The Health & Human Services Committee of the DeKalb County Board met on Monday, October 2, 2006, @ 6:00p.m. in the Administration Building’s Conference Room East.  Chairman Robert Rosemier called the meeting to order.  Members present were Marlene Allen, Sally DeFauw, Julia Fullerton, Ruth Anne Tobias and Paulette Tolene.  Eileen Dubin was absent.  Others present were Mary Olson, Herb Rubin and Ken Anderson.

APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES

 Moved by Ms. DeFauw, seconded by Ms. Tolene, and it was carried unanimously to approve the minutes from September 2006.

APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA

 Chairman Rosemier mentioned that there was a change to the agenda this evening because Mr. Rubin could not make it.  Under Old Business Ms. Olson will be talking about the Community Foundation Needs Analysis. Chairman Rosemier will also be speaking under Old Business about assistance to Service Organizations with grant proposals.  

Moved by Ms. Allen, seconded by Ms. DeFauw, and it was carried unanimously to approve the agenda.

PRESENTATION BY MR. HERB RUBIN – AFFORDABLE HOUSING COALITION

 Chairman Rosemier introduced Mr. Herb Rubin of the Affordable Housing Action Coalition to the committee. 

 Mr. Rubin said that his group discusses accessible, affordable, and disabled people issues for housing.  It is an informal group comprised of many people from all walks of life.  He said that their mission statement states they advocate quality, accessible, life long housing for families and individuals, who are of a variety of income levels and needs.  This is what they are all about, Mr. Rubin said.  

 Chairman Rosemier asked if they are proposing housing for empty nesters, or young people just starting out, families, seniors, etc.?  Mr. Rubin said that they would advocate for all of them, for a variety of income levels, like nurses, teachers, firemen, etc. They have been trying to get the word out there to the public of just who they are and what they do.  They have been going around and speaking to different committees and groups, explaining what they do.

 Mr. Rubin said that a variety of initiatives are financed and funded by tax credits.  Planning groups need to consider diversity in the types of homes constructed and home prices in their approval in order to make affordable housing a reality.  People who benefit are the ones who buy the tax credits and most of them are rentals.  These are not owner occupied housing.

 They have seen a rather unique initiative that was shown by Brian Grainger.  He is offering housing to his employees.  

 They are looking at a study of needs for the County.  They will begin it and see where it goes, said Mr. Rubin.

 Chairman Rosemier informed Mr. Rubin that Ms. Olson was involved with a group of individuals in the community that are also doing a study on needs assessment in the county.  Possibly he could connect with that group to get information that he might need.  

 The committee thanked Mr. Rubin for his very informative presentation.

SEMI-ANNUAL REPORT OF THE DEKALB COUNTY COMMUNITY SERVICES DEPARTMENT – MARY OLSON

 Ms. Olson presented her 3^rd Quarterly Report to the committee. She said that originally thought that they would serve 500 people for the Emergency Intervention.  However, they helped 730 people, which is up substantially.  She feels that they will surpass this number before the end of the year.

 Chairman Rosemier asked what the increasing need is over last year?  Ms. Olson said that the increasing need over last budget is the high utility bills.  More of their funds are going for utility funds, gasoline and transportation costs.

 Chairman Rosemier asked if people are using VAC?  Ms. Olson said yes and people also use the Huskie Bus.

 Ms. Olson then passed out her Community Action Plan for 2007 to the committee members.  She said that each year she has to submit how she is going to use the Block Grant monies for the next year.  Every year three years they have to do a Comprehensive Plan.  This year they submitted the Comprehensive Plan.  She said that it would be made available on the County’s website soon.  

 She highlighted some of the pages for the committee.  She said that on page 4 it explains the summary of the needs assessment, that is, the clients’ needs that they see.  Page 8 shows a chart that explains the clients served by her department’s emergency assistance program.  According to the chart this year is represented by the purple line.  She explained to the committee that the purple lines on the chart are out of line from anything else on that chart.  They have been extremely busy for the year 2006.  Her September data is not included in this chart.  

 There was a survey that their clients filled out about what they could do to improve their situation.  There were 100 people who filled out the survey.  Most of them came up with very interesting suggestions. 

 Ms. Olson then told the committee that her office is still on a holding pattern regarding federal funding.  The lobbyists are saying that nothing will happen until after the election.

OLD BUSINESS

 Chairman Rosemier said that he and some of the committee members were to meet with eCivis the other day.  However, eCivis called at the last minute and said that they could not make our meeting due to their present meeting going into overtime.  He was very disappointed by their response and the have not rescheduled another meeting date yet.  He encourage the committee members to go to their website.

 Chairman Rosemier then briefly reviewed the survey that he sent out to the agencies a while ago.   He said that he noticed from the responses that most agencies have written grants before and a lot of them are local grants.  He said that responses to numbers 7 and 8 on the survey were interesting (please see sheet attached to these minutes).  

NEW BUSINESS

 The committee decided that their November meeting would be held on October 30, 2006 because of the shortened meeting schedule for next month and trying to get materials approved for the November County Board packet.  He informed the committee that Ms. Liz Carney, DeKalb County’s Mental Health Director, would be visiting with them at the October 30, 2006 meeting.

ADJOURNMENT

 Moved by Ms. Allen, seconded by Ms. Tolene, and it was carried unanimously to adjourn the meeting.

     Respectfully submitted,

     _________________________________________

     Chairman Robert Rosemier