Council Member Brewer questions DHS on school transfers and busing

And then secondly, just back to my school situation, when you have a family that has school-age, like we heard earlier about how many

ex-caseworkers on housing.

So how many people are helping with school transfer from the shelters?

I'm a big...

a win fan that they have, but not everybody has a school person.

So how long does it take to get that family into school?

Are you dealing with the bus situation, et cetera?

Because that's where there's so many problems along the way for these families.

So the mental health and then just how do you get them into school at timing?

Thank you for the questions.

So when it comes to mental health, we are assessing folks that come in at a particular point in time.

And we know with those living with mental illness, it may present differently depending on the circumstances, especially if these are high-stress situations.

So we can get back to you on whether or not the number of people we serve are experiencing mental health issues.

But, again, that would be a point in time, likely at assessment for single adults when they come in.

We continue to revisit our program models to make sure that we are staffing shelters to meet the needs of those residents that are there.

And where we don't have a program model that does, that shelters have a network of community-based organizations to refer folks out to to get the services that they need.

Okay.

I mean, I'm familiar.

The families seem to have more support, but individuals are pretty wild.

So I just don't see enough mental.

Illness support in the shelters.

But you're paying more attention to that?

Yes.

Oh, God.

They're nuts.

is a particular area of interest for me, for sure.

And we're looking at different models to ensure that people in our shelter system, and certainly there are a lot of single adults in the system who don't have significant behavioral health needs.

Absolutely.

But there is a group.

This is something we're looking at addressing in the homelessness.

But it's just hard on the ones who are doing really well to be in the same space of the ones who aren't.

Yeah, we're looking at improvements as we work on the homelessness plan.

We think there are certainly models of care that can get.

Behavioral health care for anyone who needs it into the system and not just behavioral health care, but also, you know, for looking at kids with asthma, making sure that they're getting like, you know, regular conditions as medical needs met.

So I think there is a lot more we can do in integrating these two systems of care so that people are in fact getting the care, the medication management and the support that they need.

And if I may, I was just actually looking for the number.

I told you it is also something that we are working actively with our partners in the school system on.

Cleaning up data to make sure we actually know the transport routes.

I was looking for the number of people who are currently assigned to be kind of case managers on that.

On school issues.

On school issues.

And we're looking at that with the school system.

There's not one for every shelter, but some of those folks cover multiple shelters.

But just looking at the ways we can use those resources better, again, our own staff doing door knocking where kids are missing school

and ensuring that the transportation data is both correct so we know where kids and families are supposed to be going, as well as we're addressing those needs faster.

So operationally, we are very much on this and agree it's a critically important issue.

I mean, just with the buses letting go, you've got to call Kevin Moran because everybody else, forget it.

I've been on with him all day.

He's in charge of buses.

So your caseworker better have his cell number.

Thank you.

I'm going to call Kevin Moran.

It's holding right now, right?

Thank you, Councilor Brewer.