KY BoS CoC Board Members Absent Brad George, Housing and Homeless Coalition

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1 Kentucky Housing Corporation KY Balance of State Continuum of Care Advisory Board Meeting 10:00 am 1:45 pm ET, Thursday, March 2, 2017 KHC 127 Building 1047 US Highway 127S, Frankfort, KY The Kentucky BoS CoC Advisory Board met on March 2, at Kentucky Housing Corporation in Frankfort, Kentucky. A quorum was present with the following members: KY BoS CoC Board Members Present and via Webinar Debbie Sivis, Shelter of Hope, Chairperson Paul Semisch, Gateway Homeless Coalition Adrienne Bush, Housing and Homeless Coalition of Kentucky Linda Young, Welcome House Alisa Barton, Salvation Army of Hopkinsville Marty Jones, CAC of Lexington Kenzie Strubank, Housing and Homeless Coalition of Kentucky Jennifer Shofner, Transitions Cyndee Burton, Matthew 25 Aids Services, Inc. Sharon Hendrickson, Kentucky River Community Care Steve Clark, Heartland CARES Michelle Yoebstl, BRASS KY BoS CoC Board Members Absent Brad George, Housing and Homeless Coalition Others Present and via Webinar Vickie Johnson, Kentucky Coalition Against Domestic Violence CJ Meier, Housing and Homeless Coalition of Kentucky Housing Lorena Lasky, Volunteers of America Susan Dickens Mark Evans Gloria Jones Gloria Aldridge Bailey Richards, Kentucky River Community Care Rebecca Haddix, Pennyroyal Center Kibby Davis, Pennyroyal Center Shelia Wyatt, KCEOC Sharon Hazelwood, Father Bradley Kevin Finn, Strategies to End Homelessness Davey King, Kentucky Housing Corporation Shaye Rabold, Kentucky Housing Corporation Rosemary Luckett, Kentucky Housing Corporation Jill House, Kentucky Housing Corporation Anne Colly Rose, Kentucky Housing Corporation Ashley VonHatten, Kentucky Housing Corporation 1

2 Approval of Minutes Chairperson Debbie Sivis welcomed everyone and completed roll call. Adrienne Bush made motion to approve draft minutes from 1/19/2017. Linda Young seconded and motion carried. CoC Letter of Support Policy Shaye Rabold from KHC stated that three agencies Mountain Comprehensive Care, Brighton Center, and the Pennyroyal Center had requested letters of support from the CoC for their grant applications for the Grant Per Diem (GPD) program funded through the Veterans Administration for veterans experiencing homelessness. The VA is requiring current GPD program grantees to reapply for funding this year, which they have not been required to do in many years. Because the applications are due to the VA on April 4 and a formal policy for requesting and approving letters of support has not yet been adopted, Shaye developed a questionnaire for the agencies to complete regarding how the program supports work in the BoS, whether or not the agencies use HMIS, and whether or not they participate in the annual K-Count. Shaye presented the Board with copies of the agency s responses and copies of the letters of support. Shaye requested the CoC Board to sign the three letters of support. Debbie Sivis requested that the letter to Mountain Comprehensive Care Center be addressed to the Veterans Administration Center. These projects are transitional housing, recovery/substance abuse projects, and are client-choice, which are important factors. The Veterans Administration is a non-hud funding stream. There were no comments. Debbie Sivis asked if any of the board members were familiar with any of the three projects. Cyndee Burton indicated she was familiar with Pennyroyal based on regional location. Linda Young made a motion to approve the three letters of support be signed. Marty Jones seconded. Adrienne Bush commented she disagreed with the Veterans Administration funding because it disincentives providers to fill beds and doesn t address homelessness. But, she did not want to hold up the vote because it was Veterans Administration funding and not HUD funding. Shaye then presented the Board a draft policy for their consideration for requesting and approving letters of support going forward. She stated it was not necessary for the Board to approve the process at this meeting if they wanted to spend more time reviewing the proposal. Debbie Sivis stated it is important the letter of support be from the CoC Board and not from Kentucky Housing Corporation. Cyndee Burton requests that a majority of CoC Board representation support the letter of support. Shaye suggested that a committee be formed made up of at least the Board chair, vice-chair, and chairs of the standing committees. A suggestion was made that an at-large member be included as well. Sharon Hazelwood from Father Bradley Shelter for Women and Children volunteered to sit on the committee. Paul Semisch asked whether or not there was an appeal process. Shaye stated that at the moment a formal appeal process is not included in the proposed policy, but could be added. The committee will evaluate criteria and additional comments can be forwarded to the committee. It was recommended requests for letters of support be submitted via the HCA Help Desk. Adrienne Bush asked if the Board could go ahead and approve the policy as presented by Shaye. Debbie stated that a motion to adopt could be made. Adrienne made a motion to adopt the CoC Letter of Support Policy. Linda Young seconded and motion carried. Kentucky Moving On Program/VETT Vouchers Ashley VonHatten provided an update on the proposed Kentucky Moving On Program. Ashley contacted the Chicago Housing Authority to ask them questions about their Moving On Program and the housing readiness assessment tool they use. They gave permission for the KY BoS CoC to use the form. Ashley stated that with feedback from Kenzie Strubank of HHCK and Jimmy Stone of Kentucky River Foothills, 2

3 some adjustments were made to customize the assessment for Kentucky. It is the goal to roll out program in April The Moving On Program is designed for tenants who have demonstrated housing stability in their Kentucky Balance of State Continuum of Care Permanent Supportive Housing unit and are ready and able to transition into KHC s Housing Choice Voucher program. Ashley presented documents on the Moving On Program. Marty Jones suggested that language be added to the form to indicate that the tenant has had a lease or another type of housing agreement as not everyone considers the agreements to be leases. Shaye stated that the BoS will need to monitor whether or not people are returning to homelessness after moving into an HCV from a PSH program. The question was asked about how KHC would prioritize referrals and the response was that people would be served in the order they were submitted. The program will be monitored so adjustments can be made if necessary going forward. Adrienne Bush made motion to adopt the Moving On Program process and assessment tool. Cyndee Burton seconded and motion carried. Ashley also brought the information regarding administration of the Veterans Emerging Towards Transition (VETT) Housing Choice Voucher process. Paul Semisch commented is takes four months to house a VETT applicant, which is jeopardizing relationships with landlords. Adrienne Bush stated the process needs to be expedited; who does the board contact about the delay in the process? There was discussion on the process and the low number of VETT transitions. The CoC Advisory Board suggests the process be reevaluated. Shaye suggests a listening session between the HCV staff and CoC Advisory Board, scheduled at a time other than the CoC Board Meeting. Davey King stated that KHC HCV staff reported the average length of time for an inspection to occur is 6 days CoC Competition Score Discussion Shaye presented a debriefing of the 2016 CoC Program to the CoC Board based on information provided by HUD. Out of 200 points, the BoS scored Last year, the BoS scored 157. The median score was 154. The mean was 160. The highest score was 187. The lowest score was 79. She indicated almost all deductions are quantitative, not qualitative. Part 1: CoC Structure and Governance: 46.25/51 points (-4.75 points) Shaye stated she is still evaluating the information to try to determine where the loss of points occurred. Part 2: Data Collection and Quality: 25/27 points (-2 points) The -2 points came from a question worth 4 points about HMIS bed coverage as listed on the HIC. The question asked CoC to indicate the number of beds in the 2016 HIC and in HMIS for each project type within the CoC. Emergency shelters have about a 50% HMIS participation rate, which contributed to the lower score. Part 3: CoC Performance and Strategic Planning: 76/101 points (-25) Shaye stated she has been able to determine where the loss of 22/25 points came from. She will continue to evaluate where the additional 3 points may have come from. The 22 points came from the following areas: Lost 10 points for not having 85% of PSH beds dedicated to chronically homeless. Lost 3 points for not increasing funding for youth projects. 3

4 Lost 2 points for not reducing the number of chronically homeless on the 2016 Point-in-Time Count (PIT) as compared to Lost 3 points for not reducing veteran homelessness since 2010 (as reported on the PIT Count) Lost 5 points for the response about how the CoC is reducing the length of time people remain homeless. Shaye stated that the response did not include any specific data, only narrative. Looking back at the NOFA detailed instructions, including quantitative data may have prevented some of the loss of points on this question. Part 4: Cross-Cutting Policies: 18/21 points (-3pts) Lost 2 points for not having at least 75 percent of projects providing assistance with the effective utilization of Medicaid and other benefits. Shaye stated that the reason the CoC was not able to achieve 75% us because several projects indicated they do not use a single application for 4 or more mainstream benefit projects. Adrienne expressed frustration with this measurement because Benefind, the state application system, only contains three programs. Shaye stated that some projects indicated they are using a single application for 4 or more projects. It was suggested that these agencies provide information about how they are able to do this so other agencies can do the same, if possible. Shaye stated KHC is really focusing on the HIC this year to make sure the beds on the Housing Inventory Chart (HIC) are accurately reported as being dedicated to chronically homeless as that is how HUD calculates the percentage for the CoC application and that projects using HMIS are accurately reported as well. She stated this is one of the reasons why the HIC is so important for agencies to complete accurately. Vickie Johnson inquired how the Victim Service Providers (VSPs) are compared to other BoSs, and requested clarification on the requirements of the chronic homeless designation. Linda Young requested a plan to do better in writing. Shaye stated the debriefing at the meeting is just a quick summary, but that a written summary would be provided as soon as possible. Additionally, Debbie Sivis requested to obtain an example of a successful applicant to use. Shaye stated that based on guidance provided by HUD after the 2015 competition, KHC reviewed the applications submitted by the Ohio, Connecticut, Nevada, Wisconsin, and Delaware Balance of State CoCs. She stated that much of what those BoS CoCs were doing is similar to KY, but that they described it better in their narrative responses. As a result, this is why KHC asked CoC grantees to complete a questionnaire during the application process in order to gather specific examples to include in the CoC s responses. This helped improve the CoCs score in Rosemary Luckett commented that the BoS did very well on the Housing First implementation of the competition with over 90% of the project s utilizing a Housing First Model. The CoC also improved its score over 2015 on considering the severity of needs in the scoring criteria used to rank projects. Jennifer Shofner inquired if the CoC had received all of the money they were eligible to get either through renewal, reallocation, or the permanent housing bonus. She stated yes. CORRECTION: The CoC received its full Annual Renewal Demand (ARD) amount plus about $10,000, however, it did not get all of the funding that was available as a result of adding the bonus funding to the ARD. Six projects ranked in Tier Two were funded and three were not, resulting in $404,136 of possible funding left on the table. The projects not funded included a TH renewal project ($48,000) that was not using a Housing First Model, a new RRH project submitted by Strategies to End Homelessness out of Cincinnati ($269,339), and KHC s Coordinated Entry Expansion project ($86,647). Linda asked if new projects could be proposed and Shaye said yes. Linda said that was not clear in the past. Shaye stated that that information is contained in the CoC Application Guidelines the Board approves, but that KHC would make sure to do a better job of making this opportunity clear during the next round if HUD allows new projects again. Emergency Solutions Grant Application 4

5 Discussion on the Emergency Solutions Grant (ESG) process occurred. The Action Plan will be updated and it is anticipated that there will be $2.3 million in funding with announcements of available funding in April or May. New this year, ESG will announce a two-year funding policy. The ESG applications will be competitive this year and renewable next year with a competitive application in Linda Young inquired why KHC has to be so restrictive on the RRH percentage. She requested that agencies be allowed to deem the RRH percentage that works best for their respective area, so as not to create tension among the agencies and policy makers. Debbie Sivis suggested a committee to review the ESG criteria to determine if there may be a way to appease all parties involved without drastically changing the criteria or penalizing some agencies. Governance Committee Debbie Sivis asked the BoS CoC Advisory Board if the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) is still meeting the needs of the board. She charged the board members to review the MOU and provide her any feedback by March 9, Coordinated Entry Adrienne Bush discussed the updated Coordinated Entry Policies and Procedures. She further requested the policies and procedures be posted the Housing Contract and Administration Help Desk and to Kentucky Housing Corporation s website. Discussion occurred among board members to allow agencies representing area development districts to prepare a Request for Proposal (RFP) for the Supportive Services Only Grant. Such criteria to include in the RFP included: the deadline for submitting an RFP will be 45 days; and to encourage geographic coverage. Shaye stated that KHC would do its best to meet that timeframe. Shaye Rabold informed the CoC Advisory Board that Ashley VonHatten will be the lead staff for Coordinated Entry. Ashley and this position were warmly welcomed by the Board. Discussion included how to train CoCs on Coordinated Entry. It was suggested to train in May. The concerns to train any earlier are the lack of capacity at the local level and at KHC staff level. It was the concurrence of the Board that movement on Coordinated Entry was moving forward. HMIS CoC Advisory Board members expressed concern with visibility issues in not being able to see the Summary Page in Service Point. Rosemary Luckett requested they submit a HCA Help Desk ticket to further investigate the issue. The Point-In-Time Count will be completed in May. The CoC Advisory Board expressed concern of KYHMIS not being adequately staffed. Rosemary Luckett affirmed KYHMIS is adequately staffed with the recent transition of Margaret Ann Smith to fill a vacant role in that area. Regional meetings will be scheduled in May through June. Kentucky Housing Corporation HCA staff will provide dates and conduct Coordinated Entry training. Other Business The Performance Measures Committee is in need of a new chairperson. Marty Jones has volunteered to chair this committee. The next Board meeting was scheduled for April 20, 2017, 10:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m. Adjourn 5

6 Debbie Sivis adjourned meeting at 1:45 p.m. 6