Helping communities shift from short-term to long-term solutions to homelessness
July 2012 Newsletter
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In this issue:
- NAMI-VA &VCEH Housing Stability and Mental Illness Summit
- Where We've Been in June 2012
- Rapid Re-Housing for Families with High Barriers to Housing
- Upcoming Rapid Re-housing Events
- VCEH Working to Increase Federal Funding
- Health Care Reform and Medicaid Expansion in Virginia
- VCEH Congratulates Pam Kestner, Homeless Outcomes Coordinator
- Welcome to New Members
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SPOTLIGHT:
NAMI-VIRGINIA & VCEH
HOUSING STABILITY AND MENTAL ILLNESS SUMMIT
Creating Housing for Hope and Recovery
July 22-23
Crowne Plaza, Richmond, VA
 VCEH has partnered with the National Alliance on Mental Illness-Virginia (NAMI-VA) to host the Housing Stability and Mental Illness Summit, with support from the Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services (DBHDS). This unique opportunity for collaboration between our organizations has allowed us to bring a stellar array of nationally- and regionally- known speakers, workshops, panels of experts, and networking opportunities.
The purpose of the summit is to to foster hope and recovery for those experiencing homelessness. Participants will create or enhance existing concrete local community plans. We are proud to welcome localities and teams of housing and homelessness experts and advocates, mental health professionals, and family and consumer advocates.
Workshops include but are not limited to:
- Partnering with the faith community
- Overview of permanent supportive housing
- Connecting individuals to disability benefits with SOAR
- Creative ways to finance permanent supportive housing
- Serving people with mental illness and criminal histories
- NIMBY and Fair Housing
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 WHERE WE'VE BEEN
VCEH gets around the state to visit with our partners, attend events, facilitate or host meetings, and more. Here's what we were up to in June of 2012!
Richmond for a meeting with service providers to discuss ways to provide rapid re-housing to families experiencing homelessness who have high barriers to housing stability.
Richmond for the Homeward Regional Conference on Best Practices to Prevent and End Homelessness.
On the phone with a national expert on HUD Continuum of Care funding
to strategize ways that Virginia can access a greater share of the more than $2.2 million in federal resources it currently leaves on the table for homeless assistance agencies in the Commonwealth.
Richmond to meet with an affordable housing property management company to provide information on ways to partner with homeless assistance agencies to house people experiencing homelessness.
Washington, DC for the HAND Annual Luncheon.
Richmond for the Child Welfare and Housing Summit sponsored by Virginia Poverty Law Center, Voices for Virginia's Children, and FACES for Virginia Families.
Richmond for a meeting of the Virginia Coordinating Council's Subcommittee on Increasing Access to Mental Health and Substance Abuse Treatment.
Richmond for the Annual Dinner of the Virginia Housing Coalition (We were excited to have Delegate Betsy Carr at the VCEH table with us!).
On the phone for a meeting with the Northern Shenandoah Valley Continuum of Care to review draft elements for possible inclusion in the Northern Shenandoah Valley's 10 Year Plan to End Homelessness. VCEH is assisting in the development of the plan and guiding the process.
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RAPID RE-HOUSING
Using Rapid Re-Housing for Families with High Barriers to Housing
Rapid re-housing can be used successfully to house households, even those with high barriers to housing. Go here for a presentation from Kay Moshier-McDivitt of the National Alliance to End Homelessness documenting the success of rapid re-housing for high barrier households and strategies to implement this practice for high barrier households.
High barriers to housing include: no income or savings and periods of unemployment; serious substance abuse or mental illness; multiple episodes of homelessness; serious criminal history; and multiple evictions or bad credit. If a household has one or more of these issues, it can make it more difficult for them to obtain housing. However, rapid re-housing can be used as a tool to overcome these barriers.
Key points from the presentation:
- Communities across the country have shown that barriers to housing are not a predictor for success at maintaining housing through rapid re-housing.
- With housing search assistance, temporary rental assistance, and community-based supports for up to a year, rapid re-housing agencies throughout the country have shown that rapid re-housing is a cost effective and successful response to homelessness for people experiencing homelessness, regardless of their housing barriers.
- Successful programs serving high barrier households have had a case manager to client ratio in the range of 1 to 10-15.
- In Alameda County, CA, rapid re-housing providers found that families with high barriers to housing used roughly the same duration of assistance in the program, the same level of financial assistance, were equally successful at obtaining permanent housing, and exited at only slightly higher rates to permanently subsidized housing. (See the chart below.)
Stay Tuned for More Information About These Upcoming
Rapid Re-Housing Events!
September: Webinar for agencies interested in shifting transitional
 housing programs to rapid re-housing.
The webinar, led by VCEH and Kay Moshier-McDivitt of the National Alliance to End Homelessness, will serve as a first step in a series of available technical assistance to assist transitional housing programs to realign their programs to best practice rapid re-housing models.
August and September: Trainings throughout Virginia will assist domestic violence providers with strategies for housing victims of domestic violence through rapid re-housing. Additional information will be forthcoming.
September 13th: Mark your calendar for a September 13th Employment Summit in South Hampton Roads (please note the change in date), when VCEH and the South Hampton Roads Regional Task Force to End Homelessness will sponsor an event to discuss the best practice strategies for employing homeless people. The event will include trainers from the Working to End Homelessness project of the National Transitional Jobs Network at the Heartland Alliance. More details soon.
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VCEH WORKING TO INCREASE FEDERAL FUNDING
Virginia is leaving $2,252,913 in federal homeless assistance funding on the table. These funds, if claimed, could create 187 units of permanent supportive housing or 450 rapid re-housing opportunities across the Commonwealth.
Just about every other state and community is drawing down the total amount of funds to which they are eligible. Virginia is only one of two states that is not accessing the full share of federal homeless assistance funding. Parts of Oklahoma, parts of Florida, and parts of Northern California are the other areas not accessing their full entitlement. See the chart below titled "2011 Continuum of Care funding" highlighting the states and communities that are not accessing their full funding (those in blue are not accessing their full share).
 VCEH recently sponsored a meeting with national Continuum of Care expert Suzanne Wagner for CoC representatives to review how to increase competitiveness of federal funding applications. Read Suzanne's presentation by clicking here.
One recommendation for increasing access to this federal funding is for CoCs to merge. VCEH is dedicated to helping CoCs access our full share of federal funding and has been leading conversations on the possibility of merging.
If your CoC is interested in more information about merging to increase your community's competitiveness at securing funding for homeless assistance agencies, please contact David Bresnahan, VCEH Project Manager, at 804-332-0498 or davidbres@vceh.org.
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HEALTH CARE REFORM and MEDICAID EXPANSION IN VIRGINIA
We applaud the Supreme Court's decision to uphold the Affordable Care Act! Access to health care is critical, especially for those families and individuals experiencing homelessness. Health care reform will be implemented fully in 2014 and increase access to affordable health insurance for the one million Virginians without it. The law calls on states to proceed with the implementation of Medicaid expansion to those under 138% of the poverty level. However, it allows states to opt out without penalty to their current Medicaid programs. As such, this provides an opportunity for VCEH, our members, and our partners to work together to ensure that Virginia expands Medicaid coverage for its most vulnerable. |
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VCEH CONGRATULATES PAM KESTNER, HOMELESS OUTCOMES COORDINATOR
The Virginia Coalition to End Homelessness congratulates Pamela Kestner on her new appointment as the Homeless Outcomes Coordinator by Governor Bob McDonnell. The governor announced her appointment to the Health and Human Resources secretariat last Friday, June 15.
Pamela Kestner has served as the President of the Council of Community Services since July 2000, working a great deal within the area of homelessness, helping to facilitate the creation of "the Ten Year Plan to End Homelessness" for the Blue Ridge Continuum of Care. Pamela Kestner's work with the Council of Community Services began in 1986 when she was Director of Community Resources / Associate Executive Director until July 2000 and prior to that, Kestner served as a Juvenile Probation Officer in Lebanon, Virginia. She serves on the Roanoke Valley-Alleghany Regional Advisory Council on Homelessness as well as the Homelessness Outcomes Advisory Committee and the Rapid Re-Housing Advisory Group.
"VCEH has had the pleasure of partnering with Pam Kestner on both local homelessness efforts in the Roanoke region and on the statewide level. Pam is a leader on homelessness, housing and social services issues, and we who care about ending homelessness in the Commonwealth of Virginia are lucky to have such a dedicated and talented person appointed to coordinate the state's plan to reduce homelessness by 15 percent. VCEH looks forward to partnering with Pam in her new role to end homelessness in the Commonwealth," stated Phyllis Chamberlain, Executive Director of the Virginia Coalition to End Homelessness.
Click here for the Governor's announcement of Pam Kestner's appointment.
Click here for more information on the state plan to reduce homelessness by 15 percent.
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Thank you to our recent new and renewed individual and organizational members:
Arlington-Alexandria Coalition for the Homeless
Caritas
Doorways for Women and Children
Good Shepherd Housing and Family Services
St. Luke's Catholic Church
Have you received your annual membership renewal letter? If so, please renew! If you are unsure whether your membership is due, email vceh@vceh.org.
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ABOUT US
The Virginia Coalition to End Homelessness is the statewide nonprofit organization dedicated to preventing and ending homelessness in the Commonwealth of Virginia through community collaboration, capacity building, education and advocacy.
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Virginia Coalition to End Homelessness
PO Box 14649 Richmond, Virginia 23221
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