January 19, 2017
Please forward to your sub grantees and contact your CHG program manager
if you have any questions.
Commerce released a joint
application for the Consolidated Homeless Grant (CHG) and Emergency Solutions Grant (ESG) funding on Wednesday, Jan 18, 2017. Though the
application is joint, ESG and CHG will remain separate contracts. The
application contains some substantial changes from previous applications:
- In counties where local governments “opted out” of the lead
grantee role, Commerce will solicit applications and select a lead grantee for
the county from eligible service providers.
Applications will be scored on strategic investments, crisis response
system structure, organizational capacity, and sub-grantee selection process and
capacity.
- Commerce will select a limited number of grantees for a CHG System Demonstration Grant (SDG).
The grant will have the same system and outcome requirements, but will not have
specific program-level requirements for CHG documentation, prescribed forms, or
procedures.
- Applicants will be selecting performance benchmarks for the
housing interventions they choose to fund with this application.
- Depending on the outcome of the legislative session, Commerce may
receive funding for homeless street outreach programs. The application has an
optional tab that includes questions relating to operating a street outreach
program. Complete this tab in order to be considered for potential additional
outreach funding.
Benton and Franklin Counties recently participated in the 100-Day East Challenge to End Family Homelessness. Jennifer Chapa, Housing Program Specialist at Benton and Franklin Counties Department of Human Services, shared an important system change that resulted from the Challenge.
"During the 100-Day Challenge we worked with our housing providers. As a team we were able to get consensus on what documents were actually needed to complete a Coordinated Entry System (CES) screening. As a result CES was able to drastically reduce the amount of proofs required to screen a client and get them to a program. Clients must now only provide to CES a Homeless status verification or an eviction notice from their own rental.
Additional documents can be collected on the program level if needed by the program or required by the housing provider. This was a huge shift in mindset. When CES was created almost 3 years ago the documents required were for the most restrictive program at that time. Households needed to document ID or birth certificates and Social Security cards for all household members, three months of income documentation, and (for eviction prevention) proof of why they didn’t pay rent. With the guidance of Commerce and the 100-Day Challenge, we were able to change our procedure and get buy-in from the housing providers. We are hoping this change makes it easier for a client to screen and get to a program."
--Jennifer Chapa
Housing Program Specialist at Benton and Franklin Counties
Department of Human Services
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