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Missouri Department of Mental Health
Housing Team
Technical Assistance From DMH Housing Unit Staff
Training Materials for Housing Quality Standards (HQS) Inspections
The Continuum of Care Funding Process for Homeless Assistance Funds
Supportive Housing Development Toolkit
Technical Assistance From DMH Housing Unit Staff
The Missouri Department of Mental Health (DMH) Housing Unit is a resource for technical assistance for agencies seeking to develop affordable and/or supportive housing for people with and without disabilities anywhere within the State of Missouri. If your agency is considering such a project, it is suggested that you contact Liz Hagar-Mace, DMH Housing Director, as an initial step (see Liz Hagar-Mace's contact information here).
DMH Housing is primarily concerned with housing development for persons with disabilities in the State of Missouri. If your agency wants to create supportive housing for people who are homeless with disabilities and wishes to apply for funding through a Missouri Continuum of Care (CoC), DMH Housing can help with technical assistance no matter where your project is located. We can provide advice on housing options, funding issues, and numerous other critical aspects of your project. If you're not sure which Continuum of Care to work with (or what a Continuum of Care is), see the next section describing the Continuum of Care funding process.
Training Materials for Housing Quality Standards (HQS) Inspections
HQS is a set of HUD-formulated minimum standards of quality and safety for rental units and is used by all Section 8 and Shelter Plus Care programs. Five of the six members of the DMH Housing Unit staff are certified Housing Quality Standards (HQS) inspectors. Because of our expertise in this area, the Department of Mental Health asked us to provide a condensed version of HQS training to DMH personnel who inspect rental units for state-funded programs such as Supportive Community Living (SCL). While HQS is not required for state-funded housing programs, using HQS-based rules can improve quality standards and uniformity among a diversity of housing programs.
Along with SCL personnel, the Housing Unit invited non-profit agencies from all over Missouri to the HQS training, which was held on September 12, 2008, in Jefferson City. More than 70 people signed up for the training and, despite bad weather, over fifty people showed up and learned their HQS basics.
The documents used in the DMH HQS training are provided below for any agency that needs to inspect for safety and quality in housing which it owns and/or operates. Please note that these documents do not constitute an official HQS certification for anyone using them--they just cover the basics of HQS. Certification normally involves four full days of training and a comprehensive examination, and is periodically available from Public Housing Authorities or other entities that administer Section 8 programs.
A Good Place to Live (PDF format, 355 KB)
This HUD document provides a narrative summary and explanation of HQS standards for all areas of a rental unit. It includes drawings of rooms in a typical unit showing the areas on which to focus an inspection.
HQS Inspection Checklist (PDF format, 42 KB)
This HUD document is not the official HQS Inspection form used by certified inspectors, but does contain a useful checklist of all areas of concern in an HQS-based inspection.
HQS Inspection Quiz (PDF format, 318 KB)
This document contains a quiz, with answers and brief explanations, that is tied to the quiz slides in the Power Point presentation, below.
HQS Training Visual Presentation
This is a slide presentation to use in conjuntion with this HQS training. It combines pictures from "A Good Place to Live" (see above), the HQS Inspection Checklist (see above), and slides pertaining to the questions asked in the HQS Inspection Quiz. Choose a link below to download the file in Microsoft PowerPoint 2007 or 2003 format, or as a PDF file (Adobe Acrobat file reader required--see link at bottom of this page to download Adobe Acrobat).
- HQS Training PowerPoint Presentation (PowerPoint 2007 format, 4.03 MB)
- HQS Training PowerPoint Presentation (PowerPoint 2003 format, 5.6 MB)
- HQS Training Presenation (PDF format, 2.35 MB)
If your agency has any questions about how to use these documents, or about HQS in general, please contact Housing Director Liz Hagar-Mace at 573-522-6519, or email the Housing Unit.
The Continuum of Care Funding Process for Homeless Assistance Funds
UPDATE: In February 2009, HUD announced the award of Homeless Assistance grants funded under the competitive Continuum of Care Process. As a whole, Missouri's CoC's received a total of $27,796,402 to fund new and existing Supportive Housing Programs and Shelter Plus Care programs throughout the state. DMH was the recipient of four new Shelter Plus Care grants funding rental assistance for homeless disabled persons in St. Louis County, St. Louis City, and Kansas City. Two of the grants--one in St. Louis City and one in Kansas City--target chronically homeless persons. For a complete list of awards statewide, please click here for a PDF-format document.
A Continuum of Care (CoC) is a community-based, long-range planning process that addresses the needs of homeless persons in order to help them reach maximum self-sufficiency. The CoC is developed through collaboration with a broad cross section of the community and is based on a thorough assessment of homeless needs and resources. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) recommends the CoC model as a comprehensive and strategic approach to addressing homelessness.
If your agency wants to apply for HUD funding to build affordable housing with supportive services for homeless persons with disabilities, the agency must typically participate in its local Continuum of Care. Each CoC coordinates its own application process to HUD for all agencies within the CoC that are seeking HUD Homeless Assistance funds. Each CoC is also charged by HUD to develop a plan to end homelessness within the area covered by the CoC (see below for links to each Plan to End Homelessness).
Visual Aid: click this link to visit the web site of the Missouri Association of Social Welfare to see a map showing all the CoC's in the State of Missouri and the counties that compose the scope of their activities.
The following table gives contact and other information about each Continuum of Care in Missouri:
|
Name of Continuum of Care |
Agency in Charge
|
Contact
|
Web Site
|
Plan to End Homelessness |
Balance of State CoC |
Missouri Governor's Committee to End Homelessness | Denise Heet, Chair, Governor's Committee to End Homelessness | The Plan to End Homelessness in Missouri (PDF); covers entire state | |
Springfield/Greene-Webster-Christian Counties CoC |
Community Partnership | Michelle Garand, Community Partnership | Community Partnership | |
Joplin/Jasper-Newton Counties CoC |
Joplin Homeless Coalition | Carol Thomas, Chair, Joplin Homeless Coalition | Economic Security Corp. of the Southwest Area | |
Kansas City/Independence/Lee's Summit/Jackson County CoC |
Homeless Services Coalition of Greater Kansas City | Shelly Stroessner, Chair, Kansas City Continuum of Care | Homeless Services Coalition of Greater Kansas City | Ten-Year Plan to End Chronic Homelessness |
St. Louis County CoC |
St. Louis County Dept. of Human Services | 314-615-7258, Dana McAuliffe, Director, Homeless Services |
St. Louis County Homeless Services | Ten-Year Plan to End Chronic Homelessness |
St. Louis City CoC |
City of St. Louis Dept. of Human Services | 314-612-5900, Antoinette Hayes-Triplet, Director, Homeless Services | St. Louis Dept. of Human Services | Ten-Year Plan to End Chronic Homelessness |
St. Joseph/Andrew-Buchanan-DeKalb Counties CoC |
St. Joseph Homeless Coalition | Randy Sharp, Chair, St. Joseph Homeless Coalition | ||
| St. Charles-Lincoln-Warren Counties CoC | Community Council of St. Charles | Dottie Kastigar, Coordinator, Community Council of St. Charles | Community Council of St. Charles |
The Missouri Housing Development Commission (MHDC) and the Governor's Committee to End Homelessness jointly conduct quarterly meetings in ten non-metropolitan regions around Missouri as a means of getting local area agencies and governments involved in planning for their own affordable housing and homelessness needs. Any agency or individual involved in providing housing, shelter and/or services for homeless people, housing development and planning, or any activity that impacts local or regional housing needs, is welcome and urged to attend these meetings. The regional meetings provide a forum for the discussion of housing issues such as affordable housing development, housing for persons with disabilities, NIMBY issues ("not in my backyard"), fair housing, and landlord-tenant laws, to name a few.
For a PDF-format schedule of the next set of Regional Housing Meetings, please click the map image above. For further information about future regional housing meetings and the Balance of State Continuum of Care generally, please contact Heather Bradley-Geary at MHDC at (816) 759-7201.
Supportive Housing Development Toolkit
The Corporation for Supportive Housing has recently rolled out its latest technical asisstance item, the Supportive Housing Development Toolkit. The Toolkit can be accessed here; a hyper-linked Table of Contents can also be accessed from the same site.
CSH's site states, " The purpose of this Toolkit is to provide organizations with access to tools, informational materials, and sample documents that can help them address key challenges in the planning, development, and on-going operation of permanent supportive housing projects. This Toolkit currently contains more than 150 informational pieces, tools, and sample documents."
The Toolkit is an extremely comprehensive collection of informational pieces on understanding supportive housing, financing and development, managing housing operations, and designing and running support services for clients. It includes everything from the broad beginnings of "Building a Development Team" to nuts-and-bolts issues of supportive services like "HIV Services and Suppoprtive Housing". For any agency considering developing its own Supportive Housing Prgram, the CSH Toolkit should prove to be invaluable.
» Federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD): www.hud.gov
» HUD's Field Offices serving western and eastern Missouri (in Kansas City, KS, and St. Louis, MO):
www.hud.gov/local/index.cfm?state=mo&topic=offices
» Habitat for Humanity: www.habitat.org
Habitat for Humanity has numerous local affiliates in Missouri; to find the one nearest you, visit the link above and enter your zip code in the "Search for Affiliates" search box.
» Housing Assistance Council: www.ruralhome.org/
» USDA Rural Development: www.rurdev.usda.gov
» Federal Home Loan Bank of Iowa: www.fhlbdm.com
» Missouri Housing Development Commission: www.mhdc.com
» DMH Housing Newsletter, "Housing News": Housing News
Every issue of "Housing News" contains a feature called "Funding News" that describes current funding opportunities available from corporations and foundations.
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