HomeMy WebLinkAbout2025-10-20 TranscriptionJoint Entities Meeting of October 20, 2025
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[00:00:10]
All right. I want to welcome people to the Joint Entities Meeting, and it is Monday, October 20, 2025,
and it is just at 4:30 PM. And we have a room full. So welcome to everyone that is here. I'm going to go
ahead and call the meeting to order. Now we'll start with the welcomes and introductions, which is Item
number 2. We'll go around the room, um, of all of the folks that are here, part of the Joint Entities, our
elected officials. So we'll go around the room. If there is an elected official that is, um, out in the
periphery, we invite you to the table. So I'll start. I am Iowa City Mayor Bruce Teague, and we'll go to my
right.
[00:01:02]
Hi, Mayor. I'm Louise From- Mayor, University Heights.
[00:01:06]
Rod Sullivan, Johnson County Board of Supervisors.
[00:01:08]
Shawn Harmsen, Iowa City City Council.
[00:01:11]
Rich Vogelzang, Coralville City Council.
[00:01:14]
Mandi Remington, Johnson County Supervisor.
[00:01:17]
Mitch Lingo, Director for Iowa City Community School District.
[00:01:21]
Jayne Finch, ICCSD Board.
[00:01:26]
V Fixmer-Oraiz, Johnson County Supervisor.
[00:01:28]
Molly Abraham, Iowa City School Board.
[00:01:31]
Oliver Weilein, Iowa City councilor.
[00:01:34]
Tim Orris, Tiffin City Council, Mayor Pro Tem.
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Joint Entities Meeting of October 20, 2025
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[00:01:38]
Charlie Eastham, Iowa City School Board.
[00:01:40]
Laurie Goodrich, Coralville City Council.
[00:01:44]
Laura Bergus, Iowa City City Council.
[00:01:46]
Josh Moe, Iowa City City Council.
[00:01:49]
North Liberty Mayor, Chris Hoffman.
[00:01:51]
Megan Alter, Iowa City City councilor.
[00:01:54]
And is there any staff that is sitting in for their organization? If so, please state your name at this time.
[00:02:01]
Matt Degner, Superintendent, Iowa City Schools.
[00:02:05]
Excuse me, Mayor?
[00:02:06]
Yes.
[00:02:07]
Mayor Teague, Lisa Green -Douglas, Johnson County Board of Supervisors.
[00:02:12]
Great. Welcome. We have folks on Zoom. Thank you for jumping in there. All right. We'll continue with
anyone else on Zoom.
[00:02:22]
Yes. Hai Huynh, Coralville City Council.
[00:02:27]
Will you repeat that, please?
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Joint Entities Meeting of October 20, 2025
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[00:02:32]
It's Hai Huynh, Coralville City Council.
[00:02:34]
Alright, welcome. All right. And we'll go, uh, in house to, uh, anyone that is representing an organization,
a joint entity. I heard Matt Degner, our school superintendent. Anyone else? All right. Thank you. We're
going to move on to Item number 3, which is community comment. Um, I want to make known that the
public comment is intended, so members of the public may be heard by the joint entities because
community comment is for items not properly noticed on the agenda. The joint entities cannot engage
in discussion or debate new to open meeting laws. And this will also be an opportunity for folks to
comment on items on the agenda should they, because this will be the only opportunity for the public. I
want to get a show of hands of how many individuals that would like to speak during this community
comment time. All right, I see three here. I see one here. Are there any more? So I see four people. And
we have 10 minutes. Does anyone need an interpreter? Alright, so two folks need an interpreter. All
right. So I think we'll just make math very easy. So if we have four people total, uh, why don't we go
with, oh, I'm sorry. Um, so I'm blanking right now. Yes.
[00:04:04]
Did you say 10 minutes?
[00:04:05]
Yeah, we have 10 minutes. So two minutes apiece, and the two individuals will get four minutes that
need an interpreter. We're gonna invite you up to the mic here. And each person will state their name
and the city they're from.
[00:04:27]
Mary McCann from Iowa City. Excuse me. I'm sorry I couldn't attend earlier meetings. Um, I've been
having health problems. Um, but I've lived 18 years in different towns in Johnson County, and I thought
that it might aid conversations. I hope I can talk fast enough. Oliver, you mentioned recently that you
imagined that the culture of Iowa City Police Department would change if it shared a building with the
sheriff's teams. Here's a story that you may not have noticed, and I'd be happy to talk any time to you.
Growing up, I thought my parents made decisions based on their lives for all of us. Raising my own
children, I realized that their needs shaped every choice I made. It's the same for law enforcement. The
culture of a law enforcement agency is learned by focusing on the needs of the community that they
serve. When officers patrol our streets, they learn the rhythms of our lives. They notice children walking
to school, shops opening and closing, lights on or off a porch. They remember faces and patterns. No
one else takes time to notice these observations and their towns. People show them how to serve and
protect in ways that fit each neighborhood, a piece of the town's culture. Iowa City has a unique cultural
heartbeat. Knowing the rhythm guides the ICPD and keeps officers safe on the job. Placing their officers
in a joint facility with a sheriff's team simply cannot change Iowa City's ethos. The sheriff's team is
always out there for every town, every place in the county. That complicates understanding a single
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Joint Entities Meeting of October 20, 2025
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town's culture. So there's always an effort to keep same officers' faces showing up in the same towns.
Johnson County is not like Iowa City or any other town. In moments of danger, the sheriff's deputies rely
on training, learning a town's culture and how neighbors live in community. If we want law enforcement
to serve the greater good, we can improve that by how accessible we are and be open to our officers.
Their work is more dangerous.
[00:06:44]
I'm going to going to give to 15 more seconds.
[00:06:46]
Thank you. Their work is more dangerous than any of us would ever risk.
[00:06:50]
Thank you. And the calculations were a little off. It should have been at least 2.5 minutes, so that's why I
allowed her to go 2.5 minutes. So we're going to go with the next speakers, which will get, um, 2.5
minutes, and then one, uh, the two that need interpretation will get, um, five minutes each. Welcome.
[00:07:13]
Buenas tardes. Soy Eva Castro
[00:07:15]
Good afternoon. I'm Eva Castro.
[00:07:18]
[FOREIGN].
[00:07:25]
Representing my family, a member of Escucha Mi Voz, as well as my family.
[00:07:31]
[FOREIGN].
[00:07:39]
About a month ago, Jorge, an immigrant worker was arrested by ICE.
[00:07:48]
[FOREIGN].
[00:07:52]
ICE had no identification on them, who had no warrant for arrest and who had no reason to take him in
a violent way.
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Joint Entities Meeting of October 20, 2025
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[00:08:06]
[FOREIGN].
[00:08:10]
He continues to be detained in Muscatine.
[00:08:13]
[FOREIGN].
[00:08:19]
He's been accused of fraud without any evidence.
[00:08:23]
[FOREIGN].
[00:08:32]
We are a family like all others that come to this country with hope.
[00:08:37]
[FOREIGN].
[00:08:45]
To look for opportunities, to look for protection, for a better life, and to work.
[00:08:58]
[FOREIGN].
[00:09:00]
Today, the reality is something else. We have a lot of fear, and our family has been broken.
[00:09:05]
[FOREIGN]
[00:09:06]
1 thank you for this space.
[00:09:20]
[FOREIGN].
[00:09:30]
And I ask you with all respect for your support that this doesn't happen again to other families.
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Joint Entities Meeting of October 20, 2025
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[00:09:36]
[FOREIGN].
[00:09:40]
We are honest people and hard workers.
[00:09:42]
[APPLAUSE].
[00:09:53]
We deserve just like anyone else that our rights are protected, and we're not treated like criminals.
[00:10:00]
Gracias.
[00:10:00]
Thank you.
[00:10:01]
Thank you. And the next speaker is welcomed at this time. And I will ask the speakers to be sure to write
their name in the sign in, or there are stickers in the back where you can drop it in the basket. And I'll
have you just- are you speaking at this time? Yeah. We'll take- we'll have to have someone hand that
out. Thank you. Welcome. Please state your name and city you're from.
[00:10:52]
My name is Ruby Casarez. I'm from Iowa, but I'm from Venezuela. I'm going to read a letter to the
Johnson County Municipal Joint Entities. Thank you for the opportunity to address this joint session of
all governments. Together, we can take simple practical steps to protect the safety and dignity and
constitutional rights of the workers and residents across Johnson County. Even before the current worst
place ray and family separation crisis, over 50% of Latinos families in Johnson County report being
chronicle homeless, doubled up or tripled up to survive. Despite this, Latinos residents receipt virtuality,
none of the local housing vouchers. We ask the joint entity to adopt and promote the following fourth
amendments worse place protection by no later than Monday, November 3. First, require a judicial
warrant before allowing low enforcement or ICE into non-public areas. Second, the design- sorry,
designate a more safety space in city and county buildings during informance or emergencies. Third,
provide know your rights training for all staff and local officials. Fourth, post entrance notice reading, no
public area warrant required. Fifth, encourage local businesses to adopt similar policies. Six, fully form
more placed safety, permanent supported housing, legal aid, and hold negotiation for immigrants
workers and families. This step or hold due process, human dignity and community safe. By taking them
together, our local government can model what it means to protect the [inaudible 00:13:24] workers
who sustain our communities. Thank you for your leadership and partnership in this [inaudible 00:13:34]
with respect and guided to members of the Escucha Mi Voz.
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Joint Entities Meeting of October 20, 2025
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[00:13:38]
Thank you.
[00:13:39]
Thank you.
[00:13:43]
And we'll have the last and final speaker at this time. Welcome. Please state your name and city you're
from.
[00:13:56]
My name is Elia. I live in Iowa City, but I am from Colombia.
[00:14:00]
Great.
[00:14:00]
[FOREIGN].
[00:14:13]
I'm an immigrant, that means living under a shadow of uncertainty with a real fear of separation and of
not being seen as a whole person.
[00:14:21]
[FOREIGN].
[00:14:22]
But the courage I have to stand here today in front of you does not come from the absence of that fear.
[00:14:34]
[FOREIGN].
[00:14:34]
It comes from something much deeper and more essential, shared experience.
[00:14:47]
[FOREIGN].
[00:14:55]
1 look at other immigrants at the families I accompany, and I see myself.
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Joint Entities Meeting of October 20, 2025
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[00:15:06]
[FOREIGN].
[00:15:12]
1 see my own path, my own struggles, the times I have felt that I don't belong or that I am invisible
before the law.
[00:15:24]
[FOREIGN].
[00:15:24]
1 understand in my own flesh, the weight of carrying the hope of a better life living with the uncertainty
of the law.
[00:15:39]
[FOREIGN].
[00:15:45]
1 know my position is vulnerable, but that vulnerability is my greatest weapon.
[00:15:52]
[FOREIGN].
[00:16:03]
It proves that even from the most unexpected place, one can be an agent of change. My courage is an
act of collective self love. Thanks. [APPLAUSE]
[00:16:13]
Thank you.
[00:16:16]
Thank you. And thanks to all the individuals that came to speak today. Thank you all. All right, we're
going to move on to Item number 4, local option sales tax, and this will be presented by Mackenzie
DeRoo from Greater Iowa City. So welcome.
[00:17:27]
Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you so much for the opportunity to provide an update on the local
option sales tax campaign in Coroville, Iowa City, and North Liberty. For those of you that I don't know,
my name is Mackenzie DeRoo, and I work as the Senior Director of advocacy at Greater Iowa City Inc.,
the Economic Development Organization for Johnson County. But today, I'm here on behalf of the Local
Make Sense Campaign team that's encouraging voters to vote yes for the local option sales tax in two
weeks or now, because early voting is available. Um, a quick update for you all, and then happy to
Page 8
Joint Entities Meeting of October 20, 2025
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answer any questions you may have. Conversations about the local option sales tax in those three
municipalities began about a year ago. Uh, but our campaign efforts really took off in August when it
became clear that all three cities would be putting local option sales tax on the ballot this fall. We
formed an executive committee of staff from greater Iowa City, as well as Think Iowa City, our
Convention of Visitors Bureau, uh, affordable housing non-profit leaders, some of who are in the room
today, um, and then community champions from each municipality who lived in that city and could
activate other volunteers from their community, um, to talk with voters in their community. Uh, so far,
we feel really positive about how the campaign has been going. We have had over 50 presentations to
various service clubs, parent -teacher organizations, and business groups. We have received unanimous
or near -unanimous endorsements from the Iowa City, Coroville, North Liberty City Councils and anyone
running for council, as well as the school board. So, for the many of you who are in this room and have
supported our efforts, thank you very much. Um, we have an advertisement currently that's running on
streaming platforms, social media, as well as a radio ad, which I can play for you quickly.
[00:19:15]
Vote yes for local option sales tax. A single penny helps fund what matters. Property tax relief, housing,
safety, and parks. Groceries, gas, and prescriptions are not taxed, 93% of Iowa Cities already have a local
option sales tax, and visitors spent over $450 million in Johnson County last year. This penny helps
capture that spending for our community. Keep it local. Vote yes, November 4th. Learn more at
yeslocaloption.com.
[00:19:50]
Um, we also have a direct mailer that went out last week of likely voters, if that hit your inbox. And then
we are currently in the next two weeks, we're working on text message reminders to vote with
information, as well as dropping literature off in communities with some volunteers. Also, thank you to
some of the candidates who are running who have included our materials in their own door -knocking.
It's been extremely helpful. Feedback from voters so far has been, overall, very positive. There has been
no organized opposition campaign. Um, and even individuals who have previously voted against the
local option sales tax that we've talked to, many of them are planning to vote yes this time around,
given sort of the changing funding landscape at the state and federal level. So the next two weeks will
continue to push until election day. We've already received endorsement from the Gazette and are
reaching out to the press citizen in the Corridor Business Journal. And then we have letters to the editor
lined up from community champions that will be sending to the paper in the next two weeks. Anything
that I can answer, any questions? I have some copies of Cowboy Cards, if you want to see literature, and
you haven't. I think that's sporting my button. Many of you have one already.
[00:21:04]
Hearing nothing. Thank you. All right. We're going to move on to Item Number 5, which is Permanent
Supportive Housing discussion. And this is a request to watch public presentation prior to the meeting.
So we'll start up a video at this time. Wait. Did I read that right? No.
[00:21:26]
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That was homework.
[00:21:29]
So guess who did do their homework? Go right ahead, please. Welcome.
[00:21:33]
There you go. How do I pull up the slide show? Could you put it in the- I got halfway through and some
credit house. I mean, I know the topic. Actually a lot of it actually.
[00:21:53]
Hello. Thank you for this opportunity to present to everyone on the subject of Permanent Supportive
Housing. My name is Crissy Canganelli. I'm executive director of shelter House, and I'm joined virtually
by my colleagues with the Corporation for Supportive Housing. Corporation For Support of Housing is a
nonprofit with a national footprint. They are a technical assistance provider and help communities build
capacity for permanent supportive housing. And my colleagues, Amy Stetzel and Gabe Schuster, with
Corporation for Supportive Housing, we'll be presenting substantive information throughout the course
of this presentation. Sorry. Amy Stetzel, will provide an overview of permanent supportive housing and
describe what permanent supportive housing is. Gabe Schuster will detail the evaluation that we've
contracted with CSH to do shelter House engage CSH to provide an analysis of the need of permanent
supportive housing in Johnson County. And Gable will lead us through a conversation about the
methodology behind that and the initial indicators. And then I will be providing some information on our
current capacity and the impact and the outcomes that we've seen from the provision of permanent
supportive housing so far. So with that, I'm going to turn it over to Amy.
[00:23:25]
Wonderful. Can everybody hear me okay?
[00:23:27]
Yes.
[00:23:28]
All right. It's always nice when technology works. Thanks, everyone for having us be in the room with
you all. My name is Amy Stetzel. I'm the Upper Midwest Director for Corporation for Supportive
Housing. Really quickly, CSH. We are a national nonprofit headquartered in New York City, but we have
regional offices throughout the nation. And one of those offices is right here in the Upper Midwest. So I
get to with all of the great folks in Iowa, as well as Minnesota, Wisconsin, North and South Dakota on a
variety of ways to increase housing stability for residents of those states. And you can see here, some of
our work in Iowa has included what we call a frequent user system engagement initiative. That is a
signature initiative of ours that we do across the nation, and we did here in partnership with the folks in
Iowa City, specifically the Crissy and her team at Shelter House that really led to Cross Park Place. We
also, and I'll speak to this in a little bit. We worked together to help create definitions and standards for
permanent supportive housing in Iowa. We have also been partnering with advocates and coalitions
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Joint Entities Meeting of October 20, 2025
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across the state to fight a lot of the criminalization laws. There's been, I'm sure, as you all know, two
laws, statewide laws that have been attempted, but that have one that kind of lost on procedural
grounds and the other one, most recently, that was pushed back. We also this summer ended a
supportive housing institute here in Iowa, which was with seven teams across the state of Iowa, all
corners of the state, coming together for six months to think about hey, in our community, this is really
what we need. How do we take this dream of need and make it a reality? And going through a lot of
training to figure out What are the money pieces we put in place? What are the service pieces we put in
place? And now we get to work with Shelter House on this project that we're speaking to you all about
today, all about this needs assessment, this community engagement that we're doing. Next slide. Thank
you. So, I want to give a big shout out to the Iowa Center of Excellence for Behavioral Health, which is
through the University of Iowa. They pulled together a group of stakeholders to say, How do we define
supportive housing? Here in Iowa. Shelter house was a critical part of those stakeholders. And usually, I
do not- I'm not a fan of reading slides, but I do want to read this definition that was pulled together by
Iowa stakeholders on what PSH means. So permanent supportive housing is an evidence based minimal
barrier housing intervention, prioritized for individuals with complex multi occurring conditions that
meet fidelity to establish standards. Individuals and PSH programs live with affordability, autonomy, and
dignity, through the combination of person centered, flexible and voluntary support services. And
they've got a legal right to remain in their housing as defined by the terms of standard renewable lease
agreement. Access to and maintenance of housing is available to individuals who meet this PSH
eligibility criteria, and is not based on housing readiness requirements like sobriety behavioral or
program compliance. Thank you for that. Thank you for indulging me in that. And-
[00:27:16]
Sorry.
[00:27:16]
One more. There you go. Thank you. The thing I do want to point out that permanent supportive
housing is not. So I often say we just read that big definition, but at its core, permanent supportive
housing is deeply affordable housing, connected to services. For the folks in our communities have some
of the most complex needs, right? But what it isn't is it's not a treatment method or model. It's not time
limited. Folks can stay for as long as they would like to stay. They've got a lease. And it's not a group
home or a similar type of licensed community care facility. Next slide. Again, the Iowa Center of
Excellence for Behavioral Health pulled together standards to say, what makes it quality, right? Like at
the end of the day, you can have deeply affordable housing connected to services, but if none of it's
really quality, it's not going to get you the outcomes you want. So how do we get those outcomes? Well,
these are the things that research across the nation over and over again that tells us that this model
works when done to fidelity. These are those fidelity standards, right? It's got to be minimal barrier. We
got to have access to voluntary services. That's part of the- part of the kind of movement to change for a
human being is, I'm going to do this voluntarily, not because I have to, or I'm mandated to. The housing
has to be affordable and integrated into a community. And folks that live in those housing have to have
choices about different kinds of options that are available to them. And as well as this piece goes along
with as well the legal pieces around tenant protections through a lease. So what does this mean? When
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Joint Entities Meeting of October 20, 2025
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we do these things to Fidelity, this is what this shows us, and it shows us this again and again and again,
is that it ends homelessness. And not only just ends homelessness, but ends homelessness for some of
our most intense folks in our community, people who have the biggest health barriers, the largest
amounts of- amounts is not the right word, but really just the folks who are just the most unhealthy
people in our community from a behavioral health perspective, to a physical health perspective, to
needing substance substance use programming. And it really, really, really works. People stay in
housing. They gain employment, they get better connections to health care, and it also reduces huge
costs on communities when those same folks are no longer going to other emergency systems of care to
get those services or get their needs met. And so now I'm going to hand it over. I think to me. Do I hand
this back to Crissy? That's what I thought.
[00:30:18]
So, as Amy said, permanent supportive housing works, and when it's done to Fidelity standard, it
delivers. It ends homelessness. And that has certainly been our experience here in our community. Um,
on the left hand side of the slide, you'll see some national outcomes. Incarceration rate declines for
people pre housing versus post housing in permanent supportive housing, a 52% decrease. More than
83% remaining housed for at least one year. Emergency room visits declining by 57%, and emergency
detoxification services declining by 87%. In our community, our experience has exceeded the national
outcome trends. Looking at just tenants at Cross Park Place, which is just a sampling, and the most
recent sampling of the tenants, two years prior to housing, two years after housing, we see a 68%
decrease in arrests. When we looked at incarceration rates in partnership with the City of Iowa City,
when data driven justice initiative funding was available for the city to provide data analysis and cross
sector data analysis, we were seeing more along the lines of 73% decrease in incarceration rates, one
year into housing. Um, 98.8%, so nearly 99% are remaining housed for at least one year. Our trends, if
we were to do a more longitudinal analysis, it is much more significant. The vast majority of folks are
retaining their housing for many years. And in fact, out of our single site properties, we have 60 units of
single site permanent supportive housing. Only one out of 93 tenants since January of 2019 has exited
to homelessness. When, again, the city of Iowa City, had grant funding for cross sector data analysis, we
were able to look at the pre housing versus post housing impacts on health changes. And just for two
tenants that we were able to analyze some of this pre and post housing impact on the health care
system, We see a I want to get this right on Tenant 1, a 99% decrease in health costs for Tenant 2, a 74%
percent decrease in health costs, and overall, a 78% reduction in ER visits, as compared to the national
outcome, which is 57%. And now I'll hand it back to Gabe.
[00:32:57]
Thanks, Crissy. Hi everyone. My name is Gabe Schuster. I'm a senior program manager at CSH on our
Dayton Analytics team. I'm based out of Brooklyn New York. A lot of my portfolio revolves around
working with communities on needs assessments, so looking at a lot of data, collectively across, a lot of
different systems within a community, whether that's a county, a city, a state, and thinking about what
we see in that data around the needs for supportive housing, as well as other interventions to
effectively end homelessness in a community. And when we talk about ending homelessness, we're
talking about achieving what in the homeless sector, we refer to as functional zero. And this has three
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components. When we talk about functional zero homelessness, we mean that homelessness is rare, it's
brief, and it's non recurring. So rare, that it is uncommon that a household, whether that's an individual
or a family falls into homelessness in the first place, that it is brief and that they don't stay homelessness
for very long. They're connected to the resources that they need to regain housing quickly and non
recurring, and that those interventions that they're provided with are correctly targeted to them so that
they receive the right level of support so that once they are housed, they stay housed. And there's a lot
of different interventions that play into that network. Permanent supportive housing is one of the bigger
pieces on that really, like, non recurring side. We can talk also about prevention. You know, what we can
do to try and mitigate people's experiences of homelessness in the first place. Um, on the other end,
permanent supportive housing, as Amy was describing, really is that intervention for the highest needs
individuals in the community.
[00:34:50]
Next slide. Um, as Crissy mentioned earlier, Shelter House engaged us to conduct a needs assessment
across Johnson County. Um, and what these needs assessments look like is a lot of conversations with
different stakeholders locally, as well as deep dives into what data is being collected. Uh, so we had
worked through Johnson County data on homeless, um, engagements and entries into the Homeless
Management Information System, um, to assess ultimately, you know, what is the total need for
supportive housing? What is the gap between what the community currently has on offer, uh, and what
is needed, uh, broken out by household type and an intervention type. And there's a lot of different
components that go into that. Uh, so we have the data on, you know, households that are experiencing
homelessness, uh, the services that they receive. We also look at, you know, the current inventory and
how it's functioning. And then different models around how we could potentially bring that, um, that
supportive housing and other interventions to bear. Next slide. Um, this is just a sort of visual of that
process that we're thinking through. So, uh, as I was describing, we pulled data from the Homeless
Management Information System, but then also have been engaging a number of different stakeholders
locally on, um, the behavioral health side, on the physical health side, with UIHC. Uh, we've spoken with
the sheriff's department, with, uh, the Chief of Police, um, across a number of different sectors to help
inform the assumptions that then go into that model. So we look at who, uh, is experiencing
homelessness, but then also we want to make estimates around, uh, what share of those individuals
have needs consistent with supportive housing, and what share maybe have needs for a, you know, less
service intensive or resource intensive intervention so that we can right size, um, the interventions that
are available within the community to the community. Uh, so we have those conversations to really
adjust the need. Um, and this is a very iterative process. So we- we feed that into the model. We come
out with, you know, preliminary numbers on what that need looks like. We'll get into that in just a few
slides. Um, and then we bring that back to those same stakeholders and to the communities that we can
incorporate any feedback. Um, it's not uncommon that when we start to show numbers, can we see
that and say, oh, you know what? There's actually other pieces that we, you know, that this brings to
mind, uh, that we want to involve in the process. And so that gets fed back into the model and we
repeat it. Uh, ultimately, we then also look at the costs of those different interventions, so what it costs
to develop new supportive housing, to operate it, to provide the services that are attached to those
units, uh, so that we can also, you know, effectively model out what it would cost over. Uh, it could be
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five years, over 10 years, uh, whatever we want to really- whatever scenario we want to model out, uh,
what it would cost to bring to bear and sustain those units of supportive housing. Next slide. Um, one
big piece of that modeling process is also looking at what we currently have. And Johnson County has a -
a good share of supportive housing, and it is operating really well. Um, currently, of the majority of the
supportive housing in the community is operated by Shelter House, uh, and those units are at 90%
utilization. Uh, people will see that and think, oh, cool, we've got, you know, 10% to move. It's 90% is
what we think of as kind of an effective maximum because there are always going to be, uh, you know,
moments in the lifetime of a unit where it's not occupied, um, someone moves out and then takes time
to identify a new tenant to move in. Uh, once that unit- tenant is identified and they're, you know,
assigned to a unit. The actual assignment to move in date might take some time. There are repairs and
things that might have to happen to those units, same as any other residential property. Um, so 100%
utilization doesn't really happen, 90% is pretty much a full maximum. Uh, nationally, that utilization is
around 84%. Uh, so Johnson County is outperforming the national average that we see there. There is
one, uh, sort of tranche of supportive housing in the community that is a little bit, uh, potentially under
utilized. And this is a dedicated, uh, veterans supportive housing, um, that is at 55% capacity. I think
there's about 90 units or so, um, in the county. But of course, this is, uh, population specific, so it isn't
available to everybody else in the community. Um, currently, we have about 61 bedroom units in single
site developments and then 130 units that are supported by mainstream housing vouchers and
emergency housing vouchers scattered throughout the community, but still connected to services
according to that supportive housing model. So preliminary findings that we have from the model are
showing a need for just about 300 units of supportive housing. Um, 261 of those would be for
individuals, so adults, uh, living alone. And around 36 of those units would be for families with children.
Um, those numbers account for what we see in annual unit turnover and whatever potential there is for
system efficiency improvements to sort of maximize how those units could be deployed. Um, so once
we look at the total need across the population data that we have, and then think about what is
currently, uh, in the community and how much of that housing becomes newly available on an annual
basis, we see this remaining need for, uh, just about 300 units of supportive housing. And I think with
that, I'm going to pass it back to Emy.
[00:41:00]
Um, no, I'm going to take that, Gabe. Thanks.
[00:41:02]
All right.
[00:41:03]
We- we wanted to break out some information just to make this currently relevant for each of the- the
municipalities, North Liberty, Coroville, and Iowa City, um, just to show what is currently happening in
our communities. And if you read from the bottom of the slide up, uh, we're looking at scattered site
permanent supportive housing in North Liberty, we're currently supporting five households in Coroville,
36 households, and in Iowa City 78. There's a balance of households that are still looking for housing
that are being supported through our work that bring that total up to that 130 number, um, we just
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Joint Entities Meeting of October 20, 2025
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haven't found them a permanent housing location. Housing locations are frequently determined. Um,
you know, well, they're always determined by the individual that we're working with, but what will
inform that decision is something that is in good proximity to work and trying to keep kids in school,
those kinds of decisions and- and our efforts to try to help locate housing for them. Um, we also
included, um, households that are being supported through rapid rehousing, homelessness prevention,
because many of these households actually indicate is needing permanent supportive housing, their
complex health needs, uh, are, uh, indicating in their experiences of homelessness are indicating that
they actually need a more intensive prevention, and that is permanent supportive housing. So if you're
looking at that middle line and then the top line, these numbers of households, um, in North Liberty, a
total of what? Sixty-two households that are being- have been supported. Um, and then I can't do the
math that quickly. Twenty-eight and 146 households in Coroville, and then you'll see the Iowa city there,
just over 400 for Iowa City. Then also, the amount of money that's been invested in support house- and
supporting households both through rapid housing and homelessness prevention. I will say
homelessness prevention funding, uh, will be significantly reduced, um, as of October 1 going forward,
um, but there has been a significant investment by Shelter House. This is money that is not going to the
tenants per se. This is direct financial assistance that has gone to landlords and property managers in
your communities over this period of time that's framed out here. The challenges that we face, um, are
significant, um, to moving forward with this plan. One, we most definitely need your support, your
investment. And this is just intended as an introduction for many of you to the subject matter of
permanent supportive housing, but it's also an invitation to participate in the profits that's going
forward that gave gable detail in a second. But, um, I just want to talk about the realities in which this
work is happening. Um, we've mentioned our current capacity. Um, the reality of the local house -
housing market, uh, that it limits our ability to really expand through a scattered site approach. Our
housing market is inelastic. That's not news to anyone in this room. So, um, it limits our opportunities to
grow in certain ways and take advantage of- of opportunities that may exist in other communities. Um,
the development timeline is just that, this isn't something that's immediate. We have an immediate and
urgent pressing need, um, and it is significant, but to develop new units and bring those online, there
are timelines. We developed, uh, 36 units in 2022, uh, with a very aggressive development timeline of
one year. Um Iowa Finance Authority has never seen any other provider do that in this community, so,
um, we're very fortunate. We had a great, uh, general contractor that we were working with. Um, there
are near -term funding cliffs because of the resources that have been, uh, utilized since the COVID, uh,
pandemic to build capacity in areas such as homelessness prevention and support of, uh, permanent
supportive housing. Uh, we are supporting currently 105 households through time sensitive funding that
will end by December of 2027, and, um, we will no longer have the ability to support those households
at that time. And, uh, there are imminent changes at the Department of Housing and Urban
Development, um, both in priorities, policy and practice, uh, which stand to put at risk, uh, housing -
permanent supportive housing for 84 households, um, who are successfully retaining their housing and
have retained their housing after decades of homelessness, uh, and the dollar amounts, uh, you can see
right there that will be expiring across those, um, indicated timelines. Gabe.
[00:45:51]
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Yeah, thanks, Crissy. So just to wrap things up. I wanted to situate where we are in this process and
where the process is going. Um, so earlier this year, in the spring, we kicked off the needs assessment
engagement. Um, this was thinking through who the different stakeholders that we wanted to connect
with were beginning the data gathering process, so connecting to the balance of state continuum of care
to get, uh, data specific to Johnson County on the households that are receiving homeless services and
housing, uh, currently or in emergency shelter and crisis interventions. Um, and then beginning the
supportive housing needs analysis, um, through the fall and the next- until the end of the year, uh, we're
having a number of those community stakeholder sessions. So trying to follow up both with the
stakeholders that we, um, connected with early on to help refine like those assumptions around rates of
need for different populations and, uh, really dial in and make the assessment locally specific. Um, we
want to be able to bring those numbers back to those stakeholders and then also open it up to, uh,
other stakeholders in the community that maybe are now interested in this work. Um, some point of
this presentation as well, we want to really get the word out. Um, that feedback is really essential
because as I was describing before the assessment process is really iterative. Uh, so we want to take all
the qualitative information that we can get from having those- those conversations in the community
around what we see in the data, uh, translate that into different assumptions and estimates that go into
the needs assessment model and use that to really refine, um, what we see coming out of it in terms of
the need for additional supportive housing, how that breaks out across different, um, household types.
But then also in the stretch that will begin early next year and into the spring of next year, which is
around developing recommendations and implementation plan. Um, it's one thing to sort of run a
model and turn out numbers around what the need for housing is. And it's an entirely different thing to -
than be able to say, okay, how do we get there? Um, and that is where also those stakeholder
conversations are- are really critical, uh, because this is where we can translate what we see in those
numbers into strategies of how we might be able to, you know, bring that housing online, along with the
services and- and operating costs that are attached to it, uh, in a way that, you know, serves families and
households quickly and is also sustainable. Well, so that's the work that will carry us through the spring.
And into the summer, where we'll be able to sort of present those final recommendations and the
implementation structure along with the final needs assessment, uh, back to Shelter House and all of
the stakeholders in the community. Uh, so big emphasis there on just sort of the iterative nature of it
and the call for community engagement, um, and conversations, if something in here sparks interest,
um, and raises a flag for folks wanting to be involved in that process or to help refine anything that goes
into the model. Uh, we are very, very excited to connect.
[00:49:12]
Yeah. And that's it. With that, we'd take any questions.
[00:49:19]
Mr. Ma?
[00:49:20]
Yes.
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Joint Entities Meeting of October 20, 2025
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[00:49:21]
Crissy, can you tell me if the ICCSD is a stakeholder in this process?
[00:49:27]
Um, I believe there's been outreach Gabe. Have you interviewed anything- anyone from the school
district yet?
[00:49:34]
Uh, we have not interviewed folks from the school district yet, I would be very excited to. I do want to,
uh, frame up two interesting pieces around that, um, because I do think there's a lot of potential in
school system data. Uh, one is that schools operate under a slightly different definition of homelessness
than, um, HUD, which provides of the funding for supportive housing. Um, the McKinney Vento
definition that school districts use, uh, includes families and households that are, uh, doubled up or
living in hotels and motels, which aren't considered homeless under the HUD definition. Um, cases can
be made either way. Um, that means that there's often a lot of really valuable information that gets
looked over in the school system. And we have done some work with school systems, with Emy as well
in Hennepin County previously that I think have led to some really valuable outcomes on the assessment
front, especially on the recommendations and implementation strategy side. Um, these school systems
tend to be an area where we can really hone in on, uh, sort of the characteristics of those households
that might need supportive housing and they're getting overlooked or otherwise struggling to get
connected to services because of, uh, maybe its language barriers at home or, uh, cultural challenges.
And who is doing outreach, um, is something that schools tend to be really great at. So that would be,
uh, a really important connection to make.
[00:51:06]
Great. Thank you.
[00:51:11]
All right. Thank you.
[00:51:12]
Thank you.
[00:51:13]
Yes. We're going to move on to Item 6 was- which is proposed dates and hosts for a future joint entities
meeting. The next one -hour note is January 12th, 2026. Already looking at next year, and that'll be in
North of Liberty, Sam. And the other dates are there. We'll move on to Item number 7, which is
announcements for the good of the cause. Any announcements? Here are none. We'll move on to
Number 8, which is adjournment. We are adjourned. Thank you all. Enjoy the rest of your day.
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