NAEH to hold webinars, training on HEARTH
First webinar on September 22nd

September 22, 2010 – HEARTH Act Overview – 2:00 Eastern
This webinar will explain the significant changes the HEARTH Act makes to HUD’s McKinney-Vento homeless assistance programs. To register for this webinar click here.

The National Alliance to End Homelessnes’ (NAEH) Center for Capacity Building is hosting a HEARTH Academy to prepare communities to meet the ambitious performance expectations of the HEARTH Act, particularly the outcomes of reducing homelessness episodes and reducing new and return entries into homelessness.

The HEARTH Academy will feature a 1.5 day training that will be held in several locations in early 2011. The fee for the training will depend on the locations and venues, but is expected to be approximately $300 per participant.

The Academy also includes numerous webinars, tools, and printed and virtual resources that will be particularly helpful to training participants, but will be available to everyone free of charge.

If you are interested in participating in the HEARTH Academy Training, please send an email to Aisha Williams with your name and location. Also, if you are interested in hosting a training in your community, please indicate so. The Alliance will identify locations for the HEARTH Academy based partly on interest.

HEARTH Academy

• Sets ambitious goals for reducing the length of time people are homeless.
• Significantly increases resources for prevention and rapid re-housing.
• Continues to provide incentives for developing permanent supportive housing.
• The changes made by the HEARTH Act will begin to take effect with the programs that are funded by the FY 2011 round of Emergency Solutions Grants (ESG, formerly the Emergency Shelter Grants) and the FY 2011 NOFA, which will probably be released sometime in mid-2011.

Preparation Webinars – September and October, 2010

The three pre-training webinars will be free to all who wish to participate and will be recorded for later viewing. They will cover the following topics:

1. September 22, 2010 – HEARTH Act Overview – 2:00 Eastern
   This webinar will explain the significant changes the HEARTH Act makes to HUD’s McKinney-Vento homeless assistance programs. To register for this webinar click here.
2. October 13, 2010 – HEARTH: Performance Improvement and Data Measurement
   This webinar will present information about the outcomes included in the HEARTH Act and how community’s can use outcome measures to improve performance.
3. October 27, 2010 – HEARTH: System Assessment
   This webinar will present tools for assessing and retooling your community’s homelessness assistance. It will include information about system resource allocation and return on investment under HEARTH’s performance framework.

HEARTH Training Session – January to April, 2011

The 1.5 day training will be held in various locations around the country. The training is designed to serve 6-10 leaders from each community who are responsible for funding and overseeing homelessness assistance. Participants will learn how to implement and improve strategies that better prevent homelessness and reduce the length of time individuals and families experience homelessness. The training covers three topics:

• System Analysis: Assessing the outcomes and cost effectiveness of your community’s homelessness assistance
• System Change: Creating an action plan to improve the outcomes and efficiency of your community’s homelessness assistance
• Performance Improvement: Creating a structure to translate performance data into continuous improvement

If your community is interested in participating please send a letter of interest to Aisha Williams.

Implementation Webinars – Beginning March 2011

The Alliance will host several webinars on HEARTH implementation, focused on adopting best practices regarding performance improvement, shifting transitional housing, expanding rapid re-housing, diversion, prevention, oversight, and other topics. These webinars will be available free of charge.

Risk to women is reason enough to Sign a Letter
Protecting Low/Moderate Income People
from Being Harmed by Deficit Reduction Measures

Click here to read the letter and see the national group signers as of June 30.

Signing Deadline Extended to September 8!

Please sign the letter by clicking here:

Politicians looking for ways to show they are willing to make the “tough choices” to reduce the deficit tend to be a lot tougher on vulnerable, low-income people than on powerful interests. That would put women, especially single mothers, at particular risk. An explicit promise to protect those with low incomes will reduce the threat of significant losses of income and services.

Why do we think vulnerable groups including poor women with children will be at risk? Well, take a look at what’s being considered in the U.K. In a story in the Washington Post, it’s reported that two separate studies concluded that women and the nation’s poorest people would be “hit hardest” by the deficit reduction measures. Not a surprise: low-income people need government services, and women are more likely to have government jobs. We do not have any reason to think the impact will be different here.

Signing Deadline Extended to September 8!

We urge local, state, and national organizations to sign this letter to the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform urging it to commit to prevent harm to low/moderate-income people in its recommendations. The letter also calls for seeking and making public analyses to show the impact on different income groups, and for leaving room in future budgets for anti-poverty investments that will in themselves promote economic growth and reduce the deficit.

The letter has been signed by more than one-hundred (120) national organizations and has been circulated among Commission members. Now we need to show that local and state groups across the country share these concerns. We will share the letter with signers in every state both with the Commission and with Members of Congress. Please show that your organization joins with hundreds of others in recognizing the importance of sparing low and moderate income people from bearing the brunt of cuts to reduce the deficit.

To read the letter and see the national group signers as of June 30 click here.

To sign the letter click here.

Please sign if you are authorized to speak for a state or local organization – service provider, congregation or other faith-based group, advocacy org, business, PTA, labor union… – adding your voice will help! And if you’re a national group that hasn’t yet signed, we welcome you!

Click here if you want background info about the Commission.

For more info about deficit reduction click here.

Deficit reduction is a means to an end – the end being a strong economy with prosperity shared by all. If you agree that reducing the deficit by making cuts that hurt low-income people will only weaken the economy and our nation, please sign the letter.

A note about the form for signing the letter: You will be asked at the bottom to say “yes” or “no” to the question, “Are you authorized to sign on behalf of your organization?” Please only sign if you are authorized, and then select “YES.” If you forget to answer this, we will have to contact you to make sure we should be listing your organization.

Thanks to groups who have already signed and those who are about to!

Can NSP funds be used for supportive housing?
New funding and First Look initiative may offer hope

The availability of Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP) can provide an opportunity to leverage the other needed resources to create permanent, affordable and supportive housing. Opening Doors published a comprehensive overview of how to use NSP to develop supportive housing. Click here to read this report.

The Dodd-Frank Financial Reform bill was signed into law on July 21. This legislation includes $1 billion in funding for Neighborhood Stabilization Program 3 (NSP3). This round of funding will be comparable to NSP1 given that it will be using a similar formula allocation. We should have seen the formula by August 23; (30 days from the President signing the legislation) however, the money will not be available till October 1 for distribution.

Click here for the NSP website.

Click here to read the Dodd-Frank Financial Reform bill.

Click here for Opening Doors.

Click here for more on First Look.

The legislation also includes a critical correction that will allow vacant properties to count towards the required 25% of funds set aside for very low-income households. HUD recently released guidance on this change, which affects all three rounds of funding. The allocation of the funds should be available soon and we will post the information on our site.

On September 1,2010, Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Shaun Donovan today announced an unprecedented agreement with the nation’s top mortgage lenders to offer selected state and local governments, and nonprofit organizations a “first look” or right of first refusal to purchase foreclosed homes before making these properties available to private investors.

The National First Look Program is a first-ever public-private partnership agreement between HUD and the National Community Stabilization Trust (Stabilization Trust). In collaboration with national servicers, Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac, the First Look program is intended to give communities participating in HUD’s Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP) a brief exclusive opportunity to purchase bank-owned properties in certain neighborhoods so these homes can either be rehabilitated, rented, resold or demolished.

Some of the next step strategies for sponsors interested in using NSP for supportive housing should include identifying affordable rental units within an NSP-funded redevelopment project provides a starting point to undertake the task of compiling the other crucial pieces of the supportive housing model. Units set-aside as affordable for households at or below 50 percent of Adjusted Median (AMI) are easier to make affordable to the special needs population than housing that has no affordability restrictions. Even with the housing created through the 25/50 income targeting component of the NSP, some form of operating or rental subsidy will be required to cover operating costs while still creating affordability to the PSH population that traditionally has incomes between 15 and 20 percent of AMI.

Combining the units created in NSP-funded projects with some form of operating or rental subsidy, along with access to flexible supportive services for those being served in the units, will help make the inclusion of PSH units a successful component of a jurisdiction’s use of their NSP resources.

Over the next few weeks we will publish more information on NSP3 and how it can be resource for developing supportive housing.

Robert Kley remembers our history

Robert Kley, the founding President of Monarch Housing remembers our first decade in this short video. He reviews how Monarch Housing was founded by the Mental Health Association of NJ as well as the early outreach efforts. According to Mr. Kley, the “MHANJ Board of Directors, filed the initial incorporation papers that created Monarch, securing its initial grant funding and providing extensive in kind support services during its start up phase.” Monarch became an independent organization in 1996.

With four weeks until Monarch Housing Associates September 30, 2010, 20th Anniversary Celebration – Building Homes, Transforming Lives, this is the first of several videos we will be sharing.

To view the invitation online click here.

Tickets are now available for purchase online with our secure server. Tickets are:

• $85 a person;
• $150 for a couple: and
• $750 for a table of ten.

Click here to buy tickets online.

Click here to buy tickets by mail.

Click here to view all sponsors.

Where can you view our YouTube videos?

Click here to view our YouTube video page.

You can also use the YouTube icon on the toolbar at the bottom of this page.

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NJBankers will underwrite entertainment
Pam Purvis will entertain us at the reception
Ticket Sales are Strong – Buy your tickets online!

With four weeks until Monarch Housing Associates September 30, 2010, 20th Anniversary Celebration – Building Homes, Transforming Lives, we are pleased to announce that New Jersey Bankers Association (NJBankers) will underwrite the entertainment during the Cocktail Reception. The soulful, sophisticated music for the evening will be performed by Pam Purvis.

To view the invitation online click here.

Tickets are now available for purchase online with our secure server. Tickets are:

• $85 a person;
• $150 for a couple: and
• $750 for a table of ten.

Click here to buy tickets online.

Click here to buy tickets by mail.

Click here to view all sponsors.

Click here to become a sponsor.

Click here to add this event to your Outlook Calendar!

Click here to purchase tickets our secure server.

According to Rene Conlon, Monarch’s event planner, “Ticket sales are very strong. More than half of the tickets available for the event have already been sold!” She encouraged those interested in attending to purchase tickets as soon as possible.

In addition, we are very pleased with all twenty-six (26) of our sponsors!

To view the full list of sponsors click here.

Founded over one hundred (100) years ago, the New Jersey Bankers Association (NJBankers) is a trade association representing one hundred twenty (120) banks and over two hundred twenty (220) service providers who provide goods and services to the banking community as associate members in the State of New Jersey. The NJBankers provide a variety of services to members including government relations at both the state and national levels; education and professional development, employee benefit programs and, through its subsidiary TICIC, community development services.

Pam Purvis grew up in both Louisiana and Texas. She began singing jazz in 1974 in Paterson, NJ at Gulliver’s (now just a fond memory for those who were there). Her sense of lyrics she credits to the training she received at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. “My approach to lyrics and phrasing is ‘of the moment’. When I sing a song it is always for the first time, and therefore I hope it will always be fresh and always emotional.

“I want you to see and feel the images in the song. I come from a very colorful part of the country, where there is a lot of color and energy. I hope you’ll find these things in my singing.”

Click here to listen to her music.