HOME Coalition

Operate a Continuum of Care organization and system fulfilling the HUD CoC Program Interim Rule 24 CFR 579 for the 12 parishes (counties) of of Northeast Louisiana including coordinating regional planning, services, data collection and reporting including system resources and gaps, Point in Time (street and shelter count and survey), Housing Inventory of homeless housing and services, and compiling, ranking, and submitting local applications for the HUD CoC Program competition; the organization completed all required federal reporting including Point in Time, Housing Inventory Chart, and conducted ongoing review and technical asst. to programs funded through the HUD CoC competition providing $1,936,324 in federal funds to provide homeless services to the region. Membership includes approximately 40 organizations that are impacted by and concerned with homelessness including service providers, mainstream benefits orgs, healthcare, law enforcement, donors, governments, businesses, etc. These many community representatives meet at least quarterly to assess local needs and plan local responses; training for membership is provided several times per year during these meetings, in webinars, and onsite when possible. Regional outcomes data is tracked to manage progress ending homelessness. In 2020, the service area was 14th in the U.S. among top performing regions with high performance achieving national benchmarks of returning persons to housing.

Maintain and oversee the region's coordinated entry system tracking and completing referrals of persons seeking homeless assistance in a fair, transparent, and time sensitive program model that lets no one fall through the cracks and serves people in order of vulnerability and need. In 2022 the system screened over 700 households and referred them to appropriate programs and resources to end their homelessness; indicative of the success of these referrals, the region reports fewer than 3% of households served return to homelessness, far above the national benchmark of 5% for top performance. This indicates the appropriateness of referrals of matching needs to services.

Offer noncongregate shelter (NCS) to unsheltered persons and provide subgrants to two major community service providers to provide more NCS as well as prevention (screening and referral services). These services are made possible by stimulus act funds through the CARES Act, specifically ESG-CV funds. A projected 300 persons over the course of the grant period will be provided shelter when no other shelter is available. Accompanying supportive services are basic needs (food, clothing, referrals to medical or mental health care), meals, transportation, referrals to programs that provide appropriate permanent housing. During the period when this service is available, the region has achieved functional zero unsheltered homeless -- that is, all person who become literally homeless are referred immediately to appropriate shelter ASAP. Further, there is sufficient shelter so that no person has to remain unsheltered. This service has been especially important during the COVID pandemic when unsheltered homelessness increases the risk of expose to COVID of the homeless persons and the community.

Maintain and operate the Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) database to track and report services to persons seeking homeless assistance in the service area. Data collected tracks progress of programs and progress addressing homelessness and holds federally and state-funded programs accountable while making their operations transparent for stakeholders. This HMIS instance is part of the statewide HMIS which has over 600 users, about 50 of which are in the filing organization's parishes. The local system accounts for over 500 persons served each year in 325 beds of homeless housing. The system successfully and timely submitted all required federal reporting including APRs, LSA, SPMs, etc.. All federally funded programs that are required to use HMIS participate in this HMIS system including those funded by HUD, PATH, VA, etc.