Agenda - 02-17-2015 - 6a - Laserfiche WebLink

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9 1 asserting its authority to prevent local government from restricting or regulating fracking. He 2 said he appreciates Commissioner Price speaking up. 3 Commissioner Jacobs noted that he had shared an article related to this issue, regarding 4 Dillon's rule. 5 6 VOTE: UNANIMOUS 7 8 7. Regular Agenda 9 10 a. Updated Orange County Partnership to End Homelessness Memorandum of 11 Understanding 12 The Board considered adopting the updated Orange County Partnership to End 13 Homelessness Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between Orange County and the Towns 14 of Chapel Hill, Carrboro, and Hillsborough and authorizing Chair to sign the same. 15 Commissioner Pelissier said the Board needs to vote on this MOU. She said when the 16 partnership was created in 2007, it was a ten year plan to end chronic homelessness, and it 17 would have ended in 2017. She said, since that time, the federal government has seen that 18 there were other best practices, and ending homelessness is now an ongoing focus that 19 includes prevention of homelessness. 20 Commissioner Pelissier said the four elected officials on the committee got together and 21 reviewed and revised this MOU. She said the towns have already adopted this, and the County 22 is the last to look at it. 23 She said the major changes are designed to recognize that this is an ongoing program, 24 and the goal was to have some certainty about funding. She said any party can withdraw from 25 the program, but a one year notice is required. She said if one party withdraws, it does not 26 obligate any other parties to continue, though hopefully they will. 27 She said another major change is that the coordinator's position will be in the County 28 Manager's office. She said four elected officials from the different towns will comprise the 29 executive committee, and these officials will assess the progress and meet with the coordinator 30 on a regular basis. She said this is the first year that Chapel Hill will spend more than the 31 County in the funding of the coordinator position, because this is based on population. 32 Mary Jane Seyda is the Chair of the Partnership to End Homelessness. She recognized 33 Commissioner Pelissier and her work on this committee. She said the purpose of the 34 partnership is to have all service providers, municipalities, and public entities collaborate 35 together to prevent and end homelessness. She said the overarching goals of the partnership 36 are to: 1) Reduce the number of people who experience homelessness; 2) reduce the length of 37 time people are homeless; and 3) to reduce the number of people who return back to 38 homelessness. 39 Mary Jane Seyda said their leadership team is the large group that provides the vision, 40 and there are 25 active voting members. She said this is a very engaged partnership, 41 composed of many different members of the community. She said there are 6 work groups that 42 are comprised of different service providers and agencies in Orange County. 43 She said one of these work groups is the 100,000 Home Task Force, which not only 44 counted the homeless population, but also did surveys to see how people's mental health is 45 compromised by their homelessness. She said the goal was to house these people first, and in 46 the three years since this survey, 26 of these people—who typically have been on the street for 47 5 to 20 years - have been housed. 48 Mary Jane Seyda said another initiative is the Outreach Court, which is the first and only 49 special court in North Carolina for homeless people with misdemeanor charges. She said this is 50 an alternative program in which the service providers are right there in court to give people the 51 ability to engage in services.