hearth act
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HEARTH ACT. Regional Conference Norfolk, VA March 16, 2009 Suzanne Wagner HousiNg Innovations. Agenda. HEARTH Act Overview – Key Changes Eligible Populations Eligible Activities ESG Continuum of Care Performance Criteria Other Program Changes Applying for Funds - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
REGIONAL CONFERENCENORFOLK, VA
MARCH 16, 2009
SUZANNE WAGNERHOUSING INNOVATIONS
HEARTH ACT1
Agenda2
HEARTH Act Overview – Key Changes Eligible Populations Eligible Activities
ESG Continuum of Care
Performance Criteria Other Program Changes Applying for Funds
Collaborative Applicant Unified Funding Agency
Funding Selection Criteria for CoC’s
HEARTH Act Provides Stimulus for System Change
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New Definitions = Expanded Eligibility for Services
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Expanded Definition of Homelessness in addition to current definition:
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DOE Homeless Definition6
At-risk of Homelessness Defined
An individual or family is at risk of homelessness if: Income is below 30% of AMI Has insufficient resources to attain housing stability Has moved frequently for economic reasons
Is living in someone else’s home because of economic hardship Has been notified that their right to occupy their housing has
been terminated Lives in a hotel/motel Lives in severely overcrowded housing Is exiting an institution Lives in housing that has characteristics associated with
instability and increased risk of homelessness
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Assistance to Families ‘Homeless’ under other definitions
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New Eligible Activities – ESG 9
Emergency Shelter Grant becomes Emergency Solutions Grant No more than 60% of ESG funding can be used to support
shelter activities At least 40% of funds would be dedicated to prevention and
rehousing activitiesNew activities:
Short/medium term rental assistance to homeless or at risk Housing relocation/stabilization to homeless or at risk Parallel HPRP activities
Funding for ESG increases to 20% of amount available for homeless assistance
$ for $ match required (cash or in-kind) for ESGAdmin costs rise from 5 to 7.5%
Eligible Activities - Continuum of Care Program
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SHP, S+C, SRO Mod become a single CoC program Acquisition, rehabilitation, and construction activities the same
as under SHP but matching requirements changed Leasing is the same – no match required Rental assistance for transitional (a version of RR) or
permanent housing Project based, sponsor based or tenant based Can provide rental assistance to preserve existing PSH
Operating costs same as SHP Supportive services same as SHP Rehousing services to include: housing search, mediation,
outreach to property owners, credit repair, providing security or utility deposits, rental assistance for a final month at a location, assistance with moving costs or other activities that: are effective in moving people immediately into housing or who have moved into permanent housing in prior 6 months
Admin costs to project sponsors of not more than 10%
Performance Criteria11
Required Performance Criteria High Performing Communities*
Length of time individuals and families remain homeless
Under 20 days or at least 10% below prior year
Rate of households returning to homelessness
Fewer than 5% will become homeless again within next 2 years or at least 20% below prior year
Thoroughness in reaching homeless people
Actively encouraged homeless people to participate in services; included all homeless people in HMIS
Overall reduction in numbers of homeless individuals and families
Activities have been effective in reducing homelessness
Jobs and income growth for homeless individuals and families
No family is homeless for more than 30 days – benchmarking TBD
Reducing number of individuals and families who become homeless
*Can use as much money as they want for prevention and rehousing assistance
Other Program Information12
Collaborative Applicant13
Covers geographic area – CoCSubmits a collaborative application to HUD for CoC
$’sDuties
Design collaborative process for development of application and evaluating the outcomes of projects for which funds are awarded Develop process for selecting projects for funding Establish priorities for funding
Participate in CON Plan Ensure operation of HMIS
Need not be a legal entityCan receive 3% of total funds available to CoC as
admin fee
Unified Funding Agency14
All duties of collaborative applicant plus Receive funds from HUD and distribute to project
sponsors Must require project sponsors to have appropriate
financial/grant management and conduct annual audit Responsible for HMIS compliance
Can receive 6% of total funds available to CoC as admin fee
Scoring/Selection Criteria for Funding15
Performance – as described aboveCommunity Plans – quality and comprehensiveness
of a community’s plans that focus on reducing homelessness, the educational needs of children and the needs of all homeless sub-populations. Measureable targets, timelines, funding, leadership and staff.
Process for Prioritizing Funding – methodology is based on objective publicly announced criteria that considers the full range of opinions and uses data for analysis
If serving those homeless under other federal statutes, must have a very good prevention plan
Incentives ($$$$)16
HUD Required to Provide Incentives for Strategies that are Evidence-Based and Proven to reduce homelessness Rapid Rehousing for Families PSH for Chronically Homeless Individuals and Families
HUD can add strategies if there is research to support their efficacy.
Communities apply for the Incentives and use the $ however they want (within HEARTTH eligible activities)
Amount and nature of incentives TBDUp to $6 million to study effectiveness of different
interventions for homeless families at 3 different sites
Key Tasks/Issues/Decisions for the Community
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The following are issues communities may want to consider: Collaborative Applicant or Unified Funding Agency? Does the CoC aspire to be a High Performing community? What systems and program changes are needed to ensure
achievement of performance standards? Now that there are new tools and evidence, what is the right mix of programs in the system?
How to continue Prevention and Rapid Rehousing Efforts (albeit in a more limited fashion)
How can the Renewal Evaluation Process better support achievement of outcomes and meets HUD’s guidelines for prioritizing funding?
Discussions and decisions regarding changing program eligibility – pending issue of draft regs.
CoC’s response to draft regs.
Innovations and Trends in CoCs and Homeless Systems
Ten Year Plans, HPRP and now HEARTH have made communities analyze and rethink their systems
Evidence that with all the investment (think $$), services and programs we have developed, homelessness was increasing, interventions not working
Realization that our systems weren’t systemic and limited resources must be targeted to achieve outcome of ending homelessness, rather than managing it
More data on what is happening in our systems but still much less research base on the family side.
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Background
Housing subsidy most likely resource to end homelessness but the vast majority of people leave w/o one and don’t return.
Our homeless systems were not designed as such – grew up ad hoc
Recent analysis of 3 cities found that people with most barriers were ones to fail most in the family system. Most intensive programs served lowest need people.
If we leave the market to decide, community priorities may not be addressed.
Expansion of Evidence Based Practices especially on strategies that end peoples’ homelessness permanently: Rapid Rehousing, Permanent Supportive Housing, CTI (Critical Time Intervention) and Housing First
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Background
Bring Mainstream partners to the table and get their $$$$
Structured and supported to work in the local political context and service system
Consider how prevention, diversion, shelter, transitional housing, permanent supportive and affordable housing fit together (or don’t) Critical points of intervention are at the interfaces
between programs and systems
Take advantage of opportunities – HPRP, HEARTH
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Elements of Successful Systems Changes
Have systemic outcomes, not just programFocus on permanent solutionsUse data
Who is homeless, dynamics Outcomes for all programs in the system Target resources based on need
Use proven and effective strategies – CTI, RR, Housing First, etc.
Flexible and adjust their programs as they learn and create ways to share learning and wisdom
Have champions and staff to implement them
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Elements of Successful Systems Changes
Front Door Strategies Primary Prevention/Diversion Targeting SPOA
Back Door Strategies Rapid Rehousing and Retooling Transitional Housing Housing Stabilization Services and CTI Permanent Housing Development/Access Moving On from PSH
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Strategies for System Change
Planning Strategies Invite key players – Social Services, MH, Addictions,
VA, HA’s, CPD, Workforce Investment Boards Do your homework – know where mainstream
resources are going in your community Make plans when there is no money available Create Funding Collaboratives Use outcome/performance based contracts
Can tie reimbursement to outcomes Ensure that you have the right mix of programs for
the homeless population in your community. If programs are empty, needs may have changed.
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Strategies for Systems Change
HUD McKinney Performance Outcomes HUD has increasingly been focused on the achievement of specific
outcomes as a factor in McKinney-Vento Funding Awards. Outcomes Measured
80% of people in Permanent Supportive Housing will stay 6 months or > APR
70% of people in Transitional Housing will move to permanent housing - APR
20% of people who leave the program will have employment - APR Extent to which people have access to public benefits/mainstream
resources upon exit as compared to national averages (e.g., SSI, PA, Medicaid) - APR
Decrease in the number of Chronically Homeless (CH) persons Decrease in the number of homeless families Increase in the number of PSH beds for CH – Housing Inventory Chart
Hearth will add LOS, census, recidivism, new h’less Factor these outcomes into renewal evaluation processes since
they count toward the CoC score
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Data Driven/Outcome Oriented Programming
Performance Based Contracting with NYC Shelters and Outreach Teams Agencies targets for housing placements are
established. Census and length of stay are also tracked but payment is not connected to them.
Agencies receive a certain guaranteed part of their budget. The balance is based on achieving the established targets. Bonuses above 100% of budgets are paid for exceeding these targets.
For street outreach, reorganized contracts to eliminate duplication, create better accountability and ensure coverage of the whole city.
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Data Driven/Outcome Oriented Programming
Rethinking Shelter – provide safe place AND housing placement
Repurposing Transitional Housing to Rapid Rehousing, Rolling Stock and PSH Communities reevaluating purpose and goals of TH in the
system For congregate facilities, have converted entire building For scatter site TH, the housing subsidy and services transition
out, not the person/family. Household remains in the unit which is turned over to the client. Services are provided thru a housing-based case management approach – Columbus
Chicago CoC converted almost all TH to PH Conversions have freed up resources to serve more people
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Retooling Programs
Transitional Programs seem beneficial for people in transition: young adults, families with young mothers, persons leaving the criminal justice system, persons in early recovery, people with long institutional histories
Look at function in your community Queuing mechanism Place to perfect homeless families Bridge to housing subsidy
HEARTH provides an OPPORTUNITY – offers RR in CoC
Beware of just converting all TH to PSH. The number of families in need of PSH is a small % of total.
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Retooling Programs
Solutions to homelessness must be viewed in the larger context of the supply of affordable housing, the existing social services system and the economy in a community.
The demographics and needs of homeless families and homeless single adults require different responses.
Assistance to increase income or access rent subsidies is usually necessary, especially in high cost markets.
Ensuring that the system gets people housed requires coordinated responses that focus on ending peoples’ homelessness as quickly as possible, rather than managing it
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Considerations in Re-engineering Your System
Coordination between the Homeless System and Mainstream Affordable Housing, Hospitals, Behavioral Health, Foster Care, and Parole and Corrections is necessary but easier said than done.
Must have data and use it to understand system outcomes. Track shelter requests and census, average length of shelter stays, housing stability and recidivism. Understand who is entering or returning and why.
Evaluate costs and outcomes and continually update your local strategy.
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Considerations in Re-engineering Your System
