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Result 1

Council agencies will collaborate and co-lead with impacted communities that have been historically oppressed and excluded such as Black, brown and people of color, poor/low income, LGBTQIA2S+ and people who have faced homelessness and Tribal Nations to implement the action plan on housing, racial and health justice.

 

Strategy 1: Every council agency commits to working with people with lived experience of homelessness to guide policies, programs, and agency direction.   

Strategy 2: Ensure equitable funding opportunities for Tribal Nations and communities across the state.  

Strategy 3: Provide easy to understand information on programs, funding, and decision making to ensure transparency and accountability in state government.

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Result 2

Homelessness is prevented whenever possible, and services and supports are provided to ensure no one returns to homelessness.

 

Strategy 1: Improve access to resources for households to sustain their housing.

Strategy 2: Support people in transitions so they do not leave government funded or operated systems into homelessness.

Strategy 3: Use data to target resources more effectively.

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Result 3

A robust crisis response geared toward housing outcomes supports people who are unsheltered, in emergency shelters, and in community.

 

Strategy 1: Invest in and support additional outreach responses that reach people wherever they are.

Strategy 2: Increase safe indoor crisis options statewide that are low barrier, harm reduction, and culturally responsive to meet people’s needs.

Strategy 3: Support a consistent approach across jurisdictions to improve outcomes for people sleeping in encampments.

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Result 4

People facing homelessness have access to housing options that meet their needs and honors their choices.

 

Strategy 1: Fund and develop a variety of housing options with fewer restrictions and barriers.

Strategy 2: Increase access to rental assistance and vouchers.

Strategy 3: Improve navigation to get people into housing.

Strategy 4: Increase access to supportive services to sustain housing.

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Result 5

Homelessness is treated as a crucial health and public health crisis wherever it occurs.

 

Strategy 1: Create a comprehensive, trauma-informed, and culturally responsive continuum of care for people facing homelessness with behavioral health needs which includes mental health and substance use.  

Strategy 2: Increase capacity, access and use of quality, culturally responsive health resources including physical health, mental health, substance use supports, sexual health, and spiritual health.    

Strategy 3: Establish a structure and protocols to prevent and respond to infectious disease outbreaks for people facing homelessness.  

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Alexia Reed Holtum Sep 1 2023 at 5:29PM on page 5

Suggestion
· Establish pathways for people exiting hospitalization to supportive services such as recuperative care.

o DHS: Provide reimbursement to help cover the cost of stays at recuperative care homes.

o Hospitals: Evaluate and refer patients recovering from physical illness or injury, have a diagnosed form of mental illness, and are a threat to becoming homeless without a safe place to recover medically.

Alexia Reed Holtum Sep 1 2023 at 5:22PM on page 7

Add medical respite / recuperative care, please.

Alexia Reed Holtum Sep 1 2023 at 5:20PM on page 13

Suggestion
Add Medical Respite / Recuperative Care. Thank you.

Alexia Reed Holtum Sep 1 2023 at 5:19PM on page 13

Suggestion
Add Medical Respite / Recuperative Care please.

Alexia Reed Holtum Sep 1 2023 at 5:17PM on page 11

Suggestion
We second Eric Muschler suggestion.

Alexia Reed Holtum Sep 1 2023 at 5:16PM on page 12

Suggestion
Add Medical Respite / Recuperative Care.

Mz. Marla D. Sep 1 2023 at 4:30PM on page 1

Suggestion
By hiring, and creating space for those of us who are of lived experience to be on staffs, and various positions in other capacities within spaces such as [MICH], and Committees, Boards, and Organizations; allows for our voices to be heard directly, and for us to be directly at the fore-front of conquering homelessness by providing our knowledge, ideas, thoughts, suggestions, and solutions for the circumstances-issues-situations of homelessness that we [Lived Experience] are/have endured in being homeless.
in reply to Margaret King's comment

Linda Soderstrom Sep 1 2023 at 12:47AM on page 1

Suggestion
Until homelessness is seen as someone having a PhD in Street and commensurate with a college Social work degree etc nothing's going to change here.
in reply to Erin Sutton's comment

Linda Soderstrom Sep 1 2023 at 12:45AM on page 2

Suggestion
When someone is on welfare currently and they are given a Visa card they can lose their Section 8 housing choice voucher. Not only that - say that the Visa card is for $100. Social Security wants to deem that as income and take $1 away for every two that you earn above a certain low margin. I think $85 might be allowed. So if I report that $15 remainder as income than $750 of it's going to be taken out of my check sometime in the next 90 days. That doesn't mesh with the need to operate today. Anyway that doesn't even comment on how HUD would calculate or food stamps would regard so when you stop to think that that $100 for traveling up to the capital to give public comment in real time or to visit electefs in their offices to try to talk with them about how poverty eats away at Hope, you need to look at the long walking that goes on up there, the need for a lunch, possibility of cab fare if we're not going to spend 5 hours each way on a city bus and what if we need to pick up protein for our kids on the way home because we've given our entire day at the Capitol?People in poverty are not lobbyists but we have plenty to say in the lobby of the capital. It seems silly to me that foundations who fund all these 501c3s must attach IRS reporting and welfare reporting to every dollar when no one's trying to run a rip on you as a system. What we are trying to do is wedge our ideas into your heads. If we were real consultants you would pay for our flight fare and hotel, possibly a limousine. You would provide per diem and get our handouts copied and mailed ahead to the VIP participants. Well besides the very important people that you consider to be of utmost guidance there are also very important poor people out here. We the little people are trying to give our time away to you. These should not be considered pay or wages. This is not salary or taxable earnings. These are honoraria or gratuity. You can call them mileage if you want. These are thank yous and should be in a simple Cash basis or by venmo or PayPal as the person prefers. Remember it's probably going to be used for protein on that day itself in order to burn the calories required for the cost to me of volunteering. Mayor Carter has a waiver for his extra grants at $500 for 200 families. Americorps has a waiver and stipends don't count against your welfare. Also Foster and adoptive care are a wash and do not count against the care providers survival benefits. Sorry to go on and on about it but I don't think poor people should really be accused of earning when in fact they're trying to help the system and it's not as if it's going to stack up to a million dollars. These are one time only offerings and probably don't exceed $1,000 per person per year. That should be all waived.
in reply to raj 's comment

Linda Soderstrom Sep 1 2023 at 12:30AM on page 12

Suggestion
Agree. The system we have now has been trying to solve for homelessness for three, four or five decades, so if it's not working it's not working. I certainly agree we should go out and come in again. Dismantling how we're going about things and starting over from the get-go is probably going to be a lot smarter than trying to take hammer and tongs to something that's been broken the entire time.

Erin Sutton Aug 31 2023 at 9:20PM on page 9

Suggestion
Consider giving property owners an administrative fee for working with hard to serve households or funding sources that require inspections and higher standards for vouchers. Consider offering “mom & pop” property owners business management support. Consider providing incentives for property owners to rent to people with high barriers or background checks that would artificially be screened out.

Erin Sutton Aug 31 2023 at 9:16PM on page 6

Suggestion
Create a crisis stabilization residential model for children and adults needing hospital discharge. Current models do not fund the short-term, highly-skilled service and support needed.

Erin Sutton Aug 31 2023 at 9:15PM on page 4

Suggestion
Consider establishing “best practice” wage standards and embed this philosophy in grant awards and ensure award amounts can help sustain it. Consider rewarding grant recipients for employee retention efforts, skill building programs and having BIPOC staff. One barrier to raising staff wages is level funded grants. Many organizations cannot fill the wage gap needed for advancement or for inflation without automatic grant ceiling increases. This creates even deeper barriers to hiring BIPOC employees whose insights are needed in the field but cannot work for very low wages.

Erin Sutton Aug 31 2023 at 9:10PM on page 2

Suggestion
The technical assistance provided by DHS for HCBS provider capacity grants to deliver service to rural and underserved communities has been extremely beneficial. A similar community of practice and technical assistance to support grantees providing housing services would be wonderful!

Erin Sutton Aug 31 2023 at 9:09PM on page 2

Suggestion
Ensure an eligible use of grants could be used to pay people with lived experience to improve, shape, inform services and ensure this income does not disqualify people from public benefits.

Erin Sutton Aug 31 2023 at 9:05PM on page 2

Suggestion
This works well in the Youth Leadership Council and could be replicated to promote housing, racial, and health justice for people facing homelessness.

Margaret King Aug 31 2023 at 7:58PM on page 11

Simplify billing increment for HSS to a daily or monthly rate.

Margaret King Aug 31 2023 at 7:56PM on page 11

Serious simplification of eligibility and paperwork to access housing programs -aligned across state agencies

Margaret King Aug 31 2023 at 7:54PM on page 9

$$ being available for risk mitigation costs and other financial incentives for landlords to rent to households with criminal backgrounds and other barriers.

Margaret King Aug 31 2023 at 7:52PM on page 7

• Free, self-paced trauma informed training for services providers, - to include front desk staff/safety and property management staff

Margaret King Aug 31 2023 at 7:20PM on page 11

YES. Also consider leaning in to safe injection sites equipped with robust social services and direct housing and treatment pathways, recovery and family reunification services. Include consideration of what other system adjustments would be needed to ensure rapid housing or treatment placements on demand, such as CE and homelessness definition ties.

Margaret King Aug 31 2023 at 7:12PM on page 11

Yes, and will also keep PSH solvent and positioned to maintain decent properties, respond to changing tenant needs, and meet operational costs.

Margaret King Aug 31 2023 at 7:11PM on page 11

Yes to all of this.

Margaret King Aug 31 2023 at 7:08PM on page 10

Critical need. So glad to see this called out here.

Margaret King Aug 31 2023 at 6:59PM on page 6

This is a recommendation identified repeatedly by providers and people with lived expertise in the recent Wilder-Hearth report and at every community convening Hearth does around the state.

A related recommendation is to conduct a racial equity analysis of current homeless definitions and their impact on housing outcomes.

Margaret King Aug 31 2023 at 6:51PM on page 4

Suggestion
Go beyond 'encouraging' grantees to do this by scaling funding to support livable wages for staff in programs, proportionally weighted to lowest wage workers. Incorporate DEED and other state data on livable wage and require grantees to make progress on wages as a component of grant compliance.

Margaret King Aug 31 2023 at 6:43PM on page 4

This is good. Recommend applying an equity analysis tool to all funding RFPs and program design processes. Is there a way to similarly apply an equity analysis to the Plan's overall strategy and processes, including decision making and critical power-sharing commitments?

Margaret King Aug 31 2023 at 6:37PM on page 1

Could each funding agency commit to formally incorporate people with lived expertise into grant design and review committees?

Margaret King Aug 31 2023 at 6:35PM on page 1

Question
My comments are from the whole Hearth Connection team.
Very interested to hear how the implementation will look: what will be the actionable goals, will collaboration and co-leading look like, how will collaborators be identified and supported, what metrics will be used to measure progress on deliverables, what will decision-making look like particularly on strategic decisions? How specifically will progress be reported back to impacted communities and other stakeholders?

Margaret King Aug 31 2023 at 6:27PM on page 2

Suggestion
Consider offering or pairing capacity building technical assistance as a component of this strategy to ensuring equitable funding, including both grant compliance and program design and delivery.

Margaret King Aug 31 2023 at 6:22PM on page 1

Question
I am entering comments from the whole Hearth team.

Define 'share power' and decision-making: what decision making tools will be used, how will power sharing be operationalized.

Brian Paulson Aug 31 2023 at 4:56PM on page 1

Question
Is there a way to further demonstrate progress and priorities that have been identified by people and communities most impacted? Could you also denote the changes and/or additions based on what you have heard from your Justice Consultants on how the plan or actions have changed or gone beyond what departments would have otherwise done? In how the plan is currently written - it is hard to determine how justice consultants voices specifically shaped goals, strategies, actions (not that they aren't there - it would just be helpful to have a way to denote this - either in formatting of tables or possibly different font colors).
in reply to Brian Paulson's comment

Brian Paulson Aug 31 2023 at 4:47PM on page 9

Suggestion
Ooops - sorry. See that you've got an action tied to this! Interested in more specifics re: what the State might do - including if there is a Human Rights component.

Brian Paulson Aug 31 2023 at 4:45PM on page 9

Question
Is there anything the State/MICH might do re: source of income discrimination? Good goal to increase access to vouchers - AND there is a need re: landlords being willing to accept residents who have vouchers.

Brian Paulson Aug 31 2023 at 4:40PM on page 8

Suggestion
What is the opportunity/challenge re: County of Financial Responsibility? Is there a way to specifically dig into this issue within the scope of this plan - and to make sure this issue is not creating barriers to people getting the help they need - and living in the communities where they can find housing that best fits their interests/needs. An idea that was floated at one time was "the 88th County" for people who were experiencing homelessness - which would allow them to have more choice and autonomy in where to find housing with some level of continuity in benefits. County of financial responsibility, in many ways, creates barriers and has been described by some as a modern day, covert way to perpetuate segregation.

Brian Paulson Aug 31 2023 at 4:32PM on page 6

Suggestion
Would suggest having a more robust way to use data to determine if progress is being made - and if systems and programs are improving results. Would also suggest more public facing data on community level and system level performance - including information on racial disparities (ie - is the gap closing, and is the system creating equitable results). Good example is King's County Regional Homelessness Authority's Data Dashboards - see link Dig into BOTH community level (prevalence/Point in Time type data) as well as system and program performance level data - all ideally being able to disaggregate by race.

Brian Paulson Aug 31 2023 at 4:27PM on page 6

Suggestion
Applaud the action here - and would like to see a little more specifics re: how or what opportunities may exist. Are there ideas - or is it that ideas need to be generated? We are interested in this area - and it would be good to know how the state and DHS specifically are thinking about this and the opportunities here.

Brian Paulson Aug 31 2023 at 4:24PM on page 4

Suggestion
Was surprised to not see anything re: tenant rights and tenant protections in the plan. who is keeping an eye on this - and what opportunities exist to bring more emphasis on legal rights and protections for people who are housing insecure, in sub-standard housing, being exploited by predatory landlords, etc.

Suggest connecting with Minnesota Judicial Branch and the IOLTA Program - and seeing if there are ways to strengthen tenant rights and resources in the plan to help keep people in their homes.

Brian Paulson Aug 31 2023 at 4:17PM on page 4

Suggestion
Coordination across emergency rental assistance programs that are administered by different agencies - most specifically - EA, EGA and FHPAP. Having individual agencies responsible for individual actions limits the opportunity and need to look across programs that are administer in different departments (DHS vs. Minnesota Housing). Have a commitment to lower the burden on people in crisis to streamline access to emergency rental assistance - possibly speaking to a commitment to move working group (WERA) recommendations into action.

Brian Paulson Aug 31 2023 at 4:11PM on page 2

Suggestion
Good goal. Would recommend adding something that speaks to how this will be measured - possibly via Admin or MMB. For example - is there a way to measure the amount of funds that went to Tribal entities, BIPOC-led organizations, etc - and is it actually going up as a result of the actions that are being taken?

Brian Paulson Aug 31 2023 at 4:06PM on page 1

Suggestion
Strategy is good and appreciate the emphasis on engaging people with lived experience - and communities disproportionately impacted by homelessness (Black, Indigenous, POC, LGBTQ+).

How will people and communities impacted then be involved in the implementation and oversight re: progress and completion of strategies and actions? What will the ongoing accountability look like/include re: governance of the plan, metrics of success, and community and system level indicators re: are the gaps actually closing given our goals/strategies/actions? Would recommend including how ongoing accountability will include people and communities impacted by housing instability and homelessness.

Brian Paulson Aug 31 2023 at 3:58PM on page 1

Question
Define or be more precise in what you mean by "working with." What specific decision-making capacity or authority will people with lived experience have? What will their engagement specifically include - and how will it be reflected in the agency's work, goals, and commitments? See Arstein's ladder of participation for insights into levels of engagement (link)

Tamara Stark Aug 31 2023 at 1:54PM on page 1

Suggestion
Is there a way that people in need of services/supports could enter their social security numbers confidentially and respond to a simple set of questions to be matched to relevant state programs/services to streamline access and to reduce time spent navigating complicated systems, etc.?

Youth Health and Housing Lab Aug 31 2023 at 12:11PM on page 5

Suggestion
Delete risk and replace with its effects

Youth Health and Housing Lab Aug 31 2023 at 12:10PM on page 4

Suggestion
Edit to include "Homelessness is rare, one-time, and brief"

Youth Health and Housing Lab Aug 31 2023 at 12:09PM on page 13

Suggestion
Make protocols trauma informed

Youth Health and Housing Lab Aug 31 2023 at 12:09PM on page 3

Suggestion
Make sure these materials reflect literacy levels, are youth friendly and are in multiple languages

Youth Health and Housing Lab Aug 31 2023 at 12:08PM on page 2

Suggestion
Make sure LBGTQ+ and youth of color are involved to reflect the fact that BIPOC and LGBTQ+ youth are disproportionately represented among YEH

Youth Health and Housing Lab Aug 31 2023 at 12:06PM on page 1

Suggestion
Need to have inclusive definition of lived experience that includes things like staying with friends and family, couch surfing, etc

Eric Muschler Aug 31 2023 at 12:04PM on page 11

Include recuperative care in the continuum of housing so homeless individuals in ERs have a place to heal and help toward more permanent housing. The recuperative care bill is the platform for getting reimbursement right. Bundled Payment, monthly or quarterly billing, and useful to housers as well as service providers of respite care.
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