The following announcement comes to us via Tom Pierce at the Florida Office on Homelessness:

The Department is now accepting applications from families with minor children in the household who face eviction due to past due rent payment. The Emergency Financial Assistance for Housing Program is funded for this state budget year.  Funds will only assist an estimated 2,000 families this year.

Click below to download an application and Vendor Agreement:

English Application | Spanish Application | Creole Application

You may call 1-877-891-6445 to have an application mailed or faxed to you.

Completed applications and vendor agreements may be faxed to 1-850-921-2559, or mailed to:

Department of Children and Families
Office on Homelessness—PDHO
1317 Winewood Blvd.
Tallahassee, FL 32399-0700

Please direct any questions about the program to DCF.

Update: DCF announcement on July 26.

The Department has received in the period July 1 to July 18 over 2,000 applications from families with minor children needing help with their rent
to avoid eviction.  These applications have been entered into our system and assigned to a case reviewer.  In addition to these cases, another 775 applications have been received and awaiting entry into the case management system.  An average of 200 applications are being received each business day.

As of Friday, July 22, the program has approved 683 families for rent assistance payments to their landlord.  A total of $263,621 has been expended, which equals one-third of the total funding available for the budget year.

Given the volume of applications being received daily, the Office expects to have more than enough applications to process by Friday, July 29, 2011
to use up the remaining balance of dollars available.  As such, applications received after July 29 will only be processed for assistance IF there are funds remaining once the applications received by July 29 are processed for eligibility and payment assistance.

Update: DCF announcement on September 1

The Emergency Financial Assistance for Housing Program which helps families with minor children who face eviction due to overdue rent is now out of money for the fiscal year.

The program received over 4100 applications in the month of July 2011, and over 5600 applications through the end of August.  The $787,000 in available funds has been expended to assist 2,034 families who applied in July.  The balance of the families applying will now be notified that the funding has been exhausted, and that the Department will not be able to help pay a portion of their past due rent.

Tom Pierce
Office on Homelessness
Department of Children and Families
Tallahassee

The Tree of Life Ministries of Orlando, Inc.  would like to inform you of two opportunities for Homeless Veterans and/or their families.  The first opportunity, made possible through the City of Orlando’s Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP) is for a low income veteran family to rent a 3 bed-2 bath home.

The second opportunity, made possible by the State of Florida’s Department of Children & Families Access To Recovery program, is for single veterans who have substance abuse and/or co-occurring disorders to receive housing and other supportive services.  Eleven beds available.

For more information, please contact Esther L. Washington, Executive Director, The Tree of Life Ministries, 407-704-6923

On August 9, 2010, the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services announced the availability of up to $250 million in grants for the “New Access Point” program to deliver primary health care services for underserved and vulnerable populations under the Health Center Program. This grant can address the health care needs of the homeless population in your community.

Announcement Number:  HRSA-11-017
CFDA Number:  93.527
$250,000,000
Average Award Level:  $650,000
Estimated number of awards:  350 nationally
Application Deadline:  November 17, 2010
Est. Award Date:  August 1, 2011
Grant Period:  Up to 2 years.

A new access point is a new full time service delivery site that provides comprehensive primary and preventative health care services.

Organizations eligible to apply include public or nonprofit private entities, including tribal, faith-based and community based organizations, who meet the health center funding requirements.  Current HRSA grantees may apply, as well as organizations applying for the first time.

Please disseminate this information to your local service providers who may be interested in the funding opportunity to address the health care needs of the homeless population.

Tom Pierce
Office on Homelessness
Department of Children and Families
Tallahassee

Update: The original announcement sent to HSN had incorrect web site information. For more information on this grant opportunity, please visit http://hrsa.gov/grants/ and scroll down until you find “HRSA-11-017  New Access Points”

The Department of Children and Families, in cooperation with the Florida Peer Network, is proud to be hosting Building Capacity for Trauma-Informed Systems of Care, six regional seminars throughout the state.

These seminars will be held in July and August 2010. To register and for more information visit www.floridapeernetwork.org/tic.

The Department of Children and Families Mental Health Office is proud to be partnering with The Florida Peer Network to host six regional seminars “Building Capacity for Trauma-Informed Systems of Care.”  The seminars are free & travel scholarships will be available!  Venue and registration details will be released soon.

The seminars will be held in the following locations:

Tampa (Suncoast Region)
July 6 & 7
Orlando (Central Region)
July 8 & 9
Ft. Lauderdale (Southeastern Region)
July 20 & 21
Miami (Southern Region)
July 22 & 23
Jacksonville (Northeast Region)
August 3 & 4
Tallahassee (Northwest Region)
August 5 & 6

Trauma-informed programs and services represent the new generation of transformed mental health and allied human services organizations and programs that serve people with histories of violence and trauma.

Featured Speaker: Tonier Cain, trauma survivor, consumer advocate, and team leader for the National Center for Trauma Informed Care (NCTIC)

HSN welcomes public feedback regarding this process. You may contact us by commenting below, using our Contact Us form, or by sending email to info {at} hsncfl(.)org.

Please also review the HPRP Eligible Uses Overview for more information on HPRP.

DCF Homeless Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing Program
2010 Allocation Plan/ Second Round
Executive Summary

2010 Statewide allocation –  $8,602,844

Central Florida Continuum of Care/HSN allocation — $870,422

Who Can Seek Grant? HSN will convene the local partners and submit a proposal for the continuum of care area, including the counties and cities within the geographic area.  The designated lead agency of the continuum of care shall submit the response to the funding announcement.

Allocation criteria that will be used to do statewide continuum level allocations
1.    Level of need in the community that cannot be met with the 2009 HPRP award.
2.    The community’s documented performance in using the 2009 HPRP award.
3.    The community’s demonstrated capacity to expend the 2010 HPRP dollars.
4.    Secretary may make awards to ensure the needs statewide are adequately and fairly addressed.

When will the 2010 Award be made?
June 2010

Timeline:
February 2010    Department review and approve the 2010 request for funds process.
March 2010    Release the 2010 request for Funds
April 20, 2010    Communities submit their request for funds proposals to the Department.
May 15, 2010    Route 2010 Award decision memo for Secretary’s review and approval.
May 31, 2010    Secretary announces 2010 Awards.
May 31, 2010    Allocate budget authority to Regions in FY10-11 Approved Operating Budget
June 30, 2010    Circuits execute 2010 HPRP grant agreements with the award recipients.
July 1, 2010    Budget Authority for 2010 awards effective.

Request for Funds Requirements:
The submission from the lead agency must include the following elements.
•    Need for Additional HPRP dollars.
•    HPRP Implementation Plan
•    2009 HPRP Grantee Quarterly Performance Reports for quarter ending March 31, 2010

Submission Requirements.
1.  Need for Additional HPRP dollars
Pro-rata need formula assessed need using three (3) indicators, weighted equally.  The 2010 formula uses the following data to generate the county pro rata need.
A.  Number of persons unemployed.
[October 2009, AWI Labor Market Statistics]
B.  Number of Food Stamp Recipient Households
[November 2009, DCF ACCESS data file]
C.  Number of Eviction Dispositions
[FY2008-2009, Civil Dispositions, Florida Office of the State
Courts Administrator]

The lead agency of the Continuum of Care (CoC) shall submit the following information to the Department.
a.  Amount of 2010 HPRP funding requested.

b.  Proposed HPRP Budget for 2010 Award Requested.
In the event that any county(s) elect to not accept their formula allocation, clearly identify those counties and the amounts in your budget submission.  Likewise, if one of the counties that is not part of a continuum of care elects to join your plan, clearly identify that action in the budget.

c.   Proposed drawdown schedule for 2010 HPRP Request.
The lead agency submission shall identify the amount of the “requested” grant to be drawn from the Department by quarter for FY 2010-11, and FY 2011-2012, if needed.  Note:  All funds will have state spending authority through June 30, 2011.  Authority to spend unexpended balances beyond June 30, 2011 would be subject to Legislative approval in the FY 2011-12 appropriations act.
The Department will place a condition on all 2010 grant awards that the 2010 allocation be fully (100%) obligated by December 31, 2010.  Failure to meet this goal may be cause for the Department to recapture the 2010 funds unencumbered.  Such recaptured funds will be awarded to grantee(s) which have attained the goal for unencumbering the stimulus funding.

2.  HPRP Implementation Plan
The lead agency shall submit the continuum’s plan to implement the HPRP grant that demonstrates the community’s capacity to carry out the grant and expend the HPRP funding in a timely manner.  The plan shall contain the following information.
a.  What one agency shall be the grantee for the Department’s award?
b.  Will there be any sub-grantees used to administer the HPRP funds for specific geographic areas?  If Yes, specify the name(s) of the sub-grantee entities, and the area served.
c.  Provide the DUNS and CCR number for the grantee agency, and for any proposed sub-grantees.
d.  Provide narrative on the grantee’s and sub-grantee’s experience in managing the 2009 HPRP program.  If the grantee did not administer the HPRP in 2009, detail related grant experience of the proposed grantee.
e.  Specify the maximum HPRP financial assistance levels per eligible household by:
•    Homeless Prevention
•    Rapid Re-Housing
f.  Identify the CoC agency administering the Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) to track the HPRP participants.
g.  Provide evidence of the participation and concurrence of the county government(s), and formula HPRP cities with the plan.
h.  Enumerate the criteria to be used to select applicants for assistance in the required case management process.  Identify the criteria for prevention applicants and the criteria for the homeless applicants to be re-housed.
i.   Identify the projected date by which each HPRP grantee funded in 2009 will expend 100% of its 2009 award amount.

3.  2009 HPRP Quarterly performance Report(s), March 31, 2010.
The continuum shall submit the March 31, 2010 Quarterly Performance Report for each and every 2009 HPRP grantee within the continuum planning area.  This applies to both direct HUD grantees, as well as to DCF grantees.  The submission must include:
a.  HUD eSnaps report
b.  Provide a narrative, if needed, to explain any performance problems and corrective actions taken by March 31 to resolve those issues.

Deadline for Submission to Department: April 20, 2010, close of business.

2010 HPRP GRANT PREPARATION PROCESS TO BE USED BY HSN:

Public notice requirements and community engagement:
•    Solicit feedback from attendees at the March 23, 2010 Continuum of Care meeting (75 participants from the region).
•    Post requests for feedback from the community on the HSN website on March 25, 2010
•    Broadcast email to 500+ Continuum of Care individual participants on March 25, 2010 seeking feedback.

Coordination and collaboration with jurisdictional partners:
HSN organizes a meeting of Seminole, Orange, Osceola, Orlando HPRP managers the week of April 5, 2010 to:
•    Share current HPRP plan overviews from each jurisdiction;
•    Examine current HPRP performance data on clients served and spending levels;
•    identify unmet client needs/funding data
•    give HSN feedback on recommended program implementation model for regional additional funding.

Implementation Grant:
•    HSN writes draft plan for review based on feedback from community stakeholders, jurisdictional partners, to be complete by April 12, 2010.
•    HSN distributes draft to jurisdictions and posts plan on HSN website on April 12, 2010, requesting feedback by April 16, 2010.
•    HSN makes any needed modifications to draft and submits to DCF on April 20, 2010.

“As expected, we have received an enormous number of applications for rent or mortgage assistance since July 6. By July 15, a total of 2,893 applications had been received and assigned for reviews of eligibility. We estimate that between July 6 and July 27, over 5,600 applications have been received. Our funds can only assist approximately 4,000 of those applicants. Therefore, be advised that applications received after Friday, August 7, are not likely to be assisted.

Any applications received after the above date will only be reviewed for approval if we have enough money left over from approving the first batch of cases. Otherwise, the applications will be denied for lack of funds. We will mail a letter to each applicant telling them that we are unable to help. We will also suggest that they check locally for funds.

The Office does not want to create any false expectations that EFAHP aid will be available to help a family seeking aid after August 7, 2009. The current economic situation has caused many more households to apply than ever before.

Thank you for your assistance in sharing this information with other local agencies.”

Download the original memo here.

Tom Pierce, Director of the Office on Homelessness, issued the following memo that explains eligibility and the application process:

I am pleased to announce that the Emergency Financial Assistance for Housing Program (EFAHP) will begin receiving new applications on July 6, 2009.

Please do not send applications to the program until 8:30 a.m. Monday, July 6. Any applications received before that time will be denied.

Applications are available online in English, Spanish and Creole at:

http://www.dcf.state.fl.us/homelessness/efahp.shtml

Or by calling 1-877-891-6445.

Application Guidelines

• The household must have at least one child under 18 years of age living there full-time.
• The application must be filled out completely, including Social Security numbers for all family members; monthly income from all sources; a written explanation of the housing emergency; and the signature of the applicant.
• The one-page Vendor Agreement must be completed and signed by the landlord, mortgage company or property owner. If the case is approved, a State of Florida check will be mailed directly to the landlord, mortgage company or property owner.
• The program can pay up to $400.00 one time per year for overdue rent or mortgage payments, or for security deposit for a household that is homeless, being evicted, or whose housing has been damaged by fire, hurricane or other natural disaster.
• Fax applications to 1-850-921-2559.
• Mail applications to:

Department of Children and Families
Office on Homelessness – PDHO
1317 Winewood Blvd.
Tallahassee, FL 32399-0700

If you have questions, please call 1-877-891-6445.