FY 2021 TCHC CoC Program Local Competition Policies and Procedures

FY-2021-CoC-Program-Local-Competition-Policies-and-Procedures.pdf

Background and Introduction

Organization

Total Care for the Homeless Coalition (TCHC) is the HUD designated Continuum of Care for the upper eastern region of South Carolina. The counties included in the CoC service area include Sumter, Clarendon, Lee, Darlington, Dillon, Florence, Marlboro, Chesterfield, Georgetown, Williamsburg, Marion, Kershaw, and Horry.

HUD’s Continuum of Care Program Competition

Each year, the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) makes available federal resources for homeless services to communities around the nation through its Continuum of Care Program Competition. CoC’s access these funds by completing a collaborative application on behalf of the local homeless service provider agencies. Any agency located in the CoC service area interested in applying for these funds must participate in local homeless planning efforts and TCHC’s local CoC Competition for funding. As such, it is the responsibility of the CoC to ensure that the best possible applications are submitted each year.

Purpose of this Document

This document describes the processes and protocol for the FY 2021 CoC Competition, including:

  • Publish the CoC Program Competition funding availability and local process;
  • Make available the link to the FY 2021 Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO);
  • Announce the availability of the Domestic Violence (DV) Bonus Funding;
  • Publish project application due dates;
  • Publicly notify that the links to the CoC New Project Rating Form 2021 and the Renewal or Expansion Project Rating form 2021 will be released in the upcoming weeks;
  • Making available the CoC Operational Policy and Guidelines, this includes policies and procedures for the local competition process. Policies and Procedures for Renewal and New Grant Application, Including Reallocated Funding can be found here: TCHC-Ranking_Scoring_Reallocation_Monitoring_Policies.pdf.

FY 2021 CoC Program Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO)

The NOFO establishes the funding criteria for the FY2021 Continuum of Care (CoC) Program. The CoC Program is designed to promote a community-wide commitment to the goal of ending homelessness, including providing funding for efforts by nonprofit providers, States, and local governments to quickly re-house homeless individuals, families, persons fleeing domestic violence, and youth. The NOFO determines the framework for the CoC to abide by for the local competition and allows for the CoC to determine local deadlines, local priorities, and ultimately provide a slate of projects to be recommended for funding ranked in order of priority.

Click this link to review the FY2021 Notice of Funding Availability

FY 2021 CoC Program Competition Overview and Timeline

TCHC’s HUD Collaborative Applicant and HUD Grant Applications Selection Committee is responsible for the local CoC program competition grant applications process. This committee will score and rank the submitted applications and present a slate of applications recommended for funding to the Board of Directors.

All applicants will be required to submit their full application in e-snaps. All applications submitted within the approved competition timeline will undergo a technical review and an evaluation, scoring, and ranking. For more information, please review Section III of the CoC Operational Policy and Guidelines that can be found on the TCHC website.

This year the available amount from HUD for New Projects and New Project Expansions through the CoC Bonus is approximately $183,735. Please see the FY 21 NOFO for details on New Projects and what types of projects HUD will be funding in this competition.

This year HUD has made available up to $102 million nationally for Domestic Violence (DV) Bonus projects. The DV Bonus will provide housing and services to survivors of domestic violence, dating violence, and stalking. Please read the HUD CoC FY 2021 Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) for more information on the project types available under this bonus. HUD has determined the amount available through the DV Bonus for our Continuum of care is approximately $551,205.

For additional resources, including detailed Instructions for Renewal Applications, New Project Applications, and instructional guides for e-snaps please click here. Please keep in mind that this is updated by HUD and as of the date of this publication not all of the resources are available.

There are four grant types this year: Renewal, New, Expansion, and Transition.

Applicant Appeals Process:

Applicants may appeal a scoring and ranking decision if they believe that the score they were given was unsubstantiated by project performance, or if they believe the score indicates a violation of one of TCHC’s written policies. Appeals regarding information that was not submitted in the original application will not be considered. Appeals must be in writing and submitted to the TCHC Secretary, [email protected], through email within three business days of the notification email being sent.

The Projects Scoring sub-committee will meet to discuss any appeal that is received. The sub-committee will review the appeal, the reason, and make a determination as to whether a score and/or ranking decision should be altered based on the reason for the appeal. The decision of the sub-committee will be transmitted to the Board of Directors for their concurrence. The Board’s decision will be posted on the website and an email message sent to the applicant.

Upon completion of the above process the ranked projects list will be added to the annual CoC application to HUD.

Local Competition Timeline:

Renewal Grant Applications:

Renewal Applications are Due 10/15/2021 by 5pm

Please ensure all renewal applications are submitted in e snaps. In addition to submitting renewal applications in E-snaps all applicants must send the following documents to [email protected]:

  • Organizations most recent audit or financial statement
  • Board Roster – identify any board members that have lived experience with homelessness
  • Policy and procedure on screening participants for potential mainstream benefits and specific plan for helping them access those benefits.
  • Policy and procedure or outreach logs that describe or document how the program applicant conducts outreach outside of the organization, specifically individuals and families that are least likely to ask for housing resources.

10/18/2021 – 10/26/2021 – The CoC Grant Technical Review Committee will technically review submitted applications to ensure they are complete, data is consistent, and budgets include eligible costs. The HUD Grant Applications Selection Committee will review, rank, and score submitted applications that meet the application threshold on the “Continuum of Care Renewal Project Rating Form 2021”.

10/26/2021 – Special CoC Board meeting to approve Ranked Project listing presented by the HUD Grant Applications Selection Committee.

10/26/2021 – 10/30/2021 – Applicants will be notified if their application will be included in the ranked project list submitted in the Collaborative Application submitted to HUD. All appeals must be submitted within three days of this notification.

New Project Applications:

10/15/2021 – New Project Applications due

Please ensure all new applications are submitted in E-Snaps. In addition to submitting new applications in E-Snaps all applicants must send the following documents to [email protected]:

  • Organization Policy and Procedure/Operational Manual
  • Project Policy and Procedure/ Operational Manual
  • Financial Policies and Procedures (if not included in one of the above-mentioned documents)
  • Organizational Bylaws
  • Board Roster – identify any board members that have lived experience with homelessness
  • Organizations most recent audit or financial statement

(If applicant currently receives a HUD CoC funded grant, please ignore these additional documents. These documents are reviewed during the CoC monitoring and will be considered during the review and ranking process)

10/18/2021 – 10/26/2021 – The CoC Grant Technical Review Committee will technically review submitted applications to ensure they are complete, data is consistent, and budgets include eligible costs. The HUD Grant Applications Selection Committee will review, rank, and score submitted applications that meet the application threshold on the “Continuum of Care Renewal Project Rating Form 2021”.

10/26/2021 – Special CoC Board meeting to approve Ranked Project listing presented by the HUD Grant Applications Selection Committee.

10/26/2021 – 10/30/2021 – Applicants will be notified if their application will be included in the ranked project list submitted in the Collaborative Application submitted to HUD. All appeals must be submitted within three days of this notification.