The LA BOSCOC has issued a revised Request for Proposals (RFP) for the FY 2019 CoC Program Local Competition.
The RFP was revised due to a change in the amount of reallocation funds available. This change reduced the amount of funding available through the General Funding Pool for the Baton Rouge Region. For more information, refer to RFP, section F.I., “General Funding.”
The Coordinated Entry Committee voted by Slack throughout the week of July 29, 2019.
Layla Pedigo, United Way of Southwest Louisiana
Kristin Brooks, Calcasieu Parish Police Jury
Alex Hamilton, Hamilton Investment Properties Community Development Organization
Edna Semar, ASSIST Agency
Chelsea McCoy, Empower 225
Gail Gowland, St. Bernard Battered Women’s Program
Keneisha Keener, Volunteers of America - Greater Baton Rouge
The DV Tiger Team voted unanimously to propose the following amendment to the Coordinated Entry Policies and Procedures:
People fleeing human trafficking (including but not limited to sex trafficking and labor trafficking) should not be required to receive the Intervention Component or wait 30 days before receiving the Assessment Component and access to the Prioritization List.
The Coordinated Entry Committee voted unanimously to adopt the DV Tiger Team’s recommendation and propose it to the Board for final approval.
The LA BOSCOC is developed a Coordinated Entry Brochure for distribution to (1) organizations that serve people experiencing homelessness and (2) people experiencing homelessness who engage the Coordinated Entry System.
The LA BOSCOC is seeking public feedback on the brochure’s current draft before finalizing it for Coordinated Entry Committee and Board review.
The Coordinated Entry Brochure is intended to fulfill all of the following purposes:
Helping people experiencing homelessness access housing and services through Coordinated Entry;
Informing people who engage the Coordinated Entry System about the process — what it CAN do, what it CAN’T do, and the timing of each part of the process;
Empowering organizations that work in any way with people experiencing homelessness
Click here to download the brochure draft.
Please submit public comments by email to Aundrea Braniff, Coordinated Entry Specialist.
The LA BOSCOC is particularly interested in the perspectives of case managers and other stakeholders who work closely on a daily basis with people experiencing homelessness who can offer language and formatting suggestions to make the brochure as accessible as possible to a broad audience.
Public comments will be accepted through 4 PM on August 16, 2019.
The Board met by email to discuss Options Foundation’s Good Standing status and its interaction with the Louisiana Housing Corporation’s Options Villa CoC Program project.
All Board members
Gordon Levine, Louisiana Housing Corporation (Continuum of Care Manager)
After CoC staff determined that Options Foundation was not in Good Standing and would therefore not be eligible to receive funding under the FY 2019 CoC Program NOFA, Options Foundation submitted an appeal to the Board. The Board reviewed Options Foundation’s appeal on June 11 and voted to uphold the original decision.
On July 31, on advice from CoC staff, the Board reviewed language in the Governance Charter related to Good Standing. Per the Governance Charter, only the “applicant” (i.e. direct recipient) must meet the Good Standing requirement to apply for CoC Program funding.
Insofar as the Louisiana Housing Corporation is the direct recipient for the Options Villa project and Options Foundation is the subrecipient, the Louisiana Housing Corporation remains eligible to apply for the Options Villa project under the FY 2019 CoC Program NOFA, and Options Villa’s Good Standing status does not interact with that eligibility.
Note: this will impact the amount of funding available in the FY 2010 CoC Program Local Competition’s General Funding Pool.
St. Vincent de Paul of Baton Rouge (SVDP), the Regional Applicant for the Funding Year 2019 Emergency Solutions Grant Program (FY 2019 ESGP) administered by the Louisiana Housing Corporation LHC), has released its Request for Proposals (RFP) to include projects in Baton Rouge’s Regional Applicant.
ESGP can fund projects that provide housing and services to people experiencing homelessness, including people fleeing domestic violence, via homeless prevention, emergency shelter, street outreach, and rapid re-housing (rental assistance) projects.
Click here to download the Baton Rouge RFP.
For more information about the FY 2019 ESGP NOFA, please see: https://laboscoc.org/news/2019/7/9/fy-2019-emergency-solutions-grant-program-esgp-nofa
Questions about the Baton Rouge RFP can be directed to Michael Acaldo, Executive Director of SVDP, at macaldo@svdpbr.com.
Questions about the FY 2019 ESGP can be directed to Aimee LeBlanc, ESGP Program Manager at LHC, at aleblanc@lhc.la.gov.
CoC staff will be holding local Q&A and Technical Assistance sessions in each of the LA BOSCOC’s Regions.
Anyone interested in submitting a new or renewal project to the FY 2019 CoC Program Local Competition is very welcome to attend.
CoC staff will not be making formal presentations during these sessions, so please come prepared with your questions, comments, and thoughts.
Topics that might be covered include but are not limited to:
What does a sustainable budget for a Rapid Re-Housing project in my Region look like?
How much detail is HUD/the CoC looking for in [question]?
What does the change from Housing First to Low Barrier mean for my project?
What are the added challenges involved in a Joint Transitional Housing-Rapid Re-Housing project, and how do I address them?
What kind of data can I use to support an “evidence-based approach?”
…and anything else you come up with!
Meetings are scheduled as follows.
When: July 25, 1 PM to 3 PM
Where: The Louisiana Housing Corporation — Board Room (2415 Quail Drive Baton Rouge, LA 70808)
When: July 25, 12 PM to 2 PM
Where: First United Methodist Church — Fellowship Hall (6109 Highway 311 Houma, LA 70360)
Lunch is provided!
When: July 30, 10 AM to noon
Where: Epps Branch Library (1320 N. Simmons Street Lake Charles, LA 70601)
No meeting has been scheduled; to request a meeting, please email Gordon Levine, Continuum of Care Manager, at glevine@lhc.la.gov
No meeting has been scheduled; to request a meeting, please email Gail Gowland, Plaquemines/St. Bernard Board Member, at gail.gowland@stbernardbwp.org or Gordon Levine, Continuum of Care Manager, at glevine@lhc.la.gov
The Board met by conference call to review and approve the FY 2019 CoC Program Local Competition documents.
Winona Connor, Louisiana Housing Corporation (Louisiana Housing Corporation) (Chair)
Laura Hasenstein, Louisiana Department of Health (Louisiana Department of Health)
Addie Duval, Start Corporation (Baton Rouge Region)
Brooke Guidry, Start Corporation (Houma Region)
Tarek Polite, Calcasieu Parish Police Jury (Lake Charles Region)
Gail Gowland, St. Bernard Battered Women’s Program (Plaquemines/St. Bernard Region)
Gordon Levine, Louisiana Housing Corporation (Continuum of Care Manager)
Aundrea Braniff, Louisiana Housing Corporation (Coordinated Entry Specialist)
The Board voted unanimously to approve the following documents:
Approved as written.
Approved as written.
Approved as written.
Approved with the following changes:
Bonus points for Reallocation increased from 6 to 10 to create a greater incentive for older projects to reallocate;
Bonus points under Staff Sustainability for “paying staff a living wage” increased from 2 to 3 to signify the importance of retaining high quality staff;
Metric under Staff Sustainability for “paying staff a living wage” changed from $15.00/hour to the living wage for a given project’s primary parish or metropolitan service area as determined by the MIT Living Wage Calculator.
Approved with the following changes:
Bonus points under Staff Sustainability for “paying staff a living wage” increased from 2 to 3 to signify the importance of retaining high quality staff;
Metric under Staff Sustainability for “paying staff a living wage” changed from $15.00/hour to the living wage for a given project’s primary parish or metropolitan service area as determined by the MIT Living Wage Calculator.
The Louisiana Housing Corporation is pleased to announce that its Scoring Committee has selected Start Corporation to serve as its subrecipient under the Coordinated Entry (One Stop) Request for Proposals (RFP).
The Scoring Committee received a number of excellent proposals, many of which came from organizations that play a critical role in Baton Rouge’s Coordinated Entry System. The Louisiana Housing Corporation and te Scoring Committee extend their sincere appreciation for the applicants’ time, attention, and commitment to Baton Rouge’s coordinated community approach to ending homelessness.
Start Corporation will receive approximately $147,000 in funding to perform intake, diversion, and assessment activities at the One Stop for people experiencing homelessness, at risk of homelessness, and fleeing domestic violence. This funding will likely become available in late Q1 or Q2 2020.
The Louisiana Housing Corporation (LHC), on behalf of the Louisiana Balance of State Continuum of Care (LA BOSCOC), has opened its Funding Year 2019 Continuum of Care Program (FY 2019 CoC Program) Local Competition.
Through this Local Competition, the LA BOSCOC will award approximately $18 million to organizations that provide housing and supportive services to people experiencing homelessness, including people fleeing domestic violence.
More than $1 million of the funding awarded will be for new projects. The LA BOSCOC welcomes ‘first time’ applications from organizations that do not currently receive funding from the CoC Program or HUD.
For more information, including how to apply, eligible activities, and grant application training opportunities that will be available over the next few weeks, please refer to the LA BOSCOC’s FY 2019 CoC Program Local Competition page: https://laboscoc.org/fy19-coc-program-competition
The Local Competition closes August 27, 2019.
The LA BOSCOC is Louisiana’s statewide coalition of people and organizations dedicated to ending homelessness. It serves more than 20 counties and includes the cities of Baton Rouge, Lake Charles, and Houma. LHC serves as the LA BOSCOC’s collaborative applicant (“lead agency”).
Updated 7/11/19 at 1:55 PM
The following emergency shelter accommodations are available in each Region of the LA BOSCOC during the severe weather event from Thursday, July 11, through Sunday night, 7/14/19.
Some of these beds are available to people experiencing homelessness as part of regular operations; others are available for this severe weather event only. All of these beds are available to people who expect to sleep on the streets, in their car, in the woods, or any other unsheltered location beginning either Thursday, July 11 or Friday, July 12 through Sunday, July 14.
St. Vincent de Paul has emergency shelter for singles and families both through their men’s shelter and via an additional arrangement with the Louisiana Housing Corporation.
To access emergency shelter, follow these instructions:
Shelter becomes available: beginning the night of Friday, July 12
Where to go: 1623 Convention Street
When to go: by 3 PM to reserve a bed;
If after 3 PM, for men only, go directly to the men’s shelter to check bed availability
Capital Area Alliance for the Homeless will be open during the day at the following times for people to take shelter:
Saturday, July 13: 8 AM to 3 PM
Sunday, July 14: 8 AM to 11:30 AM
The Salvation Army of Greater Baton Rouge’s Center of Hope Shelter will be open 24 hours a day beginning on Friday, July 12, at 4 PM. The Center of Hope Shelter is located at 7361 Airline Highway (around the left side of the building past the guard shack).
Beds are available as usual through the Beautiful Beginnings shelter:
Beautiful Beginnings
300 Bond Street
Houma, LA 70360
Additional shelters will open on Friday, July 12, at 7 AM. Shelter locations are as follows:
Municipal Auditorium: 880 Verret Street in Houma
East Houma Gym: 126 Boundary Road in Houma
A voluntary evacuation will go into effect on Friday, July 12, at 7 AM.
The Calcasieu Parish Police Jury has emergency shelter for singles and families via an arrangement with the Louisiana Housing Corporation.
To request an emergency shelter bed, call 337-405-8292.
For information about emergency shelter as it becomes available, contact Project Celebration at 318-256-6242.
Emergency shelter is available for people fleeing domestic violence. For more information, including whether additional emergency shelter has become available, contact St. Bernard BWP at 504-277-3177.
The Louisiana Housing Corporation (LHC), as the Collaborative Applicant (or “lead agency”) of the Louisiana Balance of State Continuum of Care (LA BOSCOC), has released its Request for Proposals and associated documents for the FY 2019 CoC Program Local Competition for public comment.
Public comments will be accepted through 4 PM on Monday, July 15, 2019.
All public comments will be submitted to the LA BOSCOC Board for consideration.
The following documents have been released for public comment as part of the FY 2019 CoC Program Local Competition:
Project Rating, Ranking, and Selection
You can submit public comments one of two ways:
Public comments can be emailed to Gordon Levine, Continuum of Care Manager, at glevine@lhc.la.gov. If possible, please submit comments on the documents themselves using Microsoft Word’s “Track Changes” and “New Comment” functions.
Public comments can be submitted anonymously via Google Forms using this form: https://forms.gle/DitUSuAsY44jPCeLA
Public comments can be submitted publicly to the CoC using the LA BOSCOC’s Slack platform. For a free invitation to the Slack platform, please email Gordon Levine, Continuum of Care Manager, at glevine@lhc.la.gov.
All Local Competition documents are subject to change at the discretion of the LA BOSCOC Board until their final versions are published.
HUD has not yet published their Renewal Project Application Detailed Instructions or New Project Application Detailed Instructions. While it is unlikely that these documents will change the scoring elements in the Local Competition Scoring Tools, it is possible these documents will affect how points awe awarded within those elements.
LHC strongly encourages applicants who review the public comment versions of Local Competition documents to re-read the final published versions to ensure they are aware of any changes.
The Louisiana Housing Corporation, as the statewide recipient of federal Emergency Solutions Grant (ESG) funds, has announced more than $1 million in competitive funding for organizations that provide housing and supportive services to people experiencing homelessness.
For more information, please refer to the ESGP FY19 NOFA here: https://www.lhc.la.gov/public-comments-and-notices?description=&type=8
Each Region of the LA BOSCOC can submit ONE application to the ESGP NOFA for an amount equal to its allocation in the ESGP FY19 NOFA. Each application will contain one or more projects from one or more organizations. Each Region’s application – and its process for selecting projects – is created and managed by one organization elected by that Region’s CoC members to serve as Regional Applicant.
If you are interested in EITHER being Regional Applicant OR submitting a project for funding, please follow the steps below for your Region.
Parishes: Ascension, East Baton Rouge, East Feliciana, Iberville, Point Coupee, West Baton Rouge, West Feliciana
Contact: Addie Duval @ Start Corporation — Addie.duval@startcorp.org
Regional Applicants: elected via conference call on 7/11 at 1:30 PM; for call-in information, contact Addie or Gordon at glevine@lhc.la.gov
Project Selection: to be determined by Regional Applicant; to be added to the distribution list for projects, contact Addie or Gordon
Parishes: Assumption, Lafourche, St. Charles, St. James, St. John, Terrebonne
Contact: Brooke Guidry @ Start Corporation — Brooke.guidry@startcorp.org
Regional Applicants: elected via email during an upcoming week; to be added to the email chain, contact Brooke or Gordon at glevine@lhc.la.gov
Project Selection: to be determined by Regional Applicant; to be added to the distribution list for projects, contact Brooke or Gordon
Parishes: Allen, Beauregard, Calcasieu, Cameron, Jefferson Davis
Contact: Tarek Polite @ the Calcasieu Parish Police Jury — tpolite@cppj.net
Regional Applicants: Calcasieu Parish Police Jury will serve as Regional Applicant unless another organization expresses interest; to nominate your organization for Regional Applicant, contact Tarek or Gordon at glevine@lhc.la.gov by 4 PM on July 12
Project Selection: to be determined by Regional Applicant; to be added to the distribution list for projects, contact Tarek or Gordon
Parishes: Natchitoches, Sabine
Contact: Gordon Levine @ the Louisiana Housing Corporation — glevine@lhc.la.gov
Regional Applicants: no organizations have expressed an interest; if you are interested, please contact Gordon at glevine@lhc.la.gov ASAP
Project Selection: if no Regional Applicant is selected, no application will be submitted; to be added to the distribution list for projects (if there will be one), contact Gordon
Parishes: Plaquemines, St. Bernard
Contact: Gail Gowland @ St. Bernard BWP — Gail.gowland@stbernardbwp.org
Regional Applicants: St. Bernard BWP will serve as Regional Applicant, as they are currently the sole CoC member in this Region
Project Selection: the RFP is available at www.stbernardbwp.org; project applications are due on July 19 by 3 PM
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), in partnership with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), has released a Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA) for a new demonstration program: Specialized Housing and Services for Victims of Human Trafficking.
This NOFA is intended to fund housing and supportive services for victims of human trafficking. It strongly emphasizes rapid re-housing but also provides funding for crisis housing, host homes, and a suite of supportive services.
This NOFA also requires significant collaboration between applicants and their CoC.
For more information, including the NOFA itself, please see: https://www.hudexchange.info/news/specialized-housing-and-services-for-victims-of-human-trafficking-nofa-fr-6300-n-45/
The Louisiana Housing Corporation (LHC) does not intend to apply for these funds. However, LHC is eager to partner with organizations that do intend to apply.
If your organization is interested in applying for these funds, please contact Gordon Levine, Continuum of Care Manager, at glevine@lhc.la.gov to discuss collaborating with the CoC on this NOFA.
The Board met by conference call for its regular bimonthly (every other month) meeting.
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)
Gordon Levine, Louisiana Housing Corporation (Continuum of Care Manager)
Terry Hale, Louisiana Housing Corporation (Board Secretary)
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.
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%).
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The Louisiana Housing Corporation hosted a webinar to present information about the Coordinated Entry (One Stop) Request for Proposals and to answer questions about it.
The webinar was recorded and can be viewed here.
The webinar’s PowerPoint can be downloaded here.
The RFP can be downloaded here.
The Louisiana Housing Corporation (LHC), as the Collaborative Applicant for the Louisiana Balance of State Continuum of Care (LA BOSCOC), has released this Request for Proposals (RFP) in advance of the anticipated Funding Year 2019 (FY 2019) Continuum of Care (CoC) Program Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA).
LHC expects to apply for up to $150,000 in funding for a new project under the Coordinated Entry project type under the FY 2019 CoC Program NOFA. If funded, LHC expects to contract with one sub-recipient through that project to create and operate a Coordinated Entry Access Points at the One Stop Homeless Services Center in the City of Baton Rouge.
This RFP is intended to generate a list of eligible and interested organizations to serve as the project sub-recipient. LHC expects to select one organization from that list.
LHC expects to make up to $150,000 available to the sub-recipient during the first year (renewable each subsequent year subject to the requirements of the CoC Program and the LA BOSCOC) under the project.
Click here to access the full RFP, including information about requirements and eligible expenses.
Proposals are created and submitted online through Google Forms: https://forms.gle/pZFaTAeSsFo43WESA
Applicants that cannot submit their proposal electronically may request a waiver to submit their proposal via postal mail instead. Waiver requests can be submitted to Gordon Levine, Continuum of Care Manager, at glevine@lhc.la.gov or by postal mail:
Continuum of Care Manager
Louisiana Housing Corporation
1690 N. Boulevard, 2nd Floor
Baton Rouge, LA 70802
Proposals must be submitted by July 12, 2019 at 11:59 PM.
The LA BOSCOC encourages potential applicants to attend its Coordinated Entry Request for Interest Webinar, which will be held on June 24, 2019 from 1:30 PM to 3 PM. The webinar’s details, including its login information, will be announced via the LA BOSCOC email list. To be added to the email list, please email Gordon Levine, Continuum of Care Manager, at glevine@lhc.la.gov.
Questions can be submitted to Gordon Levine, Continuum of Care Manager, at glevine@lhc.la.gov.
The Board voted by email throughout the week of June 10, 2019 on several issues.
Laura Hasenstein, Louisiana Department of Health (Louisiana Department of Health)
Antiqua Hunter, Louisiana Department of Education (Louisiana Department of Education)
Addie Duval, Start Corporation (Baton Rouge Region)
Brooke Guidry, Start Corporation (Houma Region)
Tarek Polite, Calcasieu Parish Police Jury (Lake Charles Region)
Mitzi Harris, Project Celebration (Natchitoches/Sabine Region)
Gail Gowland, St. Bernard Battered Women’s Program (Plaquemines/St. Bernard Region)
The Board voted unanimously (7-0) to maintain a public-facing list of the attendance records for all general meetings, committee meetings, and Board meetings retroactive to 2018 and moving forward. This list will also contain information about each organization’s Good Standing status. This list will be maintained by LHC. For more information about Good Standing, please refer to: https://laboscoc.org/good-standing
The Board voted unanimously (6-0) to approve LHC releasing a Request for Proposals (RFP) to fund up to $150,000 in Coordinated Entry activities at the One Stop Homeless Services Center in Baton Rouge, LA through the upcoming Funding Year 2019 Continuum of Care (FY 2019 CoC Program) Competition. This amount will be deducted from the competitive amount prioritized to the Baton Rouge Region. The LA BOSCOC anticipates that there will still be a significant amount of competitive funding available to the Baton Rouge Region.
The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has invited the LA BOSCOC to join a Community of Practice (CoP) related to CoC governance. These CoPs are remote group learning opportunities where multiple CoCs collaborate on sharing best practices and learning from HUD TA providers on a given topic.
This CoP will last roughly 6 months; Addie Duval will attend for the Board and Aundrea Braniff will attend for LHC.
No members of the Board were nominated for the Vice Chair position. As such, that position will remain open until such time as someone is nominated to fill it.
The HMIS Committee met on June 12, 2019.
Clay Boykin, Louisiana Housing Corporation (Chair)
Gail Gowland and Joyce Watson, St. Bernard Battered Women’s Program
Betty Grant, Capital Area Human Services District
Keneisha Keener, Volunteers of America Greater Baton Rouge
Weston Schild, Capital Area Alliance for the Homeless
Gordon Levine and Aundrea Braniff, Louisiana Housing Corporation
The CoC Manager presented his vision for this meeting and this Working Group: that during this meeting, the group would set its intentions for the next 12 months and hold biennial elections for its chair.
The Chair indicated that his intention for the Committee was that it help improve providers’ familiarity with and valuation of HMIS data as a tool rather than a requirement. He also expressed a desire to assist providers in learning how to request and produce reports on their data.
The Committee discussed many of the practical aspects of data sharing between EmpowerDB and HMIS, specifically the process for referring a participant from EmpowerDB to HMIS and how a DV provider can check to see participant status on the Prioritization List.
The Committee voted unanimously to instruct the Louisiana Housing Corporation to provide HMIS training as follows:
Every other month and by project type, open to all providers operating projects of that type;
One instance of HMIS training for PATH providers in partnership with the Office of Behavioral Health.
The HMIS Committee tabled its biennial Chair election.
The next meeting will be held by conference call. The next meeting has not yet been scheduled. To join this Working Group or be informed about its next meeting, please contact Gordon Levine, CoC Manager, at glevine@lhc.la.gov, or Clay Boykin, Committee Chair, at cboykin@lhc.la.gov.
The DV Working Group met on June 16, 2019.
Delma Porter, Southwest Louisiana Law Center (Chair)
Gail Gowland, St. Bernard Battered Women’s Program
Pam Hutcheson, Louisiana Coalition Against Domestic Violence
Trashica “Keysha” Robinson, IRIS Domestic Violence Shelter
Tammara Crawford and Krysta Heathcock, Empower 225
Antiqua Hunter, Louisiana Department of Education (by phone)
Gordon Levine, Aundrea Braniff, Clay Boykin, Louisiana Housing Corporation
The CoC Manager presented his vision for this meeting and this Working Group: that during this meeting, the group would set its intentions for the next 12 months, review and approve the referral form from EmpowerDB to HMIS, and hold biennial elections for its chair.
By general acclamation, the Working Group approved the EmpowerDB-to-HMIS Referral Form. This Form will be submitted to the Coordinated Entry Committee for review, then submitted to the Board for final approval.
The Working Group discussed many of the changes implemented in the Coordinated Entry Policies and Procedures v2.0 (CES P&P 2.0), particularly the 30-day wait requirement. Many of the providers presented made the case that the 30-day wait will lengthen the amount of time people fleeing DV spend waiting to enter housing; the CoC Manager requested data to support that position and committed to reviewing the CES P&P in light of that data. LCADV committed to collecting that data from providers, while the CoC Manager and LCADV jointly committed to discussing the issue further with national technical assistance providers.
By general acclamation, the Working Group selected Trashica “Keysha” Robinson from IRIS as its new Chair.
The next meeting will be held by conference call. The next meeting has not yet been scheduled. To join this Working Group or be informed about its next meeting, please contact Gordon Levine, CoC Manager, at glevine@lhc.la.gov, or Trashica “Keysha” Robinson, Working Group Chair, at krobinson@stopdv.org.
The general membership of the LA BOSCOC met in person in Baton Rouge on April 1, 2019.
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
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
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.