Difference between revisions of "MVCOCH"

Revision as of 14:35, 6 December 2008

This group brings together all the homeless housing and service providers in Mount Vernon, NY funded with HUD Continuum of Care for the Homeless funding administered by the City of Mount Vernon.

UPCOMING EVENTS

NEXT MEETING
Date: Thursday, January 8th, 2009
Time: 9:30
Location: Mount Vernon City Hall, City Council Conference Room
Notes: Agenda will include APRs, fund drawdowns, Westchester County homeless street count to be held is last week of January.
Directions: Driving Directions

PREVIOUS MEETINGS

November 20, 2008 Download November meeting minutes

OTHER NOTICES

• Current Schedule of key dates and deadlines for preparing Westchester's Continuum of Care FY08 application process‎, as revised 4/9/08

• Information about the new electronic FY 08 Continuum of Care application process is now available.

• The Center for Urban Community Services provided a HUD Annual Progress Report Technical Assistance on February 7th. For training materials click here.
  

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RESOURCES

Westchester's FY07 Continuum of Care application

• Exhibit 1 from Westchester's Consolidated Continuum of Care Application
  

Exhibit 1 from Westchester County's FY07 consolidated application to HUD's Continuum of Care for the Homeless program outlines Westchester's resources and strategies in a cumbersome and not very reader-friendly format mandated by HUD. Nonetheless, this document is the most comprehensive available description of Westchester's housing and services for the homeless.

• Westchester Homeless Housing Inventory, corrected 2/29/08

This corrected Housing Inventory (revised 2/29/08) includes an estimate of the unmet need for permanent housing for the homeless in Westchester. This is calculated by taking the number of transitional homeless beds minus permanent housing beds currently under development to derive the number of units needed just to house the homeless people already in transitional housing in Westchester.

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HUD Forms and Notices

APR Forms

• HUD APR 40118
  Most Recent HUD APR Form
• HUD APR Worksheet
  APR Worksheet
  

Documentation Forms

• Homeless Eligibility
  Homeless eligibility form that can be used to document a participant's homeless status.
• Rent Calculation Form
  This form should be used for all S+C and SHP projects with leasing funds for resident rents. For more information and instructions visit Calculating Resident Rent for SHP and Calculating Resident Rent for S+C on the HUD Resource Exchange site.

Notices

• HUD Notice Re Early Grants.Gov Registration, 3/10/08
  

This notice provides instructions to potential applicants applying for funding under HUD’s grant programs available through Grants.gov. This notice does not pertain to applicants who will be applying in Fiscal Year (FY) 2008 for Continuum of Care funds. HUD will publish a separate notice to address the receipt of Continuum of Care applications in FY2008. This notice provides information to help applicants better understand the registration and electronic submission process for HUD applications made available through Grants.gov. Grants.gov is the federal portal for applicants to electronically find and apply for over 1,000 funding opportunities made available by 26 Federal grant-making agencies.
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Manuals/Training Material

APR Training Materials

• Center for Urban Community Services APR Curriculum
• Center for Urban Community Services APR Tip Sheet
  
  

HUD Manuals

• SHP Deskguide

This updated guide describes the SHP grant process from grant award onward. It will take you through the life cycle of a grant, incorporating everything from very basic information to the intricacies of grant administration. The guide is not a substitute for the SHP regulations. However, it is a practical guide to issues that arise during project implementation.

• SHP Self-Monitoring Tools

The purpose of the Supportive Housing Program (SHP) Self-Monitoring Tools is to provide SHP project sponsors and grantees with "user-friendly" forms to enable staff to assess their project operations against the standards set by HUD rules and regulations.

• Shelter Plus Care Manual

This manual prepared by PD&D combines three HUD online manuals(Understanding S+C , S+C Resource Manual, and Enhancing Shelter Plus Care Guide) as well as other locally developed materials.

• From Theory to Practice: Advanced Topics in Homelessness

Developed by HUD, this presentation provides SHP grantees with information that allows them to effectively address advanced issues of homeless programs as well as new strategies and techniques. Specifically covered are Chronic Homelessness, Housing First & Safe Havens, Case Management and Alternative Match Sources.

Chronic Homeless Materials
The following HUD approved materials, from HUD Resource Exchange, explains the definition, documentation and verification of chronic homeless. These materials are highly recommended from programs targeting the chronic homeless and programs providing emergency shelter and services to the chronic homeless.

• Defining Chronic Homelessness: A Technical Guide for HUD Programs

Developed by HUD, this technical guide is intended for non-profit local housing and service providers as well as local government agencies that are under contract with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to provide housing and related support services to the target population of chronically homeless persons. It is intended to answer frequently asked questions pertaining to the federal definition of chronic homelessness and the standards for qualifying persons for housing under this definition. It also provides suggested templates for forms and letters that may assist providers, government agencies, and their local partners in devising internal mechanisms to certify homeless persons for a program for chronically homeless persons.

• Technical Guide Templates

This document contains the templates referenced in the above Defining Chronic Homelessness Technical Guide. These templates are HUD approved forms used to document and verify chronic homeless status.

• Westchester County List of Emergency and Transitional Housing Facilities

This is the official current definition of which programs in Westchester are considered emergency housing and which are considered transitional housing. These lists come from Westchester County's FY07 Continuum of Care application. This is the list that everyone in Westchester should be using now to determine who is chronically homeless.

• Financial Management and HUD Compliance
  

Developed by Center for Urban Community Services, this guide part of a training series that provides best practices and guidance on supportive housing development, operation and services.

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Other Information about MVCOC

Funding Summary

• Mount Vernon Continuum of Care Summary

Summary as of January 3, 2008, includes FY07 awards.

Program Contacts

• Mount Vernon Continuum of Care Contacts and program descriptions as of June 25, 2008

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Submitting APR

A. Annual Progress Reports (APRs) must be submitted to the City of Mount Vernon within 45 days of the end of each contract year.
B. Every contract extension, even if only for one month, requires a separate Annual Progress Report for the period of the contract extension.
C. Digital copy of the current Annual Progress Report form is available in HUD Forms and Notices.
D. Draft the APR but before submitting a signed copy, email a digital draft to Yoav Spiegel at YSpiegel@programdesign.com to review. He will check for mathematical errors and inconsistencies, correct dates, project numbers, budget information, etc. Yoav will email back a list of any issues that must be addressed.
E. Once all necessary corrections are made, email the corrected copy to Yoav once more for a final review. If the draft is correct, Yoav will send an email stating that the review is complete, with a copy to Carmen Sylvester and Karl Bertrand.
F. After Yoav has confirmed that your draft is correct, mail or hand-deliver five (5) signed copies to:

Carmen Sylvester, Executive Director
City of Mount Vernon
Mt. Vernon Dept. of Planning & Community Development/ Urban Renewal Agency
City Hall - Roosevelt Square
Mount Vernon, NY 10550-2060

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DSS Worker Phone Lists

These documents give names and contact information for Westchester County Department of Social Services district office staff, as of February 2008.

• Yonkers district office
  
• Mount Vernon district office
  
• White Plains district office
  
• Peekskill district office
  

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Ten-Year Plans to End Chronic Homelessness

• Information on Ten-Year Plans to End Chronic Homelessness
  

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Affordable Housing Resources

• Office Park Housing Study, Westchester County Department of Planning, March, 2008.
  

This study demonstrates the feasibility of building housing, including affordable housing, on underutilized office park land. It used existing sites as case studies to evaluate feasibility, but the findings and tools it provides can be used anywhere. Importantly, it also provides a model zoning ordinance that can be adapted by local governments interested in redevelopment and revitalization of such properties.
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Other Resources

• Legal Services of the Hudson Valley
  

Legal Services of the Hudson Valley has opened a new office in Mount Vernon. This flyer describes the services available and tells how to contact them.
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Grants.gov Registration

If your agency ever wants to get another federal grant directly from the federal government, it should have registered with grants.gov. If it hasn't already done so, please visit grants.govfor registration instructions.
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