Are you experienced service staff with a passion for supportive housing with a desire to share your experiences with your colleagues, lawmakers, and community collaborations to advance expand supportive housing, support services and SHPA’s initiatives throughout the northern region?
SHPA is seeking qualified candidates for the position of:
Illinois Coordinator, Northern Region
The Illinois Coordinator, Northern Region of the Supportive Housing Providers Association (SHPA) is the SHPA representative for Northern Region of Illinois area networks, planning bodies and collaborations. SHPA plays a significant role in the planning, development, and operations of supportive housing throughout the state of Illinois. SHPA is recognized as the voice of advocacy for supportive housing service funding in the state of Illinois. The Illinois Coordinator, Northern Region assists in rallying SHPA members and supportive housing residents to advocate with their legislators to achieve increases in service funding for existing and new projects every year. The Illinois Coordinator, Northern Region is responsible for technical assistance, member training and support, resident activity, and training. This position will also work to preserve and increase supportive housing across Illinois. Primary Responsibilities:
Training & Technical Assistance Trainer/Facilitator
Resident Leadership Trainer
Continua of Care Liaison: Northern Region of Illinois
Supportive Housing Service Policy and Funding Advocate
Member Relations & recruitment
Qualified Candidates should have experience in the following areas:
Best Practices of Supportive Housing Operations
Evidence-Based Practices of Service Delivery
DHS Supportive Housing Reporting Requirements
HUD Continuum of Care Homeless Supportive Housing Program Guidelines
Advocacy Training for Residents of Supportive Housing
Experience in Advocacy for Supportive Housing Policy & Funding
Take the mystery out of state grant making with our online training: Your Recipe for Grant Success! Learn at your own pace with modules containing everything you need to know to be successful with grants. Find out:
How to prepare to apply for a state grant via Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO).
Where to look for available grants.
What goes into a winning grant application.
General application submission guidelines and requirements.
Governance requirements and where to find them.
Grant reporting information once a grant is secured.
This training will consist of a high-level overview and introduction to the online workshop.
The online workshop was developed in 2020 by the Illinois Department of Human Services (IDHS) with support from the University of Illinois Springfield and Luma Brighter Learning. The purpose of the workshop is to break down the grant process into simple steps in order to clearly articulate to participants what it means to be in compliance with the Grant Accountability and Transparency Act (GATA) of 2014, 30 ILCS 708/1 et seq. By law, GATA requires the adoption of federal rules (the Uniform Guidance) in Illinois grant making. GATA was created to ensure a coordinated, transparent process for efficient oversight of grant recipient selection and monitoring. The process also promotes quality programs and limits fraud, waste, and abuse.
Participants will leave the experience seeing that GATA is a process that is approachable and doable.
Specifically, participants will see that anyone can complete this process!
Training facilitated by staff from the Illinois Department of Human Services, Office of Contract Administration
Please join us as we follow up our Rebuild, Renew, Revitalize! Core Competencies Toward Resilient Services Series with applying core competencies presented in those Workshops to lived care management situations in the work you do.
The Application Sessions will be Care Management Reviews (Participant Centered Consultation) drawing from your submissions of actual care management situations you find yourselves addressing with participants in your program services.
A week prior to each Application Session please submit a specific care management situation(s) you would like to review during the Application Session with group discussion & consultation in applying core competencies to that situation. Core Competencies include Person Centered, Trauma Aware, Harm Reduction, & Motivational Interviewing.
Submissions must be without information which would identify any specific individual. Names must be changed in ensuring identification of any individual cannot be made.
The Application Sessions will be facilitated by Tom Kinley from Heartland Alliance Health, Midwest Harm Reduction Institute, who was our Presenter for the Core Competencies Series Workshops.
4 Session Dates (March 24, April 21, May 19, June 23)
Are you a Supportive Housing Provider or an IDHS Supportive Housing Grantee and need a refresher or maybe you have new staff that needs training on documenting services and using the IDHS Homeless Services Reporting portal? SHPA is here for you!!
Contact either David Esposito at d.esposito@shpa-il.org or Susan Day at S.Day@shpa-il.org to schedule a one-on-one agency training. This training is FREE to SHPA members and IDHS Supportive Housing grantees.
You can also register for the next virtual group training scheduled;
The Supportive Housing Providers Association is calling our residents, supporters, and members to action!
SHPA is asking the Supportive Housing Community to contact their Illinois elected officials to ask them to support homelessness and housing priorities in the next State Budget.
Please, sign on to endorse the Illinois at Home Campaign today! This is a once in a generation opportunity to dedicate critical resources to Illinoisans and their housing needs.
ILLINOIS AT HOME Invests in Ending Homelessness, Affordable Rental Housing, First Time Homeownership, Support for Existing Homeowners, Innovative Housing Solutions.
SHPA & our AMAZING partners at Housing Action Illinois, the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless, and the Alliance to End Homelessness in Suburban Cook County believe that we can end homelessness in Illinois. Together, we are asking for your help!
Call To Action: Urge Your Elected Officials to Help End Homelessness in Illinois!
Ask #1: Endorse an investment of $855 million in American Rescue Plan Act funding for Illinois at Home, a campaign to create affordable housing and end homelessness.
In this turbulent time of global conflict, I am proud that IDHS continues to play a role in making Illinois a welcoming home for people fleeing conflict and violence. As you may know, IDHS staff have been working, often around the clock, with our partners to help resettle more than 2,200 Afghan refugees in the State over the past six months.
Dedicated staff from the IDHS Division of Family and Community Services have worked tirelessly to welcome Afghan evacuees, providing federal resettlement assistance, including short-term and long-term housing assistance, employment assistance, cultural orientation, along with food, clothing, and other essentials everyone needs to survive. In addition, the IDHS team is supporting case management, legal assistance, and mental wellness services.
Resettling refugees is life-altering, powerful work for everyone involved. I am deeply grateful to everyone who has contributed to the effort.
I also want to thank everyone who participated in our newsletter survey. We heard you, and we hope you will enjoy some of our new features, starting with a spotlight on the Afghan Women’s Resource Center this month. I can never say it enough – thank you for your partnership, your commitment, and your continued interest in the work of the Illinois Department of Human Services.
In an effort to inform interested in parties as to the work of the Interagency Task Force on Homelessness and the Community Advisory Council we are sharing the information below, we will try to keep our communications distinct and minimal to not overwhelm your e-mail.
In addition to the Community Feedback Meeting notice below;
Please be aware that the Community Advisory Council of the Illinois Agency Task Force on Homelessness will hold its first meeting on Monday, March 7 at 2:00p. You may find the link to the meeting below:
There will be a public comment section whereby, participants will be able to submit their comments/questions via chat or by raising your hand to speak.
The Illinois Office to Prevent and End Homelessness will be holding a Webinar on March 10, 2022 from 10:00 AM to 11:30 to present the draft plan. You will be able to provide immediate feedback at the session and written feedback after the session via the IDHS website. We will receive written feedback until Tuesday, March 22nd.
Information to access the webinar can be found here:
Application Deadline Extended for the Preservation of Affordable Housing RFA Responses
The Illinois Housing Development Authority (IHDA) is still accepting applications under its Capital Bill Preservation Program: Limited Rehab. This program will provide subordinate financing to current developments with existing income and occupancy restrictions that have outstanding capital improvement needs that cannot be met using existing reserves. The new deadline for this application is 5:00 p.m. CDT on Thursday, March 31.
All prospective, eligible applicants should review the Request for Applications and accompanying Application Workbook for details located under the “Funding Opportunities” header on Asset Management’s webpage.
Completed applications are due to IHDA by 5:00 p.m. CDT on March 31, 2022.
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Housing For Justice Involved Individuals Funding Informational Webinar
The Illinois Housing Development Authority (IHDA) announced funding for its Housing for Justice Involved Individuals (HJIIP) Program on January 24, 2022. Financing is available for the acquisition, rehabilitation, and/or new construction of HJIIP projects that serve the most vulnerable populations and that offer flexible, voluntary supportive services designed to increase housing stability.
Concept meetings must be scheduled with IHDA by 5 p.m. CT on Friday, March 11, 2022. Please complete a Concept Form and submit along with a request for a meeting to justicerfa@ihda.org.
Applications are due to IHDA by 5 p.m. CT on Thursday, March 31, 2022. Applications must be submitted electronically using IHDA’s online portal. See page 14 of the Request for Applications for more details.
Questions and requests for project concept meetings should be directed to justicerfa@ihda.org
SOAR - Illinois Standards Change: (02.10.22)
Purpose: We want to ensure that SOAR-assisted applications are submitted with high quality critical components, and that the outcomes reflect that work!
Rational:
As SOAR-trained case workers it is key that we implement all SOAR critical components as part of each SOAR-assisted application!
Through analysis of the 2021 Illinois SOAR outcomes, we discovered a few key things! The overall approval rate on initial SOAR applications for the state is 49%, this is below the national average of 65% on initial applications and a 78% approval rate on initial applications for the top 10 states.
There were 48 initial SOAR application submitted during last year’s reporting period. Of those, 29 included the three critical components asked about when entering the data in OAT – serving as the applicant’s SSA 1696 presentative, collecting medical records, and writing/submitting a Medical Summary Report.
When considering the applications that included all SOAR critical component’s the state’s approval rate increased to 72%.
From this it is clear that completing all SOAR critical components is key to successful SOAR applications.
Policy: All SOAR-trained case worker should only enter cases into OAT that are fully SOAR and include all the critical components.
Of course, there are small exceptions to every rule, if an application was complete without the critical components and you would like to enter it into OAT, please reach out to the either the SOAR State Team Lead or TA Center liaison to discuss.
The state and the TA Center will also continue to monitor data closely and reach out to any case workers who have cases that do not include all critical components.
To apply, send resume with cover letter describing your interest in and relevant skills for the position to info@suburbancook.org with “Street Outreach Coordinator” in the subject line. You may address your letter to:
Susie Bohun, Coordinated Entry Program Director
Alliance to End Homelessness in Suburban Cook County
4415 Harrison Street, Suite 228
Hillside, IL 60162
OTHER NEWS / RESOURCES:
Don't Miss Out! In-Person IAHF Tickets Available
for Four More Days
Registration for premium in-person tickets to the 2022 Illinois Affordable Housing Forum closes on Thursday, March 10th. Premium tickets include access to virtual Forum sessions on March 22-24th and in-person Forum access on March 31st including panel sessions, networking with members and sponsoring exhibitors, and a special IHC 20th anniversary celebration at the historic Chicago Cultural Center. Basic virtual-only tickets include livestream access to the in-person events of March 31st.
Email Gwen McCain at gmccain@ilhousing.org to upgrade your basic ticket or register for the events below