CoC Board of Directors
Detroit Continuum of Care
Housing
Remote
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Meeting packet with agenda and acronym explainer is available on the source website.
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Reporting
Edited and summarized by the Detroit - MI Documenters Team
Live reporting by
Nathaniel Eichenhorn
Nachum Eichenhorn
@NachumDetroit
Good Morning #Detroit !
I will be live tweeting the CoC meeting today for #DetroitDocumenters @DetDocumenters media partners: @BridgeDet313 @chalkbeatDET @freep @media_outlier @metrotimes @MichiganRadio @PlanetDetroit @wdet @wxyzdetroit
I will be live tweeting the CoC meeting today for #DetroitDocumenters @DetDocumenters media partners: @BridgeDet313 @chalkbeatDET @freep @media_outlier @metrotimes @MichiganRadio @PlanetDetroit @wdet @wxyzdetroit
01:05 PM Mar 4, 2024 CST
The meeting was called to order at 2pm and the minutes were reviewed
Tasha Gray, Executive Director of CoC is giving a transition update and talking about an employee transition
Candace Morgan is giving an update on the hiring process and the search for a new replacement employee for the employee that has recently left
A question for Morgan: If we are a Board, why were candidates not presented before they were formally hired. Morgan answered that the candidate's schedule did not permit it.
The Detroit Continuum of Care (CoC) is a year-round planning body of representative stakeholders working toward ending homelessness. The coverage area is Detroit, Hamtramck, and Highland Park.
Amanda Sternberg is giving an update on the 2023 CoC competition.
The CoC was awarded a total of $35 million in renewal and project funding
A member of the community was recording the meeting, and it was pointed out that the CoC only allows recording in the form of notes taken at the time of the meeting.
All of the info in the report is included in the meeting packet. It's a lot of info, and the whole packet can be found here:
static1.squarespace.com/static/5344557…
The CoC bonus application was for $2.4 million, but HUD only awarded &290k
Furthermore, HUD awarded 0% this year for DV prevention and education
As a side effect of the required rating system that HUD requests, none of the proposed and new project were funded by HUD.
Sternberg clarifies in response to a question: though new DV programs were not funded, HUD did fund DV programs that are renewing programs, so the program is not without money for DV programs and projects
Sternberg is going to explain how the CoC Application is scored by HUD, which is the process by which all money is awarded
Projects are split into two tiers: Tier 1 is highly likely to be funded, and Tier 2 is much more dependent on the CoC score to get funding.
Over the last 3 years the CoC has scored higher than the national media score
Now we're breaking down the score by different criteria. It's clear that a main issue is System Performance
The CoC Coordination and Engagement score went down by a non-trivial amount the past year. HUD doesn't reveal their reasons, but Sternberg has some ideas as to what might have been the culprit
Specifically Coordination with educational entities, training on benefits, and insufficient support of people fleeing domestic violence
Ensuring providers comply with anti-discrimination rules and racial equity is also suspected to have room for improvement.
Due to the fact that the CoC has to essentially guess as to why the scores decreased and so the points awarded actually exceed the points possible
The CoC is missing the mark in terms of reducing the amount of time people are homeless
Candace Morgan points out that the meeting is a couple minutes ahead of schedule , so we're moving on to the Overview of the CoC Committees
The Executive Committee is made up of 5 board members and is responsible for planning meetings and executing the decisions of the board
Now moving on to Elise Grongstad, who is staff for the Grievance Review Committee, is going to give an overview of that committee
The committee is responsible for discussing details of grievances with the client and provider information that was received, and if there is a justified reason to substantiate the grievance, and send any recommendations to the provider is necessary
The committee is composed of members who represent agencies in the Detroit Continuum of Care that engage those experiencing homelessness and a variety of sub-populations
Vacancies on the committee will be announced at future continuum of care board meetings
If a committee members retires or their term ends, but they wish to remain on the committee, they may do so with board approval on an annual basis
Only voting committee members are allowed to vote on the decision to substantiate or not substantiate a grievance
Programs funded outside of COC and or city funding are referred to the appropriate person for investigation
The GRC is recruiting new members. They're looking to hire a new cam staffer, a mental health provider and three direct service providers, one for shelters, one for Street outreach, and one for permanent supportive housing
The board also currently has two members who are seeking reappointment
Candace Morgan asks that all the board members consider reaching out to the committee eif they wish to join
Amanda Sternberg is going to give the report of the Performance and Evaluation Committee
The composition of the committee today is not the same as it was at its inception. In 2021, the committee developed a more defined structure and purpose and since that time all committee members sign a committee member agreement.
The committee's purpose is to evaluate their performance of the entire system, including individual projects and based on that data, they'll recommend changes or process improvements to the board
Several metrics are reviewed at each quarterly meeting including:
Retention of permanent housing
Project utilization
Length of time to housing
And occasionally they also review:
Incoming employment outcomes
And returns to homelessness within 6 months of exit to permanent housing
Retention of permanent housing
Project utilization
Length of time to housing
And occasionally they also review:
Incoming employment outcomes
And returns to homelessness within 6 months of exit to permanent housing
Now Sternberg is showing an example of a key metric performance review. Much of the data has been redacted; however, Sternberg says it's just to show a general overview of how the process works
Now Sternberg is describing how people are elected to the board and asking COC board members to apply to vacant positions.
A question was asked whether CoC board members can be on multiple boards. Sternberg responded that there is no rule regarding that and that if a board member have the time they could certainly serve on multiple boards
There were two candidates, one of which had to withdraw due to health concerns. Candice Morgan, being the only candidate remaining, will give a speech.
Morgan has been an activist working on the remediation of homelessness for nearly 30 years
Voting is being linked on the chat and will continue until 4:30
The board is now moving on to public comment, however, the board has received no private messages for public comment. And seeing no hands for public comment we are returning to the board
The meeting went in a clip and ran a little ahead of schedule so it looks like they're going to end early. The meeting was closed at 3:33 p.m.
Well folks, this closes my coverage of the Detroit Continuum of Care board meeting for March 4, 2024. Learn more about our coverage of local meetings at
documenters.org
If you believe anything in the coverage this morning is inaccurate, please email us at documenters@outliermedia.org with "Correction Request" in the subject line.
Attachments
Agency Information
Detroit Continuum of Care
Since 1996, the Homeless Action Network of Detroit (HAND) has served as the lead agency for the CoC for Detroit, Hamtramck, and Highland Park. HAND is governed by a Board of Directors composed of representatives from the community. In its role as the lead agency for the CoC, HAND carries out the following activities:
Promote integrated, community-wide strategies and plans to prevent and end homelessness;
Provide coordination among the numerous local organizations and initiatives that serve the homeless population, and
Manage the CoC’s single, comprehensive grant application to HUD for McKinney-Vento funding which includes Continuum of Care funds and State Emergency Solutions Grant (ESG) funds.
The governance charter for the Detroit CoC was adopted on May 19, 2015, and most recently revised on May 21, 2019. Please click here to download a copy: https://www.handetroit.org/s/Detroit-CoC-Governance-Charter-FINAL-May-2019-kac4.pdf
Documents
No documents available