Springfield-Hampden County Continuum of Care

Come learn about Homelink, our data-sharing system for collaborating to provide housing and services to chronically homeless individuals. We’ll have the system live for demonstration, and talk about how community partners can use it to coordinate services.

Date: Friday, Nov. 4, 2016

Time: 9:30 – 10:30 am

Location: Springfield Municipal Operations Center, 70 Tapley St., Springfield

Homelink is our community’s shared database of chronically homeless individuals in Hampden County. We are able to use this database to share information by a group of homeless service providers because individuals sign a release of information form allowing the named organizations to share information.

Agencies that are not listed on the release of information cannot access full information, but they can still participate in a more limited way. Referring agencies can input new individuals, and can check to see if a particular person is on the list. If someone is on the list, the system will show name and contact information for the primary caseworker in the community working with the individual.

We’ve talked about this in REACH meetings, and I have just had this question come up, which made me go look for the HUD guidance.

In case you ever need it, here is the HUD Frequently Asked Question that makes clear that a person who is chronically homeless maintains the chronic status during the time they are receiving rapid rehousing assistance:

Is an individual or family that is receiving Rapid Re-Housing Assistance considered chronically homeless for purposes of remaining eligible for permanent housing placements dedicated to serving the chronically homeless?

 

OK, friends…

If you were with us in Tulsa two weeks ago, you know that some major insights surfaced there. As I’ve reflected on our time together, there are three important issues I want to follow up on:

1. You may be misunderstanding the VI-SPDAT, or worse, misusing it. If you’re using the tool in a standalone capacity or making local housing decisions solely based on VI-SPDAT score, I wrote this short blog post for you. Please read it, then save the date on November 9th at 3pm ET for a webinar on using the VI-SPDAT to support prioritization with your by-name list.
2. We need a deeper conversation about race and equity in our sector, and we need to make sure our work to end homelessness is acknowledging and combatting racism, not perpetuating it. Get started by watching this excellent panel discussion from Tulsa, featuring Marc Dones and Jeff Olivet from the Center for Social Innovation.
3. I cannot emphasize it enough: the key to ending homelessness is realtime, by-name data. (The Jacksonville team’s by-name list case conferencing workshop may have been the best conference session I’ve ever seen…) If you still don’t have a quality by-name list, please use our veterans and chronic by-name list scorecards to help you identify the right path to improvement.

That’s it from me this week. Good luck in your collaboratives, and thanks for the hard work you are doing to solve an old and very complex problem.

Onward,

Beth

The Springfield-Hampden County CoC presented its Annual Report today.

 

The Springfield-Hampden County CoC has released its draft FY2016 Application for public comment. There are two parts to the application, each of which may be viewed by clicking on the link:

• FY2016 CoC Application
• FY2016 CoC Priority List

The public may comment on the application in writing, by sending an email to Gerry McCafferty, or in person by attending the CoC Annual Meeting. The Annual Meeting will take place Friday, September 9, 2016, at UMass-Springfield, Room 004, Tower Square, 1500 Main Street, Springfield.

The Springfield-Hampden County CoC will vote to approve (or require amendments) to the application at the Annual Meeting, so written comments should be submitted prior to the meeting in order to be considered by the full CoC.

Please join us!

The Springfield-Hampden County CoC Annual Meeting and Board of Directors Meeting will take place Friday, September 9, 9 – 11 am, at the UMass Center Springfield, located at Tower Square, 1500 Main Street, 2nd floor, Springfield.

Agenda items include:

• Annual report
• Vote on Board of Directors
• Review of CoC Governance Charter
• Vote to approve FY2016 Application

A full agenda, with all materials for review will be made available early next week.

The CoC Annual meeting is for all CoC members and is open to the public. The CoC welcomes new members. If you are interested in being a part of the CoC, please come to the Annual Meeting or contact Gerry McCafferty.

The Springfield-Hampden County Continuum of Care Scoring and Ranking Committee met this morning and completed its review of all renewal and newly-submitted projects. As a reminder, the Committee follows the scoring and ranking guidelines set out in the CoC Application Selection and Ranking Process 2016 guidance approved by the Board of Directors at its July 15, 2016 meeting. The completed 2016 Program Scoresheet shows the scores for each project, as well as the individual item scores that add up to the total.

The projects that will be included in the FY2016 competition and the rank order and tier for each project are as follows:

1. HMIS
2. Catholic Charities RRH
3. Catholic Charities RRH 2
4. Catholic Charities RRH 3
5. FOH Coordinated Assessment
6. Gandara SHINE RRH
7. HAP RRH
8. HRU Next Step 2
9. MHA Annie’s House
10. VOC Scattered Site Family Support
11. HRU Next Step
12. Open Pantry Tranquility House
13. RVCC HIV/AIDS Residential Support
14. MHA S+C SRA 48
15. RVCC HIV/AIDS S+C TRA 5
16. MHA S+C SRA 13
17. RVCC HIV/AIDS S+C TRA 7
18. FOH Worthington House Campus
19. MHA S+C Recovery
20. FOH PSH
21. CHD Project Performance
22. HAP Turning Point
23. SMOC Bowdoin Street
24. Gandara SHINE Program

Projects 1 through 20 and part of project 21 are placed in Tier 1. The remaining projects are in Tier 2.

 

 

 

The Springfield community has a monthly meeting regarding unsheltered chronically homeless individuals. The meeting brings together police, hospital staff, the crisis team, outreach workers, homeless service providers, the Department of Mental Health and others to coordinate efforts.

This month, there are a few speakers which may be of interest to housing navigation and housing support workers. Please feel free to join if you are interested. The agenda includes:

1. Dr. Rob Roose, Providence Health: Accessing detox for unsheltered individuals, the role of medication-assisted treatment for opiate-addicted homeless individuals
2. Julie Schwager, CHD: Community-Based Flexible Supports, CHD Day Treatment Programs
3. Monique Loizzo, DMH: Referrals and eligibility for DMH

The meeting takes place this Thursday, August 18, noon to 1:30 pm, at Mercy Medical Center, Memorial House auditorium. Lunch is provided.

Leasing/Rental Assistance

1. Q: The rents in this project are categorized as leasing instead of rental assistance—what does that mean? A: With leasing assistance, the program sponsor rents units and enters into a sub-lease or occupancy agreement with program participants. The program sponsor, as the leasing entity, pays full monthly rent to the landlord. The program sponsor separately collects any rents from program participants. (With rental assistance, program participants pay their share of rent directly to the landlord, and the program sponsor pays only its portion of the rent to the landlord.) With leasing assistance, the program sponsor pays for a vacant unit according to the terms of its lease; in contrast, with rental assistance, the program sponsor is limited to how long it can pay for a vacant unit by the CoC Interim Rule. Leasing and rental assistance are treated differently with regard to match requirements for the grants. All project sponsors must provide match of 25% of all grant amounts—except leasing. There is no match requirement for Leasing costs.

2. Q: Can this project be changed from a leasing project to a rental assistance project? A: Probably not. Following implementation of CoC Program regulations under the HEARTH Act, CoC Programs had a one-time opportunity to change projects using Leasing funds to a project using Rental Assistance funds. This project did not change at that time. While a new program sponsor could make a request for the change based on the fact that a new program sponsor will be administering the program, there is no indication as to whether HUD will consider this to be adequate justification for this change.

Budget

3. Q: The RFP includes a program budget. Can this be changed? A: At this time, when all CoC grants are being submitted to HUD for renewal, budget amounts across categories—Leasing, Rental Assistance, Supportive Services, Operating Costs, and Administration—must be the same as what is on a Grant Inventory Worksheet (GIW) prepared by HUD. The amounts on the GIW are what has been provided in the RFP, and cannot be changed. A successful applicant can allocate money within budget categories to any allowable program costs. During the period between HUD competitions, a program sponsor may request budget changes that result in moving funds from one category to another. A request for this type of change must be approved by HUD.

Contact with Current Program

4. Q: Can we contact the current operator and/or the landlord currently leasing the units to the program? A: Yes. The current operator is Martin Luther King, Jr. Family Services – contact Exective Director Ronn Johnson, rjohnson@mlkjrfamilyservices.com or Project Director Pamela Jumba, pjumba@mlkjrfamilyservices.org; phone (413) 746-3655. The landlord for the majority of units is Home City Housing, Contact Jodi Smith, jsmith@hmrproperties.com, 413-785-5312, ext. 113.

Furniture

5. Q: Are the units furnished and will the furniture remain in the units? A: The units are not furnished; participants are responsible for their own furniture.

Utilities

6. Q: In the existing leasing contracts, are utilities included in the rent? A: Utilities are included in the rent for one unit; utilities are not included for the other seven units.

Transfer of Case Management Notes

7. Q: Will the agency that takes over this project be provided with access to existing case manager notes (as long as program participants authorize release of the notes)? A: Yes, if releases are signed, case notes that have been entered in ETO (HMIS) will be turned over.

Participant Rents Counted as Match

8. Q: Can the project sponsor count rents paid by program participants as contributing to the required program match? A: Yes. On April 21, 2006, HUD released guidance (https://www.hudexchange.info/news/new-changes-to-hud-coc-and-esg-program-implementation) which makes clear that program income (including participant rents) can count as match for grants awarded in the FY15 or FY16 competitions.

Initial and Renewal Contract – Term, Funding, Match

9. Q: Will the contract term be 9/1/16 – 4/30/17? If so, is the “total available funding” of $137,872 meant to represent only the 8 months of operation from September through the end of April (i.e., the contract awarded the initial provider was actually $206,808)? I believe the $137,872 is meant to representtwelve months of operations because ($924 x 3 units x 12 months) + ($1,154 x 5 units x 12 months) =  $102,504, which is not equal to $102,463, but is closer to that amount than to $68,336, which would be leasing costs for 8 months at those FMRs. A: The “total available funding” of $137,872 is the total annual amount available for the program.  The initial contract period is a partial year period of 8 months. The amount available for the 8-month period is $91,914.

10. Q: If the term is 9/1/16-4/30/17, is the match requirement 25% of the pro-rated eight-month non-leasing costs, (assuming that the budget embedded in the RFP represents the full twelve month budget) or would the provider be expected to match at $9,992 regardless of the fact that the provider would only be in operation 8 months prior to renewal? In fact, if the match requirement is for 25% of non-leasing costs, $9,992 seems high even for the full twelve-month contract. 25% of the non-leasing costs detailed in the RFP would be $8,852.25. Does the match requirement letter need to reflect $9,992; $8,852.25; or a smaller amount to account for the fact that the provider would only be in operation for 8 months? A: The annual required match amount is $9,992. The amount of match that will e required for the initial 8-month period is $6,661.

11. Q: If the term is only eight months, would the total funding awarded (and each associated item – rental assistance, supportive services, indirect) be less than $137,872? If so, what would be the exact amount? A: The total 8-month initial term grant amount is $91,914. The amounts for each budget item for the 8-month period are: Leasing $68,308; Case Manager $20,566; Administration $3,040.

Expansion of Program Beyond 8 Units

12. Q: Would this contract, if renewed, permit the provider to apply “savings” (i.e., difference between FMR and actual rent invoiced to CoC) to additional units so long as the contracted units were performing satisfactorily? A: When a program receives funds for Leasing, the program must serve the number of households committed to in the application. It cannot serve more than this number, unless the Leasing line is converted to Rental Assistance. As stated in the answer to question 2, it is unlikely that HUD will permit a change from Leasing to Rental Assistance.