Western PA CoC Board Meeting Minutes

June 23, 2015

  1. Welcome and Introductions
  2. Meeting called to order by Linda Thompson at 10:37am. Attendees introduced themselves.
  3. In attendance: Missy Russel, Amanda Feltenberger, Tammy Knouse, Kim Stucke, Linda Thompson, Debby Hennon, Madra Clay, Fran Billen, Lynn McUmber, Amber Hill, Jennifer Johnson, Sandy Harber, Wendy Kinnear, Harry Krot, Madra Clay, Barbara Hodas
  4. Any corrections or additions to the March meeting minutes. None made. Motion made by Fran to accept the minutes as presented, second by Sandy. All in favor. Debby abstained because she was not in attendance.
  5. Addition to agenda: Kim Pivetta has notified the Executive Board that she will be resigning from the role because she will be leaving her employment with Armstrong County Community Action. Tammy and Amanda will ask Dan Dodd, from Armstrong County Community Action, if he is interested in filling her position as the SSVF recipient on the Board. If not, then they will check with others in the SW to identify somebody.
  1. SSVF Discussion- Missy Russell, Lawrence County Community Action Partnership
  2. Federal goal is to end veteran homelessness as of December 2015. Want to be at functional 0 by that time.
  3. VA is asking that all SSVF providers collect the names of homeless veterans that they can report. There are 5 SSVF grants serving our geographic area. Mandate that SSVF grantees coordinate with the CoC. Looking for a point person from the NW and SW to work with their area to identify the homeless veterans that are not being served by SSVF. Plan is to gather the names and to determine what to do. They want to see names of people each quarter, who presented as homeless and how they were served.
  4. Suggestion was made to get this report at each RHAB meetingand then send the information to Missy. At next RHABs, identify who the point person will be.
  5. Suggestion made to change all intakes to ask“have you served in the military?”.
  6. If a veteran is identified, then fill out the referral form
  7. For the counties that are subgrantees of LCCAP, send the veterans to SSVF program in your county and they will get captured.
  8. SSVF serves very broad spectrum of veterans. Does not include National Guard unless they were called to service.
  9. ? asked to get the SSVF contact person in each county. Missy will send that out along with a list of the counties served by each SSVF grantee.
  10. Missy will also send the community plan.
  1. DCED Leadership Change
  2. Attendees introduced themselves to Harry Krot. Harry provided information about himself.
  3. Explanation about reconfiguring in DCED, more people in monitoring and compliance. David, Stacy, Mike are in Madra’s department. it is becoming its own program within DCED.
  4. Linda asked how involved the regional offices will be. They will become much more involved with the ESG programs than in the past.
  5. Vision- at this point, the plan is to move forward as is. Harry is eager to continue to learn about what is happening.
  6. Linda brought up the fact that we used to have a Steering Committee call quarterly. Madra said that the plan is to pull those meetings back together, Harry will pull together with DHS.
  7. Perhaps the meeting could be held quarterly and the first part would be HPC and the second half could focus on CoC.
  1. Fiscal Report
  2. Budget update
  3. Chart with Planning Grant and CDBG funds contracted with DMA were distributed, included 2012, 2013 and 2014; question asked if we are on target to spend 2013 planning grant. Madra will be meeting with MJ next week about the budget and will have a better idea then. Then Madra will contact us to discuss further. Linda suggested that perhaps some of our time spent could be billed, so as to spend down.
  4. The committee agreed that it is critical that we spend the money down.
  5. Question asked if we have to have a CoC vote to do a budget modification? Not certain.
  6. Assessment committee will need some money
  7. Barbara said 2014 planning grants can have 6 month extension. Not sure if that applied to the 2013. She will try to find out.
  8. DMA Work plan for FY15-16 was distributed. 4 months of the plan falls within the 2013 planning grant and the remainder will be covered by the 2014 planning grant. The work plan includes duties relating to the Western CoC and the Eastern CoC.
  1. NOFA: CoC Funded Projects
  2. Renewals
  3. Update on DV comparable database- group continues working on this issue
  4. Establish policy for ranking NW and SW projects together including tie breaker protocol- each RHAB will rate and rank separately, then we will pull the lists together using the following tie breakers:
  5. Project type: PH, TH, SSO
  6. Serve 100% Chronic
  7. Follow the Chronic Prioritization policy
  8. 2014 score
  9. % of funds returned in most recent budget
  10. Alphabetical by project
  11. Potter County Human Services Transitional Housing Program- they no longer want to run the program, they are looking at 2 different agencies to assume the project
  12. Process for budget cuts/reallocation, if required by HUD and Discussion of budget cuts/reallocation, if not required by HUD- the group reviewed what we have done in the past, including cutting based on unspent funds and poor performance. No further discussion occurred, will wait to see what the requirements will be.
  13. New Projects
  14. Discussion of submitted NOI’s- we received 4 Notices of Intent, none for coordinated entry, will wait for the NOFA to come out before deciding how to move forward.
  1. NOFA: CoC Application
  2. Barbara distributed the application schedule to show the order of tasks based on the NOFA being released and allowing for 60 days for applications to be submitted
  3. Process for input in completing the CoC application (Ex 1)
  1. CoC Prioritization of Chronically Homeless in Non-Chronic Beds Policy
  2. Linda will work on merging the NW and SW policies, they are already very similar.
  3. Is established process working?- some projects are following and some are not. We think that once we have a good process in place for documentation it should lead to more compliance with the policy.
  4. 2015 renewal ranking included a bonus point for chronic prioritization, need to notify CoC-funded PSH providers that this might carry more weight in future years.
  5. Review/comment on documentation process- the group reviewed a form, we will continue to work on this
  1. CoC Website
  2. Process of updating the website, including who is responsible and expected timeline- Executive Committee will send items to David and copy Madra
  3. Content for update (e.g. LHOT contact list)- RHAB chairs will update and send to David
  1. Subcommittee Structure
  2. The group agreed that all subcommittees will be expected to meet at least one time before the next full CoC meeting.
  3. The group reviewed subcommittee membership. Most of the subcommittees are still in need of members so the RHABs will send another notice to their members requesting participation.
  4. Goals of each subcommittee- Tabled until future meeting
  1. Coordinated Entry Subcommittee Update
  2. Debby distributed a committee report which includes the timeline they are following. The group’s goal is to have a tool selected to provide to the Board at the October meeting.
  3. The committee is looking for one contact person from each county to collect and provide information to the committee. They will need help from the Board in getting this information.
  1. Follow-up from full CoC Meeting (March 25, 2015)- Tabled
  1. Next Meeting- dates will be confirmed and emailed in the near future