Day/Date: Tuesday, May 3, 2022, Time: 9:30 am-10:30 am

SUMMARY

Today’s meeting agenda is with an emphasis on community research (Community Speaks) objectives and outcomes, homeless and housing services (Westhab) developments, Health and Housing Consortium medical respite bed forum updates and actions to support

CHAIR: John Mudd

WELCOME / INTRODUCTIONS

We appreciate all suggestions to help us run this meeting proficiently.

• Housekeeping (Zoom protocols) copying chat, muting, etc.
  • Signing in: Please sign in with your name and organization
• Introductions, welcoming new members
• Please email subject and speaker suggestions by the 15th of each month
• Items to Triage: To give time to pressing topics, please forward items at least 24 hours prior to meetings

PURPOSE

The Homeless and Housing members, attendees, and speakers share knowledge, ideas, and resources to identify problems and find solutions to the homeless crisis.

Today’s meeting agenda is with an emphasis on community research (Community Speaks) objectives and outcomes, homeless and housing services (Westhab) developments, Health and Housing Consortium medical respite bed forum updates and actions to support

10 min

POLICY MEETING UPDATES

The prior 8:30 Homeless and Housing Policy meeting wrap-up as presented by attending members.

5 min

SPECIAL INTRODUCTION(S) AND OR UPDATES: 

• Elected officials/agencies—updates
• Daniel Pichinson, Ryan Chelsea Clinton—updates
• Richard Perkins, Housing Works—updates
• Rue Parkin, HelpNYC—updates
• Dudley Smith, UWS Open Hearts, Welcome package initiative 
• Alex HS Yong, tenant/housing activist
• Others?
• New Members?

5 min

WESTHAB

Westhab and our Park Savoy site program

Speaker: Gilbert G. Soto, Assistant Vice President, NYC Housing Programs, Westhab Inc.

5 min

ADAPTIVE REUSE: HOTELS TO HOUSING

• If you missed the forum, you could review it on our Youtube Channel link here! 
• Next steps / Updates

Ted Houghton, President of Gateway Housing

5 min

COMMUNITY SPEAKS

• Program
• Outcomes
• New campaign needs

Speaker: Giovanna Antoniazzi, Community Speaks

5 min

HEALTHCARE

The Health and Housing Consortium held a two day medical respite bed forum 

• Recap meeting
• Overview/outcomes
• Suggested actions to increase program visibility and bed use:
  • Coordinated Marketing Campaigns to inform (social media, postcards, flyers, press releases, and letters, powerpoint)
    • Targets: elected’s, community boards, and outreach services, hospitals, clinics, public…
    • Objectives: educate and make known the respite pathways to care
  • Tours seem like a splendid idea
  • Partnerships: MOC outreach services has a street, Lee Issachsohn street medicine program, and others
  • Connected with speakers from your respite info forum
  • Add Comunilife, ICL, Montefleur, and other presenter’s services to the street sheets
  • Include forum presenters to the health committee meetings and communications
  • Add the forums to our youtube channel and decimate with campaigns and or periodically

Speakers?

Bonnie Mohan notes: In terms of the referrals, we had a debrief meeting with our planning committee and have a better understanding of their capacity to receive referrals. It’s primarily Comunilife that has vacancies, but they are still limited in receiving referrals from their funding sources who are paying for the beds (Montefiore, BronxCare, H+H, and Empire) so it’s not really something that we can open up to the general community. That might give a false impression that this program is open to anyone, which unfortunately it’s not at the moment. I think once the pilots are up and running, we can talk more about spreading the word.

8 min

HEALTHCARE INITIATIVES

• Goals as mandated by our Columbia report: Medical respite beds, street medicine, hospital adjacent shelters, combating nimby, housing clinical coordinator, insurance (medicare) enrollment, record sharing, and housing (See Promo Trailer for the Report, Full Report, PowerPoint Presentation, Zoom Presentation)
• Current objectives by our Healthcare Committee: Medicare vs Managed careActions:Contracting entities/Handing medicare over to Wall Street
• Medicare Enrollment initiative works well with the above current objectives of Medicare/medicaid vs managed care
  • Please see Dr. Cohen presentation  from the March 2022 Homeless and Housing meeting 

2 min

Maribel Ruiz, Nancy Pascal, Maya Contreras, Jennifer Mallicote

RALLY HIGHLIGHTING THE INEQUITIES & BAD POLICY

Locations: Midtown near Port Authority, Hudson Yards, NYCHA, Penn Station

 2 min

EMPIRE STATION DEVELOPMENT (ESD) 

Quick take: ESD/Vornado furthering inequality and poor living conditions through development. 

• An opportunity to bring us closer together to oppose wealth extracting policies
• Actions / developing actions
• Upcoming event 

Layla Law-Gisiko, CB5, Chair of the Land-use Committee

5 min

OBJECTIVES / MISSION / VISION

MSCC is busily restructuring to become more effective in accomplishing its goals and planning for the new year: 

• Mission: Midtown South Community Council strives to dismantle the causes of homelessness by building an equitable, just, and sustainable social infrastructure to ensure dignity, health, and home for all. 
• Vision: Midtown South Community Council envisions a city where homelessness and poverty are eradicated

2 min

COMMITTEES

Committees are important to managing overwhelming task with an intersecting network. Anyone wanting to be involved with building committees to serve programs and projects of mutual interests (Housing, Urban Farming, Education & Awareness, healthcare, incarceration, workshops, health access, Home Improvement, communications/social media messaging, Midtown Street Sheets…), please let us know.

2 min

PUBLIC CONCERNS

• We’re in search of support for a couple, 30-years or younger, struggling with mental health issues. Updates: Charisma White, John Mudd, Serafina Payne, LMSW
• Other

5 min

ACTION LIST

• Action requests
• Summary of today’s actions

 3 min

PROGRAM UPDATES

• Street Sheets
• Urban Garden
• Workshops / Workshop Street Sheets

2 min

ANNOUNCEMENTS / EVENTS

• Additional announcements from our committee members?
• New Attendees 
• Additional comments / announcements from our elected officials
• Positive or developing stories

3 min

AOB

• Topic Suggests:
  • Illegal Hotels
  • Talking points
  • Network marketing and communications committee (suggestion)
  • Planning committee with mount Sinai about their unused wings (suggested)
  • Prison to shelter
  • Community oversight
  • Policing the problem away; 50% of the jail population are mentally ill
• Speaker Suggestions: All suggestions are welcomed
• New Members: Thank you for joining, feel free to tell us your needs, schedule a presentation, and connect with anyone within this network
• NEXT Meeting Homeless and Housing Meeting: 9:30 AM Tuesday, June 7, 2022 
  • Always the 1^st Tuesday of every month

2 min

Contact hello@localhost for more information and Zoom invitations.

ADDENDUM A: DEFINING HOUSING

DEFINING HOUSING

When advocating for housing rights with a focus on community, the below items are considered:

• Shelters: Truly transitional; although purposeful, achieving our housing and community goals will eliminate or lessen the need
• Medical Respite Beds: Health care unit for longer stay and transitioning to housing (see Addendum B: Medical Respite Bed Advocacy Plan)
• SROs: Single Room Occupancy
• Supportive: Accessorized with social services
• Housing First: Unconditional placement
• Really Affordable: Rentals below the medium wage of 55,000 and or below 30% of income (input)
• Affordable: The market rate rentals currently available to people above the medium wage up to 88,000 with a 30% of income ask or higher (see Addendum x)
• Option and Incentives for Home Owner