Area Congregations Together in Service (ACTS)

Area Congregations Together in Service (acts) collaborates with 60+ partner Congregations and other agencies in the greater richmond metropolitan Area working to prevent homelessness. in fiscal year ending june 30, 2022, acts was designated by the partnership for housing affordability as the regional eviction prevention agency. That action put acts in place to accept funding from the Virginia department of housing and community development as well as the fema funded, emergency food and shelter program which is administered by the united way of greater richmond and petersburg. During this fiscal year, acts was able to financially assist 567 households which included 1,352 individuals. Acts also collaborates with other organizations working to provide food and clothing to our clients. During this fiscal year, acts provided 862,967 in rent/mortgage assistance, 153,946 in utility assistance and 8,526 in transportation, meals, and other assistance. Without this assistance, our clients would not have been able to maintain their stable housing and would have possibly faced eviction leading to homelessness.

The homeless connection line (hcl) is the primary access point for homeless services in the greater richmond continuum of care (grcoc). The hcl provides phone-based, diversion focused access and services to all clients experiencing or at imminent risk of homelessness int he full geography of the grcoc. The hcl provides safety planning, diversion, mediation and cocnnections to temporary options. For clients within days of experiancing homelessness (including those already experiencing homelessness), diversion specialists at the hcl are able to enter client information in the homeless management information system (hmis). The hcl is a multi-agency, system-level access point comprised of diversion specialists and a coordinator from multiple homeless Service providers. Currently the partners include: Area Congregations Together in Service (2 employees), homeagain (1 employee), homeward, and housing families first (2 employees). There are currently 5 diversion specialists who manage the hcl. The hours of operation are monday - friday 8am to 6pm. During the year, the hcl staff members received 93,112 calls for assistance during the year and initiated another 18,125 calls for assistance.