This weekly update is targeted towards the SSVF Grantees and shared with valuable partners for awareness.          

May 26, 2023  

Special remembrances and honors going out to those who made the ultimate sacrifice for our nation this Memorial Day weekend.

NEW: Shallow Subsidy Grant Award Extension Request: Required Activity in UDPaaS due June 6, 2023

NEW: Supplemental NOFA Communities Monthly Report Due in UDPaaS May 31, 2023   

NEW: HUD-VASH and SSVF Collaboration Memo

REGISTER: SSVF National Webinar: Financial and Operational Fitness Audit (FOFA)

FY22 Common Findings June 8 2023, at 2:00pm EST

REMINDER: Temporary Financial Assistance (TFA) Maximums Removed

REMINDER: SSVF Grantee Equity Report Invite - Shinyapps 

REMINDER: SSVF Program Change Request Available until June 1, 2023  

REMINDER: SSVF Required Outreach Activities

NEW: Shallow Subsidy Grant Award Extension Request: Required Activity in UDPaaS by June 6, 2023 (non-Pilot sites)

The SSVF Program Office has extended the end date for Shallow Subsidy (SS) funds to September 30, 2024. An extension activity has been published in UDPaaS for completion. All SSVF grantees spending SS funding (Account 20zz-zz-zzzSS) past September 30, 2023, are expected to complete the activity. This will extend utilization of these funds up to September 30, 2024.  Please go into UDPaaS, locate the activity under “My SSVF Tasks” and indicate “Yes” on the request to extend SS spending. This task is due no later than June 2, 2023. Please reach out to your Regional Coordinator if you have any questions.   

NEW: Supplemental NOFA Communities Monthly Report Due in UDPaaS May 31, 2023    

All grant recipients of the FY22 Supplemental NOFA funds are required to complete a monthly report activity in UDPaaS. The April data report is due May 31, 2023, and should include any data from April 1, 2023, through April 30, 2023. If you have any questions regarding this report, please reach out to your Regional Coordinator for assistance.  

NEW: HUD-VASH and SSVF Collaboration Memo

The Office of the Assistant Under Secretary for Operations has released a new Secretary memorandum titled, “Housing and Urban Development – Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing and Supportive Services for Veteran Families Collaboration.”  Please share this memo widely with your teams.

The memo is directly linked here, or can be found on the SSVF website under Supportive Services > Coordination and Planning.

REMINDER: Temporary Financial Assistance (TFA) Maximums Removed

The SSVF Program Office would like to remind grantees, there is NOT a cap on the amount of Temporary Financial Assistance (TFA). Grantees may spend more than 50% of their award on TFA when necessary, to address the needs of Veterans experiencing homelessness in their service area.

REGISTER: SSVF National Webinar: Financial and Operational Fitness Audit (FOFA) FY22 Common Findings June 8, 2023, at 2:00pm EST

This SSVF National Webinar will feature SSVF Program Office and the Office of Business Oversight (OBO) and will review the FY22 FOFA Common Findings and summary of FY22 audit results. This webinar will not only highlight the common findings, but frequent causes of those findings, and suggestions to avoid similar issues with financial and operational activities going forward. It is strongly recommended that program leadership and fiscal staff attend this webinar.

https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_rhy4s1KbQUqtuuwO9FfeRw

REMINDER: SSVF Grantee Equity Report Invite - Shinyapps  

The SSVF Equity Report provides an analysis of SSVF program services and outcomes by race and ethnicity of the Veteran receiving the assistance. The May webinar was about the Equity Report, the recording can be found here: CLICK HERE to access the recording 

To access the Report, check your email, including your spam or deleted email folders, for an email with a subject of “hmisssvf@abtassoc.com has invited you to access an application on shinyapps.io.” That email contains a link for you to access the report. If you did not receive an invite, please email us at hmisssvf@abtassoc.com so we can send your invite. 

REMINDER: SSVF Program Change Request Available May 1, 2023 - June 1, 2023  

This SSVF Program Change request is being published by the SSVF Program Office from May 1- June 1, 2023.  This will allow grantees to align their FY23 approved budgets to the program concept and changes made while operating under their approved and condensed FY22 and ARP budget cycles. In addition, grantees may request anticipated changes for operating year FY24 (if awarded), as you may be using FY23 funds for part of the first quarter of FY24.  

All requests for program changes must be submitted to the SSVF Program Office by the Grantee via the UDPAAS grants management system. The Program Change request can be found in the Grant management system (UDPaaS) under the Request Activity Tab of your FY23 grant award. Grantees complete a standardized form for the request and supportive documentation (if required). This Companion Guide provides an overview of this process and submission deadlines, defines the various types of program changes, and provides instructions for completing the online form. The guide can also be found on the SSVF Website under the Grant Management section.     

NOTE: Grantees who submitted interim program change requests must now submit those requests within the UDPaaS system to include the approval emails. 

All submissions must be entered by June 1, 2023.   

REMINDER: SSVF Required Outreach Activities

As part of SSVF Program Office’s ongoing support to end Veteran homelessness it is important to remind grantees about conducting outreach within their entire services area.  Outreach is a required activity for all SSVF grantees nationwide.  Per the SSVF Program Guide:

Performing outreach is a critical component of grantees’ programs. Outreach services must be customized to the target populations being served by the grantee (i.e., a plan to target very low-income Veteran families, who are literally homeless, or at imminent risk of becoming homelessness). Outreach plans also depend upon the area or community in which supportive services will be provided (e.g., urban vs. rural) and the available resources in those areas or communities. Grantee outreach should be comprehensive and targeted to all communities and CoCs listed in their resolution and ensure that historically underserved populations, such as persons of color, are included in targeting considerations. Grantees should maintain documentation of where outreach is conducted and how often it takes place.

There are two parts to the provision of outreach services: identifying very low-income Veteran families and screening them to determine eligibility for supportive services provided by a grantee. Grantees should work with other SSVF grantees in their geography and other local CoC stakeholders to ensure outreach is coordinated and consistent with the CoCs overall outreach and coordinated entry policies. SSVF Grantees are expected to participate in planning, implementation and operation of the local CoC’s Coordinated Entry (CE) process (which should account for SSVF and VA homeless programs in general) for Veterans and should align all outreach and referral activities, to the extent possible, with the local CE Policies and Procedures.