Feedback for CSAC Regarding Allocation of Homeless Emergency Aid Program (HEAP) Funding through Continuums of Care (CoC)
Some SoCal counties were wondering if other counties received the following from CSAC. Please leave a comment.
From: Josh Gauger, CSAC Legislative and Budget Representative:
To: County Administrative/Executive Officers; Assistant County Administrative/Executive Officers; Health and Human Services Analysts
In advocating for additional funding to address homelessness in the 2019-20 Budget, CSAC has been asked to explain the county experience in working through CoCs to allocate 2018-19 HEAP funds. Below is a list of questions that are intended to help gather information to respond to this question as we work with the Administration and Legislature. If you believe any additional information would be helpful in explaining your local experience, please also feel free to include it in your response. We greatly appreciate your time and assistance with this matter.
- What is your county’s general experience obtaining funding through your CoC?
- What are some of the “lessons learned” through the CoC allocation process thus far?
- What are the primary challenges for counties in accessing funds allocated by the CoC?
- Are there benefits to the CoC model that could not also be achieved through county-led planning among local stakeholders?
- How has the presence of providers on the CoC impacted the allocation of funds?
- What are the biggest county priorities that have gone unfunded in the CoC process? Why have those been deemed lower priorities for your CoC in the decision-making process?
- How is your CoC adequately addressing the continuum of needs for this population? How are long-term/ongoing services and placements weighted against shelter capacity?
- How does your CoC generally prioritize rental assistance programs/funding?
- Is your county the designated administrative entity for the CoC?
Please respond to these requests by COB on Monday, April 15. You can email responses to Josh at jgauger@counties.org and feel free to contact him at (916) 650-8129 to discuss or with any questions.
Orange County has submitted a response, basically discussing the layers of authority, between the CoC Board, the HOmeless Commission, and the County of Orange which is the Collaborative Applicant, and thereby the fiscal agent for the CoC Boards HEAP recommendations, and as I said in the March 29th meeting, the fiscal agent will need to be incorporated into the decision making process for HEAP allocations, rather than exlusively the CoC Board, which isn’t a fiscal agent but a community based steering committee.
We also took an opportunity to advocate for HMIS and CES, Admin dollars, given the dialogue of concern about the CoC system capacity to incorporate all of the state homeless funding within the HMIS system, CES etc.
San Bernardino County received a communication from CSAC with the same questions regarding the HEAP process.. We are in the process of responding. In terms of the general experience, the process was expedited and quick, however that did not leave much time for us to do a proper analysis. HEAP lessons learned? We need more time.. Some of the challenges we had was switching from a reimbursement to disbursement model. In terms of the CoC model, it encourages collaboration and discussion from the lens of all providers rather than just government focused. I think our providers encouraged transparency and were able to provide a unique “boots on the ground” perspective. Number 7 is a unique question, we are trying to address the immediacy of services to our individuals and families in housing crises, while understanding that the availability of housing for our region at times can be stretched. We prioritize rental assistance programming based on our gaps analysis, review of data, and performance from our PSH and RRH programs.
I would like to hear what other think and how you may respond. Thank you!
We received similar communication with the same questions from CSAC in Ventura County.