Monarch Housing’s Blog!

The HUD-VASH program for 2008 is underway. HUD waived the requirements for a NOFA to allocate the vouchers. In New Jersey a total of seventy will be available. Thirty-five each were assigned to the East Orange and Lyons VA Medical Centers. Because the VA Medical Center’s coverage areas often extend beyond the metropolitan areas in which they are located, it is possible that some of the one hundred and five assigned to Philadelphia VA Medical Center may assist homeless veterans in southern New Jersey.

The proposed FY 2009 Budget seeks to double the amount of funding announced today to provide an additional $75 million to support the housing and service needs of an additional 10,000 homeless veterans across America.

This along with more information is available in an overview prepared by the Corporation for Supportive Housing (CSH). To read the full report click here.

To view a HUD/VA webcast on this important topic click here.

To view the PowerPoint on HUD-VASH case management click here.

The following are highlights from the CSH report.

On May 8, 2008 the Department of Housing and Urban Development and representatives from the Department of Veterans’ Affairs conducted a webcast to present information about implementation of the HUD-VASH Read the rest of this entry »

The rankings by county for the 2007 Continuum of Care have been prepared. To view a copy in Adobe PDF format click here.

Monarch Housing Associates worked with ten (10) of the thirteen (13) counties that received new funding. The cutoff for new funding was 90.25.

Of the total of fourteen (14) applications submitted by Monarch Housing the average score increased 3.3 points over the 2006 score.

For more information on the projects that were funded in the 2007 round click here.

Last Thursday the House of Representatives passed two bills to address the growing foreclosure crises. The White House has signaled it will veto at least one and possibly both bills. The votes in the House are not enough to override either bill. To read all of our posts on the foreclosure crisis click here. To read our post on the legislation click here.

H.R. 3221: Foreclosure Prevention Act of 2008, passed by a vote of 266-154. The legislation, according to the NACEED, “includes modernization of the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) mortgage insurance programs, legislation to create a new independent regulator for the Government-Sponsored Enterprises, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and legislation that would authorize FHA to insure $300 billion in new, affordable long-term mortgages that refinance qualified subprime loans.”

Several of the provisions of H.R. 5720, the “Housing Assistance Tax Act of 2008” were incorporated into the bill Among the provision is a $10 billion increase in the tax-exempt private activity bond volume cap to enable local and state housing agencies to refinance qualified subprime loans, serve other first-time homebuyers, it would allow investors in Low-Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC) to fully claim those credits against the Alternative Minimum Tax and provide a $.20 per capita increase in the volume cap for LIHTC’s for 2008 and 2009 as well as several refinements to the LIHTC program.

H.R. 5818 Neighborhood Stabilization Act of 2008, passed by a vote of 239-188. This bill requires the Read the rest of this entry »

The National Alliance to End Homelessness featured Rapid Re-housing projects at their 2008 National Conference on Ending Family Homelessness. Information about the structure of successful rapid re-housing programs, as well as which stakeholders need to be involved in the process, was presented at the conference.

Below are links to the presentations on Rapid Re-housing from the National Conference in Seattle Washington.

Housing First For Homeless Families - Rapid Re-Housing

HUD Rapid Re-Housing Initiative

Coordinating Multiple Homeless Interventions in a Rural Community

Duncan Plaza Homeless Re-Housing Initiative

Duncan Plaza Articles

Understanding and implementing this new initiative as the McKinney-Vento application process begins. Congress has appropriated $25 million for demonstration Rapid Re-Housing projects across the country that will be attached to the FY2008 Continuum of Care application. The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is seeking to examine the effectiveness of Rapid Re-housing programs in reducing family homelessness in a variety of communities.

Through the new on-line Continuum of Care registration process with E-snaps, Continuums will be able to view the maximum amount of funding available for use in Rapid Re-housing projects. Preliminary estimates show a maximum of $7,949,990 will be available for rapid re-housing projects in the state of New Jersey. This amount equals 30% of the states Continuum of Care funding.

For more information about the many workshops at the conference click here.

To view the Ending Family Homelessness video click here.

The E-snaps website is online and ready to use. E-snaps is the new application and grants management system for HUD’s Homeless Programs. It supports the collaborative application process known as the Continuum of Care (CoC) Homeless Assistance Competition. To access E-snaps click here. The Online Training Navigation Tutorial is a tutorial that will guide you through the key features of navigating your way within this online training.

The e-snaps online training is online by clicking here or in an Adobe format click here.

On May 7, 2008, Housing and Urban Development released the FY 2008 SuperNOFA for all programs except the Continuum of Care (CoC). The CoC will be released no earlier than July 1, 2008.

Section 811 applications are due on July 16, 2008

The number of units available for the New Jersey is twenty (20) for a total of $2,875,370. The Webcast Date is May 20, 2008 12:30 - 3:00 PM. Click here to read the NOFA. For more information available on Grants.gov click here.

Section 202 application are due on July 10, 2008.

The number of units available in New Jersey is one hundred eleven (111) for a total capital advance of $16,759,723 The Webcast Date: May 20, 2008 12:30 - 1:30 PM. Click here to read the NOFA. For more information available on Grants.gov click here.

To view all of the SuperNOFA opportunities click here.

We were very pleased to hear today from our friend Bob Guarasci,the President of the New Jersey Community Development Corporation that the Birch Street Apartments is up and running. Bob told us “We are very happy that our Birch Street Supportive Housing is up and running and serving formerly homeless individuals who are enormously grateful and can’t believe their good fortune. We’ll work hard to engage our residents to help them overcome obstacles and reach their fullest potential.” The site provides fifteen (15) permanent, affordable and supportive units for very low income individuals who are homeless with a mental illness. Every unit will have it’s own living area, as well as a kitchen and bathroom.

This is a photo of Bob and some of the new tenants of the Birch Street Apartments.

To read our previous post on this project click here. To see photos from the construction click here.