NOTICE OF FUND AVAILABILITY AND REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS

HUD 2006 SUPERNOFA HOMELESS APPLICATION PROCESS

The Needs Assessment Committee is starting the application and selection process for HUD's 2006 Continuum of Care funding. The programs covered include the Supportive Housing, Shelter Plus Care, and Section 8 Moderate Rehabilitation Single Room Occupancy for Homeless Individuals (SRO) programs.

While the amount of funds available has not been announced, last year the DuPage Continuum had an adjusted pro rata share of $2.7 million with an incentive amount up to an additional $197,000 for a new Permanent Housing project for chronically homeless persons. There are significant renewals in 2006 that will impact the ability to fund new activities other than a new Permanent Supportive Housing project . Agencies are encouraged to submit new Permanent Supportive Housing projects for consideration by the Needs Assessment Committee for the upcoming HUD 2005 Continuum of Care application. Remember these projects must be for homeless persons with disabilities.

Initial oral presentations of any NEW proposed projects will be held at the Needs Assessment Committee meeting on February 16, 2006 at 1:00 p.m. The meeting is located at Metropolitan Family Services, 222 E. Willow, Wheaton, IL If you are interested in making a presentation, you must contact the Chairperson, Deb Darzinskis, by February 10, 2006. Her phone number is 815-723-3405 or email is ddarzinsksis@cc-doj.org
Written Business Plans of all new and renewal projects will be reviewed by the Needs Assessment Committee at their meeting on March 16, 2006 at 1:00 p.m. also at Metropolitan Family Services in Wheaton, IL. All members of the Continuum are encouraged to attend, not just the applicants!

Please note that the Business Plan form has been changed from last year!

There is a new Outcome Report form that needs to be completed with the Business Plan by renewal applicants. Each renewal applicant will complete a separate report on the actual outcomes achieved (using their Logic Models). The Outcome report form will be emailed to all renewal applicants.

All applicants must attend the March 16, 2006 meeting with 20 paper copies of their Business Plan and Outcome Report ( if applicable). At that meeting, a timetable for the DuPage HUD Continuum of Care application process will be distributed to all applicants.

The Cost Forms have also been revised. The completed Cost Forms must be emailed on 3/27/06 to Peg White Lijewski, Continuum Consultant. They will ask for recaptured HUD funds from the past three years for all renewal projects along with the usual cost information.

All new applicants who give oral presentations and all renewal applicants will be emailed the new Business Plan, Cost Forms, and Outcome Report. Using the incorrect forms will disqualify the applicant.

If anyone else would like to receive these forms, please contact Peg White Lijewski at plijewski@wideopenwest.com and they will be emailed to you.

Changes to the Ranking System Criteria used to evaluate the HUD funded projects were approved by the Chairpersons Forum in December 2005. The revised Ranking Criteria was emailed to all Continuum members at that time. Please contact plijewski@wideopenwest.com if you still need to receive them.

These changes to the Ranking System criteria are in effect for the 2006 HUD Supernofa applications through the DuPage Continuum. The Continuum's Business Plan form and Cost Forms has been revised to be consistent with these ranking criteria changes.

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. However, the Chairpersons Forum has made the decision that there will be no re-allocations in 2006. Information on project outcomes and recaptured funds will be collected on renewal projects during the 2006 application process in order to develop criteria and procedures for any possible re-allocation process by 2007. Priorities and goals for new projects using re-allocated funds will also be determined. There is a new Outcome Report form that will be used to collect this information.

GENERAL MEMBERSHIP MEETING - MARK YOUR CALENDARS!

Please mark your calendars for the next Full Membership Meeting on
Friday, 4/7/06!
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 Friday, April 7, 2006 at Metropolitan Family Services from 8:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. The theme will be "State of the DuPage Continuum". The goal is to have the membership informed on the Continuum's progress and achievements and also obtain your feedback on priorities for future planning.

A complete agenda will be sent to all Continuum members in March. Please join us !

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. We have added a page on member organizations of the Continuum with their web addresses.

Also the Community Resource Manual has been posted on the website for the convenience of all direct service staff. This directory details additional local, state and federal resources available to persons who receive public benefits and includes items such as glasses, car repairs, education expenses, work clothing, etc.

Mainstream benefit program policy updates are now available at the Continuum website. The information is held there for 3 months and then is transferred to an archive file at the DuPage Federation on Human Services website. www.dupagefederation.org

Homeless Prevention statistics for fiscal year 2005 are now available on the home page.

Please let your public relations or development staff know that they may post information on events, program changes, staff changes, etc. in the Announcements section of the website. 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 Eileen Clark, Associate Professor of Computer Science at Benedictine University who is doing a wonderful job on keeping the site updated.

The Homeless Count Subcommittee has been changed to 3 Task Forces: the Street Count, the Housing Activity Chart, and the Homeless Populations. 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.

The DuPage Continuum will conduct a one night count of all homeless beds and sheltered homeless persons on January 26, 2006 using a manual Provider Survey. The data will be used to complete the Housing Activity Chart and the Homeless Populations Chart. Homeless service providers will be asked for the inventory of beds available, the number of persons that night, the number of chronically homeless persons housed and the needs for housing which were not met that night.

The CMIS System Administrator will run a Homeless Populations report for the night of January 26, 2006 using the Servicepoint data. The manual data from the Provider Survey will be compared with the computerized data.

The next street count will be conducted in January 2007. The Street Count Task Force is meeting regularly to devise new methods to improve the count's accuracy.

The DuPage Continuum CMIS Users are completely converted to the most current version of ServicePoint which is 4.1.

Report capability will be improved with the implementation of the ART (Advanced Report Tool) beginning in March 2006. Custom reports can be developed and then run by each agency as well as the System Administrator. Agencies can request reports which meet their needs. This process will be assisted by the consultant, Pamela Kostecki.

*Entering client level data in the HMIS system is mandatory in order to receive HUD Continuum funding. Also HUD applicants be aware that this year the level and quality of participation in the CMIS will be part of the HUD project evaluation process. The System Administrator is developing a point scale which differentiates the level of participation in the system. Full participation includes data entry on all homeless persons served at your agency, minimum data elements, intake assessment, release of information, case notes, service referrals, entry and exit worksheet completion. The point scale will also assess the completeness of the data entry into all fields.

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.

MAINSTREAM BENEFITS TRAINING
2006 SCHEDULE

To register, please call the DuPage Federation at 630-782-4783.

The DuPage Plan to End Homelessness endorses the Housing First approach- get persons in housing and then address service needs instead of trying to resolve all issues while in shelter or transitional housing. We are working to create a community infrastructure, including homeless prevention, sufficient income and affordable housing units that can support permanent housing for everyone.

Members of the DuPage Homeless Continuum have been continuing to implement the Continuum's Plan to End Homelessness which was adopted in April 2004. Initial progress was detailed in the March 2005 Continuum Update.

Here are the highlights of continuing progress since then: (by objective numbers)

#1 - The CMIS System has completed upgrading to ServicePoint 4.1 . New user training is ongoing to ensure the integrity of the data. Custom report capability begins in March 2006 with the implementation of the ART (Advanced Report Tool). Hardware and software updating are an ongoing process. A trial Homeless Populations report will be run for the night of January 26, 2006 using the CMIS system.

#2 - Homeless Prevention statistics are posted on the Continuum's website with comparative data available from 2004 and 2005.

#3) DISCHARGE PLANNING - The Discharge Planning Task Force met for the first time on 12/7/05. Current members are Robin Partin (DuPage County Drug Court Coordinator), Karen Notko (TASC/Treatment Alternatives for Safe Communities), Beth Epstein (DuPage P.A.D.S.), Mary Lou Lawry (National Association for the Mentally Ill - DuPage), Yvonne Moringello (DuPage Emergency Shelter), Richard Endress (Access DuPage) and John Bentley (Director, DuPage County Adult Probation).This group is focused on developing strategies to help individuals who are discharged into homelessness from the County jail, Federal or State prisons, hospitals, and through the courts in order to prevent homelessness, or improve access to services including medication and treatment services. Our next steps are to meet with leaders at these institutions to establish lines of communication that can begin to resolve some mutual problems. If anyone is interested in participating in this task force, please contact Kathryn Nelson at 630-782-7545 or knelson@dupagefederation.org.The next meeting is scheduled for 1/25/06 at 1:30 PM at the IDHS office 146 W. Roosevelt Rd. Villa Park.

#3) Casework, life skills, and screening for public benefits are now available at designated DuPage P.A.D.S. night sites in order to increase benefits enrollment to the chronically homeless population and assess their housing needs. In 2005, 234 guests worked with the caseworkers at the night shelters and 75 (32%) were enrolled and increased their income/benefits.

#4) The Community Outreach Committee has completed research on Street Outreach projects. A recommendation on an appropriate model for DuPage County is being prepared, i.e., resources needed, staffing model, lead agency, etc.

#5) Shelter and transitional housing providers are completing a quarterly utilization report. Data on waiting lists and unmet needs will be used for writing standards for interim housing and planning for future bed development.

#6) Two organizations are in the process of becoming new Community Housing Development Organizations - Catholic Charities and Bluestem Housing Partners, NFP. The goal is to develop housing for the most chronic homeless populations.

#6) The Illinois Facilities Fund presented information on housing development assistance for homeless providers at the Needs Assessment meeting on 1-26-06.

#7) Efforts to develop new support services without HUD funds continue to be successful.

• A second Federally Qualified Health Center has opened in West Chicago. This center provides pediatric and adult medicine and mental health services. A third center is planned for the Bensenville/Addison area.

#7) DuPage County has convened a Mental Health Implementation planning team to design a system that would increase the availability of mental heath services to those with little or no access to quality care. The following recommendations are the result of collaboration between the County mental health professionals and community health care providers. The Mental Health Access Plan is in the implementation stage.

• Access Community Health Network is recruiting for a psychiatrist and a second bilingual psychiatric social worker.
• Outreach Community Ministries has hired two half-time psychologists.
• DuPage Community Clinic has hired a psychology doctoral intern.
• Work is in progress to coordinate prescription drug programs and to expedite the physical and mental assessments required for new Medicaid applications.
• Discussion is taking place with the Health Department and the other partners about the best strategy to recommission and broaden the Partnership for Behavioral Health.

#8) The new Community Resources Manual is posted on www.dupagehomeless.org . This document was developed by the DuPage Continuum's Barriers Task Force in order to increase usage of mainstream benefits and ensure that all available funding streams are fully utilized for persons receiving or applying for public benefits. The resources listed are little known ones that are available through the mainstream benefit programs or government agencies. the goal is provide community organizations knowledge of these resources so they do not have to locate other funding sources to help persons with these needs.

#8) Barriers to enrollment in mainstream programs - Initiatives being explored for the upcoming year are to develop a cadre of trained community volunteers who would be able to assist clients with complex issues through the human service delivery system; and improve community knowledge of public benefits through information packets that can be used by Continua members at local health and community fairs (the focus of this effort is centered on prevention and trying to enroll vulnerable populations in the supports they need to help prevent homelessness).

#9) Seven new units of permanent housing were funded in the 2005 HUD Continuum of Care awards. Seven chronically homeless persons will be housed.

#9) DuPage P.A.DS. has announced an application for a 12 unit building for new Permanent Supportive Housing beds which will not utilize any HUD funds.

The complete Plan to End Homelessness is available on www.dupagehomeless.org

MEETING CALENDAR

The calendar of all Continuum committee meetings for the period from July 2005 through July 2006 is available from Peg White Lijewski at plijewski@wideopenwest.com

Following is a listing of the DuPage Homeless Continuum Leadership individuals.