On Tuesday, July 30, 2019, the City of New Bedford’s Continuum of Care (CoC), acting through the Office of Housing & Community Development, has issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) that includes instructions and the application itself for 2019 funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). The RFP is available in fillable format here: RFP NB COC 2019 The linked RFP includes an application for renewal projects as well as new projects (those available through bonus and DV bonus funding) made available by HUD in this [ Continue reading. ]
2019 POINT IN TIME INFORMATION RELEASED!
The City of New Bedford has conducted its annual “Point In Time” [PIT] count that creates a census of those individuals and families experiencing homelessness within the city, both sheltered (living in emergency or transitional housing) and unsheltered (on the streets/in places not meant for human habitation). This is a big operation and requires a lot of effort and many hands. The results from the 2019 PIT, initially presented at the HSPN April 18, 2019 meeting and updated on April 29, 2019, are now available here: PIT 2019 PRESENTATION . For a [ Continue reading. ]
City Wins Federal Homeless Assistance Funds!
The City of New Bedford has been awarded $1,758,917 in homeless assistance funding by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) as part of a competitive grant process under the HUD Continuum of Care (CoC) Program. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development awarded approximately $2 billion to renew support to thousands of local homeless assistance programs across the nation. HUD's CoC grants provide critically needed support to local programs on the front lines serving individuals and families experiencing [ Continue reading. ]
2019 POINT IN TIME COUNT!
Here's your opportunity to join in and help out! The 2019 Point In Time (PIT) Count is scheduled for a 24 hour period beginning January 30th and running through early afternoon the next day, January 31st. Volunteers are needed; check out the survey monkey for volunteer registration by clicking here. Donations are welcome and can be made by contacting Lauren Lemieux at LLemieux@cssdioc.org. [ Continue reading. ]
YEAR END REVIEW 2018
As has become tradition, the HSPN reviewed its year of action at its December meeting, focusing on the work it undertook throughout the course of 2018. A copy of the powerpoint presented at that meeting is available here: HSPN ANNUAL SUMMARY.2018. [ Continue reading. ]
US INTERAGENCY COUNCIL at the HSPN
The HSPN was honored to welcome Robert Pulster from the National Initiatives Team of the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH) to its December 2018 meeting. Mr. Pulster presented important information about the USICH's release of the new federal strategic plan, Home, Together. In the course of his remarks, Mr. Pulster emphasized the importance and value of the plan as a guide for moving closer to ending and preventing homelessness and its applicability to the New Bedford Continuum of Care, specifically. Citing the centrality of [ Continue reading. ]
CoC WRITTEN STANDARDS
The HSPN follows a set of written standards in ensuring consistency, best practices and excellence with respect to program and system performance. These standards, memorialized in 2016 were updated by the City's Office of Housing & Community Development on behalf of the New Bedford CoC. The product of that effort is divided into two separate documents: CoC Operational Standards and CoC Performance Standards. As its name implies, Operational Standards (available here: OPERATIONAL STANDARDS) provides guidance and standards for all project types, [ Continue reading. ]
2018 RANKING of PROPOSALS
The City of New Bedford’s HSPN has received, reviewed and voted on the 2018 Final CoC Rank and Order of Projects. The HSPN’s Performance Review Committee (PRC), comprised of HSPN members with no relationship–financial or otherwise–to any of the applicants for funding in the FY2018 round received, reviewed, vetted, evaluated and ranked all applications for the competition. This year one new application under the DV Bonus was received. Eight renewal applications were reviewed, six of which for housing programs, one of which was for the continuum’s Homeless [ Continue reading. ]
New Federal Strategic Plan Released…
The United States Interagency Council on Homelessness has released the new federal strategic plan, Home, Together. This plan, based on a year of listening and study across the country, updates the previous plan entitled, Opening Doors. According to the plan, itself, Home, Together "focuses on identifying and describing essential federal strategies that will help states, communities and public and private partners build effective, lasting systems that will drive toward the goals now, and be able to respond quickly and efficiently when housing [ Continue reading. ]
HOW IS THE SYSTEM PERFORMANCE MEASURING UP?
The City of New Bedford's Continuum of Care (CoC) uses system performance measures developed by the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD) to assess how well it is moving toward ending homelessness within the CoC, itself. By looking at a series of data produced by the Homeless Management Information System (HMIS), an aggregate look into the performance of certain metrics from 2015 - 2017 provides insight as to some strengths of the CoC as well as areas that may be targeted for improvement. Take a look at the System Performance [ Continue reading. ]
