Leave Decision Prompts ROCC Retribution

By Sarah Owens and Michael Livingston

MWHI Steering Committee August 2019 Meeting

This is the time of year that homeless assistance programs across the U.S. compete for limited funds from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's Continuum of Care Program.

As with any competitive grant process, to determine which programs to fund (and which not to fund), applications are scored and ranked in order of funding priority.  In the HUD CoC Program, this "review and ranking" is carried out by the local CoC, which is supposed to know best which programs are performing well, and which are not. 

As reported last week at the August meeting of  the Mid-Willamette Homeless Initiative Steering Committee, this year, the Rural Oregon Continuum of Care (ROCC) scored three homeless assistance projects serving Marion and Polk Counties well below scores received in previous years -- scores low enough to cause HUD not to fund them in 2020.  The move was seen by some on the Steering Committee as retaliation for the decision to leave ROCC and re-form a regional CoC (see "ROCC: Leave or Remain"), and an attempt to limit the funds that will be lost to ROCC as a result of the split.      

In a letter dated August 30, 2019 to the Community Action Partnership of Oregon, which staffs and is technically responsible for ROCC governance (ROCC is an unincorporated association), the Steering Committee expressed concerns about ROCC's structures and governance and asked that corrective action be taken: 

It is our understanding that conflicts of interest exist on the current Review and Ranking

Committee that scored the FY 2019 applications, as well as on the Executive Committee that approved the project priorities.

Given that these scorings and rankings were conducted by people representing organizations that have been or will be funded through HUD Continuum of Care dollars, contrary to HUD’s conflict of interest policies, we are encouraging and supporting agencies in Marion and Polk Counties to submit appeals of the scoring and ranking recently conducted. We further request that the Rural Oregon Continuum of Care have an independent, objective committee that has no conflicts of interest rescore the applications

for their final ranking.

The conflicts of interest complained of are, however, long-standing, and almost certainly have, from time to time, benefited local projects.  In other words, the situation is one that, over the years, local programs have not merely tolerated, but participated in, if not furthered.  This is but one of the many reasons we have long advocated re-forming the Salem, Marion and Polk Counties CoC with local government support and oversight.

In 2018, ROCC gave an allegedly undeserved low score to the Mid-Willamette Valley Community Action Agency (MWVCAA)'s rapid rehousing project, causing HUD to defund it, and the region to lose almost $400K in CoC homeless assistance.  See "ROCC Fissures Continue to Grow."  Unless ROCC 1) re-scores the applications and 2) local projects move up in the rankings as a result (which is not anticipated), MWVCAA predicts that local programs will receive only $681,848 in 2019 CoC funding, most of which will be for online domestic violence services, leaving only $138,581 or $120.40 per person for all other services.  These losses could hurt the Development Council's ability to negotiate a fair share of CoC funding in the split with ROCC.  Salem, Marion and Polk counties brought ROCC about $1M when they merged in 2011.

The August meeting was the MWHI Steering Committee's last before it reconvenes on September 24 as the regional CoC's Development Council.  See "Area Leaders Forming CoC Development Council."

Photo at top: around the "u" table, starting far right: Chris Hoy (Salem), Kristin Retherford (Salem), TJ Putman (Salem Interfaith Hospitality dba Family Promise), Lyle Mordhorst (Polk County), Jan Calvin (MWVCOG), Kathy Clark (Keizer), Colm Willis (Marion County), Dan Clem (Union Gospel Mission), Denise VanDyke (MWVCOG), Christy Perry (SKSD), Jimmy Jones (MWVCAA).  Not pictured: Sean O'Day (MWVCOG), Scott McClure (Independence), and Janet Carlson (MWVCOG and on phone).