Monarch Housing’s Blog!

Last Thursday, June 20, the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing, and Urban Development marked up the Appropriations Bill for the fiscal year (FY) 2009. In total, the bill allocates $108.3 billion for transportation and housing programs, including:

$1.69 billion for Homeless Assistance Grants, $105 million above last year’s level;

$75 million to fund 10,000 new housing vouchers for homeless veterans;

$30 million for 4,000 new housing vouchers for people with disabilities;

$16.57 billion for the Tenant Based Section 8 housing program, a $145 million increase over last year;

$7.3 billion for the Project Based Section 8 program, an increase of nearly $1 billion above last year;

$765 million for the Section 202 program, a increase of $30 million over last year; and

$250 million for the Section 811 program, an increase of $13 million dollars over last year.

To view the full budget click here.

The full House Appropriations Committee is expected to consider the bill either later this week or shortly after July 4. The Senate Subcommittee is scheduled to consider its version of the bill on July 10.

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.

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.

There is a growing movement across New Jersey that believes that ending homelessness is not a dream but something that we can and must do. The time to act on a national level on this issue is now. According to the National Alliance to End Homelessness “we have an incredible opportunity to expand funding and programs for permanent housing solutions to homelessness with the reauthorization of the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Grants program. Let’s get the strongest bill we can with high priority on housing solutions to homelessness.”

The following is information from an important Advocacy Update from the National Alliance to End Homelessness. Please review and contact your member of Congress today! To find out how to contact you House member click here. For a summary of the legislation click here.

What Can You Do:

Please call your House Member, especially those on the Financial Services Committee, and ask him or her to contact Rep. Maxine Waters the Chair of the Subcommittee with jurisdiction over this legislation and Rep Shelly Moore Capito who is the Ranking Member in support of the Manager’s Amendment to the HEARTH Act.

Why we must act now!

House: The House legislation, HR 840, the HEARTH (Homeless Emergency Assistance and Rapid Transition to Housing) Act was introduced by the late Representative Julia Carson (D-IN) with lead Republican Representative Geoff Davis (R-KY) in February 2007. Two hearings were held in October. It is the intention of the Financial Services Committee to hold a markup of legislation in the next few weeks. Rep Waters, Chair of the Subcommittee with jurisdiction (Subcommittee on Housing and Community Opportunity of the Financial Services Committee), will offer a manager’s amendment making significant changes to the HEARTH Act and greatly improving its impact on the goal of ending homelessness.

Senate: S 1518, the Community Partnership to End Homelessness Act, was introduced by Senator Jack Reed (D-RI) with lead Republican Senator Wayne Allard (R-CO) in May 2007, passed the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs and awaits action on the floor of the U.S. Senate.

The goal is to ensure the two pieces of legislation are similar to enable quicker enactment and a permanent solutions focus.

What will the manager’s amendment do?

It promotes permanent housing as the solution to homelessness by:

Funding permanent housing renewals from the account that funds Section 8 vouchers which would provide stability for renewals as well as free up funding for other new projects.
Makes law the practice of establishing a 30 percent set aside for permanent housing for people with disabilities, including both individuals and families.
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Tags: Advocacy, Ending Homelessness, McKinney-Vento, NAEH

This audio conference that NAEH will hold on McKinney-Vento Reauthorization is both timely and exceedingly important. We encourage all parties who are interested in ending homelessness to sign up to be part of this audio conference.

The National Alliance to End Homelessness invites you to participate in a national audio conference on reauthorization of HUD’s McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance programs. The audio conference will be Friday May 2 at 2:00 PM Eastern and will last 90 minutes.

Congress is working on the first major change to HUD’s homeless assistance programs in over a decade. The House Financial Services Committee is planning to consider the Homeless Emergency Assistance and Rapid Transition to Housing (HEARTH) Act along with an amendment. The audio conference will cover the proposals and what they would mean for homeless assistance as well as the outlook for reauthorization.

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The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has released Preliminary Pro Rata Need numbers through the Homeless Resource Exchange website. According to preliminary numbers, $26,499,968 will be available for HUD McKinney Vento Funding in the 2008 fiscal year. This represents a $44,348 reduction from 2007 funding levels, which provided $26,544,316 for homeless programs funded through the continuum of care process. While there has been an overall reduction in the amount of funding available for the 2008 McKinney Vento program, some of the smaller counties in New Jersey will see a significant increase in funding levels. To view the 2008 Pro Rata Need allocation for New Jersey click here.

This is how HUD explains how they determine preliminary pro rata need (P/PRN): To determine the homeless assistance need of a particular jurisdiction, HUD will use nationally available data, including the following factors as used in the Emergency Shelter Grants (ESG) program: data on poverty, housing overcrowding, population, age of housing, and growth lag. HUD recognizes and accounts for the fact that while a significant portion of homeless need exists in urban areas, homeless need also exists in rural areas. Applying those factors to a particular jurisdiction provides an estimate of the relative need index for that jurisdiction compared to other jurisdictions applying for assistance under this program section of the SuperNOFA.

In previous years 15% of the Pro Rata Need was added on to each communities allocation to provided for new housing projects for the chronically homeless through the Samaritan Bonus. At this time it is unclear if there will be an increase in the percent of pro rata need that will determine the Samaritan Bonus.

As more information about the 2008 Pro Rata Need is released, updates will be posted.

To view the 2008 Pro Rata Need allocation for New Jersey click here.

On March 26, 2008, the Center for Family Services (CFS) and the New Jersey Advocacy Network to End Homelessness met with Congressman Robert E. Andrews in his Haddon Heights office. Richard Stagliano and Eileen Henderson from CFS were joined by Richard W. Brown of Monarch Housing Associates. Both organizations are members of the Advocacy Network to end Homelessness. Originally both groups had invited Congressman Andrews to visit CFS’s successful Camden DREAMS project for aging out youth. Congressman Andrews agreed to arrange a site visit at the earliest opportunity.

The discussion focused on the Congressman’s long-term support for permanent housing and supportive services to help end homelessness. He has recently signed on to support an increase in funding for the McKinney-Vento program as well as the reauthorization of the program.

Congressman Andrews spoke positively about the 2007 Congressional Reception. He entuiatically agreed to attend the July 30, 2008, Congressional Reception. For more information on the 2008 Congressional Reception and the Advocacy Network to End Homelessness click here.