» Berkshire CoC

HUD Continuum of Care Grants Announced

Gerry McCafferty — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 17:39:00 +0000

U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan today announced nearly $190 million in new grants to assist hundreds of local homeless assistance programs across the country. The funding will provide support to 550 local projects that will offer critically needed housing and support services to nearly 20,000 homeless individuals and families over the extended lifetime of these grants. See the HUD press release here.

The Springfield CoC received three new grants:

Martin Luther King Family Services, $274,276, Permanent Supportive Housing for 8 families (2 year grant, renewable)
River Valley Counseling Center, $304,920, Permanent Supportive Housing for 7 individuals with HIV/AIDS (5 year grant, renewable)
South Middlesex Opportunity Council, Permanent Supportive Housing for 8 individuals, of which 4 will have been chronically homeless (2 year grant, renewable)

The Berkshire CoC received one new grant:

Construct, Inc/Project REACH, Great Barrington, $47,943

These grants will increase our stock of permanent supportive housing, one of our major strategies for reducing homelessness. Good news for our Network!

ICHH/Network Funding Finally Available!

Gerry McCafferty — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 22:07:13 +0000

Our Network is seeking providers to deliver the innovative services described in our ICHH grant. The innovations are Housing First for chronically homeless individuals; and prevention, diversion and rapid rehousing assistance for families. The Network seeks one or more providers to deliver these services and assistance in the Western Massachusetts region; providers may apply to serve a portion of the region. Grants are for an 18-month period.

Regional Engagement & Assessment for the Chronically Homeless (REACH) makes available $363,800 to provide housing stabilization services to 38 chronically homeless individuals. To be eligible for this funding, a provider is required to have available housing units for the individuals to be served within 9 months of contract execution.

Homelessness Prevention, Diversion and Rapid ReHouse for Families makes available $536,116 for direct client assistance for families that are homeless or at imminent risk of homelessness. This funding will not pay staff costs; provider applicants must be able to use existing staff to provide these funds to clients.

To apply for funds, applicants must respond to one or both of the Requests for Proposal, which are available from the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission, 26 Central Street – Suite 34, West Springfield, MA 01089, (413) 781-6045, from 9 AM to 5 PM. You must obtain the full RFP from PVPC, so that there is a record of who has the RFP, in the event there are amendments. For more information, click to see limited versions of the Individual Services and Family Assistance RFPs.

Completed proposals are to be submitted no later than 3:00 PM, Thursday, June 18, 2009 at the Pioneer Valley Regional Ventures Center, Inc., c/o Pioneer Valley Planning Commission, 26 Central Street—Suite 34, West Springfield, MA 01089.

Please share this information with anyone you know who might be interested.

FEMA announces $100 million in Homeless Prevention Aid Awards

Gerry McCafferty — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 18:17:23 +0000

$100 million has been made available to the Emergency Food and Shelter National Board Program (EFSP), through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA). The funding, made available by Congress under this Act, is designed to bring immediate relief to communities to address unemployment, poverty and other needs in light of the economic climate faced by our country. Funds will be distributed to support social service agencies in more than 2,500 cities and counties across the country. EFSP grant funds are used to supplement food, shelter, rent, mortgage and utility assistance programs for people with non-disaster related emergencies.

In our region, $150,553 is going to Hampden County, and $39,298 is going to Berkshire County. There is a state set-aside for Massachusetts in the amount of $242,249.

Funds are made available to local organizations through EFSP Local Boards and the State Set-Aside Committee. Contacts for Local Boards and the MA Set-Aside Committee:

Hampden: United Way of Pioneer Valley, Joanne Dernoga, 184 Mill St., Springfield, (413) 693-0216
Berkshire: Berkshire United Way, Kristine Hazzard, P.O. Box 3808 , 200 South St., Pittsfield, MA 01202 , (413) 442-4710
Massachusetts Set-Aside Committee: United Way of Tri-County, Donna Jackson, 46 Park St., Farmingham, MA 01702, (508)872-3291

Federal Stimulus: Homelessness Prevention (ESG)

Gerry McCafferty — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 14:46:10 +0000

HUD has released community allocations for the homelessness prevention funds passed as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Allocations for the state and cities within our region are as follows:

Massachusetts: $18,443,744
Chicopee: $531,528
Holyoke: $551,671
Pittsfield: $613,738
Springfield: $1,700,800

Funding is for homelessness prevention and re-housing people who became homeless as a result of the economic crisis. Eligible activities: short- or medium-term rental assistance; housing relocation and stabilization services; housing search assistance; mediation or outreach to property owners; credit repair; security or utility deposits; utility payments; rental assistance for a final month at a location; moving costs assistance; case management; and other appropriate homelessness prevention and re-housing activities.

Information about people assisted with these funds will have to be tracked in HMIS. Grantees will have two years to spend the funds. HUD will issue guidance on the programs in March, and states and municipalities will have a period of 30-60 days to submit a plan to HUD describing how the funds will be used.

HUD McKinney Awards Announced

Gerry McCafferty — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 14:02:56 +0000

HUD has announced the 2008 McKinney Continuum of Care Awards. Click to see the awards for the Three County Continuum, Berkshire Continuum, and the Springfield Continuum.

Many of the awards are renewal funding for ongoing programs. In Springfield, the award funds two new programs: 11 units of permanent supportive housing (Mental Health Association), and support for the Homeless Resource Center (Friends of the Homeless) and the 32 units of permanent supportive housing that will be part of that project. I confess that I don’t know as much about the impact of the grants in the other CoCs, but it appears that the Three-County CoC has received a new grant to support its Homeless Management Information System (HMIS).

Congratulations to all the grantees.