Just let me know.

Welcome to the December first, two thousand twenty-five social service human relations board meeting.

Um, this meeting is being recorded.

The chat function has been turned off.

If members of the public would like to comment on an item, there are multiple options to do so.

If attending via Zoom, digitally raise your hand, and Secretary Manayan will announce when it's your turn.

You will then have the option to unmute yourself and proceed with your public comment.

Email your public comment to Secretary Manayan at G M A N N A H A Y O N at Alameda C A.gov.

Before or during the meeting with your name, the agenda item number, you're referencing and your comment.

Comments submitted during the meeting before the conclusion of the public comment section will be read into the record.

Her email address is also on the meeting's agenda.

If you are calling in by phone, please email Ms.

Manayan.

As we cannot see you, raise your hand.

Second, under each agenda item, there will be an opportunity for public comment on that specific item.

So we will now call this meeting to order at 7 03 p.m.

Moving on to roll call.

Bernie Wolf.

He's absent.

Diana Michira Omi here.

Gerald Bryant, here.

Michelle Buckholtz.

Here.

Samantha Green.

Here.

Scott Means.

Here, that's me.

And Robbie Creetz.

Here.

And from the Housing Human Services Division, Gresha Mania Ayan, program manager, and Shelby Neal, administrative specialist.

And just want to take a moment to welcome our newest board member, Robbie Christ.

This will be her first meeting.

We are moving on to item number two, non-agenda public comments.

The city welcomes speakers providing public comments, but please be advised this is a limited public forum.

Comments from the audience may concern matters either on or not on the agenda, but must deal with matters subject to the jurisdiction of the Social Service and Human Relations Board.

Comments will be limited to three minutes.

Comments concerning matters on this evening's agenda will be heard when that item is called.

If speakers fail to follow these rules, they will be warned.

And if they continue to disregard the rules, their opportunity to speak will end.

Um do we have any speakers or comments?

Yeah.

There is no public comment.

All right.

Seeing none, we'll move on to item three to the minutes to review and approve the minutes from October 22nd, 2025.

I motion to approve.

We have a motion.

Do we have a second?

I'll second it.

We have a motion and a second.

Um we will uh oh, actually, we can just go ahead and do a uh consensus vote.

We don't need to do roll call vote for this.

So all those in favor say aye.

Aye.

All those opposed, pass unanimously.

Thank you.

All right, this moves us to why everyone's in the room here tonight, which is agenda item four.

Um we are going to be voting on the volunteer of the year award winner recommendations.

The Road Home Committee will be awarding the volunteer year honor to six Alameda residents who have served and uplifted their community through extensive and meaningful volunteer work.

The community will award within two categories, adult and youth.

The Road Home created a disseminated survey throughout the community to accept nominations and as a selected finalist for the awards.

The board will now be voting to accept these nominations.

If approved, these individuals will be honored and recognized by the Social Service Human Relations Board and other city staff.

So Mgia, will you please announce nominees in their categories?

Yes, so I will be sharing the list of nominees here.

Um, you can't hear me.

Can you hear me now?

Thank you for that.

Uh so here up on the screen are the six uh nominees for the volunteer of the year award.

We have three people in the adult category, including Sister Pat Nagel, Kate Kasperger, Armanda Graca, and then for the youth category, Soliana Tesvalidette, Sierra Miller, and Tate Matula.

I vote to Oh, I'm sorry, I I'm I should I was supposed to we have any clarifying questions first.

No, okay, and and one more thing.

Since we have no clarifying questions, um, we do have we can now open it up for any public comments.

Is there any public comment on this?

There is no public comment.

I now vote officially to approve of the nominees.

I will definitely second on that one.

Thank you.

All right, we have a first and a second.

Uh again, um, we will go ahead and do it on a voice vote.

Um, all those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Seeing none, the ward um passes unanimously.

Excellent.

All right, so having received a unanimous vote, we will proceed with the presentation of the awards.

We'll ask Wardees and their nominator, if present, to come and join at the podium, one grouping at a time.

Um, and then um once you've actually uh presented the nominee or the person getting the award, then that person should we'll come up here and we'll take a photo up here on the stage.

Okay.

So for the first award, the human relations award is for is to Tate Matula and the nominated by Yale Friedman.

You please come up.

Hello, can you hear me?

Yes.

My name is Yael Friedman Goody, and I teach English history and leadership at Lincoln Middle School.

It is my honor to introduce a wonderful volunteer student and human Tate Matula.

As a student in leadership, Tate has made outstanding contributions to the school community.

Last year and again this year, she spearheaded programming to combat hate speech and celebrate pride at school, including coordinating a school-wide speakout, which consisted of a lunchtime assembly for students to share their experiences with hate speech in front of the school.

Last year, as a seventh grader, she hosted and helped organize the event.

This year, as an eighth grader, she was in charge of the whole event, coordinating her group members, creating content for teachers to deliver to support their students in writing and sharing about their experiences and being in touch with school stakeholders to ensure all equipment would be present.

She encouraged and coached a seventh grade student to be the MC, making sure that all members of her committee were involved and invested in the event's success.

In general, Tate is constantly finding ways to contribute, helping many other committees and students with their events, always willing to stay after school, come in at lunch, or do extra work when someone needs a hand.

She created a calendar of events last year, so we would be prepared to dive into organizing at the very beginning of this year.

She also organized and led a month-long celebration of Lunar New Year, which had not been done at Lincoln in recent memory.

This involved one event during lunch each week for the month of, excuse me, of February, including games, trivia, and various competitions.

Tate makes everything she touches better.

She is a model leader and organizer and makes others more comfortable to be who they are because she is so open and comfortable with who she is.

The events she organizes make our school safer and more joyful.

She acts as a mentor to many other students in leadership and is always willing to go the extra mile to make others feel heard and supported.

Tate is hardworking, kind and motivated.

She leads without demanding and finds ways to involve as many people as possible.

She is always open to feedback, but brings her point of view to everything she does.

This year she is one of few eighth graders in a class of mostly seventh graders, and everyone looks up to her.

We should all be so lucky to have a Tate in our lives.

And now without further ado, I'd like to invite up the volunteer of the year, Tate Matoula.

Are we all standing?

Whether you want to do this.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So I can do this.

Yeah, it's there.

That's nice.

Okay, everyone in there.

There we go.

Nice one too.

Perfect.

Thank you.

Sarah was nominated by Stacey Thomas, but tonight, Hannes Rodriguez is going to be doing the presentation.

Hello, uh my name is Hannes Rodriguez.

I'm a pool manager at ARPD, and I ran the intern program this past summer.

Uh throughout this summer, Sierra stood out for her strong ability in the water and also for her upbeat attitude, and especially for her dedication to showing up every single day, including days when we did not expect everyone to show up, or when we had to ask people last minute to come in on unscheduled days, including looking for or watching in the water while the while Camp did a cardboard boat race and during the movie night where she was in the water watching to make sure everyone was safe in the in both the large pool and the baby pool.

Thank you.

Tessfaladet.

I hope I pronounced that right.

She was nominated by Mia Alvarez.

Mia is unavailable tonight, so I am actually going to present.

Soliana serves as the co-president of the Youth Advisory Committee, a subcommittee of the Alameda Collaborative for Children, Youth, and their families.

She has raised over $3,000 for Dignity Village, a transitional housing site here in Alameda.

During her time with YAC, she has collaborated with the Shrub to hold events to honor United Against Hate Week.

For example, in 2024, she helped plan and host a Poetry Slam event.

And just this past October, she was a panelist at the United Against Hate film screening, where she and other advocates discussed combating racial and gender biases.

Currently, she and the YAC board are putting together a scholarship program to assist some of her fellow high schoolers in achieving their educational goals.

Solyana, who is just a senior in high school, has created many opportunities for youth in our city, promoted LGBTQ community nights, hosted events, and created a safe space for youth in Alameda.

So congratulations on this one.

Thank you.

Nominated by Shelby Neal.

Is almost constantly engaged in some form of community service, sometimes as informal as helping an elderly neighbor clean their house, or as formal as keeping the Mastic Senior Center thrift shop up and running for over eight years now.

She is part of the kindness coalition, a new group that believes that kindness should come first in Alameda.

They demonstrate this by doing free bake sales and cleaning up trash in local neighborhoods.

While experiencing an unhealthy housing situation, Army was a passionate advocate for environmental health protections for renters.

As mentioned, she is the workhorse behind the popular Mastic Senior Center thrift Store.

And without her, the store would be months behind on sorting, organizing, and shelving donations.

As you know, if customers don't see new items frequently, they lose interest in the store, and Mastic would lose a major source of its funding.

She provides the efficiency and physical strength to move through piles of donations in the behind-the-scenes work that many people don't see.

I nominated Arminda because she embodies the spirit of community better than anyone I know.

If she sees a need, she feels it.

She doesn't wait to be asked.

She's the type of villager everyone would be lucky to have in their village.

Thank you.

Congratulations.

All right, um, number the fifth award is the Social Services Award, which goes to Kate Kasberger, nominated by Stephen McHale.

Hi, I'm Steven.

I'm a priest at Christ Episcopal Church just down the road here, and I nominated Dr.

Kate Kasperger, a pediatrician at La Clinica de la Raza by day, and the shower head of our shower program uh on the weekends.

Kate for the last year and a half has been organizing a shower program for folks who don't have homes.

And every Sunday afternoon and sometimes on Thursday nights, uh, we get a crowd of folks who are looking to recover some of their basic dignity with a hot shower, a meal, and some clean clothing.

As she does this, Kate has uh has helped the program to grow substantially, so much so that we had to build a third shower, which we finished last week.

And uh she helped us to raise awareness and money for uh a new commercial laundry program that will accompany the shower program, and all of that will then reside next to the Alameda warming shelter, which opens Wednesday night over at the church.

Uh Kate organizes a whole mess of volunteers, raises money, collects uh all kinds of donations of clothing, helps organize meals, and just is a generally really great person to be with.

She's also a mom and a wife.

Whole nother job.

You have to keep clearing the middle, so yeah, yeah.

Oh, um, okay.

Sorry about that.

Our final reward.

We have the lifetime achievement award.

And that goes to Patricia Nagel, um, nominated by Terry Kennedy, and I believe there are other supporters here in the audience tonight.

Um, and I'm gonna, I'm actually going to say a few words then.

If you would like to, you can also say a few words yourself.

So and this is this is for everyone in the room who doesn't know who Sister Pat is.

Since the launch launch of Alameda Dining Connect in 2018, Sister Bat has provided leadership and focus for an all-volunteer effort that provides over 5,800 hot meals annually to Alameda's unhoused and food insecure populations.

By 2025, we saw the program expand from one church to five churches that rotate to provide weekly meals.

Sister Pat's spearheaded partnerships with Alameda Food Bank, Alameda All Faith Coalition, Village of Love, Building Futures in the City of Alameda, as well as individual churches.

In addition to being the program's founder, Sister Pat has been a visionary spokesperson and conscience, offering life supports beyond nutrition for any guest who requires assistance.

Thank you, Sister Pat, for all you've done and all you continue to do for our community.

Welcome.

Would you like to say a few words?

Oh, just a few.

As many as you like.

Well, I'm I'm deeply grateful.

It's been a real honor for me to be a part of Dine Connect.

I've met so many wonderful folks.

We have so many volunteers who give their service weekly.

Always ready with a meal.

And I tell you, very creative.

All of our chefs are certified by the county for food handling.

And they prepare wonderful meals with the help and gifts of the food bank.

Um churches, several churches in the area.

We'd like to grow the program.

And it will happen in time.

It's taken us a few years to get this far, and we can go farther.

But I am deeply grateful for this, and I feel the award belongs to everyone who volunteers for Dine and Connect.

I'm just sort of the public face and the connector.

And it's my privilege to do that.

Thank you very much.

That's fine.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

I like I have a dealer.

Oh, thank you.

That's okay.

Thank you.

Can we open the perfect?

Thank you.

Let's get one more with all of these things together.

And um, also uh everyone who's received an award, if you bring your award up here and get a a picture with everyone together, uh I'll also sign it for you to you like it's signed because you realize that they are not signed.

Yeah, come down there for the picture so everyone is together.

We'll come down there, it's more room.

And then if you want to eat away here, no, I should have seen this part.

That's good.

Yeah, it's good, yeah.

Thank you.

Oh, I'm sorry.

Thank you.

So, over here, right here.

Thank you.

That's better than before.

Yeah.

Six of them.

Yeah, that's great.

Okay.

Yeah, that'd be great.

I don't want to search certificates.

We could have them open.

Yeah, let's open them up.

There you go.

Yeah, thank you.

All right.

So let's all kind of center a little bit more.

Perfect.

That's nice.

Okay, good.

Let me see.

Yeah, let's there you go.

Perfect.

All right, that's great.

That's nice.

Yep.

Perfect.

Yeah.

Oh, it's good here.

It's good.

Yeah, yeah.

Um just just as we are going to be closing out this um agenda item, but we do have uh one of our board members does have one thing to say.

All the audience as well.

We know that service happens in community, and we really want to highlight everyone who makes it possible to to serve others.

So you kind of have to pour from a full cup, and we know that having a community really makes a difference.

So one of the things on our board is we want to celebrate that community, and thank you again for everyone showing up.

And everyone can go because the rest of our meeting is not nearly as moving or exciting.

Right.

Yes, thank you everyone for your dedication.

At this time, we'll proceed to the regular social service human relations board meeting.

Um, you know, please feel free to stay or leave depending on your preference and interest.

I'm just read script.

All right.

Without a doubt.

All right.

This brings us to item four B, the vote on the proposed two thousand twenty-six social service human relations board meeting calendar.

And we have our program manager, Grassa Meneyan is gonna present this to us.

Okay, so uh can you all hear me?

Yes.

Okay.

So um wow, what we're gonna do a hard pivot to the rest of our agenda.

That was a wonderful way to start the meeting.

You all are going to be voting on your upcoming uh meeting schedule for the year 2026.

So a couple things to note.

So your regular meetings occur the fourth Thursday of the month at 7 p.m.

However, there are going to be a couple exceptions.

So the January meeting is going to be held on the third Thursday to accommodate the point in time count that is happening on the fourth Thursday.

Because City Council is in recess during that time and most boards are in recess.

And then as uh typically done every year, you all combine your November and December meeting to a one early December meeting because of the holiday, the major holidays during those months.

So this is the proposed schedule for you all to discuss and vote on.

I move to vote.

Yeah, why not?

I've I will call for it.

Why not?

It seems like a regular scheduled program.

So yeah, um, yeah.

There are there uh I'm sorry, I'm I just I lost my place here.

Hold on a second.

Do we have any clarifying questions from the board about about what was presented?

Great.

Are there any public comments at all?

On the calendar.

There are no public comments.

Oh, yeah.

Well, I mean, it's we're we're gonna be we already have voting on it, so we have to allow for people to do that, right?

So now we can what now we can have now.

We can go ahead and do more questions.

Try to put the point in time.

Uh also on our we don't have to that doesn't have to be on the calendar, right?

Well, this is just your meeting schedule.

Okay, so it's not like a shrub calendar of events, it's just your meeting schedule.

Gotcha.

Yeah.

Um, so wait, did someone say they want to do a motion?

I did, okay.

Do we have a second?

And we have a second.

All right.

Um, all those in favor?

Aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

None opposed.

All right.

Um, that was easy.

Now we'll go on to item 4C, the work group reports.

This item is for board discussion only.

There won't be any voting.

Um, there's no staff presentation, so go right into public comment.

Just double checking.

There is no public comment.

Okay.

So we can now just open this up for discussion and uh comments by board members.

So we're actually missing an entire work group because Bernie is not here.

Um, do we do anything at all if we have anything to that you know of that was been done in that group or yes, I do.

So the domestic violence task force met um in mid-November.

It was a great meeting.

There were about five different organizations in attendance, and we had the um DAs, the County of Alameda DA attend and give an overview of the work they do and answer questions.

Um we did post the minutes of that meeting as an exhibit to this agenda item.

So if uh the public or you anyone of any member of the public is interested in reading a summary of the discussion in that meeting, they can do so through the exhibit attached to this agenda item.

Okay, great.

Thank you.

Um, how the meetings together against eight?

Uh we really just kind of spent our last scheduled time together, enjoying each other's good company.

I'm going to be losing a fellow compatriot.

This is our last meeting together.

So we had a couple of minutes after our last meeting to just sit and talk about all the things that we covered as part of our board position here and how much we were looking forward to the new things that were going on.

And it's gonna be my real hope that we will be able to continue with getting support from Diane in the future, even while she's helping out in more important jobs of raising a grandson.

I think it's gonna be wonderful and I'm hopeful that we'll be able to spend more time together to do so and thank you for all the time and all the years.

Thank you.

Thanks um we can keep moving uh so um uh the road home uh people experiencing homelessness just want to remind um anyone who's listening that the point in time count will be on January 29th 2026 and um to please sign up as a point in time count volunteer if possible does anyone know uh clarify like when it ends like what time it's because I know it says in the calendar it's like till 11.

Yeah it's usually it goes to 11 can you and for people trying to get involved can you do partial shifts or can you you do have to do the whole shift usually you have to do the whole coverage map so the teams go out they covered their full map so some teams may be able to cover their maps more quickly right and so they'll return more quickly um but it's asked that you would complete the whole route area that you're assigned to so and then the idea is that all teams would be back and completed by 11 o'clock is that correct I would say that yeah last year I was done with my route but I was able to still drop my daughter off at school I think it's just I was trying to encourage people like who have to go to work at like eight how if they could it's hard because you never know you never know how many people you're actually going to run into and how many people are going to be able to do the survey.

Yeah so it's difficult to tell people that really plan on it till 11.

Okay.

Uh so I'm just gonna repeat what uh Simone Falls from human housing and human services said so that it's going so that it's in the record which is that uh there is an estimated commitment of 5 a.m to 11am but it depends on how long it takes to cover your section is what I heard.

Is it possible for volunteers to like split the shift like have someone relieve you or is that the that won't work.

One of the difficult parts of it is you don't know where the groups are going to be at any given time.

So you're in a coverage area and you're out on the field so it might be hard to coordinate a meeting place to meet my part way through because everyone meets at the beginning in one I'm not sure where the meeting this year but we all met at one place yeah yeah.

The only and for the road home committee the only thing I'd like to just update and suggest is this was quite a success I was so moved by it and that maybe we could consider that I think uh being in the Fourth of July parade and having the award winners be a part to just highlighting volunteerism might be something we could consider um I know we've always sort of been talking about the board being in the fourth of July but I think it could I I think it could be really fun to highlight the award winners.

Yeah.

And the parade.

We just need to get.

I hear someone has a convertible um on the board.

Mine is a hard topic.

Oh, it's a hard topic.

You can write on top of the hard topic.

It on the front bumper side while we're in front of the there.

We need to yeah flatbed truck goes works too if you want to try to do a you could do a flatbed truck with a bunch of shrubbery on it?

Yeah.

I'll proposed.

I I think this was a success and that we should make sure this continues to be an annual celebration.

And I think about how more we can highlight volunteerism in service.

Um, because I think that's just meaningful.

I also hope that we can find a way to celebrate all the volunteers that were nominated.

Those that didn't win as well, right?

Because it was, you know, while it was a small group of individuals that were nominated in comparison to the largest of the community.

Um I think it's still really important that those folks are all right.

Yeah, I think so.

And I think maybe that also just like the as we continue to grow to think about like our service and community of the human relations board of like I think this reminded us that we need to be doing continuing to do this and having more like showing up and celebrating.

So maybe we could even think about the library of like having like highlighting volunteer like volunteer and then the oh, sorry, this could be another thing, but the I wanted the Alameda Post highlighted your uh volunteer list.

Did you see that?

Yeah, yeah.

So I was really pleased.

Yeah.

I I still want to like get more on there too.

I think it's really good to have that, you know.

Um anything else that we need to report on that since our last I don't think so.

I'm sorry to interrupt.

Did you all cover the film screening?

No, so that's what I was doing back then before we left this section.

Okay.

Yeah.

Um I just realized as I looked at back at the notes here, that uh we we were there right before the actual film, and we had spoken about the United Against Hate Week proclamation, but we didn't actually speak about the film presentation itself.

And since time flies so much in this town, I thought I should at least go back and say we had a really good turnout.

We had over 30 people here in City Hall uh in Council Chamber's.

We watched the movie right here.

I felt like you could tell by the questions and comments that were coming from the various people who were here and the answers that we were getting from the panel that it was a real discussion of people actually staying to hear what the final answers were and to find out more about what was going on.

I was very pleased with the turnout, and I hope we'll get another opportunity to do similarly very soon in the next year.

How did this feel compared to the poetry slam?

There were at least 30 times as many people.

That's enough impetus for me to say yes.

Yes.

Going in the right direction.

Yeah, I I think that the reason the poetry slam didn't work was because we weren't doing the proper advertising to the people that we needed to do it.

Uh so with Ms.

Solara's help, we may bring that back again in the future as part of, you know, I mean, it's not like we have to only do one thing for the United Against Hate Week.

It's a whole week of time where we can do various programs.

So it would be nice to be able to get some of the youth involved and have them really do it.

Uh I remember Miss Yael from the uh poetry program over here at the comedy club asked me if we were going to be doing it this year.

I was very sad to say that we were not.

And I had another person who would done it with us a year before who asked if we were going to do it, they wanted to know if they could bring people by.

I said we were not.

So yeah, yeah, these are opportunities to bring people in and and talk about the same things and have a bunch of different ways of doing it.

I still believe that if we use uh poetry and art and music as part of our platform to be out in public as part of the community.

It allows us to spread the message that we really are looking for on an everyday basis, especially with volunteers.

So that was the report part that we left out.

Yeah, thank you.

Yeah, no, thank you.

Uh yeah, I think you know, watching a film can be a really passive activity, but it didn't feel that way that evening.

People were very engaged.

And I felt like with with the audience we had, it was weird because you could tell that there were people who had something to say, and there were people here who really were here to listen.

And I was more interested in hearing what people had to say.

Um, I don't like to be passive in something like this.

It's not like watching a movie in a movie theater.

This is something where people should be getting involved.

And I was very happy to see people who wanted to get involved.

So yeah.

Yeah.

I was kind of uh moved by a a family that was sitting uh in front of me and watching the um conversation between the daughter and the mother.

Yeah, because you know it it it it was really nice to see the the daughter questioning, well, why?

You know, why and the mother trying to explain.

So it, you know, it's it's just it was just a good way to you know engage people and and kind of push their thinking a little bit.

And I thought it was nice that the mayor showed up and we had the vice mayor and we had Tony Daysog, City Council.

They all showed up, and I know that the mayor was very busy that day because that was the day that the uh uh the folks were at the Coast Guard Island area and that whole Coast Guard Island moment that was going on.

So all that happened within that same period of a day.

So the fact that she was here for the entire showing of the movie gave us, you know, real feeling of good of good feel a real good feeling all the way around about what was accomplished and the fact that we do have the year of City Hall to work with us.

I thought so.

And their support, yeah.

So I also want to.

And could you speak into the mic?

I'm sorry to interrupt you.

Yeah, is this on?

Okay, I just wanted to thank staff.

Um, Shelby and Simone and Gracia for helping us set this up and uh we really enjoyed the hot meal before the show.

So thank you for that.

And um, I just wanted to hear from you what what your daughters were saying about the events.

It'd be interesting to hear their perspective.

Did they talk about it?

No, I thought it was a great event.

Likewise.

Yeah.

Same, and I won't let you have it this time when I'm out of town.

Um and uh there is the season of nonviolence that's coming up at the end of March, and I've been speaking to Camille about doing something in partnership with ACCYF for that.

So that's something to look forward to.

That's really good.

That's one of the best programs that we do every year.

It really kind of spreads the message, and I think it's nice we get it at both ends of the year.

We get the season of nonviolence at one end and united against hate at the other.

So it's a really good combination, always.

And Gerald, I I wanna acknowledge how I how are you feeling to go with your without your yang for your yin.

Like, are you ready to approach in the next year?

Well, we're gonna be looking for new people to work with us.

So the goal will be to build a community from the ground up and and get as many people as possible involved.

I was really glad again to see uh Miss Solara as the youth.

Uh we've talked about having somebody from the youth on the board with us.

I still think it's a good idea.

And with people like her and other students that are involved, we could probably make United Against Hate even more popular, especially.

I mean, if you listen to what they were talking about earlier and the different programs that she's doing.

They're doing parallel stuff to what we're doing right here.

And so it just makes good sense to me that we bring somebody in of that caliber.

Thank you.

Yeah, thank you.

Um this moves us to item five A, the Sasha report on the city of Almida's housing and human services.

Um, Gracia, are you gonna review the presentation?

Yes.

Yes.

So I will uh verbally share out our staff updates.

So, first up, uh already mentioned by Scott, which is that the point in time count or pit count is scheduled for January 22nd from 5 to 11 a.m.

And we are seeking volunteers.

The pick count takes place across the county.

I apologize, it's probably very repetitive.

Are we we might have I might be reading verbatim what you had, Scott?

The pick count takes place across the county to estimate how many people are experiencing homelessness in each city.

Data from the pit helps each city secure the vital funding needed to provide housing and services.

You may register at Alameda.point in time dot info.

And if you have any questions, please reach out to Camille Rodriguez, program manager at housing and human services.

And that email is C Rodriguez at Alameda C A.gov.

C-R-O-D-R-I-G-U-E-Z at Alameda CA.gov.

In addition to pick count volunteers, the youth advisory committee of the Alameda Collaborative for Children, Youth, and their families are seeking donations for people who are currently experiencing unsheltered homelessness in the city of Alameda.

I'm going to share that QR code now so that if you are here in the room or you're watching online, you can scan that QR code.

Let me zoom in.

And this will take you to the wish list that staff has put together for items that will be packaged as what I'm calling care kits or kits to be handed out during the pick count.

A flyer is also flyers are circulating.

Please share these.

We will likely attach the this flyer to the minutes.

Um, and please share with your community.

Next, um, our next meeting will be on January 13th, 7 p.m.

Uh, to accommodate the pick count.

Um, I you know, so that staff do not have to work from 5 a.m.

to 9 p.m.

And a couple city council items to update you on that are going to city council tomorrow.

Uh, the winter warming shelter agreement.

If approved by council tomorrow, the shelter will open on December 3rd.

There are we are going to council for additional CDBG funding for the Day Center relocation project.

There will be an amendment to the village of love ESH contract to extend through February of 2026.

Uh, and ESH is emergency supportive housing.

And lastly, there will be the CDBG need statement brought to city council for acceptance, and that concludes my staff updates.

Thank you.

Yeah, um, thank you.

Um I actually didn't have that information handy, so thank you for providing that.

Um so we now are going to board communications, not agenda item.

Yeah, um Diane wanted to before I leave.

I actually wanted to raise this issue about um the lack of quality skilled nursing um nursing home care in the city of Alameda.

Um my good friend's mother recently was um placed in a uh Alameda.

Can I even say the name of the Alameda Healthcare and Wellness Facility?

I'm sure people are familiar with it.

There's so few places that folks can go to uh once they leave uh the hospital um for nursing care.

And um, at any rate, she almost died there.

And um, luckily, my good friend and uh his wife were able to um extricate her from the facility and then brought her back home.

So now she's thriving, which is you know, I mean, it's just a testimony to, you know, the kind of care that people really need.

Um, but I there was an article that was uh circulated uh amongst families who have elders who may be in that same situation, and it came to my attention.

Um, and I wanted to bring it all to all your attention that um an elderly man died while in the facility, and the family did sue and was awarded um 7.4 million.

This is this was not the only lawsuit.

Um, there were other lawsuits.

So that so this one couple own, I think 18 nursing home facilities throughout the state, and a number of them have been cited uh for uh you know uh not taking care of their patients, yes, yes.

And so I was asking Scott if there's anything that the board could do to ensure that the residents of Alameda are protected and guaranteed um quality health care, uh, especially our frail elders.

Yeah, and this is this is something that's big that's been happening that just gets highlighted once in a while by these situations.

Um I did reach out to the senior services coalition, um, you know, and they they do put some political pressure, but one of the problems is they said there's not enough ombudsmen, and it's a really tough job, but they're the ones who go in and suss out these issues and bring it to people's attention before harm um occurs.

The one thing that people can do as individuals immediately is there is a website that has excellent um resources for seniors and family members.

Um, and I'm just gonna read out the website.

It's it's called the consumer voice.org.

So it's just those words.

T-E-C-O-N-S-U-M-E-R-V-O-I-C-E.org.

And um that has tools that that uh families are can use.

Um, but unfortunately, a lot of it has to do with the narrow margins of funding and predatory for-profit nursing facilities.

So I think one of the things we can do is try to have systems in place, for example, age-family cities, to make things easier for people to keep their senior parents at home.

You know, adult daycare is one big thing that helps because then people can work and they have somewhere safe to drop off their parent, and daycares tend to be better licensed daycares than you know, overnight.

Um, I was looking at daycares and what the reimbursement rates were for Medi-Cal.

And of course they have them all on the same page, and I was like, well, there's got to be some weird extra money here.

This can't be for overnight.

We weren't looking for overnights, we're looking at daycare.

This can't be for residential.

It was like, no, that's it.

And I that's part of it is a problem is is not funded appropriately to actually have the quality care, right?

Because they're called skilled nursing facilities, right?

And currently with the reimbursement changes of Medicaid and Medical starting January 1st, um, there's gonna be even less uh reimbursement rates.

It is unfortunately that those changes will make the matter worse.

And to be honest, I for those of you who were here when I was doing it, I was taking care of a family friend who had a stroke a couple years back and within similar facility, I might even have been the same facility.

And had it not been for the fact that I said we're taking her out on hospice, she would have died in there because they simply were not treating her properly.

She wasn't getting what she needed, and I was watching her slowly fade.

And had it not been for me saying, you know, I'll just be there at the house.

She didn't have anybody at the house there with her, and there was no service available to be able to have that.

And it was it was just a comedy, uh tragic comedy, if you will, to watch how they worked to keep the money inside of the system that they had and not let her live outside of it.

And so everything she's talked about here is 100% true, and it's a topic that I have much interest in.

And I feel like if there's more that we can do as a board, I think we should.

I've seen it with more than just her.

I've had other seniors and people who've had disabilities who've been in those same facilities.

Some of them within the last year, and I can't say that they've had a whole lot of success.

I can only say maybe one out of every three has had anything in the way of a way out without them trying to keep them in there.

So yes, anything we can do with a board, I think is an ideal thing.

It's a really important issue.

I think one of the things that comes to mind too is through the age-friendly cities and having more conversations with caregivers and providers to really understand what could be done at the city level, right?

And what as community to assist.

And I think in our last uh age-friendly city listening session, one of the things that we talked about just briefly was end of life care, right?

And end of life decision making and how those discussions are very much we don't like to talk about death and we don't like to talk about dying and we don't really like to talk about aging.

Um and so how do we as a community make those conversations more accessible and more successful so that folks actually can have a realistic expectation of what the end of their life can look like and what systems are actually there to support them and which systems are not there to support them because what we see in the movies is not how it actually works.

Right?

Someone who's taken care of a lot of people that have passed away.

Right, yeah, that way.

No, and people think like, oh, there's gonna be a hospice worker that just comes and stays with my family member, right, until they pass or something like that, right?

And that's not the way that this works.

And so having realistic conversations, I think, but we just don't have a space for that.

So perhaps as part of age-friendly communities, we can make more of that space, and that includes mental health though, because the families have to have that backing, the mental health part of it, because dealing with someone who's in hospice or somebody who's dying requires that you have a way to get out these emotions and get out your feelings and have somebody to do it with, and that requires having that mental health side of it too.

It's everything that we're talking about as a board is wrapped up in what she just brought up right here, and again, I can't say strongly enough about how important it really is and things like mental health.

We need to be focusing on that as part of this as well to watch somebody you know debilitate in a in a place like that is just terrifying, and you're you're almost at your own wit's end trying to figure out what can you do, and sometimes drastic measures are required.

So this is where we need to have our our ducks in the road.

As a board, I mean, I biased by my work, um, but I think the intersection of people experiencing homelessness and hospice is having taken care of people on the streets that are uh palliative and hospice care is a it's a really challenge.

And I think maybe if we kind of think of the the that lens of that is even more when you don't have a lot of advocacy or or support systems.

Yeah.

Well said, yeah, yeah.

Thank you, Diane.

Yeah, thank you.

So um I I have something, but I want to make sure.

I wanted to give a little bit of form to Robbie to introduce herself if you want to say a little bit about your background or what brought you to the board so we can get to know you guys.

And I don't know if maybe after the agenda we could briefly share our background so you can get to know us.

So I think um I don't know what I'm like playing musical chairs.

Um, I am I was born and raised here, I'm born in Oakland, but raised in Alameda.

I think I taught your kids to swim at Harbor Bay Club.

I mean, like I've been around a long time.

Um and uh my parents worked in the school, so like this is been home.

I I'm a special I'm a director of special education.

Um I was a special ed teacher for over 20 something years in Dublin, and then went to um administrator in Berkeley and then a charter, and then I just recently moved to become a director at a school district, but I moved back here um back over the hill from the valley um two years ago, and my father passed away, and so it's like when I came back here, I'm like, I gotta do something.

I gotta get back into I was a recreation leader with ARPD and worked at Harbor Bay Club.

I mean, this is like home.

Well, it is home.

Um, and so I looked on online and I was due diligent and I filled out the application.

Um and uh did an interview with the mayor, and she's like, Robbie, and who I've known for years, um, we have this thing.

And I'm like, oh my god, yes, please.

Um, one of my best friends was on shrub years ago, and I was so jealous because we didn't have anything on the valley, and so I'm like, um, and she passed away a couple years ago, so I'm so excited, and she's like, this is her.

Um, so it was really fun and really honored to be part of this and come back and kind of come full circle.

Um, so yeah, it's it's I'm I'm pumped to be here.

Yeah, you're welcome, Rob.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Is it okay if we use some of this time just to introduce ourselves?

Chris, yeah, you think it's okay?

Oh, there we go.

I think it's gonna we're not really communications.

Let's see it's fine.

I'm Jal Buckolds.

Um I am came to this.

I do my work as a nurse practitioner for the San Francisco Department of Public Health.

I uh serve people experiencing homelessness and also faculty at UCSF in the School of Nursing, and I am a mother of two small children, uh two and five-year-old, and I think have the privilege of bringing the the youngest person to a board meeting and brought my two-month-old to the board meeting, and that was really highlight.

Um, but I'm really passionate about um human uh connection and community building and homelessness.

Um I'm Samantha Green.

I am a stay-at-home mom.

Um my background is in social research, most of it around housing, homelessness, and mental health.

Um, and a lot of the point-in-time questions always get like looked at because that was what I used to do for a very long time.

Um, and I really came to this work because it was what I used to do to get paid, and now I get to do it for free, which is way more fun.

Um, yeah, so and then I've been working with Scott on the um age-friendly cities work.

Um so he and I have been uh, well, Scott is really doing most of it, but we have been trying to find some money to do some of that work as well.

So um, yeah.

Um, we actually had some time to introduce ourselves over there.

So I'll have Diane of me.

I've been in Alameda for over 40 years, raised my family here, and um recently became a grandmother.

So now I have a three-month-old.

I know, it's just it's just great.

Um, and I'm really enjoying uh spending time with her.

But um at any rate, um I've been on the board for four years plus, probably.

Yeah, and to tonight is my last night, yeah.

So I I just feel like I need to spend time with the baby while my husband and his wife have to go back to work.

So we're there to kind of fill in for them part-time, maybe.

So at any rate, um, and you know, served with um Gerald on the um uh United Against Hate work, which I'm very passionate about since that's my whole life.

It's been fighting racism and uh hatred.

And Gerald Gerald Bryant.

Um this is my first foray into public service.

I've never done it before.

Um, like you, I saw it in the newspaper and was very diligent about filling it out and had the interview with the mayor, and she said that she really wanted me to be on the board for my lived experience.

Um, I've lived here in Alameda since 1999.

I've raised all three of my daughters here, and they're now all grown-ups, and I have two grandchildren, and it's wonderful to see how how well they turned out, but they also went through a lot here in Alameda, and so I use these as ways to talk about the things that go on when it comes down to well racism in Alameda.

I mean, it's not a thing that's hidden, it's very obvious, and the best part about it for me is I get to talk about it with passionate people who are like-minded individuals who want to do good things in the community.

And so that's why I'm here this is my third year.

Well gonna be third going on fourth year next um because I came in on a half I filled out I was filling one other person's position for the last year and now I've got three more or four more years so this means I'll have a year and a half two more years left so really am glad to have you.

Yeah so I'm glad to have somebody else on the team welcome welcome we are looking forward thank you um and before we close the meeting um I want to just take a moment to thank Diane for your your service on this board and this has become all too usual of a thing because she just stepped down from the East Pay Foundation aging board too which I do support I'm with you on that yeah um thank you Scott yeah no it's been really a joy working with you just you know I don't have anything formal to say because I think we had a really great working relationship you know it's one thing you tell people in certain generations um one thing I was like is I could call Diane on the phone and she'd pick it up and we could talk I don't have to ask for permission to call you in advance so I always appreciated that and you did the same.

So it was good it was it was great to have you as a thought partner on both boards and really I you know my contact info so if there's anything you have any brilliant or kooky or even bad ideas and you want to run by me or was there.

I want to just highlight the warmth and grace that you brought to this board.

I think you really grounded us you grounded us in um evidence-based compassionate interventions and I think uh your your presence just really elevated and created a wonderful tone so we're really thank you for all that you added to our report thank you thank you for all the great work you're doing too so all of you we'll be looking forward to it oh my goodness I hope you're gonna look at the God that's beautiful thank you hold on a second um let me do something right here uh no doesn't have no no just the barcode unless you have a barcode reader all right I'm sorry we've had a lot of extra stuff tonight I want to thank the staff for all their patience everyone else for staying engaged um very involved meeting with lots of different things that we're not used used to um and with that in mind we can adjourn this meeting at 8 oh nine p.m.