Eastern Region Coc Governing Board Meeting
Eastern Region CoC Governing Board Meeting
June 20, 2016
Giant Community Center, Camp Hill, PA
ATTENDEES
Lori Sywensky, President
Jeff Rich, Vice President
Leslie Perryman, Secretary
Ben Laudermilch, Treasurer
Harry Krot, DCED
Danijel Vukancic, DCED
David Weathington, DCED
Tony Payton, Jr., DCED
Shawn Frankenstein
Leigh Howard, DMA
Craig Newcomer
Joyce Sacco
Andy Whyte
Sergio Carmona
Eastern Region CoC Governing Board Meeting
June 20, 2016
Giant Community Center, Camp Hill, PA
ATTENDEES
The registration list is an attachment to the minutes.
WELCOME & INTRODUCTIONS
The meeting was called to order by President Lori Sywensky. Attendees introduced themselves.
APPROVAL OF MINUTES
On a motion by Jeff Rich, seconded by Joyce Sacco and by unanimous vote of the board members, it was duly RESOLVED to approve the minutes of the April 18, 2016 meeting.
ACCEPTANCE OF NOMINATIONS OF NEW DIRECTORS
On a motion by Ms. Sywensky, seconded by Mr. Newcomer and by unanimous vote of the board members, it was duly RESOLVED to elect Jeff Rich as president.
On a motion by Ms. Whyte, seconded by Ms. Sacco and by unanimous vote of the board members, it was duly RESOLVED to elect Leslie Perryman as vice-president.
On a motion by Ms. Sywensky, seconded by Jeff Rich and by unanimous vote of the board members, it was duly RESOLVED to elect Joyce Sacco as Treasurer.
On a motion by Ms. Sywensky, seconded by Ms. Sacco and by unanimous vote of the board members, it was duly RESOLVED to elect Craig Newcomer as Secretary.
Funding Committee: Madra Clay will remain the same.
On a motion by Ms. Sywensky, seconded by Mr. Laudermilch and by unanimous vote of the board members, it was duly RESOLVED to elect Joyce Sacco as chair of the funding committee.
A letter of intent from DCED nominating Madra Clay to continue serving on behalf of the state was provided.
On a motion by Mr. Newcomer, seconded by Mr. Frankenstein and by unanimous vote of the board members, it was duly RESOLVED that Madra Clay continue as representative on the Collaborative Applicant/HMIS Lead sub-committee.
ANNUAL ELECTION OF OFFICERS
On a motion by Mr. Rich, seconded by Mr. Newcomer and by unanimous vote of the board members, it was duly RESOLVED that Jenni Hall continue as representative on the Homeless/Formerly Homelesssub-committee.
For co-chairs, Pocono RHAB Leslie is continuing her term. A second co-chair will be appointed at the August Meeting.
For the Northern tier, Mae-Ling and Jeff are continuing their terms so there are no changes.
For the Southcentral tier, Craig is remaining on as co-chair; Sergio’s term is up but he intends to stay. They will have an official vote at their next RHAB meeting.
For the Lehigh Valley RHAB, Chris and Lori are continuing.
For the Southcentral RHAB, Shawn Frankenstein is continuing another year; Ben is stepping down – there is no other interested co-chair at this time, however Mr. Frankenstein is working on a possibility.
UPDATE FROM DCED
Results of ESG Monitoring
Mr. Krot updated the Board that Madra Clay will be returning from medical leave beginning July 8th. Mr. Krot discussed the ESG and HMIS monitoring results and reported we have not received an official letter yet as HUD is making some improvements.
Update of Current Consulting Contract
Mr. Krot provided an update on the current contract for the new one coming up on July 1. After proposal process, Diana T. Myers and Associates, Inc. won. Mr. Krot reviewed the budget handout. Note that Board members should be submitting travel reimbursement expenses, as money was allocated for such. Ms. Howard discussed her thoughts on – we have some webinars and classroom training built into contract now, however, an hour and a half discussion isn’t enough time to give individuals the tools necessary to move forward; suggesting additional, more in-depth training be available. Also would like to discuss capacity for change speeding up the process for CoC wide implementation of our coordinated entry.
Budget Update
Mr. Vukancic provided the Board with a review of the budget handout. It was reported that there is extra money for PSATS available which expires at the end of the month and why PSATS is present today taking the minutes. Ms.Sywensky commented that, in the past, we were unaware of contract expiration date and money was lost. She suggested that, in the future, we highlight any money that was expiring in the near future so that we could try to utilize. Mr. Laudermilch suggested a simplified separate list for any and all expirations.
Re-allocation of FY2014 ESG Funds
Mr. Weathington reported that they re-allocated the majority of the rapid re-housing dollars with one emergency shelter reallocation which was Monroe. There were six counties that we put out money for rapid re-housing. They are now determining if there is any leftover money from the 14’ allocations.
ESG Application Process FY2016
Mr. Weathington reported that they are looking to do more with the guidelines for coordination entry projects with ESG and CoC in 2017. Reported DCED has been sitting in on webinars that HUD has been having on larger CoC and communities and how they’re utilizing their dollars for coordinated entry and doing research with some of the local continuums. Moving into 2016, The application process ended on Friday at 5:00 p.m.– we’ve had 29 applications submitted as of then. We have begun a 60-day window starting today for these contracts.
OLD BUSINESS
Review of Newly Drafted MOU
Ms. Sacco suggested it needs to be clearer who’s doing what along with an attached grid. Mr. Krot is taking this to DCED’s legal department – please submit any comments to Mr. Krot by July 1 so that he has time to get to legal for their review prior to our August meeting. Please email the whole Board, copying Mr. Vukancic with these comments.
Letters of Support for Applications
Ms. Cassidy put together the draft language on this policy issue. A copy was provided to the Board for review and comments. A few changes and additions were suggested, including increasing the attendance percentage. The attached reflects the updated Support Letter Policy with all of the suggested changes.
On a motion by Jeff Rich, seconded by Joyce Sacco and by unanimous vote of the board members, it was duly RESOLVED to approve the Support Letter Policy with the additions as reflected in the attachment.
NEW BUSINESS
Ms. Howard walked the board though the document preparingfor CoC NOFA and Transitional Housing in Eastern PA. $44 million dollars in transitional housing, 270 projects nationwide were not funded because they were in fact transitional housing and not using housing first. Our goals as the CoC; it’s pretty clear that we don’t have sufficient resources right now to meet those goals, therefore, there has to be some sort of shifting of funds to account for increasing resources in the lacking areas.
It was recommended to attempt to convert half of our transitional housing inventory. 5 have already volunteered to do so, however, the question was raised how we identify an additional 5 projects. Ideas for identifying 5 or more transitional housing projects for reallocation were provided on the handout. Ms. Howard described the 3-week planning process. Mr. Laudermilch asked if DCED could help us make the home funding whole and turn the site into a permanent site for transitional providers that are willing to convert – DCED looking into and will get back to the Board. Currently there is 3.2 million dollars out of 10 million is going towards transitional housing which is approximately 30-40% of our total allocation, HUD does not want to see 1/3 of our funding going towards transitional housing. A Board goal was stated that we fund no more than 20% of our overall allocation this year for transitional housing. Ms. Howard requested any decision we make today should be in pencil until we hear from NOFA. Suggesting we reallocate 10, with a plan for the other 10 over the next year for each of those projects to show HUD what we are doing. Ms. Sacco suggested we aim at a higher number than 10 to reallocate this year. In transitional housing, the message was clearly stated that this is not in recognition of support of rapid re-housing or against transitional, this is about the CoC having resources to be able to effectively serve those households that have a need and we’re going to lose that funding if we don’t make a change. All projects are being strongly urged to figure out how to convert to something else. Action what do you want to do about transitional housing – the Board has approved converting 10 or more projects. The governing board will be, in order to maintain its level of funding, only supporting half or more projects subject to the analysis of the dollar figure projects this year. In anticipation of the NOFA, programs are encouraged to actively consider alternate ways to subsidize their programs going forward and change from transitional housing to some sort of other model as we anticipate significant cuts will be made to the dollars invested and the number of programs funded in transitional housing. TheBoard took action to ‘reduce the amount of dollars and number of transitional housing projects in this next funding round; asking those individuals to please review the information already provided and reach out for technical assistance if further help is needed.’
On a motion by Lori Sywensky, seconded by Joyce Sacco and by unanimous vote of the board members, it was duly RESOLVED to approve the decision to move forward with the above statement.
*Ms. Sywensky was assigned to craft the statement. *Mr. Newcomer abstained from the vote.
Ms. Howard distributed a Summary of Proposed 2016 Renewal Ranking Criteria and reviewed the document. Brian is currently working with Ranking Committee and trying to pull data from HMIS. Feedback on ranking and how to proceed from here was requested via a future conference call in early July.
New CoC Staff Position
Ms. Howard stated that she already has an individual identified that she would like to move forward on. The Board was asked what input they would like to have on the selection of that individual. The Board agreed to allow Ms. Howard to select the individual for the position.
COMMITTEE REPORTS
Data Management & Outcomes
Mr. Weathington reported the last meeting was held on April 28th which included a good majority of the folks on the committee. We are working to get the monitoring plan together to show how we’re going to address compliance with data quality where we can get the reports out to the RHAB’s for discussion on the performance to spark conversations using data to make decisions that way. Mr. Weathington will provide the Board with a copy of the plan via email for review. July 21st is the next meeting.
HMIS Data Quality
The FY2014 grant which expired on March 31, 2016 so all of those funds, as we stand now, should have been expended, however waiting on one of the OST contract invoice so that we can use up the rest of that grant. Leigh stated suggested that there should be some sort of a discussion on what the relationship is between the RHAB and the data sub-committee and how/if it shows up on the RHAB meeting agenda. There needs to be a summary of the data to simplify for the RHAB meetings. Possibly discuss with the funding committee how much of the individual program information would be helpful for the purpose of funding decisions. DCED will create a short summary from now on to be used at RHAB meetings and Board meetings.
Ms. Howard stated in the proposal that we just submitted for the ITQ, there’s a strategic planning process that was requested and what I think we’ll get out of doing a more comprehensive strategic planning effort will be more effectively using our data, etc., to really focus on ending homelessness in a more complete way more than just responding to HUD requirements. The question was raised if, in the HMIS contract that just started in April, do we have the ability to take on new programs? We have additional licenses until Feb 2017. Leigh mentioned in the last funding grant, we reduced the grant because it wasn’t being spent, the sooner we can be notified and factor that into however HUD lays out the availability of new money in the NOFA, the more helpful that would be.
ADJOURNMENT
On a motion by Jeff Rich, seconded by Craig Newcomer and by unanimous vote of the board members, it was duly RESOLVED to adjourn the meeting at 2:00 p.m.