HomeMy WebLinkAbout19-0729 FUSE MOU Final Recs 05-13-2020May 13, 2020
To: Bob Whitt, Community Engagement Specialist, City of Elgin
Aaron Cosentino, Director, Department of Neighborhood Services, City of Elgin
Joann Stingley, Supervisor, Social Services, City of Elgin
Ada Martinez, Bi-lingual Interventionist, City of Elgin
From: Betsy Benito, Director, Illinois Program, Corporation for Supportive Housing
Summary of Recommendations for On-going Elgin FUSE
The Elgin FUSE partner have made a lot of progress since 2018, when CSH was engaged. All of the
community partners – both public and private – are deeply engaged and committed to helping people
experiencing homelessness. While most of the community-wide effort focuses on food and emergency
shelter, there is an openness and understanding of the need for long-term housing solutions. That said,
the perception is that until the community feels there is a solid response for emergency shelter access
and on-going engagement plan for those who are currently not connected to services, it will be difficult
to push on the need for permanent, long-term housing. If there can be some consensus or removal of
roadblocks to smooth crisis response handoffs, the planning can more immediately shift to advocating
for the long-term housing opportunities needed.
Each community partner has many strengths and a range of program interventions, and also
independent barriers that are contributing to the cycle of homelessness among a subset of people. The
set of recommendations below reflect areas the community collaboration can continue to address
collectively within the existing structure and reach out for more assistance through the Kane County
Continuum of Care.
Review of Prior Memorandum of Understanding for On-Going Support
CSH recommends recommitting to the Memorandum of Understanding with the following
considerations:
• If the public entities need a formal agreement in order to collaborate with community partners;
• If there are laser focused activities beyond an agency’s normal course of business or
expectations from the Continuum of Care, that should be called out in order to innovate and
problem-solve; or,
• There is a defined numeric goal that the group wants to achieve and must have community-
agreement for accountability.
There are certain areas of the current Memorandum of Understanding that indicate City leadership to
support larger reforms needed in the community response. Support from the city indicates a high-level
importance and authority on the issue, and becomes a form of third party to facilitate the collaboration
among other partners that often compete for funding. Some of the specific roles the City of Elgin should
continue to play include:
• Develop and support policy reforms that reduce barriers to permanent housing for people
experiencing chronic homelessness.
o The city can help identify in all forms where access to documentation, requirements of
sobriety or medication compliance are barriers to being approved for housing
o The current COVID response has yielded waivers and guidance from public funding
entities for housing that demonstrate the type of flexibilities needed to get high-need
people into stable living with supports
• Identify funding sources - public and private - that are needed to fill services gaps for people
experiencing chronic homelessness and to improve the coordinated response system to
frequent users of emergency services in Elgin.
o There is a list of funding recommendations for program interventions that would
support the work of the community-based providers
• Act as liaison with other public-sector entities and community-based providers.
• Provide information to the City of Elgin Mayor and City Council on appropriate response(s) to
homelessness and chronic substance use population to inform future community responses.
• Support appropriate information-sharing related to the initiative and engaging the target
population into supportive housing and attend regular meetings to discuss individuals.
o This appears to be completed by Elgin Police Department. However, this role could
become more formalized and a significant portion of a staff time to advance more
community goals
• Prioritize housing and services resources for the target population that meet agency eligibility
for individual housing and service resources.
• Engage the hospital systems to best understand what their experience is of high utilizers of
emergency services among people experiencing homelessness
Create larger, bi-monthly FUSE working group between Elgin and Aurora Partners
There are many community examples of having special working groups on populations or strategies. The
purposes are to share and learn best practices, and possibly inform broader community standards. Kane
County Continuum of Care would benefit from a community standard on addressing unsheltered
homelessness and people identified by other crisis response.
In particular, there appears to be a discrepancy with the rate of access to CoC permanent housing
among those identified by the Aurora and Elgin FUSE partner groups. This working group would be an
important place to discuss engagement, quality assessment, and follow up. It could also lead to request
by or other participation of the Kane County CoC staff.
Many comparisons are made between Elgin and Aurora FUSE. A key difference is their lead organization
conducts outreach, low-demand shelter, and has pursued supportive housing specifically for the FUSE
population. In Aurora, the FUSE lead is public partners, and there is not a low-demand shelter that is
also conducting housing-focused outreach. If low demand shelters (i.e. ad hoc, seasonal, independent)
are not connected to the long-term housing system-solutions you will still have stagnant success.
New Programming: Low-Barrier Shelter Resource and Examples
The City of Elgin will be very critical in moving from a high-barrier to low-barrier crisis response. PADS of
Elgin has desires to move to a low-barrier model, but may have difficulty moving their Board of
Directors, or there may be issues with the facility to accommodate, or that they need additional staff
capacity building. This can start with doing a hard review of the shelter rules and procedures and
partner with PADS, and other crisis housing operators, to take a hard examination of standards, rules,
and outcomes.
What is low-barrier? Low-barrier is engagement focused, and will serve people who are actively using
substances and will need a supportive, client-focused model to help people organize themselves to
reach new milestones. Without shelter to accommodate people on a full spectrum then you are leaving
people behind who need a safety net that is focused on attaining long-term housing.
Some of the typical barriers that prohibit continuous engagement include:
1. Testing for intoxication before entry – people who we want to engage in services are effectively
turned away from the remaining safety net support. It is hard to develop trust when people are
not allowed to engage with basic needs such as shelter.
2. Pre-determined lengths of stay in shelter - while the premise might be that there needs to
become space for other people who need shelter, the fact that people have to leave after a
certain amount of time does not help address the long-term homeless issue. The focus should
always be on housing assessment, referral, and placement, and allowing clients – who will likely
return, a chance to stay as long as needed.
3. Meeting program expectations in order to extend stay – some goals may be beyond the control
of the individual. More common, is that people who have experienced long-term homelessness,
are in any crisis, or have other disabling conditions have a very difficult time with executive
functioning and follow through. Client achieving goals that do not pertain to housing can
become very difficult, especially if their priority is to get secure housing, or they may feel
depressed, confused, or disempowered.
4. Having to leave during the day - if there is not daytime support space coupled with the shelter,
the services supports are disrupted, and it may be difficult to navigate daytime hours if there
isn’t anything to do. Some individuals may need a place to sleep during the day if they do have
an evening or night job.
The City of Elgin will need to play a part in securing a new location for PADS of Elgin, which is an
opportunity to implement a new low-barrier model. City leaders can mitigate community response in
order for this to proceed, and help the community see this is in the best interest of addressing the issue
of homelessness. The National Alliance to End Homelessness has many resources related to emergency
shelter and transitioning to low barrier shelter model.
https://endhomelessness.org/resource/emergency-shelter/
New Programming: Landlord Outreach Strategies and Funding Programs
Most communities add new supportive housing resources through leasing partnerships with existing
property owners. Community Crisis Center and Ecker Center are among the providers that work with
existing landlords to locate housing and deliver short and long-term rental assistance through federal
grants. While there may be capacity to leverage those relationships and staffing to help cultivate more
landlords specifically for providing housing to people in the FUSE initiative, it also could be possible to
add community capacity for this work.
The City may already be providing grants related to housing outreach and other services. This is an
opportunity to look at what the city is already doing in this space, and gather from community providers
how dedicated assistance to housing search and landlord negotiation will help move more people into
housing. In some communities the resource of a housing locator or developer assists multiple
organizations access units, not just feeding one organization’s needs. This would continue to build
collaboration between organizations, but will need strong buy in and processes to make a coordinated
process work.
One example is the Housing Locator Program in Chicago, where locators supported organizations in a
region. In a city like Elgin there may only need to be one housing broker. Centralized relationships allow
staffing to be specialized instead of having case managers split their time between landlord outreach
and client services.
Below are program examples and resources from CSH, HUD, and the National Alliance to End
Homelessness.
• CSH Supportive Housing Training Center – training on landlord outreach
• NAEH Guidance: https://endhomelessness.org/resource/landlord-outreach-strategies/
• HUD Profile: https://files.hudexchange.info/resources/documents/HousingLocatorChicago.pdf
New Programming: Supportive Housing Services Grants
Some FUSE clients may be able to secure permanent affordable housing in Elgin that are outside of the
normal homeless housing grants where services are automatically included. In order to take advantage
of all housing resources in Elgin, additional services dollars will need to be available specifically to
support FUSE clients in whatever housing setting that can be acquired.
An area for funding exploration by the City of Elgin is to provide a FUSE Supportive Housing Grant, that
will deliver housing tenancy supports after someone accesses housing. Depending on the ability of
funding housing location or supportive housing services, some housing location could be done through
the supportive housing services grants.
Supportive Housing Services include:
• Housing assessment and addressing housing barriers
• Creating an annual housing plan
• Being a point of contact for the landlord to mitigate any issues with tenancy and helping the
individual be a full part of the solution
• Advocate or support advocacy by the individual if issues arise in the unit
• Provide general case management to ensure that the person is connected to all other services
and resources that they need and want, including substance use, mental health, health care,
food, transportation, jobs, etc.
The City could consider funding one to two caseloads –serving up to 40 people at a time, to provide
supportive services in a variety of housing settings, focused on FUSE members. Not all FUSE members
will gain access to Continuum of Care housing, and may have the ability to pay their own rent without
subsidy, or who can access Statewide Referral Network or Elgin Housing Authority resources. Most of
the FUSE individuals want housing, and are not connected to any service.
More resources on supportive housing can be found at www.csh.org/quality, which will outline standard
practices, sample documents, and description of services.
Increase Community Capacity through Training
CSH did not provide in-person training to community partners as originally envisioned. The ability of
organizations to commit time to the training, as well as make efficient time and travel of CSH staff were
key barriers. CSH does have an on-line Supportive Housing Training Center, with many offerings that are
either free or low cost, or through a subscription service. A catalog is attached.
Recommended topics would be within:
• Supportive Housing Basics
• Harm Reduction
• Motivational Interviewing
• Property Management/Service Coordination
• Working with Landlords