The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) includes formula funding for a new homelessness program based on HUD identified best practices. The new program is called the Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing Program (HPRP). Seven N.C. entitlement communities received a direct allocation of the HPRP funds (and will conduct their own public comment process). The remainder of N.C. funds will be administered by the State.  

 

Before the State can receive any of the allocated funds, the State must submit a plan to HUD. That plan, called a substantial amendment to the Consolidated Plan (substantial amendment), answers several questions about how the State plans to administer the funds and how communities can apply, as well as how sub-grantees (successful applicants to the State) will be monitored and general expectations for how funds will be spent.    

 

The Public Hearing on the substantial amendment is scheduled for Monday, May 4 at 10:00 AM. The hearing will be held at the offices of the Division of Community Assistance, located at 1307 Glenwood Ave., Raleigh, NC 27605.

 

Individuals who are unable to attend the hearing in Raleigh may also participate via conference call, but please read the following two paragraphs very carefully. In order to minimize travel and increase participation while enabling callers to confirm their participation for probable points on Continuum of Care applications, the state is using a rigorous conference calling system. Furthermore, due to budget constraints, there will be a limit of 100 incoming calls able to access the conference call. Therefore, please consider having small groups of interested parties from your community meet together to call in from a single phone with speaker capacity.  

 

The conference call in number is 1.800.868.1837 and the guest code is 47696487#.  In addition, a power point will be available for persons on the conference call by accessing:  https://www.accuconference.com/customer/join/.  Once you reach that website you will need to enter your name and the participant code (47696487).   

 

IF YOU INTEND TO PARTICIPATE VIA CONFERENCE, AND YOU WISH TO HAVE YOUR PARTICIPATION CONFIRMED FOR YOUR CONTINUUM OF CARE APPLICATION, you must sign onto the website linked above. In addition, part way through the public hearing a password will be announced. Conference call participants will need to email that password to Martha.are@nc.gov.  Doing so will confirm your participation in the public hearing. Please be sure that your email includes your name, agency affiliation (if any) and city or county.   

 

In addition to the public hearing, the State will host two Question and Answer conference calls. Interested parties can participate on Wednesday, May 6 at 2:30 P.M. and/or Friday, May 8 at 10:00 A.M.