St. Joseph County Housing Consortium

Home Browse Search

I. Introduction The Homeless Emergency Assistance and Rapid Transition to Housing Act of 2009 (HEARTH Act),enacted into law on May 20, 2009,consolidated three homeless assistance programs administered by HUD under the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act into a single grant program, and revised the Emergency Shelter Grants program into the Emergency Solutions Grants (ESG) program. The HEARTH Act also codified into law the Continuum of Care planning process, a longstanding part of HUD's application process to assist homeless persons by providing greater coordination in responding to their needs. The change in the program's name reflects the change in the program's focus from addressing the needs of homeless people in emergency or transitional shelters to include assisting people to regain stability in permanent housing quickly after experiencing a housing crisis and/or homelessness. The key changes that reflect this new emphasis are the expansion of the homelessness prevention component of the program and the addition of a new rapid re-housing assistance component.The homelessness prevention component includes various housing relocation and stabilization services and short-and medium-term rental assistance to help people avoid becoming homeless. The rapid re-housing assistance component includes similar services and assistance to help people who are homeless move quickly into permanent housing and achieve stability in that housing. The five major components of the ESG program are Street Outreach, Emergency Shelter, Homelessness Prevention, Rapid Re-housing and HMIS. The Federal regulations place a 60% cap on the total amount of the grant a grantee can spend on Street Outreach and Emergency Shelter activities. The grantee may also take a portion up to 7.5% for Administration. The City of South Bend receives a direct allocation of ESG funds annually.The Department of Community Investment, Neighborhoods Division, is the City department administering the process to solicit, award, contract and monitor ESG funds. The St. Joseph County Regional Planning Council (RPC) is a group of local representatives of relevant organizations that are organized to plan for and provide,as necessary,a system of outreach, engagement, and assessment; emergency shelter; rapid re-housing; transitional housing; permanent housing; and prevention strategies to address the various needs of homeless persons and persons at risk of homelessness on behalf of the Indiana Balance of State Continuum of Care(I N502 BOS).The RPC,in the 2012 Substantial Amendment,elected to focus funding on Emergency Shelter Operations, Emergency Shelter Essential Services, Rapid Re-Housing Housing Relocation and Stabilization Services and Short-and Medium- term Rental Assistance. City of South Bend - ESG Policies and Procedures Manual 4