SSVF Program Update Thursday May 11, 2017
Hi Team,
I am just sending this for awareness. This will be my last email to the large group. For non-NYC grantees, you will start receiving these emails from your new Regional Coordinators soon (although it might have started already). My sincere apologies for any duplications.
Adrienne
-----Original Message-----
From: SSVF Program Office
Sent: Thursday, May 11, 2017 4:47 PM
Topics:
1. Expanding Emergent Mental Health Care to Former Servicemembers with Other than Honorable Administrative Discharges
2. Save the Date for the SSVF National Webinar on June 8, 2017 at 2:00 PM EDT
3. Reminder: Clarification regarding mandatory return of funds for the 3rd quarter
4. Resource: HUD Invites CoCs to Request Vets@Home Technical Assistance for Communities to End Veteran Homelessness in 2017
Expanding Emergent Mental Health Care to Former Servicemembers with Other than Honorable Administrative Discharges
On March 7th, Secretary Dr. Shulkin announced that the VA intends to expand provision of emergent mental health care to former Servicemembers with other than honorable (OTH) administrative discharges. The SSVF program office will provide additional information as soon as it becomes available; for now SSVF providers can review the attached press release.
Save the Date for the SSVF National Webinar on June 8, 2017 at 2:00 PM EDT
Topic 1: Legal Services
Grantees are strongly encouraged to provide legal services to assist Veteran households in obtaining or maintaining housing stability. This webinar will describe the common legal needs of Veterans who are homeless or at risk of homelessness and will review the most recent survey results from the legal section of the SOAR and Legal Services survey. Presenters will offer examples of SSVF models for providing legal services and promising practices for assessing legal needs of Veterans who are homeless or at risk of homelessness.
Topic 2: Revised HUD-VASH Referral Packet and FAQ Document
The HUD-VASH and SSVF Referral Packet (RRH Only) was presented during the SSVF National Webinar October 20, 2016 and was required effective December 1, 2016. The Program Office appreciates the feedback and suggestions that SSVF grantees and their HUD-VASH partners have provided in order to improve the packet. The packet has been revised to incorporate these recommendations from the field; changes will be reviewed on the webinar.
Registration information will be sent in the next program update
Reminder: Clarification regarding mandatory return of funds for the 3rd quarter
As stated in each SSVF grant agreement, at the end of each quarter a grantee's requests for SSVF funds (also known as draw-downs) must meet the minimum amount of the overall grant. Please note that grantees do not submit physical invoices to the SSVF Program Office; therefore, expenditure rates are assessed using the draw down information in the HHS Payment Management System.
For the third quarter ending COB June 30th at 5pm EDT, that minimum is 65%. To be clear, what is meant by "being 65% spent" is that 65% or more of an organization's SSVF grant funds have been drawn down from the HHS Payment Management System. The program recognizes the above process is common practice so a favorable lag of 10% (or 5.2 weeks of expenses) has been incorporated into the quarterly minimums. This allows for a grantee to meet the minimum while still reconciling the previous month's SSVF expenses. For this reason, it is absolutely crucial for grantees to review this information frequently; there is no exception to the 65% requirement for grantees that had been on extension.
The process will be as follows: a calculation will be done at the start of third quarter (8am EDT the morning of the second business day of the new quarter) to determine which grantees are below 65%. This calculation will be rounded to a whole number (i.e. 64.4% will be rounded down to 64% and 64.6% will be rounded up to 65%). For any grantee below 65%, the difference between 65% and where that grantee currently has drawn down will be swept from the OVERALL grant total. If a grantee is 60% drawn down, the difference is 5%, as such, there will be a 5% reduction of each of the subaccounts (ADM, SERVICES, TFA). The end result will move a grantee closer to the quarterly minimum but won't necessarily mean it has reached that minimum. The intent of the sweep is to 1) move funds from geographic areas where the need for those funds is not being recognized to areas where funding is lacking and 2) to assist grantees in moving towards compliance with grant requirements and eliminating the need for an extension (which there will be rare approvals for at the end of FY17). The funds will be swept that same day (second business day of 3rd quarter) and a note will be added to the grant file in GIFTS noting how much funds were swept. Please note that when funds are swept, a grantee may need to submit a Program Change in the subsequent quarter if modifications to their budget and/or HHS subaccounts are needed after the sweep.
What does this mean for the financial personnel of SSVF grantees?
The last day of the quarter is June 30th. Draw down requests can be made on this day by 5pm EDT. The Program Office will then wait one business day (July 3rd) for all requests to process. The next business day, which in this case is July 5th, at 8am EDT the Program Office will run a report to see where grantees stand in regards to meeting the 65% draw down requirement. These values will stand; there will be no exceptions. Since there will be no exceptions, it is recommended that grantee staff responsible for completing draw-downs not wait until June 30th to do so. In addition, draw-downs made after 5pm EDT on the 30th may need an additional day to process. If a grantee finds it is necessary to wait until June 30th, it would be important to enter the request early in the day. (Any grantees outside of EDT, including but not limited to the West Coast, Hawaii and Guam: The 5pm EDT deadline applies so plan accordingly).
If you have any questions, please contact the SSVF Program Office using the inbox email address: ssvf@va.gov. Please include your grant number and "3rd Quarter Mandatory Return of Funds Question" in the subject of the email. Please cc your Regional Coordinator.
Resource: HUD Invites CoCs to Request Vets@Home Technical Assistance for Communities to End Veteran Homelessness in 2017
As established in Opening Doors, the country is committed to the goal of ending homelessness among its Veterans. To that end, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) launched the Vets@Home technical assistance effort in July 2015, to provide technical assistance and additional resources to Continuums of Care (CoCs). Since then, over 130 communities have received technical assistance through Vets@Home.
Today, HUD is continuing its effort by inviting CoCs who are new to Vets@Home to request technical assistance. As of April 2017, some CoCs are continuing their TA engagements, and all CoCs are invited to receive TA through Vets@Home. CoCs new to Vets@Home should submit a TA request through the HUD Exchange's Request Technical Assistance form. HUD will provide all CoCs requesting TA through Vets@Home with remote TA. HUD will provide more intensive and tailored TA to some CoCs based on 2016 Point-in-Time (PIT) count data, as well as information provided by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).
More information may be found at:
https://www.hudexchange.info/
Thank you,
SSVF Program Office
I am just sending this for awareness. This will be my last email to the large group. For non-NYC grantees, you will start receiving these emails from your new Regional Coordinators soon (although it might have started already). My sincere apologies for any duplications.
Adrienne
-----Original Message-----
From: SSVF Program Office
Sent: Thursday, May 11, 2017 4:47 PM
Topics:
1. Expanding Emergent Mental Health Care to Former Servicemembers with Other than Honorable Administrative Discharges
2. Save the Date for the SSVF National Webinar on June 8, 2017 at 2:00 PM EDT
3. Reminder: Clarification regarding mandatory return of funds for the 3rd quarter
4. Resource: HUD Invites CoCs to Request Vets@Home Technical Assistance for Communities to End Veteran Homelessness in 2017
Expanding Emergent Mental Health Care to Former Servicemembers with Other than Honorable Administrative Discharges
On March 7th, Secretary Dr. Shulkin announced that the VA intends to expand provision of emergent mental health care to former Servicemembers with other than honorable (OTH) administrative discharges. The SSVF program office will provide additional information as soon as it becomes available; for now SSVF providers can review the attached press release.
Save the Date for the SSVF National Webinar on June 8, 2017 at 2:00 PM EDT
Topic 1: Legal Services
Grantees are strongly encouraged to provide legal services to assist Veteran households in obtaining or maintaining housing stability. This webinar will describe the common legal needs of Veterans who are homeless or at risk of homelessness and will review the most recent survey results from the legal section of the SOAR and Legal Services survey. Presenters will offer examples of SSVF models for providing legal services and promising practices for assessing legal needs of Veterans who are homeless or at risk of homelessness.
Topic 2: Revised HUD-VASH Referral Packet and FAQ Document
The HUD-VASH and SSVF Referral Packet (RRH Only) was presented during the SSVF National Webinar October 20, 2016 and was required effective December 1, 2016. The Program Office appreciates the feedback and suggestions that SSVF grantees and their HUD-VASH partners have provided in order to improve the packet. The packet has been revised to incorporate these recommendations from the field; changes will be reviewed on the webinar.
Registration information will be sent in the next program update
Reminder: Clarification regarding mandatory return of funds for the 3rd quarter
As stated in each SSVF grant agreement, at the end of each quarter a grantee's requests for SSVF funds (also known as draw-downs) must meet the minimum amount of the overall grant. Please note that grantees do not submit physical invoices to the SSVF Program Office; therefore, expenditure rates are assessed using the draw down information in the HHS Payment Management System.
For the third quarter ending COB June 30th at 5pm EDT, that minimum is 65%. To be clear, what is meant by "being 65% spent" is that 65% or more of an organization's SSVF grant funds have been drawn down from the HHS Payment Management System. The program recognizes the above process is common practice so a favorable lag of 10% (or 5.2 weeks of expenses) has been incorporated into the quarterly minimums. This allows for a grantee to meet the minimum while still reconciling the previous month's SSVF expenses. For this reason, it is absolutely crucial for grantees to review this information frequently; there is no exception to the 65% requirement for grantees that had been on extension.
The process will be as follows: a calculation will be done at the start of third quarter (8am EDT the morning of the second business day of the new quarter) to determine which grantees are below 65%. This calculation will be rounded to a whole number (i.e. 64.4% will be rounded down to 64% and 64.6% will be rounded up to 65%). For any grantee below 65%, the difference between 65% and where that grantee currently has drawn down will be swept from the OVERALL grant total. If a grantee is 60% drawn down, the difference is 5%, as such, there will be a 5% reduction of each of the subaccounts (ADM, SERVICES, TFA). The end result will move a grantee closer to the quarterly minimum but won't necessarily mean it has reached that minimum. The intent of the sweep is to 1) move funds from geographic areas where the need for those funds is not being recognized to areas where funding is lacking and 2) to assist grantees in moving towards compliance with grant requirements and eliminating the need for an extension (which there will be rare approvals for at the end of FY17). The funds will be swept that same day (second business day of 3rd quarter) and a note will be added to the grant file in GIFTS noting how much funds were swept. Please note that when funds are swept, a grantee may need to submit a Program Change in the subsequent quarter if modifications to their budget and/or HHS subaccounts are needed after the sweep.
What does this mean for the financial personnel of SSVF grantees?
The last day of the quarter is June 30th. Draw down requests can be made on this day by 5pm EDT. The Program Office will then wait one business day (July 3rd) for all requests to process. The next business day, which in this case is July 5th, at 8am EDT the Program Office will run a report to see where grantees stand in regards to meeting the 65% draw down requirement. These values will stand; there will be no exceptions. Since there will be no exceptions, it is recommended that grantee staff responsible for completing draw-downs not wait until June 30th to do so. In addition, draw-downs made after 5pm EDT on the 30th may need an additional day to process. If a grantee finds it is necessary to wait until June 30th, it would be important to enter the request early in the day. (Any grantees outside of EDT, including but not limited to the West Coast, Hawaii and Guam: The 5pm EDT deadline applies so plan accordingly).
If you have any questions, please contact the SSVF Program Office using the inbox email address: ssvf@va.gov. Please include your grant number and "3rd Quarter Mandatory Return of Funds Question" in the subject of the email. Please cc your Regional Coordinator.
Resource: HUD Invites CoCs to Request Vets@Home Technical Assistance for Communities to End Veteran Homelessness in 2017
As established in Opening Doors, the country is committed to the goal of ending homelessness among its Veterans. To that end, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) launched the Vets@Home technical assistance effort in July 2015, to provide technical assistance and additional resources to Continuums of Care (CoCs). Since then, over 130 communities have received technical assistance through Vets@Home.
Today, HUD is continuing its effort by inviting CoCs who are new to Vets@Home to request technical assistance. As of April 2017, some CoCs are continuing their TA engagements, and all CoCs are invited to receive TA through Vets@Home. CoCs new to Vets@Home should submit a TA request through the HUD Exchange's Request Technical Assistance form. HUD will provide all CoCs requesting TA through Vets@Home with remote TA. HUD will provide more intensive and tailored TA to some CoCs based on 2016 Point-in-Time (PIT) count data, as well as information provided by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).
More information may be found at:
https://www.hudexchange.info/
Thank you,
SSVF Program Office