DENVER, COLORADO. Colorado Governor Bill Ritter this week signed a new Executive Order expanding and strengthening the state's newly re-named Colorado Community and Interagency Council on Homelessness. United States Interagency Council on Homelessness Executive Director Philip Mangano met with Governor Ritter at the State Capitol in Denver last month, and, during their conversation, the Governor committed to reinvigorate the State's Council. Governor Ritter appeared this week at the 20th annual statewide conference of the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless to sign the Council's new Executive Order.

"Homelessness isn't about not having a roof over your head," Governor Ritter told attendees. "It tears at the fabric of family. It provides fertile ground for crime and health problems. And it leaves physical and mental health scars on far too many of our children."

Colorado Coalition President John Parvensky, who introduced Governor Ritter at the conference, noted that the state now has its first baseline census figures available from which to build new strategies. He reported on the success of the Denver Housing First Collaborative, one of the 11 federally funded sites under the landmark $55 million HUD-HHS-VA Collaborative Initiative to Help End Chronic Homelessness, coordinated by the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness. The Denver initiative housed 170 chronically homeless persons with an average of 8 years of homelessness per person; 77 percent remain successfully housed. A 73 percent reduction in emergency costs has been documented for those housed, including a $31,000 per person reduction in costs including detox, incarceration, emergency care, and shelter.

Director Mangano, affirming the Governor's execution of the new Order, noted: "Governor Ritter, as have other new Governors across our country, has recommitted his State to the National Partnership constellated by the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness to ensure that every level of government is partnered to end chronic homelessness." Director Mangano stressed that an active State Council is central to relationships with local communities, especially those communities in Colorado that are moving forward with 10-Year Plans, as well as with Federal agencies.

The new Executive Order comes just after Governor Ritter signed an important expansion of Medicaid for the state, extending coverage until age 21 for foster children, who have been "left adrift" after leaving the system, he said. The law means about 1,400 young adults leaving foster care now are eligible for Medicaid. The former cutoff was age 18. The Governor signed Senate Bill 2 at Denver Health Medical Center last week.

In his remarks to the Colorado Coalition, Governor Ritter, referencing his own experiences as a District Attorney and Catholic lay missionary, noted that he personally experienced the broad diversity of stories of people in crisis and suffering. Starting with his January 2007 State of the State address, the Governor has also focused attention on the issue of prison recidivism, pointing out that the state has a 50 percent prison recidivism rate within 3 years of release. The Governor has committed to examine this issue and prioritized development of programs that allow inmates to re-enter society successfully. He has directed the Departments of Public Safety and Corrections to examine how to control prison costs by making recidivism-reduction a top priority of the two departments, including an emphasis on improvements to mental health services for people in jail and prison.

The Executive Order includes a new Statement of Purpose, which notes: "For a caring community, homelessness creates both moral challenges and significant economic burdens, as people who lack permanent shelter and the ability to access regular support ricochet through separate but always expensive public and charitable systems - law enforcement, hospital emergency rooms, mental health programs, substance abuse treatment programs, shelters, and emergency housing . . . Colorado needs a smarter, more humane, more effective approach to the issues of homelessness. At the very least, it needs to work on assuring that public resources and public programs and public efforts work together to confront, and to the extent possible, end homelessness . . . The purpose of this Executive Order is to declare that we must give priority to developing consolidated, coordinated, cooperative approaches to the issues of homelessness."

The Governor's Order sets a goal of making "cross- agency and community cooperation the norm in responding to homelessness and to use a more efficient and supportive approach in creating and implementing evidence-based plans to address homelessness," as well as streamlining funding to leverage existing resources more effectively, facilitating "tighter partnerships and linkages" among service providers, assembling accurate data upon which strategies and policies should be based and against which outcomes can be measured, and identifying best practices from other states in combating homelessness.

A significant aspect of the expanded Order is expansion and evolution of the State Council's membership, which will include leadership of key State agencies such as the Departments of Human Services, Corrections, Health Care Policy and Financing, Education, Local Affairs, and Agriculture, and two members each from the Colorado House of Representatives and Colorado Senate, along with three representatives of county Departments of Social Services, one each representing metropolitan Denver, other urban areas of the state and rural counties, all appointed by the Governor. Three representatives of non-profit providers or faith-based communities involved in housing or services to the homeless, two representatives of the philanthropic community active in homelessness issues, one homeless or formerly homeless individual, one representative of the Governor's Office of Policy and Initiatives, and one representative from the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, will also serve. Council Regional Coordinator Charlene Flaherty also attended the event. Governor Ritter is pictured here in a photo provided by the Colorado Coalition.

WASHINGTON, DC. Jurisdictional partners from states, cities, and counties will have a new opportunity to learn best practices in the innovative engagement technology of National Project Homeless Connect when the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness convenes the inaugural National Project Homeless Connect Best Practices Institute in Washington, DC on July 11. The Institute will provide firsthand expertise from partners across the country to all communities newly interested in establishing or improving their welcome to their homeless neighbors through their Project Homeless Connect events.

The Institute will include the presentation by the Council of its new PHC Toolkit and presentations by city experts from experienced Project Homeless Connect cities, who will present on best practices and strategies in hospitality, immediacy of results, and partnership.

Council Director Philip Mangano, in announcing the Institute, noted, "National Project Homeless Connect can support initiatives at the local level to achieve the goals of jurisdictional 10-Year Plans and to engage persons experiencing homelessness through Project Homeless Connect events that move them to a trajectory towards greater stability. " The Council is especially focused on the role of innovation in achieving results and is proud to point to the innovative success in our mission achieved by the technology of Project Homeless Connect, the one-day, one-stop engagement event pioneered in San Francisco.

At the Institute, the Council will orient interested cities to the Council's new strategy for incorporating these best practices in local Project Connect events. This year, the Council has invited several city experts to convene an "expert panel" to support cities in using best practices in their events. The panel will interact with proposed events to offer the opportunity to become an "official" National Project Homeless Connect event for 2007, providing increased access to technical assistance and support for their events.

Space is limited for the Institute, and jurisdictional representatives must pre-register to attend. Priority will be given to jurisdictional representatives from cities and counties seeking to establish Project Homeless Connect in their communities. To indicate your interest in the Institute, please send an email to the Council at: nphc@usich.gov

The Institute has been planned to offer the best level of support to partners in preparation for the Council's 2007 national events in October and December. In October the Council will coordinate its efforts to the United Way Days of Caring events, and in December, the Council will conduct the Council's third annual National Project Homeless Connect event during the week of December 3- 7, 2007.

WASHINGTON, DC. The United States Department of Justice currently has several funding competitions underway that provide resources for communities to undertake both prevention and intervention activities related to juvenile justice and reentry issues, as well as support for special problem- solving courts. Read the complete announcements for full details.

$3.6 million is available under the Edward Byrne Memorial Discretionary Grants Program. Applicants include national, regional, state, or local public and private entities, including for-profit (commercial) and nonprofit organizations, faith and community-based organizations, institutions of higher education, tribal jurisdictions, and units of local government. Funding categories, which each have their own dollar target, include Targeting Violence Crime, Preventing Crime and Drug Abuse, Enhancing Local law Enforcement, and Facilitating Justice Information Sharing.

Of special interest to 10-Year Plan partners would be the categories Enhancing Local Courts, which includes priorities for court problem-solving efforts such as mental health courts, and Enhancing Local Corrections and Offender Reentry, which includes priorities for improving the effectiveness of offender reentry, and efforts to improve the efficiency of institutional and community corrections.

Funding is available from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention for Prevention and Intervention Programs to foster innovations and advancements in juvenile justice and child protection- related practice at the community level. The goal of this program is to demonstrate the practical implications for policy and practice of programs that enhance juvenile justice, child protection, and delinquency prevention. OJJDP is interested in programs that focus on reducing risk factors and enhancing protective factors to prevent youth from becoming victims or from entering the juvenile justice system. OJJDP will give special consideration to intermediary organizations that provide mini grants to encourage community organizations, including faith- based organizations, to support juvenile delinquency prevention and/or intervention efforts.

OJJDP's High-Risk Youth Offender Reentry and Family Strengthening Initiative is designed to support innovations and enhancements of juvenile justice related practice at the local, state and tribal government levels as authorized by the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act of 2002. Under this initiative, OJJDP will fund (1) high risk youth offender reentry strategies and programs designed to promote collaboration among Departments of Juvenile Corrections, faith-based and community- based organizations and providers committed to providing opportunities, resources and services for youth offenders who are returning to their families and communities, school systems, and/or workforce environments, following a period of confinement in a juvenile residential facility, and (2) family strengthening strategies and programs that focus on improving family economic success, family support systems, and building thriving and nurturing communities in which healthy families can purse long- term goals. OJJDP will give priority to family strengthening programs that focus on strengthening the families of youth at risk of becoming involved in the juvenile justice system. OJJDP is particularly interested in programs or strategies that address family strengths and needs in an integrated, comprehensive, community-wide approach that focuses on change, not only at the individual level, but also at the family and community levels.

OJJDP's Substance Abuse Prevention and Intervention Programs seeks to foster innovations and advancements in juvenile justice and child protection- related practice at the local, state, and tribal government levels. The goal of this program is to demonstrate the practical implications for policy and practice of substance abuse programs or strategies that enhance juvenile justice, child protection, and delinquency prevention. Under this program, OJJDP will fund substance abuse programs or strategies that focus on prevention and/or intervention. OJJDP is particularly interested in programs or strategies that address substance abuse problems in an integrated, comprehensive, community-wide approach that focuses on change not only at the individual level, but also at the family and community levels.

WASHINGTON, DC. United States Department of Health and Human Services Secretary and United States Interagency Council on Homelessness Chair Michael Leavitt this week announced that Alabama is the first state to receive federal approval to allow self- directed personal assistance services (PAS) as a feature of its Medicaid plan, eliminating the need for repeated requests for time-limited section 1115 demonstration programs or section 1915(c) waiver programs.

"Alabama is the first to benefit from the federal law giving states an easier way to deliver better care by allowing Medicaid beneficiaries to have more control over the care they receive," Secretary Leavitt said. "When beneficiaries direct their own care, we have found, there are fewer unnecessary institutional placements, higher levels of beneficiary satisfaction, fewer unmet needs, less worker turnover and an efficient use of community services and supports."

Under section 6087 of the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 (DRA), states may now offer Medicaid beneficiaries the opportunity to direct their own personal care services as a feature of their state programs. States still must seek federal approval to offer this state plan option, but once a state plan amendment has been approved by HHS, no further permission for this added benefit is required. Also, states must provide necessary safeguards to protect the health and welfare of participants who choose to direct their own care. States must ensure that participants have the necessary information, counseling, training and assistance to enable them to successfully manage their own care.

Alabama's new benefit will permit participants to direct their personal care, homemaker, unskilled respite and companion services. Alabama will allow participants to hire legally liable relatives to provide care and to use their service budgets to pay for items that increase their independence or substitute for human assistance. The state will also permit participants to receive some cash so that goods and services can be purchased directly.

"A number of states have already expressed interest in following Alabama's lead in taking advantage of this DRA provision permitting people to have more control over the services they receive," said Leslie Norwalk, acting administrator of Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), the federal agency that regulates the Medicare, Medicaid and State Children's Health Insurance Program.

WASHINGTON, DC. Social Security Administration Commissioner Michael J. Astrue, testifying this week before the Senate Finance Committee chaired by Senators Max Baucus (MT) and Charles Grassley (IA), specifically addressed the issue of application processing backlogs, noting: "We are overdue for a change. The length of time many people wait for their final disability decision is unacceptable. I am committed to a process that is as fair and speedy as possible. Today, I want to share with you a number of important steps we have taken, will take, or are contemplating taking in the near future to better manage our workloads. There are four areas which I believe hold the most promise to eliminate the hearings backlogs: compassionate allowances; improving performance; increasing adjudicatory capacity; and increasing efficiency with automation and business processes." Commissioner Astrue is pictured here.

Commissioner Astrue noted that SSA has undertaken several effective steps to address backlogs, and described one in use for cancer cases: "One way to reduce the number of cases in the determination process is to use automation tools to screen cases. We have seen success of the Quick Disability Determination model currently in use in New England. This computer model identifies cases that are most likely to be allowed. To date, the New England states have decided 97% of these cases within the required 21 days and they have an average decision time of 11 days. About 85% of these cases have been allowed during the initial review, and more have been allowed with additional documentation. We plan to build on the success of the QDD because it is both efficient and compassionate for us to do so. "

Commissioner Astrue pointed to interagency collaboration in noting that outdated disability listings and poorly defined categories of disabilities were delaying some decisions. According to the Commissioner, United States Department of Health and Human Services Secretary and United States Interagency Council on Homelessness Chair Michael Leavitt had offered to lend to SSA a senior HHS physician to lead an agency task force to refine and update the listings.

As noted by the Commissioner, difficulties are posed when delays impede access to benefits for those in need, especially those with disabilities. Without appropriate intervention for those who are most disabled, one possible outcome of these difficulties is homelessness or continued homelessness.

Currently, however, unprecedented intergovernmental partnerships which begin at the Federal level are achieving expanded and expedited access to Social Security benefits for the most vulnerable and disabled persons. Often these are citizens who are at risk of homelessness or who are already living on the streets or in shelters. These efforts and resources back this Administration's commitment to end chronic homelessness in this country.

Twin multi-year initiatives, the Social Security Administration's Homeless Outreach Projects and Evaluation (HOPE), and a joint initiative of the U.S. Departments of Health and Human Services and Housing and Urban Development, along with SSA, SOAR (SSI/SSDI Outreach, Access, and Recovery), are providing coordination, expertise, and outcomes that benefit everyone in the community - housed and homeless alike.

More than 40 communities have HOPE awards to support expedited enrollment initiatives targeted to long-term homeless individuals. The SOAR initiative, which has provided training for more than 4,000 front- line case managers who actively assist the most needy applicants, is at work in 24 states and almost 80 cities, including New York City. HOPE and SOAR are increasing successful enrollments for persons who are homeless - on the first application and without lengthy delays or appeals. From an initial level of 10-15% approval rates, the average is now over 60%, and the number of days to an initial SSA decision has been cut from 120 to 87 or less.

The result of these targeted efforts, which reach applicants who have been homeless for an average of 33 months, reduces agency backlogs and achieves benefits for individuals, including health care and support in permanent housing.

Commented United States Interagency Council on Homelessness Executive Director Philip Mangano, "These partnership efforts are creating a trajectory to income, health care, and re-housing for our most vulnerable citizens. Many enrolled in the HOPE program have gone on to housing, and the SOAR initiative has assisted both individuals and health care providers. HOPE/SOAR are offering common sense and dollars and sense solutions for our most disabled citizens through an efficient and expedited enrollment initiative." According to SOAR data, in Columbus, Georgia, 100% of those enrolled became housed after an average of 16 months of homelessness. In Covington, Kentucky, the SOAR enrollment initiative increased reimbursement for uncompensated care for the local hospital.

Other witnesses at the Senate hearing were Nancy Shor, Executive Director, National Organization of Social Security Claimants Representatives, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, Richard E. Warsinskey, President, National Council of Social Security Management Associations, Inc., Washington, DC, and Charles Schimmels, President, National Association of Disability Examiners, Oklahoma City, OK.

WASHINGTON, DC. The United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has extended the application deadline for its Fiscal Year 2007 SuperNOFA competition for McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Grants. HUD published a Supplementary Information and Technical Corrections notice in the Federal Register on May 11, 2007. All potential applicants should read the full notice for details.

The extension for the homeless programs and the re- opening of other program competitions will allow applicants the opportunity and time to submit or resubmit their applications with the corrected Logic Models.

The continuum of care NOFA deadline date has been extended to June 15, 2007. All continuum of care program applicants are encouraged to review the May 11, 2007 Federal Register Notice (page 27041) for more detailed information and for additional technical corrections for many of the programs included within the SuperNOFA, as well as the revised deadlines for all programs within the SuperNOFA.

University of Pennsylvania researcher Dr. Dennis Culhane and his colleagues (Metraux, Park, Schretzman and Valente) have released new findings this week on family homelessness that focus on how the needs of families experiencing homelessness and their service histories match the level of service and length of stay they experience in homeless programs. While there are some similarities to Dr. Culhane's research on the single population, there are also striking differences.

Dr. Culhane's data show that most families (75 percent) leave relatively quickly and don't return to shelter, but that a small number (5 percent) return repeatedly. 20 percent of families have long stays, using 50 percent of resources, but - unlike singles - long stays are not associated with significant personal barriers to housing stability, such as serious behavioral health issues or child welfare system involvement.

According to the new research, in general, families with long stays are no more likely than families with short stays to have intensive behavioral health treatment histories, to be disabled, or to be unemployed, raising the question of whether such families are appropriately served by lengthier stays in emergency or transitional program settings. Families with repeat stays have the highest rates of intensive behavioral health treatment histories, placement of children in foster care, disability, and unemployment. Differences are also apparent in earned income and benefits, with long-staying families showing the highest rates of earned income and lowest use of SSI.

Key in Dr. Culhane's findings are that characteristics of graduates of long-stay programs may reflect selection effects of policies and programs, rather than the needs of participants. According to Dr. Culhane, the families with the most intensive service histories may be receiving the fewest system resources, while a subset of families with comparatively lower histories of intensive service use receive the most system resources, and averaging between $22,000 and $55,000 per family.

United States Interagency Council on Homelessness Executive Director Philip Mangano, commenting on the new findings, indicated, "If resources are invested according to need and with an expectation of result sin ending homelessness, then the least needy families should get least intensive intervention, and the most needy families should get most intensive intervention. If the largest number of families have the least service history, and exit quickly, policies should support this preference through rapid relocation strategies, offering more varied service and housing assistance packages for the remainder based on the level of barriers they face."

Administrative data on public shelter utilization from four jurisdictions were used in the research: Philadelphia, New York City, Columbus (OH), and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Shelter data were integrated with other health and social service utilization data to determine whether the families or the heads of household had a history of service involvement indicative of a need for significant or ongoing service engagement. "Testing a Typology of Family Homelessness Based on Patterns of Public Shelter Utilization in Four U.S. Jurisdictions: Implications for Policy and Program" is published in Housing Policy Debate, Volume 18 (1).

Three California communities welcomed their homeless neighbors with one-day, one-stop events in the last week.

SAN JOSÉ, CA. In the City of San Jose and the County of Santa Clara, the fourth Project Homeless Connect event occurred on May 17 at Parkside Hall, across from the City's Convention Center. Supervisor Don Gage and Councilwoman Judy Chirco welcomed the volunteers. Over 600 people were assisted with at least one service, and over 280 community people volunteered to help the homeless on this one day.

The one-day effort, sponsored in part by IBM and Adobe, assisted the City's homeless individuals and families of Santa Clara County on the road to self- sufficiency by providing a concentration of medical, mental health, and drug and alcohol rehabilitation services, housing information, financial assistance and an array of other services. Advance promotional materials advertised PHC as "the place to get hard-to- come-by necessities: bus tokens, bathroom tokens, gift bags containing socks, personal hygiene kits, and Community Voice Mail numbers."

Present to assist with resources were more than 35 public and private agencies, including: Santa Clara County Department of Social Services, Social Security Administration-San Jose Office, Santa Clara County Office of Education-Head Start, Santa Clara County Department of Drug and Alcohol Rehabilitation, Veterans Affairs- Menlo Park, Sacred Heart Community Services, Work2Future-Workforce Investment Network, Employment Development Department-Veterans Services, Opportunities Industrialization Center West, and Gavilan Community College offering haircuts.

BERKELEY, CA. Berkeley, California, which last year innovated a Project Homeless Connect model specifically targeting homeless youth, this week conducted another targeted event which also was intended to reach youth in an area previously served by a shelter now closed. Services included enrollment assistance for SSA, GA, MediCal, and Food Stamps, as well as Bus Passes, health and mental health services, legal services, and personal hygiene items.

In SAN MATEO, CA, the Housing Leadership Council, the County Department of Human Services and several other organizations hosted their first effort at modeling Project Homeless Connect for homeless individuals and those at immediate risk of homelessness. Several core services and comfort provisions were available on -site, including medical and employment services, disability and veterans benefits, and enrollment services for Food Stamps and SSI. Extras including barbecue and other food, books, clothing, resume-building services, and wheelchair and bicycle repair were also available. The event was central to the local Affordable Housing Week, and a component of HLC's participation in the HOPE plan to end homelessness.

DID YOU KNOW . . . That all the individual stories on federal, state, city, and county partnership, innovation, investment, and results from the 2007 and 2006 weekly e-news letter are now available on the Council's web site?

Visit the Library at www.usich.gov and choose from one of the new categories of stories that will give you a quick path into reading what the National Partnership is achieving.

email: ichnews@setechnology.com

web: http://www.usich.gov