SWP Housing Committee
7/12/18
Attendees
Diana Geis
Nancy McCormick
Debra Young
Lou Packett
George Kieb
Edith Gillard
HerardoBienvenidez
Jonathan Law
Karl Hubig
Dorothy Paige
Suzanne Welch
Kitty Perkins
Barbara
Welcome and Introductions
Introductions and what was your favorite toy.
Suzanne moved to approve the minutes from June 2018 and Ms. Dotty seconded.
Committee Reports:
LaCite Report
Several representing the Southwest Parnership testified at a hearing concerning land acquisition by the La Cite group. Mr. Blithewood from LaCitealso attended the hearing. The results of the hearing are unknown as of our meeting.
Save all 311 confirmation numbers and send to Brandy Welch from DPW will also accept 311 confirmation numbers at the next Poppleton Now meeting.
Outreach Report N/A
Aging in Place
HUBS
Jon reports that the application was not submitted to open a HUBS center in our community. The school for social work did not follow through with forwarding information.
Senior Activity
A field trip is being considered as a possible event for seniors. Trips to Patapsco Park or another locale. Debra suggested a trip to Washington D.C. (particularly the museums). Kitty suggested a shopping trip to the outlets at Rehoboth. Ms. Dotty suggested an ice cream social. Events such as a BINGO night or ice cream social is a warm up event.
Lou suggested First Fruits Farms on 1st Saturdays. You are able to bring fresh fruit home with you. Buses are available from local sponsors. It is $600-700/bus. It may be possible to ask that a local church provide a bus. Breakfast is available at no charge if arrive by 6am. https://www.firstfruitsfarm.org
Email from Michael Concerning Tax Sale
Tax Sale- List of properties we would have liked removed from the tax sale. The properties were not removed. The auction process has not been completed and are voiding the auctions. The Deputy of DHCD reported that all but 12 of the properties have been voided thus far. Please check with SWP concerning and rumors concerning the tax sale.
Karl purchased 22 properties from the SWP list of properties. Luckily those properties were not auctioned to outside persons. This will remove any concerns about pushback from possible auction winners.
CORE money has not come in per Michael.
Healthcare for the Homeless
The group is based in Downtown Baltimore with one satellite siteat Bon Secours. They provide mental health and substance abuse for the homeless or those in danger of becoming homeless. Anyone in an unstable living situation would qualify for treatment at their clinics. They want to stabilize the individuals and hopefully bring them to a place of recovery. They also fulfil several social work services to apply for various social services from the department of social services and from social security. They are newly into helping individuals find housing. This brought them to our meeting. Finding a stable living situation offers a solid foundation for a person trying to overcome their various issues that led to homelessness.
They are going through existing housing programs to arrange housing for affected individuals. Depending on the qualifying issues, different programs help different people. They help to navigate the homeless through the process. They work with churches and social services to make this possible. It is a Housing First Mentality.
Located: 2000 W. Baltimore St. at the Bon Secours Hospital. Website: www.hchmd.org
Individuals can communicate their names and issues directly or a helper can do so on their behalf. Providing the name, location, etc.
If you dial 211, the call goes to is the United Way which will refer a social worker to the individual. It will give you a location and phone numbers to share or to call on behalf of the homeless individual.
Outreach Team goes on the street and walks people to the clinic. There is an outreach worker who works outside of the hospital that walks people from the street to the office. They are willing to set up a table at events to disseminate information concerning the services available.
Prologue Program in Towson offers laundry and showers. https://prologueinc.org 410-653-6190
Paul’s Place on Ward St also offers laundry and showers. Paulsplaceoutreach.org
Bon Secours owns 1843 Lexington used to be a men’s recover house. 1847 Lexington is Tanya House which is a women’s recovery house with beds available. The 1843 building would be used for TYRO offices to meet with individuals in the program.
Make information available to community. The resource website is betteraddictioncare.com to locate NA Meetings close by.
Further consideration for the Fund the Trust and 20/20.
United Workers update for Fund the Trust. The lawyer has met twice with the city. The city is willing to work with them concerning funding the trust. They will continue to petition until Fund the Trust is on the ballot. They continue to fight through other avenues as needed to acquire the funding that has been promised. Debra will keep us informed as future meetings happen. The first 2 million is in the bank. The 20 million that was promised is what is being discussed.
Sept 20th there will be a public hearing concerning Fund the Trust. The ballot initiative is still collecting signature. Michael Coleman is coming to SWP at a later time.
Future Items:
Michael’s Report
Councilmember Bill Henry will be at the August meeting.
Councilman Henry will attend, and we will endeavor to publicize this meeting to home-owners and renters. He wants to discuss non-owner-occupied dwelling units, boarding houses, and vacant structures – Rental Dwellings – Registration and Licensing and registry Bill# 18-0185.
BNI workshops in October
Old Business
Suzanne suggested created a list of follow up items for each meeting. This would help the committee to track of projects or concerns that we don’t discuss presently. Lou mentioned there there is a Project Board of all the projects that he can bring to the August Meeting.
New Business
Community Pools are now free for the rest of the summer for the children.
Urban Land Institute – Proposing creating a park and gathering space. Ms. Dotty invited them to speak with us. They agreed to come and share their presentation. It was suggested to bring this to the board of SWP. This is a community-wide concern. The report has not yet been released. It will be sent to the communities once it is in the final form. Bill Cole and Brad Rogers was facilitating the event.
These is a very large project involving the stretch of 40 between Franklin and Mulberry St being converted to community space.
Adjournment motion from Ms. Nancy and 2nd by Kitty. 8:30pm
