Webinar on Chronic Homeless Definition and Verification

Many of us are still struggling with all parts of the chronic homelessness definition and what is required to verify chronic status.

HUD is hosting a webinar next Wednesday, June 21, 11 am to noon, to help clear up issues and answer questions. The webinar will be followed by a question and answer/discussion period. Please make time for this really important training!

To join the webinar, pre-register at the link below and you will get a confirmation email with log-in information:

https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/5218258379321914881

 

 

Family Homelessness Resource Fair: A Great Success!

Pamela Schwartz has provided a report on yesterday’s fabulous Family Homelessness Resource Fair:

What an amazing morning!  45 providers from every sector and every county of Western Massachusetts came together today – housing and shelter providers, domestic violence service providers, mental health and substance use treatment providers, child care, health care and youth providers, veterans services, employment services, secondary and higher education providers and state agencies all under one roof at CHD.  Roughly 200 people attended!  You can get a sense of the crowd in the room from the pictures below. The room teemed with the excitement of people connecting, learning, and building relationships, all in service of our shared goal to support families in their efforts at greater housing stability.

The feedback has already been overwhelmingly positive: “This was amazing!” “What a great event!” “I learned so much.”  “Great information.”  And so much more of the same.

Special thanks to CHD (and Jane Banks) for their fiscal sponsorship of the event and provision of space and related supplies.  We could not have done it without them!

Thanks also to our additional planning partners at Way Finders (Janette Vigo) and Community Action of Franklin, Hampshire and North Quabbin (Janna Tetreault).  And finally thanks to every single Network partner who showed up to share or to learn or (mostly) do both.  It was a fine moment reflecting what this Network is all about: collaboration and coordination towards preventing and ending homelessness.

Congratulations to all!

Check out the coverage on Channel 22 here.

 

Reminder CoC Meeting this FRIDAY

This is a reminder that the Springfield-Hampden County CoC is meeting this FRIDAY morning. We are meeting:

Friday, June 9, 9 – 11 am

                Springfield Municipal Operations Building conference room, 70 Tapley St

The agenda—

• Final 2017 PIT count
• Youth News – Count and HUD Technical Assistance
• Update on Coordinated Entry
• Built for Zero campaign – Report from CoC team that traveled to DC, next trip September to Chicago
• Vacancies on the CoC Board of Directors

DATE CHANGE! CoC Board of Directors meeting

The meeting scheduled for May 25 has been RESCHEDULED.

The Springfield-Hampden County CoC Board of Directors is meeting:

                Friday, June 9, 9 – 11 am

                Springfield Municipal Operations Building conference room, 70 Tapley St.

This is an open meeting, meaning that anyone from the CoC is welcome (whether or not on the Board).

Agenda:

• Final 2017 point-in-time count report & news from the Youth Count
• Status of Coordinated Entry & next steps
• Built for Zero campaign—info from our team’s DC Learning Session trip
• Filling Board vacancies

Guidance for CoC Grantees

Existing CoC grantees–

[Please note: this information is only relevant to you if you currently receive a CoC grant from the Springfield-Hampden County CoC. The current CoC grantees are Catholic Charities, CHD, FOH, Gandara, WayFinders, HRU, MHA, SMOC, RVCC and VOC.]

As you have already been informed, all grants are being shifted to fiscal year terms, meaning that all grants are being shifted to having the same start dates (July 1) and end dates (June 30).

In order for this shift to take place, some grants will have shortened grant periods, and some will have extended grant period. All grants will have continued funding through June 30, 2018. Funding after that date will depend on successful funding in the FY17 CoC competition, which will take place in the next several months.

HUD has provided the following information about how the shift will happen:

1. If your current grant expires prior to or on June 30, 2017, the existing grant will expire as usual, and the APR will be due 90 days after expiration of the grant. Your new grant will start the day after the existing grant ends, and will continue to June 30, 2018, even though that is longer than 12 months–the grant amount will be increased to cover the additional months. The next APR will be due Sept. 30, 2018.
2. If your current grant is set to expire after June 30, 2017, the City will be amending the current grant so that it will now end June 30, 2017, and your new 12-month grant will begin July 1, 2017. The APR for your current grant will be due Sept. 30, 2017, even though you will be reporting on fewer than 12 months. Your next APR will be due September 30, 2018.

The CoC has set up a call-in information session for grantees with questions about this process. The session is OPTIONAL, and is for you to have the opportunity to ask questions. There will not be a presentation at the session. The session will take place Wednesday,  May 24 at 9:30 am. The call-in number is 1-866-710-5357, Participant Code:  2283427.

Save the date: CoC Board of Directors meeting May 25

The CoC Board of Directors will meet Thursday, May 25, 2017, 3:00 – 4:30 at the offices of the Mental Health Association, 995 Worthington St., Springfield. The meeting is open to the full CoC.

Stay tuned for a full agenda. Some big items we will discuss are the DC Learning Session that 6 of us attended in April, and replacement of the Homelink system we have been using for coordinated entry–the new system will cover all populations and we will be looking for your ideas as we build it out.

Your Built for Zero team is hard at work in DC

We’ll be coming home with terrific ideas and a workplan for the next four months. But tonight we kicked back to watch the lip sync competition.

Learning session #2 will be September 12-13 in Chicago…start thinking now about representing our CoC there. (I mean to learn–you won’t have to lip sync, I promise!)

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