October 15th!

LIHTC Year 15 Considerations

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Click here to learn more and apply.

Reminder: New Jersey’s Medicaid 1115 waiver is up for renewal and the state is accepting comments by close of business on October 11, 2021.

Click here to learn more and submit your comments.

SHA gives a special shout out to New Jersey Community Development Corporation as it continues working to feed families in the Great Falls Promise Neighborhood with distribution of 500 boxes of food on Saturday. Launched in February, the effort, made possible by Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funding, has been in response to the economic downturn brought on by COVID-19.

Special thanks to our guest speakers who covered a wide range of updates during Wednesday's meeting:

SHA also thanks Jacob Day and Brian Loeb of the Federal Home Loan Bank of New York and Shelley Samuels of SRS Strategic Associates, LLC for their presentations helping finance and improve homes to make them safer and accessible.

Want to attend great meetings like this one? Learn how you can join SHA-NJ and get all the benefits of membership including important meetings by emailing Joseph Christensen today.

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.

The Public and Affordable Housing Research Corporation’s new report, 2021 Housing Impact Report: Feature on Special Populations, examines trends among people with disabilities and unique needs living in publicly supported rental homes and offers new insights into how housing providers support people experiencing health challenges.  

Read the full report for steps affordable housing providers can take to positively impact health outcomes and improve accessibility for these families. 

Across the country, large numbers of families who need help to afford housing sit on long waiting lists for assistance due to insufficient program funding. Agencies administering Housing Choice Vouchers, which help households with low incomes rent a modest unit of their choice in the private market, must generally establish waitlists for applicants, many of whom must endure homelessness or overcrowding while they wait.

Nearly all 44 housing agencies for which we have data have more than 1,000 families on their waiting lists, and many have more than 10,000 families. Most of these agencies (32) have closed their waitlists to new applicants, and even those with open waitlists have more people on their waitlist than the number of vouchers they have funding for. 

Because so many agencies have closed or limited waitlists — some for close to or more than a decade — millions of people experiencing housing instability and homelessness haven’t ever had the opportunity to add their names to a waitlist. And the long wait times to receive help may also discourage people from applying, even if waitlists are open.

Providing substantial, multi-year funding for new vouchers, as the House Financial Services Committee has proposed, would help more people when they first need it instead of forcing them to accept years of hardship; it should be a high priority in the emerging economic recovery (“Build Back Better”) legislation. (CBPP, October 6, 2021)

NLIHC released the fall 2021 issue of Tenant Talk, a semi-annual newsletter created to engage residents in housing advocacy and to highlight innovative approaches and recent victories in communities throughout the United States. This issue focuses on the intersection of housing affordability and disability justice. Articles explore how resident leaders and resident organizations can take action to achieve accessible housing.

The State of New Jersey Department of Community Affairs has amended the Maximum awards for the National Housing Trust Fund (NHTF) program. Maximum project awards have increased to the current $1 million level. The National Housing Trust Fund (NHTF) provides funding to create new, decent, safe and affordable housing for extremely low-income families.

The program provides zero percent loans to eligible entities that will create affordable rental housing units through either new construction, rehabilitation or redevelopment. Occupancy of the units developed under this program is restricted to households at or below 30% of Area Median Income as defined by HUD for a period of at least 30 years.

The New Jersey Department of Children and Families (DCF), has created a new Office of Housing, led by Assistant Director Kerry-Anne Henry.

DCF also supports two nationally-recognized innovative supportive housing programs. The Keeping Families Together (KFT) program and the Connect to Home - Youth of Risk of Homelessness (YARH) program. Both use supportive housing as an intervention for families and youth who are experiencing homelessness or housing instability and are involved in the child welfare system. Spearheaded by Luther Owens, the YARH program serves a subset of youth, across select counties, in their successful transitions to adulthood. Since its start, KFT has grown immensely, and now serves 650+ families across New Jersey.

SHA joins advocates across the state in applauding this latest commitment to serving children and families and the advancements it will bring to housing needs in New Jersey.

First cohort: 

Second cohort: 

Community partners can include but are not limited to outreach programs, shelters, harm reduction programs (e.g. syringe exchanges), community health clinics, outpatient MH and SUD providers, supportive employment programs, MOUD/MAT programs, jail/prison reentry programs, emergency room/hospitals, Continuum of Care (CoC) coordinated entry, case management agencies, housing programs, and other behavioral health providers.

If you have questions or you have recommendations of partners in your community we should invite , please reach out to Cassondra Warney (cassondra.warney@csh.org / 646-640-6069).

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 on registering with Early Bird Pricing before October 15th. 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!

Link to click to join on ZOOM Meeting.

NJAMHAA is hosting its 2021 Fall Conference, No Going Back: Moving Forward in a New Paradigm on October 13th. The event will feature keynote speaker Susan Dreyfus, BA, of Susan Dreyfus Consulting. She will reflect on pre-pandemic and post-pandemic national trends and issues, and present on the eight accelerants she has seen across the country in highly differentiated and influential social sector behavioral health and social services organizations. Dreyfus will also share a future strategy as the field and NJAMHAA embark on the next chapter to ensure excellence, influence, growth and sustainability.

Supportive housing tenants, like all of us, need access to health care coverage. Commonly, tenants and service providers also need to understand the health care coverage and the services under that health care coverage. This webinar, designed for direct services staff, will address how to connect your tenants to Medicaid, Medicare, and Home and Community Based Services. If you work at the systems or population health level, learn about these systems and the growing partnership opportunities with the health sector. 

Click here to register for this virtual webinar.

Join the Housing and Community Development Network of New Jersey's Conference Under One Roof on October 15th. Explore the following topics on the workshop agenda:

Click here for additional details on the conference agenda and registration.

REGISTER NOW:

This is a VIRTUAL event. The link to log on will be sent to all attendees prior to the event.

This year’s DEAM event highlights a virtual JOB FAIR and guest speaker.

All registered DVRS clients who register for the job fair will be automatically entered

into a raffle for a chance to win a $25 gift card.

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.