Appendix B.pdf

Appendix B: Requirements of the Coordinated Community Plan

This Appendix establishes the detailed requirements for the Coordinated Community Plan (CCP) under the Youth Homelessness Demonstration Program (YHDP). Under this Notice of Funding Availability, HUD is making approximately $145 million available- up to $80 million in Fiscal Year (FY) 2019 funds for HUD to select up to 25 communities, including at least eight communities with substantial rural populations and up to $80 million in FY 2020 funds to select up to 25 communities with a priority for communities with substantial rural populations in up to eight locations. The purpose of these funds is to demonstrate how a coordinated community approach to serving homeless youth, age 24 and younger, can dramatically reduce homelessness.

I. Required Coordinated Community Plan Components

A. Statement of need: A statement of need concerning at risk, homeless, and unsheltered unaccompanied and pregnant or parenting youth in the geographic area;

B. Stakeholders: A list of partners, and a description of their involvement that includes representation from a number of stakeholder groups:

o Youth Action Board o Public Child Welfare Agencies o CoC and ESG Program Recipients o Local and State Government o Runaway and Homeless Youth Program Providers o Health, Mental Health, and Substance Abuse Agencies o Juvenile and Adult Corrections and Probation o Local and State Law Enforcement and Judges o Public Housing Authorities o Affordable Housing Providers o Early Childhood Development and Child Care Providers o Local and State Educational Agencies o Institutions of Higher Education o Non-Profit Youth Organizations o Landlords o Privately Funded Homeless Organizations o Local Advocacy, Research, and Philanthropic Organizations o Community Development Corporations o Organizations that serve culturally specific (Black, Latino, Indigenous, people with disabilities, LGBTQ, etc) communities

C. Information and descriptions of each of the following plan components:

o A shared mission, vision, list of goals, objectives, and actions steps, including which partners are responsible for each action step;

o A list of new projects, to be funded by HUD and other sources that will support the implementation of the coordinated community plan;

o A governance structure, including an organizational chart and decision-making process;

o A signature page that includes the signatures of official representatives of at least the following systems:

The Continuum of Care Public Child Welfare Agency Local Government Agency Youth Action Board Runaway and Homeless Youth Providers (if any)

II. Principles to be addressed in the Coordinated Community Plan: HUD expects the following principles to be integrated in the Coordinated Community Plan, such as in the action steps or the project listings:

U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH) Youth Framework and the Four Core Outcomes. USICH coordinates the federal response to homelessness and creating a national partnership at every level of government and with the private sector to reduce and end homelessness. The coordinated community plan must demonstrate a commitment to the principles of the USICH Youth Framework to End Youth Homelessness published in 2012 and to its four core outcomes:

o Stable housing includes a safe and reliable place to call home;

o Permanent connections include ongoing attachments to families, communities, schools, and other positive social networks;

o Education/employment includes high performance in and completion of educational and training activities, especially for younger youth, and starting and maintaining adequate and stable employment, particularly for older youth; and o Social-emotional well-being includes the development of key competencies, attitudes, and behaviors that equip a young person to succeed across multiple domains of daily life, including school, work, relationships, and community; and

Special Populations. USICH, in partnership with its member agencies, has identified several special populations of youth experiencing homelessness that are particularly vulnerable in how they experience homelessness, as well as their pathways in and out of homelessness, in ways that are distinct from the general population of youth. For these particularly vulnerable and often overrepresented young people, there is a need for identification and engagement strategies, infrastructure considerations, and housing and service-delivery approaches that are responsive to their specific needs. The coordinated community plan must identify and address the local impact of homelessness on these special populations and address how the community will meet the needs of youth who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning (LGBTQ); youth who are gender-non-conforming; minors (under the age of 18); youth involved with juvenile justice and child welfare systems; and victims of sexual trafficking and exploitation; and

Equity: Research has found significant racial and ethnic disparities in rates of homelessness.1 Specifically, Black, Indigenous, Hispanic (non-white), and LGBTQ youth experience homelessness at disproportionately higher rates. Community efforts to prevent and end homelessness should consider and address racial inequities to successfully achieve positive outcomes for all persons experiencing homelessness. The coordinated community plan must address how the community is measuring and considering racial inequities and other disparities in the risks for, and experiences of homelessness in the community, consistent with fair housing and civil rights requirements; and

Positive Youth Development (PYD)2 and Trauma Informed Care (TIC)3. Both PYD and TIC are accepted best practices in housing and service delivery for youth and include principles and service frameworks. The coordinated community plan must address how PYD and TIC will be incorporated into all aspects of the youth crisis response system, including at the system and project levels; and

Family engagement. HUD believes that the best diversion and intervention strategy is to engage families, whenever appropriate, through community partnerships with organizations such as child welfare agencies, schools, youth providers, and other community human services and homeless services providers. The coordinated community plan must address family engagement strategies and services designed to strengthen, stabilize, and reunify families. Potential services include family counseling, conflict resolution, parenting supports, relative or kinship caregiver resources, targeted substance abuse and mental health treatment, etc.; and

Housing First: Housing is a cornerstone for meeting a multitude of basic needs necessary for success. Young people should be provided with rapid access to safe, secure, and stable housing that meets their needs as quickly as possible, without the condition that they are ‘ready’ for housing. The coordinated community plan must address how all youth will be offered immediate access to safe, secure, and stable housing with no preconditions; and

Unsheltered homelessness: HUD estimates that 50% of youth experiencing homelessness are unsheltered.4 The coordinated community plan must address how the projects will address and decrease unsheltered youth homelessness in the community.

Youth choice: The capacity for self-determination may be a critical factor in obtaining many positive outcomes for Transition Age Youth,5 and is closely related to the principles of PYD. Consistent with federal youth policy, allowing youth to exercise self-determination is a youth centered approach that values youths’ expressed needs, self-

1 Fusaro, V.A., Levy, H.G., Shaefer, H.L. (2018). Racial and Ethnic Disparities in the Lifetime Prevalence of Homelessness in the United States. Demography 55(6):1-10. 2018 Sep 21.

https://doi.org/10.1007/s13524-018-0717-0 2 https://www.acf.hhs.gov/fysb/resource/pyd-tip-sheet 3 https://www.samhsa.gov/nctic/trauma-interventions

4 https://www.hudexchange.info/resource/5948/2019-ahar-part-1-pit-estimates-of-homelessness-in-the-us/ 5 Carter, E. W., Lane, K. L., Pierson, M. R., & Stang, K. K. (2008). Promoting Self-Determination for Transition Age Youth: Views of High School General and Special Educators. Exceptional Children 75(1), 55-70. https://doi.org/10.1177/001440290807500103 https://doi.org/10.1007/s13524-018-0717-0 https://www.acf.hhs.gov/fysb/resource/pyd-tip-sheet https://www.samhsa.gov/nctic/trauma-interventions https://doi.org/10.1177/001440290807500103 awareness, and community knowledge. This youth centered approach emphasizes youth choice in terms of the kind of housing youth need and the extent and nature of supports and services they access and presents alternative options for youth who avoid programs with barriers like sobriety or abstinence. The coordinated community plan must address how youth choice will be integrated into all aspects of the youth crisis response system;

and

Individualized and client-driven supports: The coordinated community plan must acknowledge that the needs of the young people to be served will be unique. Housing and support packages that help prevent and end homelessness among youth must recognize and respond to individual differences across individuals to serve them appropriately and efficiently. Communities must design the system flexibly to accommodate individuals with both high and low service needs, as well as the need for short-term or long-term supports. The coordinated community plan must address how the youth crisis response system will provide individualized and client-driven supports; and

Social and community integration: The goal of youth homelessness services should be a successful transition to adulthood, including the successful integration into a community as a positive contributing community member. To accomplish this requires the community to provide socially supportive engagement and the opportunity for youth to participate in meaningful community activities; and

Coordinated entry: Coordinated entry processes are necessary components of a high functioning crisis response system and must be developed intentionally to incorporate youth. The coordinated community plan must address how the CoC will ensure that the coordinated entry process is youth-appropriate.

III. Plan Submission, HUD Review, and Release of Full Funding

The coordinated community plan must be submitted electronically to YouthDemo@hud.gov according to the following deadlines. Communities will have a total of 6 months to submit a coordinated community plan after announcement of the selected communities. Communities that need additional time to form their youth action board or develop community capacity to begin the coordinated community planning phase may request up to a 3 month extension of this deadline. HUD will review each plan and provide feedback within 2 weeks of submission. HUD reserves the right to reject a plan and require resubmission if the plan does not meet the requirements described above. Before plan approval, Project Applicants will only be able to apply for planning projects using their awarded YHDP funds. Once a plan has been approved by HUD, project applicants within the selected communities may submit project applications for all projects listed under their Coordinated Community Plan. See Appendix A for further details.

Communities must submit a plan to HUD by deadlines discussed above. If the final draft is not approved, HUD will not evaluate project applications submitted by the community until the plan has been approved, except for planning projects. If the plan is not approved by the deadlines discussed above, the selected community will lose access to all its remaining funding. Funding that has already been obligated for projects will continue to be available for those projects only.