A Home for Everyone: Building A Way

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A Home for EveryoneBuilding A Way

• The Blueprint
• to End Homelessness in
• Washtenaw County

2
Collaboration Counts

• Welcome to Ann Arbor, Where Were Crazy for
  Collaboration
• Its MessyDemanding.Challenging
• BUT
• Collaborative Planning and Action are Key to Our
  Communitys Success in Tackling Social Issues

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Homelessness Where Housing and Human Needs
Intersect

• Annualized Homeless Count - 2007
• 3,431 Individuals were Homeless or At-Risk
• 2,293 (67) were Persons in Families
• 1,089 (32) were Single Adults
• 82 (2) were Unaccompanied Youth
• Point-In-Time Count of Homeless Persons - 2007
• 580 Individuals (including children)
• 18 Chronically Homeless
• 41 report Mental Health Condition
• 56 report Substance Abuse Issues

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Economic Impact Across Community Systems

• Reduction in Chronic Homelessness ? Reduction in
  Costs for Mainstream Systems (e.g., Health, Jail,
  ER)
• 73 Reduction in ER, Psychiatric, Detox, Jail,
  and Shelter Care Costs in Denver (20
  million/year)
• 62 Reduction in ER, Health, and Jail Costs in
  Portland

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Cost of Housing Far Exceeds Household Capacity to
Pay

• HUD Fair Market Rent for 0-BR Unit (Efficiency)?
  690/month
• Income Needed to Afford 0-BR Unit (_at_30)?
  27,600/year (or 13.27/hour)
• HUD Fair Market Rent for 2-BR Unit (Family)?
  942/month
• Income Needed to Afford 2-BR Unit (_at_30) ?
• 37,680/year (or 18.12/hour)

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WHY Do We Respond?

• Social Imperative
• Concern for Human Costs
• Its the Right Thing to Do
• Economic Imperative
• Concern for Economic and Community Costs
• Economic Imperative Often Trumps Moral Suasion

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The Exorbitant Cost of Doing Nothing

• In Indianopolis, 96 homeless individuals ? 1.7
  million/year in public expense
• In Athens, GA, 576 homeless individuals ?12
  million/year

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Cost-Analysis for Local Community
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HOW Do We Respond? History of Community
Collaboration

• We Are A Community of Compulsive Collaborators
• Shared Efforts Date Back 20 Years
• Early Collaborations in 1980s
• HUD Continuum of Care in Mid-90s
• County Task Force on Homelessness Late 90s
• Washtenaw Housing Alliance -- 2001
• Success in Initial Alliance Campaign -- 2003
• Delonis Center Community Kitchen Alpha House
  Family Shelter
• 9 Million Capital Campaign

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More Recent Steps

• Creation of Blueprint to End Homelessness (10
  Year Plan)
• Hundreds of Citizens and Scores of Organizations
  Contribute to Creation of Plan
• Published in Fall, 2004
• Commitment to 500 Unit Plan
• Creating Common Vision and Broad Buy-In
• Adopted in Fall, 2006
• Initiation of Joint Integrated Funding Pilot
• Implemented Fall, 2008
• Advancing Collaborative Community Investment

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What IS the Blueprint to End Homelessness?

• Vision Statement
• 10-Year Strategic Plan
• Community Process
• The Blueprint is both a product and propagator of
  continuing community commitment and collaborative
  planning

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Key Principles Informing Blueprint Planning and
Implementation

• Systems Transformation Changing the Way We Do
  Business
• Linked to Common Quality and Service Standards
• Shared Community Outcomes
• Consumer-Informed
• Provider-Driven
• Results-Based Decision-Making
• Integrated Funding

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Four-Fold Focus of 10-Year Strategic Plan

• Homeless Prevention
• Housing with Services
• Engaging the Community
• Reforming the System of Care

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Homeless Prevention

• Homeless Outreach Court
• Community Wide Eviction Prevention Plan
• Barrier Busters System

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Creating Housing with Services

• 500 Unit Plan
• Key to Housing First Orientation
• Over 300 Supportive Housing Units Created or In
  the Pipeline since 2004
• New Construction
• Acquisition and Rehab
• Rental Assistance Vouchers

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Engaging the Community

• Delonis Center Capital Campaign
• Blueprint Work Group Champions
• County Task Force on Sustainable Revenues

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Reforming the System of Care

• Quality and Services Standards
• Common Community Outcomes
• Community-Wide Data Gathering (HMIS)
• Integration of Blueprint, Continuum of Care, HUD
  Consolidated Plan, and Other Community Plans

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Other Significant Planning Linkages

• Community Collaborative of Washtenaw County
  (Human Services)
• City/County Office of Community Development
• Michigan Prisoner Re-Entry Initiative
• Blueprint on Aging
• Aging Out Coalition
• Success by Six
• Adult Literacy Coalition
• Statewide Campaign to End Homelessness

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Early Wins and Long-Term Commitments

• Initial Focus on Early Wins Helps to Sustain
  Energy for the Long-Haul
• Focus on Low-Hanging Fruit in Housing,
  Prevention, Community Engagement, and Systems
  Reform
• Impact and Achievement Expands Ownership and
  Investment

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Integrated Funding Strategies as Key Approach to
Implementation

• Our challenge is not so much to answer if we
  want systems change, but how we will best fund
  it

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Why Integrated Funding?

• As our community pursues creation of a homeless
  solutions system that is more unified, strategic,
  and collaborative, our funding processes should
  both mirror and support that commitment

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Integrated Funding and Systems Transformation

• Integrated Funding is about Changing the Way We
  Do Business
• Altering relationships among funders
• Altering relationships among providers
• Altering relationships between funders and
  providers
• Altering relationships between funders,
  providers, and community

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Increasing Strategic Impact of Funding Decisions

• Funding decisions made in fragmented silos
  cannot address the complicated reality of
  homeless assistance needs
• Funding decisions made through a culture of
  competitive entrepreneurialism frequently fail
  to reflect system-wide perspective on needs,
  gaps, capacities, and priorities

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Enhancing Intelligence of Decision-Making

• Funders delegate responsibility for decisions to
  provider community to assure alignment with
  Blueprint priorities and consistency with
  provider capacities
• Folks on the ground bring experiential
  intelligence to decision-making
• Providers are the ultimate no spin network

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Improving Results

• Integrated funding incentivizes pursuit of shared
  outcomes and common targeted results
• Integrated funding supports FOCUS on key
  community targets

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Joint Integrated Funding Pilot Project

• JIF Pilot Concept
• Creation of new joint public-private sector
  funder and provider structure for decision-making
  and accountability
• Focused explicitly on supportive housing services
• Use of new decision-making models
• Joint Integrated Funding Commitment
• Initial commitment of 1 million, over two years,
  for supportive housing services (2007-2009)
• Emerging commitment of up to 1.5-2 million for
  supportive housing services in following two
  years (2009-2010)

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Initial Focus Integrated Funding and 500 Unit
Plan

• New Community Funding Model Emergent from
  Blueprint Process
• Integrated Funding Plan Driven by Major Community
  Funders
• Funding Coordination Focused on 500 Unit Plan
• Reliance on Provider-Based Funding Recommendations

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Initial JIF Investment Partners

• City of Ann Arbor
• Washtenaw County
• Washtenaw United Way
• Ann Arbor Area Community Foundation
• Washtenaw Community Health Organization
• Private Donors

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Task Force on Sustainable Revenues for Supportive
Housing

• Follow-Up to JIF Pilot Intended to establish
  long-term, sustainable funding stream for
  services in supportive housing
• County Board of Commissioners chartered
  blue-ribbon Task Force to bring forward
  recommendations for generating dedicated revenues
  to assure 2.5-3 million/year in perpetuity
• Emerging recommendations will propose unique
  hybrid private-public sector funding model

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Key Partners in County Task Force

• County Administrator
• City Mayors (Ann Arbor Ypsilanti)
• Chair, County Board of Commissioners
• Chair, Downtown Development Authority
• President, Ann Arbor Chamber of Commerce
• Chair, Washtenaw United Way
• President, Ann Arbor Community Foundation
• Vice-President, St. Joseph Mercy Hospital
• County Treasurer
• Vice-Chair, Public Mental Health Authority
• Business and Philanthropic Leaders

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United Way Adopts Community Impact Funding

• Transformation of local United Way funding model
  coincides with commitment to integrated funding
• Shared commitment to Joint Integrated Funding
  pilot
• Delegation of responsibility for all housing and
  homeless program funding recommendations
  current and new -- to Housing Alliance
  (650K/year)

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What Makes This Work Shared Vision/Shared
Leadership

• Structure and Function Build on Respect for
  Importance of Provider-Driven Process
• Builds on Engagement of Jurisdictional, Systems,
  and Community Leadership

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What Makes this Work Ethos of Community-Wide
Collaboration

• Willingness of Key Providers and Key Funders to
  Play Together
• Active Engagement of Jurisdictional, Mainstream
  Systems, and Community Leaders in Commitment to
  Shared Ownership of Problem AND Solutions

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What Makes This Work Learning our Way toward
Success

• Baby Steps ? Practice with new funding
  opportunities
• Establishing common service standards
• Developing decision-making protocols and practice
• Building trust
• Evaluating provider feedback
• Measuring results

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What Makes This Work Structural Elements

• Neutral Non-Profit Entity as Intermediary (WHA)
• Partnership of Public, Private and Non-Profit
  Sectors
• Delegated Authority
• Both Public/Governmental and Private/Philanthropic
  Community Have Charged WHA with Responsibility
  for Implementation of 10-Year Plan
• Broad Community Buy-In
• County, Cities, Businesses, Community Leaders
• Collaborative Management Strategy
• Engagement of Core Providers in Governance
  Process

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How Will We Measure Success? Shared Community
Outcomes

• Reducing of first-time entries into
  homelessness
• Reducing returning to emergency shelter system
• Reducing length of stay in shelter transitional
  housing
• Increasing rates of positive exit from
  homelessness
• Increasing length of stay in permanent housing

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Challenges Were Building the Plane While
Flying

• Building New Models for Shared Leadership and
  Decision-Making
• Cultivating New Norms for Collaborative
  Governance
• Negotiating New Relationships with Community
  Leaders and Investors
• Developing New Tools for Documenting and
  Assessing Impact and Outcomes

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Challenges Surrendering Self-Interest for
Good of the Whole

• Learning Our Way Into New Culture of Full-Blown
  Collaboration
• Re-framing Commitment from My Agency Needs
  This. ? Our Community Needs This.

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Challenges Balancing Values

• Managing Sometimes Conflicting Cultural Values
  in the Trenches
• Housing First vs. Housing Ready
• Voluntary vs. Mandated Services
• Ending Homelessness vs. Ending Poverty
• Inclusive Process vs. Organizational Efficiency
• Ability to be Flexible and Nimble in
  Decision-Making
• Exploiting Unanticipated Opportunities

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Challenges Transcending Conflict of Interest

• Reframing Issue Helps to Resolve Problem
• When we all share common interest and commitment
  to common outcomes, we no longer have conflict of
  interest
• When we nurture culture of collective
  accountability, we minimize conflict
• When we maximize transparency, we minimize
  opportunity for conflict
• ..BUT NONE of this comes easy!

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Challenges Data Development and Management

• Developing Data Meaningful for Policy-Making and
  Systems Change Processes
• Need ability to monitor and enforce
  data-gathering expectations of both funding
  partners and grantees
• Need capacity to generate timely and effective
  cross-systems data reporting and analysis.

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Challenges Time, Practice, and Trust

• TIME Spent in Shared Decision-Making
• Developing Culture of Collaboration in an
  Entrepreneurial Environment
• Managing Fears and Concerns
• Building Trust and Confidence

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At the End of the Day It Works!

• The Time it Takes Is Worth the Trust it Makes
• In Spite of the Continuing Cost, Collaboration
  is Worth the Price of Admission

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Benefits of Collaborative Cross-Systems
Initiatives and Efforts

• Maximize Community Assets Resources
• Enhance Consumer Access to Services
• Increase Systems Accountability
• Enhance Cost-Effectiveness of Service Delivery
• Advance Systems Change Goals
• Accelerate Achievement of Long-Term Vision

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Where to From Here???
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Contact Information

• Washtenaw Housing Alliance
• PO Box 7993 Ann Arbor, MI 48107
• www.whalliance.org
• Chuck Kieffer
• Executive Director
• (kiefferc_at_ewashtenaw.org)
• 734-222-3570
• 734-645-0810