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Partners In a Vision
$1 BILLION IN 2004 HOMELESS ASSISTANCE FUNDS AVAILABLE FROM HUD WITH
FOCUS ON CHRONIC HOMELESSNESS, PERMANENT HOUSING, AND PERFORMANCE OUTCOMES
Approximately $1 billion in McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance funds
became available with the May 14 publication of the annual Notice of
Funding Availability (NOFA) by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban
Development (HUD). Applications for new or renewal project funding are due
July 27, 2004. This e- newsletter highlights just a few of the key themes
and new developments in this year's funding competition. For more
information on other changes and requirements, see the 2004 NOFA. HUD will
host a free informational satellite webcast briefing on this NOFA on
Thursday, June 3, from 11 am - 1:30 pm Eastern. The larger HUD SUPERNOFA,
covering 50 programs and $2.3 billion, noted that HUD Secretary Alphonso
Jackson (pictured here at the April 1 Interagency Council meeting) has
"pledged that HUD's grant programs will be used to support the President's
goal and more adequately meet the need of chronically homeless persons."
Key themes of the NOFA include:
ENDING CHRONIC HOMELESSNESS. To help reach the Administration's goal of
ending chronic homelessness by 2012, HUD will award 10% of the 2004
appropriation to housing initiatives predominantly serving persons
experiencing chronic homelessness, including new or renewal transitional
or permanent housing. At least 70% of clients of these projects must
qualify as persons experiencing chronic homelessness prior to program
entrance. HUD requires that continuum applicants forward a "realistic
strategy" for ending chronic homelessness that is performance-based, goal
oriented, and include specific action steps. HUD requires applicants to
describe the coordination taking place between the continuum's 10-year
plan and the jurisdictionally-based 10-year plans to end chronic
homelessness of individual jurisdictions. HUD also requires documentation
of "working partnerships" in communities to develop and implement
prevention strategies and appropriate discharge planning policies and
protocols to help end chronic homelessness. Finally, continuums will need
to describe the changes in the number of chronically homeless persons
reported in last year's application versus the number reported in the 2004
application.
EXPANDING PERMANENT HOUSING. In addition to the Congressional
requirement that 30% of funds awarded must support permanent housing, HUD
has instituted a new approach to housing bonus funds, moving from $750,000
per continuum last year to a sliding scale bonus amount based on the
continuum's pro rata need figure. Two new bonus levels will be added based
on the pro rata need figure. For a continuum with a pro rata figure of $10
million or more, the 2004 bonus is $2 million. For a continuum with a pro
rata of $5 million or more and less than $10 million, the 2004 bonus is
$1.5 million. All other continuums receive a $750,000 potential bonus or
their pro rata, whichever is less.
RATING PROGRAM PERFORMANCE. A new 5-point scoring factor for renewal
programs requires reporting of outcomes achieved by funded programs. A
continuum must aggregate APR data reported in Exhibit 1 on the percentage
outcomes in ending chronic homelessness and helping homeless people reach
permanent housing. Outcomes must be reported for permanent housing
(housing retained for 6 months), transitional programs (permanent housing
placements achieved), and supportive services (mainstream programs
accessed and employment obtained).
Read more
about new developments in the NOFA
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2004 HUD SUPERNOFA EMPHASIZES FEDERAL INITIATIVES TO END
CHRONIC HOMELESSNESS |
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| The annual McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance
funding competition released May 14 by the U.S. Department of
Housing and Urban Development contains important new emphases on
federal initiatives to end chronic homelessness, including State
Interagency Councils on Homelessness and jurisdictionally endorsed
10-Year Plans to End Chronic Homelessness. In addition, the larger
HUD NOFA covering 50 programs and $2.3 billion encourages applicants
to create affordable group homes and rental units, establish housing
setasides for persons experiencing chronic homelessness, create
targeted substance abuse treatment opportunities, job training
programs, counselling services, and supportive services that support
self-sufficiency, and provide one-stop assistance centers or service
coordinators to ensure chronically homeless people have access to
needed services.
STATE INTERAGENCY COUNCILS ON HOMELESSNESS. To date, 46 Governors
of the states and territories have taken steps to establish State
Interagency Councils on Homelessness to provide state planning and
coordination to end homelessness. This year's NOFA underscores the
critical importance of continuum planning groups linking their
efforts to new jurisdictionally driven initiatives. The NOFA states
that "Coordination with state and local 10-year plans to end chronic
homelessness and Interagency Councils on Homelessness is also
crucial to developing an inclusive CoC system." Broad state
partnerships for state planning typically include representatives of
the Governor's office, state agency secretariats and commissioners,
and legislators. State agency representation includes housing and
housing finance, substance abuse & mental health, veterans
affairs, budget, Social Security/disability determinations, managed
care entity, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, state and
county corrections/ public safety/juvenile justice, education,
labor/employment services, welfare, Medicaid, children and
families/youth services, transportation, health and human services,
and homeless services.
10-YEAR PLANS TO END CHRONIC HOMELESSNESS. Over 115 mayors and
county executives have initiated 10-Year Plans to End Chronic
Homelessness. With the addition of new funding setasides for
projects serving persons experiencing chronic homelessness, the NOFA
explicitly encourages continuum planning groups "to work closely
with appropriate state and local governments or Interagency Councils
on Homelessness that may be establishing their own ten-year plans
for eliminating chronic homelessness." Ten year
jurisdictionally-based processes are expansive and inclusive
including continuums, and are encouraged to ensure the presence of
mayors and county executives, local government agency and department
heads, business and civic leaders, police and local law enforcement
officials, housing developers, homeless programs, veteran serving
organizations, mainstream service providers, individuals
experiencing chronic homelessness, non-profits, philanthropy and
foundations, faith-based organizations, banks, academia, education,
and research institutions, downtown associations, the United Way,
the Chamber of Commerce, hospitals and health care providers, and
transportation authorities.
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INNOVATIVE INITIATIVES: SAMHSA UNVEILS $45 MILLION IN
SUBSTANCE ABUSE PREVENTION RESOURCES |
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 WITH THIS ISSUE, the e-newsletter
continues its focus on innovative initiatives to end chronic
homelessness. This week the e-newsletter focuses on a new $45
million substance abuse prevention resource now available to states
through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).
SAMHSA's April 29 announcement of the Strategic Prevention Framework
State Incentive Grants (SPF SIG) will make approximately $45 million
available to fund up to 20 awards in FY 04. Annual awards are
expected to be $3 million or less per year, for up to 5 years.
Eligibility is limited to the office of the Governor in those States
and Territories that currently receive the federal Substance Abuse
Prevention and Treatment (SAPT) Block Grant. Based on the
President's budget request for FY 2005, SAMHSA expects to have
additional funds available for a small number of new awards in 2005.
Applications are due on July 2, 2004. The prevention grants are
part of HHS' HealthierUS. ". . .an aggressive plan to improve
overall public health by capitalizing on the power of prevention.
The Strategic Prevention Framework is aligned with President Bush's
and Secretary Tommy G. Thompson's HealthierUS initiative," according
to SAMHSA Administrator Charles Curie, ". . .The Strategic
Prevention Framework has the potential to bring together multiple
funding streams from multiple sources to create the true
cross-program and cross-system approach that health promotion and
disease prevention demand." Curie also pointed out that the state
prevention awards can work in concert with the 100,000 new Access to
Treatment vouchers for substance abuse treatment also available
competitively to Governors. SAMHSA's new Strategic Prevention
Framework Process requires both the development of a Strategic Plan
and the use of evidence based programs, policies, and strategies.
HHS Secretary and Past Interagency Council Chair Tommy Thompson is
pictured above (third from left) at the April 1 Council meeting.
"To the credit of SAMHSA's Charles Curie and his staff, the
combination of this Strategic Prevention Framework with the Access
to Treatment vouchers creates a prevention/intervention strategy
that will work in states in league with efforts to prevent and end
chronic homelessness," observed Council Executive Director Philip
Mangano. Recognizing that "prevention is an ordered set of steps" to
prevent the onset of disease, co-morbidity, relapse, and disability
for individuals, families, and communities, the new funding effort
is seeking to structure systems of prevention services, recognizing
that these systems "work better than service silos." Among other
activities, grantees must conduct a statewide needs assessment;
establish and maintain a State Epidemiological Workgroup; develop a
statewide Strategic Plan on prevention; conduct on-going monitoring
and oversight; conduct a state-level evaluation; and provide
training and technical assistance.
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NEW COSPONSOR FOR SAMARITAN INITIATIVE |
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 The most recent cosponsor of the
Samaritan Initiative legislation, H.R. 4057, is Representative Judy
Biggert (R- IL). Representative Biggert, representing the western
suburbs of Chicago, sits on the Education and the Workforce and
Financial Services Committees. She has been active on issues of
domestic violence. In depth profiles of all House supporters of H.R.
4057 are available on the Interagency Council's web site,
http://www.ich.gov. The House members are Republican and Democrat,
representing big cities and rural communities, from all regions of
the country.
H.R. 4057, the Samaritan Initiative legislation, was introduced
on March 30 by Congressman Rick Renzi of Arizona with bipartisan
support. The introduction of the bill is the first step in the
legislative process to bring to fruition the Samaritan Initiative
proposal outlined in the Administration's FY 05 budget to provide
new federal housing and supportive services resources specifically
targeted to the goal of ending chronic homelessness in ten years.
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DID YOU KNOW. . . |
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| . . .last year's record $1.27 billion in
McKinney-Vento funding supported 3,700 local programs in all 50
states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands
and Guam. . .2,379 projects targeted or exclusively served persons
experiencing chronic homelessness received funds, thus helping
forward the Administration's goal of ending chronic homelessness by
2012 . . .414 continuum planning groups received awards,
representing 84% of those who requested funds . . .2003 renewals
made up 68% of funds awarded, and housing activities made up 53% . .
.over 600 grants (totaling $168 million) went to faith-based
organizations - a record award level in the 16-year history of the
McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act. . .2003 awardees were
projected to serve over 700,000 people, with over 2,000 projects
targeting homeless veterans receiving awards
. . .that Massachusetts is now pursuing a "rapid re- housing"
strategy for homeless families, according to Lt. Governor Healey,
Chair of the Massachusetts Interagency Council on Homelessness and
Housing, who described the Commonwealth's new effort to move from a
"shelter first" to a "housing first" model to provide improved
emotional, physical, and spiritual health for families experiencing
homelessness, as well as significant fiscal savings to the state.
The savings from keeping a family out of traditional crisis housing
can be applied to needed supportive services for the family to help
them re-gain independence.
. . .that Minnesota's Business Plan to End Long-term Homeless
calls for the creation of 4,000 supportive housing units by 2010,
using a multi-disciplinary, multi- sector and multi-jurisdictional
strategy to address long- term homelessness. The Plan also calls for
concentrating on the provision of services that are proven to help
people retain their housing.
Read more about the 2003
McKinney-Vento awards »
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FEDERAL PARTNER PROFILE: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF
EDUCATION |
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 WITH THIS ISSUE of the
e-newsletter we continue our focus on the federal partners in the
Interagency Council with a profile of the U.S. Department of
Education. According to the Department of Education, homeless
children and youth are one of the fastest- growing segments of the
homeless population, with states reporting that the number of
homeless children and youth has increased approximately 10 percent
nationally (to over 930,000) between calendar years 1997 and 2000.
Two-thirds of these children and youth are in the age range served
by pre-kindergarten through grade 6. Approximately 87% of school-age
homeless children and youth are enrolled in school, although only
about 7% attend school regularly, and only 15% of homeless
preschool-aged children are enrolled in preschool programs.
The Department of Education awards McKinney-Vento Homeless
Children and Youths grants to State Educational Agencies (SEAs) to
remove barriers to the enrollment, attendance, and school success
for homeless children and youth. The program supports an Office for
Coordination of Education of Homeless Children and Youths in each
state, which gathers data on homeless children and youths and the
impediments to their regular attendance at school. Each state is
required to have a State Coordinator responsible for identifying
homeless children and youth, assessing special needs, facilitating
coordination between State and local educational agencies, and
coordinating with other agencies. States also must develop and
implement professional development programs to expand the ability of
school personnel to respond to issues relating to the education of
homeless children. Department of Education Secretary Rod Paige is
shown here at the April 1 Council meeting at the White House,
discussing his agency's initiatives.
Recent activities include supporting evaluation design measuring
student and program performance indicators of success for homeless
students in local schools and supporting the development and
dissemination of a State Coordinator's handbook. "No Child Left
Behind" required each of the nation's almost 15,000 school districts
to designate a local educational agency liaison for homeless
children and youth, and a toolkit has been developed to provide
resources to improve program activities to meet the educational
needs of homeless students. Recent publications include The
Education for Homeless Children and Youths Program: Learning to
Succeed -- describing state and local efforts to serve the
educational needs of homeless children and youth and overcome
barriers, and Education for Homeless Children and Youths Program
Report to Congress Fiscal Year 2000, based on data from the States'
most recent reports to the Department.
Read
more about Education for Homeless Children and Youths »
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REGIONAL COORDINATOR PROFILE: DARYL HERNANDEZ, REGION
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 WITH THIS ISSUE, the e-newsletter
continues its profiles of the Council's Regional Coordinators, with
a focus this week on Daryl Hernandez, Region V Coordinator serving
Minnesota, Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana and Ohio. Through
partnership with the Department of Housing and Urban Development,
the Council has Regional Coordinators in the ten federal regions.
Region V's Regional Interagency Council meets quarterly to promote
the development of city and state 10-Year Plans to End Chronic
Homelessness. Five of the six states in the region have active State
Interagency Councils. Four cities in the Region, Chicago,
Indianapolis, Columbus/Franklin County and Urbana-Champaign have
completed 10-Year Plans (see http://www.ich.gov/slocal/index.html).
"Our regional stakeholders in many cities and counties across the
region have taken it upon themselves to lead this effort of 10-year
planning and creating a better community for all. As we move toward
realizing our goal of ending chronic homelessness here in Region V,
I feel strongly that we will serve to lead and truly make a
difference in the lives of our most in need homeless individuals and
families," observed Hernandez. Region V includes Indianapolis, where
Mayor Bart Peterson endorsed the "Blueprint to End Homelessness" in
2002, as well as Chicago, where Mayor Richard Daley backed the "Plan
to End Homelessness." The region also includes Minnesota, where
Governor Tim Pawlenty recently announced a "Business Plan to End
Long-Term Homelessness in Minnesota by 2010", and Michigan, which
will host the Michigan State Policy Leadership Strategic Planning
Process in June.
Daryl Hernandez joined the U.S. Interagency Council on
Homelessness from the Department of Housing and Urban Development's
Rocky Mountain Regional Office in Denver, where he started work in
2000. He was responsible for coordinating all statewide housing,
fair housing, faith based, economic development, community
development, homeless, and job training programs and services. Prior
to that, he worked for the U.S. Departments of Commerce, Bureau of
the Census, Labor, and Justice in community relations and
partnership capacities, as well as with city and state government in
Colorado and the private sector. He has a B.S. in management from
the University of Southern California and an M.B.A. from Regis
University in Denver.
Read more about the
Council's Regional Coordinators »
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FEDERAL PROPERTY: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE WEED & SEED
PROGRAM |
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| WITH THIS ISSUE, the e-newsletter continues its
focus on federal property and opportunities to secure resources for
homeless programs. Housed within the U.S. Department of Justice's
(DOJ) Office of Justice Programs' newly formed Community Capacity
Development Office and under the local leadership of the U.S.
Attorney, the Weed & Seed program is innovative and
comprehensive: a multi-agency federal, state, and local law
enforcement and community investment initiative. It is an approach
to law enforcement, crime prevention, and community revitalization
aimed at preventing violent crime, drug abuse, and gang activity in
targeted neighborhoods. "Weeding" engages local and federal law
enforcement and the courts to "weed out" criminals promulgating
violence in the area and prevent the return of those activities.
"Seeding" brings needed human services, focusing on intervention,
prevention, and neighborhood revitalization including a human
services as well as economic development to strengthen legitimate
community institutions and discourage crime.
Many Weed & Seed sites address community housing needs,
including the needs of people who are homeless, in their strategy.
Through the Weed & Seed process, seized properties may become
available for redevelopment by Weed & Seed partners. Some sites
have partnered with local service agencies to leverage Weed &
Seed funding to renovate local abandoned buildings. This type of
renovation not only benefits the people served in the resulting
housing or programs, but also contributes to the revitalization of
the entire neighborhood by contributing to pride and feelings of
ownership on the part of the residents. DOJ also emphasizes both
local and national evaluation of the program to ensure that the
strategy is working.
There are currently over 300 officially recognized Weed &
Seed sites across the country, with an average of 30 more added each
year. Sites interested in eligibility to receive discretionary
funding from participating federal agencies and DOJ Weed & Seed
funds, and participate in federal training and technical assistance
and conferences must first be officially recognized. The recognition
process involves establishing a local Steering Committee comprised
of a range of stakeholders. A liaison from the local U.S. Attorney's
office must also be involved and often chairs the Steering
Committee, working to convene a core group of community officials in
a working committee that assists the site in the planning process.
To find out if there are recognized sites in your area or to find
out more about initiating a Weed & Seed site, visit the Weed
& Seed website.
Read more about Weed &
Seed »
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