What's New Topics:
Community Foundation Silicon Valley Announces Grant
Community Technology Alliance Milestones
HMIS
Santa Clara County Street Count, Dec. 2004
HelpSCC
Community Foundation Silicon Valley Grant
Community Foundation Silicon Valley (CFSV) recently announced a grant award of $15,000 to Community Technology Alliance. In their announcement, CFSV recognized:
"Community Technology Alliance uses technology to help people in Silicon Valley remain housed or shorten episodes of homelessness. It is a partnership among shelter and emergency service providers, non-profits and government agencies that works to increase services, avoid duplication of technological effort, and to streamline the system."
Community Technology Alliance Milestones
Community Technology Alliance provides the technical tools to end and prevent 122,702 individuals from becoming homeless in the year ending June 30, 2007:
Community VoiceMail
- 366 homeless and at risk clients complete use of their assigned Voice Mail box
- 347 clients actively using the tool to find jobs and housing on June 30, 2006
- 42% of unhoused clients move to stable housing
- 32% of unemployed clients get jobs
HelpSCC
- 43,133 web site users find information about available services in Santa Clara County
- 10,019 Santa Cruz County residents learn about services
HMIS
- 20,981 unhoused and at risk residents were served in Santa Clara County in the twelve months ending June 30, 2007. Services received included:
- Housing and shelter
- Case Management
- Food
- Clothing
- Job skills, search and placement assistance
- Benefits assistance
- Rent payment and deposit assistance
- Utility bill payment assistance
- Voicemail and mail
- Drivers Licenses and identification
- Transportation
...And many others
HousingSCC
- 54,267 Santa Clara County residents use the website to search for subsidized housing that meets their unique needs
Shelter Bed Hotline
- 8,768 Santa Clara County callers access information about emergency shelter
- 5,802 callers receive information about emergency shelter in Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Solano and Sonoma Counties
HMIS
HMIS SCC
Data entry began January 5, 2004
As of December 31, 2007
- 174 programs of 20 agencies are participating in the system
- 60,000 client records have been added since inception
- 120,000 non-shelter service transactions were recorded during the twelve months ending June 30, 2007
Denver National HMIS Conference
Ray Allen, Executive Director at Community Technology Alliance, recently presented an invited talk at the 2006 National HMIS Conference in Denver. The conference was sponsored by The US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Ray was one of four presenters in a break out session titled, "Building a Regional Collaborative." Ray discussed the collaboration process between eleven Continuums of Care in the San Francisco and Monterey Bay region. The region has been selected by HUD to serve as a pilot project for the collection of regional Homeless Management Information System data. Community Technology Alliance will produce a set of Best Practices which will be used by other communities.
Also presenting at the conference was Michelle Ogburn, Training and Outreach. Michelle presented at a break out session titled, "HMIS Tools and Gadgets." Michelle shared Santa Clara County's experience customizing and implementing scanning technology in HMIS SCC. Santa Clara County's Continuum of Care cards are allowing clients to easily access services and provide service programs with valuable data about the services they provide and the clients they serve.
HUD HMIS Final Data Standards
Only July 30, 2004, HUD (US Department of Housing and Urban Development) released its final standards for HMIS (Homeless Management Information System). Click on the above link to review the standards. Each jurisdiction needs to ensure they are meeting the standards laid out by HUD.
Santa Clara County takes first census of its street dwellers
By Putsata Reang
Mercury News
To find some of Santa Clara County's homeless men and women, follow Willie Kramer out to the creek side behind the Prune Yard Inn in Campbell. Wade through a thicket of bush and bramble, grab the rope rigged to a tree and climb up the steep, muddy slope.
Small coves hollowed out in the bushes, a fire ring, and a bent spot along the chain-link fence are evidence of what he's looking for: the street dwellers who climb up to hideaways like this to sleep in relative safety, protected from wind, rain and cops.
Kramer, a no-nonsense 33-year-old man with a dark beard and several missing teeth, has been homeless for the past couple of years. But for two days this week, he has been a sought-after man, as the county embarked on an ambitious effort: its first street count of the homeless.
A more accurate tally of the county's homeless can help officials better tailor their services and raise more funds to tackle the homeless problem, which county leaders want to eradicate in 10 years.
Nearly 300 trained community volunteers and homeless "experts" teamed up to canvass South Bay streets Tuesday and Wednesday to tally how many men, women and children live in city parks, along the rivers and in cars.
'Moral thing to do'
"It's the moral thing to do, and it's the fiscally correct thing to do," said Supervisor Jim Beall, co-chair of the committee in charge of drafting the 10-year plan, which met for the first time Wednesday night.
The federal Community Development Block Grant that helps pay for homeless programs has decreased by roughly $100,000 each year out of about $3.1 million, and next year the county will lose its $40,000 annual Emergency Shelter Grant.
Although the county has no official homeless count, a 2000 survey revealed 20,000 "episodes" of homelessness -- people who reported being homeless at some point in the previous year. But those who work with this population say that that number is far from accurate. The county's homeless coordinator, Margaret Gregg, expects numbers from this new count to be much lower.
"Some people think there are no homeless people, and other people think there are more homeless people than you can shake a stick at. The number is somewhere in between," said Barry Del Buono, executive director of the Emergency Housing Consortium, which houses 1,500 homeless people on any given night in its shelters.
Some won't be counted
The count won't be completely accurate, according to Peter Connery, vice president of Applied Survey Research, which conducts the count. The homeless who sleep on friends' couches or who work swing shifts won't be counted, because the survey counts only homeless people on the street. But Connery promises at least a better count.
Other cities and counties across the nation are joining in as recent federal mandates have required more accurate data before agencies such as the US Department of Housing and Urban Services dispense grants. So far, 170 cities and counties also have or are developing 10-year strategies to end homelessness. Santa Cruz, Monterey, Contra Costa and San Francisco counties have conducted similar street counts.
"It's a national movement," said Philip Mangano, director of the federal Interagency Council on Homelessness.
Santa Clara County's census began at 4:30 a.m. Tuesday, to avoid counting people twice. People at homeless shelters, which open their doors a few hours later, were counted separately.
The idea to recruit members of the homeless community to help won wide praise from participants. About 75 percent of the volunteers were homeless, according to Connery. Not only did they know where to look, but they also earned $10 an hour in cash.
Carla Williams, 33, once made $90,000 a year as a marketing and communications specialist for a dot-com that died. She hit the streets on Dec. 17, 2002, when she could no longer afford her rent. She recently moved into a subsidized apartment in San Jose and works odd jobs to pay the rent.
"You do all sorts of little jobs like this," said Williams, who helped with the count. "Being homeless, it's a pride-swallowing experience."
Reporting for duty
On Tuesday morning, about 150 counters -- most of them homeless -- showed up for their assignments at St. Joseph's Cathedral in downtown San Jose. They rode buses, light rail, walked, and some drove cars to get to their precincts. Most had made their way back to the church by 9 a.m. and swapped stories as they stood in line to get paid.
James McDonald, 45, who has been homeless for the past seven years, rode the No. 22 bus all night to make sure he'd arrive at St. Joseph's in time to work. Within an hour on the job, he found himself fending off an attack by an angry Rottweiler.
His census partner, Nicholas Hatridge, 25, who is also homeless, showed up just in time to chase the dog away. Together, they counted 60 homeless men and women.
Across town, Kendoll Nalan, 30, and Christine Graham, 47, were battling a feisty old car as they cruised San Jose's Blossom Hill neighborhood in Graham's 1984 Chrysler LeBaron. It sputtered to a stop every 15 minutes, even though the car's automated audio system informed its driver on several occasions: "All systems are working."
"You're lying!" Graham yelled, in the semi-dark of the morning.
Both women are homeless, and in the tony Blossom Hill neighborhood, they returned with just two marks on their sheet: themselves. "We'll count ourselves, because no one is going to count us," Graham said.
Retiree gets involved
Homeless men and women were not the only ones out counting. Jack Sutcliffe, who retired five years ago as an engineer with the Santa Clara County Water District, got involved.
"Personally, I wanted to get a better handle of it," he said of the county's homeless.
Organizers say it will take a couple of months before the results are completed. In the meantime, the counters will take to the streets again next week to interview 2,000 of their fellow street-dwellers to learn the details of their plight.
HelpSCC
Eligibility Guidelines Available
HelpSCC now has eligibility guidelines for six County Service Social Benefit programs. This information can be found using the "Emergency Assistance" icon button. These are broad eligibility guidelines presented in an understandable, easy-to-use format, with additional information on where to apply for the benefits. The programs are as follow:
- General Assistance, which provides cash assistance to eligible adult County residents
- Cash Assistance Program for Immigrants, which provides legal non-citizens in financial need with cash assistance
- Food Stamps
- CalWORKs, a public assistance cash benefit program for low-income families with minor children
- Medi-Cal
- Children's Health Initiative, which helps families in Santa Clara County with income at or below 300% of the Federal Poverty Level get free and low-cost health insurance for their children, regardless of immigration status.
New HelpSCC Partner
We are pleased to announce Alliance of Senior Day Programs is now a Data Provider for HelpSCC. They will provide information on over 10 agencies that provide adult day care. The Alliance of Senior Day Programs is an ongoing collaborative to assist family caregivers who need assistance with caring for a frail, elderly person in the community setting. These agencies can be found in HelpSCC under the "Seniors" icon.
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