The CoC will be transitioning from Homelink to our new (not-yet-named) system this month.
As part of this transition, please do not enter data or documents into Homelink after September 19. Entries made after Sept. 19 will NOT be transferred to the new system.
We will be active in the new system the first week of October and will schedule training that week and also later into October.
Community Solutions is partnering with t3 (who previously came to Western Mass to do training on trauma-informed care and motivational interviewing) to provide reduced-cost on-line trainings. These are critical skills for homeless casemangement and Housing First staff. Click here for the flyer, or see below.
The CoC Application Review Committee has completed its work. The FY2017 CoC application will include the following projects, at the listed funding amounts:
Tier 1
Tier 2
New projects this year are Gandara Shine RRH Expansion and Viability Next Step Holyoke.
The CoC Annual Meeting is coming up soon. Please reserve Sept, 22, 9-11 am.
More information will follow, but key items for this meeting include:
One of our Massachusetts colleagues recently asked HUD a question about Chronic and DedicatedPLUS beds. It appears that projects can combine both types of beds in a single project. See the Q & A below. I think the way this would be done is to select the project as DedicatedPLUS, but then also retain the dedicated Chronic designation for some units. In this case, the designated Chronic beds will be for housholds meeting the chronic definition, and the remaining beds will be for households meeting the slightly expanded definition for DedicatedPLUS.
Remember that the CoC will have further conversation about the DedicatedPLUS option after the August 28 competition deadline, and individual projects will be able to change the selected designation after that deadline.
HUD Q and A:
Question Text:
My question is about 3B-1.1 in the CoC Application (not the project application). That question requires us to report the total number of chronic dedicated and the total number of DedicatedPlus beds that appear in the submitted project applications. We have one project that will submit as DedicatedPlus, but it still has some portion of its beds as dedicated for chronic households. Therefore, I’m wondering if in Question 3B-1.1 in the CoC Application we should report all the beds in that project as DedicatedPlus, or separate out the ones that are dedicated to chronic households. For example, there are 100 beds. 75 of them are dedicated to chronic households currently. We are submitting the project as DedicatedPlus, but believe we can maintain the 75 beds as chronic dedicated (leaving 25 to function as DedicatedPlus). Do I report that there are 100 DedicatedPlus beds on Question 3B-1.1 or 25? Thank you.
Response:
Thank you for submitting your question.
DedicatedPLUS projects may still choose to dedicate some of their beds to those experiencing chronic homelessness, and in these cases HUD will expect that those beds serve individuals and families meeting HUD’s definition of chronic homelessness and be filled by another chronically homeless participant unless there are no chronically homeless persons located within the CoC’s geographic area. For example, if a new PSH project applies for 100 beds and chooses to dedicate 50 of those beds to individuals and families experiencing chronic homelessness, then HUD will expect that at any given time 50 of the beds be filled by someone who met HUD’s definition of chronic homelessness at project entry. The remaining 50 beds may be used to serve individuals and families meeting the criteria as outlined in Section III.A.3.d. of the FY 2017 CoC Program Competition NOFA. In the scenario described above 50 beds would be listed as Chronically Homeless dedicated beds and 50 as DedicatedPlus beds in 3B-1.1 as these numbers are mutually exclusive.
Additional questions were submitted after the Tuesday bidders’ conference. The document Questions and Answers #2 has these questions and the answers.
The CoC RFP bidders’ conference took place today. The attached Question and Answer document provides the questions asked prior to and in the bidders’ conference, with responses.
The CoC will continue to take written questions regarding the RFP until Wednesday, August 23, 2017 at 5:00 pm. Please submit questions in writing to gmccafferty@springfieldcityhall.com.
Additional guidance/information provided at the bidders’ conference:
The CoC Competition bidders’ conference will take place August 15, 2017, at 10 am at the Springfield Office of Housing, 1600 E. Columbus Ave., Springfield.
The initial RFP that was released had a typo in the time of the conference.
The CoC has released its Request for Proposals (RFP), seeking projects to include in its FY 2017 CoC Competition Application to HUD.
The RFP is available here: Hampden County CoC Competition FY2017.
The schedule for the competition is as follows:
August 2 Release RFP
August 15 Optional bidders’ conference
August 28 Deadline for submittal of complete applications
September 13 Ranking and selection decisions posted
September 25 Full CoC application posted on CoC website
September 28 CoC Application submitted to HUD
Any updates or corrections will be posted on this website. Applicants should subscribe to make sure that they receive any additional information.
The key agenda item for this Friday’s CoC meeting will be the upcoming HUD competition, in which the CoC is eligible to receive up to $3,619,553 in program funds, including at least $339,807 for new programs.
In this application, HUD will base our CoC’s score more than ever on our performance as a system, and all indications are that performance will count more and more each year. To remain competitive, the CoC will need to be strategic about how we allocate our funds.
I am providing the following documents to give us the background needed to consider performance and policy as we consider funding decisions. Please review before Friday’s meeting.
Springfield-Hampden County Continuum of Care 