1. MF HOMELESS PLACEMENT TEAM
lessening vacancies &ACCESSING MULTIFAMILY UNITS FOR THE Highest need: those experiencing hOMELESSness
MF HOMELESS PLACEMENT TEAM
As Moderator. I want to welcome you to our session on Multifamily Homeless Placement and vacancy reduction. To clarify terms, in the HUD world the term multifamily does not meet family units only, it means any apt building or complex with more than 4 units. Now to set the context of this initiative, I want to mention Opening Doors, the first Federal Strategic Plan to End Homelessness. It establishes deadlines and goals such as ending homelessness among veterans by this December (the end of next month); chronic homelessness by and families, children and youth and all homelessness by We need everyone to step up to the plate to make this happen. HUD and USICH selected 10 DOEHI cities to focus on first. In Philadelphia, the Dedicating Opportunities Steering Committee selected chronically homeless singles and homeless veterans as the first target.

2. How many of you are owners, presidents, VPs or CEOs - raise your hand
panelists
MODERATOR - Lyn Kirshenbaum, HUD Regional Homeless Coordinator, Region III
Emily Camp-Landis, Assistant Director of Philadelphia’s Permanent Supportive Housing Clearinghouse, Office of Supportive Housing
Michael B. Simmons, CPM, President & Chief Executive Officer of Community Realty Management
Corey Burkholder, Lycoming County Children and Youth Outreach Caseworker and Community Coordinator/Assistant Manager of Williamsport NSA Assoc.
Eric Ryder, Director, Schindlers Inc. Management Company
Presentations followed by Questions, Discussion & Sign-Ups
First, I’d like to introduce the panel – (read bio page) I’d also like to point out our adhoc panel, who are open for questions too – Linda Demmi from PHFA, Kathy Salerno and Mo Gillen from the Veterans Multiservice Center and William McIntyre from the Philadelphia Clearinghouse and my boss from HUD. Michael Worth. The speakers will tell us about their models and successes in Philadelphia and in Williamsport in Lycoming County.
Okay. Now lets see who you are. Stand if you are from a private property management company
How many of you are owners, presidents, VPs or CEOs - raise your hand
Regional property managers? – raise your hand Site managers? Service coordinators? Anything else? Ok. Please be seated
How many of you are from a state, county or local govt? Please stand. How many of you are CD or Housing dept? from human services dept – raise hand
How many of you are from a non-profit? Stand
How many from a HA?
Thanks.

3. 2013 ACTIVITIES STRATEGIC PLANNING GUIDE PARTNERSHIPS GROUP MEETINGS
ONE ON ONE MEETINGS
POSITIVE RESULTS
I’m going to speak about the history of our first homeless placement and vacancy reduction program in the region and where we are now. The multifamily homeless preference notice came out in 2013 (You have the notice number in your packet). Earlier, it was during the review of the Phila Strategic Planning Guide (SPG) under the Dedicating Opportunities Initiative that we identified the gap and opportunity for MF units. The Public Housing Authority units and vouchers were already being used for the homeless through Philadelphia’ Housing Authority’s limited preference. For multifamily properties, some of us knew that many properties have difficulties filling efficiency units, so this could be a benefit to owners to increase occupancy. We targeted the chronically homeless in the city’s Clearinghouse system since behavioral health services could be paid by Medicaid. The Clearinghouse is a centralized system for housing placement through the Office of Supportive Housing homeless office (You will hear more about this from Emily). We also targeted VASH holders since they come with services. We held 2 group meeting with management agents of subsidized and unsubsidized properties after much enthusiasm from Connie, our HUD MF HUB director. We received almost 150 units by verbal commitment. In follow up meetings with the management agents, we clarified fair housing and HUD regulation questions. Simultaneously, the veterans bootcamp team started group tours of available units and later an agreement for pre-inspections by the Philadelphia Housing Authority for units accepting vouchers.

4. Who is homeless?
DO ANY OF YOU LIVE PAYCHECK TO PAYCHECK?……….and then have an unexpected expense? Homeless are:
Those who had a medical emergency and not all expenses were covered
Those who had a home foreclosure, job loss, or job downgrade
Those who had a challenge with alcohol or behavioral health
Those experiencing domestic violence
Returning veterans without the support they had before they left
Youth aging out of foster care
Someone whose income is not high enough for a market rate apt. and is on several waiting lists
Someone without family supports
Do you have any acquaintances or family members in these categories?
Ok. I am going to step back and have us all think about the population we are talking about. To get rid of stereotypes, and to see if any of this hits close to home, I wrote this list. Referrals are not all current long-time street homeless. READ

5. 2014 ACTIVITIES GIVING WHAT OWNERS WANT
MAKING IT EZ FOR MANAGEMENT AGENTS
If you would like to replicate our model, let me explain how we evolved in We decided to have a new set of strategies to overcome any barriers. We utilized the team approach to meet one on one separately with Management Agents which included the City CoC, HUD, the VA , VMC and PHFA. This way, all questions could be answered at once. We make it clear that applicants must meet management company program requirements for each site and the screening criteria. This is important. Our team offers the more stable, ready for housing referrals from the pool of homeless applicants. What agents and properties did we start with? HUD MF in Phila sent out a survey for vacancies we targeted those units; also those with high turnover rates from the HUD HQ list; and the new list we got from HQ on vacancies; as well as those who volunteered last year. We also got some additional interest from Tom Langstons newsletter articles Phila HUD MF published on this topic But even if interested, some management companies were overwhelmed with next steps after they got the mass mailings. So we made it very easy with a check-off sheet to submit for preference approval, which we (Randy or Nancy) approve in a week; a sample waiting list notification letter, and sample TSP language We received more positive results. We are looking at all programs – Section 8s, 811s, 202s, 236s, market rates, tax credits, etc. Another strategy was to work top down – owner/Agent and bottom up such as site staff- for buy in. Also, some agents invite us to a group meeting with their site managers after we have met with the Agent. In your packet are these forms which we go over in more detail at the one on one team meetings.

6. WHAT’S IN IT FOR ME as a property manager ?
When you design a preference at your developments you • Tap into a coordinated system of service providers who can provide resident referrals and complete applications. • Receive access to supportive services to ensure residents thrive in their new home and maintain occupancy. • Have lower vacancy rates with a consistent referral source for vacant units. • Have the flexibility to choose the preference rate. • Assist the HUD Regional Office’s efforts to end homelessness – accelerate the success of our local plan by increasing access to HUD-assisted housing.
If you are a service provider, CoC or homeless nonprofit, you want your clients placed in good units. But in most cases there are long and sometimes closed waiting lists. The homeless preference opens some spots to your clients who may really be the most in need. Lets talk about what Agents really want. I believe they want Good Long Term, Lease Compliant Residents. They want 100% occupancy. Some of them have harder to rent units such as efficiencies. These are fine for our program although we accept all unit types. On this slide we have listed some of the benefits management agents will receive. It is also on the flyer in your packet and can be used to show owners and regional property managers and site staff to market the program. READ
Because it helps both sides – the apartment complex and the service agency and CoC, Mike Simmons calls this Win Win, the title of our workshop.

7. Name of Property______________
The definition we will use for homeless is :
2. Type(s) of Preference:
3. Implementation to be defined in detail in Tenant Selection Plan Preference can be for entire or percentage of building (No units can be set-aside or held off-line) :
______ Preference until reach maximum threshold of _____% or _____# of units
_______ Will alternate filling vacancies from existing project waiting list and the referring agency waiting list of eligible applicants. We will accept a referral for every _______ unit vacancy
Signature of Management Agent ___________________
Signature of Owner _____________________________
Date_________________Date_______________
Properties should put a question on their application, to tell who is homeless so they can be counted. We are asking everyone to do this since now you have to record this on your 50059s for MF and 50058s for public housing and voucher programs. But if you oversee a waiting list, we are encouraging a preference submittal. This is not the complete page since I cut some off to fit the slide but basically, our Philadelphia subsidized and unsubsidized checklists only ask 3 questions, and agents pick or fill in their choices, sign, and send in for preference approval, instead of trying to interpret steps from the mass mailings of regulatory letters. The complete forms are in your packets. There is a checklist for subsidized and a checklist for unsubsidized properties. Management companies decide which homeless definition they want to use; the type of preference such as general homeless and/or vets; selected through referrals or from the waiting list, or new marketing; and how many units and how often they will take homeless applicants as compared to from the waiting list. So all management companies send in for approval is the checklist and the revision to the TSP.

8. Moving beyond philadelphia
EXPANDED TO OTHER PA COUNTIES
OTHER STATES – We trained: DE, VA, MD, CO,NJ on our model
OTHER MODELS – Chicago, LA, Phoenix, NOLA, Boston, Fresno, Houston
Now HQ toolkit
As you know, many Agents have properties outside of Philadelphia which was our pilot. So we have expanded the program across the region and trained other states outside our region. Management agents have been expanding by adding other properties and additional units for homeless applicants at properties already approved for a preference. Other counties in PA interested have been Lycoming, Lackawanna, Delaware, Chester and Montgomery, Dauphin, Bucks Counties and others. We will hear from Lycoming County today.
Hot off the press this week is a Toolkit developed by a consultant for HUD headquarters multifamily dept. It took what we did in our 10 cities and consolidated ideas and added more. There is information in your packet but it will soon be on our website. Different from our model of HUD being facilitator, is the option for a CoC to be the lead. As you set up your program in your county. Keep us informed and tell us how we can help

9. successes FROM PROGRAM STRATEGIES
Number of properties participating
Leases signed
Additional spin-offs
KEY MESSAGES
Referrals, Services, Relationships
We have been having meetings with Management Agents almost every couple weeks now. All have signed on with multiple properties. We have to wait for vacancies to come up before we can house the referrals so we need even more commitments. We celebrated our first preference lease signing last December and you can see the new resident on the flyer in your packet. We have been getting about 15 units per agent lately.
Additional spin-offs have been an annual move in basket drive from the Federal Executive Board (FEB) and an Agent offering to get furniture donations from 2 private sector partners who came through. But most importantly, each site has said it has been a success with the referrals they have housed. They are not just placed there and forgotten but come with ongoing services. The families selected in Williamsport through Schindler management were described as ideal quite grateful tenants. The 3 KEY MESSAGES I want to emphasize are PRE-SCREENED REFERRALS from a limited group of referring agencies that MEET FREQUENTLY WITH THE COC AND HUD OR LEAD AGENCY, almost like case conferencing and placement match (we started weekly, then biweekly), 2ndly a SERVICE PACKAGE with EACH APPLICANT . Finally BUILD AN ONGOING RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MANAGEMENT COMPANY AND REFERRAL SOURCES

10. EASTERN PA Multifamily CURRENT SUCCESSES AS OF 11-11-15
7 Management Companies signed on to a preference though HUD and PHFA (Mercy Douglas, CRM, Presby Inspired, IRM, CPM, Ingerman and Altman) 5 Management Companies on the verge of signing on (Beacon, Federation, AIMCO, and Catholic Human Services, Presby Senior) 36 Projects with a preference 48 units with a preference committed 38 referrals housed so far through the preference. Additional 5 companies committed to house the homeless through rent-up, high vacancies and no waiting list, or from the waiting list only (HELP USA, Williamsport NSA, Republic First, SBG, and Prudent plus IRM) 100+ Additional units offered 49 homeless housed through ongoing vacancies, the waiting list or rent-up. This is a total of 87 housed through both preferences and the waiting list so far. When new vacancies occur, we will place additional through referrals. HOWEVER, THERE IS STILL GREAT NEED IN OUR REGION.
Read
This slide focusses on eastern PA. In western PA we have 5 Management Agents with a homeless preference for 8 properties:
And in eastern PA we have 15 housing authorities with a homeless preference

11. MULTIFAMILY HOMELESS PLACEMENT HUD LEADS
K. LYN
KIRSHENBAUM
FIELD POLICY & MANAGEMENT
215 –
RITA DEMARCO
MULTIFAMILY HOUSING
215 –
At HUD for eastern PA, the leads are myself and Rita DeMarco, (replaces Shirley on older documents) but other staff and supervisors in MF are a part of the project. For HUD properties, all preference requests should be sent to Randall Scheetz or to Nancy Twyman at PHFA. But Rita and I can walk you through step by step. For western PA, contact HUD Field Office Director, Jane Miller and in DE contact Lyn, Rita or Maria Bynum with your interest. DE’s program is just getting started. I have a sign up sheet here for follow-up. See me after the workshop.

12. MULTIFAMILY HOMELESS PLACEMENT PARTNER TEAM LEADS
Emily Camp-Landis
Philadelphia CoC
City of Philadelphia Office of Supportive Housing (OSH)
Emily.Camp-
Nancy Twyman
Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency (PHFA)
Norristown Office
In Philadelphia we are working with the city homeless office, as well as the Dept of Behavioral Health. We are working with the CoCs in the other counties as well. We have staff from our Main PHFA office, and the eastern PA office in both the MF asset management and supportive services departments. For your non-HUD properties, please submit preference requests to Nancy Twyman at PHFA.

13. VETERANS MULTISERVICE CENTER (VMC)
ADDITIONAL PARTNERS
VETERANS MULTISERVICE CENTER (VMC)
Kathy Salerno
r.org
VA VASH TEAM
Rob Greco
(267)
Although you will be sending preference requests for approval to HUD or PHFA, I listed our Philadelphia veteran team in case you have any questions for them. They also serve other counties in eastern PA. It is best to start with a team meeting with our group, so we are taking contact names before we leave on who would like to schedule an appointment with our team.
I can take any questions now. Again, It is important to remember that referrals come with prescreening and services and must meet your program and screening requirements. I have a sign up sheet here for you to list your interest in participating in or expanding the home preference.

14. Let’s hear from our success stories:
Let’s hear from our success stories: *PhilaDELPHIA as the first model for chronicALLY homeless placements *MANAGEMENT agent who Housed homeless veterans * management company in williamsport who housed homeless families
Emily you are on. We will take questions at the end.