P&P April 2016

GAGE EAST continued from page 5

as a community. We are planning to partner with the school district and the community school to maximize our impact in this neighborhood. I am thankful we have an integrated model of service. Funding the building and the services for Gage East was incredibly hard. CCH received full capital funding for the housing units from the Minnesota Housing Finance Agency in a competitive process because we were able to braid and blend various sorts of funding at the local level, giving us a competitive advantage in their scoring criteria. This would not have been possible without a two-generation approach that leveraged resources in an inte- grated manner. As part of this project the Olmsted County Community Services Adult and Family Services Division is committing 15 banked beds to this project. This is state funding for housing with services that we can use from closed residential programs. It is a unique and precious funding source. In addition, our Child and Family Services Division (CFS) is committed to master leasing five of the youth apartments. CFS is also committed to providing two case man- agement staff and $20,000 in respite care funds for the families. As a community service organiza- tion our department is integrated with the Olmsted County Housing and Redevelopment Authority (OCHRA) and the Dodge/Fillmore/Olmsted County Community Corrections Division (DFO). The OCHRA is committing 30 project-based HUD Section 8 vouchers for this project. Our juvenile probation unit of DFO is master leasing five youth apartments per month as part of their support for this project. We think this may be a building block for serving some of our sex-trafficked youth. This is truly our first foray into this type of model. The building is under way and we are partnering with the University of Minnesota—Humphrey School of Public Affairs to build a measurement plan for the outcomes. We are confident that this project will

(Above) Community members gathered for an event announcing the start of construction. (Below) Construction of the lobby and front desk area at the Gage East Apartments.

lead to better outcomes for homeless youth and families. We have learned a lot and we are anxious to learn from our own community experience. This work matters and we are very thankful to the many communities and pro- viders who have traveled this path ahead of us. Paul Fleissner is the director of Olmsted County Minnesota Community Services, an integrated

human service agency that includes social services, probation services, veteran services, public assistance programs, and the Housing and Redevelopment Authority. He currently serves on the board of the National Association of County Human Service Administrators as well as the Locals Council Executive Committee at APHSA and has recently joined the APHSA Board of Directors. He can be reached at (507) 328-6350.

Photographs courtesy of Center City Housing

April 2016   Policy&Practice 33