Greater Scranton Homeless Coalition Minutes (Draft)
August 6, 2018, 6:30PM
Room 405 DeNaples Center University of Scranton
Reported by Mark Terwilliger and revised
Shannon Brown briefly welcomed everyone, gave a short history of preliminary ideas for why this coalition was called together, and expressed the hope for what will be accomplished.
Shannon Brown led in a prayer.
John Gleason - Keystone Mission
Marge Solsman - CCC
Phil Yevics Scranton Ministerium Secretary
Andy Hurchick, St. Joseph’s Center
Tamara Hall – St. Joseph Center
Ann Slack Lackawanna Dept Human Services
Tommy Hill - Keystone Mission
Holly Ostopick – CCC
Donna Porter – First Pres Clarks Summit
Erin Keating – Scranton SD (252 homeless K-12)
Maureen Maher-Gray – NEPA Youth Shelter/Drop-in Center (113 kids) – Opening Sep 6 (1st day of school)
Jenny Blanchard– Catherine McCauley Center (Sisters of Mercy) – 427 women & women with children
Kris Kile - CCC
Rev. Mark Terwilliger - CCC
Rev. Mike Bealla – Elm Park UMC
Rev. Doug Posegate – Embury and Court Street UMCs
Jennifer Joyce – Geisinger Commonwealth School Medicine/
Casey Prosick– Neighbor Works – Credit and Finance counseling
Chris Ritter – Institute for Public Policy Development
Shannon Quinn-Sheeran – United Neighborhood Center
Mike Hanley, CEO– United Neighborhood Center (founded 1923 by Bethel Church)
Folks who are eligible to be released from prison but can’t b/c no means of housing
Rev. Darien Banks from Bethel AME – Need for more personnel to run shelter
Barry Matthews– Bethel AME (diff btwn “homeless people” and “people who are homeless”)
Barry Shaw – Director of Bethel Shelter (case worker and social worker)
Jason Griffiths– Social Worker and housing case manager from Community Intervention Center (1972) – 8 am-6 pm
– Chiropractor, nurse,
Steven Nocilla – Catholic Social Services – 300 beds in 7 counties – 3 homeless shelters (Hazelton, W-B &
Scranton), halfway house. 52 beds in Scranton (operating 27 years). New entry program –
behavioral health. Veteran program – St. Francis – 30 bed, St. Hedwigs in Kingston - apts for vets
St. James Manor. Takes more than 7 or 8 agencies/churches. New social ills/drug epidemics,
necessity of health care, transportation,
Joe Bruno - Lackawanna County Greens, socialists - Atheist groups
Jennifer Bruno – Taylor – Greens, socialists
Tammy Scruggs – Equality and Justice – advocacy for LGBTQ/Trans & non-binary
Pat Vaccaro- U Scranton Campus Ministry – Coordinate with non-profit
Sarah Schreiber– Medical Student – psychiatry – behavioral health
Women’s Resource Center – Lackawanna & Susquehanna Counties – Over 100 homeless children
Issue of violence – need for safety, serving homeless women & children. Economics is a huge issue.
Education work, (Shannon Brown raised question on study linking wages & rent affordability.) –
Caitlin Bevvino – Commonwealth – need for volunteers
Tim Maloney – Muslim organizer,
Ben Levanduski– Buddhist community, Narrowsburg – outreach (Waymart), Interest in acute intervention. Interest in providing housing with his resources
Shane Riley – Fact finding, based out of Philadelphia,
Shannon Brown - Free webinar – Tue, Aug 28 – Homeless youth & their experience with human trafficking. 2 pm EST. (from Maureen Maher and Rev. Lou Divis)
Jen – School of Med – Poverty simulation every year – 2 days – Jen has space to offer folks. August 21 and 23.
National Coalition on Homelessness Speakers from Washington, DC
Friday, August 24, 2018 9AM-11:30AM
DeNaples Center, University of Wisconsin
Moskovitz Theater, Fourth Floor
Contact Pat Vaccaro
Last year didn’t open due to lack of volunteers. Pastor Darien thinks folks should be compensated; unfair. Improvements need to be made to the church building. Wear and tear on facility (over 100 years old). Need help with financing workers. Said they need to answer to congregation as well. Bethel operates in the red. It’s a big job to sell this to the congregation. 24 beds. Up to 40 spaces on extremely cold nights. Mike pointed out that Bethel is not a large congregation and commended them.
Shannon Brown asked Bethel AME to get a list together that can be put out.
Nationwide there are solutions that are working. Not easy. Required resources.
Last Wed of Jan every year all required to take counts. Keystone, CIC participate in counting.
159 on last Wed in Jan 2018 were homeless as defined by HUD
3% outside, 5% in safe-haven.
96 households w/out children and 19 with.
Children affected by homelessness – 38
25 in youth households
Special populations served at the time –
Unsheltered count (mostly down since 2009)
Permanent Supportive Housing (no longer considered homeless) – Rent assistance and supportive services,
no time limit (4 providers)
Point in Time
Shannon asked if other considerations.
Jason pointed out need for summer count when extremely hot.
Mike Hanley pointed out that this is a PIT count. Is there an estimate for total? Response was about 600. All of CoC providers are part of centralized database.
Erin Keating good news first: Many of the homeless entitled to services. 83% of students at or below poverty. Every child in district qualifies for breakfast. Food in the parks program for the summer. Title I money and donations. Always need for clothing. Scranton FD does drive for coats. Need for proper winter clothing. (older kids think not cool to wear a coat!). Dental services, getting signatures from parents is complicated. Serve medically un- and under-insured. Wright Center – immunizations, Lines out the door for immunizations. Still needs an eye doctor. Through youth shelter, working on programs for HS kids – tough! Little kids honest. Older skeptical and close mouthed due to the system. Unaccompanied youth though to reach. Hard to get someone 18 or under into a shelter. Not enough beds for homeless youth. With addictions, kids get kicked out of places. Took in 118 kids from wildfires and hurricanes. Language and translation services needed. People from Puerto Rico and hurricane came with nothing – records destroyed. Every Student Succeeds Act – Keep kids in school of origin for stability. Transport will be providedbut costly. Clothing and transport (District approved) always a need. 1800 book bags rec’d thus far this year (distributed among 17 buildings). Many wonderful people who are giving. 8000 kids in Scranton SD. 2000 to 3000 living in abject poverty. 348-3429. Willing to partner with anyone willing to help. Stable housing needed to foster stable learning. Scranton SD takes clothing directly. They enroll ages 3 to 18 years old. New to gently used clothing. Mostly larger sizes needed. Outer wear harder to get. Kids wear uniform up to 8th grade. Iron on patch (.50 cents).
Jenny Blanchard- Cost of homelessness far exceeds cost of housing (health, criminal justice, et al). If folks don’t respond from humanitarian point of view, cost is much greater. Hardest program is fund raising for women trying to leave prison. Cost of incarceration far greater than cost of housing – Without housing, return to what got them into prison in first place.
Sept 4, 6:30 – Darian Banks offered meeting at Bethel that night. Parking is ample.