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Santa Clara Collaborative on Affordable Housing and Homelessness
Steering Committee
Minutes of Meeting
September 19, 2002 -- 1:30 p.m.
City of San Jose Department of Housing
Present: Corky Gutierrez,(Collaborative Chair) County Mental Health; Margaret Gregg, County of Santa Clara Homeless Concerns; Tracey Chew, Catholic Charities; Kristie Kesel, Housing for Independent People; Terry Applegate, Silicon Valley Independent Living Center; Kathy Espinoza-Howard, City of Palo Alto; Denise Scovel and Anne Ehresman, InnVision; Vivian Frelix-Hart, City of San Jose; Poncho Guevara, Emergency Housing Consortium; Ann Levine, Mental Health Advocacy Project; Phyllis Ward and Betty Feldheym, Affordable Housing Network; Bonnie Reed, United Way; Susan Meller, San Jose Unified School District; Leah Gronlund, Santa Clara Unified School District; Jaclyn Fabre, Cupertino Community Services; Karen Gruneisen, HomeBase; Rose Sutton, Next Step Center; Frank Motta, SSA; Christine Skeen, Second Start; Michael Pritchard, Pathway Society, Inc.; Darin Lounds, Corporation for Supportive Housing.
Introductions were made.
Jaclyn Fabre announced the opening in January 2003 of a 24 unit property with 12 one bedrooms and 12 two bedroom units for very low income families according to HUD income criteria. An announcement will be sent through the Collaborative email when applications are available.
Terry Applegate distributed an information sheet for design of new developments to accommodate people with disabilities.
SUPER NOFA DEBRIEF:
Everyone was invited, especially the grant awardees but 8 organizations that received funding did not attend the meeting. HomeBase facilitated the evaluation process. There will not be any major changes to the process but the recommended changes include:
╖ Set up a system for Margaret GreggÆs office and SSA to monitor the projects funded;
╖ Revisit the appellate process and decide if needs amendment
╖ Determine how to divide up the pot of money for next year. As it stands, the renewals would take up all the money available. Is this ok or should some money be set aside for new proposals?
Recognition was given to the members of the rank and review committee for their excellent service.
Phyllis Ward proposed that we try to increase the funding pool that HUD makes available to us.
Karen Gruneisen said we are well represented at the Regional Steering Committee where such discussions take place.
COLLABORATIVE RETREAT SUMMARY:
Karen distributed a summary report that highlights the direct action initiatives generated during discussions at the retreat.
╖ By October meeting, request for Steering Committee to evaluate several models for determining advocacy action by the Collaborative. One model is presented in KarenÆs report.
╖ Decided that the role of the sub-committees is to provide oversight of the work to accomplish the strategic plan and not to do the work itself. The sub-committees report to the Steering Committee for feedback and approval of their actions.
╖ Request for Collaborative to write a letter to the Board of Supervisors to ask for staffing and funding to support the Collaborative as part of the new County Housing Office.
There was a motion by Kathy Espinoza Howard to write the letter and it was passed by unanimous vote of yes with 1 abtstention. The discussion following the motion was that the County has no funds for new hire positions but Vivian and others suggested that it is our obligation to request this from the County and figure out a way to make it happen until funding is obtained.
╖ Recommended By-law revisions were presented on page 10 of KarenÆs report. Currently, the Exec Committee DOES NOT have ad-hoc power to make decisions and take action without official vote from Steering Committee. There is an issue with timeliness of action and the quorum requirement for voting. One problem is that the number of seats available sets the number for quorum but not all seats are filled so the proposal is to count the number of elected Steering Committee members and take the quorum from that number. We need to work out the details of our processes and see what is working and fix what is not working.
╖ Top 5 priority issues voted on at the retreat were listed on pages 7 and 11 including 1) staffing for the collaborative; 2) support the Housing Bond, Prop 46; 3) Development of permanent housing including intact families and disabled; 4) Creating an orientation packet for new Collaborative members; and 5) Forging connections between programs to fill gaps and improve programs to get NOFA money.
╖ Executive Committee will review and report on Action Items identified in KarenÆs retreat summary report.
╖ The logic model was revised and HomeBase will present it to the Exec Committee.
╖ Agendas for the Steering Committee meetings will be sent out by email prior to the meeting. We will also revisit our mission and rules of order.
PROP 46 Update:
Kristie Kesel gave a quick overview of what the bond measure would mean for Housing in our County and she distributed information packets and contribution envelopes.
╖ Kathy Espinoza Howard explained that the Bond builds infrastructure for 2004 County Housing Trust Campaign and that the Collaborative needs to be more public in their support of the Bond.
╖ Tracey identified 3 ways that the Collabortive could be more pro-active and public in support of the bond.
There was a motion by Kathy Espinoza-Howard that was unanimously approved to adopt the following actions to promote Prop 46:
1) Secure as many individual and organizational endorsements as possible and send them to Tracey or Margaret or Kristie as members of a subcommittee of the Collaborative to promote Prop 46
2) Raise $1,000 in campaign contributions;
3) Walk precincts on Oct. 12 and Oct. 19 with Labor to promote Prop 46. Call Chris Block at 282-1125 for details.
The next Steering Committee meeting would be held at the City of San JoseÆs Department of Housing, 4 North Second Street, Suite 1350, at 1:30 on Thursday, October 17th. |