Update on Heading Home: Minnesota's Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness Minnesota Office to Prevent and End Homelessness Minnesota Coalition for the Homeless Conference October 11, 2016, 1:45 - 3:00pm Rochester, MN

Today’s session Summarize Heading Home plan and its implementation Review progress on population goals: Veterans People experiencing chronic homelessness Youth Families Highlight the role of "mainstream" systems Get your thoughts about key challenges

The Minnesota Interagency Council on Homelessness Corrections Education Employment and Economic Development Governor’s Office Health Higher Education Housing Human Rights Human Services Metropolitan Council Public Safety Transportation Veterans Affairs

The Minnesota Interagency Council on Homelessness Groups Role Meetings Commissioners Set vision and direction. Address any barriers to success. 3 per year Senior Leadership Team Develop and guide plan objectives, strategies, and actions. 5-6 per year Implementation Team Programmatic experts establishing work plans to implement actions. 7-8 per year We’ve structured the Council in 3 tiers… The plan is intended to identify the concrete actions state agencies will take together over two years and very much intended to align with and support work at the local level.

Our Vision: Housing Stability for All Minnesotans Stable housing results in better educational outcomes for our children, a stronger workforce now and in the future, increased public safety, better health, reduced health care costs, and reduced disparities among communities. Governor Dayton http://tinyurl.com/HeadingHomeMN

Cross-cutting Strategies Strategies that help end homelessness for all populations Strategies focused on each population goal Families with Children Youth Veterans Chronic

Episodes of homelessness Prevent homelessness whenever possible, and otherwise making it rare, brief, and non-recurring PREVENT RARE BRIEF Episodes of homelessness New incidents Housing outcomes NON-RECURRING Recidivism

Measures of Progress and Implementation

Minnesotans Experiencing Homelessness An overall 2.75% decrease in ALL people experiencing homelessness between 2015 and 2016 Between 2014 and 2016, there has been an almost 13% decrease in ALL people experiencing homelessness SMAC, Northeast, and St. Louis* CoC’s all saw overall increases in homelessness between last year and this year. SMAC: 7% increase (driven by transitional housing and unsheltered) Northeast: 13% increase (driven by increase in emergency shelter) St. Louis: 8% increase (driven by increase in emergency shelter **New emergency shelter opened on Boise Forte (New Moon) – this added people to sheltered count) All 3 metro CoC’s increased in the numbers of unsheltered persons between 2015 and 2016,(SMAC 15%, Hennepin 38% and Ramsey 64% change) with 33% of SMAC’s total homeless being unsheltered. Almost all of Greater MN saw decreases in the unsheltered population. (All Greater MN CoC’s saw decreases in unsheltered except for West Central)

Veteran Homelessness FFI: Attend Eric’s session tomorrow afternoon at 2:00 pm

Chronic Homelessness

Youth without Parents or Guardians FFI: Attend Andrea’s session TODAY from 3:15-4:30pm

People in Families

All Population Goals

Implementation Dashboard: August 2016

Mainstream Systems

What do we mean by “mainstream systems”? Any program, service, benefit or resources that is not designed exclusively to address the needs of people experiencing homelessness. Examples: Food support MFIP Most mental health services Early learning scholarships

Why do we care about engaging mainstream systems? Homelessness often = failure in existing safety nets Homeless-dedicated funding alone is not enough Addressing homelessness is integral to the broader missions of mainstream systems People experiencing homelessness deserve to benefit from the same services and resources as others

What are we doing? Helping to make mainstream systems work better for people experiencing homelessness Connecting with health care Embedding housing-related best practices and promising approaches in mainstream systems Assisting with access to federal benefits Improving access to transportation

Helping to make mainstream systems work better for people experiencing homelessness “What’s hard for people who are housed is impossible for people who are homeless.” Example: DB101/HB101 Vault A key theme we heard during our External Opinion Research: Many intakes, applications, or appointments assume that a person has an address, has a car, has an appointment book, has paperwork at hand or attainable. For individuals and families who are homeless, these assumptions are principally not true.

Connecting with health care Potential proposal for a Medicaid-funded housing support services benefit Includes both Transition and Tenancy Sustaining services Target population: people whose disability or disabling condition(s) limits their ability to obtain and/or maintain stable housing

Connecting with health care Build capacity among homeless and housing providers in Minnesota to: Connect people experiencing homelessness to Medicaid and assist with maintaining benefits Identify people who may be eligible for Medicaid services and connect them to those services, and Build agency capacity and partnerships to access Medicaid funding for health care services provided to their clients.

Stable, integrated, affordable housing with community supports Homelessness and Olmstead Street Nursing facility Homeless shelter Hospital Group home Jail Often a person with a disability can be caught in a cycle of instability Barriers to stability Housing affordability Rental barriers (e.g., criminal history, credit problems) Lack of community services Navigating complex systems Goal Stable, integrated, affordable housing with community supports

Discussion

Small group discussions TOPICS Landlord engagement Partnerships with workforce development systems Ending senior homelessness Engaging the child welfare system The role of schools in ending youth & family homelessness The role of mainstream economic assistance and human service programs Affordable housing development Improving outcomes for people disproportionately impacted by homelessness Connections with health care

What is working well for you locally? DISCUSSION QUESTIONS What is working well for you locally? What could the State do to support your local efforts? What opportunities seem most promising or energizing?

Thank you! Cathy ten Broeke, Director Minnesota Office to Prevent and End Homelessness cathy.tenbroeke@state.mn.us