“VAWA 2022” CoC and ESG Webinar Series: VAWA ETP: CoC and ESG Requirements and Best Practices – August 17, 2023 – 1:00 PM EDT

HUD is sponsoring a three-part webinar series about the Violence Against Women Act Reauthorization Act of 2022 (“VAWA 2022”) to increase the capacity and knowledge of Emergency Solutions Grants (ESG) and Continuum of Care (CoC) housing and homeless services providers about housing protections for survivors of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking in homeless services systems. This series features technical assistance providers, policy experts, and community leaders to showcase both requirements and best practices around VAWA implementation

Training Objectives

Participants will:

  • Learn about VAWA housing provisions that apply to CoC and ESG grantees
  • Learn about “VAWA 2022” updated definitions and provisions as outlined in the VAWA letter to CoC/ESG program recipients
  • Explore requirements and best practices for developing and implementing emergency transfer plans (ETPs)
  • Engage in a panel discussion between VAWA experts and community leaders regarding all aspects of VAWA implementation for CoCs and CoC/ESG recipients

Joining Instructions

The second webinar in the series, VAWA ETP: CoC and ESG Requirements and Best Practices, will take place on August 17, 2023 from 1:00 – 2:30 PM EDT. Participants do not need to register in advance. It is strongly recommended that participants join the webinar 15 minutes prior to the start time. To join the webinar, simply access the login page at the link below.

Join the Webinar

Note: Visit the “VAWA 2022” CoC and ESG Webinar Series page for the latest series information including schedule and availability of materials.

Training Point of Contact:
“VAWA 2022” Foundations for CoC and ESG Registrar | trainings@hudexchange.info

2020 Data Standards Trainings Published!

The 2020 Data Standards Trainings have been published! These trainings cover key changes in the upcoming 2020 HUD Data Standards which will go into effect in HMIS on October 1st, 2019. This year’s data standards changes are relatively minimal! We estimate that the 2020 General Data Standards training will take 10-30 minutes to complete and all supplemental trainings 5-15 minutes to complete.

Any users who have not completed required trainings by September 30th, 2019, will have their HMIS accounts locked until training has been completed. Please see the email sent to all HMIS Agency Administrators for more details.

Homeless Prevention Project Performance Reports Available Now!

In September 2018 the Data and Performance Management Committee began reviewing project performance data broken down by project type, rather than reviewing project performance data for all project types at once. Homeless Prevention project performance data was first analyzed in March 2018. Attendees of the March Data and Performance Management Meeting reviewed project performance and participated in a collaborative discussion on how to make improvements on the measures outside of HMIS. This report represents the progress that Homeless Prevention projects have made with their data over the past five months.

Click here to view the report.

17/18 System Performance Report Submitted!

The 17/18 System Performance Report has been submitted to HUD!  Thank you to all of the agencies that corrected their data prior to the submission.

To understand how our agency is performing as a CoC, please review the full report submitted to HUD, as well as the System Performance Measures Comparison document which highlights how our performance has changed over the past two years, and includes a brief narrative for each measure.

Webinars: Building community support for effective shelter

Best Practices A practical newsletter for people ending homelessness.

Webinar: Getting Your Board on Board with Low-Barrier, Housing-Focused Shelter

Making the shift to low-barrier, housing-focused shelter can be both exciting and scary — especially for your Board of Directors. In an upcoming Alliance webinar, shelter operators will share how they educated and encouraged their Boards to adopt shelter best practices. Speakers will discuss strategies to improve outcomes while also building community and funder support for shifting shelter models.

Webinar: Thursday, Dec. 13, 2018 at 2:00 p.m. Eastern • Register»

Webinar: All the Latest on Rapid Re-Housing for Youth

The latest data from HUD show that funding for youth rapid re-housing (RRH) has increased by over 2000 percent since 2014! As more communities and providers across the country implement youth RRH, an upcoming Alliance webinar will highlight the latest research, assessment tools, and best practices for youth RRH. Hear from a youth RRH provider and national researchers what you need to know to ramp up the program in your community.

Webinar: Thursday, Dec. 13, 2018 at 1:00 p.m. Eastern • Register»

New Optional Fields in HMIS

Fields for client email addresses and phone numbers have been added to the Program Entry screen in HMIS. These fields are entirely optional and missing responses will not impact your data quality in any way. They are simply for you to use to collect client contact information if you choose to do so.

Agency Administrators will be able to pull Looks with the email and phone number fields under the “Entry Custom” section of the Data Analysis tab.

If you have any questions, please submit a ticket to the HMIS Help Desk.

Coordinated Entry HMIS Training Released!

The HMIS Coordinated Entry Training is now available! This training provides an overview of the Coordinated Entry System in HMIS, and should be completed by access points (those completing VI-SPDATs), matchmakers (those matching households to housing opportunities), and housing providers (those with housing opportunities).  As you complete the training, we highly recommend following along in the Clarity training site to assist with your learning.  Please note that only the Family Coordinated Entry System (FCES) is currently in HMIS, so only users participating in these roles for the FCES need to complete the training at this time.

Please note that you will not be able to enroll in the HMIS Coordinated Entry Training unless you have already completed the HMIS Part 2 – Clarity HMIS Software training. Once you or any staff at your agency have completed the HMIS Coordinated Entry training, please notify the HMIS Help Desk to be given access to the correct pages in HMIS.  Please also include the role(s) the user will be fulfilling in HMIS (access point, matchmaker, or housing provider).

The Coordinated Entry Policies and Procedures test is not required to gain access to the FCES in HMIS.  Instead, users must complete the HMIS Coordinated Entry Training, as well as all trainings required to receive access to HMIS.  The CES Policies and Procedures test will continue to be used for the Individual Coordinated Entry System (ICES).

All questions, requests, and other technical support tickets related to FCES should now be entered by the Agency Administrators at your agency through the HMIS Help Desk.  The ceshelpdesk email should only be used by the ICES to request log-ins for the individual Prioritization List.

Housing Providers
The access points are currently entering all households active as of July 1stwith a status of matched, document ready, or assessed into HMIS.  In order for HMIS to reflect that certain households are already matched to an opportunity, 211OC will enter the housing opportunities and complete the matches for those households already matched.  Please look for an email from 211OC to confirm the households that are currently matched to opportunities at your agency.  All households that are already matched to opportunities should be matched in HMIS before the next Housing Placement Match Meeting.

Moving forward, you will be responsible for entering into HMIS any new housing opportunities that need to be matched to a household through the FCES.  Therefore, housing opportunities need to be entered prior to the Housing Placement Match Meetings.  Please contact the Family Solutions Collaborative for more information.

Access Points

All data entry for matched, document ready, and assessed clients should be completed in HMIS by 11/16/18.  Data entry includes profiles, enrollments, documents, and VI-SPDATs.

From the NAEH Blog: Court Says Cities Can’t Criminalize Sleeping Outside Absent Other Housing or Shelter Options

Last Tuesday, September 4, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed that people experiencing homelessness cannot be punished for sleeping outside in the absence of adequate alternatives. The case, Martin v. Boise (formerly Bell v. Boise), challenged Boise, Idaho’s ban on sleeping in public.

The court stated that “as long as there is no option of sleeping indoors, the government cannot criminalize indigent, homeless people for sleeping outdoors, on public property, on the false premise they had a choice in the matter.” Not only does that mean a bed must be available, but that it must be practically accessible. The court noted its concern that shelter policies such as religious or length-of-stay restrictions may make a bed practically inaccessible to a given individual.

Last week’s case builds on numerous other legal decisions, as well as the federal Department of Justice intervention at the lower level of the Bell v. Boise case. It is also consistent with the Department of Housing & Urban Development’s funding incentives in its Continuum of Care grant program to decrease criminalization, and the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness’s recently updated Federal Plan to End Homelessness.

Many cities’ initial reaction may be one of frustration — that they can no longer use these criminalizing laws to force homeless people out of public view (and often, into jail cells). But smart advocates should look to flip the script: this does not limit cities’ options, but rather opens them up.

Now, when a business or other constituent comes to a city councilor asking to “do something” about the homeless person on their corner, the councilor has the freedom to say “Well, the courts have said we can’t simply arrest that person to remove them. But you can work with me. And we can develop better alternatives that will get that person off your corner and into the housing and services they need. And that will solve the problem for both you and the person experiencing homelessness.”

Read the rest on the NAEH Blog!

NAEH Blog Post on Evidence Based Solutions for RRH Programs

Check out this great post from NAEH about solving Rapid Re-Housing challenges!

This post is part of an Alliance blog series highlighting the Rapid Re-housing Learning Collaboratives in Georgia and Maryland. Read more about Learning Collaboratives here.

For the past 11 months, the National Alliance to End Homelessness has been working with twenty-eight rapid re-housing providers in the state of Maryland to ramp up their outcomes. In Learning Collaboratives facilitated by the Alliance in partnership with the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development, providers learned how to build organizational capacity, implement strategic changes, and set strategic goals to:

  • Move more people from homelessness to permanent housing
  • Reduce the average length of time households are homelessness
  • Implement rapid re-housing that serves individuals with high barriers to housing

By coming together to discuss their common challenges and strategies, providers can transform their practices. Their new knowledge was then immediately put to the test in the #MDHousingChallenge, a 100-day period where providers are challenged to house more people than they ever have.

USICH: Home, Together

On behalf of our federal partners, we’re excited to share Home, Together, the new federal strategic plan to prevent and end homelessness.  Please register for an August 9th webinar to discuss the objectives outlined in the Plan, highlight some of the ways federal partners will support you as you do the hard work of ending homelessness, and answer your questions.
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