Future management of Durham's 10-Year Plan to End Homelessness remains in limbo, but past management finished its work Tuesday looking toward next year.

In particular, it submitted -- 54 hours ahead of deadline -- Durham's application for $786,725 from the federal Housing and Urban Development department.

If HUD approves, $259,105 will continue going to housing and supportive services for homeless people through Genesis Home, Urban Ministries of Durham, Habitat for New Hope and the Durham Housing Authority.

The biggest chunk, $527,620, is earmarked for Community Alternatives for Supportive Abodes (CASA, a Raleigh nonprofit that proposes to develop 10 residential units to serve homeless veterans in particular on land it owns in Durham.

An independent review panel gave the nod to CASA's project over proposals from the Durham Housing Authority and the Durham Regional Financial Center. CASA has already developed two Durham properties for low-income housing, one with a $660,000 city grant in 2009.

DHA's project scored close to CASA's, but CASA's ability to use HUD money to leverage other financing for its $1.2-million project was a key reason for its edging the DHA's for the 10-Year Plan's endorsement, said Stan Holt of Triangle United Way, who coordinated the review panel.

HUD's current emphasis on veterans, and DHA's presumed access to other federal money were also considerations.

Housing Authority Director Dallas Parks still sounded displeased over the choice.

"I just want to make sure the unbiased review panel is an informed review panel as well," he said.

HUD's decision on the four funding renewals should be announced in December, said 10-Year Plan staffer Lanea Foster; CASA may not know about its money until after the first of the year.

Durham's city and county governments would take charge of the 10-Year Plan to End Homelessness in Durham after ending their contract the Durham Affordable Housing Coalition, under a proposal going to elected officials next week (Link below).

The county's Durham Center becomes primary manager of the Plan, adopted in 2006. Several other functions, previously handled by DAHC, move under the city's Community Development department.

City Manager Tom Bonfield described the new proposal in a memo to City Council members Wednesday. He and County Manager Mike Ruffin will make a formal presentation to council members and county commissioners Tuesday.

The city and county decided to change management after elected officials grew exasperated with a lack of tangible results. Last winter, a study found the Plan’s implementation lacking leadership, schedules, budgets and clear lines of responsibility.

This fall, the Plan's staff and executive committee undertook to begin a "Circles of Support" program linking homeless and recently homeless people. Several nonprofit agencies that serve the homeless, including Urban Ministries of Durham, already had a "Circles of Support" program under way.

The city and county have been directing about $67,000 each per year into implementing the 10-Year Plan. The 10-Year Plan aims to organize services into a “Continuum of Care” so that, by 2017, no one in Durham has to spend more than 45 days in an emergency shelter.
 

Documents:

Durham's 10-Year Plan for ending chronic homelessness got its checkup last month. Today, the Plan's executive committee meets to talk about treatment.

Who's in charge of the case is up for decision as well.

The Durham Affordable Housing Coalition has been under contract to the city and county to manage the 10-Year Plan. Its contract expires at the end of June.

Both City Manager Tom Bonfield and County Manager Mike Ruffin included money to continue the 10-Year Plan in their recommended 2010-11 budgets: $67,000 each from the city and the county.

But in light of a study of the project's progress in its first three years, conducted earlier this year by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, Ruffin has recommended against keeping DAHC on the job.

"Everyone sort of needs to take a step back and take a look at how well it’s working, how well it’s not working," Ruffin said. "Reconstitute it. Come next year with an amended strategy."

Bonfield has said it's yet to be decided whether the city renews its part of the contract with DAHC.

DAHC Director Anita Oldham has said she wants to continue as the lead agency, and in an email to DAHC's mailing list last Friday asked supporters to lobby the City Council for contract renewal.

The AICPA, though, describes a project in disarray, lacking leadership, direction and specific responsibilities, budgets and schedules for the dozens of agencies involved.

The executive committee is meeting at 1 p.m. Wednesday in the City Hall Committee Room. It is open to the public.

Departing from past practice, Durham's community development office has set two priorities for spending an expected $20 million over the next five years:

• Neighborhood revitalization
• "Special needs" housing

The first priority means, "A lot of our resources are going to be focused on the Rolling Hills/Southside area," said assistant director Larry Jarvis.

Toward the second, "The primary population we're intending to serve are formlerly homeless individuals," he said. That means particular funding toward a primary goal of the 10-Year Plan to End Homelessness in Durham.

Jarvis announced the priorities yesterday, in a public meeting on the city's comprehensive plan for using money coming through three programs of the U.S. Housing and Urban Development Department. Writing a plan is a HUD requirement.

In years past, Jarvis said, the city has taken a "shotgun approach" to using HUD's money. Concentrating on two priorities acknowledges, he said, "We cannot be all things to all people."