2-1-1
2-1-1 Monthly Report for March 2018
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During the month of March,
5,481 calls were handled by
2-1-1 Resource Specialists and
8,694 health, housing and human service referrals were provided. Of the unduplicated callers,
73%
are female,
27%
are single mothers with minor children, and
53%
reported they are living with disabilities. (These statistics exclude callers who opted to not provide demographic information during intake.) For additional 2-1-1 stats for the month of March, go
here. For 2-1-1 stats for the current fiscal year-to-date, go
here.
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Eden I&R staff continued to participate in various meetings pertaining to the county's Coordinated Entry System including the Implementation Learning Community and the System Coordination Committee. Much learning is shared among 2-1-1, the Housing Resource Centers, and staff of EveryOne Home and the county, and issues are ironed out as they arise. The Executive Director delivered several presentations throughout the county in March about CES and 2-1-1's role in it. Between November 1, when CES began its soft launch in Alameda County, and March 31, 2-1-1 handled a total of:
- 1,975 calls from callers who were screened as being literally homeless
- 1,609 calls from callers who were screened as being non-literally homeless
Of the literally homeless callers:
- 67% indicated that they had a clear next step of action they were going to take
- 15% identified a safe or safer place to sleep the night they called 2-1-1
Of the non-literally homeless callers:
- 57% indicated that they had a clear next step of action they were going to take
- 7% identified a safe or safer place to sleep the night they called 2-1-1
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-- A senior resident of Fremont experiencing a financial crisis called 2-1-1 for low-Income housing. The caller’s landlord had given her notice that her rent was to increase by several hundred dollars. She was extremely distraught and anxious about how she was going to pay her rent the next month. She was on a fixed income, receiving only $1,300 per month. Added to the struggle was the fact that she has medical expenses. Her electric bill was also extremely high and she was seeking assistance paying for it. 2-1-1 explained to the caller that subsidized housing has waitlists, and provided her with referrals to five active waitlists. 2-1-1 also gave the caller information for the BACS (Bay Area Community Services) Housing Education and Counseling Workshops and the legal workshops held by Bay Area Legal Aid so the caller could consult with their staff about her high rent increase. 2-1-1 also provided information for the HEAP Program through Spectrum Community Services that offers energy bill and home weatherization assistance.
-- A resident of San Leandro called seeking legal assistance because his public benefits had been discontinued. He had housing and medical costs and no other way to provide for himself. He informed 2-1-1 that he did not know why his benefits had been discontinued. He was also in need of transportation services for those living with disabilities, to and from his doctor’s appointments. 2-1-1 provided the caller with a referral to Community Resources for Independent Living (CRIL) that provides benefits advocacy; Bay Area Legal Aid that can provide legal assistance for his public benefits issues; and East Bay Paratransit that provides transportation to the elderly and those living with disabilities.
For additional 2-1-1 call examples handled in March, go
here.
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“I just called 2-1-1 again today, and I spoke with a young lady. She looked up housing listings for me. I got three addresses. She was very nice and pleasant, and provided me the numbers to call, where they are located, etc. I wanted to say that she is really doing a great job, and she was a great help to me. I am going to call these numbers and I will be calling 2-1-1 back. Your operator is a very special person, she talks to people very nicely, and she gives them information that they’re looking for, and she explains as much as she can about details like credit check fee costs, etc. Anyway, thank you, and I will talk with you again.”
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Databases
17
agencies and
29
programs were added to the
Services Database
for a total of
1,212
agencies and
3,095
programs.
New information on VITA and AARP free tax preparation sites continued to be added to the services database.
Information on Easter programs was added to the services database.
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340
new units were added to the
Housing Database
for a total of
87,721
units.
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Meetings
In March, staff participated in
35
meetings, phone calls, and webinars with current and potential partners. Two highlights:
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AHIP (AIDS Housing Information Program) staff hosted the 3rd Annual Alameda County HOPWA Service Providers & Property Managers Meeting, “Staying Housed, Getting Housed.” Presentations were given by Liam Galbreth, Staff Attorney from East Bay Community Law Center, and Ron Pellum, Medical Case Manager, from Resources for Community Development.
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Eden I&R's Housing Coordinator presented on a panel of housing program providers for an RHA
(Rental Housing Association) sponsored event, Subsidized Housing Forum, for 30 RHA members who are local landlords. The goal of the panel was to educate landlords on housing programs and how they might be able to work with the programs to secure tenants and tenant services.
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Fairs / Events / Outreach
In March, Eden I&R served
265
people at trainings, events, and fairs and distributed
3,431
pieces of outreach materials to service providers and residents of Alameda County. These include:
- 2-1-1 staff hosted a booth and provided resource referrals to participants at the City of Pleasanton Resource and Transit Fair.
- 2-1-1 staff conducted trainings for and provided resource referrals to participants at a presentation about 2-1-1 services held at the Hayward Department of Recreation Senior Center by housing department staff, and a presentation about 2-1-1’s role before, during, and after disasters for the Union City CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) by the Disaster Preparedness Coordinator.
- Outreach materials were distributed by request to: Center for Independent Living in Berkeley, San Leandro Public Library in San Leandro, City Serve of the Tri-Valley in Dublin, and the Subsidized Housing Forum in Castro Valley.
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Disaster Preparedness
This month, the Disaster Preparedness Coordinator participated in meetings that included:
- A two-day Mass Notification Seminar held in Campbell. This was a well-attended and highly informative meeting about various technical and administrative details of Mass Notification alerting systems, best practices, lessons learned from past incidents, comparison of region specific issues, requirements for special populations, and and tools for maintaining consistent, accurate, and informative messaging. There were attendees from Alameda County, neighboring counties such as Marin, Napa, and Sonoma, and also representatives from Los Angeles County and New York City.
- The UASI Care and Shelter Subcommittee Meeting at the Emergency Operations Center in Dublin. This is part of a series of meetings leading to a full-scale regional exercise that will be conducted as part of the 2018 Urban Shield: Yellow Command. This will be regional in scope, and will entail standing up four mass care and shelter sites.
- A FEMA webinar on “Sources of Financial Help After a Disaster” and a discussion of FEMA’s Strategic Plan.
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Staff In-Service & Training
In-service presentations were provided to staff by:
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- Community Resources for Independent Living (CRIL)
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- CityServe of the Tri-Valley
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Progress on infrastructure upgrades included installation of parking lot security camera surveillance; deployment of large status board monitors in the 2-1-1 call center; and an electrical capacity upgrade in the call center.
In-depth testing and configuration has been occurring with the Business Intelligence Reporting Dashboard and Analysis tool. Once all reporting needs are confirmed as having been mapped into the tool, the agency will begin using Business Intelligence as its single source of reporting data and statistical information.
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