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In this Week's Edition
News
State Budget Hearing Updates
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Advocate for Federal Funding
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NJ FamilyCare Housing
Supports TA & Resources
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NJ DHS Launches Protection
Against EBT Card Benefit Theft
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SHA Supports 988 Funding
& Mental Health Services
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Advocate Guide for Housing
Through Qualified Allocation Plans
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Update by NJ Ombudsman for
Individuals with Intellectual or
Developmental Disabilities and Their Families
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Housing Stability Cohort:
A Practitioner’s Guide
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The Real Cost of Cuts to
HUD, USDA, and Treasury
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Solutions for the Affordable Housing Crisis
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Data Informs a Healthier New Jersey
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LISC New Jersey Survey
Assesses Federal Impact
Resources & Events
April Transition Webinars for Students
and Young Adults with IDD and Their Families
April 17 & 24, 2025
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Health Care Enrollment Assistance
April 22, 2025
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Enhancing Provider Understanding of
Mental Health for Persons with Disabilities
April 24, 2025
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NJ DCR 2025 Housing Summit
Eradicating Discrimination in Housing
April 24, 2025
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2025 New Jersey
Neighborhood Achievement Awards
April 25, 2025
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Next SHA
Developers Meeting
May 12, 2025
Virtual
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Next SHA
Members Meeting
June 4, 2025
In Person
All SHA Members
are welcome.
Not a yet member?
Learn more here.
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Save the Date
27th Annual Supportive Housing Conference
November 14, 2025
The Palace at Somerset Park, Somerset NJ
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NJAAW Conference
Registration Open
May 16, 2025
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Law & Disability Conference
June 10, 2025, 9 AM -1PM
One Constitution Square
New Brunswick, NJ, 08901
Registration Open
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LeadingAge NJ & DE
Annual Meeting & Expo
June 17-19, 2025
Atlantic City
Registration Open
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NJ Virtual Opioid Summit
Save the date
September 17, 2025
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Monarch's Housing as a Human Right Conference
Save the date
September 26, 2025
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HCDNNJ Conference
Under One Roof
Save the date
October 24, 2025
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SHA Member LISC New Jersey announces the 2025 New Jersey Neighborhood Achievement Awards (NJNAA) will take place on Friday, April 25, 2025, from 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, NJ. This annual event celebrates individuals and organizations who have made significant contributions to revitalizing under-resourced neighborhoods across the state.
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SHA Welcomes New &
Returning Members in 2025
| | State Budget Hearing Updates | | SHA testified during the virtual NJ Senate Budget Hearing on April 10th along with other SHA Members: Camden Coalition, Community Health Law Project, LeadingAge New Jersey & Delaware, NJAMHAA, and Oaks Integrated Care. SHA is grateful to have a community of advocates speaking to the importance of housing and funding for services. | | |
In addition to recent public hearings, where the public is invited to testify on the Governor's FY 26 proposed budget, each major state agency testifies to each house's budget committee to support what is contained in the Governors budget. This gives the legislature an opportunity to question department heads on the budget. The budget process typically ends on June 30 with a budget approved by the legislature and signed by the Governor. The link below contains information on session with DHS and DCA which are of interest to the SHA community.
The public is welcome to attend the departmental hearings but not to testify.
Click here for a listing of dates and committee hearings.
| | Advocate for Federal Funding | | |
On April 10th the House of Representatives passed a new budget resolution that calls for cutting trillions from Medicaid and other essential programs many rely on to meet their daily needs. With the Senate already having approved the budget blueprint, the House’s vote paves the way for lawmakers to draft legislation to implement these unprecedented cuts to health care and food assistance for millions of people across America—all to finance tax cuts for wealthy individuals and corporations and immigration enforcement.
Republican leaders want to move quickly aim to vote on the bill to enact these cuts by Memorial Day. Take action today!
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Use this call-in line to reach your member of Congress:
866-426-2631
| | NJ FamilyCare Housing Supports TA & Resources | | |
SHA member Camden Coalition hosts virtual office hours providing technical assistance around the NJ FamilyCare Housing Supports Program as and upcoming training opportunities. The documents on this linked page are official documents of the NJ FamilyCare Housing Supports Program.
Check out the recorded office hours from April 2nd covering issues from getting a NPI number and identifying documents and information that organizations will need to secure a Medicaid number (enrolling with the state) and credentialing with the managed care organizations. Watch the recording and view the slide deck.
The April 16th session will also be available soon, providing details on the enrollment and credentialing processes and questions on the recently published Provider and MCO Guidance.
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NJ DHS Launches Protection
Against EBT Card Benefit Theft
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On April 4, 2025, NJ Department of Human Services announced a new security feature that allows individuals who receive cash and food assistance benefits to lock their Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) cards to protect against the national problem of skimming. Residents who receive Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and Work First New Jersey (WFNJ) benefits can use the new EBT Lock/ Unlock tool on the NJFamiliesFirst.com website or the ConnectEBT app to lock their EBT cards when they are not in use. Choosing the “Lock My Card Everywhere” option blocks all purchases while your card is locked. Residents will still receive benefits or refunds — even if their card is locked — but no online or in-store purchases can be made.
Read the full press release in ENGLISH and SPANISH
| | SHA Supports 988 Funding & Mental Health Services | | |
SHA has joined 11 other advocacy organizations, including members Community Health Law Project, CSPNJ, and NJAMHAA in support of proposed funding directed to develop and maintain New Jersey’s 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline and crisis response services. With federal funds diminishing rapidly during a time of rising needs, establishing sustainable funding for crisis services has never been more important.
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SHA has joined 10 other advocacy organizations, including members Community Health Law Project, CSPNJ, Disability Rights New Jersey, and NJAMHAA as part of the New Jersey Mental Health Coalition. The Coalition has recently written to our local and federal leaders on the potential harms that proposed cuts in funding could present and asks our government partners to work for solutions to maintain funding.
| | The letters were organized by partner The Mental Health Association of New Jersey, which leads the NJ Mental Health Coalition. | | |
Advocate Guide for Housing
Through Qualified Allocation Plans
| | Update by NJ Ombudsman for Individuals with Intellectual or Developmental Disabilities and Their Families | | |
The following information was distributed by Paul Aronsohn, The NJ Ombudsman for Individuals with Intellectual or Developmental Disabilities and Their Families on clarification regarding overnight staff and payments in unlicensed setting.
1.“There has not been a change in policy.”
2. “There are no differences in policy in unlicensed settings” and licensed settings.
3. “Overnight staffing is permitted when it meets the service definitions of Individual Supports or Community Based Supports.
The individual does not need to be awake during the entire shift, but the staff person does need to be awake and providing some type of active support, such as conducting routine checks, completing documentation, or undertaking a range of other ADL activities."
| | Housing Stability Cohort: A Practitioner’s Guide | | The Stewards of Affordable Housing for the Future (SAHF) recently released a new resource, Housing Stability Cohort: A Practitioner’s Guide. The Housing Stability Cohort, which is an interdisciplinary group of affordable housing practitioners that SAHF convenes, supported the development of this resource through an 18-month process where they shared data and tested proactive resident-centered strategies to advance housing stability. The guide details several key themes that housing practitioners can use to guide their work, including mapping and coordinating new roles and responsibilities for their site-based resident services teams; improving data collection and sharing systems; and streamlining tenant touchpoints. | | The Real Cost of Cuts to HUD, USDA, and Treasury | | The National Association of Affordable Housing Lenders (NAAHL) released a special report detailing the important role that agencies such as HUD, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), and the U.S. Department of the Treasury play in administering housing programs, as well as the risks to worsening the nation’s affordable housing crisis in the face of potential funding and staff cuts across these agencies. The report explores the specific duties and programs that the offices within each agency run to create a stable housing market that creates housing opportunities for all families. Staff at these agencies are expanding homeownership opportunities, addressing the nation’s homelessness crisis, creating stable rental opportunities for low-income households, leading disaster recovery efforts, and supporting the economy by administering housing investments and creating jobs. | | Solutions for the Affordable Housing Crisis | | A blog post from McKinsey & Company highlights five solutions to the nation’s housing crisis that are outlined in a recent report from the McKinsey Institute for Black Economic Mobility, Investing in housing: Unlocking economic mobility for Black families and all Americans. The blog post recommends implementing creative incentives to encourage zoning reforms in localities across the nation, such as ensuring that residents receive direct financial benefits from the increased housing supply that stems from potential reforms. Additionally, the recommendations include strengthening the secondary loan market to expand community development financial institutions’ access to private capital, standardizing state and local building codes to scale off-site home construction, reforming the Housing Choice Voucher program, and investing in public housing conversion and shared-equity housing models. Lastly, the blog post notes the importance of developing public, private, and philanthropic partnerships to ensure that these solutions are effective for addressing the nation’s housing crisis. | | Data Informs a Healthier New Jersey | | |
Several years ago, experts in the New Jersey agency that oversees programs for people with disabilities and their families noticed a worrisome trend: A growing number of individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities were struggling with mental health emergencies.
The New Jersey Department of Human Services, which oversees the agency, hired the Rutgers Center for State Health Policy to assist the state in developing a crisis intervention system to help avoid emergency room visits, which could be traumatic for patients and their loved ones. The center reviewed hospital data, Medicaid claims and spoke with families, caregivers, clinicians and others and recommended ways the state could intervene before things spiraled out of control, state officials said.
| | LISC New Jersey Survey Assesses Federal Impact | | |
SHA Member LISC New Jersey has launched a brief survey for its partners. LISC knows that the recent uncertainty with federal government funding freezes and contract terminations may have had a devastating impact on many organizations. LISC and its many like-minded stakeholders are committed to supporting partners during these times. They will be exhausting every avenue, including advocacy and outreach to key stakeholders, to ensure that the collective work is positioned to continue. To inform those sorts of efforts, LISC has formed a brief survey to enable you to share your perspectives about the current challenges you, your organization, and your communities face. Here’s the link: survey.
Deadline to respond is April 25th. Your consideration is greatly appreciated.
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April Transition Webinars for Students
and Young Adults with IDD and Their Families
| | Protecting Medicaid in New Jersey Webinar & Fact Sheet | | April 23, 2025 | 02:00 PM ET | | |
Update: Senator Andy Kim will join the Protect Medicaid discussion and share his support for Medicaid and knowledge on the proposed cuts.
SHA Members Disability Rights New Jersey and the NJ Long-Term Care Ombudsman partner with Justice In Aging, a national organization dedicated to fighting senior poverty through law, for an hour-long webinar to provide updates on the state of Medicaid, and how our state could be impacted by proposed cuts and changes being discussed in Washington.
Click here to register for the webinar.
Justice in Aging and Disability Rights New Jersey have partnered to release a new co-branded fact sheet highlighting the harmful impact of proposed federal Medicaid cuts on older adults and people with disabilities in New Jersey. The fact sheet includes state-specific data on how these cuts would affect older adults and people with disabilities who rely on NJ FamilyCare for access to essential health and long-term care, along with the corresponding financial implications for the state.
| | Enhancing Understanding of Mental Health Symposium | | |
April 24, 2025 I 9:30 am - 5:30 pm I Online via Zoom
The symposium is a culmination of a three-year IHC grant driven by a community advisory group made up of persons with disabilities and/or lived experience with disabilities, community partners, a community observational assessment and surveying area service providers. Presentations include SHA member Shelley Samuels of SRS Strategic Services. SHA is happy to be a part of the larger Inclusive Health Communities (IHC) community. In 2021, SHA’s Integrated Community Project (ICP) was initially funded through an IHC grant.
Click here to register for the online event.
| | Eradicating Discrimination in Housing Summit | | |
April 24, 2025 | 1:00 - 3:00 PM
War Memorial, 1 Memorial Dr., Trenton, NJ 08608
Join Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin and Yolanda N. Melville, Director of
the New Jersey Division on Civil Rights (DCR), for a celebration of the 80th
anniversary of the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination. Learn about DCR's work to protect the people of New Jersey from housing discrimination. Join discussions with diverse community advocates and housing leaders about available resources and effective strategies to prevent and eliminate housing discrimination.
Click here to register for this event.
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Thank you for your support!
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Want all the member benefits with SHA? Visit our website or contact Joseph Christensen to apply or manage your membership.
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Members can post jobs to find applicants within the wider supportive housing community. Click on the button to visit our job page.
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Advocate ● Educate ● Support
The Supportive Housing Association of New Jersey unites its diverse coalition of members to advance, promote, and increase supportive housing opportunities across New Jersey. Since 1998, our statewide mission seeks to enhance lives and accessibility to enable independent living within our communities.
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Supportive Housing Association of New Jersey
185 Valley Street, South Orange, NJ 07079
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