LA BOSCOC General Meeting: November 18, 2024

Overview

The Louisiana Balance of State Continuum of Care (LA BOSCOC) will host its second full membership meeting of the year on November 18, 2024. This meeting will be held at 2415 Quail Drive in Baton Rouge with a virtual attendance option to ensure accessibility for everyone throughout our geography.

At the meeting, organizations and individuals will learn about current and upcoming efforts across Louisiana to end homelessness, including opportunities for collaboration and funding.

The LA BOSCOC is Louisiana’s largest federally recognized coalition to end homelessness. It serves 22 parishes across the state, including East Baton Rouge, Calcasieu, Terrebonne, and all their surrounding parishes. For more information about the LA BOSCOC and its service area, please visit its website at https://laboscoc.org/

An agenda will be published to the LA BOSCOC’s Events Calendar the week before the General Meeting.

Scheduling

Date: November 18, 2024

Time: TBD

Meeting Link: TBD

Agenda: TBD

Good Standing

Please note that organizations in the LA BOSCOC’s geography that may seek homeless housing and services funding from a variety of sources, including the Continuum of Care (CoC), are required to attend at least one of the LA BOSCOC’s two semiannual General Meetings in order to maintain Good Standing.

Questions?

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact Carrie Patterson, LCSW, CoC Manager at cpatterson@lhc.la.gov

Board Meeting: Friday, September 17, 1 PM to 2 PM

The Louisiana Balance of State Continuum of Care (LA BOSCOC) Board, which is the LA BOSCOC’s primary governing body, will meet Friday, August 30, from 11 AM to noon.

This meeting will focus on three topics:

Approving the remaining key documents for the FY 2021 CoC Program NOFO. Click here for more information and to review those documents.

Reviewing non-competitive project expansions. The LA BOSCOC Board has offered to consider expansion requests from current subrecipients of two systems-level CoC Program-funded projects, “Coordinated Entry” and “HMIS.” The Board will review proposals and determine their funding mechanism in relation to the FY 2021 CoC Program NOFO local competition General Funding Pool.

Special population: people living in disaster shelters. More than 200 people are currently living in disaster shelters in the LA BOSCOC. Part of this population includes people who were experiencing homelessness before Hurricane Ida or who were precariously housed before Hurricane Ida and cannot be returned to housing via FEMA rental assistance. The Board will consider whether to designate one or both of these populations as a special population for the purposes of Coordinated Entry prioritization.

Click here to access the agenda.

LA BOSCOC Board Meeting: Monday, August 30, from 11 AM to Noon

UPDATE: the NOFO documents under discussion are linked below:

• Timeline and Critical Dates

• Rating, Ranking, and Selection Policy

• Request for Proposals

***

The Louisiana Balance of State Continuum of Care (LA BOSCOC) Board, which is the LA BOSCOC’s primary governing body, will meet Monday, August 30, from 11 AM to noon.

This meeting will focus on two topics:

Coordinated Entry in the Houma Region. Insofar as there are few people experiencing literal homelessness living in the Houma Region or interested in moving to the Houma Region, and insofar as that situation is likely to continue, the Board will consider offering flexibilities to that Region’s permanent housing providers in filling project slots, including suspending the Intervention element of Coordinated Entry and creating a limited path to housing people who are at risk of homelessness.

FY 2021 CoC Program NOFO. On August 18, HUD released its Funding Year (FY) 2021 Continuum of Care (CoC) Program Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO), which will fund approximately $23 million in housing and supportive services for people experiencing homelessness in the LA BOSCOC, approximately $2 million of which will be funding for new projects. The Board will consider several key documents and mechanisms related to the LA BOSCOC’s local competition for funding.

Click here to access the agenda.

Meetings for the week of March 23

Overview

The following CoC meetings have been scheduled for this week. Unless otherwise noted, all meetings are conference calls and can be accessed as follows:

Phone: 1-877-223-6370
Code: 414-157-5810

Schedule

Monday

• LA BOSCOC General Meeting: 10 AM to 11 AM

Tuesday

• HMIS Committee Meeting: 9:30 AM to 10:30 AM

  • Topic(s): COVID-19 information sharing

• Lake Charles Regional Meeting: 2 PM to 3 PM

• Houma Regional Meeting: 3 PM to 4 PM

Wednesday

• Board Meeting: 10 AM to 11 AM

  • Topic(s): COVID-19 information sharing

• Baton Rouge Regional Meeting: 12:30 PM to 1:30 PM

Thursday

• Lake Charles Regional Meeting: 2 PM to 3 PM

• Houma Regional Meeting: 3 PM to 4 PM

Friday

• Baton Rouge Regional Meeting: 12:30 PM to 1:30 PM

Annual Call for CoC Membership

Overview

The Louisiana Balance of State Continuum of Care (LA BOSCOC) is Louisiana’s largest coalition of organizations and people dedicated to ending homelessness. We serve more than 20 parishes, including East Baton Rouge, Calcasieu, and Terrebonne, and we have more than 100 member organizations, including most of the state’s largest housing and homeless services providers.

YOU are invited to become a member. Membership is free and carries no obligations.

Click here for more information about the LA BOSCOC, including which parishes we serve.

Membership Benefits

LA BOSCOC members enjoy the following benefits:

• Funding Opportunities: LA BOSCOC members are the first to know about funding opportunities for organizations to create new housing and services for people experiencing homelessness.

• Training and Technical Assistance: the LA BOSCOC provides a wealth of training opportunities (both individual and group) at no charge to members.

• Shaping Local Policy: the LA BOSCOC creates local policies and procedures for programs serving people experiencing homelessness in your area. Members shape those policies and procedures by providing everything from new perspectives and input to actual policy language.

• Data and Education: the LA BOSCOC is the primary assessor of data and trends related to homelessness in your area. Members can request everything from specific data points to group presentations from CoC staff.

Joining the LA BOSCOC

Click here to register as a member of the LA BOSCOC.

Membership is free and carries no obligations.

For more information about the LA BOSCOC or membership, email Gordon Levine at glevine@lhc.la.gov.

General Meeting Outcomes - October 22, 2019

Overview

The LA BOSCOC General Membership met for its second semiannual meeting of 2019 on October 22, 2019.

The agenda for the meeting can be found here.

Attendance

Voting attendance

Voting attendance can be found on this spreadsheet on the General Meetings tab under the “October 2019” column.

Non-voting attendance

• Gordon Levine, Louisiana Housing Corporation (Continuum of Care Manager)

• Aundrea Braniff, Louisiana Housing Corporation (Coordinated Entry Specialst)

• Clay Boykin, Louisiana Housing Corporation (HMIS Specialist)

• Vonetta Lacy, Louisiana Housing Corporation (Continuum of Care Coordinator)

Documents

• CoC staff slides

• “Serving Transgender People Experiencing Homelessness” slides

Outcomes

Governance Charter (version 4.1)

The General Membership voted by acclamation to adopt Governance Charter (version 4.1). The only substantive change was the creation of a designated Board seat for the Louisiana Coalition Against Domestic Violence.

Halloween Costumes and Candy

As part of the CoC’s commitment to high-quality data collection and assessment, attendees were polled about their Halloween costumes and favorite candy. CoC staff have aggregated that data; please find it below.

A surprising number of attendees have chosen to be exhausted for Halloween; CoC staff attribute this choice in part to NOFA season and are reconsidering their own costumes to match

Chocolate-based candies had a predictably strong showing; peanut butter and nuts are also a favorite

Next meeting

The next semiannual meeting of the LA BOSCOC General Membership will be in the first half of 2020; it is projected to dovetail with the statewide housing conference hosted by the Louisiana Housing Corporation in April 2020.

Final Agenda for October 2019 General Meeting

Overview

The LA BOSCOC has released the final agenda for the October 2019 General Meeting.

It has also released a draft of the LA BOSCOC Governance Charter (version 4.1), which will be discussed and called for a vote during the General Meeting.

Details about the Meeting

When: Tuesday, October 22, from 9 AM to noon CST

Where: webinar; CLICK HERE TO LOG IN, then follow the on-screen prompts to connect your audio

Who should attend: this meeting is open to the public; the LA BOSCOC strongly encourages at least one person from all homeless services organizations in Baton Rouge, Lake Charles, and Houma to attend

How do I register: there is no pre-registration; simply click the link above to access the webinar

Questions or comments?

If you have a question or comment, please contact Gordon Levine, Continuum of Care Manager, at glevine@lhc.la.gov or 225-242-1388.

LA BOSCOC General Meeting - Tuesday, October 22, 9 AM to noon

Overview

The LA BOSCOC will hold a General Meeting of its full membership on October 22 from 9 AM to noon CST.

This meeting will be held via webinar.

Members will have the option to use their webcams during the webinar; however, webcams are not required to participate. There will be opportunities for members to participate via their keyboards and phones/microphones.

Note that all members are required to attend at least one General Meeting per year to remain in Good Standing. To determine whether your organization met this requirement by attending the April 2019 meeting, please refer to the LA BOSCOC Good Standing Committee and Attendance spreadsheet.

Details

Date, time, location

When: Tuesday, October 22, from 9 AM to noon CST

Where: webinar; CLICK HERE TO LOG IN, then follow the on-screen prompts to connect your audio

Who should attend: this meeting is open to the public; the LA BOSCOC strongly encourages at least one person from all homeless services organizations in Baton Rouge, Lake Charles, and Houma to attend

How do I register: there is no pre-registration; simply click the link above to access the webinar

Proposed agenda

A final agenda will be distributed in advance of the call to the LA BOSCOC email list.

Items on the proposed agenda include:

• FEATURED TRAINING: a presentation from Louisiana Trans Advocates about more effectively serving people who are LGBTQ+; Q&A to follow

• The CoC Program NOFA: awards, project application strengths and areas for growth

• Coordinated Entry and Diversion: what’s working, what isn’t, where we go from here

• Policy Changes: what’s changed in the last six months with our Written Standards, Coordinated Entry Policies and Procedures, and Homeless Emergency Plan

• Technical Assistance: what topics should we aim for 2020?

• Monitoring and Technical Assistance Process: what LHC plans for 2020

Questions, comments, agenda items?

If you have a question, a comment, or would like to submit an item for the agenda, please contact Gordon Levine, Continuum of Care Manager, at glevine@lhc.la.gov or 225-242-1388.

LA BOSCOC General Meeting Outcomes - April 1, 2019

Overview

The general membership of the LA BOSCOC met in person in Baton Rouge on April 1, 2019.

Attendance

VOTING ATTENDANCE [LISTED AS ORGANIZATION ONLY]

• Alexandria Veterans Administration Medical Center

• Amerihealth Caritas

• Calcasieu Parish Police Jury

• Calcasieu Parish School Board

• Capital Area Alliance for the Homeless

• Capital Area United Way

• Catholic Charities of Southwest Louisiana

• Empower 225

• Education and Treatment Center (ETC)

• HIV/AIDS Alliance for Region Two (HAART)

• Healthy Blue

• Joseph Homes

• Liberty Dwelling

• Laurant-Lewis Consultancy

• Louisiana Coalition Against Domestic Violence

• Louisiana Department of Education

• Louisiana Housing Corporation

• Maison des Ami

• O’Brien House

• Options Villa

• Our Lady of the Lake

• Particular Council of St. Vincent de Paul of Baton Rouge, the

• Salvation Army of Baton Rouge

• Start Corporation

• St. Bernard Battered Women’s Place

• South Central Louisiana Human Services Association

• Southwest Louisiana Law Center

• Terrebonne Parish Consolidated Government

• United Way of SWLA

• Veterans Administration

• Youth Oasis

Governance Charter v4.0

The general membership voted unanimously to approve the LA BOSCOC Governance Charter v4.0. Significant changes include:

• Clarifies and provides additional structure for LA BOSCOC voting;

• Added several sidebars to answer common questions in plain language (e.g. “Who Actually Belongs to the CoC?”);

• Requires each Regional Subcommittee to develop a street outreach plan;

• Explicitly clarifies the authority of each of the CoC’s governing authorities (the general membership, the committees, and the Board); broadly:

  • General membership: approves the Governance Charter, which defines the powers of the committees and the Board;

  • Committees: complete tasks specified in the Governance Charter; review and approve policies to recommend to the Board for final approval;

  • Board: complete tasks specified in the Governance Charter; provide final approval for policies recommended by the committees;

• Board Chair and Board Vice Chair are now elected from the Board’s membership.

The full text document can be found here: https://laboscoc.org/policies-and-procedures

LA BOSCOC Governance Charter v3.6 Released

Overview

The CoC full membership voted by email between October 17, 2018 and October 31, 2018 to amend the LA BOSCOC Governance Charter to match the details listed here under Option #3: Fewer CoC Full Membership Meetings + New Quarterly Regional Meetings: https://laboscoc.org/new-blog/2018/10/18/la-boscoc-board-outcomes-101818

The vote was cast using the Alternate Voting system described here: https://www.electoral-reform.org.uk/voting-systems/types-of-voting-system/alternative-vote/

71% of CoC members in Good Standing (20 out of 28) cast ballots. More than 50% of those ballots ranked Option #3 as their First Preference, meaning that Option #3 was selected without a second round of preference-ranking. The full vote broke down as follows:

Outcomes

Please review the LA BOSCOC Governance Charter v3.6 for the full list of changes.

A general overview of changes is as follows:

• Two meetings of the CoC full membership per year. One will be held in person; one will be held by webinar. (The 2019 in-person meeting will likely be held directly before the April 2019 Statewide Homelessness Conference.)

• Each Region now has a Regional Subcommittee (e.g. the Lake Charles Subcommittee, Natchitoches/Sabine Subcommittee). Each Regional Subcommittee is chaired by that Region’s Board member.

• Good Standing requires each member to belong to at least one Regional Subcommittee. More details on subcommittee registration will be forthcoming soon.

• Good Standing requires members to attend at least 1 meeting of the full membership each year. Reduced from 3.

• Good Standing requires members to attend at least 2 meetings of their Regional Subcommittee each year.

• Regional Subcommittees are required to meet on a quarterly basis.

• Regional Subcommittees are required by the Charter to develop a written regional outreach plan and to coordinate that Region’s PIT Count.

Documents

The LA BOSCOC Governance Charter v3.6 can be found here.

General Meeting Recap: 10/9/18

Overview

The LA BOSCOC’s last General Meeting for 2018 was held on Tuesday, October 9. 75 people were in attendance representing more than 50 organizations.

Attendance

75 people attended the meeting from more than 50 organizations.

Due to a technical glitch, meeting attendance was not saved or tabulated by CoC Staff. Therefore, for the purposes of meeting Good Standing requirements, all organizations in the LA BOSCOC are considered to have attended this meeting. Thank you for your understanding as CoC staff work to deliver meetings via alternative platforms!

Highlights

National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week (NHHAW)

In recognition of NHHAW, CoC members will be hosting breakfast in Baton Rouge on November 16 to raise community awareness of hunger and homelessness, to create an opportunity for stakeholders to ‘break bread’ with people in need, and to generate funds for local organizations working to ease hunger and end homelessness.

The event will be hosted by St. Vincent de Paul of Baton Rouge (SVDP) and proceeds will benefit SVDP and It Takes a Village.

More details forthcoming as the date approaches.

Point in Time (PIT) Count

The January 2019 PIT Count is coming sooner than we think!

This year’s PIT Count will be similar to previous years in most respects. The CoC will also be targeting 1-2 rural communities for an intensive look at rural PIT Count best practices.

Each Region will be conducting its own PIT Count. By default, each Region’s PIT Captain is its elected Board member, although Board members may designate another person to serve in their place. (PIT Captain designations are due October 17.)

More details as the PIT Count approaches.

State Emergency Solutions Grant

Awards for the 2018 NOFA should be distributed by November 2018.

Coordinated Entry

Coordinated Entry has been fully implemented for nearly a year. In October and November 2018, the Coordinated Entry Committee will be working with CoC staff to revise the Coordinated Entry Policies and Procedures.

HMIS

HMIS training for PATH providers will be available via webinar on October 16, 17, and 23.

RHY uploads are due December 31.

System administrator training for HMIS administrators is coming soon (date TBD) in Baton Rouge.

FY 2018 CoC Program NOFA Review

Please refer to the PowerPoint Presentation used during the webinar.

Annual CoC Priorities

Please refer to the Board Outcomes 10/5/18 post: https://laboscoc.org/new-blog/2018/10/5/la-boscoc-board-outcomes-10518

LA BOSCOC General Meeting (Webinar): October 9

Overview

The next LA BOSCOC General Meeting will held on October 9 from 10 AM to noon CST. As part of our ongoing efforts to make LA BOSCOC meetings more accessible across the CoC's geography, this General Meeting will, for the first time, be held as a webinar.

Members will not be requested to use webcameras during this webinar. There will be opportunities for members to submit questions/comments and participate in discussions via their keyboards or their microphones/headsets/telephones.

As with all General Meetings, this General Meeting will count toward your organization's Good Standing requirements.

Details

• Who: Open to the public; organizations in the LA BOSCOC that are/wish to be funded by the CoC Program or ESG must attend 3 out of 4 quarterly General Meetings per year
   
• When: Tuesday, October 9, from 10 AM to noon CST
   
• Where: Webinar: log in here, then follow the prompts on screen to connect your audio: https://louisianahousingcorp.globalmeet.com/LouisianaHousingAuthority
   
• How do I Register?: There is no registration process; just open the link during the LA BOSCOC General Meeting to attend!
   
• How do I Get Good Standing Credit for Attending?: The Continuum of Care Manager will call roll during the webinar.

Proposed Agenda

A final agenda will be distributed in advance of the call to the LA BOSCOC email list.

Items on the proposed agenda include:

• CoC Program NOFA: what we learned, what we hope to do next year, overview of project application scoring and ranking
   
• Roadmap for 2018-19: the CoC's priorities for the next 12 months (member participation very much encouraged!)
   
• Coordinated Entry: what's working, what isn't, and plans to improve the Coordinated Entry System

Questions, Comments, Suggestions?

If you have a question/comment or would like to submit an item for the agenda, please contact Gordon Levine, Continuum of Care Manager, at glevine@lhc.la.gov or 225-242-1388.