Work Session

X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:1969812000 a good deal of willingness to partner we heard from them at our last at our last civic civic meeting Um their director talked about and they are a highly likely candidate for helping coordinate your arts learning programs hiring hiring artists where it would take government sometimes you know six weeks in a 60-page contract to hire an artist as a nonprofit they they can move much faster But who does the vetting Where does the funding comp you know what is the contracting structure They are a ready partner the German Arts Council And I think think you could you could depend on them We could depend on them because you're on the board I hope we can depend on you Um to provide a lot of that that service Yeah But not to replace it holistically. Well thank you again again and thank you to the entire committee And I'll end my remarks by quoting Miss Margie. Oh dear. The arts is is not only a business it's a creative enterprise It's a and I yield Thank Thank you. Well thank you all so much Um and it's great to see you Mayor Shu Thank you for for stepping up and you didn't have to be a part of leading this effort So thank you so much for doing this for our community Um there is a lot in this plan I did read it and um I it's there's a lot I mean even just the 10 recommendations there there are many many different steps in each of them So I think that um for you know and and I absolutely support support that we what you know basic the basic recommendations of this plan Um I I believe that the arts are the heart and soul of of any community

in our community And I also also believe that the arts build community It's really essential And I'm a big consumer of the arts Um whether it's theater theater or music or dance or visual whatever Um and um I want to recognize my children's art art teacher sitting out here Mary Lou Flowers who was the incredible art teacher at Durham Public Public Schools at Forestview How many years Mary Lou? But But total okay did you say 40 Okay 40 years Okay Um and so yeah I mean you know it all starts actually with our children um honestly and having strong arts programs in our schools as you were acknowledging Um So I think you know and this whole conversation as you were recognizing it today has been about having effect systems and I I do agree that we have not what's really lacking in Durham is have really having a strong ecosystem to support the cultural arts and having having a very effective collaboration between the city and the county and out beyond um that we really have room to grow grow in this area and it's really essential because and as our the poet the po Durham poet uh poetry fox said in his comments comments You know usually see a lot of artists in communities when it's affordable because artists are underpaid Uh workers workers and cultural arts workers are notoriously underpaid and they gravitate towards cities where there's affordable housing and affordable space to do their work And so Durham we are becoming a victim of how rising costs are are affecting artists in our

community And so it is very important that we are are able to retain the artists that we have living here and also be able to keep keep attracting um new artists It is it is I see it as as important as any other sector of our economy for sure Um Um I think that it will definitely and I would really appreciate you laying out some of the steps because honestly when I finished reading the plan I was like oh my god god where do we even start so I'm glad to hear um about some of the concrete things that we can do and I I think that's really important to look at the lowhanging fruit um and then also just thinking about staffing like you know obviously a lot of of this rest structurally within the city The city is has traditionally always you know Durham Arts Council building Carolina Theater DEPAC I mean these are all city buildings We collaborate on the Museum of Durham History and that's another piece that's going to need continued investment but you know thinking about how do we also integrate things as you mentioned into parks and wreck our libraries which is of course the county um and our our schools which is where the county does a lot of our funding Um and then so I think how can we think about how how to layer in what we're already doing Um and and then also the the funding piece I'm very proud that one of the things I champion was the city the county developing a p a public public art policy of contributing a certain percentage of all their capital projects Thank you Brenda Thank you uh Perry 1% right Uh of all capital projects now And of course that's just one piece of this right

Right Um but how we integrate it into everything we do But I think we're going to have to really think how do we how do we wire in the the funding Um you know think going back to what we do with our farmers farmers now We have a $250,000 annual grant program for our farmers How do we protect the farms We have a $500,000 funding that goes into a land program every year You you you have to we've got to think about some mechanism that we we know that is there sustainably And you know we're lucky we have the the Durham Next now because that's money that is being hardwired into festivals and already this year money's gone out already to small festivals big festivals and that they're going to take that and that's good Now we know who's going to take take that that on but I think it's going to be important for us to figure this out come up with a sustainable model Um I really like the idea that was in here about a business roundt That's something we haven't really done How do we bring bring the business community to the you know they could be doing what this what the city and the county are doing the way that we integrate arts into buildings and and things Um our economic incentives um contracts We haven't talked talked about public art investing in art with the companies that we do contracts with We have a lot of empty space the city and the county and we've got empty retail space ground floor I know it came up about how people need places to per to rehearse to to perform temporary workshop space We've seen what DDI has done with their popup space in Dan for businesses So So I think again how do we what can we do quickly with space that's sitting empty right

now that could be utilized utilized for no no cost or low cost Um so um anyway I think um this this is really important NCCU and Duke we've got two amazing universities who do the arts are are central Um so I think um thank you for all of your work We have a lot to build on um um in that's already happening in Durham and um I look forward to the next steps. All right Um I just have very very very brief comments here I I appreciate the I appreciate this I I appreciate the road map and so forth just for the community Um so we as commissioners we sit here and we make a lot of decisions about about a lot of different things lots of different things how we allocate money money and so forth But there is a um um I used to watch a show called a different world world back a while ago and and there was a a young lady named Kimberly who she was a studying to be a doctor and she dated this guy who was an artist right And they always conflicted Um she didn't really appreciate what he did and he didn't appreciate what she did what she he was studying and so forth There's this one scene that has always stuck with me I've actually said this before at different places when um she was explaining that the reason why she she what she was doing was more important than than what he does and he didn't understand and she said I am saving lives I am saving lives I'm bringing when people are sick I'm studying to bring them back to life or you know whatever heal them and so forth and he made a statement he said well if there's no arts what are you saving them for for

what he's saving people for and I govern by that right I I deeply appre arts and if we are are building a place for people to move to Durham to live in Durham to make a life in Durham and there are no arts What are we building a Durham for if we can't appreciate it So um I appreciate this I support support this and I am excited about this roadmap Um I'm excited about what it can be and I'm excited about what it can make Durham continue to be So Thank you all so very much for this presentation All right Thank you Thank you Thank you All right Thank you All right Boy We're putting in some time today. Okay All right That'll work. You got to go to the audit I'll I'll I'll be up there in a little bit Uh NA will be there. All right Now we have uh the resolution adopt Oh Uh wait wait Yeah this is it The the resolution adopting the Durham strategic framework to make homelessness rare and brief by 2031 Okay Thank you all for your patience and staying here and hanging out with us We our meetings generally don't run this long so I apologize apologize here Got people shifting around and things but uh thank you chair Good afternoon everyone I'm Maurice Jones deputy county manager Um we're here with our partners from the city of Durham to discuss our community's efforts to reduce homelessness Uh the county has partner partner partnered with the city of Durham's Department of Community Safety and other partners to develop a five-year strategic

framework to address the many issues related to homelessness here in Durham Last year Durham's continuum of care launched an effort to create an evidenceinformed strategic planning process The strategic framework that emerged from that that process was developed in collaboration with the community including service providers healthc care organizations individuals with current current lived experience experiences of homelessness local government partners business and philanthropic leaders That effort resulted in an an in-depth approach to reducing homelessness here in Durham which you will learn about uh in just a moment There's also a resolution supporting this work in in your agenda packet If the board is comfortable with the resolution we'll place it on the consent agenda for your consideration at next week's week's meeting I'll now turn the presentation over to Director Smith and our team of folks who will be presenting this this afternoon afternoon Okay Um I think I got the right button My my apologies there Uh thank you everybody for having us here today Uh my name is Annie Spansson the assistant director with the community safety department This is Anthony Henderson the the manager of the homelessness system known as the uh um housing Opportunities and Pathways Engagement Team the Hope team And um and this is Ryan Smith the director of the department as you you all well know You know we wanted to begin this presentation actually with a thank you to um County Manager Hagar uh who at the beginning of last fiscal year kicked kicked off the strategic framework process in partnership with the city manager and opened the doors to everything everything that you're going to see today Um we also wanted to thank each of the county commissioners uh because without your support and without the count initial help in in funding the strategic framework process we would not have been able to to do this work I also you know forgive forgive me but uh sometimes this happens at the end of presentations but I wanted to make sure to headline it at the top of presentation at this presentation There were so many incredible partners that were part of the strategic

strategic framework process and that have been in the homelessness system for decades and have built such incredible strength in Durham I'm just want to name some some of them and my apologies if I forget any of them but families moving forward housing for New Hope Urban Ministries of Durham Open Table Ministry Project Access DCRC new to New to Durham His family Promise of the Triangle Alliance Health Duke uh University and Duke Health All of these entities were part uh of of this process and many more were part of the process as well Every member of the homeless services advisory committee that was at listening sessions and contributed their feedback to this this process And most critically all of the people with lived experience experience that contributed to this process There are many who we spoke to and there are also many more who um through various means uh we gathered their put put through different sort of survey methodologies and through different uh through different on-site um at encampment uh conversations Um so with that in mind uh I I'll start this presentation Um Um you know uh the the biggest thing about the framework that people will will talk about is its um its relative audacity and its relative ambition Um you know it is a framework that we'll talk about uh you know its particular goal of really reduce homelessness down down to what we call functional zero right And I'll get into what that means but essentially that in a in a nutshell it means that your system system has the capacity to house anybody who's experiencing homelessness that month Um and that is an incredible goal and an incredible incredible uh if we were to accomplish it an incredible achievement Some of the reasons we think that that is actually possible possible and not just a a quickotic fantasy um is because of what we've seen seen elsewhere Uh we are fortunate to be part of the built for zero uh set of communities Uh it's 140 different communities across the the country that use a particular methodology to try to reduce homelessness And about 14 of of those communities they've achieved that functional

zero designation designation for one or more subops Um when we learned about their methodology and we started to implement it here we we got really excited and and and uh and I'll talk about this more in depth later on but we said well can we do something like that but can we do it even even faster Um and so you know our second reason for confidence is that we've we've tried this in Durham now two times and right now we're actually trying it doing it a a third and a fourth time concurrently Um and you know over those two times that we that we tried that methodology and we'll get into it uh we call it housing sprints Um we were able to house 66 people Um of those 66 people 55 were black or African-American and 34 were were children Um we did this twice in month-long condensed month-long periods Um and I'll get into those pilots like I said but it it showed us that not only is this possible nationally but it's possible right here in Durham Um you know and then the third thing and this is part of the reason why I wanted to name all all of our partners and I forgot the AJ Fletcher Foundation and and so many others and so my apologies to the AJ Fletcher Foundation Um but there were so many partners partners that have aligned behind this work And when uh and when we speak at the strategic level whether it's around champions of the work or whether we speak at the the operational level And it's about who is in the day-to-day meetings and who's in the housing sprints You will see time and time again again that this is work of many partners not work of a single department or a single institution Um you know I I touched on this a little bit but there are three sources that really help shape the framework Many more than this but these are three that we wanted to highlight I highlighted the built forzero forzero community earlier Um and that's a community that's run by community solutions which is uh widely seen as maybe the leading voice voice in the country on reducing homelessness Um and so we felt very fortunate and lucky to be taken into that community Um and really really have learned many lessons from that community Uh

this is and when we talk about many lessons it's not just reading reports We've had direct conversations with everybody everybody from Denver to Atlanta to Jacksonville to the Gulf Coast Mississippi to um to to San Francisco and New York and and many many other cities Um and then right here locally we've had the fortune of having you know very very strong and direct conversations with uh with Raleigh and Greensboro and Orange County and and Wake County And so we feel like we've been able to plug into a system of of learning that has been really helpful Um this local our local collaboration again you know through this process has been been so essential be the lessons that have been learned in Durham specifically have really really carried forward in this work um and really build on the strengths that this community already has and then fin finally lived experience is so important in this work as as anybody who has has been um been around the homelessness space knows people with lived experience have incredible knowledge and wisdom to share and that that needs to be uh lifted up at at every turn and at every venture So the process took about 10 months to create the entire strategic framework Uh again again starting at the beginning of last fiscal year we engaged with over 200 individuals providers funders neighbors with lived experience if you add in the folks who we engaged with in ways that weren't sort of small focus group conversations that number rises to to well over 300 um those conversations were really in-depth this was about system mapping it was about pain points it was about areas where we needed more resources and it was also about well what are we doing really well and how can we amplify the things that we are doing uh really Well um those listening sessions spanned everybody from your high level executives to to your frontline staff Um they cross sector uh health care homelessness business you know philanthropy And so it really did include a broad swath of stakeholders um on this topic Okay So uh uh you know we wanted to talk a little bit about the

vision and I named this very large Northstar vision uh which we can I think go to the next slide You know by June 2031 we want to make make homelessness in Durham rare and brief And what that means by rare is that you know few people enter into homelessness each each month By brief what we mean is that when people do enter into homelessness we'll be able to house them them quickly We know that um we likely won't live in a in a universe in which uh homelessness just doesn't exist You know there will people who come there will be people in households who come into homelessness But what we can do is we can reduce that inflow and we can make sure that when people start experiencing homelessness we're we're able to house them very very quickly Our goal our system goal is to be able to house people within 30 days of them experiencing homelessness We're a long way away from that but that is the ambitious goal that we've set for for ourselves in the next 5 years Our year one targets and populations of focus you know includes folks who are experiencing experiencing unsheltered homes includes family homelessness and includes youth and youth adult homelessness We have very specific targets and goals based off of the number of people people we see experiencing homelessness and the resources that we have on hand I do want to name one thing here There's a term in here unsheltered unsheltered homelessness that is distinct from homelessness generally Unsheltered homelessness means that you literally are without shelter You're not in an emergency shelter You're not doubled up at somebody's house You are somebody who is living on the streets Um in Durham we have right now any between 650 to 700 700 people who are experiencing unsheltered homelessness and who are part of our homelessness system Um that's a very different number than what you typically see in the pit counts the annual point in time counts and I do want to take a moment just to note that the annual point point in time is an incredible event and it is a moment where many people can come together can learn about homelessness can volunteer their time and their

effort and where we can get these snapshots over time of what homelessness looks like Our partner Housing for New Hope has done an incredible job with that event Um and we truly truly value it And in addition as you all all are very well familiar with you know uh with data and stats and you see it all the time You know one thing that I'm sure you would recognize is that a one night count in the middle middle of January um done by uh done by groups who maybe are not s done by by volunteers who maybe are not super experienced with people experiencing homelessness isn't going to give a representative look at the number of people who are actually actually experiencing homelessness So when we draw our numbers and we draw our our targets we draw them from our homeless management information system which is the system in which all of our homelessness providers enter into every day So the numbers that we give give are the numbers that have been verified by case managers across the system and are the numbers that are the most accurate and up-to-date numbers So So when we look at those reduction targets those are ambitious reduction targets Those are ambitious reduction targets period And those are also ambitious reduction targets given our current current uh context in terms of our national context with shifts in federal policy and then also with rising rents across the country Why do we really feel like this is an achievable thing So there were two moments that I want to call out right I want to call them out really really really specifically The first proof point came in February 2026 Um this past winter as you all remember we had back-to-back winter storms During that time the community safety department with a bunch of other providers including Union Baptist Church OpenT Ministry uh families moving forward many other folks who came to the table Community Community paramed by the way at the county which incredible incredible program um all came together and said "Okay we want to do something about this Let's stand up up a congregate shelter where people can um can sleep during these two winter storms and and uh and potentially you know um um a life-saving effort there Um

after the two winter storms what what had happened is that it was not only this congregate shelter that had been stood stood up but we also stood up two other pilot sites hotel rooms for families and for for folks who had some medical vulnerabilities At the end of the winter storms nobody felt comfortable saying to families "Hey Now it's February 1 Uh it's still very very cold outside but it's not storming Please go outside with your with your children And well this is an opportunity opportunity to pilot the exact thing that we have been learning about How do we house people quickly How do we house people through collaboration So during during that we set a goal for ourselves We said "We have the month of February which by the way is a short month 28 days We in that time can we house 10 10 families In that time we exceeded that goal We housed 15 families Um that was an an incredible moment I think for for our team but also for for the system generally to see that yes we can move this fast yes we can collaborate this effectively yes we can encounter barriers and in real time overcome those barriers after that moment we thought to ourselves well well there's another kind of population that we haven't tested this out with um and can you uh thank you no you're good um there's another population we haven't tested this out with what about adult households and what about adult households who are not in any kind of interim housing who aren't in hotel rooms but who are living in encampments encampments Will this same kind of process work there So you know we worked with three encampments um 15 households total And we said well again within a month period we want to see if we can house all 15 of these households I want to name for you you that these were not households that were without barriers These were households that some had uh challenges with

substance use These were households that some some had challenges with criminal records There were some of these households that had been on the streets for more than 5 years And again within a period period of 30 days And this is with intense collaboration And so much credit goes to families moving forward So much credit goes to Housing for New Hope who were core partners in this this effort But within that time we were able to house 14 out of 15 15 of those households The one household that we were not able to house um wanted to slow down down and that was their request but we had a spot for them So So we felt through these two proof points that these lessons we were learning from across the country some of the experiences that Durham itself had had we were now able to to synthesize into a process that could move people into housing very quickly Um thank you What success ultimately would look like by June of 2031 in a very real way to a resident in a housing crisis is that help would come come quickly and when it did come there would be a clear pathway to stable housing They wouldn't have to wait on a wait list for months on end They wouldn't have to to wait on the streets for months on end or they wouldn't have to put themselves in any kind of a compromising situation in order to be housed For a a landlord considering renting to the homelessness system The things that we know that landlords want and this is through deep landlord engagement we've done now in both of the sprints and that also has been done in the system for years is that landlords want rent to arrive on time They want to make sure that if something goes wrong there's somebody who they can call call and they want happens to their unit something can be attended to that there can be some sort of of remediation A provider working in the system and I will tell you this you know just flat out because most of our staff is frontline frontline

staff and also if you talk to the staff of any of our partner agencies the thing that is most frustrating is when you work with somebody for months and months and months and months and months there does not seem to be an end point and let me be very clear about what that means in durham's context in terms of our singles shelter that that weight list is hovers around 200 people that are on that weight list So if you started experiencing homelessness today and you got on that wait list you might be 200 200 2002 2003 Our family shelter has a wait list of around 50 people Those are shelters That that is not yet stable housing When you talk about rapid rehousing or permanent supportive housing the key tools in the system to get people stably housed that weight list list lingers at around 400 households So you are talking about months and months and months if not years of waiting for a placement into stable housing housing through the system What our providers want to to know and they have every right to want the system to work this way is that we can house people more quickly than that that and that their work their work day in and day out with people who are experiencing homelessness will yield outcomes for those people Okay Still Okay So all of this is to say that you know what's changing changing in Durham is is a fundamental change in in premise We are moving from a national premise by the way um where where the homelessness response system is organized around managing homelessness Um it's a system that is about about providing the the basic necessities of life which are very needed By the way this is not denigrating that They're very needed and very very important Meals shelter uh ongoing services for a population that people presume will never be housed housed instead of a system

that that actively searches and actively innovates to with that population to see how we can move to housing right And that's sort of the fundamental shift in in premise that we are undergoing right now in our system Um and we're we're undergoing it not necessarily in the minds of folks who are working day in and day out of the system not necessarily undergoing it in the minds of the public either who who want people to be housed but how we're undergoing it is actually through the processes and practices right How can we align the processes and practices to the things that our providers already want to the things that people experiencing homelessness already want and to the thing that the public public already expects of us So it's that premise that we're moving towards Some key pieces of our approach We want to count every person in real time That's why we use our HMIS data That's why we use the most accurate source and we want that source to become more and more and more accurate over over time We want to set particular population specific goals right Um these aren't vague system targets When we have a real goal that means that we can then measure ourselves and we can measure the resources and and capacity it'll take to achieve that goal as opposed to letting ourselves off of the hook Third thing is we want to improve the system not just the programs And and this is so key here Our providers across Durham Durham run incredible programs Everybody who I named they run incredible programs and they do valiant work day in and day day out Part of the challenge and the real bottleneck is how do these pieces fit together and can we create a system system where the pieces fit together such that we can house people quickly and stably stably and with care And then the final thing is you know and I can't underemphasize this is we want to sequence

our resources around around people right and what this means means is that when somebody starts experiencing homelessness you can sequence those res resources quickly enough that it matches with the person's life And and here's an example that I'll give you We have people every day in Durham who we meet who are experiencing homelessness and who want to be housed who might have their documents in order who might have any number of other other key pieces of information that we need in order to get them housed But because we don't have the resources resources immediately a month goes by two months goes by three months go by and then we can't find the person again because the place they were staying on the street is no longer a a place that they can actually stay in and they've had to move on So sequencing resources resources around people in real time becomes incredibly important in a very practical way where we don't lose people and then they show back up again six months later and now they're further down on the list Right here are some key pieces of the of the operational system and um and I'll go into more detail on each of of these pieces but I just wanted to quickly make sure that everybody saw them on one slide You know the first place that we often come into contact with folks is through coordinated entry and street outreach Oh my goodness Also a provider I forgot to name and my my apologies to them are volunteers of America that run our entry point our coordinated entry um service um and they are fabulous particular shout out to Dr Flack and Nicole Lamb over there who just do really great work Um but that's you know often where we come into contact with people Case conferencing is a second step and these are are meetings that occur between providers every twice a week actually where we go through everybody um who's experiencing homelessness by name and we try to identify barriers and figure out what the next step is going to be The flexible housing assistance fund is a key piece of new financial infrastructure that is part of the strategic framework That 400 400 person weight li weight list that I just named for you on rapid rehousing and permanent

supportive housing The flexible housing assistance fund is aimed to make sure that that weight diminishes over over time by providing people with up to 12 months of rental assistance so they can get into housing much more quickly and don't need to wait on that wait list for nearly as long Uh fourth component is landlord engagement right and this is something where that is really really really important if you have resources and you have the system in place but you don't have units you can't place somebody into to housing Housing stabilization case management is another new piece of the framework and we'll get into this a lot uh in a lot more detail in a moment here but essentially once somebody is in housing that isn't isn't necessarily the end of the journey for for some folks Some folks might need somebody to walk with them for a year to help them stabilize to connect them to medical care to connect them to behavioral health care to connect them to food or employment or any any number of other resources to make sure sure that they are stable and housing stabilization case management assists with that the housing sprints and interim housing these are what I was referring to earlier this is a synthesis of the system a time bound intensive push to make sure people can get housed Okay Um perfect We also wanted to name for you this whole operational operational system doesn't sort of sit in a silo It sits in a broader implementation architecture with many many many different people who are involved in contributing to the direction of the system These folks often have really key uh stakes in the system So we have our champions table which is a cross- sector leadership team team for strategic direction and barrier clearing This is a group of folks that are from healthc care real real estate business philanthropy any other number of sectors um including a representative uh from the county and a representative from the sea and a representative from from the schools and DHA um all at the table thinking about well what are the barriers in place place to getting people housed and who do we need to call or what set of actions do we need to take to make sure that we can clear those barriers It's a it's a

a uh system function that we have not yet had um in our in our system and we're really excited about standing that up The COC governing board um which uh uh takes takes the function of HSAC and this is governance and compliance authority for HUD funded programs This is a really really important part of our system We receive several million dollars every year from HUD that goes directly to providers and um and those funds are really important to to maintain They also come with particular particular compliance uh and uh regula regulatory um uh requirements that we have to meet um and that the COC governing board is fundamentally responsible for for meeting with our assistants The executive table consists of all of the executives of homelessness providers and they meet now now they've been meeting since February every uh 3 months Um we meet with them We've had had three meetings so far and that's another avenue for alignment for shared vision building and for the work to continue to advance with as a community safety department We're the backbone agency for the system um and the city's COC lead agency Durham County obviously plays a role that is enormous in all of this as the key partner in this work as a co-investor as an implementation partner as the institution that helps move this work forward uh in so many different ways And then we have some other structures here that I want to to name I want to really highlight the lived experience advisory group or lived experience advisory table as we might come to call it which is another table and this is particularly for people with lived lived experience centering their um system system design uh centering their expertise in system design um and their expertise in uh in decision-m um and also so they can uh hold us accountable accountable okay uh we're going to quickly flash through this um because I know I might be running out of time here and and my apologies for delaying us um if I am I'm running out of time but you know we did want to say we did want to kind of go through these operational functions because this is the core of how the framework actually gets accomplished right Uh we have street ordated entry and this

again is the the entry point into the system Um there are multiple referral pathways here Uh it can happen through any number number of means It can happen through a city department a provider It can happen through a direct call to coordinated entry But this is the way in which somebody becomes becomes part of the system and then they're eligible for supports and services Uh when we do engage with people we have a three-phase engagement model rapport and and verification which means that you know there's a verification of homelessness that is a part of this um that is a part of this process and there's also a verification that somebody is um is indeed living in in Durham um so that we can make sure that we're targeting our services to folks who are living in Durham and that if somebody's living in Raleigh or Orange County and are and are using services there they're also not using services in in Durham Um and uh we have an engagement phase which includes a housing barriers assessment and that gives us the information that that we need to match somebody to the right resources and a case management phase obviously which is is now trying to actually get somebody into housing We have a single coordinated entry administrator Volunteers of America um at Entry Point um which has been uh excuse me uh a single entry point Um and then our single coordinated entry administer that looks at all housing referrals across the system Um case conferencing is what I described described to you earlier I won't go through each of the the points here in this slide but here's one thing that I do want to name for you When people come together to problem solve around somebody who's who's experiencing homelessness it becomes very easy for that to turn into a long conversation on all of the different different pieces of somebody's life and then also to become a long conversation you know that that might be um described as sort of venting about the system All of that is important information and all of that is actually like you know emotionally in some ways very important for people to do at different different spaces and different ways but when we talk about case conferencing we actually want to get to the bottom of things very quickly so what is the thing that stands between person A and being in a unit Is it that they don't have their social security card Is it that they they don't

have their driver's license Is it that they don't have their birth certificate What is that thing Can we identify that within a minute And then can we have an action action step So using this process we went from case conferencing about 5 to 10 households per week to now 60 to 80 households per week and that's that's the value of this different sort of of methodology Um the flexible housing assistance fund is a key component of this Um I described it a little bit earlier but I want to talk about the three things that the flexible housing housing assistance fund does The first thing that it does is it does offer some diver it will offer some diversion dollars dollars and so this means that if somebody is um about to experience homelessness or if somebody is is experiencing homelessness and could be diverted to another place where they have family or friends that they could stay with Those dollars could be used for that So we have in the past for bus tickets to to other um other cities and even other states uh for folks who have a friend or a family member who can take them in Right That's really important right Lowering that number of people who are entering homelessness in Durham is a part of the equation The second thing that the flexible housing assistance fund does is it removes removes barriers to other programs So your HUD funded rapid rehousing programs or permanent supportive housing programs programs or other kinds of vouchers might not be able to pay for certain things There might be a stipulation that perhaps it can't pay for a a rears or perhaps it can't pay for security deposit or perhaps it can't pay for um renters's insurance or any number of other small that somehow it can't pay for but it can pay for the rent if we are able to braid and we have done this now if we're able to braid our funding in with that it means that we can actually get people into those programs much more quickly and at much lower cost to the city and the county The third thing that it does is it also operates its own rental assistance program program and that rental assistance program like I named earlier offers 12 months of rental assistance plus a housing stabilization case manager which we'll talk about in a moment to make sure that people who need that kind of support and need that

light touch support can get it and within months be be stabilized enough such that in month 13 there is a plan for their life situation What I want to name about that plan actually I'll name in the next slide Um oh actually you know just quickly on the flexible housing assistance fund something that's that's important to note there is there's a particular flexible housing assistance fund administrator um that was uh that we sent out an RFP for and that is now operating um in Durham They sent out their first payments uh last week and so we're really excited that that is actually happening Um the key thing about that is those payments go out on time Those payments go out consistently Those payments don't take up bandwidth of city staff or county staff to make Um and those payments develop a level of um consistency and reliability that landlords trust and landlords then look at the homelessness system and think to themselves themselves actually yeah that is that is somebody I want to partner with because they can put somebody into my unit fast and they will pay on time right um landlord Engagement is you know is obviously a key function that we need in the system Um one of the things that we were surprised by when we talked to other cities and and you know a particular example of this is is Dallas Arizona is another example of this is they had done such an effective job in landlord engagement and bringing in units to the system system that they actually were no longer recruiting because they had been seen as so effective by landlords in making sure that units were filled and because they were so consistent in their payments and their risk mediation mediation um uh their risk mediation efforts that the number of units they had in the system was sufficient to house the people who were in the system And when we started to have those conversations we realized oh there are real targeted ways to do this work that can make that possible here in Durham Initially we you know when you hear things from other cities you sometimes have doubts Um and then when we went through our February sprint

and then our May June sprint and we were able to actually house folks in that that period of time through new landlord connections and new landlord engagement And with a deep partnership of Housing for New Hope it it opened our eyes to well actually this is this is really possible in Durham This is this is not a dream It's not a fantasy fantasy from another city This is something that could work here Um so in our year one the thing that I want to draw your uh attention to is in the year 1 target um um we're targeting at least 300 units to be available um in the system and up to 500 uh that would be available to lease by June June 30th of 2027 Um and so uh that is again an ambitious goal but is a a goal that um that we're eager to build towards with our landlord engagement partners Okay Uh functions 56 here Now I talked about the housing sprint initially uh earlier on in the presentation and when I went through the operational operational functions here's how it works in a housing sprint In In a housing sprint every morning you have a meeting that consists of your street outreach team your case conferencing team your units and engagement i landlord engagement team and your flexible housing assistance team And in that meeting they go name by name through everybody in the sprint toify the barrier and take the next step So those four operational functions that came before are condensed and synthesized into this intensive moment and into these intensive bursts Right now we're running two sprints simultaneously We are running a sprint uh for individuals and a sprint for families So there's actually a 9:00 meeting and then there's a noon meeting for the two different teams teams with the goal being to house um 30 households um across those two sprints A A key thing that happens one group that I did not name in those two meetings is the housing stabilization case management team They're also in that meeting Now they don't don't take ownership of a

relationship with somebody who's experiencing homelessness until that person has moved into their unit And once that person has made that transition transition to move into their unit it's their housing stabilization case manager who meets with them every week to say "Okay what's our month 13 13 plan Are in month 13 are you going to be able to afford this unit yourself Do you have to take in a roommate Do you have to move to a more affordable unit Do we have to get you on a different different voucher What is the plan that we need to create to make sure that you are stable in month 13 without the need for additional rental assistance assistance and what are our steps towards that plan that is a critical component of this because the last thing that you want is to house a lot of people and then to have all of those people circle back into homelessness Right It's not not a it's neither an ethical thing to do nor is it a good use of public dollars Um so that's housing sprints and housing stabilization case management We uh here are some of the things that we're measuring that are part of this Um and we released a dashboard uh in close collaboration with NCCH NCCH which by the way is another partner I forgot to mention They're fantastic North Carolina Coalition to End Homelessness They are really really wonderful and they do a lot of incredible data work Um but uh we launched a dashboard with them They built it for us which was just so wonderful of them that that focused on the one number and that is the number of people who are experiencing homelessness disagregated it by any number of different variables um including whether people are family or or singles uh racial variables gender variables etc. etc to make sure that we had disagregated numbers That's updates every month to make make sure people have that level of visibility into this work We also have operational performance measures across each of the domains that I described before that that we are going to be making public um and that are sort of key to whether whether we're being successful or not Some of them are named on on this slide but there are many others that we are uh that we are keen to dive into Um and then of course across all of our measures we want to be able

to to disagregate by race by gender by age by household composition to make sure that we are serving people in a way that uh includes includes equity and includes the voices of those who are experiencing experiencing homelessness Um I've said a lot there on the operational system and so forgive this this slide uh please because this slide describes some of the things around around this work that make it possible Right We've talked a lot about data and how data drives our work and drives our decisions and our our strategies And that's part of our foundations and we're going to continue to strengthen that One of the things that we're really excited about releasing soon is an analysis of flow into homelessness in Durham So of the people who are who start experiencing homelessness in Durham how many of of them were once homeless in Durham and then returned How many of them are coming through particular um particular avenues How How many of them um are coming from places outside of Durham etc Right All of these questions are really important questions to understand and that's an example of data driving our decisions decisions and some of the foundations that we want to lay in terms of how we think about homelessness Uh sorry can we um um number two ways of working you know a lot of this is not only about us as an agency making sure that we're including everybody but it's about making sure that all of the right system players and partners are at the table and that we're creating spaces where sometimes there weren't any right um a champions table for example example is is part of that making sure that the executive table continues to function and that the executives have a place to meet you know there had not been an executive table prior to February right Just a space for executives in the homelessness system to actually meet and talk um share their concerns share their frustrations also share their wins their celebrations what's working what's not working and then allow us to ask them questions about well how should we be doing this How

should we be doing this Can we get your insight over here That's a really important space Um and it's part of effective ways ways of of working You know a key thing in number three is what are our enabling system conditions And by that we mean what are the set of of narratives the set of partnerships the set of policies that we need in order for the rest of the work to flourish Um we are are putting a lot of time and energy into thinking about those things very deeply Um on the policy level you know we've clearly already shifted a lot of the ways in which we're working internal homelessness system but there's broader narratives here Um the key one being that yes it is possible to reduce homelessness This is achievable It has been achieved elsewhere and it can be achieved achieved in Durham That is the first and foremost narrative that we need to be championing at at every turn because because we have lived um under the assumption for a long time time that it is not possible when in fact every piece of evidence that we've reviewed tells us that it is Fourth thing is obviously improved housing incomes right And here we do do really lean into our homelessness reduction strategies which I went over earlier so I'm not going to uh speak to this much more And then a fifth is our backbone operations We need to make sure sure that we as the backbone agency are performing up to standard and we hold ourselves to high account not only to uh the city government but also to public residents to our our homelessness providers and to the county as well Um and so we welcome any opportunity to talk through any piece of the work further um if uh if and when the county would would would uh like us to Um the the final thing that um that you know the final slide that we have here is a yeah we can go to that the final slide that we have here is you know our five-year targets targets in terms of how quickly we want to get to this functional zero state As you can see those targets shift by different population right right um and some of those populations are overlapping um uh so for example the unsheltered population population includes families that are unsheltered includes singles

and veterans that are unsheltered It is a across those populations The all singles population also includes includes seniors for example right But this is just to show you some of the key demographic groups and how we're targeting them over time to try to reduce reduce homelessness I will name for you that part of the reason we call this a framework as as opposed to a a plan is because there's so much more that we need to learn about this work as we're engaged in the work If we are doing the work in the exact same way now or in the exact same way a year from now as we're doing it now I will tell you that that is a mark of failure because it means means we will not have learned and we will not have iterated So we are calling this a framework explicitly because we know there are pieces of the day-to-day plan plan that are have to shift and that are going to have to change in response to our realities Part of our our realities is the number of people who start to experience homelessness As many of you know the biggest driving factor in whether homelessness goes up or down in a a municipality is rent It's really quite it's you know the evidence behind this is is consistent and is quite rigorous that in places where your median rent and where the rent of folks uh the rent at you know the 25th percentile and the 10th percentile goes up homelessness also goes up because people can't afford rent anymore It is a very simple simple equation that has been documented quite rigorously by by various academics That part of the equation is not within our control And so we we know that we might need to adjust some of our goals and some of our targets based off of what happens in on the ground and in reality But we also want to share very transparently what our our targets are and we want to share about our experiences The final thing that I'll say and you'll have to forgive me because there were a couple of times times more than a couple of times where I had to step out in the during during other folks' presentations but that's because we are are doing these housing sprints right now and you know there where you just have to sort of kind of coordinate things But I want to name some things for you Last week um on

on Thursday uh our team moved in Our team plus and let me say this out loud part this housing sprint is the the most collaborative that that we've ever had We have families moving forward part of it family promise of the triangle um Urban Ministries of Durham UMD um an incredible partner and I don't know if I shouted them out earlier If I didn't my apologies to them because they are awesome and they do um and they have partnered uh and they're you know closely partnering partnering with us on any number of things Um Home Inc. uh which is our flexible housing assistance administrator and us have all partnered on this particular sprint the or in this particular set set of sprints This particular set of sprints aims to house 65 people We We had three moveins on Thursday four moveins on Friday one move in today We anticipate up to seven more moveins through the rest of the week week and then more moveins next week as well Our hope and and I just and I just want to name it for you Those are 65 holds of whom there are 33 adults and 32 children The average age of those 32 32 children is eight When we talk about homelessness in Durham we are talking about a problem that affects every age age bracket and that affects people as young as newborns One of the key other things to know about this this is all of the evidence suggests if you experience housing instability or homelessness as a child or a young person you are far more likely to experience experience it as an adult We are talking about an intergenerational problem and what we are hoping to do rapidly with gusto with passion passion is to help to resolve this problem in Durham within the next 5 years So thank you all so much for your time We really really appreciate it and um uh please let us know what questions we can can answer. All right Valentine Yes thank you chair Uh so I won't belabor uh but I do have several uh

questions Uh you had mentioned that or highlighted Baptist as one of the the uh churches in our community that that are engaged in this effort Are there others Yes absolutely Um so last year Union Baptist Church um hosted the congregate shelter Um Asbury Church hosted um also a congregate shelter Um every week at Trinity uh OpenTable Ministry operates out of Trinity um Um and uh and they host free uh a free um free store Thank you They host free store um right outside of uh of of uh uh my god excuse me right outside of Trinity um every week Um we also last year year presented to um Durham Can and DCIA um about White Flag and about what we were trying to accomplish during White Flag Um Um and made some inroads there which we were really excited about Um really great partners there And then on our uh COC governing board the chair of our COC governing board is Reverend Renee Renee Vaughn who's also deeply involved in the faith community Um and so you know the faith community in general is such an important important piece of the work and the faith community will have a seat um on the champions table as well And so we're really excited about deepening that work deepening that collaboration And if there are other community leaders that you think we ought to speak to we would very very much um relish the opportunity. I may take you up on that. Yes sir Um also wanted to highlight for the folks who are walk watching uh today that the county also concurrent with this uh initiative has a day day day shelter uh pilot program And so uh we're serious about uh working with you as a partner in um getting to this uh this goal goal by 2031 I I I know uh as a a former leader in United States Army we always say that optimism is a for force multiplier and it sounds like uh you carry that as part of your ethos Um

you talked about 700 uh being the number that comes out of HMI HMIS Is that correct? Yes sir That's That's correct. All right So consistent with that number three years from now what what do you what does success look like or ining or at least you know pivoting towards the ultimate goal right of having rare homelessness What does that number look like do you think? Yeah So we would want that number to really look more like between 30 30 to 50 And the idea would be that those 30 to 50 households our system would be able to house within a month month I think you had mentioned that but I wasn't clear Okay. Yes sir. All right So chair that's all I have. All right Commissioner Jacobs, thank you so much Well, thank you so much for this this presentation I It's I'm truly amazed because the framework has already changed It's like every time I serve as as our liaison to HAC So I've heard a lot of presentations and every time I hear a a presentation from you it's something has changed Something's something's different So I mean just kudos to you and the whole team everyone who's doing this because you are actually you are doing what you said said that you were going to do Uh which is to keep the iterative and you know you heard Casey Casey talk about how made in Durham first graduation with the Bulls it was like 50 something% And now after several years this you know 34 cohorts were now at