Announcements
January 9th- There is an opportunity to provide feedback to HUD. You will be compensated for your participation. There are 2 sessions, you can only be compensated for 1.
The first is at 1:30PM and here is the zoom link for that session:https://us06web.zoom.us/j/83063908100?pwd=Uk9GUzQ1bzZGelQxU3lpdWZsZGZYQT09
The second is at 5:30 and here is the link:https://us06web.zoom.us/j/84235161435?pwd=US9rV1lTbG5aWGN6STRZS2wwNlJ3Zz09
January 10th- PIT Count Planning Meeting at 1PM (I will send a reminder and link)
January 11th- The ABQ YHDP working group at 9AM.( I will send a reminder and link)
January 26th- Lobby Day we will be discussing this in an upcoming meeting
Main Topics
Core Team Review- I was unfortunately unable to attend the entire meeting but it sounds like it went well! The landlord collaboration program is expanding! However they need contacts in several areas. If you are interested in doing some research to find contacts in those areas please let me know! Transition documents and life skills were brought up and we discussed the best way to identify needs within housing programs. I described a project I’m working on where I will interview people who had unsuccessful exits from housing programs to see what could have helped them more. An extension of this would be us creating an anonymous survey to distribute among those currently housed within programs to see what life skills they wish they had access to so creating that survey is on the agenda for the YAB meeting taking place 1/19.
TikTok- We reviewed a TikTok that Hannah and I created. The YAB stated that the intro should be rephrased and longer and also that the song should be changed and it was suggested we use a song called “cardboard castles”. I will make these changes ASAP. Here is the link to the YAB tiktok account:https://www.tiktok.com/@nmhousingyouth
*We were supposed to do the YAB testimonials but ran short on time so that got pushed to the next meeting.
What is HUD?- We went over what exactly HUD is because it’s a term we hear and use a lot! YAB basically exists because of HUD. HUD is the US Department of Housing and Urban Development. Their mission is to To create strong, sustainable, inclusive communities and quality affordable homes for all
HUD provides rental assistance, public/low income housing and grants for assistance organizations. Grants like YHDP, a guiding principle of YHDP is authentic youth collaboration( AKA YAB) and the program strives to be youth led, a community has to have a YAB to even apply for YHDP.
We went over the process of HUD grants, first a Notice of Funding Opportunity or NOFO is dropped which is basically HUD saying “Yo! we’re offering funds! Here's how to apply and how to utilize these funds!!” but in a much more professional way. Here is the NOFO for YHDP 2022 if you’re interested in what a NOFO looks like HUD 2022 YHDP NOFO.pdf
Then a community gathers similar organizations together and they plan and together fill out the application per HUD guidelines. Then HUD reviews the application and either approves or denies it.
PIT Count- The Point In Time Count or PIT Count is an annual count of unhoused individuals. First a date is selected to be the point in time. Then volunteers go out into the community and interview individuals to get demographics and ask where they slept on that particular night. The data is compiled and sent to HUD
If you are interested in being one of those volunteers and helping with this year's PIT count please visit the link to RSVP to a training. All trainings are over zoom
RSVP Link:https://forms.gle/oLqgnWGHWQY4tBPx5
I know a ton of acronyms were used in this meeting and that can get super confusing so here is an awesome resource to help! Acronym Glossary
Thank you all so much for all you do! Happy Friday!