Difference between revisions of "YCOCH"

Revision as of 13:38, 23 December 2009

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

UPCOMING EVENTS

NEXT MEETING
Date: January 27, 2010
Time: 11:00 am
Location: Community Room at 4 Curran Court
Notes: Light refreshments provided.
Directions: Driving Directions

PREVIOUS MEETINGS

• July 22, 2009 Download July minutes
  • Implications of the HEARTH act from July meeting
  • New paradigm for services for the homeless under the HEARTH act from July meeting

• June 11, 2009 Download June minutes
• March 30, 2009 Download March minutes
• February 24, 2009 Download February minutes
  • Download list of upcoming APRs distributed at Jan. meeting
  • Download report on YCoC grant fund draw down activity distributed at Feb. meeting

• January 21, 2009 Download January minutes
  • Download list of upcoming APRs distributed at Jan. meeting
  • Download report on YCoC grant fund draw down activity distributed at Jan. meeting

• December 17, 2008 Download December minutes
• November 19, 2008 Download November minutes

OTHER NOTICES

• You can now REGISTER ONLINE for the Supportive Housing Network of New York’s 9th Annual New York State Supportive Housing Conference on Tuesday, June 9th at the Hilton New York

Please join us for the Annual New York State Supportive Housing Conference, the largest supportive housing conference in the nation. The conference will be held at the New York Hilton Hotel, New York’s premiere conference center in the heart of Manhattan.

For the first time, we are featuring 90-minute workshops with the state and city agency heads most vital to the supportive housing community, including the commissioners of DOHMH, OMH, OTDA, DHCR, HRA, DHS, HPD and OASAS, and the presidents of HFA and HDC.

We will have workshops on how to develop housing during the current economic downturn, on new funding opportunities, on getting press for your organization, and best practices for management, frontline and development staff. The networking lunch and post-conference reception are times to catch up with colleagues. And a select group of exhibitors will be on hand all day with information about their products.

The New York State Supportive Housing Conference is the one time of the year when supportive housing’s leaders can catch up with each other and hear everything going on in the worlds of supportive housing and serving people with special needs. Don’t miss this annual opportunity to see, hear and share the latest innovations in the field. See you on the 9th!

If you would prefer to register via fax, visit our website at http://www.shnny.org/conf.html.

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

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.

• Sample Occupancy Agreement from HUD

This sample occupancy agreement was provided by HUD in OCtober, 2008.

• 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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Funding/Project Summary

• Yonkers Continuum of Care Summary

Summary as of January 3, 2008, includes FY07 awards

Process for Submitting HUD forms and information to MHA

Submitting Financial Vouchers to MHA

A. Vouchers should be submitted directly to:
Ms. Patty Duffy, Chief Housing Accountant
Municipal Housing Authority for the City of Yonkers
P.O. Box 35
1511 Central Park Avenue
Yonkers, New York 10710
(914) 793-8400 ext. 134
B. Vouchers may be hand-delivered.
C. Vouchers must be submitted monthly. For most rapid reimbursement, submit your vouchers by the 15th of each month.
D. The Continuum of Care program does not provide advances. Expenses will be reimbursed after they are incurred.
E. Documentation of all expenses must be submitted with the vouchers. Payroll records and/or time sheets should be submitted for salary costs. Photocopies of receipts should be submitted for all other expenses.
F. Vouchers cannot be processed even one day after an annual contract expires, without additional action taken by both the Housing Authority and HUD. To avoid delay, submit the final voucher for each contract year by the 25th of the final month. You may not have all of the documentation required for a normal voucher before the month is over (i.e. payroll records), but go ahead and submit the voucher, with a note explaining that the documentation will follow within a week or two.
H. Round all amounts in your vouchers to the nearest dollar.
J. Keep a complete set of copies of all vouchers and backup documentation submitted.

Voucher Form

• Yonkers Continuum of Care Voucher
  

This voucher was revised April 4th 2008. The following sections have been updated:
1)Shelter Plus Care type of tenants assisted
2)Request for first time vouchers for all S+C project to submit tenant agreements and rent calculation worksheets. Please see HUD Forms .
Shelter Plus Care Monthly Expenditure Report

• Monthly Statement of Expenditures
  

This form is only required for S+C programs. It must be submitted every month with each voucher.

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Submitting APR

A. Annual Progress Reports (APRs) must be submitted to MHA 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 Patty Duffy and Karl Bertrand.
F. After Yoav has confirmed that your draft is correct, mail or hand-deliver five (5) signed copies to:
Ms. Patty Duffy, Chief Housing Accountant
Municipal Housing Authority for the City of Yonkers
P.O. Box 35
1511 Central Park Avenue
Yonkers, New York 10710
G. Either Patty Duffy or MHA’s Executive Director will then counter-sign your annual progress report. Patty will then send 2 copies to HUD, 1 to your agency, 1 to Karl Bertrand, and keep 1 in MHA’s files.
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Submitting a Budget Modification or Grant Amendment

A. Before submitting a budget modification or grant amendment, please read the HUD SHP desk guide section R: Grant Amendments.
Here is a sample budget modification letter. A grant amendment letter can follow the same format, but may require additional information depending on the change in SHP approved activities. For example, a change in the proposed numbers served would require a revised participant chart. See SHP desk guide referenced above.
B. Please email a draft modification or amendment request to Karl Bertrand at KBertrand@programdesign.com. The draft should be address to the grantee:
Mr. Joseph Shuldiner, Executive Director
P.O. Box 35
1511 Central Park Avenue
Yonkers, New York 10710

Karl will make sure the changes are appropriate for the program and that they do not deviate from the original program approved by HUD.
C. Once the draft modification or amendment is approved, please mail the final copy signed by an authorized project official, i.e. executive director or grants administrator, to Mr. Shuldiner.
D. The Municipal Housing Authority will sign a transmittal letter for the request. MHA will send the letter to HUD and copy the agency and Karl Bertrand.
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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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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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Reports and Articles

Follow the links in this section to access or order cutting-edge publications addressing the galaxy of homelessness issues.
Gaining Community Acceptance

This classic 1991 report was prepared by UCLA's Michael Dear for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to provide a framework for human services professionals