Baltimore County, MD Commission on Disabilities, 21 Apr 2021

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From YouTube: Baltimore County Commission on Disabilities Meeting, April 21, 2021.

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A

Too often we take it for granted.

A

Very thankful that we had terry sapp with us in january,.

A

That he heard everything we said and came back in february and told us what he had done,.

A

And he'd done so much more,, especially for people with disabilities.

A

All of our agencies have stepped up to the plate when I think, inadvertently,.

A

Younger people with disabilities were not seen to have a need for the vaccinations,.

A

But they did a wonderful job,, all of you,.

A

For what they did as far as getting the people to come to vaccinate their clients.

A

We're thankful today to have nikki connelly from prologue.

A

I believe you're going to talk about services available for people with disabilities who may become homeless.

A

I turn it over to you, nikki. thank you.

B

[Overlapping] I want to do one thing before we start with nikki.

B

And then I'm going to introduce the subject for which nikki is going to [noise] provide us some assistance.

B

I do want to take a minute to share the february minutes.

B

I'm just going to put those on the screen for a minute or two.

B

Hi, terri. good afternoon.

B

These are the minutes from february.

B

These were sent out to the commission about two weeks ago via email.

B

Of emergency covid-related rental assistance.

B

From colleen mahony of the department of planning.

B

We also had [noise] a very nice briefing from david greenberg regarding.

B

Important bills and budget items pertaining to the 2021 general assembly, session.

B

Those were the three primary topics for february.

C

I move for approval..

C

Is there a second?.

A

A

[Laughter] everyone in favor?

A

aye, [overlapping].

A

[overlapping]. Let me know if there are any objections, otherwise,. The minutes are approved. thank you, jay.

A

Thank you very much.. I'm now going to share about four slides and.

B

Then nikki and I are going to do.

B

A brief interview, and then we can just let the conversation unfold.

B

Bear with me for one second, please.

B

Nikki, we're used to have a representative from prologue.

A

No. how long ago?.

D

I'll look,, it's in my folders.

A

Yeah., the ceo of the prologue.

E

Many years ago.

A

Is it sendy rommel?.

F

Sendy, yeah.

A

There you go. thank you., thanks, kelly.

A

[overlapping]. We want.

B

To have a conversation about resources available to people with disabilities,.

B

How much are they faced with the threat of homelessness.

B

Is everybody seeing the screen, okay? [overlapping] looks good.

G

B

Baltimore county provides [noise] an array of.

B

Resources to respond to and prevent homelessness.

B

Some of those resources are available to individuals with disabilities.

B

Actually, [noise], all the county resources are available to.

B

People with disabilities [noise].

B

But we do know of a particular resource we want to talk about today, [noise] that has.

B

A strong emphasis in serving people with disabilities as its top priority [noise].

B

Two key resources: I'd like us to talk about today,.

B

These are efforts or resources that do touch the lives of people with disabilities,.

B

Are [noise] outreach efforts and what we call permanent supportive housing.

B

Nikki is familiar with these and I'm going.

B

To just talk about a couple more things before I start a conversation with nikki.

B

I'm going to guess that most of you are not familiar with what we.

B

Call the continuum of care in baltimore, county.

G

This is the overarching system by which the county responds.

B

To homelessness that county residents experience and the threat of homelessness.

B

The continuum of care program is funded by our friend, hud,.

B

The us department of housing and urban development,.

B

And you've heard me talk about hud in other ways, including the community development block, grant program.

B

I think that the continuum of care is maybe about two billion dollars annually.

B

Distributed across the united states to assist with homelessness,.

B

As you know,, it's never just one funding stream to deal with an issue like homelessness.

B

It's not one funding stream that assists people with disabilities,.

B

There's many,, but we call it the continuum of care.

B

This is a very compressed slide to talk about what the continuum of care is.

B

The first column on the left is the entire universe of.

B

Homeless, individuals in the county or individuals who are facing a threat of homelessness.

B

We have what are called access, points, and the access points are represented in the second column.

B

I'm going to mention briefly two of the primary access points by which.

B

An individual or an advocate for an individual can make a phone call and seek services,.

B

Seek access to shelter, seek a housing resource,, whatever it might be. the two access points that I'm going to mention today are the dss screening unit,.

B

That's the department of social services, screening unit,.

B

And the phone number is 4108878463.

B

A screening unit gets plus or minus 6,000 phone calls pertaining to homelessness. Every year.

B

About 2,500 of those calls are unique: calls, if you will.

B

Another important access point is what we call street outreach.

B

Nikki is the program manager for prologue's street outreach, activities.

B

I want to certainly have this access point on the table. Today.

B

That's a phone number that you can call to seek outreach services.

B

If you happen to see a person who is homeless at a mcdonald's,.

B

At a bus, stop, outside of a library,, wherever that might be,.

B

You enter through an access point,.

B

You have a screening intake, conversation,.

B

And then a intake professional will discuss options for you.

B

Again, being brief, housing and shelter, options includes.

B

Shelter diversion which we tried to keep the person in their home.

B

This is also eviction. Prevention is one form of.

B

Shelter diversion where you pay rent in arrears,.

B

You might pay a utility bill,.

B

You might help somebody with a deposit to get two months. Rent underway,.

B

Something of that nature. we don't want people to go in shelters,. We have shelters, but that's not a preferred residence for anyone.

B

A step in the process is to divert from shelter.

B

We do have emergency shelters, which is the second option for housing.

B

On this chart,, looking at the third column of the chart, which is that housing options.

B

We have the east-side family resource center, which we've had for probably two decades.

B

This center was completely reconstructed about five years ago, and it's a very large facility.

B

We could, under normal times, have in the neighborhood of.

B

300 individuals and families residing in the eastern family resource center.

B

We have a west-side men's shelter in the vicinity in the catonsville community,.

B

So forth and so on.

B

I'm going to keep this brief. there's more than one shelter.

B

There's probably about five shelters in the county.

B

Sometimes you can get referred to a housing option before you're referred to a shelter.

B

One of the housing types is rapidly housing and another housing type is.

B

Called permanent support of housing and there's a wait list for that.

B

Moving on to the next slide,.

B

We're still talking about the continuum of care program and why I'm bringing this information to you.

B

Today is in the language that I'm going to share with you now.

B

The continuum of care program funds, two types of permanent housing,.

B

Permanent supportive housing for persons with disabilities and rapid re-housing.

B

We saw those two choices were on the prior slide,.

B

Now I'm focusing on permanent supportive housing.

B

Reading the second sentence in this slide,.

B

Permanent supportive housing is permanent housing with indefinite leasing or.

B

Rental assistance paired with supportive services to assist.

B

Homeless, persons with disability or families with an adult or.

B

Child member with a disability achieve housing, stability.

B

Obviously, there is emphasis in this language that.

B

Identifies individuals with disabilities or.

B

A family that has an adult or a child member with a disability.

B

I've wanted for some time to cross this bridge. If you.

B

Will and make the commission aware of this resource.

B

When we talk about the various resources available to individuals with disabilities,.

B

I didn't think this was really on the list.

B

I wanted to bring it to the table,.

B

Bear with me for one second.

B

I believe the county has about 570 permanent supportive housing, units.

B

They can be scattered site, which means they're in apartments.

B

They're, not all in one building.

B

You're, probably familiar with that with the housing choice, voucher, program,,.

B

Scattered site housing versus project-based housing.

B

We do have, I believe, three facilities in the county, which are called single room occupancy.

B

We have one in arbutus that was established.

B

About eight years ago, with probably 12 units.

B

It's an efficiency apartment that has a kitchen and a restroom and sleeping.

B

Quarters and that's permanent supportive housing.

B

I wanted to go on and introduce this topic and have the conversation with nikki.

B

Nikki,, thank you so much for joining us., thanks for having me. nikki does a lot of things.

B

Nikki and I are in some committees- together.

B

I know she's been working in this field for at least five years,.

B

I don't know the full length of it., but because nikki is familiar with outreach and I believe she's also.

B

Familiar with the permanent supportive housing,, the prologue operates,.

B

I just want to basically ask nikki, within the population of homeless, individuals or people who face a threat of homelessness,.

B

Do you think, there's a presence of individuals with.

B

Disabilities- and is there a significant presence?.

B

I will definitely say yes.

D

I think it varies depending on what part of the community you're in.

D

But I can say for us as that entry point into the coordinated entry system,.

D

Most of the calls that we get from the community or for.

D

Individuals with severe mental health diagnosis.

D

They are the ones who maybe are causing a disturbance or presenting with.

D

Some bizarre behavior that are involved with the police.

D

More often than maybe.

D

The average person because of that behavior or people, feel threatened by them.

D

I would say between that and we do see, I would say, significant.

D

By significant I don't mean majority.

D

But maybe 30 to 40 percent of individuals with a physical disability.

D

Between those two, I would say, the manager categories of disabilities that we see.

D

And probably within the encampments that are already established,.

D

There are some individuals in there that don't identify as having.

D

A disability, but from a clinical perspective I would say that they do.

D

That can make it difficult, because then those individuals.

D

Aren't willing to connect with the supportive services that are going to help them work their way through the system to get the supports they need,.

D

Maybe to get out of homelessness if that's what they choose.

B

What kind of disabilities do you and other prologue staff.

B

Encounter among the homeless individuals that do have a disability?.

B

Can you offer any thoughts about the different types of physical disability,.

B

Mental, or emotional, or intellectual?.

D

I would say for prologue for our homeless outreach program,.

D

We are 100 percent grant-funded..

D

All of our grants are year marked for.

D

Certain sub-populations of those experiencing homelessness.

D

To outreach grants that involve case management and outreach,.

D

It's under one umbrella.. You have to have a mental health diagnosis to work with the folks that get paid under that grant.

D

Our outreach team,, the ones that we call,, which I say,.

D

Its two people that cover the entire span of baltimore county.

D

Those folks can work with anyone who's experiencing homelessness.

D

You don't have to identify a disability or an eligibility criteria to refer to them,.

D

But oftentimes, unless we can get documentation of the disability,.

D

That service stops with outreach.

D

outreach might have to work with someone for months,.

D

Sometimes years to get them connected with the right folks,.

D

To diagnose them,, to move them on to more intensive services other than just rapport, building,.

D

And making sure that their basic needs are met.

D

Then pad funded case management, program.

D

You can have a variety of diagnoses and you don't have to necessarily be disabled by them,, but you can have a mental health diagnosis,.

D

Any kind of behavioral health diagnosis,.

D

Substance use or mental health., you can be a veteran,, you can have a physical disability,, hiv aids, or be a victim of domestic violence..

D

Some of those folks might be working towards getting connected.

D

With the right medical professionals to say whether or not they in fact have a disability.

D

But actually, most calls that we get are probably for.

D

Mental health and physical disabilities, second to that.

G

Okay., it is sometimes a multi-step overtime,.

B

Time-Consuming process for you to engage with the client on the street.

B

And take the steps to have a good, thorough assessment of that individual's needs,.

B

And then have that individual become amenable and agreeable to access a service.

B

It's never quite the same. Every time I expect.

B

Definitely not.

D

We have a really great team under.

D

Our outreach umbrella and some of the most patient folks that you'll ever meet,.

D

There are times that they go out and someone won't even give us a name.

D

We will work with people for months with not even getting a name and then using carrot. Sticks,.

D

Whether it's some food or clothing.

D

We do have an outreach center in towson,, which looks very different since the pandemic.

D

It is a small dumpy building that does a lot of good,.

D

But it's not really conducive to being able to keep.

D

Six feet and the other thing is necessary when we're in the middle of a pandemic.

D

But pre-pandemic, we offered showers,.

D

A place for respite, folks could watch tv, and then there's a case manager on-site to provide.

D

Services and build relationships and get that rapport going.

D

Individuals can do laundry and charge a cell phone.

D

Now, during the pandemic, we're open two days, a week. we are hoping to open for a third day, and folks can come in one at a time to shower, get a bite to eat,.

D

And then we still have case management and outreach on-site,.

D

Just to start that relationship building and connecting folks to the,.

D

To the rest of the continuum under coordinated entry,, which jay talked about in the beginning.

B

When you're, interacting with clients on the street,.

B

So forth,, is it a benefit for you to have a headquarters,.

B

The outreach center in towson to bring somebody showered and shaved,.

B

Have access to a computer, help identified mainstream resources,?

B

Is that an important asset in your work?.

B

It's definitely important,.

D

But I would say that most of the encampment,.

D

The regular standing encampments that we are present at probably weekly,.

D

Not all of those folks come to our outreach, center.

D

I would say it's two different three or four or five,: how many groups you want to identify it as,, but it is different individuals who come to our outreach, center,.

D

But it is absolutely an asset..

D

I think it's just harder, if you're homeless and dundalk to be able to get to towson,.

D

It is a challenge.

D

being able to utilize the other resources in the community,.

D

Which for sure, we're not very many, but actually,? I've learned a lot from individuals experiencing homelessness.

D

There are certain gyms that you can join for.

D

Five dollars a month and can get a shower and clean up and charge your phone.

D

I think some of those resources are utilized,.

D

But anything that we have that.

D

Is a benefit to folks definitely helps us in the relationship-building part.

B

I know you have some plans.

B

Potentially underway to make some improvements to your facility.

B

I certainly hope that those plans come to fruition,.

B

And I believe some improved access for individuals with disabilities will be a part of that.

B

There is an outreach center,.

B

I believe it's baltimore avenue in towson.

B

My department has offered support to that.

B

We had a technicality,, but we got another avenue for county resources to assist that,.

B

So I certainly do hope that comes to fruition.

B

I presented that slide that has that language from.

B

Hud saying province, supportive housing is to provide how this dummy for an individual with disabilities.

B

Do you agree,, is it happening in the real world that hud language,.

B

That permanent supportive housing is, for the most part,, providing a good benefit to individuals with disabilities?.

B

D

There's never enough of it,, but I do think that the system is now set up in a way that we are serving the most vulnerable individuals, first,.

D

Which are individuals with disabilities.

D

It sounds horrible,, but we do a ranking,.

D

Which sounds very inhumane., but it is a way to figure out in a very objective way,.

D

Who needs things? The most?.

D

When it gets to backup all of the individuals on.

D

The permanent supportive housing waitlist in baltimore county,, you have to have a disability.. You have to be chronically homeless,, which means you have to be homeless for a year or longer,.

D

Or be homeless four times in the last three years,.

D

That equals 12 months..

D

You have to be able to document that for the list,.

D

And you have to have a verification of disability..

D

You need those things to even go on the permanent, supportive housing waitlist.

D

We know when someone is taken off of that list,.

D

They already have that documentation with them.

D

I think one of the greatest things- that's probably happened in the early '90s,.

D

Originally in new york with the housing first model,.

D

And in baltimore county, we have really- and I don't want to talk as if everybody knows or doesn't know about housing, first,.

D

But it's taken away all of the barriers to housing, someone.

D

Jay,, you might be surprised to know that I have been working for.

D

Over 20 years with the homeless, population.

D

When I first started in this work,, there were all of these things that individuals had to do to get housed.

D

Really, people did not think you are worthy of housing. Unless you were connected to mental health,, you were connected to a medical doctor.

G

Julie gaynor has joined the meeting.

D

Hi, julie., you had to be connected to your physician,.

D

To a case manager., you had to agree to see that a case manager in your home..

D

There was all of this criteria that weren't options to your recovery,.

D

They were mandates to it.. You had to prove that you were engaged with those things,.

D

Then we would house you., then, to be able to stay in your housing,. Every month,.

D

You have to show us proof that you were still doing those things.

D

Now we have shifted into this housing first and I can give lots of.

D

Anecdotal stories about individuals who they were,.

D

When we met them, really ill and symptomatic,.

D

Unable to make it through an intake.

D

I'll give you a really short story about someone. I worked with.

D

She had been living on the streets..

D

She had a diagnosis of schizophrenia, hearing, voices, unmedicated for over 30 years.

D

She was only 45.

D

When she came to us, when we had an opportunity,, someone had moved out, and this was even before coordinated entry,.

D

So we didn't have a public waitlist like we do now.

D

Someone came to us, our outreach folks, came.

D

She needed surgery and we decided that we were going to house her.

D

No questions asked.. I tried to do an intake with her and it did not go well.

D

At that point, she became really aggressive.. She was throwing pens at the wall., we ended the intake..

D

She was saying threatening things,, but we knew that it was really tied to the voices that she was hearing.

D

It was pretty apparent., I said, okay, we're just going to house her.

D

We had a landlord who was brave enough to work with us.

D

We got her to sign this lease somehow,.

D

All in the same day,, she was hospitalized.

D

Because of all of the things, she became fairly homicidal., we got crisis response involved.

D

she was hospitalized.. We walked through all of the steps with her during the hospitalization.

D

Of course, they drugged her pretty quickly.

D

when she was fairly lucid,.

D

We had said to her, "look,. We have an apartment for you.".

D

It was really in that moment that she looked at us,, where before,.

D

I am not sure that we ever could have taken this opportunity to house her,.

D

But we were given this opportunity., we said, "look,. We have this apartment for you.".

D

Of course, she was trying to sign herself out.

D

"If you can stay here, here are the pictures of it. here's, the release,, here's everything.".

D

She was hospitalized for two weeks..

D

They got her,, I would say somewhat fairly stabilized on medication.

D

I wouldn't say she was not hearing voices at all,, but she was definitely on a good path..

D

We connected her with the act team,, which is a very intensive treatment team that.

D

Surrounds someone with every supportive service that they need and it brings it to them.

D

It is now eight years later,.

D

This person is still housed..

D

We did eventually get through the intake..

D

Once she got back, we were still able to get all of that documentation that we needed.

D

She is housed, her health,.

D

She went through cancer treatment and recovered,.

D

Is in recovery from that., she just has done really well, and it just speaks to how housing,.

D

And I guess this is my opinion,- is that housing really is healthcare,, especially for folks with disabilities,.

D

But really for anyone experiencing homelessness.

D

I can say this in my over 20 years,: we have never housed someone and not seen some improvement in their lives,.

D

Whether it's improvement in health, improvement in reconnecting with their families,.

D

Improvement in mental health, physical health,.

D

Their substance use, using harm reduction, techniques.

D

When you're experiencing homelessness, to get connected to harm reduction is difficult because you're so transient.

D

It just gives someone a stable place to be to be able to engage into.

D

I take a lot of times as a society,.

D

We write off someone's abilities to do what they need to do.

D

But sometimes it's simple as just being able to access that housing.

D

I have a question.

G

[Overlapping] jay.

D

I can really get up and talk about this stuff for a long time.

B

It's good., it's getting [inaudible] now.

B

Mike,, you have a question?.

F

I do. first, a comment.. Thank you so much.

F

this has been very, very helpful.

F

My computer here is saying I'm having problems connecting to the network.. Can you hear me okay??

F

I can hear you great.. I can hear you great. okay. all right..

F

I find the name of the continuum of care. Program,.

F

There must be some deep, dark political history about how a federal program got named.

F

The name describes nothing about the program,.

F

Literally,, nothing about the program..

F

A continuum of care doesn't tell the average person anything,.

F

But I'm sure there's been political story behind that.

F

I guess my question for you,: I have two questions, one,: how are the camps in terms of numbers now as compared to pre-pandemic?.

F

Then number two, talk to us about what kinds of clinics are.

F

Being maybe held at the camps and doing outreach to homeless folks to get them vaccinated.

F

Great questions.

D

I will say our referrals have doubled since the pandemic.

D

But I can't say that folks are newly experiencing homelessness.

D

These folks are in a desperate situation at anyway, and the pandemic.

D

Just really exacerbated that,, where before,.

D

They may be able to go to a library and hanging out there during the day, or to the y,.

D

Or to a mcdonald's and everything shut, down.

D

Or couch surf on a relative's, couch or something. yeah.

F

D

It has changed in that way that I'm not sure that there were new referrals to us.

D

Our numbers went through the roof.

D

I don't know what the numbers are yet because we've run on a fiscal year.

D

I know what our numbers were last year and we served over 1,000 folks.

D

Those are all literally homeless.. We don't serve couch surfers unless you are an unaccompanied homeless youth who is 24 and younger.

D

Got you. that accounts for maybe 60 of the individuals,.

D

But over 1,000 of literally homeless folks on the street or in encampments.

D

As for the existing encampments,, we have a lot of good relationships with other providers in the community like healthcare for the homeless,.

D

Which didn't shut down during the pandemic.?

D

I think how they provided. Services shifted and changed a little bit,.

D

But we were still able to partner with them.

D

Other providers,, it became really difficult.

D

Like harm reduction services,, there was a pause in what they were able to provide.

D

I think they're up and running now, again, great,, but even the shelter's closed.

D

That added a whole other challenge.

D

We were able to hotel some individuals.

D

Health care for the homeless, I would say, is our biggest partner.. Then we have all sorts of providers who assist us.

D

In mental health, like other prp programs,.

D

So psychiatric, rehab day programs.

D

How are we getting vaccines to these folks,.

F

Are there some mobile clinics that have gone out to the site to get people shots?.

F

We have been advocating for this.

D

That has not happened, yet,, but healthcare for the homeless,. I know that we have been in conversations with them because they do have a mobile clinic.

D

Jay,, you want to say something about that?.

D

Mary manzoni.

B

Mary,, did you send me a email that.

B

I sent out to the commission yesterday?

B

the united way,. I believe, has launched a program to transport people to vaccinations.. I don't know. [overlapping].

B

Yeah, I sent that out.

H

That's the 2.1.1. he sent it out to everybody.

H

Then terri, you had asked for an update on what.

H

The county is doing, and it's not under my preview,.

H

But I had asked the county executive's office for an update and I haven't received one from [inaudible].

H

If I get an email back I'll, send it to jay to send out because she's.

H

Overseeing that initiative with the covid vaccination sites.

B

I would just say the county shelters were shutdown in a significant way,.

B

Beginning in march, 2020, that famous month.

B

We have now gradually reopened the process.

B

There's testing availability and I believe there is also.

B

Vaccination capacity at county shelters.

B

Not everybody wants to choose a shelter.

B

But I believe that a homeless, individual called, screening unit was deemed.

B

A worthy case for the county to respond to that the county would.

B

Potentially, have a protocol in place to vaccinate that individual.

B

I believe that that service has come online.

B

I'll try and confirm that..

B

I had a question for nikki.

A

First of all,, thank you for this information..

A

If someone is homeless and they have a disability,.

A

Do you ever run into a possible problem with them being able to verify their disability?.

A

That is probably our biggest challenge.

D

Not only their disability but their length of time, homeless.

D

The way the system is set up, now,.

D

If you've been homeless for a year,.

D

But you've never connected with any provider,.

D

You can't go on the wait-list,.

D

You have to be connected to a therapist and a psychiatrist,.

D

And that's a difficult thing: unless providers are coming to you.

D

It is one of the first things we do when we go out to.

D

Do outreach is to make sure that individuals are aware of all of the services that are available under the continuum and the requirements under them.

D

Then, as an outreach provider,, we can document homelessness.

D

but again,. If we're just meeting them for the first time,, we can't go backwards.

D

yeah,, I would say that is one of the biggest barriers to getting folks on the wait-list,.

D

And really just connected to any other services that.

D

Require disability as an eligibility factor.

A

Do a lot of the families bring friends,.

A

Family or other members, to advocate for them, is that a possibility they'll still be able to receive services?.

A

Giving services, just services in general or?.

A

Whatever you can add for them.

D

We would still serve them.

D

We serve people who don't want to be served. Too.

D

If we go out to see you and they say no, thank you,, I don't want to talk to you, that doesn't end for us.

D

we're going to go out over and over and over.

D

as I like to say,, I'm a good nag..

D

You hope, eventually, that you figure.

D

Out, whatever the incentive is for them to work with you.

D

But just to make sure that they're taken care, of.

D

If you have someone who is really sick, who's, hearing, voices, who's, paranoid,.

D

For folks, especially experiencing schizophrenia,,.

D

They don't have this thing, threshold of pain, they're times have gone out, and I had one gentleman who not to be.

D

Graphic but had taken pliers and pulled out all of his teeth because he thought,.

D

The cia had put a chip in them and that the voices would go away and he felt nothing.

D

Other individuals with just extreme edema and their legs and open wounds.

D

Some people are absolutely in pain, but others aren't.

D

Trying to observe what's right in front of us and try to deal with it the best way.

D

That we can and to keep going back and keep letting them know that we're there to help.

D

The other thing is there's a lot of these folks haven't, had good experiences in the system.

D

they're hesitant for that reason..

D

We try to break down that barrier and let them know we are here to help.

D

We're not miracle workers.. We only have access to what's available in the community,.

D

But we will certainly advocate and try to push forward and get all that paperwork. That's needed for all of the services.

F

Because it's very often they get sent to jail.

F

When they've had experience with the system, because many of.

F

Them have various reasons for why they can't make it.

F

Listen,, I'm executive director of the image center for people with.

F

Disabilities, where the center for independent living that serves baltimore county,.

F

If we can help you in any way put some pressure on the county to do.

F

Vaccine clinics, or to take other actions to help get shots on people's arms.

F

We've set it as a priority to pretty much work on this exclusively for awhile.

F

Please reach out to me and we'll see, we'll see how we can coordinate our activities.

F

That would be great.. Thank you, so much.

D

A

Also goes from most of the agencies that are on today,.

A

For you to possibly keep in touch with them.

A

a little bit later, they're going to be giving us an update as to how their vaccination clinics are going.

A

kelly,, you had a question.

I

Not a question.

I

With regard to county shelters,,.

I

Do you have a 24/7 program, we're if I call in as a homeless, person,.

I

Such as such mcdonald's from last year,.

I

The person run away, or was he wait time and the like?.

I

We're not 24/7.

D

Again,, I only have two folks that are covering the entire county.

D

But we do respond to every single call that comes in.

D

Our grant says that we respond within 72 hours,.

D

But we do try to respond within 24 business hours because we know that it can be a lost opportunity.

D

But I will tell you yesterday morning,, I got nine new referrals.

D

By the third one, I had reached out to our team and I said, look,, if you don't get to this today,, it's okay.

D

the end of the day she called me,. She was like, well,. We saw online, including other things she already had on her to-do. List.

D

They try to be very responsive, because we know that if somebody is at mcdonald's,.

D

They're not going to be there for very long.

A

It's a great program.

A

anybody else have any questions or comments?.

A

J

I'd like to jump in. nikki, are any of the units you're using multi-family,.

J

Or are they all scattered as individual?

J

in baltimore county?.

D

No. they are all for individuals, and/or, families.,.

D

We have tried in the past to partner people up.

D

I guess the other part of this that we didn't talk about is that permanent, supportive housing,?

D

You keep three percent of your income towards rent,, so it's very much like section e,, but it comes with supportive services.

D

Let's say as it is, someone if you're getting ssi,.

D

I think monthly ssi right now. It's 790 something, 794,.

D

And some of the cheapest efficiencies in baltimore county are $880,.

D

So just this idea of not enough affordable housing in baltimore, county,.

D

And I'm not going to go down that rabbit hole.

D

But we have tried to link people up to live together for that very reason,.

D

Whether it's with support from permanent supportive housing or just as an added support to them,.

D

And it has been a disaster for us.

D

It might've worked for other programs,, but it wasn't great for us. as an adult to now be told that you have to have a roommate in a house.

D

You've never met before or in a larger home, with multiple roommates,.

D

It just didn't work for us., it's probably cheaper,, but I think that the outcomes aren't good,.

D

And you have a lot of higher rate of recidivism back to homelessness.

D

For us,, it is all individual housing units.

D

Scattered throughout baltimore county for individuals and families.

J

J

I'm trying to read through this.. I just got it this morning., it's a hud supplemental grant for any covid related payments.

J

I hope it will be helpful to send out to this group.- for now, I'm trying to interpret it myself.

J

We have one hud property,, so we'll fit it,, but it's helpful to all the people. I have to send it.

A

Any kind of information like that is very helpful to everyone on this call. thank you.

J

Okay. I'll put it on the email, out.

A

[Overlapping], this is towards multifamily,.

B

I would just say, this might not be what you're talking about.

B

but I'll say in a quasi congregate.

B

Living facilities where there's 12 single room occupancy units under one roof,.

B

I don't think those accommodate families.

B

But I guess there's an efficiency in terms.

B

Of states providing a good healthy number of units in a compact, space,.

B

Plus you get a internal case: managements providers.

B

To all their clients in that one facility and there's a group kitchen and things like that., that's all. well, thank you, nikki.

B

I think we may be crossed the bridge a little bit to make the commission aware of.

B

Permanent supportive housing and some of the complex issues that you face.

B

Thank you so much for your time. Today.

B

thanks for everything.

E

Thanks very much everyone.

D

Jay,, this is brian from gallagher.

E

Nikki,, did you say something about? You were helping people get to vaccination centers and that there were [inaudible]?.

E

We have been trying to get vaccines to them.

D

I will add a caveat to that,.

D

This johnson and johnson vaccine has been pretty disappointing because I thought that.

D

Would be the vaccine that we could get to these folks, since it's a one and done,.

D

Because we know that it might be that second shot.

D

Who knows what would happen with it?, but I guess the first one is better than nothing..

D

We are trying to collaborate to get the vaccines to them,.

D

Because I don't think we have the ability to get folks to the clinics,.

D

Nor it's not really a priority in the encampments.

D

I think it would be if it came to them, but they're not reaching out to us and saying, "hey,. Can we get vaccinated?"? I think you're absolutely on the right. Track.

F

We need to get out to those camps. if there's a way that we can help with that,. We should do it.

F

It's the only way we're going to reach people.

F

They're not going to travel to another location to do it.

F

A

I think we can be a good resource for that,, so that people they go to them are actually nurses that can administer the vaccine.

A

A

oh, my god, great to know. nikki,, we'll talk to some of the pharmacies that we work. With, and,.

E

I'm sure other agencies just to see if they could be helpful with going to these folks.

E

That would be great. thank you.

D

I think it's the private pharmacies that would be able to do something very quickly.

F

If we can get it, scheduled, that'd be great..

F

There is always good information coming out of our speakers.

A

Thank you so much. thank you.. We appreciate that.

D

I'm glad I came., I got some good stuff, too.

D

yes., we'll be a good resource or.

A

Partner with you in getting all this done and accomplished.

A

I think we're always going to have a problem with people who are already sent to do this.

A

That's another hump. We have to get over..

A

Thank you again.. We really appreciate that.

A

any other questions for nikki?.

A

I'm going to have as for an update from some of our program, directors.

A

But before I do that, real quick,, I want to make sure everyone received the new proclamation from the governor.

A

A year ago, secretary of disability and the secretary of.

A

Health put a proclamation out saying that anyone.

A

That was in the hospital with a disability that they could.

A

Have one person designated to be their visitor or their caretaker.

A

I was able to educate union memorial when I was in the hospital in last august.

A

They were not aware at all about this proclamation and were thankful that I brought to their attention.

A

But there is a new one out.. I think I shared that with everyone. otherwise, I'll have jason, have it out again.. Let me see.

A

Let's give quick updates about what other agencies are possibly doing.

A

Mike, you gave us one pretty much.. Is there anything else you wanted to say, mike?.

F

Well, we're working pretty hard.

F

We have a full-time staff member who is just focusing on getting people vaccinated.

F

We've got over 500 shots in people's arms.

F

Our technique is to not stand up.

F

Our own clinics, because we don't think we have enough numbers in the right, places.

F

What we do is partner with other private and or city clinics.

F

And get a couple of 100 shots dedicated to folks with disabilities,.

F

And then we go out and beat the brush, and contact people who need vaccines and then help them make that happen,.

F

So that's our technique., thank god for folks, like david greenberg, who they really have stood up.

F

Some clinics that I think we filled up the second day,.

F

April, 2nd of david's clinic,, pretty much.

F

Several other clinics around the city and the county to make that happen.

F

At the moment,, the big challenges are.

F

Accessible transportation in baltimore county to get.

F

People to clinics who don't have their own transportation,.

F

And then the issue of getting people who can't leave their homes for whatever reason.

F

I hate that word home bound, by the way..

F

It sounds different,, but I don't like it.

F

but anyway, people who can't get out of their homes,.

F

It's a real priority for us to try and figure out ways to get vaccines into their arms.

F

I'm really sensitive to what nikki said about.

F

The johnson and johnson that was going to solve a lot of problems.

F

Because having to go back to these locations twice.

F

Is a burden on an already difficult situation.

F

Because what happens is, of course, if you've got appointment, scattered all over the county,.

F

Then you can only maybe do five, or six, or seven stops a day,.

F

Whereas and then you have to go back and do those all over again in three weeks.

F

It is a real challenge.. It's the next thing that we will all need to focus. On,.

F

And working with people who are.

F

Homeless and getting vaccines into those camps to get people vaccinated.

A

Go ahead., I'm sorry., it's david.

C

I have to jump off the call at 1:00 and I just wanted to fill you in on stuff.

C

Thank you for the kudos, mike..

C

The league did five vaccination clinics for.

C

Our own people, as well as mike's people, as well as the general public.

C

But really focus trying to get people in baltimore city with disabilities,.

C

But we didn't turn anybody away..

C

Then a lot of people showed up who didn't seem to have disabilities,.

C

But I wasn't asking.

C

We just did it related to johnson & johnson,.

C

I am very hopeful this friday,.

C

It will be rereleased with more warnings.

C

Friday, there's a big announcement: that's scheduled,.

C

At least the big meeting that's happening., they could delay. Further.

C

nikki was right,, especially homeless.

C

But people with disabilities just come one time and you're done.

C

We did three clinics with johnson & johnson and it was one and done and it's great.

C

We've since they've gotten information to send out to people who've gotten it,.

C

Who are fearful now because of all the media.

C

But six people out of nine million is what's has been documented.

C

Anyway, we are working with mike's person, shirley grossman,.

C

And it said we can do some more clinics in may.

C

In may I lose track of months in the pandemic [laughter], because june 1,.

C

We're reopening our medical day and then I don't want to be.

C

Doing clinics in the building, while clients are here.

C

But if we can do something in.

C

The month of may through the baltimore city, health department is who we generally been working with,, but we've done it with right day to the private pharmacies, have been fine.

C

Thanks to my colleague, who also have run clinics,.

C

And we all shared information., the best advice was,, I loved the little stickers that we can give people.

C

Because you felt like you got something out of it, besides the sore arm. [laughter].

A

I got a button. no., I think the question about transportation,.

A

Is it worth looking into countyride partnering with us for this,.

A

Or I think that's a dead end.

A

Anybody? I'll go up there. [overlapping].

A

I know I've seen.

B

Public announcements about providing vaccination travel, to,.

B

I'm sorry to use the term homebound individuals.

B

There's 3-1-1 for baltimore county.

B

I mean, I can check,, but I believe the county executive is pretty good about this.

B

He puts out an email to county employees, every friday.

B

I thought I saw a link two weeks ago.

B

About providing transportation to people who can't do it through the normal means.

B

I sent it out to the commission, I believe, because we've talked about it.

B

I can look for that. there's a flood of info from.

B

The county related to covid and some of it gets lost.

F

I don't have good information other than that.

F

I wasn't even aware until just recently that county right.

F

Is now under the department of transportation,?

F

It's not with the department of aging anymore.

F

We don't have that direct connection like we used to have,.

F

But I once going to reach out to them to find out exactly what their policy is.

F

On getting people to and from clinics, because I'm with you.

F

I heard that they were doing it,, but now nobody quite knows the linkage.

A

Sheryl from images has been wonderful that if anybody wants to.

A

Mike and I sometimes jump onto her meetings.

A

That she's having another one tonight. correct, mike?.

A

Yeah,, that's right.! If anyone wants to join him with that,, they have truly become wonderful advocates for people throughout maryland with disabilities to get their shots,.

A

She's done a phenomenal job. That was a good [overlapping].

A

If anybody has an inquiry to sheryl or anything,.

F

You can send it to vaccine@imagemd.org,.

F

And that we'll we get to sheryl.

F

Just let us know, and if you know of people who.

F

Are having trouble getting shots or whatever, just send them to us., send them our way and we'll figure it out.. Maybe somebody can post that in the chat, box.

A

Doug over at chimes,, what's going on?.

A

Terri,, can I just jump on record because I have to jump off also?.

K

Yes, go ahead..

K

We have nine clinics,.

K

But ours were through operation warp speed.

K

we had limits of who we could give., but still we did about 800 people,.

K

Which sounds a lot, but percentage-wise,.

K

We have about 65 percent of our staff, has still not gotten it, and.

K

65 percent of the people we serve have not gotten it because they don't want it.

K

Where we're at now is educating people as much as we can,.

K

Doing surveys, trying to figure out what the barrier is.

K

But anybody that wanted it could've gotten it through us and now it's really encouraging people.

K

people with poor, as well as our staff, like I said,.

K

That's where the issue is really where we're at.

K

Certainly, the thing with johnson & johnson did not help that, because we had partnered.

K

With a pharmacy that was going do with johnson & johnson clinic and that can happen.

K

Then the other thing, I can send out to the whole group or.

K

To jeff wherever, but the max public policy wrap up,.

K

Which has a nice summary of different bills and things like that, since I'm [inaudible].

K

Thanks for that,, that's great.

A

Now, douglas. thanks everyone. bye,, doug, [laughter]. bye., no worries. see you.. We started our clinics.

L

In february and ran it through march.

L

We literally took over our corporate office-office seating drive and how to explain. It.

L

But there's, we call them big rooms,.

L

And then they have little offset rooms..

L

It looks the same on both sides.

L

People coming in one side of the building for our residential programs,.

L

Staff coming in another area and stuff like that.

L

Anyone that wanted it's staff, and individuals, they really would have to get it.

L

The pharmacy did not permit us to offer it to all of our participants.

L

If you were living at home,, you could not come in and get it..

L

They were only allocated enough to do our residential and our staff.

L

Obviously, there's leftover vaccines at the end of the day,.

L

And it's a use it or lose it kind of thing.

L

We created essentially a waiting list.

L

And when we got near the end of the day, and we can see, we have 100 left,.

L

Staff got on the phone and started calling people on those waiting, lists,.

L

And we hung around until people came in and got it.

G

As well as residential staff,,.

L

We all worked it all day. Long.

L

did three different times.

L

But it went really well and really smooth.

L

That hasn't trickled down yet.

L

Our programs, if that's going to be an ongoing thing or how that works.

L

I loved the idea of going to your wait-list for leftover vaccines.

A

Because they're only good for a certain amount of time,, correct?, correct, yeah.

A

use it or lose it instead of them going to waste.

L

We would even bring in family members at that point.

A

Perfect,, that's great., we didn't care and pharmacy didn't need to be the wiser.

L

So that we can make sure.

L

Tracking and make sure same people were coming back for their second dose and things like that.

L

That's great., you still on, greg?.

B

Greg left the meeting.

A

Russ,, the key point, any updates?.

J

Similar stories, we've held three clinics to wage war with moderna.

J

One was with pfizer, where so [inaudible],, just like owen said,, there's days where the johnson & johnson immediate, came out.

J

And really just deterred people even more wanting to get that shot.

J

But we're really helpful for that to pick backup, as mike had said.

J

But we've gotten about 200 inoculations done.

J

Very similar to what doug had said.

J

there's left to us at the end of the day, and so they were reserved for patients and staff.

J

The pharmacy was, hey, the wiser to we'd be willing to give a person a temporary badge just so they could get a shot..

J

They wouldn't know any different because we didn't want to.

J

Lose out and we didn't want to have lots of leftover.

J

The challenges have been for two types of people,.

J

Those who are just on the fence. we're really trying to reach out and educate about getting the shot.

J

But then there are those people that just believe in all of.

J

The disinformation hoaxes about the vaccines.

J

The hoaxers,, I guess I say I want to call them,.

J

We're just going to prepare our best after.

J

We get the people who are on the fence first to get them inoculated,.

J

The hoaxers, are really going to be the most difficult to persuade.

J

We've been offering transportation as much as we can with our 15 passenger vans.

J

Of course,, it's limited to six people, yeah.

J

With windows downs on best when their grades are possible,.

J

But that's been a medium success that way too.

J

It seemed the people that are homeless and.

A

Then transportation is an issue.. I'm glad to hear.

A

Everybody's really working on that., who did I miss? brian?,.

A

Unmute yourself.

A

I'm unmuted. thank you.

E

Okay. we have in our residential programs,.

E

We are able to get 93 percent of the folks who live there. Vaccinated.

E

We have a little bit of advantage and most of the people that we support, do live in our residential programs.

E

I think we only have 12 people left out of the 205.

E

Then our day programs are on a pause,.

E

But we've still been able to get 66 percent of those folks.

E

Then, with our staff, like everybody else, is saying,.

E

We're about 55 percent., the johnson and johnson, isn't helping.

E

Our administrative staff is 95 percent,.

E

Front line supervisors is almost 80 percent..

E

One of the things that we feel proud about and everybody, is saying. It,.

E

We were able to use the leftover doses.

E

To offer them to family members,, the people we support,.

E

Especially early on because they had very legitimate issues, of,.

E

My son's getting vaccinated and can be very compromised,.

E

But he's coming and living with us.

E

we were able to get them vaccinated, too,, which was good.

E

We're not sure if we're going to have more or not.

E

That's great. anybody else.

A

I'd missed that wants to do an update from their agency?.

A

I think I got everybody. want to mention that on another note,.

A

Dave ward passed about a year ago- and there was a tribute that was scheduled by his sister,.

A

That was postponed with all the issues around covid.

A

I think most of you heard there is a tribute there's going to be outdoors at a venue in may. The 8th.

A

I wanted doug to speak, speaking of tributes to people doug, about the passing of bob huffman real quick.

L

I don't know if anyone knows bob.

L

He managed maryland works for over 30 years.. He was a very big disability, advocate.

L

Some of us on the commission served with him on.

L

The maryland disability forum,, including dave.

L

It was just sad, a good advocate in our world..

L

I just wanted to make sure people are aware that knew him. What had happened.

L

We do have our speaker arranged for next month.

A

Fortunately,, it's going to be be michael tan, coming back with an update.

A

A lot of people said they didn't know about the programs. You were talking, about.

A

We're going to be hopeful about that education.

A

Ben,, should we give an update on strategic planning?.

A

We really had put that off. anything you want to say?.

I

Not at this point.

I

We're working toward re-appointments and.

I

Hopefully, some diversification with regard to those re-appointments.

I

But I think that we need to go back and.

I

Re-Visit a strategic plan, as things start to open up,.

I

That we're going to be back in 100 percent in business,.

I

And get work groups organized again and moving.

I

Forward with what we discussed almost a year, ago. [overlapping].

I

B

We had a conversation about a housing resource, today.

B

Housing is one of the key priorities in the strategic plan.

B

I think today we made progress with the strategic plan. [noise].

G

A key phrase, as things start to open up,.

A

We all need to be helpful about that.

A

We're probably going to be looking at another virtual celebration in october.

A

Some of the people that helped with that last year, we can get together and discuss that more.

A

jay,. They did a great job. Last year.

A

Everybody else is doing a wonderful job, having virtual celebrations, I'll call it.

A

Let's see anything else.

A

Anything else anyone wants to bring to the table to discuss at this point?.

A

Not so much to discuss,.

M

But I keep getting invitations for.

M

Appointments to get the vaccine at timonium, fairgrounds.

M

I was able to get it through cvs.

M

actually,, I'm fully vaccinated., I'm two weeks out for my second shot., but every week,, I'm getting two invitations,.

M

One for each of the active vaccines that are administering.

M

I've given away three., I'm not posting on facebook,, although I almost want to. I've been reaching out to my friends networks and giving them away.

M

But michael, is this something if I get any more of these invitations,.

M

Because I'm sitting on two for tomorrow,- I don't know if it's too late or not..

M

But if I get another set on monday,.

M

Can I forward those emails to somebody else to use them?.

M

Yeah, absolutely. send them to me.

F

M

Send them to vaccine@imagemd.org or you can send them to me either way.

M

We'll make sure they get used..

M

I clicked on the link and all it lets you do is set up the appointment.

M

There's nothing that lets you decline.

F

M

I guess in their system, I keep get two of them for each week.

M

I hate to just let them pass.

F

Right. well, we'll take care of it. [overlapping].

A

Then you've probably share that. With charles group.-.

G

Julie gaynor has left the meeting.

A

Jay,, you had your hand up.. What did you want to say?.

B

I just wanted to do a little bit of a house cleaning.

B

I put it in the chat box that I asked to identify a couple of participants in the meeting.

B

We have somebody on the screen that a phone number ends in 65.

B

A

If they can, let jay know for attendance.

A

Gloria valentine,, I'm glad you're here.

A

Can you tell us who you are? sure.

N

I am a citizen,.

N

Baltimore county, and I am a proud parent of an adult with disabilities.

N

I am also the director of.

N

Early intervention services for baltimore city with the baltimore city, health, department.,.

N

I am interested in participating in this commission for obvious reasons,. I think.

N

I just wanted to join today,.

N

My schedule allowed me to be able to jump on a little late., but my schedule allowed me to be able to participate today.

N

Wonderful., maybe you can send your invitation to jay, and we'll keep in touch.

A

Because our meetings are open., the more the merrier. thank you.

N

A

Anything else for the good of the people with disabilities? go ahead.

A

Jay, 65, is kelly.

B

A

Good. finally,, I know everyone's anticipating the winners of.

A

The [inaudible] competition that greer said its far as.

A

Who was going to have the best graph as far as the best ball games,, which were crazy.

A

The two winners,, I think, julie, left,,.

A

But it's repeat: winners, julie, gainer and and larry hues,.

A

So I'll be taking them out to dinner.

A

anything else for the good of the group?.

A

I'm so thankful for everybody, for not only being here today,.

A

But rallying to support people in baltimore county disability., it has been amazing.

A

Thank you. anything else?.

A

Do I hear motion to adjourn?.

A

I second that. thanks everybody,, I appreciate. have a great day.

M

Thanks. bye. [noise].