Collin County Homeless Coalition
Just another Beyond the Building site
Several committees have formed to help address homelessness in Collin County. Use your special talents, skills or experience in a number of ways. If you’d like to get plugged in to one of these groups, just email Collinhomeless@gmail.com to learn more!
Advocacy
Bylaws
Cities
Faith Outreach
Frisco Youth Initiative
Gaps Analysis/White Paper
Special Events – Homeless Awareness Week
Last week, the President released his fiscal year (FY) 2013 Budget Proposal, officially kicking off the FY 2013 appropriations process. As you all know, further investment in the Runaway and Homeless Youth Act (RHYA) program is needed in order to better serve unaccompanied, homeless youth. As Congress begins to prepare its own appropriations proposals, we need YOUR help to ensure Congress makes ending youth homelessness a priority this year. So, the Alliance, in conjunction with the National Network for Youth (NN4Youth), is officially launching our FY 2013 RHYA Appropriations Campaign today, and we hope you’ll work with us to achieve our mutual goal of increasing funding for valuable RHYA programs.
Below is a review of our campaign goals and strategy, as well as information on how you can get involved. We look forward to working with you!
Our Goal: Secure $127 million for RHYA programs in FY 2013 – $12 million above the FY 2012 level.
What Are We Asking Congress for? The Administration requested flat funding of $115 million for RHYA programs in FY 2013 – the same as in FY 2012. The Alliance and NN4Youth are requesting a funding level of $127 million, which will fund existing Basic Center, Transitional Living Program, and Street Outreach activities, while also allowing communities to better meet the housing and services needs of unaccompanied homeless and runaway youth. Timing is Everything…The February 13 release of the President’s Budget Proposal officially kicks off the FY 2013 appropriations process. It is NOT law, but is meant to serve as a guide as Congress develops its own funding proposals. Congress is ALREADY holding hearings on the President’s Budget Proposal and will soon begin to craft its appropriations bills. Here is a rough timeline of upcoming events:·
NOW – congressional offices are deciding what their FY 2013 appropriations priorities will be.·
March 20 – Representatives have until this date to submit their official list of FY 2013 appropriations priorities (called “programmatic requests”) to the Appropriations Committee. Senators have a few extra days, until March 29, to do the same.·
April and May – the HHS Appropriations Subcommittees will review the programmatic requests and begin to craft their appropriations bills based on the priorities submitted by Members of Congress.·
Early Summer – the House HHS Appropriations Subcommittee is expected to release and vote on its FY 2013 HHS funding bill earlier than usual this year, and the Senate is hoping not to be too far behind the House.
Where Can I Get More Information?
We have created a special FY 2013 RHYA Appropriations Campaign Website, which has more information and tons of sample materials. Throughout the year, we’ll keep this page up-to-date with the latest information from Washington, DC and the current way to get involved. We will, of course, continue to work with NN4Youth to email you with the latest updates and action items, as well. And of course, you can ALWAYS ask us for assistance with anything from finding out who your Members of Congress are to strategizing about the best way to help them become champions for runaway and homeless youth.
Please feel free to contact me, Kate Seif at the Alliance (cseif@naeh.org), or Katherine Raphaelson (katherine.raphaelson@nn4youth.org) at NN4Youth with any questions. On behalf of NN4Youth and the Alliance, I would like to say that we are so excited to work with you to educate Congress on the importance of addressing the needs of unaccompanied homeless youth and ensuring that Congress makes it a priority to do so. By working together with you, we are confident we can convince Congress to make ending youth homelessness a priority. We just need to send as many letters as possible by March 20!
In 2001, President Bush reactivated the Interagency Council on Homelessness, originally established in 1987, to better coordinate the efforts of 18 federal agencies in addressing the needs of homeless persons. The Interagency Council issued a call for cities and counties throughout the U.S. to develop 10-year plans to end homelessness. Responding to that call, in 2004, the City of Plano sought to coordinate the construction of a plan to end chronic homelessness in Collin County. “Homeward Bound, a County-Wide Plan to End Chronic Homelessness” is the plan for Collin County. The plan was approved by the City of Plano City Council in December 2004, and distributed to other non-profit and governmental entities throughout Collin County. The Collin County Homeless Coalition was formed after establishing the County-wide plan. The City of Plano is an active participant in the Collin County Homeless Coalition and the Metro Dallas Homeless Alliance (MDHA) in order to ensure that the needs of homeless individuals in the City of Plano and Collin County are met. The Collin County Homeless Coalition is a collaborative effort of individuals and agencies who address the challenges of homelessness in our community. Through Education, advocacy, mutual support and the sharing of resources, we strive to prevent and respond to homelessness as well as increase the ability of the community to respond to individual needs.
The Collin County Homeless Coalition was organized to continuing the efforts began with the County-Wide Plan and end homelessness in Collin County. The Coalition is comprised of representatives from non-profit agencies, Collin County cities, and school districts.
Note: The Coalition recognizes that the federal government’s definition of Chronic Homelessness does not always address the issues of homelessness as seen in Collin County. Consequently, the Collin County Homeless Coalition’s definition of homelessness includes, individuals and/or families living in shelters, cars, moving from house to house sleeping on someone’s couch (AKA “Couch Surfing”), and those that for one reason or another do not have a permanent place of residents that they call home.
The Collin County Homeless Coalition meets the first Thursday of every month at 9:00 am at the City of Plano Municipal Building located at 1520 K Avenue, Plano, Texas 75074.
How many people in Collin County are homeless?
How many of those people are in Plano?
What is the City of Plano doing?
http://plano.gov/Departments/Police/Pages/default.aspx
http://www.pisd.edu/about.us/departments/student.services.shtml
The role of the Homeless Liaison is to develop and implement policies which remove barriers to the education of homeless children:
PISD has identified 115 homeless children
There are 20 schools in PIDS that have over 30% of their children on free/reduced lunches. There are 7 schools with over 60%. Most are elementary schools.
http://www.co.collin.tx.us/healthcare_services/index.jsp
http://www.co.collin.tx.us/healthcare_services/indigent.jsp
Poverty drastically impacts a person’s access to healthcare, and lack of healthcare can cause or exacerbate a person’s poverty (e.g. mental health issues, major medical expenses, etc.).
For a homeless person, treatment costs, transportation, follow-up, and home care are all factors.
Through funds from the CDC, NGO’s, and the Texas Department of Health, the County Health Department is able to help with immunizations. In addition, the indigent health care program provides healthcare to qualified adults by working with healthcare providers who are willing to provide free services.
Each year in Collin County, more than 200 vulnerable children are removed from their homes due to physical, emotional, sexual abuse, abandonment or neglect.
In the late 1980s, two Plano school teachers noticed some of their students arriving at school with all their belongings in trash bags. The students would store the trash bags in their lockers during the day and take the bags with them when they left school at the end of the day. Upon investigation, the teachers discovered these students were homeless. The teachers’ reaction was ‘not in this community!’ The thought of homeless youth was intolerable to these teachers. They immediately began working on ways to provide a safe shelter for teens in crisis. The community rallied to the cause and the first facility was opened in 1989. It was a 6 bed shelter in a house owned by the First Baptist Church. That was the birth of CITY House. For 20 years, CITY House has been providing a safe environment for 10 to 17 year olds in the only teen homeless shelter in Collin County.
My Friend’s House provides a safe home (24 beds) for children from birth to 17 with a focus on keeping sibling groups together and meeting the needs of children with special abilities and primary medical needs. During the traumatic time after removal, these vulnerable children need safe shelter, nutritious food, appropriate clothing, medical and dental care, access to education and various physical and emotional behavioral interventions including individual, group and play therapy.
Transitional Resources, Intake and Placement Services (TRIPS) helps young adults 16-23 develop the skills and confidence needed to responsible, productive members of the community. This is the quickest rising age group of homeless people. There are two 6-bed TRIPS shelters in Plano: one home for young men and one home for young women. Services include free assistance with food, clothing, education (including help with college placement), employment, and other life skills. Case managers help 50-60 young people in addition to the residents with these services.
http://familypromiseofcollincounty.org/
The Family Promise Network provides a way for religious congregations to work together to help homeless families. Each congregation participating in the Network provides overnight lodging and meals for three to five families (up to fourteen people) for one week each two or three months on a rotating basis. Homeless families which we prefer to call our guests, stay at the house of worship from 6:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m. daily. Each morning, guests are taken by van to a day center where they meet with the Network director, care for preschool children, look for housing and employment, or go out to school or work.
The Family Promise Network enables religious congregations to meet the important basic needs of homeless families, who represent the fastest growing segment of the homeless population. Usually, more than half the guests in the Network are children and most of the children are less than five years old. Nationally, more than 3,500 congregations participate in Family Promise Networks, also known as Interfaith Hospitality Networks – where many thousands of volunteers help families regain their independence.
Volunteers are the foundation of the Network. There are many ways that you can volunteer to help. As a Family Promise volunteer, whether you prepare a hot meal, read to or tutor a child, help a parent write a resume, or stay overnight with guests, you will make a difference in the lives of families that have suffered the loss of their homes.
Family Promise of Collin County has 6 of the 10 churches needed to begin a network. Based on the need in Collin County and the 77% success rate of getting homeless people back on their feet, Family Promise is an excellent way for your congregation to help make a real difference.
It takes an average of seven attempts to leave before a victim of domestic violence is able to do so. When she does – often with young children in tow – she is confused, scared, needs medical attention, and has nowhere to go. Using a credit card, writing a check, or even using an ATM would give her abuser clues to her whereabouts.
Hope’s Door is a shelter and counseling center for families suffering from domestic violence. Services include:
Since 1989, Hope’s Door has:
They operate at capacity, so the very bad news is that they had to turn away 400 families in 2009 because there wasn’t enough room.
A single mother of three loses her job and can no longer pay her rent.
A pregnant 18 year old is told she is no longer welcome in her family’s home.
A high tech executive loses his house after months of unemployment.
A John and Annette are a 30-year old couple with two small children. They’re both earning minimum wage and only able to get 30 hours/week because keeping them under 40 hours allows their employers to avoid paying for benefits. They are living paycheck to paycheck. When their 2-year-old gets an ear infection, they have to pay $75 for an urgent care visit and $75 for an anti-biotic; they also have to take turns staying home from work to care for the baby. This is their tipping point into homelessness.
Since 1984, The Samaritan Inn has helped thousands of homeless people in Collin County regain their independence with comprehensive programs and the help of caring individuals and corporations. But because they too operate at capacity, they turn away 15-30 people each week.
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