County Commission and Children’s Trust pledge funds to family homelessness, hear literacy update

Editor’s note: While the County Commission was on break last week, we went back and reviewed this joint meeting from June that covered several local issues that are priorities for Commissioners.

BY JENNIFER CABRERA

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – At a June 11 joint meeting between the Alachua County Commission and the Children’s Trust of Alachua County (CTAC), the boards heard a literacy update and the County Commission passed a seven-part motion on family homelessness; Commissioner Anna Prizzia also mentioned that she would like CTAC to look at providing a Guaranteed Income program for local families.

County Commission Chair Ken Cornell began the meeting by noting that the County Commission had a quorum, but CTAC did not. Cornell is on both boards, and the other CTAC members present were Chair Mary Chance and Treasurer Lee Pinkoson. Dr. Nancy Hardt attended virtually.

Alachua County Reads

Dr. Heidi Keegan gave a presentation on the Alachua County Reads initiative and said their goals are to strengthen kindergarten readiness; increase third-grade reading proficiency; reduce disparities for black students, students with disabilities, and English language learners; expand adult literacy supports; and increase access for families facing logistical and financial barriers. She said the goal is to “make those improvements from ages zero to 99.”

Keegan said the initiative has two arms: a coordinating arm with a Community Advisory Council and coordination of services and strategic communication, and a programming arm that will provide instructional programs with help from organizations like PEAK Literacy and UF’s UFLI. She said they have been looking at Helios in Hillsborough County and recently met with that organization, which said there are five conditions necessary to improve literacy: school district commitment, administrative engagement, professional development and coaching, Pre-K literacy awareness, and early learning provider coaching.

PEAK Literacy Director Leah Galione said her organization provided services at 11 sites during the school year, with two additional sites added this summer. They have served 311 children and have delivered 25,000 individual lessons. She said they have committed to adding 600 children next year, along with clients at Released Reentry (individuals who are released from jail or prison); they also have an agreement with CareerSource to expand resources for adult literacy.

County Commission Chair Ken Cornell: “I’m ready for outcomes,… because we’re finishing the end of year two of our three-year moonshot, and we need outcomes.”

Cornell said, “We started this process a couple of years ago. I’m ready for outcomes, this time next year. We’ve done a lot of infrastructure building, but [I’m looking for] some real movement of outcomes, because we’re finishing the end of year two of our three-year moonshot, and we need outcomes.”

Dr. Vincent Miller, Director of ACES in Motion: “I’m an advocate for black and brown… So access, to me, is so important — to make sure that we are reaching out to our clergy in those access areas to make sure that they are at the table when we’re having these conversations”

During public comment on the literacy item, Dr. Vincent Miller, the new Director of ACES in Motion, said, “Access is so important. I sit on a lot of boards in Polk County, and I’m an advocate for black and brown; I’m just going to put that out there. So access, to me, is so important — to make sure that we are reaching out to our clergy in those access areas to make sure that they are at the table when we’re having these conversations, so that they know and our students know how to get access to these opportunities.”

Family Eviction and Housing Stability Convening

Kristy Goldwire from the Continuum of Care led off the second agenda item by reviewing the Family Eviction and Housing Stability Listening Session that was held on May 27. The purpose was to understand challenges impacting families facing eviction, identify service gaps across systems, develop actionable solutions, and communicate recommendations to the Children’s Trust Board and the County Commission. 

Goldwire said a few things stood out from the listening session: jobs paying $15-17 an hour cannot cover current housing costs, and when families make more, they lose their benefits; once someone has an eviction record, they can’t apply for subsidized housing; move-in costs run $3,000-5,000; each housing application costs $50-100; the “late fee trap,” which is when an additional fine is added to rent when it is late; and some housing is substandard.

Service gaps include insufficient case management, limited rental assistance, rural transportation, childcare availability and affordability, and long-term intervention funding. 

Children’s Trust asks City and County to match $118k for two years to fund two case managers at Family Promise

Goldwire said the Children’s Trust will fund two case managers at Family Promise at a cost of $118,000 per year for two years, to serve families with children, and they are asking the City of Gainesville and Alachua County to match that funding. CTAC also asked the County and municipalities to direct additional funding to Family Resource Centers to expand support for emergency needs, including Emergency Rental Assistance for eviction prevention.

CTAC Board Member Dr. Nancy Hardt: “Alachua County should be very proud of all the success that we’ve had housing adults. GRACE Marketplace has been wildly successful. We’ve reduced the number of people in PIT counts by over 60% over the years… But there’s really nothing that GRACE offers for families.”

Dr. Nancy Hardt, a Children’s Trust Board Member, said, “Alachua County should be very proud of all the success that we’ve had housing adults. GRACE Marketplace has been wildly successful. We’ve reduced the number of people in PIT counts by over 60% over the years… But there’s really nothing that GRACE offers for families.” She said the Children’s Trust has been unable to help families as much as they want because of HUD funding restrictions, “and families are very reluctant to come forward and say, ‘Gee, I am living in my car behind Walmart,’ because they’re afraid that their children will be taken, so a lot of these families are hidden underground.”

Dr. Nancy Hardt: “Families are very reluctant to come forward and say, ‘Gee, I am living in my car behind Walmart,’ because they’re afraid that their children will be taken, so a lot of these families are hidden underground.”

Hardt said the Family Resource Centers “do not do long-term case management”; they can provide short-term interventions, but “of the families in crisis, only 20% of them will be just fine after that sort of short-term intervention. The other 80% need long-term support in order to be stably housed.”

She said Family Promise has stepped up to take people who were at St. Francis House and Arbor House, but their staff is limited, so the Children’s Trust decided to help “beef up the staff who can do long-term case management… We need Family Promise, because it’s really the only game in town.”

County Commissioner Anna Prizzia: “We have to get this RTS thing figured out; we have to get reasonable transportation options for people,… and I know it’s not going to be easy, and it’s not going to be cheap, but we’ve got to get it figured out.”

County Commissioner Anna Prizzia said she loved the recommendations, but she also thought the same presentation should be made to the Affordable Housing Advisory Committee, and when rental assistance funds are provided, their use should be more flexible because families may also have challenges with transportation and child care. She added that transportation is the “number one thing” she hears from families, so “we have to get this RTS thing figured out; we have to get reasonable transportation options for people,… and I know it’s not going to be easy, and it’s not going to be cheap, but we’ve got to get it figured out.”

Prizzia: “I really do think we need to take serious action on [economic development], and if nothing inspires people more than children, then great — let’s do it for the kids.”

Prizzia said two things are needed to solve the problem of family homelessness: “We need roofs over people’s heads, and we need jobs so people can afford those roofs over their heads.” She said they need to do “real economic development and work with CareerSource to make it more accessible… I really do think we need to take serious action on this, and if nothing inspires people more than children, then great — let’s do it for the kids.”

Seven-part motion

Prizzia made the following seven-part motion for the County Commission:

1. Match funding for the two case manager positions for Family Promise in the amount of $118,000 annually; this will only serve families with children.

2. Join CTAC in requesting that the municipalities where Family Resource Centers are located allocate additional funding to expand support for emergency needs, including Emergency Rental Assistance for eviction prevention. 

3. Refer this presentation to the Affordable Housing Advisory Committee and look for ways to make rental assistance more flexible, including expanding the criteria for disbursing the $300,000 already allocated by the County. 

4. Refer to the Transportation Planning Organization the issue of transportation and the need for more flexible funding and transportation options for families. 

5. Work with CareerSource to make their services more accessible and with other economic development agencies on ways to have more approachable strategies for job hunting, training, and retooling people for quality jobs. 

6. Coordinate with the Community Action Agency and encourage more programs that don’t require eviction for program eligibility.

7. Begin conversations with all institutions that have facilities that could be used for housing homeless families. 

The motion was seconded by Commissioner Charles Chestnut.

Commissioner Mary Alford said one of the things lacking at CareerSource is childcare, “so if we had some sort of gap childcare program in there, I think it would help a lot,” but she acknowledged that was outside the current topic; Prizzia said that was “deserving of a whole set of conversations.”

Prizzia: “There are a number of really, really amazing successful programs that, with minor investments of, like, $500 a month of guaranteed income for the period of a year or two, can change the trajectory of a family forever.”

Prizzia added, “We have a really amazing organization in our community that does economic justice work in a Guaranteed Income program, and they’ve had amazing success, and there are cities and counties and communities all over the country that are also looking at Guaranteed Income programs that are having amazing success, and what that does is put the financial decision-making and the financial independence in the hands of the families rather than the hands of all these organizations that then navigate all this paperwork and everything like that, and I know it’s way bigger than today, so I don’t want to put it in the motion right now. I just want everyone to sort of explore it… There are a number of really, really amazing successful programs that, with minor investments of like $500 a month of guaranteed income for the period of a year or two, can change the trajectory of a family forever.”

Since that meeting, Prizzia has sent research on Guaranteed Income programs to Children’s Trust representatives, adding that she has been to a Mayors for a Guaranteed Income gathering and “would love to continue this dialogue with our respective bodies and/or with interested individuals/ groups.” Lindsay Kallman of Community Spring wrote to Prizzia and Children’s Trust representatives, “As you can see, there are many programs geared toward children across the [country]! I would love to start a more robust conversation about how the Children’s Trust may adopt some of these strategies in the years to come.”

The motion passed unanimously.