DISCUSSION
On July 1, 2016, Governor Brown signed legislation enacting the No Place Like Home (NPLH) Program to dedicate $2 billion in bond proceeds for the development of permanent supportive housing for persons who are in need of mental health services and are experiencing homelessness, chronic homelessness, or are at-risk of chronic homelessness. The access to the $2 billion in bond funding will require a competitive application process of which HCD has indicated that $200 million will be available in the first round of the program.
It is projected that the Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA) for the application for the NPLH Bond awards will be issued sometime in the Fall of 2017. The State of California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) has recently issued a NOFA for its NPLH Program Technical Assistance Grants (NPLH TA). HCD recognizes that the NPLH Bond award application and project implementation projects are highly complex projects for counties to implement. Consequently, HCD is offering this NPLH TA Grant to assist counties to have funds for consultant, technical assistance with application processes and other administrative support work that must occur locally to have an opportunity to be a viable candidate for the awarding of the full NPLH Bond funding and ensuing project construction/rehabilitation and MH support services implementation. The NPLH TA funding is the first in a series of funding opportunities related to the NPLH program. The purpose of TA funds is to finance activities related to the planning, design, and implementation of the NPLH Program.
HCD is accepting grant applications for the NPLH TA grant. The NOFA anticipates awarding a total of $6.2 million in technical assistance grants to counties which apply for the funds. With the TA funds, the following activities are potential activities: applying for NPLH Program funds (e.g., reviewing technical documents), identifying potential developers, monitoring activities of developers to ensure adherence to NPLH Program requirements, brokering relationships between County and affordable housing developers and/or housing authority, and identifying and applying for additional resources for capital, supportive services, and operating costs, implementing NPLH activities, including the identification of potential sites for permanent supportive housing using a Housing First model for the target population, coordinating funded activities with local homelessness systems, including the Coordinated Entry System, planning for delivery of a range of supportive services to tenants, collecting data, sharing data across multiple systems, evaluating program activities, and implementing regulatory and homelessness systems, and coordinating and communicating with HCD, Department of Health Care Services (DHCS), and other state agencies to support learning, identification of additional training and technical assistance needs and regional collaboration, if needed. The County could use the funds directly or subcontract out any portion of the funding as necessary to utilize the funding. This is not a competitive grant application.
Approval of the recommendation to adopt a resolution would: (1) authorize the submission of the grant application; and (2) authorize the Director of the Department of Housing and Community Action Programs to sign documents necessary to submit the application package, all monetary drawdown requests, quarterly reports, annual reports, environmental certification as the certifying officer, and any other required HCD documents for participation in the NPLH program. The grant application is due September 30, 2017. HCD intends to send award letters to successful applicants within 30 days of receipt of application. The grant term would likely expire September 2020.
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