Name
Creating A Role For People With Lived Experience In Coc Planning And Oversight
Date & Time
Thursday, April 24, 2025, 11:30 AM - 12:30 PM
Description

When People With Lived Experience (PWLE) came to the Montgomery County Services to End and Prevent Homelessness (SEPH) more than fie years ago with a lengthy list of grievances regarding the county's six single adult homeless shelters, former Director, Amanda Harris, made an innovative decision --form a subcommittee on the already existing Montgomery County Interagency Commission on Homelessness, which would consist entirely of PWLE --current and recent consumers of shelter services. The Committee's first task was to review the existing provider contracts. Rather than basing contract compliance on the bi-annual visits and reviews of the County Contract Monitor, Harris quickly discovered that people who had actually lived in the shelters for many months, were able to provide a detailed description of each of the measurement criteria used by the county to determine contract compliance in a much more detailed and precise way than the Contract Monitor was ever able to. Since then, the People's Committee has participated in the rating and ranking of CoC grant applications, oversight of service providers, and their input on the ICH has been invaluable.