Q&A
CityFHEPS application process for families in shelters and communities
0:12:08
ยท
168 sec
Commissioner Molly Wasow Park explains the differences in the process for shelter residents versus those in the community, highlighting the role of caseworkers, housing specialists, and the automatic issuance of shopping letters for eligible shelter clients.
- For shelter residents, the housing conversation starts on day one with regular updates to their independent living plan.
- Community applicants can use Access HRA for renewals or adjustments, and new applicants are directed to the DSS website and Homebase for assistance.
- Eligibility criteria for community applicants typically include imminent risk of eviction and prior shelter history, with some exceptions for special populations.
Diana Ayala
0:12:08
Can you can you describe the process in which a family is provided information about their potential eligibility for the city feb's program and how they would go about applying?
Molly Wasow Park
0:12:19
Sure.
0:12:19
Let me start and my my colleagues can chime in.
0:12:22
That looks a little bit different depending on whether we're talking about a household in shelter or a household in the community.
0:12:27
So let me do a high level overview of each of them.
0:12:30
So for a shelter a client in shelter, the conversation about housing should start day 1.
0:12:38
The client was gonna be meeting with their caseworker to complete an independent living plan.
0:12:43
That's something that they update, every 2 weeks in most cases.
0:12:48
And then housing specialists should be, helping to certify that client for any subsidy for which they appear to be eligible.
0:12:56
For clients who meet initial who are in shelter who meet initial city feb's eligibility requirements, they'll get a shopping letter automatically, and about 75% of the shopping letters are in fact issued automatically.
0:13:10
If a family isn't, for example, on cash assistance or working when they first enter the shelter, they'll work with their case manager to to deal with, address those issues first, and then as soon as they do meet the standard, that letter will get issued.
0:13:26
For for clients and community, it is a little bit different.
0:13:31
So many of the people in community, you know, there are many people in community now who have a city febstature.
0:13:36
They obviously know about the program if they would like to move, or have have changes in life circumstances that they need to make adjustments, or even, frankly, just the annual renewal, that can be done on access HRA.
0:13:50
For somebody who believes that they, are eligible for for city FEPs or thinks they might be eligible for city FEPs.
0:13:57
We have quite detailed, frequently asked questions on our website.
0:14:02
The, you know, core requirement,
Diana Ayala
0:14:05
there
Molly Wasow Park
0:14:05
are a whole slew of varieties, but through the the basic requirement for in community eligibility is, imminent risk of eviction and has prior shelter history.
0:14:17
And then households should go to home base, and and then they can move the process from there.
Diana Ayala
0:14:23
So they had to be in shelter prior?
Molly Wasow Park
0:14:26
There are absolutely exceptions around veterans, people in rent controlled units, some other special populations, but for most people in community, the eligibility requirement is, does require a previous shelter history.
0:14:40
Andrea, anything you wanna add
Germaine Delaney
0:14:41
to that?
Andrea Reid
0:14:42
Oh, yeah.
0:14:42
Just adult protect
Diana Ayala
0:14:43
Is it on yeah.
Andrea Reid
0:14:44
I'm sorry.
0:14:44
Thank you, commissioner.
0:14:46
Thank you, council member, for that question.
0:14:48
There's the adult protective services, group as well.
0:14:52
And they're not required to have prior No no prior shelter history.
0:14:56
Okay.