We are seeking a Housing Helpline Specialist to join the Heartland HOUSED team and help us reach the goals of Springfield and Sangamon County’s 2022-2028 Strategic Plan to Address Homelessness!

The Heartland Housing Helpline Specialist will support efforts to connect households in Sangamon County facing a housing crisis to available housing resources. These efforts will primarily involve answering phone calls to the Housing Helpline, responding to email requests for support, and entering data into the Heartland Continuum of Care’s Homeless Management Information System to make referrals. The Housing Helpline Specialist will work to connect with organizations offering homelessness prevention, shelter diversion, rent/utility assistance and other services in order to keep up to date information about resources available in the community. Additionally, the Specialist will lead regular meetings of the Heartland Continuum of Care Homelessness Prevention Task Group and will provide support for the Coordinated Entry System by doing assessments over the phone and participating in the Heartland Continuum of Care Coordinated Entry Case Conferencing meetings. Daily tasks will include handling a high volume of calls and creating a positive experience for each caller. The Specialist will listen to clients to understand their needs, use software to capture data and conduct assessments that will direct clients to the best referral. Successful applicants will be customer-focused, detail oriented, friendly, reliable, and adaptable.

Find the job description and information about how to apply here. Email josh@heartlandhoused.org if you have any questions.

We have seen a lot of exciting developments and are grateful for all the hard work that community partners have put in to help make ongoing progress toward reaching the goals of our community’s Strategic Plan. Through these quarterly reports our hope is to keep the community informed of some of the ongoing work to ensure our strategic plan turns into action. Check out some of the highlights from the past three months and see what we are working on as year one of Strategic Plan implementation comes to a close.

You can download a PDF of the quarterly report here.

Thank you to all our partners who have helped us continue the work toward making homelessness rare, brief, and non-recurring in Springfield and Sangamon County! Through these quarterly reports our hope is to keep the community informed of some of the ongoing work to ensure our strategic plan turns into action.

You can find our 2023 Quarter 1 Report here.

You can view the HCoC Board Approved Collaborative Application here and FY 23 Priority Listing here. If you have any questions or comments, please reach out to josh@heartlandhoused.org.

You can find all project eSnaps applications in this Google Drive folder.

The Recommended Ranked List for the HUD FY23 CoC NOFO Competition was approved on Wednesday, September 13th.

IL-513 Estimated ARD = $436,714
Tier 1 = $406,144
Tier 2 =$30,570 + CoC Bonus ($49,748)
DV Bonus $71,068
CoC Planning Grant $50,000

Tier 1
(86) MERCY Communities Permanent Supportive Housing for Families 2 $21,548
(81) YSB Families Headed by Youth 24 and Under $25,909
(79) MERCY Communities Permanent Supportive Housing for Families 1 $99,888
(77) Fifth Street Renaissance PSH 6 $41,388
(76) Helping Hands Permanent Supported Housing 2019 $83,976
(76) MERCY Communities Chronically Homeless Families $42,897
(Unscored) MERCY Rapid Rehousing for Families (Transfer Grant – unscored until next competition, per policy placed above project straddling Tier 1 & 2) $52,760
(94) NEW PROJECT: Helping Hands Permanent Supportive Housing-Park Avenue $37,778

Tier 2
(94) NEW PROJECT: Helping Hands Permanent Supportive Housing-Park Avenue $46,878 ($34,908 reallocated from FSR Vets Expansion, total for new project $84,656)
(79) YSB Transitional Housing Program for Homeless Youth $33,440

NEW DV BONUS PROJECT Abundant Faith DV RRH Bonus Project $71,068
PLANNING GRANT HCoC Planning Grant: Sangamon County Community Resources $50,000

On July 5th, HUD released information for this years CoC NOFO Competition. You can read the release here and view the Notice of Funding Opportunity here. 

Part of the NOFO process includes a local competition to determine which programs to fund with the funding our community is allocated. Please carefully review the important dates below:

TUESDAY, JULY 18 
– HCoC Applications Released, starts Accepting Applications
– Local Scoring and Rating Criteria with Point Values Released
– HCoC NOFO Technical Assistance Webinar to review NOFO and HCoC Application Process at 11:30 AM, recording posted to HCoC website. Zoom information for the webinar:
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/86825849524?pwd=KzA1dFArdUtsdzhjaXpqS0c3aXpQUT09
Meeting ID: 868 2584 9524
Passcode: 673858

TUESDAY, AUGUST 1
– Deadline to submit Letter of Interest in applying for a new project (DV or CoC Bonus)

MONDAY, AUGUST 21
– All Renewal and New Project HCoC Applications and supplemental documents due to the HCoC Coordinator by 5 PM.

THURSDAY, AUGUST 31
– Rating and Ranking Meeting to Score Projects

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 7
– Heartland Continuum of Care Board Meeting to Approve Recommended Ranked List. Organizations will be contacted verbally and in writing about projects status.

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 8
– Deadline for Intent to Appeal

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 12
– Appeal process concluded. HCoC Board meets to vote if necessary.

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 19
– All project applications should be completed in eSNAPS and .pdf emailed to josh@heartlandhoused.org. After review, approval will be given to submit in eSNAPS.

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 26
– All parts of the CoC Consolidated Application, including the CoC Application attachments and the Priority Listing, posted at http://www.heartlandhoused.org

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 28
– CoC Application submitted to HUD.

If you have any questions about the competition, please reach out to josh@heartlandhoused.org.

New CoC Funding Opportunity for PSH, RRH, and Shelter Diversion: Information and Application Deadline

Update: We are excited to announce partnerships with Helping Hands of Springfield, MERCY Communities, Phoenix Center, Fifth St Renaissance and Contact Ministries to create new Rapid Rehousing, Permanent Supportive Housing, and Shelter Diversion opportunities in Sangamon County! You can read the FY24 IDHS Funding Narrative here. You can view the Letters of Intent used to score projects and allocate funding here.

Notification of Funding Opportunity

As part of “Home Illinois”, the FY24 State of Illinois budget includes increased funding for existing programs and provides funding for new programs with the goal of creating 1,000 new RRH units and 500 new PSH units across the state. The new programs are:

• Scattered Site Permanent Supportive Housing (HCoC Goal: Create 30 units of PSH with this funding)
• Rapid Rehousing (HCoC Goal: Create 60 units of RRH with this funding)
• Shelter Diversion

FY24 Allocations for the Heartland Continuum of Care
Scattered Site PSH – $382,848
Rapid Rehousing – $741,858
Shelter Diversion – $140,929

We are excited about the opportunity to expand programs that are in direct alignment with our Strategic Plan through this funding opportunity.

You can find the HCoC IDHS FY24 CoC Program Letter of Intent here. The LOI is due by 5 PM on Friday, June 30th. Late LOIs will not be accepted. You can preview the LOI before filing it out here.

You can view the recording of the Competition Webinar we hosted on Monday, 6/26 here. The password for the recording is 7Ca$*gn1
You can view the slides from the presentation here.

This Google Drive folder includes guidelines for each program and slide presentations and other documentation from IDHS. We anticipate that final guidelines will be released by IDHS on Monday 6/26. The most up to date guidelines will be added to the folder when available. 

Eligible Grantees
A. All applicants must be units of local government or nonprofit organizations, subject to 26 U.S.C. 501(c) (3) of the federal tax code.
B. Applicant organizations must be designated by the local Continuum of Care (CoC) as a qualified provider of [PSH, RRH, or Diversion] and be recommended by their partner CoC for funding through this program in accordance with that CoC’s policies.
C. Applicant organizations must be in good standing with the Illinois Secretary of State and have been so for the last four fiscal years.
D. Applicant organizations that are current IDHS grantees must be in good standing with the IDHS Office of Contract Administration and have been so for the last four fiscal years.

Thresholds for Funding

To be eligible for consideration for funding your organization must agree to the following requirements.

• Utilization of Coordinated Entry for PSH/RRH
• Serve as an Entry Point for Coordinated Entry and maintain a minimum of two trained Coordinated Entry assessors on staff.
• RRH programs must operate in accordance to HCoC RRH Community Standards
• HMIS utilization (DV organizations must use a comparable database and provide monthly reports to the HCoC)
• Participation in Appropriate CoC Task Groups: Supportive Housing Task Group (RRH and PSH), Emergency Shelter Task Group (Diversion)
• Registered with Illinois Secretary of State and with Illinois Attorney General as a charity
• Organization already has a Tax ID and UEI

If you have any questions please reach out to josh@heartlandhoused.org.