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 CMS Data Shows Vulnerable

Health Emergency May End, Protections on Evictions and Utilities Likely to Remain

NJ Vocational Rehabilitation Council Open Forums in June

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1:00–3:00PM via Zoom

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A very special shout-out and congratulations to Randi Moore on her recent appointment as CEO of Affordable Housing Alliance. As a current SHA Board member with extensive experience in housing and community development, we know she will strongly sustain and enhance the work of AHA well into the future.

Jewish Family Service of Atlantic & Cape May Counties has received a $5,000 grant on behalf of Acme Markets Foundation’s 130 Days of Giving Nourishing Neighbors Campaign in celebration of Acme’s 130th anniversary. The grant will be used to stock JFS’ Pantry with hearty foods and basic essentials for community residents in need.

Congratulations to NJAMHAA on the 70th anniversary of their founding, today, May 20th. Many lives have been changed for the better with access to care and services from members committed to the importance of this work. Join NJAMHAA in honoring Mental Health Month this May and by learning about their achievements over the past 70 years.

Congratulations to Constance Mercer Myers, Founder and CEO of Homefront on receiving an honorary degree from Princeton University for her work with Homefront. Mercer Myers founded Mercer County-based HomeFront to provide housing assistance, education, life skills, employment training, childcare, and more for homeless or at-risk people.

Taiisa Kelly | CEO, Monarch Housing

Members can email Joseph Christensen for registration and Zoom links.

Become a SHA Member and get access to great meetings and many other great member benefits. Need more information? Email Joseph Christensen with your questions.

WASHINGTON–U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Marcia L. Fudge on May 17th announced the allocation of $5 billion in American Rescue Plan funds for emergency housing vouchers for individuals and families who are experiencing homelessness or at risk of homelessness. The supplemental funding is allocated through the Emergency Housing Voucher (EHV) program. Through EHV, HUD is providing 70,000 housing choice vouchers to local public housing authorities (PHAs) across the country to help Americans find and remain in housing. Click here for a full list of initial allocations.

Paterson Housing Authority

East Orange Housing Authority

Vineland Housing Authority

Housing Authority of Bergen County

Passaic County Public Housing Agency

Hamilton Township Housing Authority

Lakewood Residential Assistance Prog

NJ State Dept. of Community Affairs

NEWARK — The Murphy Administration announced a new collaboration between University Hospital in Newark and L+M Development Partners, Type A Projects, and MSquared under the New Jersey Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency’s (NJHMFA) groundbreaking Hospital Partnership Subsidy Program, through which leading hospitals partner with experienced residential developers to provide vital affordable and supportive housing -- including homes for frequent users of emergency services -- in their host communities. Under this award-winning program, NJHMFA matches funding contributions from participating hospitals to provide affordable rental apartments for low- and moderate-income families, as well as apartments with access to supportive and wrap-around services for residents with special needs. 

NLIHC launched new Emergency Rental Assistance (ERA) tools to monitor trends in how ERA programs are operating and to help renters find assistance. These tools include an ERA Dashboard on how many and which programs are implementing best practices and an updated ERA program table to help renters locate programs in their areas. These tools include programs funded by the $25 billion Treasury ERA program appropriated by the December 2020 Consolidated Appropriations Act (ERA1). The resources will also soon include data from the $21.6 billion appropriated by the American Rescue Plan (ERA2). As of May 12, 2021, NLIHC identified 344 emergency rental assistance programs, including 47 statewide programs, funded through the $25 billion Treasury ERA program.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued guidance on how states can receive enhanced funding, provided through the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARP), to increase access to home and community based services (HCBS) for Medicaid beneficiaries. These benefits provide critical services to millions of older adults and individuals with disabilities, allowing them to receive health services in their homes and communities, rather than in nursing homes and other institutions. Today’s guidance is a key tool to assist states in leveraging federal resources to increase health equity in Medicaid beneficiaries’ access to HCBS, positive health outcomes, and community integration.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released data highlighting the continued impact the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency (PHE) is having on Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) beneficiaries and utilization of health services. The data show that, from March through October 2020, beneficiaries have foregone millions of primary, preventive, and mental health care visits due to the COVID-19 PHE, compared to the same time period in 2019. Although utilization rates for some treatments have rebounded to pre-pandemic levels, mental health services show the slowest rebound.

To help close this gap in services, CMS is emphasizing mental health care in its recently launched Connecting Kids to Coverage National Campaign, a national outreach and enrollment initiative funded under the Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act (CHIPRA) and the Affordable Care Act, that reaches out to families with children and teens eligible for Medicaid and CHIP.

NEWARK, NJ – The Anti-Poverty Network of New Jersey (APN) and New Jersey Citizen Action (NJCA) are excited to announce that APN will be uniting with NJCA. After 21 successful years of ensuring a strong safety net for New Jerseyans in deep poverty, APN is proud to become a program within NJCA and expand its advocacy and organizing capabilities.

Since its founding in 1999, APN has played a critical role in addressing the conditions surrounding and perpetuating poverty, focusing on hunger, housing and economic empowerment, working alongside NJCA and other advocates. Recently, APN has been a key partner among coalitions lead by NJCA and others to also enact a $15 state minimum wage, expand and increase tax credits for working families, pass paid sick days for low-wage workers, expand paid family leave, and ensure affordable access to health coverage.

Click here to read the full announcement.

New Jersey’s public health emergency order will expire, but Gov. Phil Murphy may still retain many of the broad powers he used to control the COVID-19 pandemic, under a bill cleared Tuesday by a key Assembly committee.

Tuesday’s formal introduction of that bill and the first votes on the COVID-19 emergency legislation came just days after Murphy issued an executive order that extended an ongoing public health emergency for another 30 days. The legislation passed by the Assembly Appropriations Committee on Tuesday calls for leaving in place more than a dozen emergency measures implemented by the governor during a public health emergency that first began more than 14 months ago when the first cases of the coronavirus were detected in New Jersey.

With the possibility of the utility shutoff moratorium ending soon, it is important to share the following information with those facing challenges paying utilities bills. The NJ Board of Public Utilities (BPU) is highlighting a variety of energy assistance programs during their “Utility Assistance Week,” which runs this week until May 21st.

Please share this BPU Energy Assistance flyer (also available in Spanish) with your networks and communities.

For additional information about New Jersey’s Utility Assistance programs, visit the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities.

The following excerpted article from PD&R’s online magazine, The Edge, offers insights on addressing housing needs learned during the pandemic and converting hotels into shelter or housing.

As the COVID-19 virus spread in the United States in early 2020, governments took extraordinary measures to try and curtail the pathogen’s spread, imposing lockdowns, restricting travel, and recommending social distancing. These factors emptied hotels of travelers, which prompted some jurisdictions to shelter or house individuals experiencing homelessness in the newly available rooms. Such efforts in California, Vermont, the city of Seattle, and elsewhere represent an attempt to protect a vulnerable population at a time when staying home was an especially important part of staying healthy.

Click here to read the full story.

For additional information visit the The Boggs Center's NJ Partners in Policymaking.

Get all the details in the attached flyer and sign up today!

This week's topic: Diversity and Inclusion

Emergency Housing Vouchers (EHVs) represent an exciting opportunity for collaboration between Continuums of Care (CoCs) and local Public Housing Authorities (PHAs). To help PHAs and CoCs prepare for these vouchers, HUD is hosting a series of webinars over the next few weeks. These webinars will highlight key elements of PIH Notice 2021-15: Emergency Housing Vouchers – Operating Requirements.

On May 10, 2021, HUD's Office of Public and Indian Housing (PIH) sent letters to 696 PHAs, inviting these PHAs to administer 70,000 EHVs. A list of PHAs invited to administer the vouchers is available at the Emergency Housing Vouchers page on HUD.gov.

If you have any questions about the webinar series, please contact EHV@hud.gov.

Visit the page Emergency Housing Vouchers page for additional information and resources.

Visit the NJHMFA website for more upcoming webinar dates at njhousing.gov

Register Today! 

NJ Vocational Rehabilitation Council Open Forums in June

they should be emailed to Janette.Nazon@dol.nj.gov .

Accommodation: Requests for accommodations must be made by the May 21^st registration deadline. Requests should go to Janette.Nazon@dol.nj.gov.

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Members can post jobs to find applicants within the wider supportive housing community. Click on the button to visit our job page.