So I will call to order this meeting of the Monroe County Public Library Board of Trustees on Wednesday,
October 21st, 2026. And if we want to go around and say what we're all currently reading, I'm reading
or rereading. It's been a while, but it's on our new textbook adoption this year. So Frederick, Douglas,
and American Slave. So I'm rereading that.
I'm Greer Carson. I'm reading This is Ragtime, which is an old music history book by Terry Waldo. My
family and I are replaying Zelda Tears of the Kingdom while we sit anxiously waiting for the Ocarina
of Time remake to drop in two weeks. I'm Amy O'Shaughnessy. I just, I can't remember what I'm reading
right now, but I just finished last week Partita, Barbara Kingselver's new novel and was excited to
see her speak here in Bloomington. So that was a real treat.
My name is Chris Hall, and I am listening to The Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith. Is it? Oh, I
thought about that. Oh, hi. Hi. I'm sorry. I'm Nancy Van Allen. I was trying to find the title of my
book. I guess I'm reading She Is a Haunting for Book Love in School. And yeah, it's a very difficult
name to pronounce, the last name, but good book. I'm Becky Hill, and I am reading, I just started Eye of the
I can follow it. I'm Jennifer Whitley and I just started listening to the girl with the louding voice.
Is there any public comment either in person or online?
Do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda from September 16th? Any opposed? Okay, eyes have it.
So now we will hear from Greer Carson, the monthly director's report.
Okay, at the top of each month's director's report, we share how many unique users we've had the previous
month as well as year-to-date unique users. By October, we typically see around 35%.
of our registered patrons having checked out an item at least once during the year. As of October 1st
this year, we've seen 46% of all MCPL registered patrons having checked out at least one item so far
this year. So thank you to all of our patrons, nearly half of whom have borrowed something from the
library in 2026. And for reference, we currently have just shy of 61,000 registered patrons, which by
my count is about 43% of reported Monroe County residents. It's a strong number.
Canopy had a strong month in September, with some BBC productions topping the MCPL patron charts. For
those who may not know, Canopy is a library-focused streaming platform that provides access to independent
classic and art house cinema, as well as documentaries, educational films, and a dedicated Canopy Kids
portal for our younger patrons.
And just showing my age here, I sometimes think of Canopy as the classical film and music of streaming
services, if anyone happens to remember that local video rental store from back in the day on the square.
In continuing the theme of showing one's age, we had an Ellsville teen patron honor us with the highest
possible praise, calling the library tough. And of course, I misspelled the word in the director's report,
as it should be spelled T-U-F-F. And so my own kids were quick to point out to me
that error while also offering a justified term of derision, unk. So that was fun. At least I know my
kids are reading the director's report. We had a minor water leak outside of our downtown kitchenette
adjacent to this room. The water made its way into the teen space next door and prompted some swift
cleanup and remediation.
the trusted consulting service that we use. It did provide an opportunity to reconsider our downtown
teen space study room in terms of appropriate size and location and we've since moved that conference
room to a more visible location within the teen space. Thanks to our building services team for acting
so quickly to identify and mitigate the water leak and to our teen services team for capitalizing on
the incident to suggest an improvement in space management.
We're in the process of completing an iterative compensation review with NFP, the consultants who advised
us during the large scale compensation study of 2022. Since that study four years ago, we've committed
to doing iterative reviews every few years to make sure we're staying above the 50th percentile mark
for wages within the field, as well as identifying areas where we could be more competitive. We'll share
their findings along with our recommendations for adjustments at either the November or December board meeting.
I want to point out a minor correction in the director's report on page 42. It states that the total
attendance for all children's programs in April was 765. That should obviously read September. And then
finally, Staff Day 2026 was indeed very successful as we talked briefly last month.
Thanks to the great work of our staff day planning team as well as the constructive feedback that we
get from MCPL staff every year via the post staff day internal survey that really helps us figure out
what to do better and what to keep in place. Some of the featured events and the stats for that day
are included in the director's report but I'll just sum it up with a
quote from one staff member who shared that, for a whole day of staff training, it's quite enjoyable.
Anyone who has ever done something like this at another business or institution knows that they're rarely
this well thought out or pleasant. Good job to all involved. Happy to answer any questions. Okay. So
now I think we're going to hear from Gary.
on the 2027 budget hearing and adoption update. The County Council approved the 2027 budget last night.
I'm happy to say that there were no changes to the budget numbers that we went over at the July board
meeting. The growth quotient is 6%, so the tax levy revenue and the total spending budget will both
increase by 6%. Are there any questions?
Thank you. Okay, so next up, let's see, this is, now we're gonna hear about the benefits renewal. So
that's what, isn't it, what's next? 2027 benefits renewal overview from JA Benefits.
But I'm going to get everything queued up for them.
I'm sorry, I have a Mac and I don't, so I don't know how to do it on it.
that arrow that goes like that on the top right. So if you go right there, that's my experience, we'll
find out. Okay, so it's not gonna show up on the screen, but it'll be up there. Okay. Thanks. So I'll
introduce J.A.
So we work with J.A. benefits and their team and really appreciate them coming here tonight to provide
their expertise and information in advance of our open enrollment. In August and I presented our benefit
package and an informational refresher but they're going to go into some more details on benefits that
are part of our renewal as well as the initial renewal and next steps that we're going through here
in the process.
As a reminder, our open enrollment includes health insurance, dental, vision, clinic, and disability
products as well as HSA, FSA, and DCFSA. So those are the pieces that are related to this.
J.A. has been a valuable partner of the library since 2010. They not only do a great job of partnering
with us during open enrollment but they also provide year round support for staff members. They answer
questions and help with billing questions or carrier information that staff need in order to be able
to maximize their benefits and get the most out of that. I know our staff really appreciate that as do we.
Additionally, they also are year-round partners for us. So the HR department, they also meet with Gary
and Greer during the year to help us with industry trends, staying on top of what's happening in the
market, looking at benchmarking, and strategically considering plan design changes and offerings that
we may want to consider. They help us provide strong benefits for our staff, remain an employer of choice,
and also keep in mind our budget.
We appreciate their partnership and I'll go ahead and turn it over to them. So this is Alyssa and Corey.
So I'm Alyssa Prince, I'm an account executive at JA Benefits and I've worked with the library for I
think going on about five years now since I've been with JA and I have Corey with me. Corey is partner
and consultant at JA and has worked on Monroe for a long time. So thank you all for having us here today.
We're gonna go through where we are on the renewals so far and kind of some of the trends that we've
had in the past and where we're going on timeline.
So this slide is just a quick overview of where we are currently on your dental, vision, other ancillary
lines of coverage, and your medical. So your dental and vision, we do have those complete. Vision is
in a rate hold currently, so those rates will stay the same through 2028. We also got the dental renewal
completed. It came in at an 8% to start for one year. I'm sorry.
5% for one year 8% for two years and we were able to get it to a 5% for two years So that'll end up
lining up with the vision as well, which is always kind of nice to have those in line With guardian
that is the life and disability products Their initial renewal was a four point eight percent across
a couple different lines of coverage That's what it averaged out to that was for one year. We did get
a notification that they are willing to do that for two years so
We are still pushing back one more time on that, but I think that's about where that one will land.
With Anthem, we are still in their initial offer phase on that. That one did come in at a 39% this year.
We will talk about some of the history of where we've been in the past and kind of what's driving that
increase this year. We are still working on negotiating with Anthem currently, but we are seeing that
the market is moving a little bit less than it has in the past.
And in some cases, they are not moving much at all. So we are pushing as hard as we can and we have
a few different levers as well. This just gives a little bit of an overview of kind of where the trend
is this year across the nation. So on average,
Employer increases are going up about 8.2% on medical. So that's including your groups that are running
very well, and that's including the groups that are running higher on their claims loss ratio, which
we'll talk a little bit more about. Medical trend on average is up 9% across the nation. Specifically
in the fully insured carriers, most of them are saying it's more like 12% to 13%, so it's a little bit
higher than this national number.
Essentially what a trend renewal means is that's kind of where they're putting you if you are running
at their target ratios They're still going to be coming out with that trend increase to keep up with
the costs of everything Right now Monroe County is running at a hundred and thirty six percent loss
ratio and essentially what that means is You're running over the amount of money that is being taken
in by the carrier, which is where we're seeing that renewal come in
A lot of that is being driven by pharmacy, which is something that we are seeing across the medical
space, that pharmacy costs continue to climb and be a big factor in that. Corey, is there anything you
want to add to this slide? Yeah, I'll just jump in and add on the 8.2 national average. That is inclusive
of very, very large organizations, all the way down to very small organizations. That number, historically,
the last seven or eight years has been half that number. So we're seeing that.
number go up, even though it's obviously moderated and looks I would be happy with that number this
year for you all if we could get it. But in general, that's a very weighted number across a very large
number of folks across the country. But doubling that average is a pretty big change in one year. I
don't think 2027 looks much or 2028 looks much better. And the other thing we're seeing in the list
and I were just chatting about this is
the impact of technology on hospital ability to bill at a different level. So they're appropriately
presumably and hopefully coding things correctly. And sometimes that means they know that there's higher
risk and therefore they get reimbursed more. So everybody's strained. The health system is simultaneously
strained in various degrees. We could have a long discussion about that.
but they are also pushing to get as much revenue. So it could be that the cost of care is not going
up, but the utilization is going up, or the severity or frequency of severe claims is going up as well.
On the pharmacy side, I'll just finish here. Thankfully, there are ways to treat chronic conditions
that are improved and better. Those costs of those medications are higher than ever. So the trade-off
in value is a long-term, I think, test for the market and the healthcare system.
But in the meantime, it is certainly raising the costs dramatically. So the cost to treat chronic conditions
that may have kind of finally worked down a little bit to near $1,200 a year for maybe a very obvious
chronic condition of diabetic care is ramping up to $12,000 a year on the drug cost side now that we
have new treatment courses and that's the primary first line defense. So that's driving some of it,
but not all of it. It's also single largest, you know,
multiple or across the nation, the size of large claims is going up. So as Alyssa has mentioned, a lot
of things are moving that number. It's a lot of explaining, but I think for perspective, it's really
helpful for this group to understand what's kind of moving the market for you. Yeah, ask as we go as
well. Yeah. Is that okay if I ask a question right now?
That 136% like the loss ratio, how does that compare to what MCPL has looked like over the last like
three, four, five years? That's a great question. And we actually have that on a slide coming up. I
can just wait then. Yeah, that is a wonderful question though, and I appreciate it. It might even be
our next slide, but if not, it's, oh yes, it is right here. Great. Anyone else have any other questions
on that? So I'm not really certain about this main administration that we have going on.
but there was something the other day that was being possibly put in for Medicare, Medicaid. Would that,
are we locked into a price if things are able to be lowered or are you able to manipulate things if
they change in our direction? Yeah, it's a good question. So you're fully insured, kind of the insurance
company that runs your plan and there's choices we've made over the years that have been different,
but the current partner
kind of manages all that through their own pharmacy benefit manager. I would say on the Medicare, Medicaid
pricing coming down for drug costs, if anything, that's pushing the employer or commercial pricing up,
unfortunately, because the drug manufacturers don't like to lose revenue. So they are finding where
ways in which they could pull back on the way that the cost. So it's a little counterintuitive. I think
in the long run,
Pushing prices down across the board on drugs and removing rebates from the picture will be helpful.
That is just a longer-term proposition. So it's a little counterintuitive that if they improve there,
we might get actually pushed up in the portion of the market that buys commercial through employers.
So government funds about, I think, 30% to 40% of health care at this point through those programs primarily.
Employers fund another third. And then there's a lot of individual coverage in the middle.
or uncovered folks, unfortunately. Yep. Good question.
So to speak to your question, we've got down here at the very bottom, the loss ratio averages for a
period of time. So the data on that actually goes back to 2017. The rest of the data is for 2020. But
whenever you were with SIHO, from 2017 to 21, you were running at about an 89% loss ratio. And just
for reference, typically, carriers want to see that at 80% or below for a trend renewal, just to kind
of give you an idea of what their target typically is.
Whenever you were in the range of 2020 to 2022, you were 166 at a point and dropped down to 80%. And
then with Anthem, our past couple of years have been 113 to 104. So we have actually ran above the 100%
loss ratio threshold for a couple of years now. But we have managed to be able to get pretty decent
renewals. And I think some of that is catching up as we have a higher trend this year.
So as you can see on the top part there, it does go into some detail and kind of where we started with
renewals in the past and where we were able to get them to. Last year, for example, it started at a
16% and we were able to get it to a nine. There were a couple of previous years there with Anthem where
they gave premium credits and essentially that was a way of giving some of the money back but still
setting the premium at that target for the next year.
So it's always nice when we can get those, but our preference is just to be able to get the rate to
start with when we can. Anything you want to add to this one? Yeah, I'll jump in here. You can see there's
been pretty good movement from the initial to the next or the final. We are not seeing that in markets
where we've got responses so far back, and that's inclusive of alternative markets. What I mean by that
is another insurance company is not looking as
aggressive as they have in the past. So we're seeing that as a market trend overall. We expect a lot
less movement. And I think as Alyssa shared, maybe we got too much in 25 and 26 for what we were spending.
But I think what our view is to get the appropriate and fair renewal as often and frequently as possible.
So we can address these types of renewals when they happen. Our run rate has been very good.
Usually see a lot of decreases in a 10 year history or even a five or seven year history. So that's
positive It's perspective not really going to help next year's budget. However, so I'm aware of that
number fully as is Gary Is that something that's then
given to the library or like the organization that's purchasing the coverage as a whole? Is it passed
down to the individuals as credit? That's not something I'm familiar with. So if you can give me just
a quick primer of how that works, that'd be awesome. It's a great question. I think Alyssa described
it really well. If they'd rather us keep an 8% and then give us 3% on the credit so that I'm looking
at 2025, for example. And that is a credit that's on the administrative bill that gets paid by the library.
And when the because we know that going into the renewal, we can set the employee rates based on that
net five percent number and often every time did say, OK, our actual budget cash flow wise next year,
it just comes out of the out of the payroll, not the payroll, but out of the budget differently. So
that first month might be a little bit credited with that to the employer side.
So it's passed through the employees in the sense that the payroll deductions we set for that year have
incorporated the idea that it was a 5% in 2025, not an 8%, if that makes sense. It's not a direct credit.
It was 8%. And so the rates were at 8%. How the library shared that is a whole different discussion
on contributions. Organization to figure out how to allocate that. Yeah. And so it's really employer
credit effectively.
I keep forgetting about the microphone. We've got a couple of slides about employer benchmarking. So
this is a tool that we have available to be able to generate a larger report for benchmarking you against
groups that are similar to yourselves. So this specific report is against 65 other organizations that
are between 100 and 249 employees.
in the Great Lakes region, and it does include libraries and also information services. So a little
bit broader than just the libraries that are probably included in this report. But what we can see here
is that your overall benefits package is market leading currently. So you are in that 60 to 70th percentile
when compared to your peers.
On the medical, you're in the 70 to 80th percentile. So some of that has to do with plan design. Some
of it has to do with how you're contributing to your employees. All of that packaged together is what
makes that up. Your PPO plan at a $500 is in top benefits. So it's the 85th to 100th percentile when
compared to your peers where it is today. And then the HSA plans are 65th to the 85th, also market leading.
And then your ancillary is market competitive.
So you guys, as you probably all know, are very competitive with the benefits that are offered today.
Over on the left-hand side, we have some notes on kind of where you stand with your contributions as
well. So employee only, you're paying 100% no matter what plan is chosen. The average is 65% on the
PPO and then 82% on HSAs. And then as you can see, as you get down into the spouses, employee and children
and family, they're a little bit
more close to the current market. And then this slide, again, is benchmarking, and this is specific
to HSA deposits. So you guys do give quite a bit back in HSAs to employees today, which is wonderful,
and I'm sure they greatly appreciate it. But as you can see, the average compared to peers, they are
paying about 465,
into those accounts where you guys are contributing a significant amount into those accounts today.
And then this does also include the deductibles for your PPO. The average deductible instead of 500
is 1,600 for your cohort. And then out of pocket, you're a little bit lower as well. So just a good
overview of kind of where you are currently and also shows that there's room for adjustments as needed,
knowing that you are in the space you are right now.
I'll just jump in and add there was some history up before but when we moved to anthem I think we took
a decrease as well. So a lot of that good years are have been adjusted back through the HSA contributions
and I expect that that will be an area potentially to adjust going forward but we will see. I think
interest it's you've been very as Alyssa shared fair maybe
very market leading with your benefits for your employees relative to the market. And I think that is
something that you've been able to do historically. So something to be proud of for the past. All right.
And the final slide is just the upcoming timeline.
Tonight we had our review of where claims were and the renewal status. We're working through
final negotiations, and we'll work with them and our County Public Library team to finalize what all
of that will look like to bring back to you all through your work sessions and for the next board meeting
prep. And then we will get into open enrollment timing, which is usually around the beginning of December.
I had one more thing to add. Becky mentioned it, but we meet all year round.
Prepare for days like this. I guess I would say with a management team and also multiple years in advance
We prepare for these days. So we have some tools ready at hand to address that including Continuing
to push on the negotiation side and reviewing alternative markets, but I think for your benefit it's
useful to know we've talked about what does
What is the lever we can pull and how can we manage the member experience simultaneous with the budget
which is just a market reality if we are in this kind of situation. So that's been many years in the
making and I would expect us to put all the tools to work this year. Any questions for Alyssa or I.
We much prefer to deliver zeros, but we can't do it every year. So thank you for your time. Thank you.
I think we can escape, and that'll help. It's very odd to drag across the screen. We'll do two teamwork here.
Next up is Elizabeth Gray from Adult Services and is it Shakae Norris? Diversion and Prevention Case
Manager for Department Update with Adult Services and Heading Home Partnership.
Good evening. Thank you for giving me time this evening to speak to you about what's been going on in
adult services this past year. We have continued with our regular book clubs facilitated by librarians
Maggie Hutt and Emily Bedwell. And we added a book club called Books on Tap Last Call due to the waiting
list to join Books on Tap. Last Call is led by librarian Emily Bedwell, who also leads our short attention
span book club.
Last Call reads the books that the original Books on Tap read the month prior. So it gives everybody
a chance to read them and discuss. And Emily has been getting great attendance at Last Call. We also
held two one-off book clubs. We did Slapstick by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. in connection with Graham Faloon.
And then we also did the book Sold. That was very recently. And it was the most banned book of 2025.
So Emily did that for Banned Books Week.
Our Green Peeps book club, run by Maggie, focuses on environmental reads and frequently welcomes a guest
speaker. In April, the group met in the MCPL garden to discuss Birding to Change the World by Trisha
Cain. Wyatt Downey, expert birder and board member of the Sassafras Audubon Society, came to speak with
us about local birding. And this month, the club is reading H's for Hawk by Helen McDonald. Wild Care
will visit with Felix the American Kestrel to talk about raptors.
We also developed a number of online programs to engage our patrons this year. For National Poetry Month
we had a poetry writing contest. This year's theme was An Imagined Future and we had poems that covered
everything from dreams to fears to hope to survival. We continue with the popular tailored TBR where
patrons receive books selected just for them in a tote bag that they can keep and they get small prizes
along with that as well.
Chopped Library Edition continues to entice our home cooks who get a bag of ingredients, create a dish,
and submit it online for the chance to win a prize. And starting in November, we will have a six-word
memoir contest, and that will be online as well. Other programs this year included a fall and spring
seed swap, a crossover program with our casual video gamers club and our puzzle swap, a drop-in community
knit and crochet program to make hats for donation,
In conjunction with our summer reading theme, which this past summer was Unearth a Story, Wonder Lab
executive director Dallas Evans presented No Dinosaurs, No Problem, Exploring Indiana's Geologic Past.
Dallas explained how dinosaurs go from discovery in the field to display in a museum. Local author and
speaker Shana Ritter led participants through the process of creating postcard memoirs using postcards
to create brief life reflections.
From grand Victorian to gilded to roaring, a historical garment soiree welcomed historical fashion experts
Nicole Rudolph and Abby Cox who discussed fashion from the 1830s to the 1920s. They also brought historical
garments from this time period for participants to learn about and to handle. Work continues to expand
points on the Hoosier character map.
Librarian Christine Friesel held several programs to engage patrons who are interested in developing
different areas of the map. Programs were held both at the Downtown Library and the Andrite East Senior
Center, which is at College Mall. In December, Christine will host a program at the Ellitsville Library
entitled, Ellitsville's Lost Landmark, The Whirly Mansion, presented by local author and historian Penelope
Matheson, discussing highlights from her book about that mansion. Nonprofit central,
continues to serve our nonprofit community led by librarian Jack Kovaleski. The yearly Meet the Media,
Nonprofit Board Trading, and Meet the Funders continue to help nonprofits in Monroe County develop funding
and marketing strategies. Classes instructing participants how to use the candid database are held regularly.
This database helps nonprofits find likely funding sources that align with their missions. Jack also
meets with patrons one-on-one to assist them in how to start a nonprofit
or to help with other questions they may have. He also attends monthly meetings of the Monroe County
Nonprofit Alliance administered by United Way of Monroe County. Librarian Josh Caswell focuses on emerging
adults, patrons ranging in age from 19 to 35, with regular meetings of our Fiber Arts Club and Adult
Lego Club.
This year, Josh, along with library assistant and miniature painting expert, Hunter Todd, started Adult
Miniature Painting 101, a program which has been very popular. People with all levels of miniature painting
experience are welcome to participate. This is the rest of our group too. Adult Services employees also
staff the second floor information desk and the drive up window every day, all hours that the library
is open. While the drive up window is basically checking out held items for patrons,
The information desk is an unpredictable experience at the desk. We not only answer in person questions,
but we also answer questions by phone and chat. Every shift adult services staff members may be asked
any question you can think of from what's the weather forecast to where can I find something to eat
to can help you help me find plans to build about roost. And amazingly, we find correct answers to nearly
every question that we are asked.
Occasionally, we can't answer a question. But in those cases, we generally send our patrons off with
a referral to an agency or a group who likely can help them. And to close, I would like to share a few
patron comments about adult services that came in this year. A patron donating books stopped on his
way out to say thanks. He and his wife got cards here in the first week they lived in Bloomington and
have used our services regularly for 15 years. He summed up his feelings as best librarian in the world.
A regular member of our Green Peeps Book Club emailed this kind comment to Librarian Maggie Hutt. Thank
you for creating such welcoming spaces in all of your book clubs. Without you setting such open and
thoughtful vibes, I don't believe any of us would feel as comfortable voicing our opinions. And finally,
this comment. I just want to thank Librarian Emily, who answered the phone today.
I thought I had given her an impossible quest, but she kept digging and not only found my old friend
who currently lives in Costa Rica, but was also able to find a local connection so I can send her some
old letters from when we were growing up. Are you sure librarians aren't magic? And before I introduce
Chiquet, I'm happy to answer any questions that you might have about adult services this year.
Thank you. I am going to... Why is it not moving forward? There we go. So, before I introduce Shakae
to you, I would like to share one more story with you that illustrates the impact our next speaker has
had on the library. One day I was working on the desk with one of our library assistants, Cole Champion.
I was helping someone when Cole got involved in speaking with two senior men.
The conversation had been going on for quite some time when I finished with my patron, so I began listening
in. One of the men had lived in the same apartment complex for 15 years. The complex had recently been
bought by a new company who had a new way of paying rent online. The patron did not understand how to
do it, so he had not paid his rent for several months. He had been to numerous places in Bloomington
looking for help because he was facing eviction. He had been told to come to the library to watch a
video about eviction by somebody.
And we were trying to figure out the best way to help them. Cole began chatting with me, and eventually
we both thought we should see if Shakae Norris, the prevention and diversion case manager from heading
home who is housed in the library, could help him. Fortunately, Shakae was available. About two hours
later, the entire situation was resolved. Eviction was off the table because Shakae spent time speaking
with the office staff of the apartment complex and getting everything worked out for the patron. Without
Shakae, I'm not sure
that we would have been able to help the patron. But I do know that because Shakay was here, a very
stressful situation in this patron's life was resolved. Before leaving, he stopped by the desk and said
he should have thought of coming to the library in the first place. And now Shakay will speak to you
about her time here at the library. Hi, guys. I first want to say thank you for allowing this partnership, also
There are three of us, diversion and prevention case managers, and I always tease my other two coworkers
that I'm the luckiest one because I'm at the library. And everybody here is amazing. And I mean, it's
the library. You have so much other stuff. So what we are, basically a few years ago, Mary
Morgan and Aaron Reynolds Tatiana Wheeler and a few other people came together to start an initiative.
They were able to get funding from the Lily Endowment, which will pay our salary for five years.
Um, help house people in my department. What I do is keep people from losing their housing, which oftentimes
consists of going to eviction court with them, um, trying to negotiate with landlords. If it's just,
it's not affordable. We try to help them find another place. Um, and we also can help them with moving in.
cost deposit first month. Sometimes people get into rental arrears for various reasons. They don't have
anywhere else to go. So we try to not allow them to go to the street.
Right now we are at a 97% success rate, which is amazing. We've only lost three households But we did
not lose them as far as just letting them go Even though they lost their housing and we weren't able
to save the situation Are they because a lot of people wait until the day before they have to be out
sometimes and sometimes it's hard to work that magic so
We still work with them. We still get them housing. We were able to help them find another place. So
while we lost a couple of houses, we didn't. We also have street outreach workers, which I, again, am
in diversion and prevention. But because I'm here at the library, I am also a little bit of street outreach.
because this is a safe place for a lot of our unhoused. They feel safe here. They can relax. So when
my street outreach workers are looking for someone or we haven't seen a regular in a while,
are they OK? They'll call me, hey, can you go through and look for them? Can you see if they're there
today? Hey, we found a spot for them. So it's a lot of connecting, connections, just trying to help
everyone. Just to give a few numbers, we started
And so it'll be a year coming up next week where we really started, got out there, got on the ground
running by the end of 2025. So this was taken in at the end of January diversion and prevention. We
had helped 40 households stay housed.
in that time, and street outreach, they had helped, they started engaging with 24 people and they were
able to house nine people in that time. With the street outreach is a little more difficult because
a lot of times people are dealing with mental health issues, they're dealing with no income, so while
we are helping them find housing, we're housing first, that's what's most important, but a lot of times
that includes getting them connected with having
those resources with getting some income in, applying for disability, if they're able, finding employment,
really going there. And actually, I mean, I myself have kind of negotiated with employers about people
working, giving them the jobs and stuff. So that was then. And then, sorry, guys. I'm trying to have
notes, but I also just like to go off the top of my head, so I apologize.
So by the end of August, for us, during our mid-year thing, we. Where did I? Sorry about that. So diversion
and prevention, we have to help. I don't want to give you a correct number. I'm sorry. 160 households
this year. And so still at that 90, it's 95%.
I mean, it's still pretty awesome. 160 households, people are feeling good. They're safely housed. They
also feel like they, a lot of times, we have a few one officer people, but sometimes we have people that,
come back and sometimes they come back because they've never had someone who listened to them. So they
come back and they're like, you know, I don't want to lose this. I don't want to get in the situation
again. You know, so we also offer resources again and we try to connect them to what they need. Um,
we just don't want to leave people high and dry and leave them hanging once we've helped them. Um, the
street outreach workers, they have housed 33 people this year straight from the street. Um, in between
this time,
Mary Morgan, Erin, Tatiana. We have also jumped out there and started something. I don't know if you
heard of streets to stability. So it's still under heading home, but it's slightly different because
with streets to stability, people are directly going into the encampments and housing people out of
the encampments. And so when it started August and they were able to house 13 people with this one,
They receive one year of rent. But during that time, they have to go through intense case management
so that they can sustain the housing once the year is over. The goal for the and that was the downtown
encampment. That was the first spot they went into. They were able to get 13 people out there. The initial
goal was 20. So we weren't too far off. So now
The initial goal for this next encampment is 50. So we're hoping to get people, 50 people housed straight
from the encampments into a house. So it's amazing. There's a lot going on and I feel bad because I'm
not, I don't get to see a lot of the people here at the library like I was, but it's just because right
now it's just a lot going on and we're just all working and so many people are struggling. I find myself
in court and I'm working with CGM a lot.
And just, I mean, we get out there and we help people move. One of my coworkers is at the trustee's
office. And she often sees elderly people. A lot of these elderly people are alone. They don't have
anyone. So we have been working together to learn more about Medicaid waivers. We just took a training
on that so that we can help them get housing first, but also help them receive what they need. And we
help them move into their places. It's just myself and Sarah. She's even smaller than me.
this older person, and we're just trying to move stuff. But if we don't help them move, they wouldn't
be able to move. So it's been amazing. I can't wait to see what happens in the next five years. I'm
so thankful that the library allows me to be here, because it helps me stay in touch with the people.
Because I'm more of in touch with the people and not the data, which is why it's kind of on my thing.
But I make sure to keep the data so everybody knows that we can keep our funding.
But for me, it's all about the people and it's really nice and it's really good and I'm excited to see.
In the midst of all that as well, we also have a veterans initiative.
And during this year, we have took the veteran homelessness in Bloomington down 70%. So Tatiana, that
is her baby. She's taking that on. And we've connected with a lot of partners around Bloomington. We
deal with HUDVASH, the veteran group in Indy. We meet every other Wednesday. We discuss homeless veterans
here in Bloomington, how we can connect them, what we can do. If they have other families, we do also
offer reunification for people if they want
to go home, if this is not their home and they have a place to safely be housed, wherever they are from
or where they want to go, we do contact that other person, make sure that they have something there
versus just sending people before we actually help them with reunification. So that's all I have right
now. But if you guys have any questions, feel free to. Thank you. Thank you. It's exciting, guys. And
thank you for having us. Thank you.
Okay. All right. Do I have a motion to dismiss? So moved. Second. Second. Great. Thank you.
Meeting adjourned.