Dec. 7, 2017
Please forward to your sub grantees and contact your OFAH grant manager
if you have any questions.
Thanks to all who traveled from around the state to
attend the Homeless Service Provider
Grantee Academy on Nov 1 - 2 in Cle Elum.
On the first day, we heard from the Washington State Department of Veteran
Affairs and learned about the changing demographics of the veteran population.
We also learned about Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and resources for providers serving this population.
If you missed the presentation or want follow up information, reach out to
Donald Lachman at DonaldL@DVA.WA.GOV. We also spent time learning about the new HUD Coordinated Entry requirements (even more to come soon!). On the second day, Kim Justice, the director of the
Office of Homeless Youth, provided an overview of the youth programs and
activities over the last year and introduced Kira Zylstra from All Home who
talked about the importance of youth centered planning in developing a broader
homeless strategic plan. We
were also introduced to the new Performance Impact Model that will help with the Local Plan
requirements. Our goal is to make the model
available early in the new year.
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Commerce is excited to announce that Bary Hanson has joined the Housing Assistance
Unit and will help lead the Office of Family and Adult Homelessness. Bary comes
to Commerce after spending over 11 years working for Catholic Community
Services of Western Washington as a program manager and a division director. Bary led efforts in Housing First, Housing and Essential
Needs (HEN), Section 8 housing, low-barrier shelter, and tent-city organization
in four different counties. One of Bary’s most recent project is the new Drexel House Homeless
Veterans Housing project in Olympia. Prior to his work at CCS, Bary spent
years as a street advocate organizing various homeless services campaigns and
street community awareness petitions and events around the United States.
The Office of Family and Adult Homelessness team is working on integrating
the additional HUD Coordinated Entry requirements into the CHG
guidelines by January 2018. This guidelines revision will keep our grantees
updated on changes that need to be made to your Coordinated Entry (CE) systems. Please contact your
grant manager with any questions or concerns you have. In the meantime, here is
a relevant blog post from Iain De Jong at OrgCode: Let's Review the Basics of
Effective Coordinated Entry.
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Beginning July 2018, each county must have at least one low-barrier
project serving adults experiencing homeless and at least one low-barrier
project serving households with children experiencing homelessness. The Office
of Family and Adult Homelessness team is drafting updated information for the
revised Consolidated Homeless
Grant Guidelines which will be released in January. This requirement
aligns with the core elements of a high-performing crisis response system and
will help the state get closer to our vision that no person is
left living outside. Check out this article from the USICH on
implementing emergency shelter within an effective crisis response system.
If you have questions,
please contact your grant manager.
Myth: I have to exit people from my shelter at 90 days or I will be out of compliance
with funders.
Fact:
There is no maximum length of stay in emergency shelters funded by the
Emergency Solutions Grant, the Consolidated Homeless Grant, or Office of Homeless Youth Young Adult
Shelter grants. Reducing the length of stay in emergency shelters is a
national and state homeless system performance measure and important
goal. However, there is no funding rule that prohibits people staying in
your shelter more than 90 days. Aim to make the length of stay in
your shelter program as short as possible, but don’t exit people to
homelessness based on this myth.
The
90-day time frame refers to the program design and how a program is
classified. Emergency shelters are designed to provide temporary housing,
normally up to 90 days. If the program intends for most people to stay
for more than 90 days, it would not be considered an emergency shelter. So
while there is no rule about exiting people at 90 days, the 90 day ‘design’
factor speaks to the type of program.
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On Oct. 31 and Nov. 1, OFAH grant manager Julie Montgomery
attended the HUD Rapid Rehousing Institute in Los Angeles. In partnership with
the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs (VA), HUD brought together homeless
housing providers and planners from across the country. The training provided
perspective on where Washington is on the continuum of adoption of Rapid
Rehousing as a system-wide strategy to end homelessness, (we are fairly far
along), as well as additional strategies for landlord engagement, standardizing
RRH delivery and how to approach rapid-rehousing systemically. If you are
interested in the 107-page packet of slides (at either the practice or system
level), please email Julie at julie.montgomery@commerce.wa.gov.
Fiscal Year 2018 Fair Market Rents (FMR)
HUD released fiscal year (FY)
2018 Fair Market Rents (FMR) on Sept. 1, 2017. The published Fair Market
Rents can be found here.
From the Seattle Office of Civil Rights
Nov. 1, 2017
Fair
Chance Housing legislation becomes effective Feb. 19
In August 2017, the City of
Seattle passed Fair Chance Housing legislation to help prevent
discrimination against renters with a past criminal record.
The new ordinance prevents landlords from unfairly denying applicants housing
based on criminal history. It also prohibits the use of advertising language
that automatically or categorically excludes people with arrest records,
conviction records, or criminal history. The Office for Civil Rights will
enforce the new requirements.
The legislation caps a decade-long effort to address discrimination against
people who have served their time and yet face barriers to safe, stable
housing.
The City of Seattle convened a stakeholder group to provide input on the
administrative rules, and will be collecting comments and concerns from the
public. Their office will also offer training opportunities for landlords,
tenants, and others to learn about the requirements under the new law.
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The 2018 Point In Time Count (PIT) will occur
on Thursday, Jan. 25 in Washington state. Commerce will provide training,
including a review of HUD’s 2018 Guidance and opportunity for feedback on
survey forms. Last year’s forms can be found here, along with other PIT resources.
A recorded version of the Nov. 30
training is available. You can register for it here: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/2533267480681545986
In-person training sessions are being held
locally by request. If your community is interested in having an in-person
training session, please email ian.kinder-pyle@commerce.wa.gov.
Webinars on data entry of PIT data will take place in January.
Information on those trainings will be sent out soon.
The HMIS Team offers ongoing
training for new and current HMIS users. Find information on the Commerce
website on the HMIS page here: www.commerce.wa.gov/hmis or contact Maylee Stevenson at Maylee.Stevenson@commerce.wa.gov.
DESC
and Pathways Housing First Institute have opened registration for the Housing
First Partners Conference, April 9 – 12, 2018 in Denver, Colorado. Information
available here: http://www.hfpartnersconference.com/
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