NORFOLK, VIRGINIA. Successful engagement through the innovation of Project Homeless Connect has taken root in Norfolk, Virginia, which last week hosted its second one-day, one-stop event. In partnership with the United Way and 65 local, state, federal and community organizations and 500 volunteers, the city mobilized to help 626 homeless people obtain housing, employment, medical and social services. Norfolk Mayor Paul Fraim (pictured here with Interagency Council Regional Coordinator Michael German) hosted the event at Norfolk's Scope exhibit hall.

Norfolk Vice Mayor Paul Riddick and Congressman Bobby Scott, shown here, greeted volunteers at a pre- event rally on Thursday at the site, where Congressman Scott told the volunteers, "I applaud the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness for what it is doing through Project Homeless Connect to end chronic homelessness in America." City of Norfolk point person on ending homelessness Katie Kitchin, and Alphonso Albert and Carla Anders played key roles in organizing the event.

Norfolk was one of more than two dozen communities around the nation to participate in last December's inaugural National Project Homeless Connect Day, engaging nearly 300 homeless individuals and 250 volunteers. With this second event, the city and sponsoring partners including the United Way, Hampton Roads Chamber of Commerce, the Norfolk Foundation, SunTrust, and Sentara, mobilized nearly twice as many volunteers and services, and provided an increased emphasis on housing and employment services.

After reviewing employment outcome data from the first PHC event with the Virginia Employment Commission, organizers increased onsite employment-related services to include free voice mail through the Salvation Army, and ramped up efforts by the Department of Human Services to assist homeless individuals obtain identification. Several temporary employment agencies were also on hand to fill openings on the spot.

Throughout the day, volunteers served as client hosts, guiding clients to service areas and assisting with food preparation and distribution of clothing and other items. Other specially trained volunteers canvassed the community in an outreach effort to identify and offer transportation to and from the event to homeless persons on the street. Social work/social service volunteers with clinical experience were assigned to greet clients and help them determine which services would be of most benefit to them. Exit interviews were also conducted.

Although the event was intended for homeless individuals, a special effort was made to ensure that families who came also were assisted. A van was used to transport families to the Department of Human Services where a team was put in place to help with housing and utilities assistance.

WASHINGTON, DC. On September 7, the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness and the National League of Cities Institute for Youth, Education, and Families (YEF) will sponsor a web seminar at 2 pm Eastern entitled Project Homeless Connect: Using Civic Engagement to Serve the Homeless. This "webinar" will provide practical advice and examples for cities interested in replicating the PHC model or improving upon their own past PHC events. Reservations must be made through YEF. Cities are encouraged to register early and to join with community partners to participate as a group. To register online, go to the YEF webpage and click on the Project Homeless Connect webinar link. For more information on the webinar, contact YEF by email at pierce@nlc.org.

Additionally, the Interagency Council continued its technical assistance efforts for communities interested in participating in the 2006 National Project Homeless Connect Week December 4-8 with a peer to peer national conference call this week on building partnerships with government, business, media, and consumers. Representatives of 45 cities participated in this week's call which included an extensive question and answer period.

This week's conference call subject, "Critical Elements for Results: Building New Partnerships for Project Homeless Connect" featured presentations by San Francisco Project Homeless Connect Coordinator Judith Klain and San Jose Homeless Coordinator Ray Tovar who shared lessons learned from executing successful PHC events in their communities, including:

• Expect to start small Example: 1000 volunteers participated in the most recent San Francisco PHC event but the very first event was held with the help of only 250 city workers.
• Choose your initial partners for the outcomes you want. Example: Since human services are funded by the county and not the city of San Jose, developing the partnership with the county was the most important relationship for the first San Jose PHC event.
• Build your partnerships with business by asking them to volunteer.
• Feedback is quality control. Include people who are homeless or have been homeless on your planning committee; use exit interviews at the event; hold post event debriefings.
• Advertise your outcomes. Results beget interest.

This was the second in a series of peer to peer national conference calls which will be held every other week through October in preparation for National Project Homeless Connect Week. The first call featured a discussion on the important role of mayoral and county leadership in successfully executed PHC events and the resulting benefits to 10-year planning efforts. Communities interested in participating in these calls should contact the Interagency Council at usichevents@usich.gov.

Last week, the enews inaugurated a series of occasional articles on state budget initiatives that are providing new resources to create housing opportunities and improve homeless prevention and intervention services with a description of North Carolina's "Housing 400" Initiative. This week, the enews highlights new budget initiatives in Massachusetts.

New "Housing First" Resources for Chronically Homeless Individuals

The Massachusetts Housing and Shelter Alliance will pilot a "housing first" initiative for persons who are chronically homeless with a $600,000 appropriation championed by state Senator Theresa Murray, chair of the Ways and Means Committee. The line item in the FY 2007 budget recently approved by the Massachusetts Legislature will support a Home and Healthy for Good initiative to demonstrate the effectiveness of the "housing first" approach to "reduce the incidence of chronic homelessness in the Commonwealth."

Working with its member agencies across the state, MHSA will move approximately 130 chronically homeless men and women from the streets directly into housing, with funds from the initiative used to support intensive case management services to sustain the tenancies, according to MHSA Executive Director Joe Finn. Data on the number and demographics of persons served, average cost per participant, whether participants have previously received government services, and cost savings in other state funded programs will be collected and provided to the Legislature to document outcomes. A Boston Health Care for the Homeless study suggests the savings could be substantial. That study of a cohort of 119 persons living unsheltered on the streets found that they had over 18,000 emergency room visits and 871 hospitalizations over a five year period.

In addition to the Housing First initiative, the new state budget also includes $2.75 million for housing for persons who are homeless and mentally ill, which is over and above the $22.3 million for the state's 15-year-old Special Initiative to House the Homeless Mentally Ill supportive housing program. An additional $5 million was appropriated for step-down beds for the state's substance abuse treatment system. The budget also supports an expansion of Medicaid coverage for youth aging out of foster care up to age 20.

WASHINGTON, DC. Marking the first anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, President George W. Bush proclaimed August 29th a National Day of Remembrance.

Over the past year, the Federal Government has committed more than $100 billion to the Gulf Coast recovery effort. On August 18, U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary and Interagency Council Chair Alphonso Jackson, joined by Donald Powell, Federal Coordinator for Gulf Coast Rebuilding, announced the latest infusion of Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds for housing reconstruction and infrastructure. $973 million was allocated to: Alabama $22.2 million; Florida $100 million; Mississippi $423 million; and Texas $428 million, for a total of $16.7 billion in CDBG funding for those states since January. In July, Louisiana received more than $4.2 billion for a total of $10.4 billion in CDBG funding this year to support the state's "Road Home" program to encourage the rebuilding of homes and the return of Louisianans to the state. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has posted a detailed report on its year long Gulf Coast Recovery efforts on its website.

A recently released report by the Corporation for National and Community Service, a member agency of the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness, reveals that 35,000 national service participants, including Senior Corps volunteers, AmericaCorps members, and Learn and Serve America students, contributed more than 1.6 million hours during this first year of Gulf Coast hurricane relief and recovery efforts, and helped coordinate the efforts of more than 93,000 community volunteers. The 26-page report, "National Service Responds: The Power of Help and Hope After Katrina" chronicles the initial response and ongoing recovery activities of national service volunteers working in cooperation with the Red Cross, FEMA, and local and state authorities to establish and operate shelters, provide meals and social services to evacuees, assist with communications, coordinate the warehousing and distribution of donated goods, answer phones, clear debris, provide information on housing and other resources, organize children's activities, raise funds, and manage community volunteers, among other activities.

In June, the Corporation approved $49 million in new AmeriCorps funds which will support more than 5,400 AmeriCorps members over the next three years to help communities recover from last year's hurricanes and prepare for upcoming disasters. The new openings are in addition to 900 AmeriCorps positions approved by earlier AmeriCorps augmentation grants and other opportunities to make a full-time service commitment through AmeriCorps, VISTA, and the National Civilian Community Corps (NCCC).

Local interagency partnerships are at the center of the Family Unification Program (FUP), which works through public housing authorities and child welfare agencies to provide Section 8 housing assistance and supportive services to families to reduce the need for foster care. Signed into law by President George H.W. Bush in 1990 and with a statutory change in 2000 initiated by Missouri Senator Kit Bond which added some foster care youth as an eligible population for FUP resources, the program makes housing subsidies available to families where the lack of adequate housing is a primary factor in the separation, imminent separation, or ongoing separation of children from their families. Family unification vouchers enable these families to lease or purchase decent, safe and sanitary housing that is affordable in the private housing market.

Families are eligible for FUP vouchers if they meet two conditions. First, the public child welfare agency (PCWA) has certified that this is a family for whom the lack of adequate housing is a primary factor in the imminent placement of the family's child, or children, in out-of-home care, or in the delay of discharge of a child, or children, to the family from out-of-home care; and the PHA has determined the family is eligible for a housing choice voucher. The most common services provided under the program are on-going case management, family counseling, parenting classes, drug and alcohol treatment, and budgeting.

The Child Welfare League of America, which provides training and technical assistance on the program to communities, offers a model Memorandum of Understanding for local partners, including duties of PHAs and child welfare agencies, and standards of success, including rates of stabilization. They also have an on-line listing of communities where FUP vouchers have been awarded since 1992.

According to data reported by Catholic Charities USA, which encourages the use of the program to stabilize at risk families, the more than 39,000 Section 8 vouchers allocated by HUD to date for the cost-effective FUP program has resulted in over 200,000 children being reunited with their parents more quickly or avoiding foster care altogether. The addition of youth as eligible participants has provided housing resources to over 500 young people aging out of foster care who otherwise might have become homeless.

NORFOLK, VIRGINIA. A Regional Affordable Housing Database for the City of Norfolk and surrounding South Hampton Road jurisdictions was unveiled during Norfolk's Project Homeless Connect event last week (see related story). The database, searchable in several ways including by school district, jurisdiction, street address, unit size, and date of availability, provides photos and links to rental properties and a calculator to help people determine affordability based on household income. Searches can also be refined by housing accessibility options for persons with disabilities.

The need for a regional housing search tool that could be kept current and easily accessible was identified during Norfolk's 10-year planning process, and affirmed at the South Hampton Roads Regional Conference on Ending Homelessness in February.

The database is based on a Housing Point software system also used by the state of Wisconsin and the City of Portland, OR and was funded with a $50,000 grant from the United Way of Hampton Roads and funding from the Regional Task Force on Homelessness and the cities of Norfolk, Portsmouth, Chesapeake, and Virginia Beach. The database will be officially launched September 1 by The Planning Council and can be accessed at www.housingconnect.org.

Kentucky Governor Ernie Fletcher has demonstrated leadership in Kentucky's response to homelessness through the creation of a statewide 10-Year Plan; investing resources in the data-driven Recovery Kentucky initiative for homeless and at risk individuals with substance addiction; and convening a Kentucky Summit on 10-Year plans with the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness to solidify the state's partnership with federal and city governments.

In announcing Governor Fletcher's selection as a recipient of A Home for Every American Award at the Council's National Summit for Jurisdictional Leaders in May, United States Interagency Council on Homelessness Executive Director Philip Mangano said, "We are all familiar with descriptors that identify a man as husband, father, and community leader. Governor Fletcher is all of these. For him these are the foundation of a life dedicated to public service. Family doctor, engineer, Air Force fighter pilot, state legislator, lay minister, United States Congressman fill out a resume committed to family and civic duty."

"This remarkable vitae has an unspoken commitment that has been visible on the streets of Lexington when as a Congressman he spent a day as a homeless person; made visible in the budgets of the State of Kentucky and the Kentucky Housing Corporation; and visible in Kentucky's Ten Year Plan to End Chronic Homelessness. As a family doctor he learned to do no harm, to restore to health, to remedy the malady. As a lay minister he was called to serve 'the least of these' and to ensure that the circumstances of those who had no food, no clothing, no home were remedied. That the stranger would be welcomed and taken in. As a legislator in Kentucky and Washington, he learned the necessity of partnership to accomplish the people's purpose. As an engineer, the need for a plan."

In 2005 Governor Fletcher charged the Kentucky Interagency Council on Homelessness and the Kentucky Housing Corporation, led by Chief Executive Officer Ben Cook, to develop a 10-year Plan to End Chronic Homelessness in Kentucky. The plan described key strategies for ending chronic homelessness including the development of 2400 permanent supportive housing units, various affordable housing initiatives, increased support services, discharge planning, prevention and coordination, and economic/public education. The plan also recognized and aligned with city-level 10- year plans being developed in Louisville, Lexington, and Bowling Green.

A central element of the 10-year plan is the Recovery Kentucky initiative, which is using an innovative combination of federal and state budget resources to support the construction and operation of ten residential substance abuse treatment centers to help persons who are homeless or at risk of homelessness because of substance abuse. The initiative was developed based on data from a survey which showed a severe treatment access gap for the target population.

For living out his vocational vow, giving expression to a higher calling in public service, and attending to the lives of Kentucky's poorest, the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness was pleased to present an inaugural A Home for Every American Award to Governor Ernie Fletcher.

WITH THIS ISSUE, the e-news presents information on the Title V federal surplus property program as an opportunity to secure resources to assist persons experiencing homelessness under the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act.

WASHINGTON, DC. With a new federal policy on use of surplus property under the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act set to take effect September 1, the latest listing of available property covers 22 states. Land is available in three states. Federal surplus real estate - land and buildings - can be transferred to eligible non-federal applicants for purposes of homeless assistance.

A change in federal Title V surplus property policy announced by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services at the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness meeting July 11 and published that day in the Federal Register, will allow local governments and community organizations to submit applications beginning September 1 to use Title 5 properties for permanent supportive housing for homeless individuals and families.

Properties identified as "suitable and available" are listed each Friday in the Federal Register and are available exclusively to applicants for homeless use for a period of 60 days from the date of the notice. Where property is described as for "off-site use only'', recipients of the property are required to relocate the building to another site at their own expense. Applicants for these federal surplus properties must identify how they intend to utilize the property to meet the needs of homeless persons in their communities.

Click here to view the most recent Federal Register notice of suitable and available Title 5 properties or visit the Council's website and click on the funding tab.