Office of Family and Adult Homelessness Newsletter

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June 14, 2018

Please forward to your sub grantees and contact your OFAH grant manager if you have any questions.


Save the Date: Homeless Housing Grantee Fall Forums

OFAH

The Office of Family and Adult Homelessness (OFAH) will be hosting grantee forums in October.

What is on the agenda?

Training on Coordinated Entry and Diversion

Forum on low- barrier expansion and targeting homelessness prevention

Who should attend?

Lead and sub-grantee grant managers, direct service providers of:

  • Consolidated Homeless Grant
  • System Demonstration Grant
  • Emergency Solutions Grant
  • HOME Tenant-Based Rental Assistance Grant
  • Homeless Student Stability Grant
  • Balance of State Continuum of Care leadership

When should I attend?

Eastern Washington

Monday, Oct. 15, 2018 – Spokane, Wash., Davenport Hotel

9 a.m. - 4 p.m. (lunch provided)

OR

Western Washington

Monday, Oct. 29, 2018 – Olympia, Wash., Double Tree Hilton Hotel

9 a.m. - 4 p.m. (lunch provided)

Registration begins Sept. 4.


Important HMIS Changes

Beginning June 7, any unaccompanied youth aged 13 or older may consent to have their personally identifying information collected for the purposes of the Homeless Management Information System (HMIS). The HMIS team recently sent out information on this change, as well as the following updated documents:

  1. HMIS Agency Partner Agreement 
  2. Client Revocation of Consent
  3. HMIS User Policy
  4. Informed Consent Form

For more information, listen to the June 13 webinar or contact Talia Scott talia.scott@commerce.wa.gov.


Time to update your HMIS data!

Love Your Data

Commerce will update the Rapid Re-Housing Dashboard with Quarter 3 data and will publish the Temporary Housing Dashboard for Quarters 1 - 3 in late June. 

The Temporary Housing Dashboard will display performance outcome and contextual data about emergency shelters and transitional housing projects in the Balance of State Counties.

HMIS Looker Users: You can run the same reports we will be using for the dashboards. You will find them in the Shared Consolidated Homeless Grant space.

If you have questions, please email emily.burgess@commerce.wa.gov


Spotlight: Rapid Economic Growth and Homelessness

Construction

You may not live in King County, but this new report on the housing crisis and homelessness is relevant to most communities in Washington state. Check out a recent article that explains why, when economic growth is strong, housing developers tend to build more profitable, expensive homes and homelessness increases.

"There are many triggers of homelessness—an unexpected expense, the loss of a job, poor health, and domestic violence among them. But the rapid decline in the stock of affordable housing means that when people lose their homes, many of them find it hard to find a suitable alternative. As one emergency-shelter provider said, “Ten years ago, our community had pockets of cheap motels and apartments. When you hit rock bottom, you could still find a roof. Today, there is no safe place for people to fall to. When crisis hits, you fall to the street.”


Spotlight: Out of Reach 2018 - The High Cost of Housing

Did you know that in Washington state a minimum wage worker (earning $11.50 per hour) would need to work 75 hours each week to afford a one-bedroom rental home at fair market rent? The two-bedroom housing wage is $26.87 per hour.

Check out this new report released by the National Low Income Housing Coalition. The data is an important resource for stakeholders and can be used to educate communities on the high cost of housing.


Resources

Northwest Fair Housing Alliance

The Northwest Fair Housing Alliance maintains a website that provides information and resources on protections against sex-based housing discrimination under the Fair Housing Act. http://sexdiscriminationinhousing.org/

Five Core Principles

Iain De Jong describes five core principles essential to homeless housing work: http://www.orgcode.com/5_core_principles


Upcoming Events

DBHR Monthly Topical Webinar

Thursday, June 28 from 8:30 - 10 a.m.

Joanne Watson from the Fair Housing Center of Washington will speak on reasonable accommodation/modification requests to include the medical provider’s verification letters and why the letter is important for a person with a disability. Information will also be provided on the new law prohibiting income discrimination.

Register here: https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/1262939029355239683


NAEH

The 2018 NAEH Conference is right around the corner! Registration is full. Balance of State Continuum of Care Program Manager, Matt Mazur-Hart, will be there representing Commerce. Search him out to say "hello" if your'e attending.