Overview
The Board met by conference call for its regular bimonthly (every other month) meeting.
Attendance
VOTING ATTENDANCE [LISTED AS NAME, ORGANIZATION (SEAT) (ROLE, IF ANY)]
Winona Connor, Louisiana Housing Corporation (Louisiana Housing Corporation) (Chair)
Laura Hasenstein, Louisiana Department of Health (Louisiana Department of Health)
Eric Gammons, Capital Area Alliance for the Homeless (HMIS Lead)
Antiqua Hunter, Louisiana Department of Education (Louisiana Department of Education)
Addie Duval, Start Corporation (Baton Rouge Region)
Tarek Polite, Calcasieu Parish Police Jury (Lake Charles Region)
Gail Gowland, St. Bernard Battered Women’s Program (Plaquemines/St. Bernard Region)
NON-VOTING ATTENDANCE (LISTED AS NAME, ORGANIZATION, (ROLE, IF ANY)]
Gordon Levine, Louisiana Housing Corporation (Continuum of Care Manager)
Terry Hale, Louisiana Housing Corporation (Board Secretary)
CoC Manager Report
The CoC Manager provided an overview that included the following items:
The Point in Time (PIT) Count;
The CoC’s System Performance Measures (an overview of project outcomes at the CoC level);
The CoC does not expect to merge with any other CoCs during calendar year 2019;
LHC intends to hire an additional CoC Coordinator in the near future; LHC intends for that person to be based in Lake Charles to provide localized support to the Lake Charles and Natchitoches/Sabine Regions.
CoC Program Local Competition
The CoC Manager briefed the Board on LHC’s plans for the Funding Year 2019 (FY 2019) CoC Program Local Competition. Highlights included:
Several projects have reallocated; as a result, there will be additional new project funding available;
LHC anticipates that new project funding will be as follows (subject to the actual funding made available by HUD):
~$450,000 available to all Regions for projects that exclusively serve people fleeing domestic violence;
~$400,000 prioritized to Baton Rouge for new rapid re-housing (RRH), permanent supportive housing (PSH), and joint component transitional housing/rapid re-housing (TH-RRH) projects;
~200,000 prioritized to Lake Charles for new RRH, PSH, and TH-RRH projects;
LHC will apply for ~$700,000 in new project funding to create Coordinated Entry Access Points in the Houma, Natchitoches/Sabine, and Plaquemines/St. Bernard Regions; to fund the Access Point at the One Stop Homeless Services Center in Baton Rouge; and to fund 1.0 FTEs of a Coordinated Entry Navigator through St. Vincent de Paul of Baton Rouge;
NOTE: prioritized funding is restricted to Baton Rouge and Lake Charles only insofar as projects that propose to serve those Regions score at least 70 points on their application; if no such projects exist, or if any money remains after such projects are funded, those prioritized funds become available to all projects in all Regions;
The Scoring Tools and Detailed Instructions will have similar content and substance to last year, but their texts have been drastically simplified (shortened by ~50%).
Vice Chair
The Board was scheduled to elect a new Vice Chair; however, given that many of the Regional seats were not present during that point of the meeting, this election was tabled and scheduled to be held via email.
Board Seat for the Louisiana Coalition Against Domestic Violence
The Board voted unanimously to add a designated seat to the Board for the Louisiana Coalition Against Domestic Violence. This seat will remain in place until the next LA BOSCOC General Meeting, at which time the general membership will need to ratify the seat as part of the LA BOSCOC Governance Charter.
Early Outcomes from Coordinated Entry
The Board discussed early outcomes data for the Coordinated Entry Policies and Procedures v2.0 (CES P&P). Early data indicates that the new mechanisms (30 day wait, Diversion and Intervention required) are working: a comprehensive survey of every person who visited a Coordinated Entry Access Point during April 2019 indicated that nearly half returned to housing with friends, family, or on their own.
The CoC Manager cautioned not to overextend this data, as it requires additional details (breakdowns by subpopulation, especially chronically homeless, youth, and DV) and more data points to be truly predictive.
The Board voted unanimously to recommend to the Coordinated Entry Committee that the Committee consider revising the CES P&P to empower the Board to grant exemptions to portions of the CES P&P for CoC Program projects funded before 2015. The Board voted unanimously to recommend to the Coordinated Entry Committee that the Committee consider not revising the CES P&P to create other ‘loopholes’ for target populations until LHC has aggregated more data.
Options Foundation Waiver of Good Standing
The Board voted to deny Options Foundation’s request for a waiver of the Good Standing requirement for the FY 2019 CoC Program NOFA. The vote roll recorded 1 vote to approve, 3 votes to deny, and 1 abstaining.
Next Board Meeting
The next Board meeting will be held in Baton Rouge and via conference call on Tuesday, August 6, from 1 PM to 3 PM. More information can be found on the LA BOSCOC Events page.