Creating your client’s housing application portfolio.

Posted on May 13, 2013 by

What kind of housing is your client applying for? A Home Choice voucher? An apartment in a subsidized building? Perhaps she can obtain rent assistance through Shelter Plus Care or a subsidy that’s restricted to people with disabilities, such as PTSD.

Unless you have never ventured into finding affordable housing for a client, by now you are familiar with the repetitive process of filling out the application paperwork. You know there are forms all the programs need, and some that vary by housing type. This series of posts will show you how to assemble a housing portfolio that will lessen the challenge, not to mention the tedium, of filling out all those forms.

There is a critical step to take before you add any information to your client’s portfolio. Make sure you have a list of every subsidized housing program in your community. Ideally your community Continuum of Care has implemented a Central Assessment and Intake Center. HEARTH requires every CoC community to develop a way for people to access the entire housing system through one entry point – a one stop shop if you will. If there’s no central intake yet you can research all potential affordable places to live. Don’t assume you know about every housing option. In Stark County Ohio, a community of less than 300,000 people we have over 30 affordable housing providers.

At least for now housing providers will have their own version of an initial application. Naturally they vary in eligibility and in restrictions on tenants they can accept.  (When the central intake center is in place it may include standardized applications).

This post covers the basics. You won’t find any surprises but we are putting together a check list. You can use the list for every client’s housing portfolio you create.

  • Birth Certificate for each adult and each minor child living with you
  • Social security card for each adult in the household and for each minor child living with you who is five years old or older
  • Picture ID for each adult

If your client is missing any of these items she can get new ones issued. Generally there are fees attached. You can check with your local United Way Information and Referral to find agencies that will pay the fees.  

Birth Certificates:

If your client was born in the County in which she is seeking services it is a simple matter to go to the County’s Office of Vital Records and request one. If she was born in a different County then you will need to do a little research to find out how that County processes requests for new birth certificates.  You can log into the government web site for the County where she was born. You can also use the site  http://birth.recordsproject.com/ for the fastest link to each state’s Office of Vital Records. It provides a link to each state’s authority for issuing them.

Social Security Cards:

Use the site at http://www.ssa.gov/ssnumber to apply for a copy of social security cards. The Social Security Administration issues cards for free. The site also offers guidance on how your client can obtain a social security number if she doesn’t have one, even if she is an immigrant.

The site at http://www.womenslaw.org/laws_state_type.php?id=10270&state_code=US outlines the options available to victims who are not lawful U.S. residents. This site describes the process for survivors who need to self-petition for protection from their abusers without facing the threat of deportation. There are significant legal issues in play here, but you can also find referrals to immigration lawyers, many of whom work pro bono. The U.S. Department of Justice maintains a database of sources for free or low cost legal advice at http://www.justice.gov/eoir/probono/states.htm.

Picture ID Cards:

These are available at your local Department of Motor Vehicles. They may also be available from the county registrar’s office. Before your client goes to apply for a picture ID double check what is required for proof of identity. Generally this will be your client’s Social Security card.  If the agency requires proof of residency you can find out in advance what is acceptable. If your client is homeless the agency should have an alternative to an item that shows the home address.

Whether your client already has these documents or she needs to obtain them protect them carefully. The effort you invest to obtain them will ease her access to everything from food stamps to applications for jobs or college. Not to mention rent assisted housing.

 

 

 

Posted in "domestic violence", abuse, Affordable Housing, homelessness, intimate partner violence, women's rights | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Paperwork makes the non-profit world go round…

Posted on April 28, 2013 by

There’s nothing like a government program to generate paperwork. Since President Carter passed the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1980 it seems the need for forms of all kinds has exploded. So goes the affordable housing industry.

The paperwork burden for housing applicants has increased for reasons beyond the increase in paperwork that is typical for everything from a home mortgage to insurance. Ten years ago a housing agency could often put a project together using as few as two “pots” of money. As resources have dwindled we now have to layer funding from multiple sources.  We need grants to build or renovate housing and we need other grants to operate it on low rental income. All these sources of money have their own set of rules.

My agency, ICAN Housing Solutions, obtained seven different capital grants to buy and renovate four buildings in a recent project. Each grant defines income eligibility, disability, and length and type of homelessness, among other things. We have to track and file reports for all of them.

At the same time we patched together operating support from four other sources so we can keep rents affordable, even as low as zero. In fact over 50% of our tenants enter our housing with no income at all.

This means we have to collect all the data for record-keeping from your clients. The more data we have to collect the more forms you and your client will have to complete.

ICAN Housing Solutions is no different from other affordable housing providers. Our checklist for information and requisite forms can serve you well in most communities. If you and your client gather all this information in advance your client may get on a waiting list in record time. I wish I could tell you it means your client will get housing without a wait. That is unlikely in most communities. But, the more quickly they get on the list, the faster they will move to the top of the list.

Over the next few posts we’ll review forms that cross over the requirements for a wide range of grant programs. Today let’s start with the most obvious: the initial Application. Pursuant to the HEARTH Act your Continuum of Care has or is developing a centralized assessment and intake system.  Find out the status of  your local system. If done properly you and your client will provide all information that any program may need. The designated intake agency can match your client’s needs and homeless history to the right program, saving you from application overload.

Housing providers have a variety of application templates available to them they can adapt for their own use. It’s possible your Continuum of Care administrating agency has a standard form it wants all publicly funded housing agencies to use even if it doesn’t have a centralized intake center yet.

Beyond that, each housing provider is likely to have their own forms. You may find you and your client have to spend the time to complete one for every possible housing application.

Once you collect the information, though, you have it as reference material to fill out forms to use over and over. Just to get ahead of the game we will review HUD issued forms that all of its grantees must complete. Whenever possible I will provide links to HUD forms and review them.

Forms aren’t a fun topic to read about, or to write about for that matter. But you may as well get used to them. HUD’s pile of paperwork is not getting shorter or easier any time soon.

Posted in Affordable Housing, category 1, chronic homelessness, Continuum of Care, HEARTH, homeless definition, homelessness, third party verification | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Access to housing depends on how homeless your clients have been.

Posted on March 31, 2013 by

Grants to build and operate affordable housing come in many shapes and sizes. Accordingly, the programs they fund vary in who, what, when and how housing providers can use them. The trick is to understand your client’s homeless history and help her convey it to the affordable housing community.

In recent years the largest funding sources for affordable housing have shifted their investments to permanent supportive housing (PSH). PSH is the best practice for serving people with significant barriers to self-sufficiency. Moreover, HUD has developed housing voucher programs beyond Housing Choice (formerly Section 8).  Shelter Plus Care (SPC) vouchers and Supportive Housing Program (SHP) rental assistance.

HUD limits eligibility for SPC and SHP programs to people who meet the definition of Category One  homelessness. Briefly, that means they are in an emergency shelter, on the street or entered an institution or transitional housing from the shelter or street.

You will hear about the definition of Category One homelessness from just about anybody you talk to who is part of the affordable housing system. They may not talk about Category Four: People who are fleeing or attempting to flee domestic violence.  When your client needs to leave an abusive home you can count it as though she was homeless the night before. You can advocate that your client’s need to leave means they fit Category One. Every time you help your client apply for housing make sure to identify if she is trying to leave an abusive home.

Why is this important? Let’s say your client has been on a waiting list for a rent subsidy that can only help homeless people. The housing provider calls and says that your client has reached the top of the list. A voucher is available. You make an appointment to complete the final paperwork. This paperwork includes a Certification of Homelessness. If you know that your client, as of the night before the appointment, is attempting to leave her abuser you can certify that she is homeless and eligible as a Category One homeless person.

(All this talk about category number one or four is part of your education about HUD rules.)

As you probably know, grants include promises of what agencies will do. Once those promises are made the housing providers must keep them. Thus, if an agency promised the client will be Category One homeless AND chronically homeless the eligibility bar is much higher. Chronically homeless depends on the number of homeless episodes the individual or family has had. For HUD the standard is the individual or family has been homeless (at least) four times in the last three years or continually homeless for one year.

The number of people who meet the chronic definition is a much smaller percentage of homeless people in general. If a program is limited to serving the chronically homeless their waiting lists will be much shorter.

We hope most people are not literally homeless that often. However, we have seen clients who do not even realize it. Maybe they don’t want to acknowledge it. Maybe there has been so much chaos in their lives they can’t remember each incident.

You can interview your clients to develop a record of multiple homeless episodes. You may even be able to draw out this information as you create a picture of her past. Incidences of trauma or violence may have led to homeless episodes.

We know victims often return to their abuser, often because they are homeless. Each time she left, where did she go? You will work backwards through all of her efforts to leave prodding her to remember not just what was happening in her relationship but when she left and where she stayed.

Before you start this interview have a copy of your community’s official Certificate of Homelessness. You will need to record your discoveries on this form.

Let’s practice.

Allison came to you in the middle of the night in February, 2011. You immediately found a place for her in your shelter. She stayed until the 89th day and your Agency does not allow people to stay longer. The next day she returns home because she has nowhere else to go. In the meantime you helped her apply for different housing programs.

You don’t see Allison again until mid-summer 2012. Maybe she enters your shelter again. After a few days Allison disappears.

In March 2013 a housing provider calls and says they have a voucher available for a person who has been chronically homeless. If Allison meets that definition she can have that voucher. But as far as you know Allison only has two episodes that qualify – her shelter stays in early 2011 and mid-summer 2012.

You contact Allison and find out where she is living. You learn she is at home again with her abuser. She tells you she wants to leave but she’s afraid. She agrees to come in to talk to you.

During your interview you discover that Allison tried to leave her home on another occasion when her abuser injured her and she spent several nights in the hospital. Normally hospital stays don’t count as homeless episodes. Because she got hurt trying to flee this creates an episode of homelessness. Now you have another incident you can put on your homeless certification.

You are up to three incidents within the last three years. You have almost qualified Allison for that voucher. When you take Allison to the housing appointment you are willing to certify you believe she is attempting to flee abuse. This creates her fourth episode. It also qualifies her as currently homeless so she is eligible for the voucher.

If you are not comfortable signing the verification Allison can also self-certify. Having said that, any additional back-up you can provide to the housing agency helps them build Allison’s file so it will pass a HUD review.

Some documents are relatively easy to obtain. Shelters can provide a certification on their letterhead for when Allison was there. If she got a hotel voucher from the Salvation Army they will have a record. You can contact the police. Their records for calls to her home add credibility to her statement she lives in a violent home.

Be sure to record each incident on the homeless certification form with as much detail as possible. Maybe Allison tells you she slept in her car for a few nights but she doesn’t remember when. Prod her memory. Was it cold and snowy? Was it really hot? If so, you can check weather records for noticeable stretches of this weather.

Maybe she recalls there was a holiday of some sort close to the time. She wanted to go to church for Easter but she couldn’t because of her situation. Another approach is asking what was going on in your town, or state, or the country.  Some news events are so big people remember them despite a memory frazzled by fear and trauma.

These are just examples of how Allison may have been homeless, but her episodes were “under the radar.” You have just successfully developed the history showing these incidents.

It’s only fair to tell you that you may have to be a strong advocate for your client’s homeless history. HUD is still tweaking its homeless definition. As a housing provider I can attest to our skittishness about understanding and following the new rules. HUD has not issued any specific guidance about using Category Four. You may need to request that the housing provider seeks technical assistance from HUD or the local Continuum of Care agency for Category Four.

Category Four was written to accommodate the reality that victims may technically have a home but it is not safe. Not for them, not for their children. Maybe we have found a part of the social service system that actually makes sense. Too bad we can’t get used to it.

 

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What makes HMIS like a family tree? They both show where a person comes from.

Posted on March 10, 2013 by

This analogy continues my series describing HUD’s definitions of homelessness. You may need to use these definitions for state affordable housing programs as well, making this even more crucial for your clients. You will match your client’s circumstances to the right housing programs. The Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) is your single best tool for achieving this goal. So let’s talk about how it works.

HMIS is like HUD’s family tree for tracking a person’s homelessness incidents. Names and dates of marriages, births and deaths are critical genealogy entries to the family tree. Similarly, it is critical for your client to contact HMIS each time he or she experiences homelessness. This report opens a “case” for that person or family in the HMIS database.

Homelessness is not limited to sleeping on the street or in a car. It can be:

  • Nights in a shelter, or
  • Nights in a motel paid for by a social service agency, or
  • Eviction with a set out within seven days, or
  • Release from a hospital or jail of less than 90 days, or
  • exiting transitional housing also counts, if you can show he or she was homeless when she went in to any of these situations.

You want a record of each time this has happened to her.

The HMIS intake workers interview clients in person or by phone to gather information. Good HMIS data reveals relationships within the “family tree.” When people share their stories the data shows the cause and effect of trauma, be it physical, mental or economic trauma and how they led to homelessness. It reveals the correlations between Intimate Partner Violence and other hardships. Policy makers and advocates can see how often it leads to homelessness, poverty, poor school performance, substance abuse and so on.

Beyond basic demographic information the HMIS intake questionnaire asks a series of questions that start to create your client’s housing needs profile.  Your client’s responses serve at least two purposes: it generates an Official Homeless Certificate and adds a homeless incident to your client’s housing history.

HUD’s HMIS regulations identify the universal and program elements the system must collect.*

When your client reports her housing situation to HMIS it generates an HMIS number. This number satisfies the rule to verify each homeless episode.

You may have noticed these blog posts build on each other to arm you for using the housing system as well as possible. If you complete the steps with accuracy and timeliness you will gain an edge over other applicants who aren’t thorough. Once again you and your client will move forward toward obtaining affordable housing ASAP.

*Thank you to the Missouri Association for Social Welfare for its data element overview. (It contains some technical directions for HMIS managers but they don’t detract from the nice overview MASW put together.)

Posted in "domestic violence", abuse, chronic homelessness, homeless definition, homelessness, intimate partner violence, third party verification, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Do your clients know they’re homeless? Documenting your client’s eligibility for housing, part one.

Posted on February 25, 2013 by

The concept of homelessness seems like simple Either you have a place to live or you don’t.

But take it from someone who has spent the last 14 years managing housing for homeless people. Identifying homelessness is not always that easy.

Surprisingly, our clients may not recognize their own homelessness. I learned this from an ICAN program participant, RL. He told me he didn’t think of himself as homeless  Most of the time he could find a place to crash for a little while. Maybe a few nights, a few weeks or even a few months. He used a shelter when he had nowhere else to go. But he never felt homeless.

This went on for ten years.

Our Agency’s outreach worker got to know RL while he was still on the streets. As she learned more about his life she encouraged him to make changes. His life could be more stable if he moved into housing and accepted services. He would have a better chance to get sober. He could recover. Over time RL gained insight about his life. Now RL has a home and a part-time job. He’s been sober for seven years. When he visits our office he always has a smile and a hug for me.

HUD has been targeting more money to programs serving people with multiple homeless incidences. These are people like RL, who essentially spent ten years in a homeless cycle. In housing we call this a history of “chronic homelessness.” HUD and housing advocates have focused on reducing this phenomenon of chronic homelessness. It is something of a paradox for housing agencies serving disabled, homeless people. We know there are people like RL, people with gaps in housing over many years. We have money to help them. But if people don’t recognize or remember their homeless episodes they miss affordable housing opportunities.

If you interview your clients specifically about times they did not have a place to live you may discover they meet the definition of chronic homelessness. It is a matter of collecting the facts from the individual or family who needs housing. This makes the difference in qualifying your client for the most housing resources available.

First, what is chronic homelessness? HUD’s definition has two parts. The person must have a disabling condition. This goes to the heart of why anyone would be homeless so many times. It suggests they have a deficit restricting their ability to function well enough to maintain housing. In fact, a licensed social work or medical professional must sign a verification of disability to document its presence. The disability can be a diagnosable substance abuse disorder, serious mental illness, developmental disability or a chronic physical illness. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is a recognized disability

The number of homeless episodes the individual or family has experience is the second and more obvious attribute. According to HUD a chronically homeless individual or family has been homeless (at least) four times in the last three years or continually homeless for one year.

If you are working with a client who is disabled and you suspect she (or he) has been homeless on multiple occasions it is incumbent upon you to determine whether she meets the definition of a chronically homeless person. With a little patience and a tested process you can uncover this pattern.

Let’s start with the basics. Are you familiar with your community’s Continuum of Care (CoC)? If not, you can find background information in a previous post, http://bit.ly/THKYgd.  The CoC administrative body is charged with monitoring HUD funded programs and it is critical for you to learn about it and how it operates. CoC programs have been around since 1996. Initially the HUD definition of homelessness was broad. Thus, housing agencies could use a broad policy for eligibility.

The homeless policies no longer allow any room for discretion. In 2009 Congress passed the HEARTH Act, and in 2012 HUD issued guidance for how to implement it.  HEARTH essentially divides housing programs into categories based on how homeless a person is. Imagine a “Chinese menu” of issues that reflect a client’s mental and physical health, ability to work, income level and family size. The new categories differentiate between people literally on the street and those who are risk of homelessness. Perhaps the landlord is evicting the family or eviction is likely because the tenant has fallen behind on rent. Some may face homelessness due to a sudden economic or health upheaval. They only need emergency shelter and social supports for a limited time and thus HUD has created short term fixes.

At the other end of the range are persons or families who repeatedly struggle to meet basic needs. These individuals have the misfortune to meet the definition of chronically homeless. If your client is one of them, we circle back around to the premise that HUD has invested heavily in serving those who are most in need because they are unable to obtain and maintain housing without a long term investment of housing and services.

As an aside your clients need a Certificate of Homelessness for any housing program exclusive to homeless people, whether your client is homeless once or multiple times. Your community’s standard Certificate of Homelessness form becomes a key part of the application for any homeless program. I have included a PDF file of a HUD template. Not every community’s form will look exactly like this but the elements should be the same.

Get to know this form. You will need a copy for each incidence of homelessness. This becomes part of your client’s homeless record. These certificates help housing providers qualify your clients. Remember, too, that housing providers get audited for whether every client meets the eligibility criteria. If your documents back them up you will get more than access to more housing opportunities. You will build a great working relationship with an important partner.

There is much more to learn about chronic homelessness, and you have homework for part two: identify your CoC lead body and obtain a copy of its approved Certification of Homelessness. Next time we will discuss the common elements it should contain and how to use it for every homeless episode.

You are on your way to building your client’s history.

Until then, Maryellen

Homeless Certification Template

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Ok, supportive housing reduces homelessness. But what do we mean by support?

Posted on February 5, 2013 by

Permanent supportive housing is defined as housing coupled with supportive services. Research and experience have shown that stable housing is essential for success at rehabilitation, therapy, and recovery.

In fact, Permanent Supportive Housing is considered the gold standard for ending homelessness among people with severe mental illness.

Most of us wouldn’t describe rental housing as permanent even if we choose that arrangement for years and years. A tenant and landlord sign a lease stating the rights and responsibilities of each party. If tenants follow the lease they can remain in the rented home as long as they like. Unless they violate those terms the landlord is very limited in his or her ability to evict the tenant.

It has a different meaning for homeless service providers.  Yes, it follows the standard lease. The supportive part means the housing links tenants to flexible, voluntary support services designed to help the tenants stay housed.  According to the model, that is how people who are most troubled build the necessary skills to live as independently as possible.

People who are homeless are just as varied as people who are not; the only commonality among them is a profound lack of support. Sometimes they’ve come from a background of family support and have lost it because mental illness and substance abuse damaged their relationships. More often, they never had that support to begin with.

Consider the children whose family life is so dangerous or unhealthy they are better off in a foster home, a place where they go lacking any ties to others living in the house. Eventually they may build trusting relationships, but data shows adults who were raised in foster care are much more likely to become homeless later.

Victims of domestic violence are cut off from anyone who might provide the support they need to escape. Even in this day and age there are parents who literally throw out a child who reveals he or she is gay.

The support in “supportive housing” is a medical service.  Case managers at social service or health agencies generally are responsible for delivering services that meet Medicaid’s definition of medical necessity. And those services are needed; case managers may help clients get their housing, food stamps and medicine.  The field is full of well-intentioned people who strive to help their clients recover and live a decent life, as long as those services can be billed to Medicaid, Medicare or another insurance provider.

Insurance is not known for the warm and fuzzy side of care. It won’t pay for someone to remember our birthday or take care of a pet when we’re in the hospital. Nor will it pay for someone to visit when we’re lonely. Medicaid does not think it’s medically necessary for someone to treat us with respect and dignity even if we are poor and homeless. It doesn’t pay for a hug.

These are human needs as much as adequate food or heat in the winter. These are the things that motivate us to quit drinking, stay out of trouble and risk feeling hope for a good future. Good permanent supportive housing lays the foundation for ending the misery of homelessness. A society with a conscience must make sure people have a decent place to sleep at night.

Let’s not confuse the support people get because Medicaid will pay for it as everything they need. We must connect with our clients as people who need a get well card as much as they need medicine if we want to see true recovery.

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Where is the outrage about assault on Canton homeless man?

Posted on January 21, 2013 by

It’s safer to be homeless in New York than it is in Ohio.

Data gathered by the National Coalition for the Homeless (NCH) show more hate crimes occurred in Ohio against the homeless in 2011 than against the homeless in New York.  And those are just the reported incidences.

The most common victim of homeless hate crimes is a middle aged, homeless man. In 2011, the average age of homeless victims was forty-seven. 84% of the victims were male.

While 40 states treat crimes against the homeless as a hate crime, Ohio does not.

On January 13, 2013 two men assaulted and beat a homeless man in downtown Canton, then left him to die. He suffered multiple injuries, including severe head trauma. After a full week of care he remains in critical condition.

How do we know it was two men who beat him? They were less than 1 block from Aultman Hospital and its video surveillance system recorded them.  The two attackers left and returned, or at least left the video camera’s range, then re-entered it. Who can guess why they returned to the scene of their crime? To relish their handiwork? Maybe to hurt him some more? Either way they saw hospital security heading their way and they had to make a run for it.

 In the seven days since Mr. Doty suffered the assault The Repository has run two stories about the crime, plus one online with a link to the video showing the two men the police want to find. The paper’s stories show its staff take the violence seriously, and perhaps as a result someone will come forward with information leading the police to the perpetrators. Yet, public outrage is missing. Where are the letters to the editor or story comments? The only tweet on the Rep’s twitter account is a link back to the paper’s original report.

In recent memory people have posted comments and sent letters to the editor about lost dogs, Mother Gooseland and plenty about the Browns. In the last week readers tweeted about Lance Armstrong, Dennis Kucinich, the Palace Theater, and yes, more about the Browns.

Do we not have anything to say about the senseless violence against Mr. Doty? How can we know if people cared enough even to read the stories if no one speaks up?

Homelessness is not a lifestyle of choice. Physical assault is common. Exposure to the elements exacts its toll on their mental and physicial health. Extreme heat in the summer can cause heat strokes, extreme cold in the winter can cause hypothermia and steady rain soaks through their clothes, socks and shoes. Food may be a luxury, where they go days without food or get food that leaves them malnourished. Imagine trying to keep track of your medicine when you have nowhere to store it. Homelessness is an act of survival each and every day.

Ohio does not legally recognize assaults against the homeless as a hate crime. Florida deserves credit for its pioneering 2010 legislation making such attacks a hate crime. Since then 39 more states have added it to hate crime status, or somehow increased penalties for the cowards who beat up the homeless. So far Ohio has not recognized that prejudice against the homeless is no better than prejudice against people who practice different religions, have different skin colors or have a different sexual orientation. The crime against Mr. Doty is an opportunity for us to see the true nature of this crime - it is a crime against him simply because of who he is.

No doubt most people want the police to catch Mr. Doty’s assailants and punish them.  We must do more. Its time for our County to break its silence about Mr. Doty and the abhorrent acts against him. Let’s recognize it as a hate crime, committed by people with homes who think it’s acceptable to hurt those without one.

The death of Matthew Shepard helped America see the ugliness of prejudice against gay people. Monday, January 21 marks a day to remember Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. who taught thousands of us that prejudice against people of color holds us all back. Maybe Mr. Doty can be the spark of justice for hate crimes against the homeless.

Write letters to the editor, comment online, post it on Facebook and tweet about it. Call your political representatives, talk to your friends and family. This is how change works. Instigate change for the sake of Mr. Doty.

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