Good morning.

It is nine a.m.

And I will call this community homeless advisory border to order.

May I please start with a salute to the flag.

Mayor Lawson, if you'll please lead us.

I fled to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God and invisible with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you very much.

We'll now do the roll call, Madam Clerk.

Oh, sorry.

No worries.

Chair Clark, absent.

Commissioner Alexis Hill here.

Mayor Ed Lawson.

Councilmember Diane Vanderwell.

Is she online though?

We're just pausing for technical help.

Do you want to go back to uh Councilwoman Vanderwell and do the rest of the attendance?

Yes.

Councilmember Kathleen Taylor here.

Councilmember Brandy Anderson.

Okay.

And Miss Vanderwell.

Councilwoman Vanderwell.

Could we have Councilwoman Vanderwell call in to the clerk number?

Is that better?

Then Zoom?

What what would you like?

Would you like her to call in to the clerk's number or stay on Zoom?

Okay.

Thanks everyone for your patience.

Councilwoman Vanderwell, do you hear us?

Perhaps we can give her the phone number through the clerk's office to call in if Zoom is a problem.

Okay.

Thank you.

Good morning, Ms.

Diane.

Hi, Diane.

Can you hear us?

Yes.

Wonderful.

Okay.

And then Madam Clerk, do you want to make it official and have her say here?

Yes.

Councilmember.

Councilmember Diane Vanderwell.

Here.

Yay.

Okay.

Uh, thank you very much.

We will now move in to public comment.

And uh is there any public comment, Madam Clerk?

No one has signed in.

Okay.

Thank you very much.

We're now moving to the approval of the minutes.

Are there any changes by the board members on the minutes?

Not seeing any.

Okay, I'd love a motion.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

I have a motion for member Taylor and a second from Member Anderson.

All those in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed, please say nay.

And there's thank you very much.

And there was no public comment on that, right, Madam Clerk.

Thank you.

No one has said.

All right.

We're gonna move on to the number item number five, which is discussion by the Washoe County Services Division Director, our new division director, Travis Sandifer.

Welcome to include a standard uh or a standing community homeless advisory board agenda wherein the advisory board of lived experience, ABL will provide regular updates and input to the board.

Welcome.

I think it's on right now.

Testing.

All right, Travis Sandifer for the record.

Uh thank you for having me.

And we've been listening to the conversation on this body, the public comments and others on the need for the perspective of folks with lived experience.

We wholeheartedly agree with that perspective, and in fact, we've incorporated that through our operations through the continuum of care.

And so as we were listening to this, wanted to bring this back to this group with the idea of bringing a standing committee item, an agenda item to have ABLE, the advisory board of lived experience.

This is a group that was formed through, I want to get this right, the Nevada Homeless Alliance back in 2024.

We contract with them through the continuum of care, and that contract is managed with RISE.

They have a voting seat on the Continuum of Care Leadership Board.

There was even in a study from UCSF recently.

So we present that to you this morning.

Okay.

Um do you have anything that you want to sum up for us on that?

Um you just want to make it known to the board that that is an option.

We would recommend moving forward that if this uh if this body uh especially to speak to that, we would recommend moving ahead and adding that as a standing agenda item to have able come and present and present that that uh lens.

Yeah, I love that.

Looking to the board, yes, member Anderson.

I support that be a great addition.

Thank you.

And I'm seeing a nod from Mayor Lawson.

And yes, okay, member Taylor.

Looks like we want to do that.

Do we need to make an official action of that item?

No.

Okay, thank you, Mr.

Kaplan.

Okay, thank you for presenting that to us and for giving us an option that I think will work because that group already meets, they've got their schedule, and then they can come up with items or thoughts to this board so we can make sure that um it makes sense the way that we're talking to each other.

Absolutely.

Awesome.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And now we'll go to item six.

This is our point in time count, the housing and homeless uh services to provide an update, answer questions, and highlight current systems and gaps.

This is a non-action item.

Go ahead.

So it's me, it's me again, Travis Sandiford, Division Director of Housing and Homeless Services.

Uh, so we've got a slide deck.

This is the same slide deck that went out from the continuum of care.

So this is probably already hit your inboxes, but we wanted to present it again to this body.

It is a it is a topic that always comes up every single year because it is that snapshot of homelessness in our region.

Um, so the point in time count is required by HUD, and it has two components, and we'll dig into these in a minute.

There is the sheltered count, which we pull from the homeless management information system, and then there's the other piece where we go out and we try to count every individual who is unhoused, which is defined as is sleeping in a place that is not normally meant for somebody to sleep.

And so a few caveats as we present this today.

One is there is a tendency to look at the pit count and either declare victory or declare defeat.

And it's a much more nuanced perspective.

And so as we dive in to the methodology, I want to just kind of keep that in perspective that any one year itself is of limited value, but it is a tool in our toolbox and an important one, particularly when you're looking year over year.

Okay, so our methodology.

Like I was saying, this is required annually by HUD, and every other year, you are required to go out and count that unsheltered population.

So in 2025, we did not go out and do the physical count of the unsheltered population, but we did pull that HMIS data of those that are in shelter.

Our recommendation in talking to my team, we will recommend to the continued continuum of care that we do that unsheltered count every single year.

It's a huge lift of time and resources, but it's important for us, particularly as we see the number.

There's still a number of unsheltered folks.

So we want to make sure we're engaging there.

This count has to take place within the last 10 days of January.

Our count took place on January 29, 2026, and we pulled that data on that day from the HMI system, and then we went out and we did that physical count.

Okay, so the unsheltered piece, and this is usually the focus.

Uh, we had 61 individuals, outreach case managers, case managers.

A huge thank you to the Washoe County Sheriff's Hope team did a tremendous job of helping support this.

There was a study that came out recently uh in the Journal of Public Health, and it talked about do you let go of the point-in-time count or do you try to make it better?

And it came up with some ideas of how you can make it better, and we are trying to use those methodologies to make our count more accurate, particularly within the unsheltered community.

So we have a phone app that divides up the community into different regions to make sure we're not duplicating, we're sending people to the right spots.

We even used a drone this year to help identify locations, not to do the count, but to identify locations.

And again, that hope team really went off the beaten path.

They went up and tried to find people uh further off the road.

So we believe that this was our most thorough count to date, and we want to keep getting better at that.

The other key component of this is training.

We need to make sure the folks that we are sending out are trained or ready and capable to do that.

So we have have gotten much better as we send people out that were preparing for them for this.

Okay, so here's your snapshot.

You can see the trends here.

And so this year we had 341 individuals that we counted who were unsheltered.

So if you look at the trend lines here, and you go back to 2021, that's a 56% decrease over that five year period of the unsheltered count.

But the total count is still 1,787.

That's a number that I have seared in my brain.

That is a lot of individuals who are still considered homeless.

So first, let's dive in a little bit, a little bit of detail on the unsheltered count.

So of these 341, you'll see predominantly men, but a number of females here as well.

And then I also want to highlight the chronically homeless number.

So 88 of those were identified as chronically homeless.

HUD has a very technical definition of this of those with a disability who've been homeless for a year or who've been homeless four times over a three year time period.

But I think the bottom line for this group to know is that these are some of the individuals with the most persistent and complex needs who are still unsheltered.

And then of the sheltered count.

And this is where things get interesting, at least for me.

So you see there's a 57% increase in from 2025 in sheltered housing.

But this includes transitional housing, not just our emergency shelters.

And so as you dig in one layer down, you see that a bit of pressure actually came off in January when this snapshot was taken in our shelters.

So 75 people less in our emergency shelters, and those people were moving as you look at this into transitional housing.

Transitional housing is essentially those temporary programs that stepping stone to more permanent housing.

So again, 1,787.

I always highlight this.

I'm going to continue to highlight this for our team.

The goal is zero.

So this is a huge number.

We can't take our eye off this number, but again, we've seen that progress on the unsheltered count.

Another fact that we look at as we dive into the pit count is utilization.

We want to look and see which resources in the community have the highest utilization, lowest utilization, so we can help target our solutions accordingly.

As you look at this, you see our bed utilization in our emergency shelters is very high, right around that 89%.

And I would consider anything in that 90 to 95%, you're essentially at capacity, right?

Because you have to turn those beds over for individuals.

The other one that has a very high utilization rate is that permanent housing.

So 87% in that utilization.

Transitional housing has a much lower utilization.

And this is oftentimes because of the higher barriers in those particular programs.

But again, you saw more people moving from emergency shelter over into that transitional housing.

Okay.

This sounds obvious, but it is worth noting.

This is all a conversation around inflow and outflow.

So even if we are doing a very good job of getting people through the system and into housing, if you continue to have that inflow of people into homelessness, you're going to continue to see challenges on the overall numbers.

So ideally, we want to make sure we're decreasing that inflow while we continue to work with the populations and moving them to permanent solutions.

A few conclusions.

So this is largely consistent with what we saw previously.

I would argue that this is a stabilization of the crisis.

So we've bent that curve, but we've not totally broken it.

And one of the data points that our team is going to be looking at very closely moving forward as we refine some of our metrics is looking at our population in terms of per capita.

This region has seen a great deal of growth, and we want to make sure we're monitoring the homelessness within the context of that greater community growth.

The other is about three years ago, we hit that 90% mark of providers in the community participating in the homeless management information system.

Critical so that we can see what's going on around town, and so that we can follow those individuals as they say move from emergency shelter into transitional housing.

Another key takeaway here is that affordable housing in City of Reno has a tremendous dashboard on the uh the affordable housing stock.

That zero to 30% AMI housing stock continues to be a huge challenge.

And we see that with our individuals who are uh at the shelters and looking for housing.

So where does that leave us?

Um at one of our future meetings, and I believe council member Vanderwell asked for this last time.

We would love an opportunity to share in more detail about the steps, the methodologies, the practice that we are using to move people from homelessness into housing and doing so compassionately.

And so we'd love to unpack that more, but I'll give you a quick highlight that I think ties in very well with what we saw with the numbers.

You're still seeing 341 unsheltered individuals.

Outreach remains a critical, a critical piece of what we are doing.

We need to get those individuals into shelter so that we can wrap the services around them, not only for their own well-being, but to get them set up so that they can move into housing.

And so we're going to continue on that push on the outreach side.

And we've we've made tremendous strides, the hope teams uh through from all three jurisdictions.

Um, we have uh an opioid grant funded team coming online this summer to come out and help for those at risk uh of opioid abuse.

And so we're going to continue very hard on the outreach side.

The other is the tenancy support that goes with this.

And so as we've housed a great number of individuals, we had 346 permanent housing exits from our system in just the last 13 months.

But one of the key things is we need to make sure that those individuals are set up for success.

And so that's that tenancy support, the light touch case management to make sure they're checking in to make sure that they're making progress and not going to recidivize and come back over to the shelter.

The other, and and you've heard about me talk about this a great deal supportive housing.

So I walked the shelter with uh the former chair of the California Hospital Association.

He he ran a hospital system on the West Coast.

I walked the shelter with him last week, and he and I talked a lot about the complex needs of the individuals that we serve.

And this is one of the huge gaps in the system that we all have to continue to grapple with how we are going to wrap the right level of supports around those individuals.

And then we are going to continue on the medically fragile and the senior citizens.

So the medically fragile, there's a task force that manager Thomas had been involved in at one point.

U and R is a piece of this of grappling with this gap in the system where you are too sick to be at our shelter, but you're not sick enough to be in the hospital.

And so we need to close that gap through things like medical respite or recuperative care, which is a deeper kind of level of nursing care for lack of a better description, while people recuperate and get them back to health.

And then again, senior citizens.

Uh, you're gonna continue to hear from us.

We're seeing over 40%, it's between 40 and 50 percent of our folks are over the age of 55.

So that's going to be a continued need.

I'm at time, uh, be happy to answer questions, and I'm always happy to meet with any of you individually as well.

Thank you.

That that was a great way to put these numbers into context.

Thank you.

I think that was the best that it's been explained to this board thus far.

Um looking to Mayor Lawson.

Yeah, Travis, we started this long, long time ago with built for zero.

Yeah, and built for zero basically has a number which we try to manage to.

And I know for Gainesville, Florida, it was 800.

So you're trying to keep your number at 800.

Do we have a number for Washoe County?

Yeah, and I can certainly get you an update on where we're at in our built for zero, and we can highlight that metric.

Yeah, for sure for sure.

But let me get back to you with the specification.

I think that's the standard we need to measure against because we know you're never going to end homelessness.

It hasn't ended anywhere in America.

So that number's the number I think we got to manage.

Is our inflow matching our outflow?

And that's that's the real balance in this whole thing, I believe.

Was that like a per capita number that's a good idea?

No, it just happened to be the guy who is our advisor from Gainesville.

Yeah, that was his number.

Okay.

Um, uh, but I don't think we've ever settled on what a number is for Washville County.

And that that way we that's if the number's 800 and we're at 1,050, we got some, we're having a problem with our outflow.

And vice versa.

For our number 500, there's a something change on the inflow.

So I I think it's just helps us to know where we are.

Plus, it gives a standard for the community to look at.

So we know that we're never going to ever get to zero.

So what is our number?

I think I take that as a challenge.

We're we're we're gonna keep at it, but I appreciate the perspective, and I certainly will get with my team, but I think you're making that point that I think is reflected in the data here, which is we do need to kind of arrive at what that equilibrium number is.

And so I'll certainly get back with my team on that inflow outflow piece.

Um, but you're highlighting something.

I think that that is what we are seeing when I say that we've we've stabilized the crisis, but we've not yet ended it, to your point.

Okay.

And then we also talked about steps and stages.

How's that coming along?

And I love that.

And that's what I really want to show the next time we present, and I can come and do that to you individually.

But Mayor Lawson talked a bit to me about like can we clearly articulate the pathway of somebody who's coming in, the various pathways who are coming in and the various pathways out and what those steps look like, and then maybe you move from step six down to step five.

Am I kind of summarizing?

Yeah.

And so I think it's a great point.

And I've shared in in other settings.

Um, one of our shelter directors at my previous job, she talked about it being like an hourglass.

And so there's lots of pathways into homelessness.

You kind of get them bunched up here at the shelter, and then there need to be multiple pathways out.

And so that highlights to me something that our team is working on, which is a very clearly articulated person-centered approach to the pathways that are out.

And so I appreciate that perspective, and I would love to continue that and and share that at a future meeting.

Yeah, I think that's my point being if you get all the way from one being on the street to six, we don't want you to go by all the way back to one.

That's right.

If you can go back to five or four, start over because no one's going to succeed the first time.

It just doesn't happen.

So uh, you know, we have to be pragmatic and realistic, but trying not to let them go all the way back to being on the street.

That's right.

Yeah, it's it's a long, it's a long process, oftentimes, and that's one of the pieces we want to track very closely is that recidivism.

Once you're in housing, we want to make sure we have the safety net right below you so that it's not going all the way back to step one as you as you phrase it.

Yeah.

Okay, member Anderson.

Yes, thank you so much.

Um can you tell me how much it costs to do the point and time count?

Are you is your mic on?

The point and time count every year.

Sorry about that.

I can certainly get back to you with that specific number.

Um it's largely volunteer-based, and so you're looking at a lot of um staff hours that go into that, but I can certainly get you a specific number.

Okay, I'm just the reason I'm asking is I I rode along with the hopes team um a month or so ago, and it was such a privilege to watch the case managers connect and how much they know each of the people that are on the street where they potentially might be, um, where they might find them again to see maybe heartbreak when somebody comes walking out of a camp that was housed before, and just how many steps it took to get them housed in the first place.

And so I know that this is a it's an infinite number of variables that change in people's lives, and an infinite number of of um things that can happen that can change somebody's circumstances that would have them leave housing and potentially go back to a more familiar place of community.

Um, so just the cost is the first thing.

I just wonder how we think that one why do we only take one day to for the count?

Is there something specific about that?

Yeah, and so again, that's that's part of HUD's methodology.

And I think one of the values of doing it is that that is done nationally, and so those numbers are done in every continuum of care across the country, and that rolls up into a national number.

And so some of that is participating in that national system, even statewide, so that you have as close as you can get to an apples to apples comparison.

That being said, there are so many variables, whether um, where somebody is on a particular day, and and especially across regions, and so it's not perfect, it's just a tool.

And I think one of the things that we are getting better at is the ongoing active tracking of individuals, including through the outreach teams.

I think that that was a missing piece maybe 10 years ago.

But now by having 90% of our partners, including our outreach partners in that homeless management information system, we're tracking throughout the year those touch points, like the case managers who are out with the hope team.

Okay.

Thank you so much.

Of course.

Thank you.

And member Taylor.

Thank you, Madam Vice Chair.

I'm Travis, I'm really I'm glad that you said the word challenge because what I'm gonna say is is not necessarily criticism, but it's I hope it comes across as a challenge and opportunity.

When we look at the point in time, that blue and purple graph, this is this is not good news.

Um if we're thinking that the purple and the blue are we are we referencing these as homeless.

This is the highest we've ever been over since 2019.

So I think there's an opportunity and a challenge, and I will challenge all of us and regionally to do a better job home in homelessness.

Um the other thing you said at the very beginning was this is not just a measure of our successes.

This is one of the tools is the point in time.

So we've got to start talking about what some of those other successes are and including them in presentations like this, because just looking at the data, it doesn't, it doesn't look like it's it's a positive thing moving forward.

Um and again, this is not a criticism of you or our team.

I think regionally we've got to do a better job.

And I'm gonna take on the responsibility here.

It's one of my number one priorities.

And um I think we've got to also talk about housing as a solution, like you said, but the other options.

So I want to understand what are some of the other tools that we are using to measure success, because this doesn't show what the success looks like.

And you put some of the bullet points in in the presentation, but I also think that we need to start talking about, as Mayor Lawson said, reducing that number, whatever it is, and not keep going up.

And I understand as being a board member of the Eddie House, the more you become aware, the more outreach you do, the more that you're gonna be bringing people into the services.

But we I think need to be doing a better job of talking about what the solution is and what the success is.

My last question is um when you do the point in time, what month do you do that?

That is dictated to us to be in January, absent a waiver from HUD.

Okay, because I volunteered one time and went out there and did that a couple of years ago.

You might have even been there.

And I think um I've I live downtown, I see the homeless that in January, there are less people on the streets for obvious reasons than we would get in September and August.

So those are my thoughts, those are my questions, and I appreciate the work that you're doing, but I think as a region, uh we can definitely do better.

Absolutely.

And and I will start by saying, and that's why I highlight 1,787.

That is a big number, and those are human beings.

And we can never lose sight of that when we're talking about the data points.

I think something that we've done poorly is is a general community, and those of us in the service industry is telling the stories, telling the successes and what those look like, and we need to do a better job of that.

And I mean, I saw one even last week where it's an individual I've watched for years struggle.

I barely recognize them now that they've gone through treatment, both mental health substance abuse treatment.

And I had to ask somebody, is that who I think it is?

And it sure enough is, and it's it almost makes you teary-eyed because you see the real human impact of that individual.

And so we need to add the numbers as we tell those success stories.

And so this is limited, and I think the transitional housing component touches on this piece, which is we need to start highlighting as we move people from shelter into programs like say crossroads, uh, treatment programs and others.

That's not going to be captured as a housing, uh, an exit to housing that's going to get captured on that transitional housing side.

But I think we need to do better at showing those metrics to show those windows of success.

And then the last piece that you talked about there that is so spot on is the prevention piece.

And so I I've talked to my wife who's a pediatrician, and she's a big believer in ACES scores, so the adverse childhood event scores, and she'll tell me, like, hey, I'm gonna see, you're going to see the people I'm seeing now.

They're going to come to you down the road in your shelter.

And that's ridiculous.

And so, how do we better study those pathways into homelessness from as early as possible?

And what are all of the the best interventions from eviction prevention down to the mental health counseling at an earlier period in time in treatment?

Um, so we have to do a better job on the prevention side as well, which is back to Mayor Lawson's point around the inflow.

Start to answer Yeah, absolutely.

And I think uh as chair of the Reno Housing Authority, we're trying to do some of those prevention early prevention programs with our move to work money, which is phenomenal.

And I'm excited when the county would have the new county members and their support.

Um one of the things that you mentioned, I kind of just lost uh my train of thought, but um there's there's a missing piece for people that aren't going to be able to be in the CARES campus, and you said it in your presentation.

Can you confirm that there really is no place?

There's I don't want to say mental hospital, but that's what they used to be called.

There's no there's some people that are are probably lost in the in between the shelter and on the streets because there's no place for them to go, and we do not have those facilities.

Yes.

So I'm so glad that you highlighted this.

The CARES campus becomes the shelter of last resort.

And so when there is no other place in the community for an individual, the pressure comes to the CARES campus.

And so, for instance, we are supposed to have individuals there who can do their activities of daily living, but that becomes a very gray space when there is no place else for those individuals to go.

And so that is what honestly of all of this keeps me up at night is the individuals who are in our shelters who are homeless, who are unsheltered, who have those extreme complex physical and mental health needs.

And I just kind of keep saying that over and over again because those are system gaps that we have to collectively come together and solve.

And that's what that former hospital CEO is telling me as we walk through.

And he had high praise for the campus.

He says, I'm blown away at how well this is operated.

And yet, as just with the eyeball test, you can see that we have individuals who need additional care.

And so that's that recuperative care piece.

Um, I think certainly as you're looking at seniors, you're going to need to grapple with even if they get housed, homemaker services, um, you know, the home health, those types of things are going to become more and more important.

We met uh with a HUD group a few weeks ago, and I I think one of the things that we oftentimes fall into the trap of is we try to solve yesterday's problem.

And one of the things to keep our eye on as we look at this is the challenge of the next five to 10 years.

And I think that's what I'm grappling with is the complex needs in the aging population.

And it's not necessarily par.

They, you know, par isn't the place, and CARES campus isn't the place, and the street certainly isn't the place.

So I like uh 100% recuperative.

Is that what you call the recuperative care is a big is a big need in this community.

It's been around in in various forms for probably 20 years, but it uh it's really only come into like a true methodology in the last five years.

I mean, that's so it's a it's a fairly new solution tailored to that challenge.

And I I have to highlight to your point so the the supportive housing that we have at the CARES campus is a truly cutting edge and and for me, mind-blowing experience to watch because it has an assertive community treatment team that is integrated into those 50 units of housing, and so that is a psychiatrist substance abuse counselor.

I mean, it is a full court press of services for individuals and we prioritize those with severe mental illness, and so that's filling one of those gaps, and I think is starting to take some of the pressure from that population onto the general shelter.

Thank you.

I love you in this rule, by the way.

Oh, thank you so much.

Thank you, Madam Vice Chair.

Thank you very much.

Uh, member Vanderwell.

Do you have any questions?

No, I I agree with my colleagues.

So thank you, and I appreciate the updated information.

Thank you.

I agree.

I'm so glad that you are with the county, Travis.

We're super lucky.

And um, I just want to highlight to the board that we as a region have decided to invest in the shelter of last resort, as Travis has said.

We now need to figure out how we're going to invest as a state in uh this permanent supportive housing, the tenancy support.

Because people and also the preventative measures, people will not this this number will increase, period, unless we have more resources.

This is and and so I'm so honestly proud of our team because they're able to uh support so many more people, and our team is like the region, not just the county.

But you look at this, we're supporting as a region.

Uh 1446 people, whereas before we started this adventure as a region together, we were in the 1,000 or 700 person range.

And so we are helping people, we're keeping people from dying, but it's still there's still a lot of work, and we don't have the money to necessarily provide all these resources.

So I think it would be great if we kind of talked about those goals of these folks need to be here.

We need this much money for that.

These folks need to be here, we need this much money for that.

And I know I'm meeting with you and the team on that to look at a state approach because that we are all going at this alone as a region, and we need support from the state to get to where we need to go.

Um, and I I'm sure we can have that discussion.

And I think that would be a really good board discussion to have here because we should know kind of where the gaps are.

And we know we have a pretty good idea.

And now with the mental health component that the county's invested in, we have a good idea there.

But just as a foster mom and being in this foster system um as a commissioner, but also like just really being in it um personally, so many of our foster kids are ending up in our shelter in uh our jails.

I mean, these kids who never got a chance.

So we also have to fix some of these other preventative things, which is another thing we're looking at at the county on how we can invest in our kids before they end up in this downstream because we're dealing with them at the end, and I it would be great to deal with the issue at the beginning of the system.

Um, and I I was wondering if you could just highlight that Gwen Center study that we're going to be doing.

I know we have two audits coming out.

Bless you.

You got on board and we're like, we're auditing you on two different programs in your department.

Um, one on HMIS, and I forgot what the other audit is, but also the Gwen Center is coming out with a report.

I'm wondering if you could just let the board know about some of these things that are out there.

Yeah, the Gwyn Center scope is still being discussed, but one of our proposals is around the prevention side of this equation.

And I've talked to the folks on the other side of the house at HSA, and I don't think that it's been adequately studied, even nationally at looking at all of those triggers that we kind of talked about a few minutes ago.

The other is the impact on the healthcare system, you know, and I think that's what was so interesting to have a hospital CEO walk it with me is this is healthcare.

Yeah, and that's a fairly significant shift in mindset and even just the potential savings.

And so looking at what that looks like from an economic standpoint.

So that's also potentially within uh something that we're discussing with Gwen Center uh in terms of scope.

And then if I may, Chair, uh you talked a bit about saving lives.

And I I think that I this is a little controversial, but I will say sheltering people is worth a lot, especially the way we do it in Washoe County.

And I heard a judge in the region describe the CARES campus as a low-level supportive housing.

And it's because of the care that we wrap around individuals.

It's not just a bed, it is a true care model.

And so I think that that also is to me one of our metrics is providing that level of care to those individuals.

Yeah, that's great.

Any other board comments?

Yes, Mayor Lawson.

Yeah, I think um the reason the steps and how to from zero to whatever uh for me was uh I was approached by some floor florantrop, some very generous people.

Though my mouth's not working this morning.

That they want to help, yeah, but they don't know where to help.

Yeah.

So I think if we can say we've got these these sections covered, but we're missing this section and this section, that we will see the public step up and help in this uh effort.

I love that.

And and so I think when we come back to this group, I would love to do a deeper dive into that.

And our head of case management is here with me today.

We are going name by name through the shelter census, and I want to know what the bottlenecks are, why that individual is there, because while we have that at one level, you have to dig a little bit deeper so that we can better understand the gap so that I can come back to you and better explain.

Here is the gap of why Johnny can't get to this particular spot.

So point point well taken, Mayor.

Oh, I had one more question.

Point in time versus HMIS.

What are the numbers looking like and HMIS versus what we just saw from point and time count?

Because I know they're different.

They're different.

Um, it is on our dashboard.

I was looking again last night just to kind of see.

I think um comparable, but I don't want to I I can send you the specific numbers so you can kind of see, but I think that is kind of back to um uh council member Anderson and Taylor's uh comments about we want to make sure we're getting a better day-to-day tracking of what that looks like so that we're not so reliant upon that one-day snapshot, which we know is limited.

And HMIS is that because if we have 90% of our partners on it, that's right.

We are entering in data, we know who these people are for the most part, and we're just tracking them and following them.

Yeah, and so one of our big pushes is so getting to 90% amazing.

And now we have one of our team who is just committed to data quality.

Now we need to dive in and make that data even better, even richer, so that we can track individuals over time and better see where they're going.

I just I know that there's work to do, and I agree with you, uh, member Taylor.

Certainly, like this is not a victory lap, but this region has stood up with the these partners, Sparks and Reno and Washa.

We have held hands and decided we're doing this together.

And a lot of regions pretend it does not exist and they move it from community to community to community.

And I know this because I've been traveling around the state and no one else is doing what we're doing.

It's actually difficult, kind of brave because you have to put all your numbers out there and everyone sees your dirty laundry.

But I'm really proud that we're committed to continuing to support people and prevent deaths on the street, which we're doing every day.

And we just need more resources to get people housed, and then we'll figure out where our private partners.

We know we raised six million dollars to get the CARES campus up and going.

We can do that again if we know what the resources are out there, although I think it's going to be substantially more money to build some of this housing or turn it into ADA housing and get the tenancy support around it.

But I think that having the numbers, knowing where the gaps are, that would be great.

And a great conversation to have in September.

Absolutely.

Anything else?

Yes.

Yes.

Okay.

Um, just listening to this conversation.

First, I want I didn't know you before we met a couple of weeks ago, but you are brilliant.

And you're just everything about the way that you've presented this data has just been incredible.

So thank you so much.

I didn't I didn't realize what a gift I was sitting in front of in my office a couple of weeks ago.

Um, okay.

So you had mentioned earlier that this really is a health care.

We're providing health care.

And um, I think that that is part of um why some people don't want to be there, because there is such a next level significant investment in each person, and that's where the healthcare element comes into play.

And I'm really proud of the region for developing that level of care.

I think we have two more opportunities.

And I know that we are working on an education component and we are working on a workforce development component, but those two things working together with this population will help stabise every step of the way as they move up and through and out into their individual and independent lives.

And so I really want to look closer at potentially working with TMCC or with even private education partners to develop certific, you know, certificate programs, diploma programs, things that can be developed and administered and taught at the CARES campus or in and around that area to help people kind of move through the confidence of being able to be in the workforce and be stable in the workforce, um, potentially also bring programs to them that are growing that ends up filling those gaps in the community in terms of talent and skill level.

Um with partners, one thing um I serve on the Western Nevada Development District Board.

It's one of my favorite boards that I serve on.

And I get to know our closest rural partners in Churchill County, Douglas County, Carson City.

And I think we have an opportunity to work with those communities to help them support their population and also potentially with resources.

We can help them at the CARES campus, get them back to life in their own camp um community, but help them with those core resources that we've developed so well here.

I think we should open up a potential conversation with those partners and just see what we can do to expand the strength of that consistency of care because a lot of those partner communities, their citizens end up here at our CARES campus and would potentially be more successful throughout the process if they were closer to home.

So that's just one thing I wanted to potentially plant the seeds so we could start working on.

Really appreciate that.

And I I think you're highlighting something that we and our team need to do a better job of.

And again, that's why I want to come back and explain some more of those steps and the programming that has been brought onto the site.

And so you'll hopefully hear from one of them on the last agenda item today.

But we do have a GED training program in partnership with Chamber of Commerce, and they've agreed to work with us on the job skills piece.

And so that's a critical component of this.

And we're even bringing on a house cleaner to come and teach classes on keeping up your apartment clean and how do you clean your apartment?

Those types of things are just so critical.

So I think that's really a great idea.

We need to do even more of that.

And then our team needs to really communicate to the community and to this board about what we are integrating into that campus.

Well, thank you so much and welcome to the county.

And we'll just continue the discussion and um we'll see in September with more info.

Terrific.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Okay, we're going to move to item seven, which is a crossroads update.

This is a non-action item.

Welcome.

Hi.

My name's Kelsey Drear.

I am a manager at the women's and women and children's campus.

Um, so I just have, sorry, I'm a little nervous.

I don't do a lot of public stuff.

Don't worry.

Don't worry.

Um, but I'm excited.

We're good.

Um, so I have a few updates.

Um one of our biggest updates is on July 8th, we are reopening the River House and Serenity House location with our CIP uh project.

And that is really exciting for us because we're gonna be able to expand our census up to 10 more um women, and that's just gonna be um super great.

The building is beautiful.

Um, I would also like to invite you all to the ribbon cutting if you guys would like to attend.

That's gonna be on July 8th at 1030 um on the Galetti campus.

Um, let's see here.

Um, so for our families program, we just recently graduated our first three families um just like this past week.

And so it was a huge success.

And um, if you guys don't know, our families program is um it's um funded by WORF.

And so DORF also just extended that funding 24 months.

Opioid funding.

Opioid funding, grant funding.

Yep.

And so that it was just extended 24 months, and so that's really great because that's going to wrap around um service for for families in the community, which um that's something that I don't I haven't seen very often.

Um, you know, programs that have something for the whole family.

So that's really special.

Um let's see here.

We also um are continuing to work closely with the RISE team with our outreach programs, um, just so we can expand our continuum of care uh for the community.

Um, and then HSA um Crossroads also has taken over the DAS STAR program.

Um, that is something that we are very excited about, and that's why Frankie and Kara are not here today because they are um interviewing for a mental health counselor for the STAR program, which is really great and exciting um for all of Crossroads.

Um, so that for with that, we're just working very closely with Reno Justice Court and the Washer County Sheriff's Office that serve individuals with um specifically opioid use.

Um, and they're at risk of re-offending um in that system.

Um let's see here.

I think that that's that's it.

That's my update.

Great.

And just because I've been living and breathing um alternative sentencing, just maybe you could explain the STAR program a little bit to the this board because um they're not uh at the county and don't quite understand what that program is.

Yeah, so the STAR program um from my understanding, it's new with us too.

And so from my understanding is it is specifically for opioid youth dependency.

And so we have taken that over, and now it's a crossroads program.

And so we are having people that come into our program with some opioid use issues.

And then we have it's all the same program, trying to explain the best I can, but we also have it's also separate, like they're all together, but we have PRSSs who are specifically for the STAR program that work very closely with the court system and all of that.

And now we're going to also be having um the mental health counselor as well.

Wonderful.

And it's alternative sentencing.

So it's folks who are not in jail.

We're getting we're making sure that they have fewer jail days and we're getting them the help that they need outside of jail, which is the whole um idea of what we're trying to do as a region to prevent people from being in the court system who have mental illness or behavioral health issues.

Go ahead, Ryan.

Thank you.

Good morning.

Uh Ryan Gustafson for the record.

Yeah, just to add a little bit.

Um, with the STAR program, it really is an evidence-based program that um Frankie Lemus, who's now taken it back over, uh assisted in getting um in getting started several years back.

And so really the secret sauce to the STAR program is that you have it is it's really wrapped around services, and that you have a peer recovery support specialist on board.

So someone with that lived experience that's working alongside you.

You have a mental health counselor.

That's why Frankie and Cara couldn't make it today.

They're quite literally interviewing for that position at as we speak.

Um, that mental health counselor, and you have a case management piece that ties into that that helps you build your case plan.

Also working with law enforcement, also working with the core system.

So you have a number of different entities that are working together to um help make sure that that person can move forward in their sobriety, in their uh case management into more uh permanency.

And so we have a number of apartments um on Marvel Way that um that has star participants, and then we also have a home that has a number of participants, and when we took that over, we've done a lot and and continue to do a lot of cleanup in what that program looks like because certainly the data is real important to us and the fidelity of the program is real important to us to ensure that participants are actively engaged, and so we did see a pretty significant dip in the number of participants when we first took it back over within the HSA oversight of the program, and now we're ramping it back up with participation and recommendations for participants from the court, and so we expect that the numbers are gonna increase pretty substantially over the next months, and we will see really positive outcomes.

Thank you.

Opening it up to the board, Mr.

Mayor.

Okay, member Anderson, member Taylor, uh member Vanderwell.

I'm good, thank you.

Okay, well, great work.

And hopefully everyone can come out on the 8th.

It's uh going to be so exciting because the old homes were needing so much love, and this is uh a big investment by the county.

So maybe we can email it out to the uh CHAP board, the invitation.

Yep, okay.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay, now we're moving on to the Chamber of Commerce GED program at the CARES campus and workforce development.

Welcome, Miss Silver.

Good morning, Vice Chair Hill, members of the advisory board and my favorite deputy DA from the library board.

Um I'm here just as uh a matter of information to let you know that we will continue the high school certification program at the CARES campus.

Um we have enough funding from the county to offer 800 hours of high school certification training along with uh resume development and job presentation skills.

Uh we think we're a good match considering we have thousands of businesses that we represent, all of whom who are eager for full-time employees, and we know that there's a certain percentage of of residents at the CARES campus who are fully capable of working, but they need to get on a level playing field with their external peers by having their high school certification, and with that, they can be referred to free job training through TMCC and find jobs that are in demand in this community.

So we're very excited about continuing this program.

It's Monday through Thursday, two and a half hours every morning.

of residents at the CARES campus who are fully capable of working but they need to get on a level playing field with their external peers by having their high school certification and with that they can be be referred to free job training through TMCC and find jobs that are in demand in this community so we're very excited about continuing this program it's Monday through Thursday two and a half hours every morning and it's interesting to note that many of the CARES campus residents may have gotten their high school uh diploma years and years ago but they need refreshing they need math skills upgraded for the kinds of jobs that are now in the community they need reading proficiency skills and we have a full-time instructor who is prepared to provide that so we think it's a great match it's a segue from Travis's comments about using external resources and we're happy to be one of those thank you you're such a great partner we we're so grateful for your leadership on this and the chamber's leadership so thank you uh mayor lawson do you have anything member anderson member Taylor I just have a quick question when does the program start or has it started it has been going on it's continual there are always 12 seats and as soon as someone graduates the seat is filled there's a classroom with um all the equipment in it laptops and software that helps an individual progress through their high school math and English and social studies classes um and it's been ongoing.

And how many people or how many success stories do you have not as many as we'd like because we weren't in charge of the program but we are now in charge of the program and we intend to see graduation every six months.

So you do you have the resources that you need now to start tracking those results and then we can start yes oh perfect yes a considerable well one of the main reasons we wanted to get involved is to make sure we're tracking completion and improvement gains over time whether that's monthly or quarterly they weren't previously being reported and we know that they will be now perfect.

So that's very important to us to come back to you and report how many graduations we've had thank you.

Member Vanderwell I I knew about I want to say congratulations and this is a wonderful program and I'm so excited to see your successes.

Thank you.

And I have the privilege of going to the GED graduations at the jail as well as the other certificate programs and it's really emotional and incredible so please invite us this whole board we want to go to these graduations and support you and this new you know community members entering into the workforce however we can thank you I will do that.

Okay thank you we appreciate your time all right we're going to now move on to board member announcements reports and updates to include requests for future board agenda items do we have any announcements agenda requests I think we know Travis is going to come back with more data in September member Taylor I want to apologize I said madam vice chair and you are the chair I'm vice chair oh you are vice chair yes okay I'm filling in for member Clark okay or chair clerk well thank you my pleasure my pleasure anything else um online member van derwell no I'm good thank you all right with that uh we have a final public comment madam clerk no one has signed in okay thank you everyone for a great meeting it is 10 oh three we're adjourned