Move Up Minnesota - Metro Area Pilot Project for Homeless Support
The Move Up Minnesota - Metro Area project aims to optimize resources in the homeless response system by assisting individuals in Permanent Supportive Housing to improve their living conditions. It utilizes a national best practice model to enhance accessibility to essential resources.
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Move Up Minnesota Metro Area
What is Move Up Minnesota Metro Area? A pilot project using a national best practice to make better use of scarce resources available to the homeless response system by helping people living in Permanent Supportive Housing obtain a Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher (HCV)
How did this initiative start here in Minnesota? CoC s are required to report in funding applications on whether the PHAs in a Continuum s geographic area have a Move Up preference on their waiting lists CoC Coordinators reached out to Minneapolis HUD Field Office requesting assistance in reaching out to Public Housing Authorities (PHAs) Minneapolis HUD Field Office said:
Who has been involved in developing the initiative? The Minneapolis HUD Field Office Michele Smith, Field Office Director Lucia Clausen, Public Housing Director Dawn Horgan, Senior CPD Representative Metro Area CoC Coordinators Laura DeRosier, Hennepin County Loni Aadalen, Ramsey County Abby Guilford, Suburban Metro Area Continuum of Care (SMAC)
Metropolitan Council Housing and Redevelopment Authority (HRA) Terri Smith, Director Jennifer Keogh, Manager Who has been involved in developing the initiative? Minneapolis Public Housing Authority (MPHA) Kyle Hanson, Director of Housing Choice Vouchers and Human Services Brandon Crow, Assistant Director of Housing Choice Vouchers Dominic Mitchell, Section 8 Programs Manager Tony Olson, Assistant HCV Programs Manager St. Paul Public Housing Authority
Who has been involved in developing the initiative? Assessment Tool Work Group Brian Bozeman, Catholic Charities Tonya Brownlow, Emma Norton Jennifer Fey, Avivo Jessica Hering, Salvation Army Zarita Hester, St. Stephens Shearise Jetoh, Catholic Charities Loraine Luger, Avivo Charlotte Morris, St. Stephens Shanna McIntosh, Salvation Army Nathan Nyren, Hennepin County Lael Robertson, MICH Sandra Shabaiash, Ashinabe Bii Gii Wiin John Spieker, Catholic Charities Lynell Tanner, Hennepin County Ty Watson, PPL
Who has been involved in developing the initiative? Demetri Vincze, HMIS Director, Institute for Community Alliances
Permanent Supportive Housing Characteristics At entry to the program, participants determined to be homeless (either HUD or the States Long-Term Homeless definition) Can be an individual or family At least one adult or child in the household had some disabling condition such as substance abuse disorder, mental illness, etc. Units can be site-based or scattered-site There is no limit to the length of stay for residents
If the housing is permanent, why should they leave? Household has stabilized to the point that they no longer need extensive supportive services to maintain their housing, but they still need rental assistance They are occupying a unit that is tied to costly supportive services which a household living on the streets desperately needs
PHAs Commitment PHA Met Council HRA Minneapolis St. Paul Hennepin Co. 22 Ramsey Co. 13 SMAC 5 30 # of Vouchers TBD
Use the assessment tool to HONESTLY evaluate a client s readiness to Move Up (i.e. to be successful living independently with a Section 8 Voucher) PSH Provider Commitment As soon as a participant has Moved Up , using Coordinated Entry, begin the process of backfilling the vacated spot with a person who is experiencing homelessness and has a disabling condition
Baseline screening criteria for Move Up MN Baseline criteria Household wants to participate Household has a minimum of two years living in Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH) Has an ongoing source of income Paid rent on time and in full every month for at least 10 of the past 12 months or is in compliance with Housing Supports program Are connected to mainstream or community resources
HUD Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) screening criteria The participant or anyone in the household: is not a lifetime registered sex offender; has not been evicted from federally assisted housing for the manufacture of methamphetamine (meth); is not currently engaged in illegal drug use.
Additional HCV eligibility criteria established by Metro area PHAs Households must be Very Low Income (50% of Area Median Income) Income Limits by Household Size 3 person 4 person $45,000 $50,000 1 person $35,000 2 person $40,000 5 person $54,000 6 person $58,000 7 person $62,000 For additional screening criteria, see Move Up Minnesota Assessment Tool
PHA Discussion on Differences in Selection Criteria Jennifer Keogh, HRA Manager, Met Council HRA Dominic Mitchell, Section 8 Programs Manager, St. Paul PHA Brandon Crow, Assistant Director of Housing Choice Vouchers, MPHA
Assessment Tool and Referral Form Brian Bozeman, Program Manager II, Housing First, Catholic Charities Shanna McIntosh, HOPE Harbor & Harvest Hills Program Director, Salvation Army
Assessment Tool Began by reviewing five existing Move Up initiative assessment tools (New York, Chicago, Detroit, Ohio and San Diego) as well as the Self Sufficiency Matrix used by the Hearth Connection Step-Down Pilot Ended up working primarily off the Detroit tool Work group consisted of representatives from PSH providers, CoC Coordinators, HUD, State government and county government Assessment Tool Referral Form
Referral Process Providers have until 5:00 PM on February 28, 2020, to make referrals (St. Paul deadline to be determined) After Assessment Tool and Referral Form completed, upload into HMIS. Please label documents Move Up Assessment and Move Up Referral Providers complete the Google Sheet that corresponds to the CoC where clients are physically living Example: Hennepin County CoC Google Sheet Hennepin County and Ramsey County CoC s Coordinated Entry Staff will sort the Google Sheet to separate out the St. Paul and Minneapolis residents from the suburban residents
Referral process continued Then, Coordinated Entry staff sort Google Sheets according to Assessment Tool total score (using Number of Months in PSH as tiebreaker) Each CoC provides the HMIS Client ID of those who have been selected to the corresponding PHA The PHA downloads the referral forms from HMIS
Process Timeline February 5 February 6-28 February 28, 5:00pm March 2-6 After March 8 PSH Providers start the process of assessing clients PSH Providers enter info into Google Sheet; upload Assessment Tool and Referal Form into HMIS Coordinated Entry staff take screen shots of Google Sheets to record referrals made on time Coordinated Entry staff sort applicants by score; send HMIS #s of selectees to PHAs PHAs download Referral Form; start process of contacting selectees
Use of HMIS in Metro Area Move Up Referral Process Demetri Vincze, HMIS Director, Institute for Community Alliances
PHA Discussion on Differences in Intake Process Jennifer Keogh, HRA Manager, Met Council HRA Dominic Mitchell, Section 8 Programs Manager, St. Paul PHA Brandon Crow, Assistant Director of Housing Choice Vouchers, MPHA
http://smacmn.org/documents/ http://smacmn.org/documents/ Where to obtain documents Documents on web site include Links to Google Sheet for each Continuum Move Up Guide for HMIS Assessment Tool Referral Form This Power Point
Contacts Minneapolis/Hennepin County CoC Amy Donohue, Principal Planning Analyst-Coordinated Entry, amy.donohue@hennepin.us, 612-225-8334 Minneapolis Public Housing Authority Brandon Crow, Assistant Director of Housing Choice Vouchers, bcrow@mplspha.org, 612-342-1421 St. Paul/Ramsey County CoC Loni Aadalen, CoC Coordinator, loni.aadalen@co.ramsey.mn.us, 651-266-4116 St. Paul Public Housing Authority Tony Olson, HCV Assistant Programs Manager, tony.olson@stpha.org, 651-292- 6312
Contacts continued Suburban Metro Area Continuum of Care (SMAC) Abby Guilford, CoC Coordinator, abby@mesh-mn.org, 763-458-9790 Metropolitan Council HRA Tammy Wiger, HRA Supervisor, tammy.wiger@metc.state.mn.us, 651-602-1600 HMIS Questions MNHMIS@icalliances.org General Questions Michele Smith, HUD Field Office Director, michele.k.smith@hud.gov, 612-370-3146