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Executive Committee to receive a report on the Homeless Emergency Aid Program (HEAP) grant awarded to El Dorado Opportunity Knocks Continuum of Care (CoC)
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The EDOK Board represents El Dorado County’s local CoC. CoC’s are HUD programs implemented in communities across the United States, and their overall goal is to create a local system response to homelessness. In January 2019, the CoC was awarded approximately 1.4 million dollars in Homeless Emergency Aid Program (HEAP) funding to impact various areas of the local system response to homelessness. The CoC was required to establish priorities for the HEAP funding, targeted to be allocated as follows to support three strategic projects: 1) The rehab and/or purchase of property for the purpose of developing a homeless shelter ($850,000).
2) Transitional Housing-Rapid Re-housing program for transitional age youth, with primary providers being Tahoe Youth and Family Services, Lilliput Families, and Whole Person Learning ($325,000).
3) Transitional Housing-Rapid Re-housing program through EDC Probation, targeting the Re-Entry population ($200,000).
Contracts are anticipated to be completed for these projects to go-live by July 1, 2019.
In late January 2019, the CoC conducted a successful Point In Time (PIT) count. The PIT is a legal requirement of HUD Continuums of Care to help establish a biannual benchmark of homelessness across the United States. As this is conducted in 399 regions across the Country, it has become the best-practices technique to survey the homeless population within a county's borders; specifically for approx. number of homeless, identification of self-reported needs and concerns, and other areas of importance for strategic planning purposes within the CoC. The PIT Count seeks to maximize its contact with as many individuals within the adult and youth populations as possible cross each County’s census tracts. The survey data is in the process of being analyzed, and once approved by HUD, the information will be made available locally. To encourage participation in the survey, really nice wool socks were given as tokens of appreciation to the homeless.