscal Year '07, OSH committed to develop an emergency housing model that accounts for the valid concerns of neighborhood and community residents who oppose homeless housing programs and projects. OSH acknowledges that the proposed number of residents to be assisted remains a prevailing issue. Accordingly, we have created two distinct program models with individualized and targeted components that include an array of comprehensive services. For families, the model proposes serving no more than 35 families per site and providing access to child care, life skills and parenting skills. For single adults, the model proposes serving no more than 75 individuals per site and providing employment and job training. However, both program models stress a framework 188 4/11/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC. for community collaboration, community safety and community service. This will entail providing 24-hour-a-day security, community beautification initiatives and/or green spaces, and the creation of Community Advisory Groups to quickly address and resolve community concerns. In Fiscal Year '08, we will continue to further develop this model and work with communities to share information and progress and solicit feedback. OSH has a responsibility to do all that it can to promote a healthy, safe and prosperous environment and must enforce what we know to be acceptable and safe public behavior. In Fiscal Year '07, OSH sought to address the issue of people sleeping in makeshift encampments, the distribution of food on the Parkway, and the danger of exposure to inclement weather as our major objectives. To address these issues, the following initiatives were implemented: A, through collaboration with 189 4/11/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC. the Office of Behavioral Health and the Police Department, Operation Quality of Life sought to encourage persons experiencing homelessness to accept emergency housing placement and/or other appropriate placement through outreach engagement and ultimately through the clearing of encampments from public areas. During Fiscal Year '07, we have successfully placed six individuals formerly living in encampments and to increase access to treatment services. We expanded specialized psychiatric addiction and treatment services within our outreach teams and began to collaborate with the Philadelphia Community Court. B, to encourage the continued generosity of those groups and individuals who provide food to those in need, OSH has partnered with the Mayor's Office of Faith-Based Initiatives to implement Breaking Bread: An Indoor Meals Initiative.
By the end of this 190 4/11/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC. month, this initiative will establish and build on partnerships within the faith-based community to provide space for indoor meals and utilize City services, outreach teams and non-profit partners to extend additional services to those who are resistant to traditional offers of assistance. C, as we worked to identify assertive means of engaging those resistant to traditional services, we also found it extremely advantageous to provide an opportunity for non-traditional tactics. By capitalizing on the success of Grace Cafe, OSH launched two additional winter initiative overnight cafes in December and November of Fiscal Year '07, St. John's Cafe and Cafe 315 South. With three cafe sites currently serving up to 175 individuals per night, Philadelphia's model provides an environment that is in great contrast to traditional emergency housing. Hailed as a model that is saving the lives of 191 4/11/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC. those unwilling to enter emergency housing during dangerous and inclement weather, this innovative approach provides an overnight setting where outreach workers and addiction and mental health professionals build the rapport necessary to engage individuals previously unwilling to enter services and treatment. The goal is to eventually bring them to accept appropriate placement opportunities. In Fiscal Year '06 at Grace Cafe, the dedication and compassion of outreach staff and provider organizations successfully engaged 50 percent of all cafe guests. Fifty percent of the regular guests, or 39 individuals, actually entered placement, leaving the streets. For our Fiscal Year '08 objectives and planned initiatives, we are implementing the tactical phase of Philadelphia's Ten-Year Plan to End Homelessness. This process involves 192 4/11/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC. seven issue-specific work groups that will identify the specific steps and tasks needed to meet designed objectives for achieving the Mayor's vision of ending the need for anyone to sleep on our streets. Those efforts include homeless prevention. To address the increasing demand and requests for emergency housing services, it is important that we focus on preventing and diverting households from ever entering the emergency housing system and returning those households to their own housing located in supportive communities as follows: First is the Housing Retention Program, which will provide funding for delinquent rent, mortgage or utility payments to assist over 300 City residents in remaining in their existing housing in the community. This program is targeted to specific neighborhoods that have high rates of foreclosures and evictions with provider partners assigned 193 4/11/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC. to specific geographical areas. The source of funding for this program is $629,700 in Neighborhood Transformation Initiative Bond Proceeds. B, the Diversion Program will provide housing, housing subsidies, and social service support to rapidly attach 75 families to housing in the community. The annual cost to house an average family of three in this pilot program is 21,000 as compared to 35,000 for the same family to be housed for one year of shelter costs. The source of funding for this program is $245,300 in NTI Bond Proceeds and a Fiscal Year '06 allocation of 489,000 and a Fiscal Year '07 allocation of 593,000 from the Housing Trust Fund. To prevent placement or extended stay in emergency housing, both of these prevention efforts will assist households facing economic crisis jeopardizing their independent living. We also wanted to share with 194 4/11/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC. you our new permanent housing opportunities. In support of the Ten-Year Plan to End Homelessness, this Ten-Year Plan Leadership and Housing Trust Fund Oversight Board created a homeless housing rental subsidy program this past fall.
With a Fiscal Year '07 one million commitment from the Housing Trust Fund, 40 households will be provided rental subsidies and move from transitional into permanent housing. The housing inventory for this program will consist of existing affordable rental housing developments with vacancies due to the units turning over. This model strives to address the gap between the existing rent and what a homeless family can afford by paying the difference. It is anticipated that the program will provide assistance up to three years and utilize case management and employment and training support to enhance the incomes of the households so that they can afford to retain their housing after 195 4/11/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC. the duration of the subsidy. In addition, our Housing First program model continues to have positive outcomes. OSH will continue to move individuals experiencing long-term homelessness and living with a disability from the streets or emergency housing to permanent supportive housing. Since the 2002 inception of the initial Housing First program, 190 Housing First units have been established. Of the 152 individuals enrolled by July 2006, 84,000 have been successfully housed and there has been a 50 percent decrease in hospitalizations for that same population. Measurable outcomes such as these demonstrate that secure housing creates the context for successful solutions. In Fiscal Year '08, OSH will continue to seek federal Housing and Urban Development funding and leverage state and local dollars to support this program and the increase of units. And, finally, we wanted to talk 196 4/11/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC. about our domestic violence initiatives. Lastly, OSH will continue its commitment to strengthening the City's response to incidents of domestic violence in Fiscal Year '08. Promoting the recommendation of Mayor Street's Task Force on Domestic Violence to provide survivors with assured access to services, OSH, in partnership with Women Against Abuse, will finalize another expansion of housing opportunities for survivors of domestic violence. Supported by General Funds, this expansion will increase the total inventory of available, safe housing opportunities from 65 to 100. This program is projected to open by the end of this month. I appreciate the opportunity to testify before you today. I would be happy to answer any questions you may have. Thank you.
Thank you very much. 197 4/11/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC. You state on the bottom of of your testimony that City outreach teams report a rise in the number of unduplicated individuals contacted, reflected in the annual average street count of 375 individuals living on the streets of Center City. This represents a percent increase from the previous 10 year's annual average. 11 What do you mean by 12 "unduplicated individuals"? 13
Meaning that the 14 number of contacts between the outreach 15 workers and that individual is -- we're 16 not counting the total number of contacts they're making. We're just counting the initial contact they made and counting that one person as someone who has been contacted, as opposed to if we were engaged with them every day of the week, that number would spike up. So we're just counting the one individual.
What do you believe are the reasons that this 198 4/11/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC. population has increased by percent over last year?
I believe the 5 reasons are the issues that we cited, 6 increasing poverty issues, the prevalence 7 of low-wage and absence of living-wage 8 jobs, the lack of job skills for many of 9 the single men in particular who are 10 living on the street, rising housing 11 costs, and obviously for many of the 12 homeless who are living on the street, 13 they have behavioral health issues. 14 There's either a mental health issue, a 15 severe addiction issue or they're duly 16 diagnosed with those. And so all of those factors I believe has resulted in an increase of folks who have found themselves homeless as a result of those factors and have chosen to live on the streets of our city.
Thank you. The Chair recognizes Councilman Greenlee. 199 4/11/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC.
Just a couple of quick questions. You talk about some of the new programs you had over the winter. Have you seen an increase in cooperation of homeless residents in participating in these programs?
Actually, we have been very gratified by the number of homeless, chronically homeless, street consumers who have opted to utilize the overnight cafes. That traditionally is the population that would be the most resistant to going into any kind of emergency housing placement, even knowing that it was only for one night. And so in our mind, we really believe that the overnight cafes have presented an option that we didn't have that provides that group of folks with an opportunity to get 200 4/11/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC. off of the streets when it's really cold. I don't think it is -- it is not a factor that many of those programs are a combination of a partnership between a non-profit homeless provider and a church group, and I think that there's also a level of trust and comfort in going to a church site where the cafes are located. And so we've seen just a wonderful response to that and we're very gratified that over this past winter, we didn't have any homeless individuals who expired on the street due to inclement weather.
You mentioned the distribution of food on the Parkway, which is kind of a timely issue because I'm supposed to be at the Logan Square Civic Association tomorrow night. They raise that issue all the time. Again, you talk about some of 201 4/11/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC. the programs. What cooperation have you had with the private agencies or private groups that do feed the homeless?
Actually, that also has been very encouraging. One of the sort of basic concepts that we decided was that it is anecdotally known to us that many of the groups who feed along the Parkway are religiously affiliated, and so our thought was if we could identify local churches of various denominations, we would then offer those groups who are carrying out a ministry on the Parkway an opportunity to partner with the church of their own denomination who is willing to host the indoor feeding. So we reached out to a number of Center City churches. We have seven Center City churches who have identified an interest to work with us in opening or creating a new feeding program indoors. We have three of the seven who have identified a desire to initiate their 202 4/11/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC. program by the end of April. And so we're very gratified by that. Our goal is to achieve a schedule where we would have an evening meal scheduled for every day of the week.
That certainly makes sense. I guess the other question, those churches, has there been any communication with the communities around this? Because I know people are sometimes a little difficult.
Exactly. Yes. Each church has identified to us that they have an internal process that they have to follow, and that's the reason why the end of April actually ended up becoming the date, or beginning of May, that's more realistic. We had the Easter holiday and the churches needed to go through the internal processes to get it approved and have their congregations on board. And so we certainly recognize the necessity, encourage them to go through the internal processes, because part of 203 4/11/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC. what we want to be sure is that we have 100 percent buy-in when we initiate the programs.
And once you start it, you don't have community opposition in trying to stop it.
Got you. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Madam President.
You're welcome. The Chair recognizes Councilwoman Blackwell.
Thank you, Madam President. I certainly would like to thank all three individuals with whom I work regularly, daily and who work so well with us so that we may try to do our part to deal with this issue that is closest to my heart out of all that we do. We've really been focusing a lot on trying to get people off the streets. After all 204 4/11/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC. these years, even though I like feeding in the subway, people shouldn't live there. This is year 2007. And we support all of these cafes, the night programs to try to get people accustomed to being up here with the rest of us and in a place where they can get the services they need. And so I only wanted to pledge my continued commitment to do what we can to end homelessness in this city and hope that at the end of this ten-year period, we may be a role model for the rest of the nation, as we are for many, many cities, as to what can happen to help people who are absolutely on the bottom rung of the ladder and who are homeless in the City of Philadelphia. Thank you, ladies.
Thank you, Councilwoman Blackwell. We certainly do depend on your support.
Are there any other questions from 205 4/11/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC. Councilmembers? (No response.)
I know you've been waiting quite a while to testify. This Committee will stand in recess until Monday, April the 16th at 10:00 a.m. Thank you all very much. (Committee of the Whole adjourned at 2:15 p.m.) - - - 206 CERTIFICATE I HEREBY CERTIFY that the proceedings, evidence and objections are contained fully and accurately in the stenographic notes taken by me upon the foregoing matter on April 11, 2007, and that this is a true and correct transcript of same. ______________________________ MICHELE L. MURPHY RPR-Notary Public (The foregoing certification of this transcript does not apply to any reproduction of the same by any means, unless under the direct control and/or supervision of the certifying reporter.)