Title: 2020-04-10-End-Homelessness
Last saved by: Bibiana Van Dyk

REALTIME FILE

Meeting ‑ CCSWW Tacoma‑Pierce County 
Coalition to End Homelessness

Friday, April 10, 2020

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Bibiana D. Van Dyk
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Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) is provided in order to facilitate communication accessibility.  CART captioning and this realtime file may not be a totally verbatim record of the proceedings.

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>> Good morning, everybody.  Welcome to the Coalition to End Homelessness meeting.  Mandatory.  All hearing me okay?  That would be a thumbs up from somebody.  Just a little nod?  Thank you.  I wanted to start off with just a little hoo‑ya for the homeless system.  I am going to share a report that I do every week, and it shows kind of this week in homelessness.  I have no idea what's happening now.  And hopefully you can see it.  It says a number of things.  Kind of the middle bar, I have shown most you have guys this before, the middle bar shows how many people started a new homeless episode this week, and in case you are not seeing it it shows about 156 people, which is kind of a bummer, right.  We don't like numbers.  It's lower than usual, but the important part of that isn't that people started a homeless episode as much as the homeless system was there to meet them.  That's the coordinated entry system and shelter system, still operating.  If you look in the upper left corner there is a set of ‑‑ I am trying to Zoom in here, but a set of circles, and that kind of shows how many people entered housing in some way.  Not only did we meet them in the homeless system, but we had 31 people entered housing, five people into transitional housing and two people housed in Rapid Rehousing, and that's not an atypical week, so I think it's just exciting that so much in the homeless system is still operational.  Obviously there is more need, 156 people, versus the number we serve, but that's still pretty darn good.  And now I know that a lot of us are getting a little worn down, and I asked Mike Yoder with Associated Ministries if he wouldn't mind spending a few minutes just talking a little bit, and I find Mike Yoder a nice sense of calm and a sense of serenity, and I need a little bit more of that as time goes by here, so I asked Mike to speak, and then I got to figure out ‑‑ okay.  And, Mike Yoder, you are on.
>> Good morning.  Thank you, Gerrit.  Appreciate the opportunity, and what a privilege to be in this virtual room with all of you.  You guys are my encouragement and then when Gerrit brings forth some stats, and I need more of the stats, I need to be more grounded in that side of thing, so I think Gerrit and I are yin and yang for each other, that's a good thing.  But when I hear that kind of information, which is just indicative of how much incredible work is still going on in the midst of these crazy times, that is what encourages me.
	What I wanted to share just for a moment or two this morning was a few thoughts from an editorial that was in "The News Tribune" last weekend that just so beautifully captured what I have been trying to say and tell people, but sometimes other people just nail it a lot better than you do yourself.  But it was written by Dr. Richard Waltman.  He has been in local practice at Allenmore for 34 years, still practices a little bit in his retirement years out in Gig Harbor.  He wrote to our community ten ways our post pandemic lives will be better, and it hit the head for me in this space that I have been trying to maintain because the way I get through a time like this is thinking of the redemptive aspect of it.  It sucks, there is nothing good about this.  Lives are being horribly altered in negative ways that will take a generation to recover from.  Well, we are never, you know, going to minimize that.  We are not going to try to ignore that.  And yet in the midst of all of these trials what good can come out of it.  How can we do something different?  How can we be different?
	And that's what gets me up and going in the morning, and his editorial with these ten ways our post‑pandemic life will be better was by a set of marching orders for me of things I think we need to be mindful of and need to start thinking about now that we can work on.  I won't read the whole editorial.  Look it up.  It's good.  His ideas, his ten ideas, ten ways, and these are things that are potential.  These are the potential benefits if we will work to achieve this, you know, for our community.
	So he says public health is going to rapidly develop.  It's pretty likely that there is going to be a new focus, an effort, an energy, on better public health systems for us all.  Woe to us that we don't make sure that happens.  He says the private sector is going to be more of an incentive to enhance medical technology.  That's a great thing.  
	He thinks workers are likely to be better compensated.  Clearly we need higher wages, better sick leave, better healthcare, better unemployment compensation.  I hope our society rises up and says, you know, we can't accept an underclass of worker that is expected to work and serve us and serve us our food and clean our offices and not have these basic benefits like sick pay.  We got to make sure that never happens again, and now it's likely to happen.
	People are learning to work from home, and that's a good thing for traffic and infrastructure.  You know, teachers and parents are working on new ways to share in the instruction of their children.  That's awesome.  Universities are learning how to develop rigorous online learning programs, and that could have benefits for all of the way our society learns for years to come.  We hopefully can develop a comprehensive system of computer availability for all citizens.  How game changing would that be if we focused on making sure that happens now?
	He mentions the politics will be outcome focused.  Government leaders have stepped forward and taken meaningful steps to assist their constituents.  That lesson will not be lost.  The leaders we elect will be the most productive and lead the best.  I hope that's the way we elect people from now on.  Could that be an outcome?
	He finishes up with families will become more important and hopefully we are going to come together as a community.  I just think that to me is the word that keeps me going every day.  Yeah, we got to slug through this next day, this next week, we are still in the middle of the pandemic, but the way I get through each day, each week, these difficult weeks, is by thinking how is society ‑‑ how is the community that I am going to be a part of going to be different, and with world changes like all of you in this virtual room led by a couple of crazy people like the Maureen Howards of this world, we can do this stuff.
	So that's my encouraging centering word for today.  This is all sucky stuff but we have the opportunity like never before for there to be awareness that things need to change, so let's work on being change makers.  That's my word.
>> Thank you so much, Mike.  Much appreciated.  Okay.  I've got a couple good speakers lined up, but I am going to launch a quick poll first just to kind of check in and remind you all that we are amid census season, and I would love to know how many of you all have taken the time to do your 2020 census, and we will just kind of let that ramp up, and I am going to introduce someone that was kind enough to come speak to us a little bit about a concern that Maureen raised, first for me, and that was how a lot of the folks that are living homeless are going to get access to some of the stimulus resources.
	So I have Williette with the Internal Revenue Service on the phone and I am going to hand over the floor to that crew.
>> Good morning, everyone.  I hope everyone can hear me okay.
>> Perfect.
>> Okay.  Great.  My name is Williette McKinney, consultant out of the Seattle office.  I have Karen Brehmer out of Minnesota and Susan Du out of Oakland, California.  Both are tax specialists with IRS communications liaisons, and we would like to thank you for allowing us to take the time today to share some basic information about the economic impact payments, and at the end of the presentation we will take questions, and for any questions that cannot be answered today we will provide an answer later, and Gerrit has all of our contact information, and this information that I am about to share will be shared.  I will send that to Gerrit.
	I just first want to let everyone know that most of the free tax preparation sites in Washington State are closed due to COVID‑19, but there are a few that are still operating virtually and via drive‑up to the site, so there are some that are still preparing tax returns, just to let you know that.  And being that the filing season has been extended to July 15th, we are hoping that a few more will open up to help those taxpayers who want to take advantage of the economic impact payment just for that reason.
	Okay.  So here is what you need to know about your economic impact payment.  For most taxpayers, payments are automatic and no further action is needed.  This includes taxpayers who file tax returns in 2018, and 2019, and most seniors and retirees.  U.S. residents will receive the economic impact payment of $1,200 for individuals, or head of household filers, and 2400 for married filing jointly, if they are not a dependent of another taxpayer and have a work eligible Social Security number with adjusted gross income up to 75,000 for individuals, 112,500 for head of household filers, and 150,000 for married couples filing joint returns.
	Okay.  So taxpayers will receive a reduced payment if their AGI is between 75,000 and 99,000.  If their filing status was single or married filing separate, 112,500 and 136,500 for head of household, 150,000, and 190,000 if their status was filing jointly.  Those taxpayers will receive a reduced payment if their amount is between the amounts I just stated.  It will be based upon the taxpayer's specific adjusted gross income.  Eligible retirees and recipients of Social Security, railroad retirement, disability or veterans benefits, as well as taxpayers who do not make enough money to normally have to file a tax return, will receive a payment.  This also includes those who have no income, as well as whose income comes entirely from certain benefit programs, such as Supplemental Security Income benefits.  Retirees who receive Social Security retirement or railroad retirement benefits will also receive payments automatically.
	Although some filers such as high income filers will not qualify for an economic impact payment, most will.  Taxpayers who more than likely will not qualify for an economic impact payment, if the following applies, your AGI income is greater than 99,000 if your filing status was single or married filing separate, 136,500 for head of household, and 198,000 if your filing status was married filing jointly.
	You can be claimed as a dependent on someone else's return.  For example, this would include a child, a student or older dependent who can be claimed on a parent's return.  You do not have a valid Social Security number, you are a nonresident alien, and you filed form 1040 NR or form 1040 NREZ, form 1040 PR or 1040 SS for 2019.  Eligible individuals with adjusted gross income up to 75,000 for single filers, 112,500 for head of household filers, and 150,000 for married filing jointly are eligible for the full $1,200 for individuals and 2,400 for married filing jointly.  In addition they are eligible for an additional 500 per qualifying child.
	For filers with income above those amounts, the payment amount is reduced by $5 for each $100 above the 75,000, 112,500 and 150,000 thresholds.  Income exceeding 99,000, 135,500 for head of house filers and 190,000 for joint filers with no income are not eligible and will not receive payments.
	Now do I need to take action?  People who filed a tax return for 2019 and 2018, no additional action is needed by taxpayers who have already filed their tax returns for this year.  The IRS will use the information to calculate the payment amount.  If you haven't filed yet for 2019, but filed a 2018 federal tax return, for those taxpayers IRS will use their information from 2018 tax filings to make the economic impact computations.  Railroad retirees need to take no action.  The IRS will use the information on the form SSA 1099, and form RRB 1099 to generate economic impact payments of $1,200 to these individuals, even if they did not file tax returns in 2018 or 2019.  Recipients will receive these payments as a direct deposit or by paper check just as they would normally receive their benefit.  Social Security Disability Insurance recipients are also part of this group who do not need to take action.
	For Social Security railroad retirees and SSDI who have qualifying children, they can take an additional step to receive $500 per qualifying child.  There are other individuals such as low income workers and certain veterans and individuals with disabilities who aren't required to file a tax return, but they are eligible for the economic impact payments.  Taxpayers can check the IRS.gov tool, which I will provide that to Gerrit and he can send it out to you all so that you will have it for your clientele, to see if they have a filing requirement.  The IRS will provide guidance for these individuals and the steps to take to get their payment as soon as possible.
	For security reasons the IRS plans to mail a letter about the economic payment, the economic impact payment, to the taxpayer's last known address within 15 days after the payment is paid.  The letter will provide information on how the payment was made and how to report any failure to receive the payment.  If a taxpayer's unsure they are receiving a legitimate letter, the IRS urges taxpayers to visit IRS.gov first to protect against scam artists.  The IRS urges taxpayers to be on the lookout for scam artists trying to use the economic impact payments as cover for schemes to steal personal information and money.  Remember, the IRS will not call, text, e‑mail or contact you on social media asking for personal or bank account information, even related to the economic impact payments.  Also watch out for e‑mails with attachments or links claiming to have special information about economic impact payments or refunds.
	This will conclude the basic information about the EIP.  I want to thank you all for allowing myself, Karen and Susan to share EIP information.  Our contact information has been shared with Gerrit, and, um, I will also share this information that I just went over, that was just covered, and you can please feel free to reach out to any of us if you have any future questions, and now we are open to take any questions about the EIP or any of the information that I just shared.
>> Sure.  So I got a question from Stephanie.  What about folks that have no income and have not worked for several years and have not filed?
>> Okay.  So those taxpayers, it says they are ‑‑ those individuals can also take advantage.  The IRS is going to provide a tool, which I will share that information with you.  I am not on Zoom so I don't ‑‑ I can't provide it that way.
>> Right.
>> But there is a link and some additional information that those taxpayers can take advantage of, and use that information in order to go about getting their EIP.  Karen or Susan, do you have any information to share?  You might have to unmute.
>> I unmuted all the phone callers, so if they are on the telephone, they can speak.  I had another question, which was how do folks without checking accounts or reliable United States postal service addresses get paid do we think?
>> Okay.  So the IRS is coming out with a tool for taxpayers that they can put their banking information in because the best way, so that a check isn't lost or stolen by it being sent to an incorrect address, is IRS will have a tool, and it's not available yet, but it's coming out for those taxpayers to put their checking or bank account information in there, and then their checks will go to their banking account.
>> Right.  That was the question about what people will do if they do not have a bank account, and also do not have a mailing address.
>> Huh.
>> Which is a pretty common situation for a lot of the clients that we serve.
>> Okay.  What I will do, just to get a firm answer, I will write that down and I will provide an answer to you for those taxpayers who don't have any bank, they don't deal with banks or they don't have a mailing address, how will they be able to take advantage of the EIP, and I will provide an answer.  I will do some research and provide an answer to you, Gerrit, and you can share that.
>> Hey, Gerrit and everyone, this is Karen Brehmer with IRS.  Thank you for inviting us to be here today.  The question you asked is one we don't have an answer to yet, but part of the reason for us being here with you today is that we hope that you have some questions that the IRS needs to address for people who are homeless, and we hope that you maybe have some solutions in place already, maybe possibly, for people who are homeless.  So can I ask you some of the questions we are actually hoping to get answered by you guys?
>> Yeah.
>> Okay.  So one question, Williette shared this great information about people who normally file tax returns and normally don't.  Can I ask you in general, do the people who you serve, what percentage of them earn enough income that they do need to file a tax return and what percentage of them don't earn enough income so they are not required to file?  Do you have any idea of that off the top of your head, a percentage for those two groups?
>> How much money do you need to earn?
>> You need to earn about $12,000 if you are single, that's an approximate number, and $24,000 a year if married filing joint, $18,000 per year if you're head of household, meaning you are a single parent with a child.  So just using those numbers, 12,000, 24,000 and 18,000, do you have an idea of what percent needs to file or not?
>> I would say well over 50% do not need to file a tax return.  I don't know if anybody has better numbers on this.  So under 30% AMI is basically the not having to file, and that is the vast majority of the clients we serve.
>> And what is AMI?
>> Area median income.
>> I want to toss some acronyms your way and see if you know ‑‑
>> There, I was just throwing it out there like we are all ‑‑
>> Another thing that we are struggling with and you are maybe struggling with, too, do your clients have access to the Internet on a smartphone, on a computer, on a computer in the homeless shelter?  I am seeing Rob say kind of yes, kind of no.
>> Someone else, in terms of how many people are requiring to file, Bonnie Rico is saying maybe one in 20, which is pretty accurate.  Our clients have far less Internet access than they did two months ago.  Most of them do not have regular access to charging if they have a phone, and they don't have regular access to minutes and data if they have a phone, and currently we have shut down pretty much every location that people access the Internet, talking about libraries, day centers, cafés, so a pretty stark world of no communications.
>> Okay.  And then how many of the people experiencing homelessness would have a bank account?  For instance, people who get SSI or SSDI, veterans benefits.
>> I do not know.  Does someone want to chime in with that?  Well, we will kind of watch the chat for what people have on that.
>> I can address some of the questions that came in chat.  Stephanie asked if there is someone who owes back taxes, will the EIP be affected.  First of all, yay, Stephanie, already using the acronym, economic impact statements.  The answer is, no.  If somebody owes back taxes, they will still get their EIP.  If they have back student loans, they will still get their EIP.  The exception is people who have past‑due child support.  Those people who have past‑due child support will not get the EIP payment.  I don't know if the person who would ‑‑ who is owed the back past‑due child support will get that person's payment.  I do not know the answer to that.  But if they owe back taxes, they still get it.  If they owe back student loans, they still get it.  If they owe back child support, they do not get it.
	At one point the IRS was looking at people without addresses and bank accounts.  I don't know the answer to that.  Is there a way for you to save these questions and send them to Williette or me and Susan?
>> Yes, they will all be saved.
>> Great.  Folks on disability are still eligible, that's correct.  People who receive SSDI are like the people who get Social Security retirement benefits or railroad retirement benefits.  Those people on SSDI are eligible and will not need to file anything to get this money.  People who get SSI, or a small amount of wages, will need to do this special ‑‑ we call it a simple tax return to tell us what they did earn and get the payment.  People only receiving state funds such as food stamps have a simple way to collect their stimulus, collected through DSHS.  
	That is a good question that I don't know the answer to.  And I am looking at all these questions and thinking, how many of them do we have answers for today?  The question also by Maureen, also the people who are ‑‑ is the IRS talking about using debit cards for people without bank accounts?  That question is still on the table.  That question has not been answered yet.  We don't know if people who get debit cards, if the IRS will be able to issue the payments to the debit cards.
	I don't want to go past our allotted time here that was on the agenda, so I think ‑‑
>> I have a question from Joy I want to get done.
>> I want to make it clear about we already have claimed our son and several parents have been asking me how I did it.  If we claim them even if they are off at college their sophomore, junior, senior year, do they get to receive a payment?
>> I hate to have to say, no, but the answer is, no.  You will ‑‑ because ‑‑ so for the college‑age students, the ones who are dependent on your tax return, they will ‑‑ you will get up to $500 for that dependent, but that dependent will not get any money.  You are welcome to give that $500 to your child in college if you would like to.  [Laughs].  And by the way, oh, Greg Holman moved away from the screen, but I want to be him, sitting outside with trees and a blue sky.  The rest of us are stuck in the office, and I am still in my pajamas, therefore, not on web come.
>> Awesome.  Karen, Williette and Susan, thank you so much.  We obviously would love to keep the conversation going.  I have provided your e‑mail address to our entire coalition.
>> Ahhh.
>> That's what happens.  I am a sharer, and the world is full of danger that way, and so maybe they will shoot you some questions.  Probably the bulk of the inquiries you will have gotten here ‑‑ we meet every week, so you can certainly provide a written response to things, or you could provide that and come and have a little chat next week.  I will leave you with that unless you guys have any final comments.
>> No.  The final comments are just before the call started IRS did an announcement with more information about this program.  Next week we are going to have frequently asked questions on IRS.gov.  So either through Williette and me and Susan, we will get you some links for what we have today, and there is going to be more information coming.  And I do really want to keep that dialogue going between at least me and you, Gerrit, about what your clients face because you know what they deal with and you can help us figure out the issues with questions or maybe the solutions.
>> Great.  I appreciate you guys coming and talking with us, especially on very short notice.  And I am going to go ahead and move us on to our next agenda item, but next I have another poll because that's how I roll as we segue.  My second question for you all, have you suggested to a client to get counted in the 2020 census.  So one of the things that we can all do as case managers is when we are engaging with our clients, remind them how to go on line, and there is also a telephone number that our clients could call and get themselves counted.  So options for folks.  Love to get that.
	And I, we, have the pleasure of having the United Way and the Greater Tacoma Community Foundation and all of the folks that are coming together for this acronym and thing I can never quite remember what it's called, something committee and community.  Anyway, I am super pleased to have Erika Tucci and Chris Gleason, both here, and so I am going to give you guys the floor.  Thank you so much.  Glad to hear about all the cool stuff you are putting together.
>> Thanks, Gerrit.  Thanks for the invite.  It is great to see everybody's faces.  I have been working with a lot of you by e‑mail the last couple of weeks, so big shout‑out to Maureen Howard for sending me all kinds of great resources and information all day.  That's been really helpful.  And to Mike, of course, for all of his assistance connecting us in the faith community already, and all of are you doing such tremendous work, so I feel honored to be here with you today and so see your faces.  It's great to see you.
	If you don't know, I am Erika Tucci, and my day job I work at the Cheney Family Foundation, their senior program officer.  In this response I am serving in what we are calling an incident command role for the Pierce County Connected Response.  You are right, Gerrit, a mouthful, it's tricky.  I am also joined by Chris Gleason.  Chris is playing a lot of roles, doing communications for Comprehensive Life Resources, so she is a perfect person to serve in what we are calling the shelter and housing pod lead role, so she is plugging in everywhere she can to gather information.  If you don't know her, that is Chris.
	So the Pierce County Connected Response was started by the Greater Tacoma Community Foundation and the United Way and lot of the folks on the funding side of the community to try and help all of you providers.  That was our initial goal, was to try and help provide some coordinated information sources, some coordinated advocacy, across the priority areas we saw emerge really quickly, so the food system, the shelter and the homeless system and the first responder childcare system.  So we are trying to take some pressure, administrative pressure, off.  We saw a lot of people making the same call to four different places, contacting five different funders, and we thought we could help streamline some of that.  That's what I will call the information side of the response.
	We have resources and the logistic side of the response, and that's where the grant making is coming from.  Those of you who have heard or stayed up on the Pierce County Connected Response Fund, it's currently about $5 million.  About a little over a million dollars has been distributed out of that fund right now, but it's serving as the central funding hub and mechanism for Pierce County, so it's open to big foundation contributions as well as individuals, and I think you will start seeing somber communication out next week targeted at individual giving.  But the two sides of this house, the information gathering side and the resources side seem to be working pretty well together with the goal of maximizing our resources.
	I want to make sure we are using everybody's energy well, using everybody's time well, using volunteers well, using funding well, all of those sorts of things are starting to come together.  So there is a daily report that's going out right now.  If you are not on that report, if you are not getting that report, you can e‑mail me at erika@benbcheneyfoundation.org.  That's the information sharing side of the house, so that's an open digest for those of you sheltering in the homeless community.  It's a great place for ‑‑ what you are seeing, what concerns are popping up, are there advocacy issues that we can help communicate to the emergency operations centers, both at the county, at the state level, to help amplify that for you.  Is there coordination we can do?  The United Way has housing volunteer opportunities right now, but if you are seeing really big needs to advocate things at scale, the National Guard or AmeriCorps response, we can help with that.  You will see information like that in the daily digest.  The funding and logistic side of the house is leading that digest as well to get additional situational awareness as they are reviewing applications coming into that Pierce County Connected Response Fund to help make wise decisions as best as possible.
	So I will stop there.  There is a lot to this, but I am happy to answer questions that are specific.
>> I don't see any questions popping up.  You want to describe a little bit the granting process and maybe just kind of talk through the timelines and how you are running that?  You don't have an end date I don't think.
>> No.  It's a little open‑ended, and I am not in deep with the committee.  There is a committee folks making those funding decisions.  There is a really quick application on the GTCF website, for those of you that have not been there, they are revolving their FAQs as they are getting questions, so a great resource to check there.  The funding community wants to keep their application process as unburdensome as possible, so intended to be a quick app.  I have heard some frustration there is not any guidelines about funds to ask for or amounts of funds, and having been a grant writer in a previous life I know it's frustrating not to know the boundaries, but the committee wanted to leave that open to hear your story and to leave it unrestricted in that way.
	So there are timelines on the GTCF website.  Things are evolving.  This isn't perfect as we are gaining better insight.  Things are flexible, but there are some starting dates up there for you.
>> And as a recent recipient of a census grant from the Greater Tacoma Community Foundation, it's been marvelous.  They are giving us enough freedom to get our work done and enough accountability so that their funders are comfortable.  Very much in it for getting the work done, which is really a breath of fresh air and sometimes I feel like ‑‑
>> Yeah.  That's something ‑‑ if I can communicate that from the funding world, that's something the funding world is trying to do is be as unburdensome as possible and get you the resources you need to do your work and let's you be the expert.  Give us feedback as we go.  We are trying to be helpful.
>> Maureen had a question.  Can an agency apply for funds from this fund more than once?
>> Yes.  Yes.  That is possible.  We know this is going to evolve.  We know there are providers that are doing work, let's just say at a bigger scale at the top of the system that are going to be doing lion's share work through this response so they want to leave that option open as we go.  We know this is going to be multi months and a long economic impact.
>> They did say you could get more than one, but if you can streamline it as much as possible so instead of doing an application for this program and another for this program and another for this program, try to have those as coordinated as possible, especially through this April process so they are not seeing your agency multiple times.  I think that would help you, but since the funding goes out through next year, if it lasts that long, there are different steps in the process where you can get funding.
>> And Chris, as long as you are on, as the shelter hub lead, what are things that our coalition can do to make your work easier or more effective?
>> So you can kind of consider me a liaison to ‑‑ through Erika and to the committee.  She is working with the committee to pass on information.  I am sitting on the calls at 3:00 that Valeri is doing.  I am trying to understand where are the highest needs in this sector, so right now what I see is flat‑out resources with PPE and things like that, which we know that's difficult to get for everyone, including our medical providers.  Also day centers, there is a need for day centers right now.  Things like diapers and other types of supplies.  So I am trying to get kind of an overview of the highest needs so I can pass that along to Erika so she can share that information with the committee.
	Also if there is information in the report that you think is ‑‑ should be included that you want other ‑‑ parts of the other sector, whether childcare or food to know, or you need information from them, you can connect with me and I will get that stuff added to the report, which Erika puts together.
>> There is a question from Janet.  Is there a page on the Greater Tacoma Community Foundation website to donate to this dedicated purpose?
>> There is indeed.  You will find it on the GTCF website as well as the United Way's website, and I know their communications staff are going to ramp up some social media next week and some paid sponsored posts, that sort of thing, so you will see a lot more social media chatter encouraging the community to jump in.
>> I think it said there were maybe 150 different individuals and foundations and things like that that had donated to this fund already, so maybe that number will get bigger if they start broadening who they are looking to as potential donors.
>> Yep, I assume it will, absolutely.  It's been a little bit quiet to the general public, but once it gets out there I think folks will jump onto it.
>> All right.  I am not seeing any other questions.
>> Excellent.  Thanks for the invite, everybody.  Again, great to see all of you.  Thanks for helping me learn about your work on the daily.  I really appreciate that.  Like Mike said earlier, this is a really good time to educate a lot of people about some system issues we all knew existed, so I think the daily report is serving in that role as well.  If you have items and situational awareness that you need folks across the business and government sector to know, this is a great education opportunity, too.
>> Cool.  Thank you so much.  All right.  I am ready to head into the update from our government agencies, and I don't know who is going to be presenting from the Health Department.  I am guessing Carrie does know.  So Carrie.  Hmm.  Not Carrie.  There's Carrie.  You are muted I think.  And I will unmute you.  There we go.
>> Okay.  Can you hear me?
>> Yes.
>> Okay.  So on my end, my team that I had Daisy, David and Stephanie, David and Daisy have been reassigned to the Puyallup EOC, and they are doing outreach out there, assessments, at the city's camp that they have, encampment.  So Daisy and David are in Puyallup.  Stephanie, who has been sending out the daily info, has been deactivated.  So that leaves me a team of one.  I do have assistance from another individual on our community branch, so the changes that will happen will be the daily updates that we were sending to the group will be done only on Fridays.
	Let's see.  That's that with the team.  And as you all know the Temporary Care Center opened on the 8th.  And MDC is currently open.
>> Say that again about MDC?
>> It's current me open.
>> So can you describe those two sites and who goes to them and how you get in, and what their capacity is and what they are currently operating at?
>> Yes.  So I don't have the current operating numbers, so I can get that to the group.  The Temporary Care Center is open, and they have 124 rooms, or beds.  It is open to individuals that ‑‑ you don't have to have an income threshold to go in.  It's for all incomes.  It is open for anybody who cannot isolate or quarantine at home, and they have vulnerable people in their home so they need to get to a site to do that.  That's open to them.  You get there through your provider.  Shelter providers can call the number to get people in between 8:00 and 4:00 P.M.  The MDC site is for our people who are experiencing homelessness, as well as the Temporary Care Center.
	The MDC site is for isolation, so it's confirmed COVID.
>> Congratulations on getting both of those up and going.
>> Mm‑hmm.  Let's see.
>> Janet was asking what number can shelter providers call to gain access to the TCC, I guess that's Temporary Care Center.
>> Yes.  So the number for only the hospitals, emergency departments and shelters, call the care coordination team line, 253‑820‑4684.  It's open from 8:00 A.M. to 4:00.  You must meet all the requirements.  There is a list.  If you go to the website, Tacoma‑Pierce County website under the Temporary Care Center, there will be probably the answers you are looking for.
>> So how come shelters but not outreach workers would be able to have somebody move to that site?
>> Say that again?
>> If it's limited to the shelter side of homeless providers, does that include a day shelter or does that include our outreach workers or Rapid Rehousing case managers that have an existing client living in a car?
>> Yes.  So what I would do is go through your ‑‑ what we are asking the shelters to do is go to shelter management and they place the call.
>> So an organization ‑‑
[Talking simultaneously]
>> That doesn't have a shelter is not going to be able to access this resource?
>> Well, they should go through the individual's provider, medical.
>> Okay.
>> So whether it's their doctor, the ED, yeah.
>> Okay.  I am not seeing any questions.  Do you have more for us?
>> No.  That's it.
>> All right.  Thank you.
>> Thank you.
>> I am going to wait a second to see if there is any more questions popping up.  I am not seeing anymore questions coming up.  We have Allyson with the City of Tacoma.  We do, there she is.  Allyson, do you want to give us an update on the City of Tacoma?
>> Excuse me.  I haven't talked very much this morning, so I apologize.  Good morning, everyone.  One item that I know that Gerrit at least asked about was rental assistance, and if we have any update on that.  Those of you who are able to tune in last week to the council we did present an approach to council that included possibly running the program in‑house.  After some conversation this week and particularly working with the county, we are looking to ‑‑ the county's approach, the county has contact with Share and Care House, we are looking to provide that assistance out to the community.  That's my major update, but if there are questions out there I am happy to take them.
>> All right.  We got a question from Theresa.  Hopefully I didn't miss that from earlier, Theresa.
>> That was a question from earlier, and maybe the Health Department folks are still around, but I was interested in the path we are taking, Gerrit, that ‑‑ when there are people on the street who don't necessarily have a medical doctor, but maybe only have a mental health provider and they are not staying at a shelter, it feels like they should be able to use that number and call in.  Does that make sense?  Is there some reason they can't?
>> Okay.  I see I am unmuted.  They have to go through the emergency department or their provider, and it's a very sort of a process that has been established, so that is the recommendation currently, is to have everyone go through to get to that number, there has to be a provider, shelter management or those that serve the homeless, management, to call that number, as well as the hospitals and the emergency department.
>> So the HOT Team would have to then take the person who is exhibiting symptoms on our street, they would have to take them to the emergency room in order to access your services?
>> Well, I know that could be an issue.  Right?  So, um, that's the way that they get into that Temporary Care Center.  There is another number you could call to report your healthcare providers, and there is another number, it's 253‑798‑6410.  I am just looking at this document, to report COVID‑19‑cases, healthcare workers, public safety, staff or residents of long‑term care facility, or our congregate settings, shelters, correctional facilities or anyone who has COVID‑19, so there is a screening process when you call these numbers so there will be some advice behind it.
>> I get that.  I wonder if somewhere in the pipeline it could be put out that maybe the HOT Team or people who are dealing with people who may not even be giving their names and may not have a healthcare provider that can be located, there would be some special way that they can reach out because it is a problem.  We have a lot of people living on our street who are just passing through, and some people who have been here forever but who are not willing to deal with any health providers.  There are a lot of situations like that and I am getting the HOT Team is probably pretty good at recognizing when something is an emergency and when it's not.
>> Right.
>> Just a thought.  I get that you have parameters now.  I just suggest that you might think about that.
>> Okay.
>> That's it.
>> So, Theresa, what your ask is that the HOT Teams who are out in the community be able to call the number as well.
>> Yes.
>> Is that your request?  All right.  Let me pose that and I will let you know.
>> Thanks.
>> You are welcome.
>> I know it's complicated.
>> Yes, it is.  Thank you.
>> All right.  I don't see any other questions for Allyson, so we are going to switch over to the county, and Valeri Knight.  You are on.
>> I had a question for Allyson in the chat.  There were some questions for city.  How soon will it begin and contact with the provider, I am not sure if Allyson wanted to address both of those before I started.
>> I saw those, too.  I know it's a lot to manage, Gerrit, so good job.  [Laughs].  So I think Maureen's question when we say aligning with the county, does that mean the requirements will be the same and are we going with the same provider [mic cutting out] where I am not at the point where I can say that that's what we are going to do yet.  And then I think there was a question about when it's going to start.  As soon as we can get [mic cutting out] that's what we are going to do.  I would imagine next week I will be able to give you a more concrete answer.
>> Just looking over the questions here really quick.  Cool.  And I did notice sending some e‑mail to the city this week that a couple folks are still out in Allyson's department, so I think she probably has a lot on her plate.  Good job on getting this far on things I have to say.  It's a heavy lift for all of us I think.
	Valeri.
>> Can you hear me now?
>> Yes.
>> Okay.  Great.  Pierce County Human Services, and the only real updates from us the rental assistance program, Share and Care is going great.  They have received hundreds of requests.  Some of those are City of Tacoma folks so they are connecting them back around and keeping a list of people just in case they need to reach back out, but they are working through each one.  They have come up with some pretty creative ways to serve folks without having to meet face‑to‑face, which is exciting.  Our funding for the 1.6‑ish million dollars will close on Wednesday for the first round.  We will be making an announcement funding decision Monday, slash, Tuesday at the latest.  If you never worked with the county, that's a pretty quick turnaround for county funds.  Normally a several‑months process.  It's been interesting to watch.  
	Those are the two big updates.  We won't be receiving allocated funds from ESG or CDBG.  We are working at what that means because there are some possible emergency solutions grants from the state as well as CDBG.  I don't normally touch that, community block grant.  So those are coming down the pipeline, as well as we do know there is a second allocation.  We are now working through the process of contracting those.  We know that allocated funds for CDBG and ESG ‑‑ we don't know the exact dollar amounts yet.  We do know we are going to have a few days, we will get the contract out ‑‑ sorry.  It will be very similar to the one that's with COVID‑19 now.  It has different restrictions because of the funding source, so we have to work through what those restrictions are.  They are less than some of the formal restrictions and they have tightened others.  We have to make sure we have all the ducks in a row before we release those funds.  
	There are potential rental assistance dollars, so we want to make sure we maximize what we can and help the shelters because they are the heaviest hit.  All of that is in the works.  We have county staff at the EOC, which is with the Health Department every single day, so that's helped with our line of communication and making sure everybody is on the same team and sharing the information.  Here to answer questions, and I have to drop off to another COVID‑19 call.
>> All right.  We got a question from Joy.
>> Hey, Valeri.  So can you shoot me a link to what are the eligibility requirements?  We have some moms who think they don't qualify for that rental assistance, single moms, and I think they do even though they work, but hours may have been cut and they might qualify now, or just a few dollars over.  Let's just go ahead and apply, so if you can send the link out to find out what the specific eligibilities are for rental assistance, that would be great.
>> They are out of the City of Tacoma limits and they are 50% area median income for their current status, if they have loss of wages they can get a letter and that puts them under that 50, they are eligible.  That flyer we sent out, I will send it again with all Share and Care's information.  That's what they need.
>> Does that include all income, meaning all child support payments and all that, they have to include all that?
>> That would be a Share and Care question, so I would suggest they call Share and Care.
>> Thank you.
>> Cool.  Thanks.  And we had a couple more questions for Carrie, or the Health Department, but I am not seeing that Carrie is on anymore, so I think you will have to hit those up another time, Maureen.  Did you have another ‑‑ okay.  All right.  Now I wanted to do some quick rounds with the different shelter providers.  Top of my list is Nativity House.  Melissa.
>> Hey, everyone.  How are you?  Everything is pretty much running as normal.  We are still doing meals outdoors for the Day Center.  Right now we have the washing station outside and portable toilets outside for people to use during the day.  We are still staffing the hotel 24/7 with our case management stuff right now and they are working on adjusting and doing phone and virtual visits for coordinated entry and case management as well as mental health.  Our mental health team is doing outreach for our guests that are outside of the overnight shelter right now and work on finding ways to get them into mental health services if they are wanting those things.  So we have three rooms that are office space at the shelter right now where guests can utilize a phone or a computer to connect with their case managers or for coordinated entry or mental health services.  Stability Site is still running as normal.  And I think that's about it right now.
	We have had a bunch of wonderful volunteers who have been dropping off games and things like that.  Our elderly population over at the hotel are struggling right now, pretty lonely, so we are trying to find ways to connect, getting that regularly social connection that they were having before inside of Nativity House.  We are encouraging volunteers just to do phone calls to them and check in, games, little cards or notes or things like that so they have something to look forward to every day.
>> Good.  Thanks, Melissa.  Allyson, I was hoping you might be able to give us an update on Adams Street and anything else in the Rescue Mission land.
>> Yeah.  Hi.  Adams Street, we have handwashing stations, we have an awesome cleaning crew through Valeo, they are working on Adams Street Shelter and our off site at Bellarmine helping to do extra sanitizing.  So that's been great.  I am not going to speak too much on the Men's Shelter.  I see Nate is on the call and he is our director of emergency services.  Maybe he can speak to that.  The main change, we have to go meals, we are serving less people in overflow for better distancing.  We have computer stations, so any providers who need a virtual meeting with anyone staying in our shelter, we have an office and a computer and different stations they can use.  So besides that, I think that's it for Adams Street.
	Yeah, Nate is on, maybe he can speak about downtown.
>> Yeah.  Hi.  Can you guys hear me?
>> Yep.
>> First, thanks for the ‑‑ all the information.  We are pretty much doing business as usual.  We have the amazing opportunity to work with Valeo to get the cleaning crew to help us to thoroughly clean, even more than we normally do.  Then it's been a learning experience because they actually have been trained on the proper techniques and everything like that, so it's a good refresher for our guys to get those examples.  
	We are still doing to‑go meals for breakfast and dinners.  Dinner for Bellarmine and breakfast after they get back.  We have been going strong.  All the information that we have been getting from you guys and all our other contacts have been a blessing.  Other than that, we are just glad that we are able to be of service in this time of need and uncertain time of what's going to happen the next day.  So, yeah.
>> Thank you, sir.  I am ‑‑ let's see.  James Pogue had to leave with Comprehensive and said they didn't have anything to report.  I don't see that Greg is on here with The Coffee Oasis.  And, let's see, I have Delmar with the Family Day Center, though.  Delmar.
>> Can you hear me?
>> I can.
>> Awesome.  I think that you were trying to unmute me and I was trying to unmute myself and we just had a little game of chicken there.  So, yeah.  We are doing well over at the FHN Day Center.  We have begun to check temperatures for anyone that ‑‑ before they enter our building, so we have been doing that.  I think that's been pretty successful.  We had a gracious ‑‑ I don't want to call it a donation because we did have to cough up a little bit, but Inside Passages helped us with masks, and they are hard to find nowadays.  Whoever comes in we have masks and we take their temperature and we encourage them to wash their hands.  
	We are still seeing families.  We have put up partitions in our Day Center so we can have some sort of separation, of course trying to abide by social distancing, so that's going well.  And then also, this isn't necessarily for public knowledge as far as clients go, but for our partners I don't mind sharing, that we do have a hotel that we started putting folks into this week, not just for our Day Center, but for all of the various programs that Family Housing Network has.  So that's going well.  We have about 25 rooms or so that we have rented out at the La Quinta, and we filled quite a few of those rooms.  But, again, that's not for everyone to know because we don't want folks to think that we are just giving away rooms for people, but they are strictly reserved for the most vulnerable.  Week four working from home, so we have all kind of adjusted.
>> Thank you, Delmar.  Rob, do you have anything for us?  It sounds like you have had a busy week getting a new site up and running, and you still got Bethlehem.
>> Yeah.  So things are running well at Bethlehem.  We have been doing ‑‑ because of social distancing not quite as many clients, around 34 right now.  We are doing temperature checks for people as they come in.  We are doing that as well with staff and trying to do everything we can to do ‑‑ maintain social distancing.  But everything has been running pretty well, and, yeah, it's been a busy week.
>> Great.  Thank you.  I don't know who would be here from Altheimer or from Helping Hand House.  I don't see Kevin on here.  But if you have a shelter you are running, now would be a great time to unmute yourself and tell us anything you might want to.  All right.  You can always chime in later.  We had an update from Heidi on the Youth Adult Shelter that's currently [indiscernible] operating for overnight stays, and day case management have all been suspended, which I don't think is a change from last week.
	And I am going to ‑‑ so a question for you, Delmar, is how long people can stay at the hotel.
>> Well, it just really all depends.  Our main goal is not to indefinitely put someone in a hotel room, so it just ‑‑ it depends on the actual program that they are in.  So, for instance, if it's coordinated entry, that hotel exit date would depend on their exit date from coordinated entry.  However, if it's pertaining to our Rapid Rehousing program or our permanent supportive housing, it would depend on entry date into their permanent residence.  If it's someone from our Day Center we have a flat 30‑day time frame for them to be in there.  But, again, this is all reserved for folks that are extremely vulnerable, and as sad as it sounds we ask ourselves the question, you know, without this hotel, with the coronavirus spreading, would this person die if they caught it.  If the answer to that question is, yes, then those are the folks that we are housing in a hotel room.
>> Thanks, Delmar.  Just chiming in as well, they are using a variety of funding streams for that, so the veteran funding we get from the VA is very clear that it is not just putting people in hotel rooms, but it is one part of their journey to permanent housing, even during this crisis.
	All right.  Maureen, I think we are ready for an advocacy update.  It seems like your name came up in our discussions, as always, so jump in.  Hmm.  I see your mouth moving, but no sound coming out.  While we are waiting to figure that out.  I missed that Theresa had her hand up.
>> This is a question for Rob about Bethlehem.  So I am sorry, I have been out of the loop a little bit on this, but I am guessing you have the day part of the program running now.  Yes?
>> We do.
>> And is there a way ‑‑ when you said there are fewer people there, does that mean that no one is going to be able to get in at this point?
>> They have had a pretty static group there, and so that it has been pretty full.  I actually just reached out to Jesse while we have been on this call to see if there was an update.  I haven't heard back yet.  I would be happy to let you know.
>> That would be good because I do refer people there and I should stop doing that if there is no space.  The other thing, since the other Altheimer and ‑‑ what was the other one that you mentioned?  Anyway, since they isn't here do you know anything about what their capacity is?  Are they taking people?
>> I don't know.
>> No one else knows I'm guessing?  Okay.  Thanks.
>> All right.  My thing shows you as unmuted, Maureen.  I don't know what's going on, so, hmm.  Are you on the phone?  How is your sign language, Maureen?  Probably just one sign for me right now, huh?  All right.  This is a bit of a fail, again.  We do have some extra ‑‑ Maureen, I don't know what I am going to do to fix this.  Allyson from the city chimed in that Altheimer is operating 24/7 at capacity, good and frustrating, but great that that's all up and running well.  I think we've got some extra time, so maybe while Maureen delves into the mysteries of computers, we could all kind of go around and do some check‑ins.  I have heard from a lot of you, but I am going to shoot down the list, and if you decide this isn't your game and decide to drop off, I do want to ask that I would love some suggestions for presentations or people that you would like to hear from at this meeting.  That sounded good for a second there, Maureen.
>> Did it?
>> Yes, you are in.
>> Okay.  It was at my end.  Sorry.  We all know how I love technology.  [Laughs].  So good morning, everybody, and thank you for your patience.  So there are things going on at every level.  Let me quickly go through a few things.  One is that the congress is considering the fourth COVID bill, but there is ‑‑ at this point there is absolutely zero money for homelessness or housing, even on the democratic house side.  So the National Low Income Housing Coalition has a big push to try and get our members to talk to house leadership to get that money in.  Do I think it will happen?  I have no idea.  What the National Low Income Housing Coalition is asking for is 11.5 billion in additional emergency solutions grants, 100 billion, which would go to rental assistance and a national moratorium on evictions and foreclosures, a uniform moratorium.  Those are like the outside markers.
	If you are a policy wonk or you want to be in this conversation, the National Low Income Housing Coalition meeting, Zoom meet, is every Monday so I can send that information again.  The second thing at the state level, on the Washington Low Income Housing Alliance call, which is open to anybody, you just have to register, the Ted Kelleher from the Department of Commerce, so they are talking about a state rental assistance program, but the reality is to scale it in any way they would have to have federal money, and right now that doesn't look terribly likely.  He reminded people that anyone who is on unemployment, who is on COVID unemployment, may not have that federal benefit yet, but it will be retroactive.  That's $600 a week.  So people who are at 50 or $60,000 a year from their job who are on unemployment are basically going to match their income for that 13 weeks.  People who were lower than that in their hourly wage may end up having additional money for that 13 weeks.  
	So if you have clients, who are on unemployment, one of the things to try and do is ‑‑ I think is to help them figure out how to use this money wisely.  Right now even though our friends in the Tacoma Democratic Socialists of America and the Tenants Union and other folks are calling for forgiveness of rent and for rent strikes, right now people are going to have to pay rent, and so it's just ‑‑ if they have resources, how to best use those resources.  The people who are really most vulnerable right now are people who are in the informal economy, and these are the same folks, if they don't have Social Security numbers, undocumented people, they aren't going to have those stimulus checks, those $1,200 checks or whatever if they have a family.  So there is a whole group of people that we have to really be thinking about as we are setting policy and making funding recommendations and decisions.
	We also have ‑‑ if you have been watching the news, the very real probability that there will be a number of people that are currently incarcerated who will be released, and they will come into the community.  Some will have housing by virtue of family or friends, some will not, and I am counting on Theresa to guide us through that process of how we respond.  There are various lawsuits against the state to release people under a variety of conditions, but I'm fairly certain that we are going to see something and we are going to see it pretty soon.
	One of the things that's really important is that Governor Inslee did veto bills, as you know, that had costs to the state budget associated, because like Jeannie said last week, state's looking at someplace between 2.4 and $4 billion hit over the remainder of this biennium and the coming biennium, and so ‑‑ but he held harmless the homelessness and housing, low income housing programs, despite their costs.  There were a couple of bills that were vetoed that were priority for the Low Income Housing Alliance, but the bulk of these, those in most cases were to clean up prior bills, like 1406 had some technical problems that needed to be cleaned up.  But for the most part it looks to me like Commerce is just running as fast as it can to try and get as much money out as quickly as possible.  The governor released $5 million for the federally recognized tribes in the state, and so that money is going out with a threshold of 100,000 per tribe, and then there is an allocation on top of it.
	Susan Boyd from Bellwether Housing, she said applied to the nonprofit housing owners and managers in our community as well, she talked about the impact of COVID‑19 on their operational side.  The development side is a different piece, but on the operational side things like units remaining vacant longer because they let them sit to try and let the virus sort of die, wherever it might be, and then the additional expense of really doing the kind of sanitizing that's required to make those apartments or units, you know, safe for new tenants.
	She also ‑‑ obviously that has a hit to operating costs, that additional sanitation, just like the shelters are experiencing.  Whether they are for profit or nonprofit, it's the same situation that these operating costs are going up.  Staff shortages, that people are leaving their jobs for whatever reason, and Susan said in their case at Bellwether they are hiring residents to fill some of these positions.  
	The Disability Rights was also on this call, and so that's another whole piece, talked about the prison situation prior to what happened in Monroe the other night, but they were already asking for early release of high risk people incarcerated.  Melanie Morgan, the City of Tacoma already does this, allows an installment payment of certain costs when you are renting your unit, but now it is statewide as of June 11th, and so tenants will be able to request installment payments on their last month's rent, on their ‑‑ whatever costs are associated with moving in.  For the very first time in the State of Washington there is a cap on some of the fees, that they cannot exceed 25% of the rent.  And Melanie Morgan is one of our folks, out of the 29th I think, and I encouraged Gerrit earlier this week to have her come on.  She is an energetic speaker.  If you read the bill, it's the Tacoma experience around the Tiki Apartments and around the change in the Tacoma code that makes up the bulk of the rationale for why this bill is so important.
	A few local things, one is I sent out on the ‑‑ to the coalition this morning, or last night I guess, the note that includes how you access Dave Alger's fund, that little fill the gap fund, looks like it's about four grand in it, money available at the end of the month.  Going through Associated Ministries.  Contact information is there.  There is a few hundred dollars, but the bulk of it is coming in, and Dave said it will continue to come in.  He is looking for those things that you can't fund out of the money that you have, as fast as you need it.  It's not rent assistance.  It's for the times that you said I wish, or where can I get, or if I could just get this.
	Now I don't know if Megan is still on the call or not, Megan Capes, but the Tacoma Democratic Socialists of America and the Tacoma Education Association and other allies have pushed the City of Tacoma and the school board to open up the high school gyms for shelter because the middle schools are already handling the food distribution, the lunches and things like that, and the elementary schools, you know that the bathrooms don't fit adults, but the high schools do and they have showers, and it's imperfect, individual hotel rooms would certainly be better, permanent housing would be better yet, but if they can figure out how to make this work in a way that allows for the social distancing and provides a safe environment, and there is no view right ow on whether this would be for families only or for single people, it's just can we get safely inside, and so the City of Tacoma has taken a look at it.  It went to the Tacoma School Board last night.  The school board president says it's back to the city because it's a policy decision.  And if ‑‑ that the school board supports the city's action plan.  So I just think that's huge.  And maybe we can get other school districts around the county to look at their resources in a different way.  And we know the schools are out until the fall, and nobody knows at this point what happens in the fall, so.  And we also have the experience of the mission with Bellarmine, so not like we are starting from scratch.  
	Back to the last thing, that was great to have the IRS on today, and to have them take our questions and agree to continue.  I passed that information on to our national partners and state partners.  I have not heard of the IRS reaching out to anybody else like this, so that's great.
	And I did ‑‑ I am reaching out to two credit unions that have been suggested to see if either of them are interested in setting up some kind of a bank account for people who are currently unbanked, unsheltered.  It looks to me like in terms of the people who are experiencing homelessness, there are enough places for physical snail mail addresses.  Nativity House, associate ministries, the mission and there are probably some others I don't know about, but then the problem I think becomes how do people safely get the money.  So how do they convert a paper check into money without losing money at a cash ‑‑ check cashing place or getting mugged on the way.  And if we can get bank accounts set up, well, historically the folks that we are talking about haven't been so welcomed to have bank accounts set up, so I've got a colleague who works with developing credit unions for low income people and she has made a couple recommendations, so I am going to follow up with them.  If either of those look like they are possible, I will bring that back to you.  If you want to work on this piece, let me know.  Some of you e‑mail me or put it in the chat.  
	I was telling Gerrit the other night, look, it's economic development, folks.  We got 5,000 homeless people, $1,200 each, that's like $6 million in federal money in our community that wouldn't come otherwise.  So it's worth attending to through a number of lens, not just the money the individual gets.  It all goes into the private sector.  And I know some people will screw it up.  All right.  It's a given.  But some people screw up everything.  We can't design programs to a few people who won't use whatever the resource is.  We have to design them to the most of the people, and then provide whatever kind of support they tell us they need.  And we know from our experience that they ought to have access to it.  
	So that's it for the moment.  Thank you.  Now I can't hear you.
>> Gerrit ‑‑ oh, there you are.
>> Theresa.
>> So I just wanted to add on to what Maureen said about the prisons.  This is what we are here, they have sat people down and said where would you go if you had a place to go.  They are requiring people have a release address, some kind of plan, and it makes it really difficult in these times when they can't ‑‑ it's really hard to get them any kind of educational thing, to get into a job that isn't a dangerous job, so it's not perfect.  I wish they had made this decision to release people who were lows risk where they could come out into a better situation than they are coming out now.  It's almost like ‑‑ it's not exactly a recipe for failure, but it will certainly present many opportunities for failure because of the COVID thing.
	So I just want to say, anybody out here has an interest in providing a release address for people who are coming out of prison, please do be in touch with me.  I am happy to talk with you, and help try to connect you with people.  There is also ‑‑ I am trying to get ‑‑ I am pushing to have the rental assistance that is being offered to people when they first get out, I think it needs to be extended in this circumstance, but I don't know if that will get any traction.  I kind of question it.  But why not try?  I always ask for what I want and see what happens.  Anyway, that's what I want to say.
	The other piece is that, yeah, let's solve this banking thing, maybe not just for this one check, but this has been a long‑time issue with all the people I am working with when they don't have a bank account, having those horrible check cashing places just ‑‑ we ought to make it easy for people to deal with the small amount of cash that they have.  So there is my two bits.
>> Great.  Thank you.  And I am just going to have ‑‑ take this time now to run through and do some check‑ins with folks.  So I am interested to hear what folks are kind of experiencing this week, and we got 50 of us on line still, so we can't spend too much time each of us, but I think we would love to just ‑‑ just to get a feel for where we all are.  I am going to start with Alice.  I just kind of sprung that one on you, didn't I, Alice?  All right.  I am going to switch over to Chris.  Like the whole world is not quite paying attention to this call anymore.
>> Sorry.  I was talking to somebody.
>> Calvin.
>> Yeah.  Can you hear me?
>> Yeah.  And we can see more than just the top of your head now, too.
>> Good deal.  I was trying to hide.  I'm good.  I am excited.  I am trying to stay excited, you know, and doing this work keeps me excited.  And kind of adjusting to this new norm, this new normal way of living right now.  Hopefully it won't be forever, but it's causing me to brush up on my technical skills.  I wish it could have been on a different note, but here I am, and Heidi and I are here in the office together practicing social distancing, and we are excited.  Officially this week we launched our F path program, so she and I have been program building along with rainy, Shelby and James looking on and Helen and getting the ball rolling so we can serving the lists with the F grant, so we are excited and staying encouraged, keeping each other encouraged and glad to be seeing everybody.  It's been a couple weeks since I have been here.  Here we are.  So I am glad to be here, and enough out of me.
>> Thanks, Calvin.  Cece.
>> Good morning, everybody.  Hi.  Nice to see all of you on Friday.  I really look forward to this.  Hanging in here and doing great.
>> Glad to hear it.  Davina.
>> And no on Davina.  Dawn, are you still with us?
>> Yes.  Sorry about that.  I am here.  Thank you.
>> Awesome.  How are things going at the hotel and elsewhere?
>> I am actually working on stuff right now with the hotel.  Everything is going well at the hotel, keeping that staff 24/7.  Things are really starting to hit a stride and it's doing well.
>> Good.  Yeah.  That's a big project that Dawn kind of got stuck with, all of the actual hard details on, so, yeah.  Thank you, Dawn.
>> Thank you.
>> Mr. Holman, how are you doing? 
>> I am doing really well.  The Rapid Rehousing program Associated Ministries has been going really smoothly.  My whole team has been working at home.  They have been very creative about finding employment for people.  They've also got people housed during this time and they are at the point now that they are going to be taking on more referrals in the next few weeks.  Their only challenge is when a client drops off the radar, we don't have an operational phone.  There is no way to actually go out and find them, so that's our only biggest challenge.  Other than that, Rapid Rehousing still going pretty strong.
>> Great.  Thanks, Greg.  Janet.  I am sure you've been busy.  So busy she probably stepped away.  Joy.  I am failing at unmuting you.  There you go.  Joy.
>> Hi, everyone.  Good to see everyone.  Shared housing, we are just trying to prepare for the future.  We are trying to look ahead because we know in four to six to eight weeks people are going to have housing instability.  How can we be prepared for that?  I would like to get together with Greg to find out how your program is working and numbers and how it's all coming together for you guys at the Rapid Rehousing program, but we are just trying to make sure that or systems are in place.  We are encouraging folks still via social media and reaching out to past home providers and folks who said they were interested in becoming home providers to make sure that we've got rooms available when this all kind of starts coming to ‑‑ I don't know if it's going to come to an end, but when it starts slowing down, so that's where our brain is right now.  All of our [indiscernible] had to be cancelled because of this COVID‑19, so we are refocusing our energy on being prepared when folks come out of this COVID‑19 crisis.  Any help that you could give us, we are also partnering with a lot of folks, we have severed several folks, so we are trying to fill houses.  That's keeping people off the street.  We have housed a couple of ladies out of a DV program that's there in Tacoma.  They called us and wanted to partner with us, so they have folks come in and fill out applications.  So we are still doing our work.  We are just doing it in a different way.  A lot of social distancing, a lot of stuff over the phone, and if people do come in we are asking them to call and make appointments.  If they don't have access to the Internet, a lot of folks who do not that really need this housing option, so that's what we are doing at Shared Housing Services.  Thanks, everyone.
>> Joy, while you are on there, a question Alice asked.  Do you still want people checking in every three months?
>> We ask them to just so we know that you are still housed because, of course, we don't have our volunteers right now.  Most of our volunteers were over the age of 60, so we don't have volunteers to try and call to do that.  We just want to know that everything is okay, and you are still housed.  We don't normally ‑‑ a lot of people, they just kind of don't call us back once they get housed, but we at least try to check in at the six‑month mark and 12‑month mark, and after that whenever you want to check in.  They can do that just to let us know everything is going well.
>> All right.  Thanks.  Janet, I am trying here.  I am showing you as unmuted, Janet.  Man, technology.  All right.  And I want to loop back to Davina.
>> Hi.  Just wanted to ‑‑ we are just really grateful that we are still out there serving and that we are still able to meet clients out there who just ‑‑ just doing the best we can with offering them things to keep them warm and education and how to keep themselves safe during this epidemic, or pandemic.
>> Chris Chisholm just offered an update on the Puyallup stuff.  You want to describe that a little bit and give us an update?
>> All I know is ‑‑ I haven't been over there, but I am also just a citizen activist.  I don't currently work or volunteer for New Hope anymore, but very involved on the political side of things as a citizen.  But anyway, so I was in on ‑‑ I am a member of the Puyallup Main Street Association where there was one city council member and a former and people that keep tabs on that, so they ‑‑ there was a spontaneous camp that was developed along the River Walk Trail, and then in the city's ‑‑ by the skate park they provided porta‑potties, and apparently it got out in "The News Tribune" and it got out of hand, so the city under the ‑‑ it's a council manager system, so the Emergency Management staff automatically I think maybe checked in with city council members, I am not sure, but created a homeless camp at the rec center, which of course was closed, and so there is a police check at the entrance to the rec center.  This is on Valley Avenue on the north side of the river, kind of the location where in the future everybody is thinking that there may eventually be tolerance for shelter over here.  [Laughs].  And then there is a police station on the back side of the field toward the river, so they have 24/7 police at the entrance on the back side.  And spacing separated on pallets, and serviced porta‑potties and wash stations and things like that.  So this is the very first [laughs] Puyallup ‑‑ City of Puyallup organized response to homeless ‑‑ you know, any kind of homeless camp or sheltering or anything like that that I am aware of, so that, you know, can maybe be used in the future if there is ever any citizen tolerance for serving a homeless community in the future.  That's all I know.
>> Thanks, Chris.  Appreciate the update.  Julianne?  And Mr. Seaquist.
>> Yeah.  Nice to see everyone.  I will tell you I am impressed with just the amount of coordination.  We are still organizing a broad group of citizens to try to look at some of the broader problems that the community or state is experience being around education, any other directions.  I will keep you posted as we go on that.  Thank you.  And I will say, Gerrit, that I am really concerned, and Joy just mentioned what could be an avalanche of homelessness headed for us for all of their good intentions.  There seems to be a lot of indication that that ‑‑ Maureen was pointing this out, too.  The amount of money and the timing may still leave lots of people who are on the edge of homelessness pushed over that edge, and I am just concerned that maybe the entire community has ‑‑ I will turn my camera on so I can use my hands.  Our entire community has not recognized, what everybody on this call realizes, is how important homelessness is.  We are managing social distancing at the lockdown.  That cascades so rapidly through the whole society, and it shows up as homelessness at the end.  Homelessness isn't just a problem of the few unfortunate people.  Homelessness is ‑‑ everybody on this call knows it is the indicator that the whole society, the whole economy, is leaving people behind.  We need to manage the homelessness as vigorously and as boldly and we are managing the virus.  That's my lecture for today.  Thank you.
>> Excellent.  Thanks, Larry.  Mary Anderson, how is the Parks doing?  Mary?  All right.  And Megan.  Anything you wanted to chime in on.
>> Hey, all.  I am Megan, one of the housing chairs for DSA and Tacoma.  It's been an exciting week, so, yeah.  So as Maureen ‑‑ thank you, Maureen, for giving an update.  If folks have not signed our petition, but are interested to, I am happy to share out the petition link.  We are planning to send signatures to the city I think on Tuesday before their meeting because that's when they allow for also public comment to be submitted.  So that is coming.  Also DSAs across the Democratic Socialist chapters are working with the Tenants Union and other tenant organizers across the state and nationally, with Right to the City Alliance, to push for canceling the rent, and mortgage payments and utilities.  There is a nationwide call for that, so if anyone has any questions or would like to follow that, just let me know, but I am excited to be with you and I really, really want to make sure that we got school board pressure, so we can really make this high school gym idea a reality to support our folks.  So especially during this pandemic, we need more shelter, but folks need access to bathrooms and showers especially right now.  So thank you.
>> Thanks, Megan.
>> You are welcome.
>> For continuing to push for more.  And I am going to skip over folks that have already had a chance to chime in.  Heidi.
>> Good morning.  So I am here with Calvin, and just a few notes.  I noticed because I was talking to my kids this morning that today is three weeks since the schools closed.  To me it feels like more like months, but it is only three weeks at this point.  The ray of sunshine that might be starting to come through is that it looks like we have passed in Washington State the peak of the epidemic, and we have done that because we have done a really good job at social distancing, so congratulations.  Keep it up.  We are hoping and praying that the end is in sight.  Personally we went through a lot here at Comprehensive around the time the schools closed.  Our agency closed face‑to‑face mental health services.  Very proud of the way that they switched as quickly as they could to telemedicine for folks who ‑‑ to continue mental health services.  We have customer service reps here on site and making arrangements for people to do mental health services by telephone.  I have been really proud of my agency and its incredible response.  We switched to supporting our residential programs at the Beacon Street and [mic cutting out], and that meant that our whole team immediately became shelter employees unless they had reasons that they couldn't work anymore.  So it has been really an experience.
	During that time the Forensic PATH program and the Forensic HARPS programs, the state has asked us to keep moving forward with those, and so for the most profoundly mentally ill we have some additional services.  So if you have people, you know, profoundly mentally ill for the most part and experiencing homelessness, and some criminal history, those might be people that we can serve.  So we continue to work on our new program and hope for the best because as I move around the streets of Tacoma, homelessness has become so much more visible.  There are so many more folks that are just in tents, camping around here, down by the water, so I guess the one good thing that might come out of all of this and the increasing homeless experience is that the citizens cannot help but see the increased presence of homelessness in our community.  So I am hoping that perhaps it becomes more of a priority.
	Anyway, it's really good to see everybody today.  This has been a really long ride, and thanks for making it all happen, Gerrit.
>> Thanks, Heidi.  Somebody's identifying themselves as Rapid Rehousing, and is very quiet.  We've got Raquel.  We don't have Raquel.  Richard.  Richard?  Bueller, Bueller?  Rosemary, I know you are here.
>> Hi, I'm here.
>> I hear you.
>> All right.  I am just listening and being so impressed with this community.  It just makes my heart warm to know that we are together on this.  So I don't have any updates.  I am keeping isolated right now and trying to be supportive.
>> Thanks, Rosemary.  Roxanne.
>> Hi.  Just want to say I'm good.  Thank you.
>> You are welcome.  Sheila.
>> Here we go.  I just unmuted myself.  Good morning.  Sheila.  And I am with Goodwill and I am not as eloquent a speaker as fearless leader Kelly is, but as most people know that the Goodwill has been impacted by the COVID‑19, and is doing everything it can to assist not only our 1300 employees that have been temporarily laid off, but also with the programs that Goodwill is trying to come up with, virtual programs I should say, I think it can be of benefit to the greater community, and also to the homeless service providers as well.  We are working on a lot of web portals that are going to be attached to the Goodwill's home page, and so I think fearless leader Kelly said this should be up and running hopefully by next week.  I will reach out to her to see where we are at and keep everybody apprised.  Maureen, I would like to help you with this next endeavor as well, with the credit unions.  Thank you.
>> Awesome.  Thank you, Sheila.  I am going to screw this name up, SAIJE, all caps.
>> Can I be heard?
>> Yes.
>> Very good.  Yes.  This is Rich Berghammer.  And right now I am working with Ben Harris from the Pierce County chaplaincy to find places where we can provide church parking lots for material resources, Wi‑Fi for parents of students who are needing downloads, that sort of thing.  And right now my working out in the community is being greatly reduced because I am actually on home restriction because I have been tested.  My wife as well.  She works at Tacoma General, so we are a few days before we are finding out where our results are here.
>> Thanks, Rich.  Sorry to hear you are possibly exposed.  Susan.  All right.  Troy Cager.  I had this at the beginning where everybody is all engaged.  Folks on the phone, phone number 0652.  And someone on the phone with 1807.  And you are going to bring us up with Dawn.  I don't have a way to connect in.  So I think we have come to the completion of another Tacoma‑Pierce County Coalition to End Homelessness meeting.  Thanks everybody for putting your time in.  Love feedback, as always, and people you might want to have come talk, and we can get adventurous next week to do small group breakout sessions or something like that to give us a bit more of a chance to really be able to engage each other.  So let's bring some great ideas to me so we can get this coalition doing the work we need to do and continue on, and I will see you all next week.  Thanks, everybody.
[End of meeting]