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February 2016
Please forward to your sub grantees and contact your CHG program manager if you have any questions.
The Consolidated Homeless Grant
FAQ is updated! New information has a red
date for easy identification. Please note this includes an updated Appendix
F: Documenting Housing Status. This table was modified to clarify the
documentation requirements for households at imminent risk of homelessness.
Two changes to forms:
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CHG Verification
of Household Eligibility and Income Recertification Form: Section 2 was
updated to align with the documentation requirements for households at imminent
risk of homelessness in Appendix F.
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CHG Income
Eligibility Worksheet: Instructions changed to align with the 30percent AMI
requirement. Language regarding documentation requirements on the
Eligibility Worksheet page were removed, and links to HUD’s AMI limits were
updated.
All updated documents are
available on the CHG website.
Commerce is preparing for the audit, on the For-Profit spending requirement. We will report calendar
year 2015’s For-Profit spending to the firm conducting the audit and they will
select agencies for on-site visits to verify documentation. Visits are
planned for April and May.
How confident are you that 100 percent
of the documentation verifying your For-Profit expenditures reported to
Commerce are 100 percent accurate? Remember that Appendix E in the CHG
Guidelines has a flow chart that identifies the required documents.
We created a second procedure you
can use when conducting an IRS search when you identify something other than an
individual or government owner during the parcel search and need to determine
if you can charge the client rent in the For-Profit category.
Original Procedure
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Go to this web page: https://apps.irs.gov/app/eos/
- Click “are eligible to receive tax-deductible charitable contributions.”
- Enter the name, city and state. Click “search.”
- If you get: “There were no tax-exempt organizations found matching the search values you entered” then print the page. At the bottom of the printed page you will see the name you typed in. Highlight the name and place in the file as documentation that the entity is not a non-profit so you can charge the rent in the For-Profit budget category.
Procedure 2
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You can download the entire Exempt Organizations database here: https://apps.irs.gov/app/eos/forwardToPub78Download.do
- Once you have the database available (it comes in a text file), you can go to your “Edit” button, select “Find,” and type in the name you are searching for.
- If you find the name, then you identified a non-profit and you cannot charge the client rent in the For-Profit category.
- If you do not find the name, you will get a “cannot find….” Print a screen shot and save in your records as documentation for a For-Profit entity.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has published the final 2016
Fair Market Rents. Be sure to use the new FMR’s in your community.
Do
you know what your local Workforce Development Board does?
And why it’s important? They are focused
on the needs of all people
looking for work and helping businesses find the right employees.
Did
you know there is a State Plan that drives their work? And that they are updating that
now?
This
is important because they need to hear from homeless and housing
advocates about how to best partner and collaborate with service providers and
support your clients in a pathway toward employment. Consider contacting your local
board
and find out about what’s happening locally and how you can be involved.
Building Changes is pleased
to announce that approximately $935,000 in funding is available to support
diversion strategies for homeless families in Washington State.
Eligible agencies and organizations include nonprofits, local tribes, housing
authorities, and/or community-based organizations outside of King, Pierce, and
Snohomish counties.
Diversion is offered as a
first response to quickly resolve a family’s homelessness without relying on
typical homeless services, such as emergency shelter or transitional housing.
This investment will help us understand how diversion strategies can be adapted
to meet the needs of communities across Washington. Funding from Building
Changes will be provided for up to three years per agency.
Proposals
are due on Thursday, March 17, 2016. Guidelines and application materials are
available on Building Changes' website.
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Notes
and FAQs
will be continually added to the Commerce
HMIS website). HMIS for BOS and Yakima users will be out of service in March. You
will enter February data into Adsystech (you will have until March 13 to do
so), and then March and April data into Clarity beginning April 1. Plan to
collect data on paper in March and enter it into the new system starting in
April. We will expect you to “back enter” data from March that you collected on
paper, and we will be transferring your HUD standard data from the Adsystech
software into the Clarity software up through Feb. 29 for you
to start with April 1.
Data
quality is always important, especially for legacy data migration purposes:
- A data quality task you might consider
taking on is reconciling housing status and prior living situations logged in
HMIS. A “cheat sheet” for cleaning up your status and prior living situations
is linked on the Commerce HMIS website).
- Another data quality task you might
consider taking on is making sure to exit clients from programs if they’re no
longer present in the program. An “active = yes” search on the client services
search page would lead you to a list of people HMIS thinks still reside in your
program. Exiting those who actually don’t reside in your program anymore (with
accurate exit dates and destination information) would be an awesome quality
improvement exercise.
- Check with your various funders to
ensure you’re capturing what you’re required to in HMIS.
We’re
keeping our website as up-to-date as
possible, and trainings for balance of state users who need to be trained on
the new Clarity software will be listed soon. Stay tuned!
-
If you want to go check out some “how
to” videos for the new software, go to: http://help.clarityhs.com/.
- Below is a draft data entry form that
you can use as needed locally to collect your HMIS data on paper as you wait to
go live on the new system April 1. If
you need a specific funder’s form (PATH, RHY or SSVF), we have those, too. Let us
know.
The new state HMIS vendor is currently recruiting for an HMIS system
administrator to work in Seattle serving HMIS users in King County. The job
description, including information on how to apply, is included below.
The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) is a benefit for working people with low to moderate incomes. Many people are eligible for a tax benefit that often goes unclaimed. Twenty percent of those eligible for the federal Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) either do not claim the benefit on their taxes or do not file a tax return at all. The credit reduces the amount of taxes owed and results in a lump sum refund payment for most people who are eligible to claim it.
You must file a tax return to get your credit, even if you do not owe any tax or are not required to file.
The monthly DBHR
Housing Topical Webinar is scheduled for Feb. 25 from
8:30-10 a.m. The topic will focus on delivering supportive housing services
in a Medicaid-Driven System, featuring Carol Wilkins.
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