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Home My WebLink AboutWORKSHOP re CHG Lead Grantee - presentationHOMELESS RESPONSE SYSTEM PRESENTATION TO JEFFERSON BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS 1/13/2025 DO NO HARM It is important that we state clearly that the goal of this investigation into CHG program is to perform appropriate due diligence of the County in decision making and in order to best support our unhoused neighbors. Looking at the current functioning of CHG and making any decisions for the future must be made in a sincere and conscious effort to do no harm to the existing homeless response system. With the first goal of improving care for all of the persons involved; housing service providers, unhoused people themselves and the long term housing outlook. We recognize that the housing continuum system is broken nation wide and the condition of unhoused neighbors can in no way be “blamed” on any one entity. HOW DOES CHG WORK? The goal of CHG is to have a holistic homeless response system for Jefferson County with a strong awareness of the housing landscape and the long term plan. Since 2012 Washington State Legislature has set aside pooled funding to support the emergency housing assistance continuum in every county. This pooled funding is called the Consolidated Homeless Grant (CHG) and is provided to local jurisdictions and non-profits. Using this funding requires implementation of best practices, reporting and planning in accordance with statewide goals for a homeless crisis response system based on Chapter 43.185C RCW. LEAD GRANTEE •WA State Dept. of Commerce notified Jefferson County that the County could elect to be the Lead Grantee for the 2025-2027 two-year fiscal period. This opportunity will recur in early calendar year 2027 for the 2027-2029 biennium. CHG follows the state fiscal year and is granted for a biennium from 1 July of the first year through 30 June of the second year. •Deadline for decision is January 20th 2025. HOMELESS RESPONSE SYSTEM GOALS FOR JEFFERSON COUNTY FINANCE •Provide a strong homeless response system with appropriate diversity of bed types/needs. •Coordinate the spending of DRF/1590 funds and CHG oversight to improve the Homeless Response System. •Control administrative expense and maximize implementation investments. LEADERSHIP •Hold strong accountability for the performance of the homeless response system. •Work collaboratively with all housing services partners and funders; OlyCAP, Bayside Housing & Services, DoveHouse, Habitat for Humanity, Peninsula Housing Authority, Owl360, YMCA, Winter Welcoming Center, Housing Fund Board and others. •Produce accurate data that results in informed decisions. ADMINISTRATIVE REQUIREMENTS OF CHG LEAD GRANTEE •Below are the administrative requirements of all CHG Leads statewide. They are updated regularly and contained in the CHG Guidelines produced by WA State Dept. of Commerce. •#1 Strive to improve housing outcomes as measured by statewide performance targets. #2 LOW BARRIER PROJECTS •Each county must have at least one low barrier project serving homeless adults and at least one low barrier project serving homeless households with children. By July 1, 2025, no less than 80% of a county’s CHG funded projects (programs and facilities) must be low barrier. •Currently Jefferson County has the following low barrier projects: #3 COORDINATED ENTRY SYSTEM •Each county must maintain a Coordinated Entry (CE) process. CE is a coordinated system of intake, assessment, and referral that gets households in a housing crisis connected to available resources in the community. The goal of CE is to help communities prioritize assistance to ensure people who need the assistance the most can receive it in a timely manner. •Lead/subgrantees providing direct service must enter client data into the Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) for all temporary and permanent housing interventions regardless of funding source. DATA ON PERFORMANCE OF THE HOMELESS RESPONSE SYSTEM From Dept of Commerce #4 REPORTING REQUIREMENTS •Local Homeless Housing Plan: Lead must work with local task force to prepare this. •Annual county Expenditure Report: Lead must provide expenditure tracking to Commerce. •Point in Time Count: Lead must ensure it is performed in accordance with Commerce guidelines. •Essential Needs Report: Lead must ensure this reporting is completed. #5 REQUIRED TRAINING •Lead/subgrantees must identify staff to attend and complete trainings. These staff should include staff that provide direct services, supervisors of direct service staff, and staff that manage homeless grants. •The following trainings are required at least every three years and attendance must be documented: Trauma Informed Services, Supporting survivors of domestic violence, Local coordinated entry policies and procedures as required by lead CE entity, Fair Housing, Housing First, Racial Equity, LGBTQ+ competency, Rapid Re-Housing, Progressive Engagement and Problem-Solving (Diversion). Other recommended trainings include mental health first aid, crisis intervention, professional boundaries, and case management. •In addition, lead/subgrantee staff are highly encouraged to attend the annual Washington State Conference on Ending Homelessness. #6 SUBGRANTEE REQUIREMENTS •Lead grantees may enter into an agreement with any other local government, Council of Governments, Housing Authority, Community Action Agency, nonprofit community or neighborhood-based organization, federally recognized Indian tribe in the state of Washington, or regional or statewide nonprofit housing assistance organizations who operate programs to end homelessness within a defined service area. RESPONSIBILITY TO, BY AND FOR COMMUNITIES •Lead grantees must make a reasonable effort to sub-grant with By and For organizations. At least 10 percent of the Eviction Prevention total award must be sub-granted to organizations that serve and are substantially governed by marginalized populations (By and For organizations). Sub-grant activities may include the full scope of homelessness prevention program activities. •Commerce expects grantees to be anti-racist leaders in their crisis response systems and facilitate partnerships among organizations that respond to the disproportionality in services and outcomes for communities that don’t seek assistance from mainstream organizations. At minimum, this includes acknowledging By and For agency subject matter expertise in serving their communities, including them in homeless response planning and decision making and ensuring resources are equitably distributed to communities most impacted. ELIGIBLE ACTIVITIES (CHG IS MADE UP OF SEVERAL PROGRAMS TARGETED TO SUPPORT SPECIFIC POPULATIONS AND NEEDS) •Temporary Housing Interventions •Emergency Shelter •Transitional Housing •Permanent Housing Interventions •Rapid Re-Housing •Permanent Supportive Housing •Street Outreach •Homelessness(Eviction) Prevention •Housing and Essential Needs There are administrative, operations and facility budgets associated with CHG programs. All of these eligible activities are documented in the CHG Guidelines. HOW IS CHG FUNDING ALLOCATED DIRECT QUOTES FROM DEPT OF COMMERCE STAFF •“The initial formula for distribution of CHG funds included number of people living in poverty by county, number of people unemployed by county, number of homeless and without housing and DSHS medical assistance recipients with serious mental illness. In the past few grant cycles, the allocations have been based on prior biennium awards and spending.” •“The CHG budget is proposed by the Lead grantee. The legislature and Commerce do not dictate the CHG budget apart from having distinct funding sources and caps on administrative expenses. Each county will be given the award by funding source to then determine how they will use/budget the funds.” SPENDING OF CHG AWARD IN 2024-2025 Budget/Expenditure report provided by WA State Dept of Commerce 1/3/2024 Category Current Budget Amt Exp Total Amt CHG Admin ( $17,229.00 $15,492.98 CHG Rent $85,945.00 $27,465.27 CHG Operations $111,687.00 $96,811.84 HEN Admin 2024 $8,589.00 $8,388.86 HEN Rent/Fac Support 2024 $57,061.00 $57,061.00 HEN Operations 2024 $57,061.00 $57,061.00 HEN Admin 2025 $8,589.00 $7,454.78 HEN Rent/Fac Support 2025 $57,061.00 $41,145.43 HEN Operations 2025 $57,061.00 $34,594.27 Eviction Prevention Admin $75,580.00 $54,168.87 Eviction Prevention Rent $324,689.00 $153,059.20 Eviction Prevention Operations $263,600.00 $263,600.00 HEN FCS Bridge Admin 2024 $488.00 $0.00 HEN FCS Bridge Rent 2024 $3,242.00 $0.00 HEN FCS Bridge Operations 2024 $3,242.00 $0.00 HEN FCS Bridge Admin 2025 $488.00 $0.00 HEN FCS Bridge Rent 2025 $3,242.00 $0.00 HEN FCS Bridge Operations 2025 $3,242.00 $0.00 Inflation Increase 2024 $66,037.00 $64,303.97 Inflation Increase 2025 $66,037.00 $28,051.41 EHF FY 25 Admin $47,640.00 $16,110.16 EHF FY 25 Operations $333,481.00 $146,456.01 Totals $1,651,291.00 $1,071,225.05 2024-2025 CHG SPENDING BY TYPE/PROGRAM ACCOUNTING DATA PROVIDED BY OLYCAP ON 1/3/2024 FROM 7/1/23 –12/31/24 EHF CHG HEN CHG Standard Eviction Prevention TOTAL Operations $ 42,454.00 $ 32,258.00 $ 50,093.00 $ 102,579.00 $ 227,384.00 16% of Total CHG Rent $ 9,651.00 $ 1,099.00 $ 25,404.00 $ 56,938.00 $ 93,092.00 Facilities $ 23,063.00 $ 4,912.00 $ 33,349.00 $ 61,324.00 $ 154,416.00 68% of Operations Training $ 12,380.00 $ 509.00 $ 12,889.00 Salaries $ 213,254.00 $ 71,803.00 $ 42,435.00 $ 129,025.00 $ 456,517.00 33% of Total CHG; 4 FTE Admin $ 44,538.00 $ 15,844.00 $ 15,493.00 $ 49,743.00 $ 125,618.00 10% of Total CHG Direct Services $ 184,222.00 $ 116,781.00 $ 43,641.00 $ 214,271.00 $ 558,915.00 40% of Total CHG FUNDING 0 200000 400000 600000 800000 1000000 1200000 1400000 1600000 1800000 2018-2019 2020-2021 2022-2023 2024-2025 2026-2027 CHG Funding in Jeff. Co. CHG OlyCAP Spending of CHG Funding for CHG and it’s associated programs is based on legislative appropriation. The 2025-2027 funding is expected to decrease up to 20%. Commerce has reported that CHG funds have not been fully spent for the last 4 years. Anticipated decrease LOCAL FUNDING COLLECTED: DOCUMENT RECORDING/1590 •RCW 36.22.250 lays out the means by which the Document Recording surcharge is collected and distributed. 30% is retained by the county or city in which it is collected to “accomplish the purposes of its local homeless housing plan”, 54.1% is transmitted back to the state for homelessness programming and 14.9% is transmitted to the State Treasurer. •In Jefferson County the work of utilizing this funding to improve the Homeless Response System is accomplished by the Housing Fund Board. The Housing Fund Board, our local “homeless housing task force”, also has the responsibility to prepare the required 5-year Homeless Housing Plan, the most recent of which expired December of 2024. A new plan for 2025-2030 will be prepared and adopted this year in December 2025. BALANCE OF STATE –ACCESS TO FEDERAL FUNDING FOR PROGRAMS PEERS USE OF CHG SKAGIT, 131,000 POPULATION. •County Health Department -Community Services is Lead Grantee, “Helpful to have an outside entity to convene the body”, NorthStar connects fragments entities for working together. •3 staff with CHG funds, 20 subgrants, 2024-2025 funding was $3.9million •Pool the CHG funding, DRF, a portion of behavioral health funds and additional grant funds to subgrant/programs. •Housing Service Providers still have issues with operations and maintenance of property. •Working with a consultant, TenFold, to determine how to move forward across system with reduced funding. •CE Intakes are completed by Volunteers of America of Western Washington, using 211 along with walk-in service. GRAYS HARBOR, 77,290 POPULATION •Public Health Department –2 staff dedicated CHG, Contract grant manager and fiscal specialists ..”communication is the key, communication with grantor, subgrantees, task force…” •Housing Task Force –Think Tank including business/churches •3 service providers and multiple contracts Coastal Cap •CGTA funding with therapeutic court, •CE Intakes are performed by a single point of contact solid point of coordinated entry all completed by Coastal Cap. •HUD HQS grants that intertwine to support Domestic Violence. •Auditing/ Quality Meetings of implementation via Policies and procedures around programs, FMR –Rent Reasonableness, quarterly data quality meetings with each subgrantees, case conferencing. PEERS USE OF CHG PACIFIC, 24,000 POPULATION •To be provided on 1/13 DOUGLAS, 48,000 POPULATION •To be provided on 1/13