The Health Foundation of Central Mass

31 e Housing First concept also helped those who were losing their dual eligibility (enrollment in both Medicare and Mass- Health). Massachusetts received a federal planning grant in 2011 to serve "dual eligibles" with Medicare and MassHealth funds for vulnerable populations. Behav- ioral services would now be covered by MassHealth beginning in 2013, continuing through June 2022. "A lot of foundations say they are en- gaged but the people at e Health Foun- dation truly are engaged," said Joe Finn, president of the Massachusetts Housing & Shelter Alliance (MHSA). MHSA was in- volved in the advocacy efforts that created sustainable funding for case management services for chronically homeless adults who were dual eligibles. Over the course of the project, e Health Foundation committed $2.2 million to Home Again. It also provided a low-interest loan of nearly $500,000 to buy and renovate Spencer House, a 14-unit congregate home for chronically home- less adults, a program-related investment described on page 74. ough Worcester achieved a level of functional zero of adult chronic homeless- ness by the end of Home Again, the num- bers increased in subsequent years, and homelessness reemerged as a top priority for city officials. In 2017, then Worces- ter City Manager Edward M. Augustus organized the Task Force for Sustaining Housing First Solutions to explore evi- dence-based solutions. Impressed with e Health Foundation's dedication to and involvement in issues related to the social determinants of health and its prior success with the Home Again project, Mr. Augustus called on Dr. Jan Yost, e Health Foundation's founding president and CEO, to chair the leadership team and an operational/management group for the task force. "She was a go-getter and had worked in this space. She could play a conven- ing role," explained Mr. Augustus. "She brought in Barbara Poppe, who had worked for the Obama administration and knew best practices." From March to June 2018, the task force conducted an in-depth examination of Worcester's community needs and avail- able resources to address adult chronic homelessness. It ultimately developed a plan to sustain a long-term system of per- manent supportive housing in Worcester. To support the plan, e Health Foun- dation spearheaded the development of the Finally Home Loan Fund and Guarantee, commit- ted to reducing the costs of financing to encour- age construction of permanent supportive housing. In addition, e Health Foundation, through its 501(c)(3) affiliate, e Health Foundation Fund, served as fiscal sponsor for the City of Worcester's Landlord-Tenant Guarantee Program Fund. at initiative strived to reduce landlords' reservations about renting to the adult chronic home - less population by providing funding to cover property damage if needed. Homelessness and the lack of affordable housing persist as critical issues facing the region and the state, and e Health Foundation continues to lend financial support and thought leadership to advance solutions. "Public health issues can be polarizing. If there is no credibility, no data, and no research, it makes it challenging to move forward," said Mr. Augustus. "As brave, bold leaders in health, e Health Founda- tion engages in the tough discussions." n "The Health Foundation had the city come up with a plan to address long-term homelessness and disability. As a result, Worcester achieved an end to chronic homelessness." Joe Finn, president, MHSA By Lee Hammel TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF WORCESTER — The city has drawn admirers from Bos- ton to Washington for its efforts to combat homelessness. Worcester has practically eliminated chronic homeless- ness in the past three years and is poised to close its home- less shelter Jan. 31, officials say. Officials say the decades-old People in Peril Shelter at 701 Main St., the target of neighborhood ire for decades, will close, but homeless people will be better served. In November 2007, Community Healthlink and South Middlesex Opportunity Council, two nonprofit agencies that serve homeless people, counted 197 people who were chronically homeless, according to David E. McClos- key, director of PIP, which is now pointedly renamed the Greater Worcester Housing Connection. Under the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's defini- tion, those 197 people are people who have been homeless for at least a year or four times in three years. "Today there are only two chronically homeless people who are not housed," Deborah J. Ekstrom,Community Healthlink president and CEO, said last week. "We believe this is a first in the country." Worcester's efforts have made federal officials sit up and take notice. "Worces- ter is really in the forefront in its efforts to deal with homelessness," said Rhon- da Siciliano, public affairs officer of the regional office of HUD. "We'll be looking to Worcester as a leader and for best practices and lessons learned." Some of the efforts to reduce local homelessness stem from the city man- ager's Task Force on Homelessness, which issued its three-year plan to end homelessness in Worcester in Novem- ber 2007. Its recommendations included closing the PIP shelter and developing 600 units of housing. A major change came in November 2009, when people wanting to stay at the PIP shelter at Main and Charlton streets started being required to go to the triage center a few blocks away to be screened instead of automatically being admitted Through close questioning to deter- mine client needs and armed with a host of new resources, Community Health- link staffers determined if people had other resources or whether Healthlink or SMOC had other available housing to divert them from the homeless shelter. Diversion can be going back to hous- ing with family or friends or sending people back to a community to which they have ties — even if it is to a home- less shelter there, Ms. Ekstrom said. "We make contact with some specific place or person to where they are going. Our goal is to end the person's homeless- ness, not to make them homeless in an- other community," she said. "We don't just put them on a bus and say 'Have a nice trip.'" In the first 11 months after November 2009, staff man- © Copyright 2010 Worcester Telegram & Gazette Corp., 20 Franklin St., Worcester, MA 01615. Reprinted with permission. For reprint information call 508.793.9262. FRIDAY, JAnuARY 23, 2011 WoRCeSTeR, MASS. NEWS PIP to close T&G File Photo/PAUL KAPTYN A man who described himself as homeless talks to a police officer parked in his cruiser outside the entrance on Charlton Street to the PIP Shelter. Bradford McMilleon, 61, a Westminster native who has been chronically homeless for two years, said he is "rather scared. I'm too old to go back on the street again." T&G Staff/STEVE LANAVA Homelessness turns a corner under new approach CONTINUED NEXT PAGE Chandler St. Austin St. Jaques Ave. Murray Ave. Piedmont St. Queen St. Main St. Beacon St. T&G Staff/Don LAnDGRen JR. 122 PIP Shelter Community Healthlink 72 Jaques Ave. WORCESTER

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