This
weekly update is targeted towards the SSVF Grantees and shared with
valuable partners for awareness.
July
14, 2023
ANNOUNCEMENT:
VA 2023 Permanent Housing Conference – Call for Presenters!
DUE: SSVF Quarter 3
Certification due in UDPaaS July 20, 2023
NEWS: Financial and Credit Counseling – Veteran Survey
REMINDER: SSVF
Website Calendar
REMINDER:
SSVF Emergency Housing Assistance (EHA)
REMINDER: The FY2023
VA Data Guide Published
ANNOUNCEMENT:
DEADLINE EXTENDED VA 2023 Permanent Housing
Conference – Call for Presenters!
The
SSVF Program Office, in partnership with the VA Homeless Program Office and
national HUD-VASH office, is excited to bring together practitioners from
across the country for the 2023 VA Permanent Housing Conference – One
Team Approach: Collaborating to End Homelessness Among Veterans. The
tentative dates for these conferences include:
· West
Coast November 14-15, 2023
· East
Coast December 5-6, 2023
For
2023, VA is committed to highlighting innovative practices happening in the
field and to giving SSVF Grantees and their partners more opportunity to share
their successes in effectively serving Veterans experiencing or at-risk of
homelessness locally. With that, we are asking
Grantees to share with us your innovative practices related to the topics of
the conference so we can feature local highlights, panels, and presentations
throughout the two-day event. This year’s conference is organized around lessons
learned in pursuing VA’s 2023 Housing Goals.
We
are requesting Grantees review the attached outline of topic areas for possible
presentation topics. Attached to this email is
a general description of the topic areas we are planning to include at the
conference. In addition, if you or your community are doing innovative work
in ending Veteran homelessness that does NOT fit into the topics below, we
welcome ideas for other topics or highlights to be added to the conference.
If
your organization is interested in presenting your local practices or
innovations related to any of the topics in the attached document or other
practices that are working well locally, please submit an abstract with a brief summary of your presentation or panel ideas using
the following link. If you are submitting for
multiple topics, you will need to fill out the survey once for each
presentation idea being submitted: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/SB93C9H
Presentation
proposals are due by 5pm PST on Friday July 21, 2023
Thank
you in advance for your interest in contributing to the expertise offered at
this important event. We hope to hear from many of you soon!
DUE: SSVF
Quarter 3 Certification due in UDPaaS July 20,
2023
The SSVF Program
Office is requiring all grantees to complete a Quarterly Certification in UDPaaS. This
process is defined in your signed Memorandum of Agreement for your grant and is
a requirement of all grantees. The Quarter 3 (April 1-June 30)
Certification is now available in UDPaaS for
completion. Please ensure accuracy of submission as the Program Office
will compare all data provided through Repository uploads from Quarter 3 of
FY23. Please refer to the Companion Guide for detailed
instructions on completing the certification available here Quarterly Cert Companion
Guide.
NEWS: Financial and Credit Counseling – Veteran
Survey
On July 14, 2023, 48,000 Veterans who have accessed SSVF
and other VA Homeless programs will receive an email from va@survey.voice.va.gov
offering them the opportunity to take an online survey on financial and credit
counseling. Depending on response rate, Veterans Experience Office will
send reminders and provide around 6 weeks’ time to respond to the survey.
The SSVF Program Office would like to notify SSVF staff
about the existence of this survey given Veterans may wonder why they received
this survey. The National Center on Homelessness among Veterans has partnered
with Veterans Experience Office to create this survey which asks the questions
mandated in Cleland Dole Section 313 Study on Financial and Credit Counseling.
The Office of Management and Budget has approved administering this survey.
Veterans Experience Office was able to obtain Veterans’ email addresses from when
they enroll at a VAMC. We acknowledge the limitations of our study include that
is it only surveys Veterans whose email addresses VA has, who have internet
access and check their emails.
REMINDER: SSVF Website
Calendar
The
SSVF website calendar is being updated to reflect upcoming webinars, events,
and due dates. Please note that all events listed on the calendar are in
Eastern Standard Time. Detailed information about calendar events, including
webinar registration information, can be found in SSVF’s weekly program
updates. The calendar can be accessed at https://www.va.gov/homeless/ssvf/calendar/
REMINDER:
SSVF Emergency Housing Assistance (EHA)
The
SSVF Program Office would like to remind grantees of the updated Emergency
Housing Assistance (EHA) guidance post Stafford Act. As of May 12, 2023,
the updated Emergency Housing Assistance Verification form (https://www.va.gov/HOMELESS/ssvf/docs/EHA_Verification.docx) must be completed for
any Veteran household receiving this support. Additionally, EHA is
limited to one instance, up to 60 days, in a 2-year period. As noted in
previous National webinars (Webinar Library
(va.gov))
and the End of COVID-19 Public Health Emergency and Stafford Act Incident
Period FAQ, grantees will use May
12, 2023, as day-one of the allowable 60-day episode. EHA past the 60-day
limit in a 2-year period is considered an unallowable expense and SSVF grantees
should be planning to leverage additional community resources to ensure
Veterans are housed.
REMINDER:
The FY2023 VA Data Guide Published
The
SSVF Program Office in coordination with our technical assistance providers
have updated the VA Data Guide with fiscal year 2023 guidance. This
document can be found under the HMIS/Data Reporting section of the SSVF website
at: https://www.va.gov/HOMELESS/ssvf/docs/SSVF_VA_Data_Guide.pdf