Harris County Community Services Department Homeless Prevention and Rapid Re-housing Program

1. American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 Harris County Community Services DepartmentHomeless Prevention and Rapid Re-housing Program Financial Guidelines Office of Special Needs Assistance Programs Office of Community Planning & Development U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development

2. Requirements • HPRP funds for the benefit of your program participants must be issued directly to a third party (e.g., landlord or utility company), NOT directly to program participants. • Note, 60% of your funds in your agreement with CSD must be expended by July 2011, and 100% by the end of July 2012. • An assisted property may not be owned by the grantee, Subrecipient or the parent, subsidiary or affiliated organization of the Subrecipient. • Funds used for ineligible activities are subject to recapture by CSD and will be returned to HUD

3. Eligible Activity Categories • Financial Assistance • Housing Relocation and Stabilization Services • Data Collection and Evaluation • Administrative costs

4. Eligible Activities – Four Categories • Financial Assistance - Short and medium term rental assistance, security/utility deposits payments, moving assistance, motel/hotel vouchers • Housing Relocation & Stabilization Serv. - Outreach/engagement, case management, legal services, housing search/placement, credit repair

5. Eligible Activities – Four Categories • Data Collection and Evaluation - Costs related to data collection on HPRP clients in HMIS or comparable database, as appropriate • Administrative costs - Costs related to accounting of funds, audit, preparation of HUD reports, grant administration, staff training on HPRP

6. Eligible Activities: Rental and Utility Assistance • Total period of assistance cannot exceed 18 months for rental assistance and 18 months for utilities • Arrears (up to 6 months) but counts toward 18-month service period • Rental assistance must comply with HUD’s “rent reasonableness” standard:www.hud.gov/offices/cpd/affordablehousing/library/forms/rentreansonablechecklist.doc Please don’t forget YOUR GRANT AGREEMENTwith Harris County.

7. Eligible Activities: Other Financial Assistance • Security Deposits – Directly to Landlords • Utility Deposits – Directly to Utility companies. • Moving costs – Directly to movers. • Storage (up to 3 months) – Directly to unit. • Hotel/motel vouchers (up to 30 days) • Direct Services/Project Delivery Staff costs to issue financial assistance should be included. • Cost of Inspections for habitability standards; if applicable.

8. INELIGIBLE Activities: Financial Assistance • Duplicating payments You CANNOT use HPRP funds and another source for the exact same cost type for same time period. (Check HMIS/Coalition) • Mortgage assistance/costs • Operations costs for housing programs • Assistance longer than 18 months • Direct payments to program participants • Payment of credit arrears (credit cards, loans, etc.)

9. Eligible Activities: Housing Relocation & Stabilization Services • Services to assist homeless persons that need temporary assistance to obtain housing • Services to assist persons at risk of homelessness to maintain housing • Eligible services: - Case management; outreach and engagement; housing search and placement; legal; services; credit repair

10. INELIGIBLE Activities: Housing Relocation & Stabilization Services Non-housing services, such as - Child care - Employment training - Education (i.e. books, fees, tuition, etc.) - Food, household items, clothing - Transportation (i.e. gas, bus tokens, cabs, etc.) - Furniture and appliances • Discharge planning at institutions

11. Eligible Activities: Administrative Costs • Cannot exceed 5% of the grant total. • Your agreement will indicate how much in Admin funds you are limited to claim. • Eligible costs: • Pre-award administrative costs • Accounting for the use of grant funds • Preparing reports for submission to HUD • Obtaining program audits • Grantee or sub-grantee staff salaries associated with eligible administrative costs, • HPRP training for staff

12. INELIGILIBLE Activities: Administrative Costs • Staff costs for issuing financial assistance or providing services • General training (e.g. for case manager to gain credentials). TRAINING MUST BE DIRECTLY RELATED TO THE HPRP PROGRAM.

13. Financial Forms • Financial resources are available on the following website: http://www.csd.hctx.net/ As a “rule of thumb” GREENandWHITE = GO PINK, GREYandYELLOW = NO!! • Please refer to the Sub-recipient Accounting Procedures Manuals provided. • Also, failure to update the current invoice with any previous adjustments may postpone payment by AT LEAST 2 weeks!!

14. Important Notice Please be advised that “DIRECT DEPOSIT” is available.

15. Financial Monitoring Mission of Financial Monitoring – To obtain reasonable assurance that program financially performs in accordance with applicable laws and regulations Primary Goals of Financial Monitoring: To provide Sub-recipient technical assistance. To ensure production and accountability Assist with and ensure compliance with HPRP and other Federal regulations Evaluate organizational and project performance as well as project viability (financial health, management capacity, timeliness requirements, etc.)

16. Financial Monitoring (cont.) • Financial Monitoring goals are achieved through on-going desk monitoring and annual on-site monitoring which follows basic elements: • Notification letter – formal notification letter will be send to you 15-30 days prior to the planned visit including the following: • Confirmation of the dates for the review • Scope of monitoring • Information required for review during the visit • Staff needed for interviews or other assistance during the visit • Entrance conference • Entrance conferences are held at the beginning of monitoring visits, usually with the executive director or other top official of the organization, to make sure the Sub-recipient has a clear understanding of the purpose, scope and schedule for the monitoring.

17. Financial Monitoring (cont.) Review of support documentation related to the project as well as organization’s financial policies and procedures in order to confirm and verify integrity of financial operations and stability of organization’s internal controls. Exit conference to present preliminary results of monitoring visit and provide opportunity for the Sub-recipient to correct any misconceptions or misunderstandings. Monitoring results letter is sent to sponsor within 30 days after visit. If there are findings and/or concerns, a response is due to CSD 30 days after receipt of results letter

18. Financial Monitoring - Audit Review • Financial Monitoring requires a copy of the annual audit to be submitted to CSD for review. There are two main types of audit • Single Audit - OMB Circular A-133 requires recipients that expend $500,000 or more of Federal assistance (this amounts consists of all federal funds received and expended by organization) in one year to have single audit. • Annual Audit - If organization doesn’t expend $500,000 or more, organization must provide CSD with a copy of their regular financial audit.

19. Technical Assistance Please don’t hesitate to seek Technical Assistance, if necessary!