Stevenson, Garrett
Subject:FW: Signed copy of letter:RE: HOUSING DEPARTMENT BUDGET -Agenda of ED Tech Committee
From: Areta Crowell < >
Sent: Tuesday, May 17, 2022 8:24 AM
To: Stevenson, Garrett <[email protected]>; Wilson, Andy <[email protected]>; Madison, Steve <[email protected]>; Hampton,Tyron <[email protected]>; Rivas, Jessica <[email protected]>
Cc: Huang, William <[email protected]>; Reyes, David <[email protected]> Subject: Signed copy of letter:RE: HOUSING DEPARTMENT BUDGET -Agenda of ED Tech Committee From: Areta Crowell
Sent: Tuesday, May 17, 2022 11:16 AM
To: [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected] Cc: [email protected]; dayLdlreves@citYofpasad^naj'iet Subject: HOUSING DEPARTMENT BUDGET -Agenda of ED Tech Committee Dear City Council Members
Thank you all for the time and effort you put in to make the city of Pasadena an outstanding community. I am a proud homeowner in District 7, a member of Pasadena Presbyterian church, and retired Director of the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health . I am also a member of the Faith Community Committee, part of the Continuum of Care,a requirement of the Federal HDD funding for serving persons experiencing homelessness in Pasadena. I have been a volunteer with the Homeless Count for several years.
From this intense involvement I make these points about the HOUSING DEPARTMENT budget proposed to you:
1. MORE STAFF
We have an outstanding department, headed with great skill and wisdom by Mr. Huang. Th staff are dedicated , giving their heart to the problems of homelessness. They are stretched too thin- and the city investment is needed to get essential service funding. This is an investment that should be increased to help bring in more funds.
2. MOREVOUCHERRS
Mr. Huang is rightly an advocate for "Housing first" - it is the only long-term solution to homelessness. But there are insufficient project-linked vouchers to accompany more dedicated housing and non-linked vouchers are not welt used because prospective tenants cannot find units which are affordable or landlords do not accept them. We need more project- linked vouchers AND more housing. The Department already tries to increase the acceptance of vouchers. More staff could help with this effort.
3. MORE COORDINATION
The number of unsheltered persons seems to have flattened out according to the results of the 2022 count.
These "chronically" unsheltered are difficult to house permanently but they need more than bad weather shelter in the winter months .The Housing Department must have staff to coordinate with Community Services and the city outreach service providers to develop the longitudinal connections which eventually yield the trust of our needy street dwellers to work into a housing plan which they can accept. This takes mental health and persons with lived experience to be effective in reducing the street violence and visibility of homelessness which the public and business find so offensive.
4. INTERIM SHELTER
1 Until we can provide permanent supportive housing we need a strategy to provide interim, temporary shelter.
Motel housing has been used during the COVID emergency but has proven problematic in many ways.
A congregate Bad Weather Shelter ,as was the norm before the pandemic, is unacceptable to many of the chronically unsheltered: it does not provide any sense of security to traumatized individuals ,and persons cannot bring much "stuff inside-there are many reasons this approach is rejected. Tiny Villages overcome many of those objections and can be a successful addition to what Pasadena provides. I think they should be part of our plans.
5. SINGLE AUTHORITY FOR MENTAL HEALTH CRISIS RESPONSES
The city needs a single point of accountability for serving both the mental health/substance use issues of homeless persons and also the larger community crisis response. We do not have any coordination of PORT, HOPE, the housing support provided through community agencies (including ones funded by the Housing Department). Outreach must be combined with continuity of care to yield good results.
I believe it is possible to leverage the current city investments by shifting from a HOPE approach, which relies on police/mental health teams, to a CAHOOTS approach which is a public mental health approach to violence reduction and crisis response- combined with follow up /continuity of care.
It is promising that Mayor Gordo has brought the County into discussions about improving the mental health services to Pasadenans. Many of the services which he is talking about do not involve homeless persons, but they should be combined if all stakeholders are part of the conversation. Building a CAHOOTs type response system can use city funds now in HOPE as well as PORT to combine with County Mental health to draw down federal PRA funds at 90% match!! The Housing Department must be part of the planning with DMH ; Huntington Hospital does not have this aspect of mental health expertise.
The CAHOOTS model used local non-profits to be the service deliverers. These services are best provided by para- professionals , persons with lived life-on-the-streets experience combined with trained mental health experts. They are best delivered by a community agency now involved in street outreach.
Sincerely,
Areta Crowell,PhD
Retired Director, LAC DMH
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