July 19, 2024 Minutes

Human Services Advisory Commission - Meeting Minutes

Meeting: July 19, 2024

In Attendance: Elizabeth Barber, Stacey Casteel, Ernest Cienfuegos-Baca, Stephanie Foos, Stephanie Gausch, Stanley Graffis, Jodi Hartmann, Enita Kearns-Hout, Kelly Martinez, Tammy Phillips, Gillian Smith, Tom Teixeira, and Adam Turk

Absent: Scott K. James and Lisa Taylor

In Attendance: Jamie Ulrich, Tami Grant, Julie Witkowski, Karin Crandall, and Lesley Cobb

Recording Secretary: Lesley Cobb

Welcome

The meeting was called to order at 8:15 a.m.

Presentation

Affordable Housing Project Update
Jodi Hartmann, Executive Director of High Plains Housing Development, gave an update on the affordable housing project Star Rise Apartments. She explained that they closed financially on May 31st and recently had their groundbreaking ceremony. Demolition started in June, and she is excited to see construction start. They are estimating that construction will be about a 15-month window and hope to start leasing the property in November/December 2025. This will be 58 brand new units in the community for a high need, very vulnerable population. Jody stated that there will probably not be much more to update everyone on over the next year, but they are looking forward to phase 2 which will be 90 units of deeply affordable housing. With that, they will be doing fund raising for the next year and half to two years and it will also be a low-income housing tax credit project. She is hopeful that phase 2 will be under construction within the next two years and at the end of the project, there will be a total of about 150 new units of deeply affordable housing.

Introductions

Review of Minutes from April 19, 2024
Motion to approve the minutes was made by Adam Turk and seconded by Stanley Graffis. The minutes were unanimously approved.

2023 Core Services Family Preservation/Placement Alternative Commission Report

Ryan Traylor presented the 2023 Core Services Family Preservation/Placement Alternative Commission Report. He explained that every year we are required to submit this report to Colorado State University (CSU) regarding our view of Core services and how we utilize these services. He highlighted on the report that for Weld County one of the services not currently available in our area is substance abuse treatment for juveniles. Ryan also noted that we are always looking for capacity in the therapeutic fields, as they are seeing longer and longer wait times to get client services. He noted that they are constantly recruiting to bring new providers on, especially Medicaid providers. In Weld County, transportation seems to be a big barrier in accessing services if clients are in rural areas. Providers are struggling to find and keep good staff; due to this we have seen an increase in service rates so that they can increase staff pay.
Ryan stated that this report was submitted to the State a few weeks ago and they are currently in the process of preparing the 2024-2025 Core Services plan that will be due next month.

Community Services Block Grant (CSBG) Update

• Expenditure Report as of June 2024 - Karin Crandall reported that we have now received all of our Option Letters from the State regarding funding and have received the expected $275,000.00. She reported that through Emergency Assistance for the 1st Quarter they have spent just over $10,000.00.
• 2025 (Year 2) Budget Review - Karin Crandall explained that each year we are required to resubmit a budget for the CSBG program. For 2025 (Year 2), which will start in January, there were no changes made from last year and the total budget is $275,839.00. Karin reviewed the budget with committee members.
• Motion to approve the CSBG Budget for 2025 (Year 2) was made by Enita Kearns-Hout and seconded by Ernest Cienfuegos-Baca. Motion passed unanimously.

Community Housing Update

Karin Crandall reported that she sits on the Greeley/Weld Housing Authority Board and Tom Teixeira recently retired, which his last day was June 30th. Congratulations to Tom! The Housing Authority is now going through some changes and reorganization to move things forward. Currently they do not have an Executive Director and the job opening was posted for several weeks. Only two applicants applied, in which they felt both did not have the qualifications that the Board was looking for. The Board did hire a company to do a nation-wide search for this position. The job has not been posted yet, but the company has been working on a brochure that will be used in the recruiting effort. The Housing Authority also hired a consulting firm from out of state and they have been here for about five weeks. They are working with current staff, supervising, keeping things running, and making sure rents are getting paid. Using this firm will likely be extended, as it was only supposed to be for eight weeks, and they are already five weeks in with no prospects for the Executive Director position.

Karin also informed members that currently the Housing Authority’s wait list is closed, and they are no longer taking applications. A wait list purge will occur to see who still wants to be on this list but there will probably not be any names that will come off the list for a while. There are currently 246 people on the wait list. The Housing Authority is overspent on the housing vouchers that are already out and they are working through those challenges. On the Weld County side, they are projected to be overspent by just over $600,000.00 by the end of the year. On the Greeley side, they are projected to be overspent by just under $400,000.00 by the end of the year. Both shortfall figures are for paying people’s rent who have section 8 vouchers and are due to the amount of money they get from HUD not matching up. They do have more vouchers but are not issuing those due to the shortfall. Karin explained that the Housing Authority has several options to help with these shortfalls and they will be exploring those in the coming months.
Karin reported that there are only 4 vacancies for Public Housing apartments. At least three of those vacancies will be filled by the end of this month.

Customer Satisfaction Survey Results

Julie Witkowski reported on the Satisfaction Survey results regarding their support groups that are ran by the Prevention Team for Foster/Adoptive/Kinship caregiver families. As a snapshot from the last six months, they received great feedback. Her team is very happy with the results, and they are trying to implement other surveys within the Family Resource Division and expand data.

Strategic Plan Update

Kyle Ewertz explained that the Strategic Plan was a three-year plan, and it is coming to an end at the end of this year. He reviewed highlights of things that were accomplished over the three years such as identifying department values, implementing engagement surveys for staff, doing staff recognition, establishing a mentoring program, working on lobby redesigns and signage, and creating committees and work groups. Right now, they are trying to wrap everything up, create a summary of the accomplishments and then create a new Strategic Plan going forward.

Contract Services Update

Lesley Cobb provided an update regarding contracted services for the 2nd quarter of 2024.

Division Audits/Evaluations/Reports

• Foster Care Audit
  • Julie Rudley reported that the Department had its annual Foster Care audit in May, that took place for a week, in which 53 files where reviewed. They will be meeting with the State on August 5th to formally go over results, but preliminary results indicate that it went well. Highlights of some of the things that the State liked were file organization and the use of the Binti system, which is used for the foster care certification process. There were a few minor things noted that the Department will be working on but overall, the audit went very well.
• IV-E Audit
  • Julie Witkowski explained that IV-E are federal dollars that we can draw down for children who are in out-of-home placement. There is a team in Family Resource who do all of the IV-E determinations. In April they did have a state audit, in which 50 files were reviewed, and the audit went really well. All 50 cases passed and some of the strengths that were noted were that determinations were completed timely and there was good communication internally. There were a few minor items noted that they will be working on.
• Social Security Representative Payee Audit
  • Julie Witkowski reported on the Social Security Representative Payee audit that was conducted in October of last year. Social Security reviewed Payee reports for all youth that the Department is Representative Payee for, which was 85 cases. We recently received a letter indicating that the review was complete and no other feedback was offered. Tami Grant explained that this was the first ever audit of this type.
• Migrant Seasonal Farmworker Annual Monitoring Results
  • Tami Grant reported on the Migrant Seasonal Farmworker annual monitoring. This program is referred to as MSFW which was a result of a law that was passed back in the 1970's due to farm workers not having reasonable working conditions and/or living conditions. We partner with Larimer County since they do not have a MSFW Coordinator, and we have been known to have the best MSFW program in the state. Tami indicated that we had zero findings and several best practices noted from the audit. There will be an event coming up for farm work appreciation in early August where we are giving back to those who help to make sure we all have food on our table.

Department Updates

Kyle Ewertz reported that the Department has had some exciting things that have taken place. Weld County DHS was recognized for Outstanding Large County for meeting C-Stat Measures. He explained that C-Stat is how the state gauges how we are doing in programs and there are a lot of C-Stat Measures. In order to obtain this award, you have to have meet the goal 75% or more of the time for the year. Weld County was able to meet this goal 85.2% of the time and was the only Large County to meet the goal.

Kyle announced that Child Support did win the award for Outstanding Large County and Most Improved County in Current Support. Weld County is the only Large County above the mark in collecting current support.

Kyle also informed members that the Department is currently working on its internet page and creating an internet redesign committee to make it more user friendly. Currently the plan is to bring a prototype to HSAC to get feedback regarding the new navigation. Kelly Martinez offered assistance from the Health Department’s Community Advisory Board which has an English group and a Spanish group who help review their fliers and brochures. She felt they could help with feedback regarding the internet page.

Community Updates

• Elizabeth Barber
  • Elizabeth shared that this will likely be her last meeting as she just celebrated, at the end of June, her 15th anniversary with the Greeley Dream Team and is very proud of the work that has gone on there. She feels that it is now time to move on and start a new chapter in her life and she is excited to see what is next. Her hope is to stay within the community. Elizabeth thanked everyone for their time and commitment in serving the community.
• Adam Turk
  • Adam reported that Monday night at the LINK, at 6:00 pm, they are holding a Community Meeting with community members and business owners in the downtown area because there will likely be an influx of new visitors to that area due to the Cold Weather Shelter closing at the end of July. They will also provide some community education about the city’s new outreach team in which they have Foundations who do transition and follow-up on housing, and two that are assigned to rapid re-housing. They also just started a 6-to-8-person outreach team, under the Homeless and Housing Solutions Department, with the goal to send the appropriate resources, rather than a uniformed police officer and/or too many resources, to some of the calls that they are serving. Adam indicated that there will be a number published that people could call for these types of situations and he asked members to help get the word out.
  • Adam stated that the city is also working on a 3-1-1 program to enhance the customer experience. This 3-1-1 number will be a one-stop shop for any city service, whether it is Public Works, Parks, etc., that will get the customer to the appropriate resource they are needing.
• Jodi Hartmann
  • Jodi reported that they are in the process of hiring three new positions over the next 6-8 months. Those positions will be an Administrative Assistant, Assistant Director, and an Asset Manager. They will be posting these jobs on Indeed and the Colorado Non-Profit Association Job Board.
• Ernest Cienfuegos-Baca
  • Ernest reported that United Way is going through a significant Strategic Plan period, and they are about ready to present the plan to their board. This plan will outline what United Way will look like in three and five years from now. He indicated that there will likely be some significant changes happening within United Way and he will share those once the board has finalized their recommendations. That will be coming in August.
    Ernest reported that one of their work groups, the Landlord Partnership Group, has been working for over a year on developing the Eviction Prevention Resource Guide. This guide is for landlords and individuals who are being told that they are getting evicted. This guide provides information on mediation, legal services, as well as resources for rental assistance and/or eviction prevention assistance. This guide is located on the United Way website - https://www.unitedway-weld.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Eviction-Prevention-Resource-Guide.pdf
  • Ernest was excited to share that at the next Thriving Weld quarterly meeting on August 7th, Dr. Sam Tsemberis will be speaking. Time Magazine has recognized Dr. Tsemberis as one of the 100 most influential people of 2024 for his work around the homeless and he will speak on how community partners play an essential role in working with the homeless.
• Kelly Martinez
  • Kelly shared that they have a new Division Director for the Health Education, Communication, and Planning Division in the Health Department, who was the Director of Denver Public Health for 11 years. He is promoting new programs and one of those is weekly health screenings which involves testing for triglycerides, blood sugar, blood pressure and A1C. Kelly wanted to spread the word about this testing and noted that their target population are those who are Medicaid recipients. If anyone has events and would like to have this screening done, they would be happy to do that. They also have navigators that can assist people in following up with medical providers if their screening numbers are off the charts. The Health Department can also go to work sites to do these screenings if anyone is interested in that as well.
• Tom Teixeira
  • Tom added to the earlier conversation on eviction, in that originally, we were a landlord friendly state, which meant that if a renter didn’t perform or correct themselves in three days they were out. Now it has moved to a minimum of ten days, but in many cases, it is at least 30 days and then in some cases you have to have mediation, which the landlord pays for. He has seen that landlords would have worked with renters, but they are now going ahead and starting the eviction process because of the time it takes, two to three months, to possibly get that person out of the unit.
• Enita Kearns-Hout
  • Enita voiced that she is so grateful for their team figuring out how they can serve homeless single women that are out in the community in unsafe situations. As a team, they make decisions about how to shelter these individuals and where they will put them, which may mean that they have to put people in their cafeteria and the community rooms if needed.
  • Enita reported on the $325,000.00 ARPA grant from the city and that it will not be a three-year grant. They will likely be using this funding up by early next year. Catholic Charities receives a lot of calls for assistance with utilities, which has been about 500 calls in a month period. Enita also indicated that 231 calls were received for emergency housing assistance and homeless prevention in a two-month period, and they were able to serve 25. Catholic Charities is grateful for getting the funding but have had challenges, in that there was no funding for staff, and they are trying to work that out. To date, they have already spent $64,655.00 to serve 25 families.
• Stephanie Gausch
  • Stephanie reported that the Weld Food Bank just ended their fiscal year in June, and they gave about 15½ million pounds of food out in Weld County and fed 1 in 4 people. They are getting ready to close down the kid’s meals for the summer. That program runs 10 weeks and will go until the first week in August, which they will have provided 75,000 meals. They are continuing to see an increase in need and their emergency food box program is officially serving 100% more people this year as compared to last year at this time. The Food Bank is expecting to see a rise in the ready-to-eat food bags due to the Cold Weather Shelter closing and one of the hot meal kitchens being inoperable.
  • Stephanie also announced that they have positions open at the Weld Food Bank if anyone is interested in joining their team. The COO is retiring after 12 years, creating an opening for that position, and the Volunteer Manager position is available.
    Stephanie highlighted that the Weld Food Bank calculated over 68,000 volunteer hours donated last year. This is equivalent to around 32 full-time staff and that the volunteers in this community have been phenomenal.

  The meeting adjourned at 10:00 a.m.