Housing and Homeless Innovations Consolidated Application

Prospective programs or projects must serve the following populations:

• Homeless
• Chronically Homeless
• Low to Moderate-Income

Services that may be provided are:

• Supportive Services
• Housing Gaps
• Affordable Housing Development
• Non-Congregate Shelter
• Tenant Based Rental Assistance
• Housing Navigation

Summary of Available Funds

Application Timeline

Steps Needed to Apply  – The application period is now closed.

Process Overview: In this section you will find information about the application process.
Please read all documentation listed below.

• Information Training Meeting Video from Nov 4th, 2022

• Information Training Meeting Video from Nov 28th, 2022
• Instructions (PDF)
• Scoring Matrix Housing Development (PDF)
• Scoring Matrix Service Program (PDF)
• Deadline for Submitting Application – Applications will be accepted until 4:00 PM December 12, 2022
• The application period is now closed.  Application link (Neighborly) – Call us at 217-403-7070 or email us at [email protected] for alternative options

• Housing and Homeless Innovations Consolidated Applications – Nov 3, 2022 – Press Release
• Housing and Homeless Innovations Consolidated Applications – Information Session Nov 4th – Nov 9th, 2022 Press Release

• City of Champaign Housing and Homeless Innovations Consolidated Applications (CB2022-037 includes SS2022-0032) Nov 1, 2022
• City of Champaign Council Video on Champaign Government Television (CGTV) Nov 1, 2022
• City of Urbana, City Council Regular Meeting October 24, 2022
• City of Urbana, Committee of the Whole Meeting October 17, 2022
• City of Champaign Shelter and Housing Security (SS 2022-011) April 26, 2022

Question #1: When will funding be available? (Date asked; Nov 4th,  2022)
Answer #1:  Funding agreements will be considered by City Councils (Champaign & Urbana) in Feb 2023

Question #2: Who is eligible? (Date asked; Nov 4th,  2022)
Answer #2:  Non-Profit or For-profit Organization with the following: Certificate of Good Standing with State of Illinois; Not debarred or suspended from working with the Federal Government; Not delinquent on Federal or State Taxes; Has Unique Identification Number (UIE).

Question #3:  Is there a way to auto populate common information across multiple applications (cases)?  (Date asked; Nov 5th,  2022)
Answer #3:  No. If your agency is submitting more than one application, you must enter any common information into each application. It is recommended that applicants copy and paste all common information into each application.

Question #4: If I am applying to fund a program such as Housing Navigation, do I need to provide documentation of ownership/land use agreement in question C.5? (Date asked; Nov 5th,  2022)
Answer #4:  No, you do not. This question only relates to construction or rehabilitation projects.

HHI Training Questions & Answers. Nov 4th (Questions #5 to #22)

Question #5: Will the panel evaluate the applications, score them, and recommend options? Who makes the final decision? (Timestamp 36:18)
Answer #5:  The panel will be evaluating, scoring, and recommending options to be approved by the City Council. It is also possible for a project to be approved by both City Councils and would need a contract for each project

Question #6: For Neighborly, if you have multiple profiles, can they all view the same application, or do you need one singular login to make modifications to the application? (Timestamp 37:44)
Answer #6:  They can all access it as long as they use the same email address. You should be able to have multiple user IDs

Question #7: Are there word limitations on the narrative portion? (Timestamp 38:23)
Answer #7:  There are not word limitations for the narrative portions.

Question #8: What will the award notification process look like? Will there be disclosure of the scoring tools and results? (Timestamp 38:30)
Answer #8:  Currently a decision has not been made. (watch for answer in future FAQ’s)

Question #9: For number of staff and volunteers, is that specific to the program, the division, or the whole organization? (Timestamp 38:56)
Answer #9:  The number is for the organization.

Question #10: For the detailed budget, is there a required format or required category for line items? (Timestamp 39:13)
Answer #10:  There is a very basic required format. There is also a section where you can submit a supplementary budget if you would like to include more information.

Question #11: For development projects, what is the timeline for development for programs? (Timestamp 40:00)
Answer 11#:  The timeline for development projects is defined by the project but should be equal until the time of occupation. There may be additional time restrictions based on the grant source.

Question #12: What is the specific definition used for TBRA? For example, is there a minimum amount of TBRA that must be provided to be eligible? Would a rental assistance that provides deposit only or several smaller amounts. (Timestamp 40:44)
Answer #12:  TBRA follow HOME program regulations. There is a minimum of one year. You can include the deposit in your TBRA program, but TBRA assistance is a minimum of one year and not to exceed two.

Question #13: Will prioritizations be given to new or expanded projects over existing projects? (Timestamp 41:32)
Answer #13:  There is no preference for either experienced or new businesses. They do focus on general experience with your population. For example, if you have not ran the proposed program before, but your agency has experience in very similar fields, we are counting all of that as experience

Question #14: If there are projects that started as a response to the covid pandemic and continue, can organization apply for past expenditures for programs when they are applying for support? (Timestamp 41:32)
Answer #14:  No, the HHI grant will not reimburse past expenses.

Question #15: Could you delineate the difference between a program and a project? (Timestamp 43:20)
Answer #15:  A project is anything that involves building, buying or rehabbing affordable housing units or emergency shelter, sometimes referred to as “bricks and sticks”. For example, if you have an existing house and you want to rehab it to be transitional housing, you want to buy a building for a shelter, or if you want to build new construction housing. It is the building or creating a unit that will eventually be housed by a homeless or low-income person.

Programs are everything else, all the services provided to homeless or low-income individuals.

Question #16: Can you only apply for either program or a project, not both? (Timestamp 43:55)
Answer #16:  There are situations where you could apply for both. For example, if you are creating a transitional housing, it might come with services like case management. You could apply for both under one Neighborly application, but for two different programs, which could be in support of each other. We have tried to leave that openly flexible to allow a possible combination of both.

Question #17: There are also RFPs for ARPA funds that have to do with housing from both Cities of Champaign and Urbana, and from the County Board. Are these separate funds? Could you list this as part of your plan? (Timestamp 44:30)
Answer #17: There is currently no RFP for City of Champaign ARPA funds.

The City of Urbana ARPA applications are open and they close Nov 16th. Urbana has applied for funding and listed it in the HHI funding list as unsecured since it has not been approved yet. They are reviewed in December and hope to be awarded in January.

Question #18: To clarify, the request from Urbana to Urbana is to fund this common project (Timestamp 45:37)
Answer #18:  A small portion of the funding, $500,000, of the almost 10 million available in City of Urbana ARPA funds is being requested to fund the HHI program. Therefore, you can apply for ARPA funds from Urbana as well.

Question #19: How will funds be dispersed one they are allocated? Will it be quarterly with the progress reports given by the Cities, or will it be one lump sum or over the course of the year? (Timestamp 46:53)
Answer #19:  It will be reimbursement and we will work on whatever timeline works best for you. Typically, social service grants are done quarterly, but sometimes programming requires monthly funding, so it is flexible.

Question #20: Do projects have a required service area? Do they need to serve both Champaign and Urbana, or can they serve one or the other? (Timestamp 47:17)
Answer #20:  These funds are consortium wide, which is the county, it’s not just Champaign and Urbana. You tell us what you plan to do and then part of our evaluation process will be to determine what is the best funding source.

Question #21: Will there be any weight (preference) given towards programs that are focused on serving more than just one service area (Timestamp 47:48)
Answer #21: No, that is not a scoring category. However, HOME ARPA and TBRA cannot be restricted and has to be consortium wide.

Question #22: With regards to the awards and the timeline, what would you estimate the earliest, or average time, an award would be processed and a contract in place. (Timestamp 48:23)
Answer #22: We are taking these recommendations to City Council at the beginning of February, which would be the earliest with programs able to begin soon after as contract execution (finalization and signatures) occurs before the documents are presented to City Council for approval.

Question #23: Does the City of Champaign have any property available that could be used for the development of housing with HHI grant funds?
Answer #23: Semi-annually, the City of Champaign puts out a request for bids on lots. while there are not currently any lots on the list we anticipate the addition of several lots in the coming weeks that will be available for bid in early 2023. The list of available lots can be found here: https://champaignil.gov/neighborhood-services/neighborhood-programs/city-owned-lots-for-purchase/

Question #24: What is the expenditure date for the grant?  Is there a time window for when the funds expire?
Answer #24:  Each funding source has different timelines.  We ask that “program” applications be for one year of services and “project” applications timelines can be until the units/housing is occupied.

Question #25: Our agency is a government entity and do not have a tax return statement.  Can we submit our annual financial report instead?
Answer #25: Yes

Question #26: Our agency is a government entity and do not have the required certificate of good standing.  What should we submit as the required attachment?
Answer #26: Please submit a single page document that states  “We are a government entity, no certificate required” or something to that effect.

Question #27: Our agency is unable to locate our articles of incorporation, is there an alternative document we can submit?
Answer #27: We will accept any official document that shows your organizations type (corporation, llc, government, etc) and standing such as a Tax Exemption Letter.

Question #28: Why are the program services applications for only one year of funding?
Answer #28: The funding is for one year due to the fact that these are one time set aside funds.

Question #29: Am I understanding correctly that if applying for program, services proposed in the HHI grant application would only be for one year?
Answer #29: Yes, HHI grant application for programs is for one year.

Question #30: Is the year in this case defined as the 2023 calendar year?
Answer #30: The year would be defined in the grant agreement based on the request and date of agreement.

Question #31: Will programs be eligible for funding through this HHI grant application in subsequent years, or would programs just have to seek funding elsewhere after HHI funds (for one year) are expended?
Answer #31: Programs are only eligible for one year. They would have to seek out other funding for subsequent years.