Current through Register Vol. 46, No. 39, September 25, 2024
(a) As used in this section:
(1) Assessment means the evaluation of an
individual's or family's housing and housing-related needs;
(2) Coordinated entry refers to a process by
which communities prioritize assistance to homeless individuals and families
based on an assessment of their vulnerability and severity of their
needs;
(3) Emergency shelter means
short-term housing accompanied by support services in which the
individual/family being housed does not have a lease. Such shelter includes
short-term housing provided in a shelter built specifically for this purpose,
or in other short-term housing such as that provided by a hotel or motel paid
for by the social services district or not-for-profit agency;
(4) Homeless means undomiciled and unable to
secure or maintain permanent and stable housing without assistance, as
determined by the Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance (OTDA). This
definition excludes persons who are living "doubled up" with friends or with
family;
(5) Homelessness prevention
means services and assistance aimed at retention of existing housing or
providing alternatives to emergency shelter, including but not limited to
eviction prevention, case management, and shelter diversion programs;
(6) Housing retention services are the
supports necessary for formerly homeless persons to remain stably housed. These
include income supports, such as employment, job training, and disability
benefits and other assistance; substance use and mental health treatment;
medical care; legal assistance; life skills, including budgeting; child care;
parenting skills; conflict negotiation; and other services as needed;
(7) Outreach refers to the engagement of
persons experiencing homelessness in order to link them to services, assistance
and housing. It can include direct outreach to undomiciled persons through
outreach workers or law enforcement officers as well as community-based
outreach provided through agencies that serve persons who are homeless or at
risk of becoming homeless, such as, but not limited to, food pantries, soup
kitchens, and drop-in centers;
(8)
Permanent housing means community-based housing without a designated length of
stay, and includes both permanent supportive housing and rapid rehousing. To be
permanent housing, the program participant must be the tenant on a lease for a
term of at least one year, which is renewable for terms that are a minimum of
one month long, and is terminable only for cause;
(9) Permanent supportive housing means
permanent housing in which supportive services are provided to assist homeless
persons in remaining stably housed;
(10) Point-in-time count means a count of
sheltered and unsheltered homeless persons carried out on one night in the last
10 calendar days of January or at such other time as required by either the
United States Department of Housing and Urban Development or OTDA;
(11) Rapid rehousing is a form of permanent
housing accompanied by case management for which rental subsidies can be
provided for up to 24 months with the goal of helping the household attain
self-sufficiency after the rent subsidies end; and
(12) Transitional housing means housing,
where all program participants have signed a lease or occupancy agreement, the
purpose of which is to facilitate the movement of homeless individuals and
families into permanent housing.
(b) Homeless services plan. At least every
two years, each social services district shall develop and submit to OTDA for
approval, on a form and in a manner prescribed by OTDA, a comprehensive
homeless services plan. The homeless services plan shall:
(1) identify the number of sheltered and
unsheltered homeless individuals and families identified in the last
point-in-time count;
(2) identify
the numbers of individuals and families for whom the social services district
provided temporary housing assistance pursuant to section
352.35
of this Title; and
(3) describe the
social services district's strategies and plans for ad- dressing the housing
and service needs of persons experiencing homelessness, and for providing or
accessing each of the following:
(i)
homelessness prevention services;
(ii) outreach;
(iii) assessment and coordinated entry
services;
(iv) emergency
shelter;
(v) transitional
housing;
(vi) permanent housing,
including rapid rehousing;
(vii)
permanent supportive housing; and
(viii) housing retention
services.
(4) Proposed
revisions to an approved homeless services plan and any changes to the
information contained therein must be submitted by the social services district
to OTDA for approval prior to implementation.
(c) Each social services district shall
provide homeless services and engage in outreach in accordance with its
approved homeless services plan.
(d) Homeless services outcome report. At
least every six months, each social services district shall submit to OTDA, on
a form and in a manner prescribed by OTDA, a report on the performance of its
homeless services plan and its outcomes relative to each of the components
identified in subdivision (b) of this section.
(e) OTDA may take any enforcement action
permissible by law, including, but not limited to, directing the social
services district to engage a third party to provide services and/or
withholding or denying reimbursement, in whole or in part, to any social
services district that fails to develop or submit a homeless services plan or
homeless services outcome report, that fails to provide homeless services or
engage in outreach in accordance with an approved homeless services plan, or
that otherwise fails to comply with this section.
