Okaloosa County BOCC — December 18, 2012 — Families Count — reading text

Tab 2 PROJECT NARRATIVE: HOMES COUNT Families Count is prepared to use its 2009-2011 Homeless Prevention/Rapid Re- housing model that was funded by the Department of Children and Families Office of Homelessness for the HOMES COUNT ESG program. Families Count had a 90% success rate getting families stably housed in 90 days. Access: Families Count will publish a phone number for applicants to use to inquire about the HOMES COUNT program. The HOMES COUNT social worker will return phone calls and complete an eligibility screen within 2 business days. The HOMES COUNT social worker will screen all inquires for the program using a detailed screening tool that scores risk criteria (see attached). The screening tool is designed to provide service to those families most in need of temporary financial assistance and case management to secure stable and permanent housing. Since the resources are finite and slim, HOMES COUNT will serve a minimum of twenty (20) households per CoC (Santa Rosa County, Okaloosa County and Bay County) for a total of sixty (60). The applicant will know within 2 business days if they are eligible per approval by the program manager. Applicants can appeal a denial for eligibility by contacting the Families Count Executive Director. Eligibility: Only families with children will be eligible for HOMES COUNT in Santa Rosa, Okaloosa, and Bay counties. At a minimum, eligible households must have an income of less than 50% of the Annual Medium Income (AMI) standard, be literally homeless or living in places not meant for human habitation such as cars, parks, abandoned buildings, on the street, in emergency shelters, a hospital or other institution with 30 days of consecutive stay, or a transitional housing program or at imminent risk of becoming literally homeless including being evicted within a week from a private dwelling, being discharged from an institution within a week after 30 days of a consecutive stay, living in a dwelling that has been condemned by housing officials and is no longer meant for human habitation, fleeing a domestic violence household situation, and if the family lives in one of these housing situations, they have no appropriate housing options that have been identified and they lack financial resources and support networks needed to obtain immediate housing or remain in existing housing. Unaccompanied Youth are also eligible for the HOMES COUNT program in Santa Rosa, Okaloosa and Walton Counties with a referral from the District Schools as well as foster children aging out of the system via a referral from the Community Based Care organization. Goals: The goal of the program is to help eligible families and children secure housing and become self-sufficient in 90 days, but realizing that some families may take longer. HOMES COUNT will provide rental and financial assistance and case management services to eligible participants for a maximum of six months with a $3000 cap on rental and financial assistance per household. The average cost per household is $2400. HOMES COUNT will provide short term and medium term rental assistance and payment of rental arrears, and HOMES COUNT will provide financial assistance for rental application fees, security deposits equal to no more than 2 months’ rent, last month rent if necessary to obtain housing provided it does not exceed one month’s rent, utility deposits required by the utility company for gas, electric, water and sewage, utility payments for gas, electric, water and sewage bills not to exceed 24 months of payments per participant, including up to 6 months of utility bills in arrears, and moving costs such as truck rental or hiring a moving company, and temporary storage fees not to exceed 3 months. The participant must agree to meet the case plan goals and consent to releasing their information for referrals to needed community resources such as legal services and credit counseling and for HMIS data tracking requirements. It is expected that the participant increase their portion of contributing to rent and utilities as the case plan progresses. The case manager will work weekly with new participants for the first month, bi-weekly the second month and monthly in the third month to assess progress in case plan completion. If the participant fails to meet case plan goals, financial assistance will be withheld. The goal is for participants to secure enough income and life skills to remain stably and permanently housed. This case management model will focus on employment, job training, transportation, day care, and mental/physical health which are all needed to remain stably housed. All participants will complete a budget with their case manager and attend a budgeting/financial management class to learn more about how to manage money. Follow up: Case managers will follow the participant at 30 days after closure, 60 days after closure and 90 days after closure to track if the household is maintaining stable and permanent housing. Case File: See attached ACCESS Florida: Families Count is currently an ACCESS Florida partner with Circuit One Department of Children and Families. We also have a contract with DCF to share an ACCESS position to serve Escambia, Santa Rosa, Okaloosa and Walton Counties. Our HOMES COUNT social worker will be trained in the ACCESS system and to function as an advocate for their customers. HMIS: Families Count has been successfully using the HMIS system in Escambia and Santa Rosa counties since 2009. We now use it for our VA Supportive Service for Veteran Families (SSVF) program and our Families Count Service Station. Families Count has not participated in the Community, Inc Coalition HMIS related system because we are using the EscaRosa Coalition on the Homeless HMIS system to track our SSVF data in Okaloosa and Walton counties. Families Count has not used the Hunger and Homeless Coalition CoC HMIS system to date since we have not provided homeless related services in this area, but we are very familiar with the system. We currently have about fourteen (14) HMIS licenses for staff and our data integrity is excellent. Santa Rosa County: This program in Santa Rosa County will be in part staffed by our Family Support Team (FamiliesFirst Network funding) that serves high-risk children and families that are homeless or at risk of homelessness and involved in the child welfare system. We will need to hire another social worker in Santa Rosa County to work with the unaccompanied youth/aging out of foster care population via referrals from the District Schools of Santa Rosa County/FFN to secure stable housing for students and children that are “couch surfing” and homeless. Okaloosa County: the HOMES COUNT program will hire a social worker to serve families and unaccompanied/homeless youth that participate in our Youth Count program. Youth Count is a program funded by the Ounce of Prevention Fund designed for homeless children ages 12 to 15 to prevent teen pregnancy to include life skill training, academic tutoring/mentoring, link and referral and community service-learning projects. With the addition of ESG dollars, we can now help families get stably housed with rent and financial assistance using our case management self-sufficiency model. Bay County: HOMES COUNT services in the Bay and surrounding counties will serve at risk homeless and homeless families and children that are not eligible for our Supportive Services for Veteran Families (SSVF) program. Our SSVF eligibility criteria requires that a household income is less than 30% AMI. Our HOMES COUNT program will serve those veteran families with a household income that is between 50% and 30% AMI. Prevention/Rapid Rehousing: Families Count will use a 35/65 percent split for Prevention and Rapid Rehousing funds respectively using the premise that most of the financial assistance will be spent on rapidly rehousing families and children. The Families Count finance department established a tracking system for this accounting when we provided HPRP starting in 2009.