The attached slide show was presented to members of the Maine Statewide Homeless Council and the Board of the Maine Continuum of Care on January 14, 2020. This presentation highlights and summarizes the information from the full report, previously posted.

Yesterday, HUD formally announced the Tier 1 Awards from the 2019 Continuum of Care NOFA Applications. This announcement included projects that were fully or partially in the Tier 1 portion of the Project Rankings, CoC Planning Projects, & DV Bonus Projects. There will be another announcement at some point regarding Tier 2. The HUD announcement, including links to the list of all awards, appears at the bottom of this post. The following Maine Continuum of Care Projects were awarded a total of $13,121,165 in this announcement.

On behalf of MaineHousing, as Collaborative Applicant, and the Board and Chairs of the Maine Continuum of Care: Congratulations to the agencies that were awarded funding as part of this announcement, and we hope to be sharing good news regarding the Tier 2 projects very soon.

This is a reminder that the Maine Continuum of Care will be meeting on Thursday, January 16, 2020 from 1:00 to 3:00 at several locations and via GoToMeeting. Please see the agenda for details.

This is a reminder that the Maine Statewide Homeless Council will be meeting on Tuesday, January 14, 2020 from 9:30 to 12:30 at MaineHousing, 353 Water Street in Augusta. There will also be a GoToMeeting link/Call-in Number for those not able to attend in person. Please see the Agenda for details.

Please note: this next report is 101 pages long – do not print! (unless you really really need to)

[Please note – according to this report, Maine has reduced homelessness by 16% from 2018 to 2019. However, this change is largely (maybe entirely – I have not done the math yet) due to a significant reduction in the number of BRAP Transitional Housing units/clients reported in the 2019 Point-in-Time compared to 2018. This report includes TH counts, whereas the MaineHousing Point-in-Time reports do not include TH.]

HUD released its 2019 Annual Homeless Assessment Report (AHAR) to Congress. The report certified last month by HUD Secretary Ben Carson found that 567,715 persons experienced homelessness on a single night in 2019, an increase of 14,885 people since 2018. Meanwhile, homelessness among veterans and families with children continued to fall, declining 2.1 percent and 4.8 percent, respectively, in 2019.

HUD’s national estimate is based upon data reported by approximately 3,000 cities and counties across the nation. Every year on a single night in January, planning agencies called Continuums of Care (CoCs), along with tens of thousands of volunteers, seek to identify the number of individuals and families living in emergency shelters, transitional housing programs, and in unsheltered settings. These one-night ‘snapshot’ counts, as well as full-year counts and data from other sources (U.S. Housing Survey, Department of Education), are crucial in understanding the scope of homelessness and measuring progress toward reducing it.

The Board of Directors of the Maine Continuum of Care is opening nominations for Board membership. Nominations are reviewed by the full MCOC membership and recommendations are made to the Board. The Board then votes on the recommended nominees. If you wish to nominate someone, please be sure they are willing to commit to the time and effort required (you may nominate yourself). The MCOC Board meets monthly throughout the year and most members also participate on various other related committees.

Please email the name and contact information of any person you wish to nominate to and/or no later than 5:00 PM on Wednesday January 15th, 2020.

The following information and materials are proved to help participating agencies and volunteers prepare for and conduct this year’s Point-in-Time count of people experiencing homelessness in the state of Maine later this month. If you have questions about conducting the count please contact

There are two training videos available on the HMIS Training site. One is for HMIS Sheltered populations and one is for Unsheltered populations and non-HMIS participating programs.

https://mainehmis.org/training

For those using HMIS, PIT information will be drawn from your regular data entry. For Non-HMIS programs and volunteers conducting Unsheltered/Outreach data collection, please use the following forms, as appropriate. Each type of Survey has a Reference Sheet explaining how to collect the information.

There are also two handouts, one for Veterans and one for Victims of Domestic Violence, that we are asking PIT volunteers to provide to those they encounter who may need this information.

Thank you for your interest in Maine’s 2020 Point-in-Time Count!

February 4 & 5 in Auburn

Sexuality Education for Students with Special Needs

Of the three Nominations received for this position, two have since withdrawn. With just one remaining candidate, MCOC will hold the vote for this position at our regularly scheduled meeting on January 16th, 2020. Thank you!

The Board of Directors of the Maine Continuum of Care is opening nominations for Board membership. Nominations are reviewed by the full MCOC membership and recommendations are made to the Board. The Board then votes on the recommended nominees. If you wish to nominate someone, please be sure they are willing to commit to the time and effort required (you may nominate yourself). The MCOC Board meets monthly throughout the year and most members also participate on various other related committees.

Please email the name and contact information of any person you wish to nominate to stibbitts@mainehousing and no later than 5:00 PM on Wednesday January 15th, 2020.