Our partners at Vital Resource Solutions in Baton Rouge have requested we distribute information about their upcoming Flood Survivor Advocacy and Disaster Preparedness Day.
Click here to review their flyer and find out more about this upcoming event.
Our technical assistance partners at the Technical Assistance Collaborative (TAC) have compiled a summary of the FY18 Continuum of Care (CoC) Program Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA).
If you're curious about what's new, what's changed, and what the NOFA process looks like, you can download that summary by clicking here.
Going forward, the LA BOSCOC will maintain a public list of member organizations in Good Standing.
Members in Good Standing can apply for Letters of Certification to apply for funding from a variety of sources, including the Continuum of Care (CoC) Program and Emergency Solutions Grant (ESG) Program.
The current list of members of Good Standing can be found here: https://laboscoc.org/good-standing/
As always, members that are not in Good Standing can still apply for Letters of Certification if they request and receive a waiver. Waiver request procedures are defined in the LA BOSCOC Governance Charter and can be further defined for specific funding sources; in general, however, waiver requests must be submitted electronically to glevine@lhc.la.gov.
LA BOSCOC agencies that are applying to receive funding under the State Emergency Solutions Grant (ESG) Program for Funding Year 2018 (FY18) are required to submit a Letter of Certification from the LA BOSCOC.
This requirement applies to ALL agencies applying for funding: both Regional Applicants AND their sub-recipients.
To request a Letter of Certification for your agency, or to request a Good Standing waiver for your agency, please use the following form: https://goo.gl/forms/HXuLtZk5TVnRJksT2
All Letter of Certification requests are due by 4 PM on Tuesday, July 31.
The LA BOSCOC will issue all Letters of Certification no later than 4 PM on Friday, August 17.
Below, please find the Baton Rouge Region's announcement of its public meeting and request for proposals for State Emergency Solutions Grant (ESG) funding for Funding Year 2018 (FY18)
St. Vincent de Paul of Baton Rouge (SVDP) announces a public meeting to consult with the public on priorities for the most urgent community needs for the homeless for the forthcoming 2018 regional applicant plan. This meeting is part of the SVDP response to the Louisiana Housing Corporation Request for Proposals for Emergency Solutions Grant (ESG) services in the Baton Rouge region. SVDP also invites the public to send comments by email to regionalapplicant@svdpbr.org. Public Meeting: Monday July 9, 2018, 6-7:30 PM at the Carver Branch Public Library 720 Terrace Ave., Baton Rouge, LA 70802.
St. Vincent de Paul of Baton Rouge, as the regional applicant for the Louisiana Balance of State Continuum of Care, Baton Rouge region, is issuing a Request for Proposals (RFP) for a homeless services grant as part of a collaborative application with SVDP for a State ESG Homeless Services grant. Request for Proposals (RFP) packages will be posted and available for download on the Society of St. Vincent de Paul of Baton Rouge website at https://svdpbr.org/ on Monday July 16, 2018. Consideration for project funding under the Regional Applicant Plan will require submittal of a completed RFP package by July 30, 2018 at 4:30 PM.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has released the Funding Year 2018 (FY18) Continuum of Care (CoC) Program Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA).
You can read the NOFA, including “a full list of new, changed, and highlighted information,” here: https://www.hudexchange.info/resource/5719/fy-2018-coc-program-nofa/
The LA BOSCOC will release details about its local competition for these funds over the next few weeks.
If you have questions about the CoC Program NOFA, please contact Gordon Levine, Continuum of Care Manager, at glevine@lhc.la.gov.
During its last General Meeting, the LA BOSCOC voted to create the Substance Abuse Providers Working Group. Please see the message below from Twanda Laurant-Lewis, Executive Director of the Louisiana Health and Rehab Center, who volunteered to facilitate the working group:
If you are interested in becoming a member of this working group, please contact me at tlewis@lahealthandrehab.org. The first working group meeting will be held via conference call on July 11, 2018, at 10 AM CST. Thanks in advance for your willingness to serve.
As noted, if you or someone in your organization is interested in serving on the Substance Abuse Providers Working Group, please contact Twanda at tlewis@lahealthandrehab.org.
The LA BOSCOC has just released a guide to Coordinated Entry Workflow. This guide provides a visual, step-by-step process for resolving (receiving, accepting/rejecting, returning) a Coordinated Entry referral in HMIS.
The LA BOSCOC Governance Charter (v3.4) created the Natchitoches/Sabine Region and a new regional seat on the Board of Directors.
As there were no members present from that Region at the LA BOSCOC General Meeting in June 2018, the LA BOSCOC has appointed Mitzi Harris, executive director of Project Celebration, to fill that Region's seat.
As with all regional representatives, Mx. Harris will serve a 24-month term.
The LA BOSCOC Governance Charter has been updated to version 3.4. You can download a copy here.
The Louisiana Housing Corporation has released the Emergency Solutions Grants (ESG) Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA) for Funding Year 2018 (FY18).
ESG funds projects that serve people experiencing homelessness. ESG is an annual formula-based funding source distributed by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to states and certain entitlement areas.
Click here to access the full ESG FY18 NOFA.
The application period began June 5, 2018; applications are due August 31, 2018.
ESG funds the following project types:
For more information about these project types and eligible costs, refer to 24 CFR Part 576 or https://www.hudexchange.info/programs/esg/.
Funding is allocated by formula to each Continuum of Care (CoC) in Louisiana, and to each Region of the LA BOSCOC. Each CoC and Region receives funding in proportion to the size of its homeless population. (Homeless population is reported during the January 2018 Point in Time Count.) All CoCs/Regions are eligible to apply for at least $50,000 regardless of their homeless population.
ESG funding by LA BOSCOC Region is as follows:
In addition, the Louisiana Housing Corporation is offering a $300,000 grant to fund one Homeless Prevention project dedicated to reducing the number of people who exit Department of Corrections custody into homelessness. For more information, see page 20 of the ESG FY18 NOFA.
Each Region will submit one Regional Application through its Regional Applicant. Regional Applicants will consist of one or more project applications that fund one or more organizations.
Regional Applicants were elected by member organizations in attendance at the June 2018 LA BOSCOC General Meeting. They are as follows:
Both private non-profit organizations and units of local government, including cities and parish governments, are eligible to apply. Please contact your Regional Applicant if you would like to receive funding through the ESG FY18 NOFA.
Every agency that wishes to receive ESG -- either as a regional applicant or sub-recipient -- is required to attend the following information session:
ESG Mandatory Information Session
June 27, 2018
9:30 AM to Noon
Louisiana Housing Corporation
2415 Quail Drive
Baton Rouge, LA 70808
If you plan to attend the information session, please send your RSVP to Aimee LeBlanc at aleblanc@lhc.la.gov.
Please email your questions about the ESG FY18 NOFA to Winona Connor, ESG Program Manager at the Louisiana Housing Corporation, at wconnor@lhc.la.gov.
The Louisiana Balance of State Continuum of Care (LA BOSCOC) is a coalition of people and homeless & service providers dedicated to ending homelessness in Louisiana.
Our collaborative applicant (lead agency) is the Louisiana Housing Corporation. Our Louisiana Housing Corporation team does lots of things: we're a funding source through HUD's Continuum of Care Program, we write regulations and policies for housing and & service providers that serve people experiencing homelessness, we provide technical assistance and training, and much more (including running this website!)
In the past, the LA BOSCOC distributed information to its mailing list on an as-needed basis -- and it turned we needed to distribute a lot of information.
You asked us to send less email, so we created the BOS Blog.
Throughout the week, we'll post updates to the BOS Blog. Once a week, we'll send one email to the LA BOSCOC Mailing List with all our posts that aren't time sensitive. (Don't worry: we'll still email you right away with anything that won't keep.)
If you've got something you'd like to see on the BOS Blog, let us know! The LA BOSCOC is a coalition, and it doesn't work for anybody unless everybody participates. We look forward to hearing from you!
The Louisiana Balance of State Continuum of Care is dedicated to preventing and ending homelessness in Louisiana. We believe all people are entitled to safe, stable, and secure housing. We are committed to working with stakeholders across our geography, in different professional circles, and from every background to create a Louisiana in which no person lives in fear of homelessness.