Summary

• Journey Fitness has relocated and renovated another old building and now has opened a

centrally located improved fitness center located just off the Clemens Center in Elmira.

• Gallery 421 is a new gallery that opened in August 2019. It is located at 421 West Church

Street.

• Nutmeg Upcycling is another business that has brought new innovation to the area with

its combination of an art gallery, an antique shop and a second-hand store where it recycles

products and makes them into new products. It is located at 149 West Gray Street in

Elmira.

Significantly, pre-COVID-19, the area was in a revitalization era and continues to attract new

businesses and major advancements in the area of medical facilities such as LECOM.

Summary of Agency Survey Process

As stated in our Agency Survey Process, evaluative information is gathered formally through

surveys, phone calls and focus groups. Several types of surveys are used as well. In response to

COVID-19, the Zoom platform was utilized to conduct and update the community assessment

process. Virtual surveys, focus groups and polling of diverse stakeholders and participants was

the result. The Zoom platform supported larger numbers of stakeholder feedback and ongoing

opportunities to gather feedback and prioritize the strategic focus for 2020-20201. Some surveys

are distributed agency-wide while others are program specific. It is not always possible to

determine which program(s) is/are being utilized by respondents unless the survey is program

specific. The actual number of program respondents is underestimated as this does not include

the anonymous agency-wide surveys. Included in Survey Type Grid (Appendix II) is the type of

survey used along with the number of respondents. Summaries of several survey groups are

provided below.

Trends captured in the 2019-2020 NYSCCA Needs Assessment Survey – Community

Members-Cities Rise (Anti-Displacement-Homeless), N=75

Cities Rise Focus Group – All Council Districts and Landlord Association

Meetings were hosted on several dates throughout the summer/fall 2019 and notices were sent.

Each time a focus group was hosted, an average of 5-10 people were in attendance with guests

from NY Law and Code Enforcement.

Each Focus group went through the exercise for Neighborhood Conditions and Code

Enforcement Challenges.

Tenants Focus Groups-Neighborhood Conditions:

We received responses of abandoned houses, neighbors not keeping up with their housing, high

rents and condition of rental housing. There were some concerns about vacant lots and housing

because of the tax base eroding. The tenants and landlords had some of the same concerns which

was a good sign that all are concerned.

Code Enforcement:

There was concern about not having enough staff to get to the things that need to be fixed in

housing. Code just driving by, but not inspecting at times.

Some of the ideas that were consistent throughout the meetings were tenant associations in the

district and possibly neighborhood driven associations. Yearly neighborhood clean-ups that

would involve community not just focused in one area, but city wide at different times during the

summer. For Empty Lots/ Preapproved houses through the appropriate entities to build on those

lots.

Landlords:

The Final Landlord meeting was informative and talked about tenants that did take responsibility

for their apartments and that trash them, code enforcement concerns on properties, landlords

having a way to possibly get assistance on fixing properties. Furniture dumping and landlords

being sighted to have it removed when they did not create the dumping. We had Amanda

Wandell from Arbor Housing come to speak about the Ambassador’s program. They were also

concerned about the eviction process which came up quite a bit. They identified the area that

they wanted to focus on, which is Tenant Responsibility.

As a result:

Tenants - Associations in the districts and/or neighborhood associations to identify neighborhood

conditions.

Landlord – Identifying Tenant Responsibility and working on how to work with tenants and their

properties. The ultimate would be to have a coalition of Code, Landlords, Tenants, DSS, NY

Law to work through the challenges of tenant challenges, housing conditions challenges, and

law.

SUMMARY OF 2019 SURVEY INFORMATION

There were 97 surveys returned by a variety of community members in Chemung and

Schuyler Counties. These surveys were filled out by community members, community agency

partners, program participants, and EOP Board Members. Three overarching findings are

evident. First, the need in our community continues to be great. Second, the Programs at EOP

are both highly regarded and relevant to the needs in our area. Third, there are areas where EOP

can be more intentional in investigating both need and response.

The rates of poverty reported as well as need for basic care in areas such as literacy,

heating, food and physical and dental health continue to be high. These unacceptable numbers

continue to motivate the staff at EOP to provide excellent care. To that end, the positive

responses to EOP programs are encouraging and validating. However, much work remains.

EOP has been able to provide effective child care, offer meaningful afterschool programs and

literacy programs, and partner with area agencies. Its ability to forecast the need for nutritional

sustenance has fueled the development of CFJP/Bistro Programs, the Back Pack Weekend

Program, and is informing development of future community projects. EOP job fairs, literacy

support, First Choice Program and partnership with communities such as Workforce New York

have addressed the need for job training and employment.

The areas of crime and alcohol/drug abuse were highly rated concerns. While EOP does

not provide programs that address these issues directly, it does work with community partners

whose mission is to provide recovery programs. However, inherent in the work of EOP is its

mission to ameliorate causes of both crime and drug abuse, namely poverty and the obstacles to

meeting one’s life’s goals including the belief that one can. Continuing to strengthen our

programs and collaborations with strong community partners, along with educational initiatives

such as Early Head Start, and community wellness and food programs, will ultimately strengthen

our community and increase capacity for resource coordination.

Trends captured in the 2021 Focus Group – Head Start Policy Council and Community

Partners, N=17

Question#1-Have any of you ever experienced any of the following housing insecurities issues; unfairly and unlawfully evicted?

Summary of Comments:

➢ Evicted for difficulties paying rent on time ➢ Forced to leave because City Code condemned the property ➢ Relocated voluntarily due to unhealthy and unsafe housing conditions ➢ Relocated voluntarily due to unsafe building or neighborhood ➢ Denied housing due to discrimination ➢ Denied housing due to criminal history/background ➢ Experienced temporary or long-term homelessness ➢ Wanted to buy a home, but was unable to access bank financing ➢ I have not personally experienced any of these housing challenges before

Parent #1 shared an experience of someone she knows that may be evicted December

31, 2020, that since COVID-19 has had some heart health complications and is in no way

able to move and had lost income due to this situation.

Question #2 -What has been your biggest challenge during COVID-19?

A grandparent shared that her house of two became a home to 6 and sometimes 7 people.

She is definitely loving having her loved ones close, and knowing that they are all safe

within her walls.

Parent #3 shared that not working and having to homeschool has been a huge struggle

and several others shared that they are also struggling with homeschooling children,

internet being sketchy, equipment school provides not working or not provided, and

difficulties trying to keep their children focused.

Parent #4 shared she is also struggling trying to keep after 3 kids on Zoom, and one has an

IEP. Keeping her child’s therapies as well as regular class.

Parent #5 shared that her youngest missed a whole week of school due to not having

enough staff in the classroom. She did not understand why this was an issue. EOP staff

explained that some of the staff have their own children at home, and have had to stay

home to work with their own children. But they are working on this and will keep us

updated. The parent also shared that she has been homeschooling her older children since

this all began, she admitted that it does help that her college degree is in education, and she

offered to help if anyone needed her. She did share that their biggest struggle since

COVID-19 was adopting her youngest daughter. But they did end up finally completing

the adoption over Zoom and they couldn’t be happier.

A community partner also shared about a family she knows that had a fire last night.

They are a family of 13 and she will get sizes needed to EOP staff and then will contribute

that information to all that asked for it.

Question #3- Have you ever wanted to contact Code Enforcement/City of Elmira about safety issues in your own rental unit but didn’t because you were afraid of retaliation by your landlord?

(No comments)

EOP staff asked if themselves or anyone they knew had any quarantine displacement. A

community partner shared that her niece had to move in with other family members while her

husband who had contacted COVID-19 was at home recovering to keep herself and her

children safe.

Question #4 -Have you ever utilized Legal Aid services, which are free to low-income and vulnerable tenants,for housing related concerns (example: code violations, potential eviction)?

A community partner shared that years ago she had utilized them when she had issues

with a landlord that she used to have. They helped her with that situation and also helped

her find safe housing.

Economic Opportunity Program, Inc. Annual Meeting, Board of Directors and

Stakeholder Virtual Polling- 2/23/21 -N=200

Trends captured in the 2021 EOP Virtual Surveys, N = 351

The session is the third of a 3-part series of education and communication webinars entitled, “COVID-19-Critical Conversations” in partnership with the Economic Opportunity Program, Inc. and underwritten by Excellus BCBS and Arnot Health.

We began sessions with an Opening and Greeting by the EOP CEO, sponsors and then the Keynote Speakers for example: Secretary of State Rosado provided the keynote lecture about COVID-19; its impact to the community; the vaccine options; efficacy; boosters; and herd

immunity. The CEO moderated a Q & A in the Chat box response. The bios of the two other panelists representing our sponsoring partners-Dr. Fitzpatrick-Excellus BCBS and Dr. NasticoArnot Heath-were included as well as community links and resources in the Virtual Gallery.

COVID-19 Summary:

Audience: New York State reach; national and global attendees; Business partners; medical and health administrators; doctors; corporate business leaders; human service leaders, and staff; and community members. Demographics-mostly female; ages 45-55.

4/26/2021 -

"COVID 19: Critical Conversations for the Community" - 75 live attendance and over 260 reached through recorded video on Facebook.

"The session was fantastic. Dr. Zama's directness and bold simplicity of uncomplicating high risk was worth having them (family) hear. I wasn't sure if I should invite family members and friends to yet another workshop (invited 3 so far) but I am glad I did especially for those in Brooklyn, NY. There is some fatigue in hearing the message and some have turned off their hearing aids to listen to either pro or against messages. Thank you for the session and I will not hesitate in the future."

5/19/2021 - "COVID 19: Mental and Behavioral Health" - approximately 150 live attendance and over 450 reached through recorded video on Facebook.

6/ 23/2021 - “COVID-19 and Beyond” - 126 attendees. With 66 on the Facebook Livestream, and 60 on Zoom. Specifically, we had more Likes, and a 3.5% higher viewing than the last webinar. Over 150 people have engaged with the webinar since posting; 3.0 x more average view time; and over 153 more people have watched the webinar since posting. A polling survey was conducted with the following data:

“We are all learning things that we never thought we would have to learn! Rossana Rosado said she never thought she would have to be an expert on vaccinations and infectious diseases!”

“This was a tremendously helpful session! Thank you all!”

“Absolutely enjoyed the Zoom call this morning. Very educational.”

“I enjoyed learning new things in the program today. It was very valuable!”

46% attended all three sessions, giving feedback

80% plan to attend future sessions and want the focus to be Public Health and/or COVID-19

related

For reference, below we included a few feedback comments from attendees; an article about the webinar, written by the local TV news station WENY:

https://www.weny.com/story/44165229/reaching-herd-immunity-in-the-community