Community Programs Bi-Weekly

Indiana Housing and Community Development sent this bulletin at 08/14/2020 08:15 AM EDT
Community Programs Weekly

IHCDA continues to monitor the situation with COVID-19 in Indiana as circumstances change and additional information becomes available. To provide transparency and customer service, IHCDA will update this list with any new policies/procedures as they become available. These updates will be provided on a weekly basis for the foreseeable future.

IHCDA Updates

IHCDA's COVID-19 web page provides a list of our actions to date, and other important information during this critical time. 

Indiana Rent Assistance Portal - visit IndianaHousingNow.org

New Resources

  • In light of the recent murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and other members of the Black community, and in keeping with our continual push for justice and racial equity, the Partnership has drafted a short list of initial steps for taking action against structural racism in our country.
  • Indiana Institute of Working Families e-learning series about financial services, debt, and their consequences for Hoosier families. REGISTER NOW!
  • The INCAA training schedule has been updated: posted here.
  • Prosperity Indiana has an interesting slate of trainings coming up: https://www.prosperityindiana.org/Events
  • Registration is now open for Advancing the Response to COVID-19: Sharing Promising Programs and Practices for Racial and Ethnic Minority Communities, a virtual symposium hosted by the U.S Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Minority Health (OMH) taking place on September 17, 2020.

  • Register Today for Community Action Partnership's 2020 Virtual Annual Convention.  August 24-28.  Click here to register.

  • Registration is open now for the Partnership's webinar on Advocating for your Community: Effective Strategies for Public Policy Engagement. August 13th | 3pm ET

Reminders for Subgrantees

Because of the urgent need for Rent Assistance across the state, a portion of your IHCDA Community Programs staff's time has been redirected to assist in our agency's effort to administer the program. We will do everything we can to stay on track and responsive to the network during this exceptional time. --Emily

CSBG

  • Module 1 of the 2019 Annual Report has been accepted by OCS without required updates or comments. Notes on Modules 2-4 are expected in September.
  • The public meeting for the CSBG 2021/2022 State Plan and the CARES Act State Plan amendment is scheduled for August 20th. If you need the log-in information for that, email Veronica at vwatson@ihcda.in.gov.
  • All CARES Act Community Needs Assessments and Action Plans have been accepted. IHCDA tentatively plans to ask for updated information in March/April of 2021, after the 2020 Annual Report is submitted. Agencies do not need to submit updated information before then, if their plans change UNLESS they change any of the following, all of which required prior approval:
    • The CAA engages a subcontractor/subgrantee for more than $25,000
    • The original Plan did not include PPE for partners and the CAA wants to provide that – they will need approval from IHCDA’s CSBG Manager
    • The original Plan included PPE for less than 15% of their award, and that increases to over 15% - they will need approval from IHCDA’s Community Programs Director
AEAP All LSPs need to have applications processed and claims entered by COB on Friday, 08/14. Contact Community Programs staff ASAP if this is a concern for you.
  • Please continue to encourage households with large arrearages to negotiate payment arrangements with their vendors. The IURC recently ordered jurisdictional vendors to continue to offer the extended payment arrangements through October 12, and is still encouraging its vendors to consider offering payment arrangements of longer than the minimum of 6 months.

Weatherization 

  • Additional WAP LIHEAP funds have been approved and amendments have been sent. 
    Requests for additional WAP LIHEAP funding need submitted by September 1.
  • Wx waivers are being processed as quickly as possible and the network is starting to weatherize more homes.

Resources

  • Interested in providing tablets and/or internet access to your clients as part of your COVID-19 response? Check out this video about a community outreach program run in partnership with T-mobile. Ask Emily if you want direct contact information so you can explore doing something similar in your communities.
  • For a variety of eCourses, webinars, publications, toolkits, resource guides, and online tools, visit the Partnership's Resource Library

Census 2020

  • Ask Me About the Census! eCourse Understand the basics about the Census, and be able to reach out to your customers, clients and community to help them understand it too! Click here. 

Agencies are encouraged to continue outreach to ensure their clients are counted in the 2020 Census. Given the impact that COVID-19 is having on in-person interactions, agencies should direct their clients to the online questionnaire here: https://my2020census.gov/. Additional resources related to the Census can be found below:

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