Metropolitan Area Religious Coalition of Cincinnati
MARCC DELEGATES COUNCIL MINUTES 14 March 2011
Welcome: MARCC President Pat Coyle
Prayer: The Right Reverend Thomas Breidenthal, Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Southern Ohio
Minutes: Delegates Council Minutes of 11 January approved
Agenda: Delegates Agenda for 14 March approved
Attendance:
Archdiocese of Cincinnati: Bob Ehrsam, Fr. Joe Folzenlogen, Connie Widmer
Association of Unity Churches: Doris Hoskins, Mark Stroud
Baptist Ministers Conference:
Cincinnati Islamic Center:
Disciples of Christ: Larry Pigg
Episcopal Diocese of Southern OH: Phyllis Armstrong, Bishop Thomas Breidenthal, Pat Coyle, Charles Ellman, Marilyn Logan, Bill Woods
Evangelical Lutheran Church of America: Kristin Kremer
Interdenominational Ministers Alliance: Edward L. White
MARCC: Margaret A. Fox, Sarah Geiger, Alice Skirtz (former Board President)
Miami Baptist Assoc. (American Baptist):
Presbytery of Cincinnati: Michelle Bacon, Rev. David Beran, George Hufford, Rev. David Lowry, Robert Clary, Tiffany Zents
Jewish Community Relations Council: Barbara Glueck, Alice & Burton Perlman
Society of Friends (Quaker): Jim Coppock
United Methodist Church (OH River Valley Dist.): Nancy L. Walters
Unitarian Universalist Council of Cincinnati: Frances May Brooks, Lee Myer, MJ Pierson
Guests: Josh Spring, Executive Director, Greater Cincinnati Homeless Coalition
Recording: Sarah Geiger, MARCC Office Administrator
Handouts: MARCC 2011 Annual Report, printed PowerPoint of presentation: Family Homelessness Housing Stability Study & Policy Recommendations
Introductory Remarks: Margaret Fox, Executive Director
Margaret Fox announced that MARCC will begin presenting a quarterly financial report to delegates starting with 2012 first quarter report at the end of the first quarter. Copies of the 2011 Annual Report were available to delegates. Also, a while back MARCC was asked to play a behind the scenes role with Occupy Cincinnati. The court case has reached a settlement where the fines have been dropped and the far eastern tip of Piatt Park will be available for people to demonstrate 24/7, but not camp. Fox considered it a good concession considering the history of the issue. Cincinnati’s settlement will likely be a model nationally, as other cities are dealing with similar legal situations. Jennifer Kingsley and Robert Lindmann were the pro bono legal counsel. The judge was Municipal Court Judge William Mallory, Jr.
Next court date for the Anna Louise Inn will be March 28th at 1pm in Court of Common Pleas, Judge Nadel’s courtroom. The hope is that he will render a decision, but we don’t know. Pastor Bob Clary announced a rally for the Anna Louise Inn sponsored by AMOS, Sanitation Employees International Union, and Urban Pastors of the Presbytery met yesterday and set up a time, April 4th to support the Inn and challenge Western-Southern on their reneging on their SEIU contract agreement.
It will begin at the Inn and move from there. Noon to 2pm.
Also, about two years ago MARCC had a planner in to talk about a master plan for the city of Cincinnati. The master plan draft is done and the public is invited to view it on the 7th floor (?). It is available between 11am and 7pm today. Fox will go after the meeting and delegates were invited to join her.
Introduction of Speakers
Fox introduced today’s speakers: Alice Skirtz & Josh Spring
Fox: Alice Skirtz is familiar to everybody in the audience for many reasons. She’s past president of MARCC but is much more than that.
Bio—Alice Skirtz, PhD/LISW-S, has more than 40 years of social work experience working with programs that serve poor people – homeless shelters, family services, emergency assistance, adult and child day care, and teen parent residential services. She formerly was the Director of Social Services for The Salvation Army, and served as Case Work Supervisor for the Family Shelter Partnership Program, a Cincinnati/Hamilton County Continuum of Care (CoC) collaboration of five shelters serving homeless families. Skirtz has MSW and PhD degrees in social work and social policy, is a Licensed Independent Social Worker Supervisor (LISW-S), and a member of the Academy of Certified Social Workers (ACSW). As an active volunteer she is a board member of Affordable Housing Advocates (AHA); a founding member of the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless; past-Chair of the City of Cincinnati Community Development Advisory Board (CDAB); and, Board Member and past-President of the Metropolitan Area Religious Coalition of Cincinnati (MARCC), a coalition convened to work on urban social justice issues. She chaired the Women’s Committee of the “Homeless to Homes” initiative helping to prepare a comprehensive plan for services for single homeless persons as researched by the Cincinnati/Hamilton County CoC for the City of Cincinnati; and, chaired the Steering Committee for the "Family Homelessness & Housing Stability Study" for the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless.
Fox: Needless to say Alice is awesome, and can probably answer any question you may have, as she often does at our board meetings.
Bio—Josh Spring is the Executive Director of the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless. The focus of the mission of GCCH is to “eradicate homelessness.” The Coalition consists of people who are homeless, have been homeless or are on the edge of homelessness as well as the approximately 50 organizations that work in Hamilton County to fight homelessness including housing, shelter, employment services, mental health, addiction services, food, prevention etc. Josh graduated from the College of Social Work at Xavier University and is a Licensed Social Worker. Prior to the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless, he was the social worker for Tenants of Over-the-Rhine Community Housing’s 250 units of affordable housing. Recently in collaboration with the Metropole Tenant Association, Legal Aid, and lawyers Jennifer Kinsley and Terry Brennan, history was made in Cincinnati’s first financial settlement in favor of Tenants with low incomes displaced by gentrification. Among other projects, the Coalition, with other organizations, in 2011established a new model of Winter Emergency Shelter for Cincinnati open every night through the cold season. Josh began learning about homelessness from those who were homeless; while working in the transitional housing building of Tender Mercies, an agency providing affordable housing for people who have been homeless with mental illness.
Presentation Comments
(PowerPoint file of actual presentation is attached to minutes or can be downloaded at: )
- Alice Skirtz: I was sitting here thinking it must have been in 1986 or ‘87 I was asked to come speak about this new organization called Greater Cincinnati Homeless Coalition (GCHC) because MARCC was considering making (homelessness) an issue, and we’ve come so far since then. This presentation today is about the study we’ve just completed. There was good representation from MARCC during the study. The Steering Committee included Peg Fox (Executive Director), Tony Stieritz (Director, Archdiocese Social Action) and Jackie Thomas (Executive Board). Ennis Tait, the newest member of MARCC, was also involved through Concerned Clergy of Avondale. And others around the room from congregations were very helpful. We began just over a year ago. GCHC commissioned the study. We heard from people who were homeless, service providers, etc. Mostly we heard from families on the verge of homelessness. Some were doubled up, some in hotels, etc. The Central Access Point (CAP) line was backed up and they turned to the Coalition for help. At the time the family shelters were doing a good job of taking care of the families who actually got through the CAP line and were in the shelters. Stimulus money is helping. The City of Cincinnati was marching full speed ahead for the Homeless to Homes plan, but that was only for singles, not families. So the Coalition carved out the study to find out what was going on with these families. They went first to the families, the providers and community advocacy groups, the city and county, the big groups, all the usual suspects.
Two cautions as you think about what we’re going to say. First, this study is not solely about shelter. When everybody heard about the study they thought of homeless shelters, but what we found was that we needed a much broader context of what families were facing. They’re on a fragile continuum somewhere in between. Also, secondly, folks who were trained in research and information management systems worked on what our data means when we’re reporting on things that we all know already, like that there’s a lot of poverty, that there’s an economic downturn, a shortage of housing, etc. and—so what? We put the so-whats together so there’s a context for understanding what families are facing. There’s no single answer but what we have done is reveal a lot about what families are facing whose only crime is poverty.
-Josh Spring: First I want to say thank you. I’m very happy and thankful to be before you. The second thing is this study took a whole lot of people and organizations. Approximately 34 public and private organizations took part, including MARCC. 36 people served on committees or collected data. Dozens of families who actually know what’s going on for real took part. They really poured their hearts out. Eight different data sets were donated by a variety of organizations, so we’re very grateful for that. What you have before you is not the study, it’s just the PowerPoint. The actual study is twice as thick.
(The study can be accessed at: ).
-Skirtz/Spring: It was important to us to have a variety of organizations represented. We split ourselves into several committees. We tried to go to as many different places as we could to reach families where they were. Some might know of the system from church or a local food bank, or not know the system at all. The thing we heard over and over is that there seems to be no path to exit or avoid homelessness. Families described having to search out and comb through info as if they were hunting for treasure amidst great hardship. Or they were hearing info from families and friends that is often times wrong. Or calling places and (the place) no longer exists, or they don’t have money or the person doesn’t qualify. It’s not like you can ask and get help and then be OK, but you have to keep asking. We found out there is not a strong desire to ask for assistance. There is an extreme stigma associated with the term “homeless”. We probably engaged 50 families in focus groups and 60 in surveys.
Food stamps can be a first bulwark for a family in trouble, a first area where a family can get help. Family use of food stamps increased by 76.31% among households with more than 1 generation, and households by 98.23%. OWF is a big one, formerly called TANF, only a 26.44% increase. Despite the fact that families said we can barely get in to JFS because their funding has been cut by so much.
There is a 126% increase in wait list for public housing. We asked (CMHA) if there was any reason other than need that there should be an increase, like maybe more advertising. They said no, that they got so inundated that they actually advertised less.
Prevention: $3.6 million received from stimulus for preventing homelessness. It has been an enormous success. Less than 3% have ended up in shelter.
Q&A
Q—(?): Where would I refer a young couple with a baby?
A—Spring: The question was, if I know someone who is a young couple with a baby if they are facing homelessness. They should call 381-SAFE if they are facing being outside immediately. It’s the triage line for all shelters in Hamilton County. If you know folks who should call this line, tell them it’s a hotline, you will be placed on hold and it’s very frustrating, but stay on the line and keep calling back. They’re open weekends. The second option is if they have some money they should call the same number and ask about homeless prevention because they might qualify.
Q—Ehrsam: The problem we have with these numbers is … it’s the best means to call CAP but people say they’ve called and couldn’t get through, but they have to press on. Some of the problem is that we do some feel-good things in our faith communities. We give them $50, but the problem is that doesn’t work. We need to pull together and have a central coordination.
A—Skirtz: Our central hope is that we can bring all the players to the table so we can follow the cases with case management. The way the prevention program worked so well is because there was a case manager that followed the family and it actually costs less money than with the back and forth.
Q—Fox: Is it true that this is how things used to be done 30 years ago in the faith community?
A—Skirtz: Yes, you would be assigned someone but that was the beginning of the fragmented system of getting a little here and there.
Q—Widmer: Where is this study going and what was the impetus for who should be on the implementation team?
A—Skirtz: The report shows our recommendations for the team and we believe that’s the team. Some of you will remember Barbara Duffey, she is in Washington now as Executive Director of a Federal Prevention and Re-housing Program on Homelessness. As we completed the study we had a call with her and her regional rep and they are now incorporating the study. She said not many communities have done this kind of study
Q—Zents: Will OKI incorporate any of this data in their regional planning?
A—Spring: We believe so, we will encourage the city to take a part in this. In the end it’s up to us if it’s included in the plan, how loud we are, but that’s what we’re working for. One of the pieces we’re working to recommend is that some cities have an impact fee, so whenever there’s development there are funds set aside for affordable housing (rental units). So we want to make sure when we’re doing development we’re actually benefitting everybody.
Q—(?): What about the county?
Skirtz: One of the players on the list is the county.
Fox: OKI is going after transportation money via housing money, they have submitted a proposal to HUD and there are many players: Chamber of Commerce, the city, the county, etc. They submitted a grant. The MARCC board met with Travis Miller one of the OKI planners who submitted the grant. He was also a resource at our Fall Planning Conference. There was an understanding that MARCC would serve on that advisory board if OKI got the grant.
Q—Widmer: Are you seeking publicity through the media?
A—Spring: We’re working with Channel 9. You can access this on their website. They did a sort of documentary on it. We’ve also worked with someone from Channel 12.
Q—(?): I’m curious about the folks standing out on the street with signs that say they’re homeless. How many are substance abusers? I know there are people out there who need money, but I don’t know. I’ve had bad experiences, so I wonder…
A—Spring: This is the most common question that I answer for sure. The first thing that I always say is that when I cross or when you come across someone on the corner, I don’t know what you should do in terms of giving or not giving. What I do think we should always do is look each other in the eye. It’s a sincere or empathetic hello. If you have time, ask “What’s your name?” We have estimated that downtown there are 16 people who panhandle on a regular basis. That’s not a lot of people. There’s a trend to criminalize folks and push people out of sight, out of mind. Found they’re very inefficient and it also kills the human contact and people are no longer talking to each other.
Coyle thanked Alice and Josh for a very professional and effective presentation, and expressed his hope to see much more of this in the media.
Meeting concluded at 1:18pm
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