The number of projects recommended for funding also increased from 10 in 2004 to 16 in 2005.

The key changes in the 2005 HUD Homeless funding program include:

1) The amount available for the Samaritan incentive project was limited to 20% of the Continuum's initial pro rata share or approximately $196,000. This was a substantial decrease from the previous year's amount of $750,000

2) All projects recommended must fall within the final HUD allocation amount. There were no funds available for any excess (formerly called the "straddle funds).

3) Renewals are not automatically prioritized before new projects and may not be recommended for funding.

4) The Continuum has the authority to deselect renewal projects and "re-allocate" their renewal funds if they wished to fund new Permanent Housing projects with this money. This option was not exercised this year. However, the Continuum committees will be reviewing criteria for a re-allocation process.

5) Each Continuum must report their progress to meet HUD's national goal of ending chronic homelessness in ten years and report the number of chronically homeless persons served in each funded project.

6) All new projects were only required to have a minimum term of two years, instead of three years in 2004.

7) Each project is required to report their housing performance and outcome measures according to HUD requirements.

8) HUD has new guidelines for entry into Permanent Supportive Housing projects - new residents can only come from emergency shelters, the street or transitional housing. Those coming from hospitals and halfway houses are specifically excluded. Current residents are grandfathered in.

The DuPage Homeless Continuum is incorporating all new requirements in their activities.

Please mark your calendars for the next Full Membership Meeting on
Thursday, 11/10/05!
The meeting will be held from 8:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m.
At Metropolitan Family Services
222 E. Willow
Wheaton, IL 60187

The next full membership meeting is scheduled for Thursday, November 10, 2005 at Metropolitan Family Services from 8:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. It will be a panel discussion focusing on the results of the Poverty Study completed by the DuPage Federation on Human Services. The panel will include key executives from the fields of education, health care, county services, law enforcement, and hunger management. Each presenter will highlight key facts on poverty in DuPage County. The goal is to have the membership informed and encourage them to advocate both within and outside of their agency, especially with agency administrators, board members, and local legislators. You will also hear the results of a Benefits Utilization survey - those that are underutilized and strategies for accessing them.

Learn the 10 Key Facts about poverty in DuPage County and what you can do about it!

A complete agenda will be sent to all Continuum members in October. Please join us for this enjoyable yet informative and worthwhile session. Local legislators, DuPage County Board members, and members of the DuPage Housing Action Coalition are also being invited to this meeting.

DUPAGE CONTINUUM WEBSITE

The DuPage Homeless Continuum website is now operational. Please visit it at www.dupagehomeless.org to access relevant information on the activities and accomplishments of the Continuum.

If you would like to add announcements or a link to your organization, please email it to plijewski@wideopenwest.com. All links need to have a 1-2 sentence description.

The Chairpersons Forum thanks Brandt and Associates and Benedictine University whose technical expertise and assistance made this site possible. Special thanks to Eileen Clark, Associate Professor of Computer Science at Benedictine University who has volunteered to keep the site updated.

We are proud to report that Carol Simler, Executive Director of DuPage P.A.D.S., attended the National Alliance to End Homelessness Annual Conference on July 11-13, 2005 in Washington D.C. This year's conference addressed Ending Homelessness: Progress and Challenges. Conference highlights included keynote speakers such as Senator Jack Reed (D-RI), Jim Wallis, Editor of Sojourners Magazine; Jim Towey, Assistant to the Director of the Office on Faith-Based and Community Initiatives at the White House, and Senator Mike DeWine (R-OH).

Carol participated in an Advocacy Training Institutes designed to demonstrate the importance of advocacy in our efforts to end homelessness. Leading a small delegation, Carol met with Representative Judy Biggert to ask her co-sponsorship for SELHA (Services to End Long Term Homelessness Act): HR 1471, S 709. Representative Biggert agreed to become a co-sponsor for this important legislation. This legislation will fund supportive services for the housing being developed to end long-term homelessness. It will establish a new program administered by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Those at the conference celebrated Carol's success with a crown for her to wear as a result of gaining the support of Representative Judy Biggert !
Thank you, Carol for your dedication and initiative.

In 2001, Congress established a national goal that every homeless Continuum collect unduplicated client level data by 2004. The HUD HMIS Data and Technical Standards were announced in the Federal Register on July 29, 2004. The DuPage Continuum is using version 3.8 ServicePoint by Bowman. It guarantees meeting HUD HMIS security standards. Compliance is monitored by the full-time HMIS System Administrator - Leslie Grevoy. ServicePoint is an Internet-based system whereby all agencies that provide services to the homeless, persons at risk, and low-income persons can enter and maintain client information. Each provider can enter (and modify as needed) basic client demographic data, case management information, referral history, and other information. Clients only have to provide their required information one time before accessing any services from participating agencies. The system meets all confidentiality requirements under the Health Insurance Portability and Protection Act.

The DuPage Continuum CMIS has added five new agencies since July 2004 and has increased the reporting of client level data to 79% for emergency shelter beds, 95% for transitional housing beds, and 100% for permanent supportive housing beds. A field identifying "chronically homeless" using the HUD definition has been added.
ServicePoint 3.8 has more report capabilities than previous versions. The goal is to count the unduplicated number of persons in the emergency shelter and transitional programs on the last Thursday in January 2006. The number of chronically homeless persons in those beds will also be counted that night. The data will be evaluated to see if a manual survey to back up the numbers is necessary. The unsheltered homeless will continue to be counted manually at this time. Their numbers are reported individually from 32 municipal police departments throughout the county who will not have the ability to enter data in the CMIS system.

Entering client level data in the HMIS system is mandatory in order to receive HUD Continuum funding or Community Development Block Grant funding. The DuPage County CMIS Administrator is Leslie Grevoy. The CMIS Users Group meets monthly, usually in the morning of the second Wednesday. For more information, please contact Leslie at 630- 407-6462.

PUBLIC BENEFITS RESOURCE DIRECTORY

A directory on additional local, state and federal resources available to persons who receive public benefits is being developed by the Barriers Task Force and should be available in September. This includes items such as glasses, car repairs, education expenses, work clothing, etc. It will be available from the Continuum website.

MAKING THE CONNECTION TRAINING

"Making the Connection - Accessing Public Benefits " training is continuing to grow. There are two more seminars scheduled in DuPage County for 2005. In addition, the Illinois Department of Human Services is sponsoring 10 "Making the Connection" seminars statewide in the next year. These will be free of charge.

The Making the Connection manual has been reformatted. The Resource Directory is now statewide and also information on Housing Programs have been added. The training is now a full day to allow time for q & a and case studies. Updates to the manual are now posted on the DuPage Continuum website under Benefits Updates.

This training is assisting non-profits, schools, faith based organizations, local governments, businesses and health care providers to identify their customers who may be eligible for mainstream benefits and know how to expedite the application process.

NEW - The Illinois Department of Human Services (IDHS) has provided a new contact person if there are problems connecting with IDHS services.
Preference is to contact via e-mail.

IDHS Assistant Local Office Administrator
Lupe Barrientes at DHS10728@dhs.state.il.us Phone 630-782-4737

Results of the January 27, 2005 one night street count of sheltered and unsheltered homeless persons are posted on the DuPage Continuum website. Click on Homeless Demographics on the home page and then select the Homeless Populations Chart.

A Homeless Count Subcommittee has been formed. Their mission is to develop and implement procedures for conducting the annual homeless beds count, the bi-annual street count of unsheltered persons and the bi-annual count of sheltered persons in homeless facilities. They will be working closely with the CMIS Users Group to develop computerized counting capability.

The Needs Assessment Committee is developing standards for interim housing that promotes housing placement in the most appropriate setting as soon as possible. Current procedures are being assessed as the first step. A Quarterly Housing Report form has been implemented. The Interim Housing subcommittee is asking all homeless providers to complete this form in order that the data can be used as a basis for new interim housing standards.

2005 FUNDING CRITERIA

The project ranking criteria that are used to evaluate CDBG and HUD funded projects have been reviewed by the Grants Funding Committee. Proposed changes include:

• Measurable outcomes of the proposed project meet these HUD goals: a) 70% of Permanent Housing residents will remain in housing at least 6 months, b) 60% of Transitional Housing residents will move to permanent housing, c) The employment rate of persons exiting HUD projects will be 10% higher than those entering.
  
  
• The proposed project effectively leverages resources using HUD leveraging forms.
  
  
• The project enters consistent and high quality client level data to the CMIS which meets all Minimum Data Entry requirements.
  
  
• Enrollment and participation of clients in mainstream programs data shows an increase in the percentage of clients who gained access to mainstream services and who gained employment.

If you wish to weigh in on these proposed changes, please contact Phil Smith at 407-6420 or email him at phil.smith@dupageco.org Any approved changes to the Ranking System criteria will take effect for the 2006 HUD Supernofa application process and the 2005 Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) application process.

Applicants will notified by email with the details of how to obtain instructions and application forms in August 2005. Applicants may request individual assistance in completing applications by calling Carolyn Engle at 407-6603. These applications are due to the DuPage County Community Development Department by October 1, 2005. The Grants Funding committee will be evaluating the CDBG/ESG funding applications for the Homeless Cluster. The Grants Funding Committee will review the scoring of all CDBG applications prior to final determination by the Community Development staff.

The DuPage Homeless Continuum continues to increase the number of permanent supportive housing beds available for the homeless. These include a new Shelter plus Care project which will house 23 chronically homeless persons and become operational in the fall of 2005. The 2004 Partners in Housing project is operating 12 new beds for the chronically homeless and 10 beds for homeless families with disabilities - a collaboration with Catholic Charities, Diocese of Joliet and DuPage P.A.D. S. In this year's 2005 HUD application, DuPage P.A.D.S., Inc. is applying for 7 new Permanent Supportive Housing units which will house 7 chronically homeless individuals.

The DuPage Homeless Continuum currently has a total of 208 Permanent Supportive Housing beds for the homeless. A complete inventory is contained on the Continuum Website. Click on Homeless Demographics, then select Housing Activity Chart - Permanent Supportive Housing.

DuPage P.A.D.S, Inc. has a long range five year plan to develop 50 new permanent supportive housing units for persons who are chronically homeless. Catholic Charities, Diocese of Joliet has received a Capacity Building grant from the Corporation for Supportive Housing to assist them in developing permanent housing options for the chronically homeless.

Two organizations are in the process of becoming new Community Housing Development Organizations (CHDOS) - Catholic Charities and Bluestem Housing Partners, NFP. Their goal is to develop housing for the chronically homeless populations. You may contact Catholic Charities by emailing ddarzinskis@cc-doj.org and Bluestem by emailing ahamernik@hotmail.com.

MEETING CALENDAR

A new calendar of all Continuum committee meetings for the period from July 2005 through July 2006 is attached for your information.

Following is a listing of the DuPage Homeless Continuum