NAEH Resource Advancing

DDD Restarts Walmart Vaccine Program

--------------------------------------

New Housing posting soon on SHA Housing Search

SHA is pleased to welcome Patricia Hernandez as the new CSH Director for New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania

Become a SHA Member and get access to great meetings and many other great member benefits. Need more information? Email Joseph Christensen with your questions.

To reduce racial disparities among people experiencing homelessness, communities across the nation are evaluating their systems to create equitable change — change that is long overdue. The following resource page from the National Alliance to End Homelessness showcases a series of articles (including samples below) written by Continuum of Care (CoC) and nonprofit leaders that are driving conversations around racial equity within their communities. 

North Carolina’s Racial Equity Dialogue Series offered virtual facilitated panel conversations that centered four topics: Police Violence and Community Response, Systemic Racism in the Homelessness Services System, Racism in the Criminal Justice and Re-Entry Systems, and Racism and Voting.

Following a series of reports that included a Racial Equity Impact Analysis and homeless system modeling effort, this California CoC created an adaptable toolkit to help others design solutions to the housing barriers that disproportionately impact people of color experiencing homelessness.

Racial equity and justice has been a cornerstone in New Orleans’ CoC for quite some time. Their approach — creating a Racial Equity Task Force, having a planning process in place, training, and implementation — lays the foundation for how their systems can carry out services in an equitable way

One of St. Joseph Center’s approaches to evaluating and reducing racial disparities has been to look from within, ensuring that the leadership and staff of their organization represents those of the community they serve.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen announced the appointment of Janis Bowdler to serve as the agency’s first-ever Counselor for Racial Equity. As Treasury’s first Counselor for Racial Equity, Bowdler will coordinate and lead efforts to advance racial equity, including ensuring that the Treasury’s programs create opportunity in communities of color. This will include improving access to the Child Tax Credit and understanding how Community Development Financial Institutions and Minority Depository Institutions can transform access to capital in communities of color. Most recently, Bowdler served as president of the JPMorgan Chase & Co. Foundation, where she worked to address persistent drivers of the racial wealth divide and direct capital to historically underserved neighborhoods. Bowdler previously served as UnidosUS economic policy director, where she focused on creating economic opportunities for Hispanic families across the U.S. 

The following article appeared in The Edge examining zoning reform efforts and effects across the country on housing.

Exclusionary land use laws perpetuate segregation, threaten the supply of affordable housing, and hinder sustainable development. Although these issues are mainly a product of local zoning codes, states can enact zoning reforms that address equity, economy, and environmental concerns. On September 30, 2021, the American Planning Association (APA) held a virtual event, “Winning Strategies to Zoning Reform at the State Level,” at its annual Policy and Advocacy Conference. Moderated by Brian Lockland, chair of APA’s Housing and Community Development Division, the panel focused on how organizations in three states leveraged research, coalition building, and education as tools to advocate for new zoning legislation. Panelists included Sara Bronin, founder of Desegregate Connecticut; Andrea Brown, executive director of Michigan’s APA chapter; and Dana Cuff, director of cityLAB at the University of California Los Angeles.

Research is a necessary starting point for most state zoning reform, because it provides evidence for inefficiencies in existing land use and can demonstrate the ways in which new legislation could benefit various stakeholders. Desegregate Connecticut, a zoning reform campaign with a primary focus on equity, started its efforts with a massive data collection project called the Connecticut Zoning Atlas.

Have you heard of the federal Lifeline and Emergency Broadband Benefit programs? 

They help make phone and internet service more affordable for low-income individuals and families. Individuals enrolled in certain assistance programs like Medicaid or SNAP automatically qualify for both federal programs, but must apply, and aren’t always aware of that. Please join us in helping to spread the word. Together, we can help encourage residents who would benefit from these programs to apply.

Lifeline: (not to be confused with the state's Lifeline utility assistance program) provides eligible individuals with a free smartphone, free monthly data, free monthly minutes and unlimited texting.

Emergency Broadband Benefit: provides discounted internet service and a one-time discount for a laptop, desktop computer, or tablet purchase. The Emergency Broadband Benefit program is temporary and ends when federal funds are expended.

See the attached fact sheet (available in English and Spanish) for more information, eligibility requirements, and how to apply.

A new resource guide was developed and shared as part of the Statewide Assisted Living Program Replication Initiative facilitated by Capital Impact Partners funded by the generous support of The Henry & Marilyn Taub Foundation.

New Jersey’s Assisted Living Program was created decades ago as a way to enable residents of low-income senior apartment buildings to continue living in their independent settings for longer periods of time. Most of these residents are priced out of market-rate

assisted living residences (ALRs), so without in-home support, they would most likely end up having to prematurely move to nursing homes. Services offered by ALPs are similar to those provided in ALRs, but are instead are “portable.” The 15 programs in New Jersey are licensed to serve a region consisting of two contiguous counties. ALP administrators make agreements with building managers to have office space and staff based on site. ALP administrators aren’t tasked with managing the buildings, although some ALP programs are owned by the entities that also own the host buildings. ALPs are far more affordable than nursing homes. The annual savings to the state can add up to tens of thousands of dollars for clients enrolled in ALP who would otherwise be eligible for nursing

home admission. ALPs can also be more cost-effective than other home-care programs because staff is based in each building throughout the day and often into the night – eliminating travel costs and the need to only provide care in limited blocks of time.

DDD Restarts Walmart Vaccine Program

In early 2021, the Division partnered with Walmart for COVID-19 vaccine administration to individuals with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities (IDD) and/or traumatic brain injury (TBI) living in congregate residential settings funded by the Department of Human Services (DHS). The Division is pleased to announce that this program is re-activated and able to provide all approved COVID-19 vaccines (i.e. all manufacturers and for first, second, third/booster doses) to eligible residents and staff. Please note that eligible residents and staff can receive vaccination through any program and are not limited to only using this opportunity.

The Collaborative for Citizen Direct Supports NJ (The Collaborative NJ) won the Administration for Community Living (ACL) Blazing New Trails for Community-Based Direct Support Professionals Challenge grand prize. The Collaborative NJ was awarded the $120,000 grand prize for developing an interactive map that identifies where self-directed employees (SDEs) and direct support professionals (DSPs) are located so they can be contacted about their services.

The Collaborative NJ built a network of over 700 people who can share and promote the map and DSP support solutions. DSP agencies can submit lists of available staff to the map, and SDEs can submit information about their staffing preferences. The interactive map was developed in response to COVID-19 so people in need of support could be connected with those who provide support during the pandemic.

Image: https://aspe.hhs.gov/reports/research-early-childhood-homelessness

The following Op-Ed was published in the Daily News by Judith Samuels, MBA, PhD and Kadisha Davis. Don't miss Judith Samuels, MBA, PhD and Henry Love, MA, MPhil during our Wednesday, November 10th keynote panel discussion at the SHA Conference: Housing as a Human Right: Including Everyone.

Infants born into homelessness have a higher rate of low birth weight, respiratory problems and fever than those with stable housing. Additionally, homeless babies visit the hospital more often and stay there longer. This is a growing crisis: The number of babies born to parents living in shelters reached a new high in 2019 before the pandemic hit.

Get the best of both worlds for our 23rd Annual Supportive Housing Conference with an in-person awards reception and virtual workshop and keynote experiences. Save even more when you register 3 or more together on the same order and get 25% off your entire purchase!

Register 3 or more attendees get 25% off your entire purchase!

Click here to watch the video.

The New Jersey Department of Children and Families' Office of Family Voice and the NJ DCF Youth Council invite you to participate virtually in the first biennial Youth Council Briefing, "The Power of Youth: The Impact of Our Voices." The Event will be streamed live on YouTube and will be available here on November 4, 2021 from 3:00-4:30 PM ET:

This briefing, presented by the members of the Youth Council, will promote the important work of the Council over its first two years of existence, particularly in the areas of policy and legislation, youth outreach and engagement, youth aging out of the system, maintaining sibling connections through foster care, peer mentorship, resource and kinship parent training, and empowering youth voice. Members will also be able to share what the work has meant to each of them personally.

And, if you know a young person between the ages of 14-23 who is currently or has formerly been involved with the New Jersey child welfare system, please encourage them to apply to be a member of the 2022-2023 Youth Council Cohort via the link: DCF Youth Council Application

There are many great ways of supporting SHA: Join as a member, send donations, or shop with AmazonSmile. Thank you for your support!

Want all the member benefits with SHA? Visit our website or contact Joseph Christensen to apply or manage your membership.

Members can post jobs to find applicants within the wider supportive housing community. Click on the button to visit our job page.