This month I'd like to introduce you to Apryl Voner, a Housing Resource Community Coordinator in our Troy office.
Apryl is part of the Community Programs team here at CHN. In her role, she regularly works with people who are homeless or at imminent risk of becoming homeless, meeting them throughout the community, including shelters, soup kitchens, on the streets or other public venues.
She works with our street outreach through our Projects for Assistance in Transition from Homelessness (PATH) and other short-term housing programs and our Housing Resource Center (HRC) call center. She also works with community partners to locate individuals to complete intake appointments as the first step to begin identifying resources for short-term housing assistance and long-term housing goals.
Once a month, Apryl meets with people staying at the Hope Warming Center in Pontiac. During those meetings, she'll ask residents where they were staying prior to coming to the center and then work to help them secure housing resources. She'll also use these interviews to ask if the residents know of others in the area experiencing homelessness - with the hopes of reaching those people as well.
What Apryl does on a daily basis mirrors what we do once a year during the annual Point-in-Time (PIT) count, which is used to calculate the number of people experiencing homelessness.
We are once again participating in this event in Oakland and Macomb counties. It is required by the
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for communities receiving federal funds from the
McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Grants program.
This year, the
PIT count date is Wednesday, January 25
.
The purpose is to count those in a community experiencing homelessness, either in a shelter or on the street. Information gathered is used by HUD to compare trends in homelessness and to produce the
Annual Homeless Assessment
for Congress.
The information is also
used to advocate for funding to support programs serving those who are homeless.
The data gathering volunteers collect during the PIT is a snapshot of the data that is collected throughout the year by staff such as Apryl. The information
she collects is entered into the Homeless Management Information System (HMIS). Apryl keeps on top of this record keeping as the data in HMIS allows
grant funders and government officials to see the data and that there is a great need for funding. She states, "We need to know the number of people out there facing the elements."
Let's turn to Apryl now and give her a chance to answer a few questions.
How did you become involved with CHN?
I was originally referred to CHN as I was personally in need of assistance. I was out of work at that time and CHN was hiring staff for our HRC. While working in the HRC, I worked on several programs that connected people to housing resources through various programs we had available.
Is there any special training you had to complete for your job? 
A lot of what makes me a good fit for this type of job is that my personal experiences allow me to understand the challenges of what our program participants are facing. I'm extremely organized and have learned how to match up available resources, on a person-by-person basis, to best serve those in need
.
What is a typical day in the life of a housing resource community coordinator?
I start off by checking my calendar and email. I need to know what my day is going to look like so I can plan if I'll be going out in the field to complete intakes, housing inspections, re-certifications of program participants, etc. Based on who I meet with, I may need to re-evaluate their living situation and figure out something new. I generally won't know this until I meet with the person. Keeping HMIS up to date is a crucial part of my job.
Is there a particular case that sticks out in your memory?
There was a young man I was working with who was homeless for more than two years. He was what I would describe as someone "flying below the radar" of what one usually thinks of as a homeless person. He was able to "make his situation work" by going to the library during the day, sitting in an ER waiting room at night, or browsing through a store when he was close to one.
Once he was connected with us, he was housed within weeks. He was so patient with our process. Never once was he upset or questioned the mandatory steps of the process. I was happy to close his case and know that he now had a place to live.
