Welcome back to this weekly meeting of the Community Planning and Housing Committee with Denver City Council.

Your community planning and housing committee starts now.

All right, we're on air.

This is the Community Planning and Housing Committee of Denver City Council.

It is the afternoon of April 14th.

My computer tells me.

And we have a couple of briefings today, both from host.

We'll start with council member introductions.

And why don't we do online first?

I'm Sarah Paradise, I'm one of your council members at large, and I think we have at least one colleague joining us on Zoom.

Hi, good afternoon, Councilwoman Chanteau Lewis District 8.

Thanks, John Tal.

Pausing in case there's anyone else on there, but I think there is not.

Alright, so then with that, we will start with the president on my left.

Hi.

Narciss Denver District.

Yes.

Doing the one of those every day.

Jamie Torres, West Denver District 3.7 Soyer, District 5.

Diana Romero Campbell, Southeast Denver District 4.

Lovely.

And then I believe we have Kevin Kelly from us to start with a presentation on Denver Day Works, which we all learned a lot more about last budget cycle.

So we're looking forward to it.

Thanks.

Awesome.

Thanks y'all for having me.

Yes, my name is Kevin Kelly.

I'm a program officer with host, and I am here today to talk about Denver Dayworks.

So the action we're requesting for today is for your approval on an amendment to the Denver Daywor with Service Source.

The amendment will do three things.

It will add 413,000 onto the full contract amount, bringing it to 550,000 for the calendar year.

It will also extend the terms.

We did kind of a mini contract which expired on March 31st, and the amendment will extend it through the end of the calendar year.

And then lastly, it will update some of the contract language to update our priority populations.

One being referrals from hosts, rapid rehousing programs, and then the second being newly unhoused households who are entering into our shelter system.

I know we typically use this chart to kind of show where a program will fit within host's spectrum of work.

Dayworks is a little bit of an outlier for us in that it doesn't really fit super neatly into any of these categories as it's an employment program, and you'd be really hard pressed to find a program and host that is not focused predominantly on housing.

The one through line, though, being that obviously this is a program focused on serving unhoused people, and that's obviously one of our main constituencies.

To give you a brief uh overview of the history of Day Works, it launched in 2017.

It was based off of a program out of Albuquerque that did mostly kind of outreach for people who were panhandling and offered them day labor services.

So Bayod Enterprises and at the time Depart the Department of Human Services organized the contract and really built out on that idea.

The original kind of day labor experience looked like meeting the Bayod staff down at Civic Center Park.

Uh DHS provided a bus which would come pick everybody up, and they would go to two work sites.

One would be at Dotti's main facility, that one off of Alameda and I-25, and they would work there as well as in one park throughout the city.

Typical kind of work ranged from uh light landscaping, cleaning up, picking up trash, uh snow removal in the winter, raking weaves, and things of that nature.

While folks were engaged in that work experience, they were also engaged by a resource navigator who would help with things such as benefits acquisitions and uh coordinated entry assessments, and then they would also meet with an employment specialist who would help them develop their resume, apply for jobs, prepare for interviews and things like that.

Um so obviously the focus was really on finding that permanent work that was the ultimate goal for every participant in the program.

Um and I wanted to put this image on the slide today.

If you came in through the front of the city and county building, that kind of central rock garden, all of those trees there were planted by day workers.

I think it really highlights uh just how much benefit the city has had from the labor of Denver Day Worker participants.

I think a lot gets made and rightfully so of the benefit that the program has for participants, but we as a city have also really benefited from their work.

So there are very few places I go in the city where I'm not like Denver Dayworks cleaned up this area or planted flowers here or something like that.

They've helped at the Colfax Marathon start starting line, many Rhino Art District Festivals.

A few day workers were even hired to replace all of the light fixtures in the downtown central library and the Castro building with green energy efficient ones several years ago.

So this program has a real legacy of benefiting the city as well.

And then we have Dayworks today.

So as I'm sure everybody is aware, Bayota Enterprises, as it formerly operated, is no longer no longer in operation.

It is split into two existing organizations.

There is the Bayod Works, which operate our cold weather shelters as well as some of our non-congregate shelters like the Tamarack.

And then other parts of Bayod, including Denver Day Works, went over to an agency called Service Source.

Service Source is a national nonprofit and was really a great landing spot for Denver Day Works.

They have a very similar mission to Bayod's former one.

They are all about finding and helping people with significant barriers to employment find full-time work or permanent work, I should say.

So really a great landing spot for this program.

We've also made some other adjustments to the program over the last few years, one of them being where the work experiences take place.

Without their cooperation and partnership, the program would not exist today.

But last year we were really seeing a need around our microcommunities and non-congregate shelters for assistance with kind of the upkeep upkeep of the surrounding areas.

So we decided to move the Denver Dayworks crews over there.

So they are on a rotating schedule with all of those non-congregate shelters.

They're predominantly doing similar work to what they were doing at the outset of the program.

It's a lot of landscaping, landscaping, trash pickup, things of that nature.

We've also shifted, as I mentioned, the target populations.

The first being folks who are involved in our rapid rehousing programs at host.

This includes all of our kind of traditional ones as well as the HCC.

And the reason for that was we saw a real opportunity to kind of bolster those programs with Denver Day Works.

The people involved in our rapid rehousing programs were formerly homeless.

The referrals we're getting are now currently housed, and they're on their way to kind of that self-sufficiency piece that comes with rapid rehousing.

They're starting to pay more of their rent over time.

So being able to assist them with finding that permanent employment is a real boon to them and a great fit for this program.

And then the second new population are people who are newly unhoused who are entering into our shelter system.

So we're starting pretty small with that.

We're identifying people who are new as entering into homelessness within the last six months or less.

And we're going to be starting with just St.

Francis Center for right now, and then we'll expand out kind of as we can kind of figure out what our capacity is there.

And despite all of those changes, the focus of the program still remains the same, and that is finding that permanent employment for our participants.

So somebody accesses it by attending an orientation.

They're held on the first Friday of, or excuse me, they're held on every Friday of each month from 10 to noon at the central library.

They'll see a presentation so that they can understand more about the program and start to fill out that initial paperwork.

They are considered employees of Service Source, so they do need to have those vital docs to fill out the necessary tax forms.

Obviously, that's a big barrier for a lot of people experiencing homelessness.

So service source staff will work with people at this point if they don't have those to get them to get those so that they can get access to the work crew, which is the next step in the process.

They'll be placed on the work crew where they work three times per week, making a little over 408 dollars per week.

That is also when they'll be engaged by the employment specialist and the navigation team to start working on their goals.

And then ultimately the hope for every participant is that they are placed into a permanent job.

Once they are placed, they're still eligible for ongoing services.

We have access to a client support line so we can help with things like uniforms, equipment, steel tote boots, things of that nature.

And they can also help with more of the intangible aspects of starting a new job, navigating their schedule, making sure that they have transportation to work, and then any of just kind of the typical things that come with a new job and the challenges there.

This is a copy of the logic model we're using for the contract.

The goal is to serve 90 households or more for the year.

Uh, we anticipate serving um 50% or more with with case management.

That's the employment specialist and the navigation side of things.

Uh, we're aiming to have 60% or more of the households engaged, increase or maintain their income.

Obviously, that's gonna be through things like benefits acquisition as well as the employment side of things.

And then lastly, and most importantly, we're shooting for 35% or more to be placed into permanent employment.

This is an overview of some of the uh last couple of years in terms of outcomes for the program.

2024 was a pretty typical year for the program, around 49 job placements at an average um hours per week of 35 with a wage of 1951 an hour.

2025 was a really down year for the year, uh or for the program.

There's really no getting around that.

And it was for really kind of two reasons.

One was a staffing issue when Bayod was transitioning into service source.

Um there was some staff turnover, which led to some issues with job placements, and then seemingly as soon as we got that solved, um, it looked like the program wasn't going to continue for 2026.

So we started to wind the program down.

Um fortunately, council came to the rescue on that.

Um, and we really bounced back in 2026 through the middle of March of this year.

We're already at 24 households served with nine placements, all at full-time work and at a pretty considerable bump in the average wage too at 23.50 cents.

So uh we're really seeing the program on an upswing and expect to continue to see that uh for the rest of the year.

So, yeah, in conclusion, uh, we're asking for your approval on the contract amendment today as a reminder, this will serve 90 households, and you can see here an overview of the program budget.

And yeah, uh, this is a program that is really near and dear to my heart.

I'm super excited to see that it's continuing this year and want to thank you all for that, and I'd be happy to take any questions that you all have.

Thank you.

Um I have Councilmember Alvidos first in the queue.

Thank you so much.

Um, agree this is an amazing program, and uh really excited to see this come through.

I'm curious, you said um you'll serve 90 households this year, and how are you looking at what the need for this program is?

The need is definitely higher than that.

Um, so we're the program itself kind of ebbs and flows through the year.

Um in my experience, in the warmer months, you see more people looking to access it.

Like sometimes we'll get a wait list that can balloon a bit during that time period.

Um I don't know what it looks like at the moment, um, but I've seen that get up to like a couple months in the past.

And then usually in the winter time when the colder months roll around, there's usually no wait list.

So it really kind of depends on the time of year.

Um the demand for the program is very high.

Yeah, do you have a number for that or no?

I couldn't tell you that.

Um it really just depends on Tammy actually is in the crowd.

Do you mind?

Yeah, yeah.

And just hi, I'm Tammy Belifado.

I'm the executive director, acting executive director for Service Source and the executive director for Bay Aut Enterprises.

Um, we do not have a wait list right now.

Every person that's coming into the program, if they're eligible, we're getting them into services within 14 days.

Great.

That this opportunity is available.

We do outreach events, um, but also the case managers that are in the all-in-mile high sights know about us, and they send folks over to the library.

We also do the resource fair at the library every Friday as well.

At the central library, yes.

Okay.

That's great.

Um, I'm curious, thinking about like my district where we have the tiny home village, there's no public transit or anything.

Is there any kind of transportation provided to these events?

Um if they don't have public transit, I don't believe that there are.

But hopefully their case managers at the all in mile high side are helping them.

Great, awesome.

I appreciate that.

And I'm a little bit, and you may have said this, so forgive me, you were going kind of fast.

I was trying to follow all the things.

But uh I is Bayod and Service Source the same thing, or what so we transferred everything from Bay Aud to Service Source, including employees, contracts, everything went to service source except for the Bay AdWorks ones where the cold weather shelters and the non-congregate shelters that kind of split off to another organization.

Okay, great.

And then my last question is just what how do you choose what projects that they work on or like where they're working that day?

Is there any way for us to uplift issues in our district that maybe could be addressed through this program?

Yeah, that's something we so right now there's a rotation for the um non congregate shelters, that's where the predominant work is.

Um but we can absolutely work around kind of that we do special projects.

I don't know if y'all want to kind of speak to some of the ones you're doing now or or have done in the past, but so we do special projects like Civic Center Park.

Um unfortunately during the construction, they've set that off for 24 months.

But we normally do all the cleanup and the landscaping at Civic Center between April and November every year.

Great.

Awesome.

What is there other projects that you take on or that you're taking on stint civic center is you know under construction.

We aren't right now, but we are working with some of the local bids, the West Colfax bid and um some of the other business districts that we're trying to get into to help with there.

Great.

I would love to connect you with the Broadway agent.

Please sounds great.

Thank you so much.

Thank you so much for this wonderful program at Ottawa.

Thank you, and thank you for your support.

Happy to support.

Thank you.

Well, great questions.

Thanks.

Um, I have Councilmember Sawyer next, and then Madam Pro Tim.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thanks, you guys.

Um this is a fantastic program.

It has been so successful.

Truly um appreciate the partnership.

My question is a structural internal city one.

Um for a situation for a program like this where it does not fit into any of hosts' very clearly um set out boxes.

That is generally an indication that it's not in the right place, then it's not in the right agency.

So I'm curious whether there are any conversations happening with Dito, which is where this probably should be, um, about you know, maybe taking on that part on this programmatic part of it because it feels like that is aligned better with their mission.

Absolutely.

We have had conversations.

Um I can punt over to Jeff if he doesn't mind speaking more to that.

It looks like Jeff Mines.

Yes.

Uh good afternoon, Jeff Kasitsky, uh deputy director at host.

And I'm sorry, I'll need you to repeat the question.

So your question is would this program be better aligned under Dito than it is under host?

Uh no wonder Kevin kicked that over to me.

Um, so um, in all honesty, we were in discussions with Dito about that, but due to you know, the sort of funding kerfuffles and uncertainty around whether it was going to be funded, it really just didn't make sense uh for to move it over on a temporary basis.

But I I think uh your you know what you're implying, I think is correct at some point it it would make more sense to be over at Dito.

Uh we have an excellent partnership with Dito.

We're working really uh well with them, especially on our rapid rehousing programs and getting folks either into Denver Day Works and then into uh job training and permanent positions.

So, but it's uh, you know, next next fiscal year uh discussion.

Yeah, I really appreciate that.

Thank you, Jeff.

And um, I will just say I think part of the chat like operationally speaking, it seems better to be aligned um under Dito than it is under you all, acknowledging that the way the mayor's office prioritization has worked, and I don't see anyone from the mayor's office here to hear me.

Surprise, surprise.

Um the challenge is that all of the funding is going to you guys and none of the funding is going to Dito.

And it feels like this is one of those very clear spaces where there needs to be a rebalancing of dollars and priorities because everything can't go under host just so that it looks good that host is getting all of this money and um you know political wins can be had.

That's ridiculous, and it's not how you run a city.

So I feel like um this is like a clear indication, like one of those clear examples of something that we talk about a lot over here on the city council side when it comes to where our dollars are actually going.

So I mean I will say historically, and Kevin can correct me if I'm wrong.

This has been with host for uh quite a long time.

Um, but I I do feel like as host is um you know realigning and and I would say improving our our work and our processes.

I think it it's it's you know, over a year ago we started talking about w that this should really probably move to Dito.

Um I can't really comment on the budget piece of it, just operationally it makes sense.

Um and again, we have a great partnership with them, and but they are you know able to transition folks more easily, like from programs like Denver Day Works to other job training programs or or opportunities, and I think that's how a good workforce development system should work, and that people, regardless of their housing experience, like need to be in a workforce development system.

Um, you know, that's that's seamless and and functional.

And also have been in discussion with this lady over here, um, who also I think agrees that it would make more sense um to have the workforce agency running a workforce program.

Yeah, I really appreciate that.

And I will just say long ago, host used to be in Dito.

It was an arm of Dito.

So you know, it got moved into its own separate agency in 2019.

But when we started here, it was brand new.

It used to be hosts used to be under Dito.

So I think there's always been kind of a connection there.

Um, but I do think when we're you're exactly right.

When we're talking about workforce development, um, the continuum of supports for workforce development start with uh, you know, with Denver Day works, but they move on or Bayod works, but they move on, you know, all the way through some of the more um complex things that Dito does.

And so I think just in terms of supporting our residents to the best of our abilities and getting the best ROI for our dollars, it should probably move to Dito moving forward.

That's all.

Thanks.

Thank you.

Um I have a moment for time next, thank you.

Uh thank you, Madam Chair.

Um, thank you for the presentation.

I was wondering um when you have households uh listed as your as you know, households that would be served.

Um, do you have families that are parents or do you have individuals that are parents?

And then how are you helping to support for child care or is that an outstanding issue?

Historically, it has been mostly single individuals.

We do have families come through occasionally.

I don't know if anybody from Service Source wants to kind of speak about current trends with that.

Hi, my name is Cindy Chapman.

I'm the director over the employment programs at Service Source.

As far as families, we a lot of people don't admit to it.

You'll get a couple of couples going along, but you don't have a lot of people that admit to having youth within their care.

Um they know to go to other places like St.

Francis and things like that if they're looking for that.

However, our company does have programs specifically for families and people with disabilities and people are just as involved and everything like that.

So, and we're very, very close community partners with all the other agencies out there.

So if somebody comes to us, we don't just turn them away.

We'll we'll make sure that if they don't fit in any of our programs, that they'll get somewhere where they fit.

And you're absolutely right, child care right now, especially with the way things are going fiscally with CCAP and all that stuff, that is a major concern, and it's something that needs to be addressed.

Thank you.

Um I was because you had mentioned the Tamarack, and I was just wondering if service if uh the service source was if this day works was being provided as an opportunity and knowing that child care and you know, in order to be in the Tamark, you need to have a child under the age of 18.

Um, and just wondering how that was being supported and so with the transition of Tamarac's contract this year, Victoria Johnson, she came from us.

She knows us.

Aaron, they know us.

We're very close partners with them, and they know exactly who is a great fit and who would be a fit, and they can address those types of issues, and they have a lot of experience doing that.

I can speak very highly of the team that took over at the Tamarack.

But yeah, she has my personal cell phone number too, so she can get get anybody in the doors.

She absolutely needs to.

Great.

Um, thank you.

And then my last question was uh you said eligible and paperwork.

How are people paid for the work and the service that they're being that they're providing?

So historically, we had 1099 employees.

Um with the transition over to service source, they're a much larger company.

They're they do the risk and compliance balance.

Um they did an audit and determined that with the length of time our individuals work for us, that they legally needed to be W-2 employees.

So it we went from being no barrier to a time barrier because we will not turn anybody away.

Uh we split them into two tracks, people that come to us with their work eligible documents and people that need help with that.

They get the intensive case management up front with the whether it's a birth certificate or if somebody has an out-of-state ID that they need to move here, but they get that intensive attention from the kid from well, it's the program manager that doubles as a case manager now, to get those things they need so they can go on the work crew.

I can tell you that since working with the all-in-mile high sites, people not having documents has been a very rare problem, especially since the focus is on housing and you need those things to move into housing.

So it happens, but when it does, we focus on them for that.

And they do get a paycheck.

We help them set up a bank account.

If they don't want a bank account, we help them set up a chime card.

We still have the odds and ends that get paper paychecks.

So we we meet people where they are based off of how they can, and we try to give them the tools they need to be successful in the future that way.

Great.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I don't have any questions.

I'll pause because I'm next in the queue, but if anyone else wants to get in before me.

Okay, great.

So I I just want to um raise, I guess, mostly for um for Tammy for Kevin.

Um the Denver Day Works is one of those programs that is going to be really crucial when the um Medicaid work requirements kick in, right?

So I'm curious um how you all, if you feel like you are are planning for that in any way, if you feel like you have a sense of how people will have to um verify their work hours to keep Medicaid, because I just can imagine that almost everyone you're serving probably is on Medicaid and thus will have to start doing this.

Um and if we if you haven't sort of had anyone from like healthcare world um reach out to partner with and train you on keeping people in Medicaid, we could I would like to make that happen.

So I'm just curious how much is that in the ether for you?

How much do you feel like you know about what's coming?

Thank you for the question that anyone can answer that.

Jeff can answer that.

So you know, whoever it feels like one of these things that uh the workforce folks and the Medicaid, you know, medical folks are gonna need to get together on at some point.

Yeah, uh thank you, Jeff Kositsky again, deputy director and host, and um thank you for seeing I was on the edge of my seat wanting to answer this one.

Um so we are currently uh working with the Department of Human Services, uh Dito and host and and other departments on this issue and looking at opportunities like Denver Day Works, but also volunteer opportunities within our shelters to be able to fulfill the work requirements.

So I don't have a uh we don't have a full plan worked out um at this point, but starting in our our goal is to begin um in June, starting to work with um the guests, and we've already started engaging with our shelter providers, um, most of whom are willing to figure out um how to provide volunteer opportunities or or work opportunities um and uh Denver Day works as well as other uh Dito programs are being um you know brought to the table to have this discussion, but I don't have um uh all of the details yet, but we're we're meeting on a on a very regular basis.

That's great.

That is all I ever could have asked to hear.

And I think I don't know if this committee would be the right one since it's host Dito DHS together and really maybe more Dito and DHS centric, but um some kind of committee update on that work around June would probably be really good.

So I'll pass that on to my DHS colleagues who are leading this.

Great.

Thank you for doing that.

All right.

Anyone else last chance for um questions about Denver Day Works, but just want to say how much I appreciate the presentation and to y'all how much we really appreciate your work.

Um it just, you know, I'm a fan.

Um I think all of us are.

Thank you so much.

Um and yes, it's an action item.

Taurus has moved, I'll be dressed as seconded.

Everybody's thumbs up.

Um great.

So we'll see you guys uh on the floor, I suppose.

And really appreciate it.

All right, then our next item is a briefing, and I introduced it as a host briefing, um, but it's host and MDHI together.

Um really grateful to you all for coming in today because Councilmember Alvidres, I think is the one who um most strongly requested this, but a lot of us had relevant questions, and so um we're just we're happy to have this on deck today.

I know we have several folks from MDHI, we have Midoria, of course, and then there may be someone from MDHI who is online.

Yes.

So if you guys want to introduce yourselves and I will check with the producer to see if we have it's Kyla who may be online, is that right?

Correct.

Yeah, thank you.

Good to be with you.

My name is Jason Johnson.

The great honor of serving as executive director of the Metro Denver Homeless Initiative.

Uh your federally designated continuum of care.

Great to meet you.

Hi all, my name is Sophia Vill.

I serve as the director of strategy and impact at Metro Denver Homeless Initiative.

Hi, Midori Hugo Sheher Pronouns Director of Homelessness Resolution Programs at host, former employee of MDHR.

You learn something new every day.

Um, and then Kylo Mo is in the process of being promoted.

So Kyla, if you're there and you can hear us yet, please feel free to introduce yourself.

If not, I will give you a chance to do that after the slides if we're if we're still getting you promoted.

Speaking to the air.

Can you guys hear me?

Yes, we can.

We can.

Good afternoon.

I am Kyle Mo.

I am the deputy director at Metro Denver Homeless Initiative.

Lovely to meet you.

Well, thanks.

Thanks again for the time this afternoon.

Really good to be with you.

Um Metro Denver um homeless initiative or MDHI as we're more commonly known.

Uh as I mentioned, is the continuum of care.

And we're gonna walk through what that means and what the work that we're involved in looks like, and specifically what our partnership with Denver and hosts looks like.

We are have specifically been asked to talk more specifically about the homeless management information system or HMIS.

We also want to highlight one of our programs, coordinated entry, which is uh housing access platform and process.

Um so again, really good to be with you.

Um just to start us off, I'm gonna have Sophia go through to talk about uh MDHI, our mission vision, and uh a high overview of our work and our strategic activities here in 26 and 27.

Thank you.

I always like to start with our mission and vision because truly everything that we do as an organization feeds into this at a high level.

MDHI is here to help the region work together so that fewer people are experiencing homelessness in our community.

We take more of that 30,000-foot view of looking at the entire system and all programs and activities that are happening to see where we can better coordinate and align across our seven county metro Denver region.

And we are a tiny but mighty staff of about 25 people who serve again this seven county metro Denver region.

And so what our role looks like in the community.

We are largely known as being the lead agency for our region's continuum of care.

Uh the a continuum of care is designated by the U.S.

Department of Housing and Urban Development or HUD to coordinate Metro Denver's local response to homelessness in alignment with federal strategies.

As the continuum of care and as a nonprofit, there are several activities that we are responsible for.

The first one is regional coordination.

So as I mentioned, taking that 30,000-foot view and seeing what's happening across the seven counties to see where we can streamline.

We also oversee the implementation of the homelessness management information system, which is a core activity of a COC.

We also conduct an annual point-in-time count in partnership with many, many different partners across our seven county region.

And then we implement the coordinated entry system as well, and we bring in funding primarily from the federal government to distribute out into the community to help those that are experiencing homelessness, and we monitor those funds.

We can also bring in other funding too, but the federal government is our primary source.

And so today we'll talk about uh the homeless management information system and coordinated entry system.

And so, since we are a large and diverse region, it's important that we organize the work locally, and we do so through our nine subregions.

So we break up the entire region into our seven counties plus the tri-cities, which is Sheridan Littleton and Inglewood, as well as the city of Aurora.

And so we did this in 2020 and based this model off of Dr.

Cog and their transportation model, and so mirroring what they did there, because this really allows for local priorities to shine through and also look at different opportunities and strengths and um challenges that each locality may be facing.

Um each area is leading their own uh coordination locally, but realign around a shared destination, and so uh that shared destination is knowing everyone experiencing homelessness by name in a more dynamic time, and then ensuring that homelessness is rare and brief.

And so, as a community, we're working to count down homelessness instead of looking at how many people we house over a period of time.

We're really looking at who's actively experiencing homelessness and trying to count down to as low as we can get the dream of zero that homelessness doesn't exist, um, but really looking at reductions of homelessness over time.

And so, as I mentioned, this end destination of homelessness being rear and brief.

This is something we sought out to achieve in 2022.

We set five-year aims across our community.

We reached the halfway point last June and started doing an assessment of where we were at and adapted the language to acknowledge the current environment that we are navigating, and um, but the community still wanted to stay very committed to ending homelessness for veterans, still wanted to see reductions in homelessness across families, youth, um, and single adults as well.

And so we often refer to the point in time count as looking at that one snapshot of homelessness on a given night.

This is aiming to achieve more of a video reel of what is happening ideally day by day, but we're striving for month by month now at this point.

And so a lot of the work that we do and we're trying to achieve really relies on data from our homeless management information system.

And so I'll hand it over to Jason to talk through that.

Great, thanks, Sophia.

So the homeless management information system or HMIS is our locally administered information data system.

It allows homeless serving organizations and programs to confidently and confidentially record and store client level data in a single system.

HMIS is really used to produce an unduplicated count of how many people the system is serving.

It is not always a count of who is actively experiencing homelessness.

We have programs that span the entire spectrum from prevention, so trying to keep someone housed, all the way through to some of our housing programs where someone has been placed in permanent housing.

Maybe it's supportive housing where they're just accessing the services side while they're housed.

But it is intended to capture the number of people who are accessing the homeless response system, ideally day by day, but definitely month by month.

Over the course of 2024, which is the latest data that we've published through the state of homelessness, we saw more than 34,000 unduplicated individuals being served by our homeless response system.

That's across the seven counties, so that's not Denver specific, but 34,000 plus individuals had to access some kind of service related to their them being unhoused or trying to seek housing stability.

HMIS is and its data is used in a variety of ways.

Two, it's used to research and analyze what's working.

And it also is used to implement change.

So we're able to access and a variety of partners are able to access non-identifiable data to understand how the system is performing and to see if any shifts.

So the Colorado HMIS, it's not just our, when I say local, I don't just mean Metro Denver, but our HMIS is something that's used by providers across the entire state of Colorado.

That's a huge benefit because we last year published the state of homelessness report, and it really pulled together all of the HMIS data throughout the entire state.

So it was something that Metro Denver Homeless Initiative partnered with Pikes Peak, Northern Colorado, and the Balance of State to really highlight what homelessness looked like across the state.

There were a lot of similarities, but also some unique differences.

So a little commercial or more data to come.

More data to come.

But so that's a huge benefit to all of us that this statewide system is in place.

But HMIS is really something that is beneficial to clients, so anyone seeking housing or seeking services.

There's a level of quick care coordination that happens through HMIS staff.

It is a platform that they can use to again coordinate care, but also keep track of someone's progress.

Agencies, it is data that they can access to highlight how effective their programs are as an agency, and something they can use, data that they can use when they're applying for grant funds, when they're communicating with electeds, when they're communicating with the constituents and their donors.

And then the community.

This is something like the state of homelessness report where we can report out using HMIS data how our system is performing overall.

Yeah, and I'll just add too for the client piece, it's really important too that this is all housed within a system that is protected and not anyone can just access it.

There's training and data use agreements and data sharing agreements that have to go into this.

It also helps with clients too because it reduces the times that they have to tell their story over and over again.

So instead of having to go to 10 different agencies and share the same thing, all of that information is already in HMIS and they can get connected to the community.

We're also working to ensure that HMIS, there are many data systems that our nonprofit partners use, and so we're actively working on integration between our HMIS software and other softwares that nonprofits use.

We try to make this as low barrier.

It's not a perfect system, and we're always aiming and striving to improve it, but we really it benefits the whole ecosystem of who's interacting with it.

And so now to talk about coordinated entry system.

Our coordinated entry system is housed within HMIS.

It um so HMIS is the data system where you report all this information, and there's so many people, like you mentioned, 34,000 people that are within HMIS or accessing services.

Coordinated entry is kind of a subset of that.

These are people that are experiencing literal homelessness that need to get connected to a housing opportunity.

And so the coordinated entry system is something that we are mandated to implement as a continuum of care.

So this is like HMIS, one of the required activities of us as a COC.

The aim of a coordinated entry system is to ensure is to inform how people access housing resources within the homeless response system.

It's an avenue to housing.

Um, and the aim of it is to also ensure access is consistent and based on need and not necessarily where someone shows up.

So prior to coordinated entry system, someone would have to go to 10 different nonprofits to see if there was housing available.

Now with the coordinated entry system, the goal is to streamline that as well.

And so we implement our local coordinated entry system in Metro Denver.

This is called one home.

So you might hear one home, one home coordinated entry system, or coordinated entry system used interchangeably, but uh yeah, you hear any of those, we're talking about the system that we implement.

Um, as I mentioned, data collection and management is housed within the Colorado Homeless Management Information System or HMIS.

There is uh eligibility for one home in that someone must meet the literal definition of homelessness, so staying in a place not meant for human adaptation, in a car, staying in shelter or transitional housing less than 90 days.

There is an exception that I always call out for youth and young adults or parenting youth that are at risk of homelessness.

There is a small subset of resources that can assist these households.

And so this is a visual of how coordinated entry is meant to operate.

So having these different access points go through a system and then hopefully connect to housing.

And so there are four components.

When we talk about coordinated entry, there's access, assessment, prioritization, and referral that typically follow in that order, and I'll talk through each of those four components for you all.

And access is really about how people access the coordinated entry system through outreach, through shelter, through community partners, through potentially even a hospital like Denver Health.

And so this is where people experiencing homeless can access.

And so anyone who is serving as an access point or helping people access coordinated entry has to be trained in HMIS.

The one exception to this is victim service providers don't enter into HMIS due to privacies and protections of survivors.

And so we have a workaround for how to get survivors connected to housing as well.

And so when this is sent out, or if it was there's an access point map, so you can click on this link and see who is an access point within the Metro Denver region and where people can go to get connected to coordinated entry.

And so the next component of coordinated entry is the assessment part.

So we implemented a one home coordinated entry standard assessment in 2024.

You may have previously heard of a VI Spadat.

We have transitioned away from that into this standard assessment.

This assessment documents vulnerabilities, needs, preferences, assets, and potential housing barriers that are used to help determine the next two phases, which are prioritization and referral.

There are different assessments based on some population because we know that the experience of homelessness looks different for single adults than it does for families, than it does for youth and veterans as well.

And so these assessments can be updated.

It's not a one-and-done thing because we know people's experiences change over time, and so these can be updated as people households' needs change or situations change and keeps them also eligible for resources.

And so prioritization.

Wish we didn't have to do this, but we have to because resources are limited.

There are about 4,500 people who are in our coordinated entry system that need help.

And last year in 2025, I believe we had 1,200 vacancies that were entered.

So similar to any housing program right now, like a potential housing authority or voucher need, we're able to meet about 20% of the need that is out there in the community, or 25%.

And so prioritization is important because it helps us distribute the limited resources.

Prioritization is determined by community driven vulnerability factors and quantitative and qualitative data.

The higher someone, the higher someone's vulnerability is, the higher they are on the prioritization list.

And so this is regularly reviewed for equity, and as I mentioned, it's informed by community partners, and this is it also varies by population as well, too, similar to the assessment where there are different priority factor or vulnerability factors for families, different ones for youth and single adults.

For families, there's a strong emphasis on currently fleeing DV or have it ever experienced domestic violence.

For youth, we're looking at if there was any if they had to leave their housing due to unhealthy relationship or violence, single adults looking at length of time, chronic disabling conditions, many different factors.

Happy to walk through those, and then also there's a link on here if you want to know more.

And so the last and probably the most exciting component of coordinated entry is when a housing opportunity becomes available through our partners, they enter a vacancy into HMIS, and then our team, our coordinated entry team works to identify a match for this.

Just because someone is number one on prioritization does not necessarily mean they would be the next person matched because we take into account factors such as eligibility of the housing program, housing needs of the household, and preferences as well that are captured in the coordinated entry assessment.

So for every one vacancy that a partner enters into the system, we are matching one household to that vacancy.

There are three primary resources that we match to through the coordinated entry system.

First one being permanent supportive housing, which is affordable housing with supportive services.

Next is permanent housing, affordable housing with no or limited supportive services, and then rapid rehousing, the time-limited subsidy for up to 24 months with the supportive services.

And so we try to gather as much information as we can on a household within the coordinated entry assessment, but as we know, homelessness is dynamic and people's experiences are dynamic, and so we use case conferencing as a space where providers meet regularly to coordinate around households, share updates, and start problem solving what system barriers someone may be trying to navigate.

And our team is looking out for any system barriers that we're hearing repeatedly that we may need to elevate to leadership or to a partner at host or to other agencies outside of case conferencing.

And so this is a space to collaborate for our partners.

This one is a little more behind the scenes.

It's a little detail that you can review around just what the workflow looks like in on our team and outside of our team with partners.

So that assessment's done.

We pull a report to see who needs housing support.

Vacancies are entered by community partners.

We look at prioritization to then make a referral, and then we connect with the housing provider to ensure that that referral was received.

Many takeaways.

So people don't have to go to multiple places to get support.

And then the other piece too that we have to ensure we communicate to our partners is that by entering the system, it is not a guarantee of housing.

As I mentioned, the demand far exceeds what we can meet.

And so it connects people to opportunities when they become available.

It's very important that our partners still continue to work with households to try and obtain housing through other avenues.

Great.

So thanks again for your time today.

Highlighted the homeless management information system, as well as coordinated entry, both the system and the process.

So we are in continuous communication with our friends at host, but we have a monthly space held on calendars every month.

So if we're not accidentally sort of, you know, bumping into each other at other meetings or working on projects on a day-to-day basis.

We know that we have this monthly space held for us to partner.

We also just today, Jeff and I joined the homeless leadership committee or council.

Apologies, or the HLC, and that's a really dynamic provider space where we get to meet with providers and specifically the leaders at those providers, the executive directors and CEOs at those agencies on a monthly basis.

And a few other things that I just wanted to highlight.

And so we received 425,000 this year to plan a targeted prevention program that would help to eliminate the experience of homelessness even for a single day to about a thousand to 1500 households.

So really excited to move upstream a bit.

And you know, our work is often so mired in the response once someone already is experiencing homelessness.

This is an opportunity for us to go upstream and see if we can reduce the inflow of people who are experiencing homelessness in uh Denver and Adams County.

So really excited about that and would welcome the opportunity to talk more about the Right at Home Initiative, uh, both at the national and local level if uh we could fit into a future agenda.

Um we also are partners in funding and policy.

So uh Sophia mentioned that we run processes to bring as much money into the seven county Metro Denver region as possible.

The bulk of that comes from the federal government or through HUD.

Um there's about uh 30 to 32 million dollars in contracts that are awarded every year, um, and a good majority of those contracts are held by Denver providers and to serve this community as well as the region.

Uh we host stakeholder meetings, funder meetings.

Uh we have long been engaged in the all-in mile high effort and uh we also convene folks throughout the region, creating spaces where uh folks from Denver, people who are working in Denver can develop relationships and partnerships uh with their colleagues across the region.

Um a couple of other things that I just wanted to highlight.

Um there are apologies.

Um we are um convening partners next week.

Um Thank you, district three at uh the Auraria campus at the Turn Hall.

Uh we're expecting a little more than 300 people to participate in person, hopefully the same amount who will be online.

Um so really big convening uh that we're excited about next uh Wednesday the 22nd.

Um we also um Sophia mentioned the point in time count that is an annual census that we are mandated to run, um, and we do that across the seven county region, and we anticipate uh release of that uh uh information uh in about a month.

Um likewise uh the State of Homelessness Report, which is um uh statewide whole state of Colorado reports pulling from uh pulling data from the homeless management information system will also be published in about a month's time.

Deep partnership in all of those efforts with the city and county of Denver, and one that we really appreciate.

I'm gonna hand things over to Madori to talk more about our partnership.

Um I just wanted to give a little bit more context about host um and the work we do in partnership in conjunction with uh MDHI.

I think it's important to sort of think through all those things, and just really grateful for Jason and Sophia to provide such an informative presentation.

I hope this is helpful for folks.

Um I know that there's often questions when we're presenting our contracts on what's going on on the other side of things and what it all means.

Um as uh Jason shared, right?

MPHI is the continuum of care, and so I just wanted to provide a little bit more context.

Sophia shared this same sort of map.

Um, and this these are numbers from last year from the 2025 point in time count, and the total number of people in the metro area that were counted that day, not served all year, but that particular day was um over 10,000, and Denver takes up about 68% of that population when we're considering the point in time count.

So we are a small-ish community in the COC because there are other much larger counties except Broomfield.

Uh, but we do take up a lot of the space as far as the people go.

So I just wanted to highlight that for you all.

But what's really important uh with our relationship with MDHI is that we are mission-aligned, that we really do want to strive to make sure that people experiencing homelessness that it's rare brief and one time.

Um we serve as the regional lead.

We do a lot of work in homelessness, in case you hadn't noticed, and all of the contracts we send your way, um, and we help with the coordination of resources and support in all of the other monthly meetings that um Jason shared about.

Um, in relationship to HMIS, um HMIS is a big part of our work at host.

Several partners are required to use HMIS, including our prevention program, not all of our prevention programs, some of our prevention programs, our outreach and community ambassador programs, all of our shelter sites except the one that serves folks fleeing DVR intimate partner violence, uh, our housing programs and our services only programs.

This is incredibly important to us that our partners are using HMIS so that we're able to gather information about who they're serving and understanding our own needs.

Um host uses several components of the data, all of this in the middle.

So we're looking at the demographic information, the lengths of time people experience homelessness, disabling conditions, income.

Um, in the programs, we're understanding the usage, the length of stay, the exits, and the outcomes of those particular programs.

And we're digging more this year into services and standardizing services rendered in those programs.

So sort of shortening the possibilities because the list can be very long of the services that are available in HMIS and sort of creating a way to streamline those so we have more consistent data about the services that are used within programming.

And we also have some of our own custom assessments in addition to utilizing the coordinated entry assessment.

And we do a lot of different things with this data.

So we're looking at our system performance intervention type performance, including any trends we might see in those.

All of the information that Kevin shared earlier is information that we can gather from HMIS about who's participating and how that looks.

So some of that's the prevention research, like Jason shared, CIPRA, which are some contracts that are rolling through an amendment soon, which is a 2.0 of the SIB project, and our all in mile high evaluation is also using HMIS data.

Thanks.

And then lastly, just wanted to talk a little bit more about the coordinated entry system and host and how all of that works.

So again, there's those four different phases through coordinated entry, the access assessment, prioritization, and referral.

So for access and assessment, our outreach partners and shelter sites really serve as that place where folks can complete coordinated entry assessment assessments and so that those sites can make sure that folks are eligible for that system.

Again, that prioritization is managed by one home and is um important because we need to know how folks are going to be prioritized.

We're also able to sort of nuance some things.

So for some of our programs, uh, our housing programs, we specify um referral sources.

So some vouchers may be able to say we we only serve people that uh had system involvement um in foster care, and so for some of our housing resources, we ask that people are sourced from our shelter outreach programs so that we know they're actively um experiencing homelessness in Denver specifically.

Um and then our programs, our host programs put those vacancies into the coordinated entry system, and one home provides those referrals.

Um those are really important pieces to know.

Um often coordinated entry can be a uh contract requirement.

So uh as Jeff has shared with you all in our performance-based contracting assessments, um, coordinated entry assessments are one of the metrics that we're measuring our shelters on, um, and they are meeting that 90% uh metric where they need to have 90% of the folks in their shelter assessed for coordinated entry and active in that system.

It's also that we're requiring our housing programs to source households through one home, and it it is really important to know, as Sophia said, it's a limited amount of resources, but the more resources we put into the system, the better the system is at creating the outcomes we want to see.

So it's incredibly important to us that we do have our housing programs available through the coordinated entry system.

Uh and then lastly, um, there's additional housing options available and um to households in Denver experiencing homelessness that hosts cannot fund.

So we have a limit on how much funding we have.

Um they have a limit on how much funding they have, but if someone isn't eligible for my program and they're in the coordinated entry system, maybe they're eligible for a continuum of care housing resource, and so can be connected in another way.

So this gives folks um experiencing homelessness in Denver an additional opportunity to access a housing resource.

That is everything.

So how many questions do you all infinite?

Um we'll take the time that we have, and I'm actually really glad that we have like 25 minutes left.

Um in the queue so far, I have um Councilmember Romero Campbell, followed by Councilmember Albidras.

Great, thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you for the presentation.

Um I appreciate the data that's being collected and and all of the service that um MDHI does.

So in uh you had talked about family um homelessness, and I was just wondering, are you seeing a change in projection of who is homeless?

I think you know, when I first learned about or had interacted with MDHI, it was like 20 years ago.

Um, and we weren't really talking about family um homelessness.

And so I'm just wondering have you modified the system and the data that you're collecting to be able to reflect who we're seeing in that homelessness category right now.

Uh we have, yeah.

So they uh especially when I think um you know I haven't been uh associated with MDHI for uh 20 years.

Um but um when I think back to 20 years ago, I think continuums of care are much more inclusive.

Uh I mentioned the programmatic continuum all the way from prevention to still um uh engaging with folks even once they're housed and have a service need.

Um that is true of all population types.

So we usually talk about um uh youth and young adults, so folks that are 18 to 24.

Uh we talk about families, so those are with uh uh a household with um uh minors under under 18.

Um, and then um uh a lot of conversation about single adults, and then we get into sort of subcategories of veterans and um, you know, so um so yes, there's uh I think a lot more engagement uh with um providers who who are serving families with children.

Um I think it's important, especially when we think about our HMIS, it really is something that the vast majority who are in this work are participating in.

Um so about 85% of eligible programs who are in the homeless response space are using the homeless management information system.

Um again, just I've been in this work quite a while.

Um, and thinking back 20 years, um we were a you know, a continuum of care in order to release a report in order to use effective data uh to craft policy or make changes or talk about performance.

Literally had to go through and interview provider after provider after provider and look at their spreadsheets and look at their data and compile all of this.

I mean, it was a huge undertaking, and now uh like I said, 85% of the um uh providers uh serving this community are using HMIS.

So we do have uh a deep understanding of the individuals experiencing homelessness and the services they're accessing, including families.

Yeah, just to chime in on that, so uh for hosts data quality is really important, and when I started about five years ago, we had our families entered into family programs, but their data was incomplete, and so we worked several years ago to focus on making sure that the data quality was there for families experiencing homelessness, so we had a better idea of like who are we actually serving in these programs, and so for our programs that serve families, we have a clearer picture of that now.

Yeah, and out of that 34,000 um household or out of the 29,000 households that access services in 2024, 2800 were families in the Metro Denver region, and so I feel like we have a clearer picture, but I think family homelessness is often hidden.

That's where I started in this work is helping families navigate the system, and so they're often sleeping in cars while kids are staying um with other friends or family, or they're sleeping in garages, or they don't where they don't meet literal homelessness, but McKenny Vento homeless definition, and so there are nuances within family dynamics and homelessness that we're trying to still get a better picture of, but yeah, I think since 20 years ago I wasn't in this work yet.

Um but I would say just over the last five years, there's been a lot of improvements in trying to understand families and also the definition of what is a family.

It has been primarily a someone over 18 with a child under 18.

Um we're also looking to expand that by removing custody rules by looking at multi-generational families as well to ensure that they are staying a family as defined by them as they're navigating through this system.

So thank you.

I appreciate that.

And Midori, I know we've had a lot of conversation, especially around like um the Tamrak shelter of knowing that we have a lot of families that are going on unhidden, right?

So if you're couch surfing or maybe sleeping in or or going from place to place, um you aren't being recorded in the same way.

McKenny Vento has a different definition, and so trying to reconcile where we have families and children and having a more accurate picture, I think is so critically important.

Um, and I would just hope that as you're moving forward, that's something that we're building more into the system because I probably need to have a better way.

But in the system, I believe it's kind of like you have an adult and the child is attached, right?

Not their own individual entry.

Um and I think that that also for kind of like more longitudinal outcomes for where children are and the impacts that they are the impact that they have, you know, for for being unhoused for a long period of time, I think are significant.

And so as this matures, I would hope that the coordination with um the school system or coordination for child outcomes are tied to children who are experiencing homelessness because that is a vulnerability, right?

And so just being able to elevate that and nuance it, it feels like that would be the next phase or stage or coordination of data that could talk to each other.

Yeah.

That's great.

Thanks for elevating that.

Uh I do um want to point out uh the University of Colorado did an outstanding study just last year, and they really looked at three data sets.

They looked at our homeless management information system, they looked at McKinney Vento and data that comes from schools.

They also looked at information that comes out of health care.

And you put that, you know, on a Venn diagram, and those three were not touching.

Uh and so there were uh, especially for families, individuals who felt very comfortable communicating with the service provider, therefore getting put into HMIS.

There were others, especially children, who might um sort of talk about their housing status with the school counselor or with their teacher with the school nurse.

And then there were others who were captured inside of the healthcare system where they were more comfortable uh in a trusting relationship with their doctor, physician, or someone, you know, their clinician, uh, and and comfortable talking about their housing status there.

But those three systems aren't in communication.

Um, and so there are gaps, absolutely, and I really appreciate you elevating that.

Um thank you.

Um and Midori, I think you'd be the person that I would go to then to be able to say, hey, can we pull some of those reports?

Because it was a good reminder in the presentation, just that maybe we could look at some more longitudinal data that we have.

Um we hear often and we see um families experiencing homelessness.

Right.

And data will be coming out in a month.

You know, will we see it increase?

What are the trends?

Um, is it just in Denver or is it across the region?

So very curious as to what that what kind of data we can mine going forward.

We can follow up.

Because family homelessness is on the rise for sure.

We've seen that nationally.

We I will say trends that we see nationally are often mirrored here in Denver and Metro Denver as a whole, and that's due to the affordability crisis that everyone is facing.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Yeah, great questions.

I have Councilmember Albedo's next and then council member Torres.

Thank you, committee chair.

Thank you, Council Pro Tem for those great and questions and elevating the family homelessness, which we have seen reports, even just between since I was elected in 2023 and those numbers compared to 2024 were very different, um, which is very concerning.

And I'm curious, one of my um one of the things that I I think about that issue a lot, and one of the things that I'm wondering is how are we coordinating this data with the housing needs assessment that we're working on?

Because I feel like we've been counting units of housing that we're providing, and we're doing a lot of studios and one bedrooms, which aren't working for families.

So it looks like Jeff may want to speak to that.

Uh Jeff Kositsky, deputy director and host um host is working with uh roots policy on the housing seek needs assessment, as you all know, and uh our division uh that focuses on homelessness is working closely with them, and actually they're working to hire a subcontractor who's got some more expertise on uh really understanding the gaps in programs like permanent supportive housing and rapid rehousing for all populations, including families.

So uh hopefully we'll get um a little bit better understanding of you know where the needs are uh for this specific population within the housing needs assessment uh this time around.

Thank you so much.

You're welcome.

And I think I missed earlier when you were talking about the percentage of providers that are registering their available units.

What percentage of providers was that?

Or do you have a I mentioned the percentage uh 85% of uh eligible um service providers are using the homeless management information system?

So the engaging with that system, therefore we have their data.

I don't know if we have uh data on the number of uh coordinated entry users in Denver.

Do you?

I would say that the best way that we can provide you information about what housing providers are utilizing the coordinated entry system and are connected to the continuum of care and are offering their housing resources is through it's a what is paired with the point in time count is the housing inventory count.

And so we can send you last year's housing inventory count so you can see the list of different providers that are providing housing through that system, um, but you will also get updated information in a month when the pit comes out.

So we'll just wait for the month.

Okay, anxiously awaiting that information.

Are we able to recover or is it getting worse?

Is something that's been on my heart and mind.

So I appreciate all that data collection and the point-in-time count work.

I think it's very important.

Um part of the reason why I was wanting to see this is I I still struggle to understand, and I think correct me if I'm wrong, like where housing central command and HMIS and where the people that are experiencing homelessness and waiting for resources or where does that intersection happen?

And uh yeah, if you want to speak to that sort of thing.

Pardon me wants to know if we still have Kevin's deck loaded so that I can we can look at the continuum and I can explain to you how that works.

Luke, is that um is it still is Kevin's presentation still open?

Yes, so for our producer.

Okay.

Sweet.

That button right there.

Okay, so okay.

Um on the prevention side, we have some of the programs that use that do prevention that use HMIS as a way to maintain their information of who's using those prevention programs, not all of those prevention programs.

For example, um legal aid, right?

They're downstairs and they're just there and they'll talk to anybody who walks in the door.

So they're not always going to document um all of those folks.

For diversion and rapid resolution, Kevin manages those programs.

Um, all of the households that we serve in those programs, they are entered into HMIS as a program, right?

Um, we don't use the coordinated entry system for those.

Um, they're more of like an immediate need program.

So we do both a prevention on that side and some rapid exit, so quickly supporting folks, usually less than 90 days.

Um, for our outreach folks, they all use the HMIS system, including our street engagement folks.

Um, so they enter the data of the people they're serving into HMIS.

In addition to that, they serve as an access point for people experiencing homelessness and can complete coordinated entry assessments for the folks that they're doing outreach with and are a touch point if they're referred to a housing program.

For shelter, all of our shelter providers except our DV provider, um, are required to use um HMIS.

So the performance metrics for performance-based contracting at the non-congregate shelter sites uh have a heavy use of HMIS, and all of those sites can also support coordinated entry assessments, so they would help do the assessment for the one home program for rehousing, so rapid rehousing specifically, all of our rapid rehousing programs are required to submit at least half of their vacancies into the coordinated entry system.

So when they have an opening, they put click a little button and say we have a vacancy, and the one home team delivers within a week a referral for that particular program.

So that's how they use coordinated entry in the HMIS system.

So it's like the use of the program itself.

Um some of our vouchers go through there, but not all of them.

Uh it just depends on the source of the voucher and how that works.

Most of DHA's housing resources are not available through the coordinated entry system.

That's not a thing for us.

Um, and then some of our stability case management programs also use HMIS just as a way to record services.

And then for our affordable housing units, it really depends on the program.

Many, and I'm not really good at the opportunity stuff, all of the loans that you guys look at and see.

Many of the things that we provide gap financing for, we also provide a service contract for.

So not every single property that DHA owns or all of the tenant-based resources that they have are in HMIS, nor are they intended to be for all people experiencing homelessness, right?

DHA resources are for people that are experiencing that that have low or moderate incomes.

Um so it's not designed DHA is not designed to do the same thing that the coordinated entry system does or what host does uh on our side of the house or the intention of having a COC in the community.

So think of HMIS as like using Google Chrome, right?

Like that's the way that you're adding all of the information in or looking up the different websites that you use, but that's just a thing that you use.

It's not it's not a program or anything like that, it's just a warehouse of information that different programs leverage, right?

Um so it's not the same, it's yeah, it's not the same thing as a service.

Still have some more questions there, but I'm gonna pin them.

I'm gonna switch to my original question, which is how does housing central command specifically interact with this system?

The HCC programs enter information into HMIS.

The HCC programs that do housing enter their vacant, well, they can't enter their vacancies into coordinated entry in a perfect world.

So my understanding was that housing central command was talking to the client directly.

You're telling me that housing central command is talking to the providers as well.

Housing central command is made up of providers that are entering the client's information in HMIS.

You're also, yeah, talking about the also entering their available units.

Correct.

So there's different, right?

The HCC is a continuum of support.

I yeah, I would say you don't need to be too attached to the idea.

It's very similar to how we do most of our work.

We just have more of a centralized navigation team, right?

So we have a goal of how many people we want to house each month over the span of a year.

Um, and so we put we can put all of those vacancies into HMIS to match to the housing programs that we have available through the HCC, but that's not any different than the Jewish Family Service Rapid Rehousing Program or the VOA rapid rehousing program.

It's just a housing program that has been tied specific to that navigation program.

So it's it's I think that HCC sometimes confuses it all, but it is the same network that we are functioning for the larger system.

There's just a little bit more support for centralized navigation and a central rent payer.

Um, so it's like a central rent payer?

Yeah, which you guys approve for housing connector, right?

So they pay the rent for all of the people that are housed through that specific pathway.

Okay.

That's helpful because I think where I worry sometimes with all of these programs is just duplication, and it seems like putting people straight into one system that can help navigate them and having this navigation system and that navigation system from my side looking in is it seems almost duplicative.

If you know, for example, Jewish Family Services is already entering them in HMIS.

Why are we having a different system that's also entering them in HMIS?

Yeah, so let's talk about the pathway for a client because maybe that will help clarify some things.

Um, so let's say I'm a family and I'm experiencing homelessness, I call the connection center and get referral to go to a shelter.

I end up at the Tamarack, which is a shelter that's available.

So when I go to the Tamarack, they're going to enter me into HMIS in that particular program.

Um they could go across the street to Jewish Family Service because that's where the office is located, and ask them for additional resources too.

So maybe they go across the street to talk to GFS and they're like, hey, hey, oh, it looks like you already did a coordinated entry assessment at the Tamarack.

So that means that the family doesn't have to say the same thing over and over again or try to get them connected to a housing system again.

It's already happened.

JFS can then say just affirm to the family, like, hey, you were already connected in this way, and this is a really good pathway.

Also, we we're really familiar with the Tamar X since they're right across the street.

So let's figure out what other resources your case manager can support you with to find housing, right?

And so say they are staying there for several months, maybe in that time they get connected to Denver Day Works.

I still already have questions.

Where is their counselor located at Tamarak?

Yep, the case manager at Tamar.

So at the connection center, they entered them in HMIS.

Yeah.

And then when they arrive at Tamarak, they update their HMIS to say you're now at the Tamarack.

Correct.

And then when they go to Jewish family services, they're able to tell them you're already getting your services over here.

And is where in that is housing central command?

Uh we don't do HCC for families.

So say they're at the Tamarack.

We do a family case conferencing, similar to the case conferencing that Sophia described for all of our family shelters.

So during that family case conferencing, we learn said family, like they're working, it sounds like they're ready to get housed, and we refer them to a housing resource through rapid rehousing.

So we have both the option of directly referring them to a rapid rehousing program, or they could be matched through coordinated entry.

Say they get matched without coordinated entry.

Coordinated entry will know they got housed in a rapid rehousing program, and then they're no longer active in coordinated entry, and so we're not going to offer them another housing resource at that point.

But say in a year and a half, things just go really south and they lose their housing program and they're exited from the housing program, they show back up in shelter.

We know their history.

We can see that they've been in the system.

We can see all the places they've been connected to at what times and what are their resources they might know of.

So for that household, whether it's a family, an individual, a youth, all of the service providers in our network are able to see and understand that client's experience and record in their own program the things that they need to record, right?

Each program needs to say they have so many contacts.

Each program needs to record the services that they have.

So they're on the back end doing things, but the client doesn't have to deal with all of the back end stuff.

Their information is on the front end for all of the providers to know and sort of create the connections they need across the community.

So they have their counselor at whatever program they're in, which helps them from going to other places and getting a new counselor.

Is that good?

I mean, that's an option.

People can connect to whatever resources they want to.

Um and also that it does help if someone were to come to me.

I mean, I that's definitely happened.

I've gotten emails and can look folks up in HMIS and be like, oh, like you're already connected to this person.

You should reach out to them.

They're going to be the best resource for you.

Like I literally I don't literally have a resource to offer you.

I do my work through contracts, right?

So that does happen, and it's easier to point back to the person that they're already connected with to keep the consistency there.

Okay, I appreciate that.

And I think the other thing we experience is just trying to understand why certain people feel like they're continuously not getting housed.

So I will look more into your prioritization.

But then my last question is just like what is your budget and how do you do you allocate it in accordance with like us taking 65% of the people experiencing homelessness in the region?

Yeah, so our uh budget in total um is um the about uh we usually say 35 million dollars.

Uh I mentioned about 3233 of that uh goes back out to providers.

Um about half of that, about I think it's 19 million, uh, are investments into Denver specific programming.

Uh it doesn't mean that there are um Denver only serving organizations, uh, but it's housing and programming that exists in the city and county of Denver.

And is that in your report where you're funding which programs you're funding?

Where can we see that?

Um it's not.

You can look at the HIC to see exactly sort of what um uh especially housing programs are funded by the COC in your jurisdiction.

Yep, that'll be in there.

All right, thank you, thank you, Chair.

Great.

And actually, Councilmember Torres took herself out of the queue.

So if you want to get in one more question, we have two minutes left.

Do anybody else want to get in?

Okay.

Yeah, go for it.

We were picking up what you were putting down, Councilmember.

So the rest of us are just sitting back and listening to the questions.

So thank you so much.

I'll follow up with more.

Thank you.

And there's a committee that decides who gets the funding, it's not MDHI, like it's not none of our staff that are like, yes, this is the funding.

There's a committee of providers that is anonymous that then will distribute the funds and prioritize them as well.

So we don't have the final decision in who gets them, it's uh ideally community that is picking.

Great.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Yeah, this was super helpful.

I really appreciate it.

Um yeah, I two could ask many questions, but it's 259, so sorry.

No, no, I did not mean that your questions were amazing.

I was happily listening.

Thank you guys.