Agenda and Minutes - Pillar 2 Subcommittee Meeting June 29, 2023

Subcommittee on Pillar 2: Stabilize Homes and Communities

Thursday, June 29, 2023 9:00-10:00 AM

Recording

Subcommittee Members in attendance:

1. Senator Dale Fowler - subcommittee chairman; Commission member
2. Pastor Jason McKinnies - Commission member
3. Angela Curran - Commission member
4. Danielle Hogue - representative of Senator Kimberly Lightford, Commission member
5. Dir. Paula Basta - IWG member
6. Elizabeth Vogt - IWG member
7. Marc Staley - IWG member
8. Jason Horwitz - IWG member
9. Emily Mueller - IWG member
10. Erion Malasi - Public member
11. Hope Babowice - Public member
12. Keesha Reedus - Public member
13. Cortney Groves - Public member

Administrator:

1. Kari Branham - IDHS Special Projects Administrator
2. Len Conant - Office Coordinator, IDHS

IDHS SMEs:

1. Amanda Lake - Senior Policy Advisor, Division of Substance Use Prevention and Recovery
2. 2. Ashley Bae - Residential Community Programs Administrator, Division of Mental Health
3. LaTanya Law - Senior Policy Advisor, IDHS-OFVP

Guest: 

1. Matthew Rodriguez - Equity Imperative, facilitator
2. Srijana Sapkota - IHDA intern

Agenda:

1. Introductions/Welcome Roll Call
2. Public Comment - subject to written comment in advance
3. Housekeeping
4. Approval of Meeting Minutes: February 2, 2023 and May 31, 2023
5. Presentation & Approval of Committee FY24 Action Goals
6. Next Steps and Adjournment

Minutes:

1. Introductions/Welcome Roll Call - Len Conant led the roll call; out of 15 voting members, 13 were present; quorum was declared.
2. Public Comment - subject to written comment in advance, none received.
3. Housekeeping - Administrator Kari Branham reminded attendees that only voting members can vote on committee business, make motions and second motions. IDHS subject matter experts provide knowledge and information. She also reminded members to complete the 2023 IDHS Mandatory trainings, Len will be sending email reminders.
4. Approval of Meeting Minutes: February 2, 2023 and May 31, 2023 - Pastor McKinnies moved to approve both set of minutes, seconded by Jason Horwitz. The group unanimously approved the February 2, 2023 and May 31, 2023 minutes.
5. Presentation & Approval of Committee FY24 Action Goals
   • Mr. Rodriguez gave a recap of the previous meeting and presented the three action goals distilled from the discussion.
     1. By June 30, 2024, IHDA will fund or support the development of at least 300 supportive housing units through its various programming (Permanent Supportive Housing Development Program or PSHDP, Statewide Referral Network or SRN units financed through LIHTC, etc.), and increase to its recent annual average unit production of approximately 25%. Reference: Amaal, Jason, Keesha, Ryan, Todd, Emily
     2. By June 30, 2024, Pillar 2 Subcommittee will research the existence and impact of different rent control models and document their findings for future advocacy efforts. Reference: Todd, Ryan
     3. By June 30, 2024, Pillar 2 Subcommittee will design an advocacy strategy to influence legislation that will limit the impact of credit checks for rental housing. Reference: Todd, Ryan
     4. By June 30, 2024, Pillar 2 Subcommittee will create a state-wide map of housing affordability and availability, and comprehensively analyze the map to identify gaps, with special attention toward availability for individuals with a disability, mental illness, or substance use disorder, and the extent to which those gaps need to be addressed. Reference: Ryan, Keesha, Todd, Amanda
   • The goals were presented in a shared document were members indicated whether they agree with the goal or whether it could be refined or strengthened, or if they have refinements on the language.
   • Mr. Rodriguez reminded everyone that the meeting today will be focused on the goals that can drive the work of the subcommittee and as the FY24 kicks in, the conversations can then go to the details on how specifically the goals will be accomplished. Further, the direction of the subcommittee is contingent upon who is present in the meeting and not create goals for people who are absent. Finally, all of the details might not be mentioned in the goals such as defining out affordability, but jumping into FY24 those details will be nailed down to really get into the how the committee will be able to move forward.
   • Ms. Babowice asked if the committee would want to keep tabs on support entities that can help reach the goals such as private or non-profit agencies that can provide additional support from others who are already doing the work. Also, she asked if the committee wanted to come up with a standardized model for data collection for each activity that the committee will undertake.
   • For the first question, Mr. Rodriguez said that if members are excited in any of the goals, they can break off and begin doing some of the work. Some of the members may be the people who begin to identify some of the private and non-profit agencies who can help advance the subcommittees effort in that direction.
   • In terms of measuring outcomes, the measurement may look different from goal to goal such as the measurement for advocacy strategy in comparison with the measurement to the development of 300 supportive housing units.
   • For Mr. Horwitz, while he agrees on the goals, he commented that for goal 1, 300 units might not be as close as to meeting the need even though 25% will already be a huge lift to IHDA. He suggested to think of how to dramatically increase the number year after year to eventually make a significant dent in the need that the subcommittee is trying to answer. Mr. Rodriguez will craft a goal on vision casting to articulate a goal for beyond FY24 to address key areas and will submit to Chair Fowler for approval.
   • Mr. Horwitz also suggested inviting more people to help create goals for the areas that are not being addressed such as interventions that address cycles of trauma and violence (in response to the earlier statement on not creating goals for people or agencies that are not present in the meeting).
   • Ms. Mueller supports the vision casting with regards to the first goal as the 300 units were specific for IHDA. The goal can be increased if other agencies who do the same work will be included. For goal 4, she suggested classifying terms particularly housing affordability which other agencies might have done already to which Mr. Rodriguez agreed. If there are members who will work around goal 4, one of their tasks should be unpacking some of these terms to have clarity and understanding of the meaning which will help in measuring progress.
   • Mr. Staley also suggested collaborative efforts between IHDA, IDHS and DCEO with regards to goal 1 and agreed on putting a longer term goal beyond FY24. For goal 4, he suggested narrowing the scope from statewide to a priority region/s, for example, Peoria or Rockford or Chicago and then take lessons learned from the process and apply it when going for statewide. The group unanimously agreed on Mr. Staley's suggestion for goal 4. Ms. Lake suggested using IDPH's regional mapping in identifying priority regions. Ms. Law on the other hand, suggested using the RPSA mapping. Mr. Rodriguez will revise the language and present to Chair Fowler who agreed with the suggestion.
   • Ms. Lake commented that the goals are focused more on housing, leaving the other two key areas of the subcommittee which is on specialized support for persons with mental health and substance use crises and addressing cycles of trauma and violence. Mr. Rodriguez mentioned goal 4 which is the only goal that attempts to connect all three key areas of the subcommittee. But there are definitely gaps and so coming into FY24, the group can analyze the gaps and determine who are the people who can be brought into the committee to help build a more robust approach to address the areas that are not being addressed in the FY24 goals.
   • Considering the major points raised, Mr. Rodriguez will craft the language with regards to vision casting beyond FY24 as another goal for FY24 and narrowing the focus of process mapping in goal 4 and applying lessons learned in the future, Ms. Mueller moved to approve the FY24 actionable goals seconded by Dir. Basta. The group unanimously approved the Pillar 2 subcommittee actionable goals for FY24.
6. Next Steps and Adjournment
   • The FY24 goals will be presented to the Special Commission meeting on Thursday, July 13th and the Commission will get a copy of the goal with all the changes before the meeting.
   • Chair Fowler moved to adjourn the meeting seconded by Mr. Horwitz. The meeting was unanimously adjourned at 9:58 AM.