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Helping communities shift from short-term to long-term solutions to homelessness
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Dear Friends,
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As the year flies by, there are several things we would like to share with you:
Also, please update your contact information for VCEH!
VCEH's mailing address is:
PO Box 14649
Richmond, VA 23221
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Spotlight on Federal Policy
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 Sequestration Update
The deadline has past for Congress to avoid automatic, across-the-board funding cuts to most federal programs ("sequestration.") Here's how this will impact homeless assistance programs, according to the information currently available from sources including the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and the National Alliance to End Homelessness.
Your current Continuum of Care grants will NOT be impacted by sequestration. The CoC application that was submitted in January 2013 is the FY2012 competition, and will also not be impacted by sequestration. However, the FY2013 Continuum of Care NOFA - to be released later this year - will reflect the five percent sequestration cut. We will update you as we receive more information on the impact of sequestration on local homeless assistance and prevention programs.
Important housing programs will also be impacted. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities estimates that Virginia's CDBG and HOME funds will be cut by over $3.5 million.
HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan has stated that about 125,000 individuals and families across the country could lose assistance through the Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) program and more than 100,000 formerly homeless people across the country would be removed from their current housing or emergency shelter programs due to cuts to HUD's Continuum of Care programs. Secretary Donovan also talked about the impact of cuts to HOPWA, HOME, and CDBG - all critical funding sources for homeless prevention and assistance and affordable housing.
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Spotlight on State Policy
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 Success for Homelessness and Housing Issues in the Virginia General Assembly: $2 million in New Funding We are happy to report that $2 million was included in the budget for homelessness and affordable housing solutions - $500,000 for permanent supportive housing, $500,000 for rapid re-housing, and $1 million for the Virginia Housing Trust Fund (Item 108 #2c). Another great success, thanks to our work led by the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) Virginia, was Item 315 #3c - an amendment that provided additional funding for discharge assistance planning (DAP) for a total of $1.5 million. DAP funding addresses "a waiting list of over 150 individuals who have been clinically determined to be ready for discharge but continue to reside in state mental health facilities." These individuals are at high risk of homelessness. Along with our local and state partners, VCEH worked hard this session! We want to thank our partners - the Virginia Housing Coalition, Housing Opportunities Made Equal of Virginia, Inc., the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) Virginia, Voices for Virginia's Children, and the Virginia Poverty Law Center, among others - for their leadership on issues that are important to ending homelessness. And most importantly, THANK YOU for every phone call, email, and visit with legislators this session to make solutions to homelessness, supportive services, Medicaid Expansion, foster care youth, and the Housing Trust Fund a priority for legislators. For more details on our specific policy efforts this year, be sure to check out our 2013 Legislative Agenda. Contact Robin Gahan at 804-938-1982 or robin@vceh.org for more information. |
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 VCEH worked with our local partners to secure media coverage on the importance of inclusion of new funding for homeless assistance in the state budget: |
What We've Been Up To
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Adopting Statewide Homeless Assistance Performance Measures
Data can be a powerful tool to encourage increased investments in homeless assistance because of its ability to demonstrate positive outcomes and therefore how homeless assistance programs make a difference in communities.
Over the last few months, VCEH in partnership with the Commonwealth of Virginia and the National Alliance to End Homelessness has asked for input from Continuum of Care leads in the development of statewide performance measures of homeless assistance programs. The goal is to create consistent and meaningful data and outcome standards to document progress and achievement in reducing rates of homelessness in the Commonwealth of Virginia, aligned with new data and outcome requirements established by the federal government.
Thanks to those individuals that have provided input as your input is invaluable to creating measures that work and to ensuring that these performance measures can be adopted locally. We are in the process of finalizing the measurements - so stay tuned for more details. Contact Jill Fox, VCEH's Director of Programs and Evaluation, for more information.
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 CoC Competition Resources Many of us - including VCEH - recently completed the annual Continuum of Care submission to the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). VCEH assisted three communities - the Harrisonburg and Winchester newly merged Continuum of Care, Waynesboro and Staunton and surrounding area Continuum of Care, and the Portsmouth Continuum of Care - to complete this year's application. The federal HEARTH Act has significantly changed the Continuum of Care application and HUD requirements of local communities, and there will be more changes next year. In order to help you manage the application and maximize funding for your community - VCEH will be developing a set of tools to help you get organized for the FY13 competition. Stay tuned for details and let us know of resources that will help you locally. |
Training and Technical Assistance Resources for You
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 Benefit from peer-to-peer exchange to improve rapid re-housing Applications are due on Monday, March 25 for participation in a Learning Collaborative to help organizations adopt and improve rapid re-housing strategies. The National Alliance to End Homelessness (NAEH) is launching seven Learning Collaboratives as part of the project, "Reducing Family Homelessness in Virginia: A Rapid Re-Housing Approach," a collaboration among the Alliance, the Commonwealth of Virginia, the Virginia Coalition to End Homelessness, and the Freddie Mac Foundation.
The Learning Collaboratives will take place from April 2013 to February 2014.
Approximately four to five organizations will participate in each Collaborative. Teams from participating organizations will learn from each other and from experts in the rapid re-housing model, while setting bold but achievable goals for themselves.
Click here for the description of the learning collaboratives.
Click here for the Learning Collaborative Application
A conference call regarding questions on the application will be held on Thursday, March 14 at 10:30 a.m. to noon ET. Interested organizations should contact Anna Blasco at ablasco@naeh.org for call information. Please review the application before joining the conference call.
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 Expedite Access to Mainstream Resources with SOAR Technical Assistance SOAR Training can assist your locality in expediting access to mainstream resources, such as Social Security Administration's (SSA) disability programs, Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) for persons who are homeless or at risk for homelessness and who have a mental-illness, a co-occurring substance use disorder, or other serious medical condition. Process to get SOAR training |
Where We've Been
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VCEH gets around the state to visit with our partners, attend events, facilitate or host meetings, and more!
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The General Assembly
for multiple meetings with legislators to secure support for budget and legislative items that will improve policy and resources for combating homelessness in local communities.
Richmond for a meeting at the Virginia Housing Development Authority to discuss financing options for permanent supportive housing.
Richmond and the General Assembly for Housing Day coordinated by Housing Opportunities Made Equal of Virginia (HOME) and sponsored by several organizations including VCEH.
Richmond to testify on multiple bills and budget items including Youth Aging Out of Foster Care.
Fairfax, Richmond and Norfolk for meetings with stakeholders to talk about rapidly rehousing families with high barriers.
Front Royal to attend the local Continuum of Care meeting.
Richmond for a meeting of the Data Collection and Systems Coordination Subcommittee of the Virginia Coordinating Council on Homelessness to discuss statewide performance measurement.
On the Phone for meetings of the Legislative Committee of the Virginia Housing Coalition.
On the Phone for a meeting of Nonprofit Virginia's Legislative Committee.
Richmond for a meeting to coordinate initiatives with Pam Kestner, the Commonwealth's Homeless Outcomes Coordinator who oversees implementation of the state plan to reduce homelessness.
On the Phone for the first meeting of VCEH's Community Leader Council - a group of people representing nonprofit organizations and local government dedicated to helping people experiencing homelessness and committed to coordinating initiatives statewide.
Richmond for a meeting with the Deputy Commissioner of the Virginia Department of Social Services to learn more about how safety net programs, such as TANF, can be used to address housing needs in the Commonwealth.
Richmond to attend a Continuum of Care Performance Improvement Clinic conducted by National Alliance to End Homelessness and sponsored by the City of Richmond and Homeward.
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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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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
vceh@vceh.org
PO Box 14649
Richmond, Virginia 23221
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