domestic violence shelters Archives

Plan approved to replace grant funding to domestic violence shelters

March 14, 2014 By Mike Lear

The Missouri Housing Development Commission has approved a plan to replace grant funding lost by at least 15 domestic violence shelters in the state and other shelters served by a grant administered by MHDC.

Under the plan the Commission has approved up to $1.4-million to fund shelters who received Emergency Shelter Grants last year and applied this year. Shelters will get the same amount they received last year, unless they applied for less this year.

MHDC says that money will go to those shelters no later than April 1.

The Department of Social Services has also agreed to provide more than $550-thousand in excess funds from the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program. The House Budget Committee voted to add that money to the proposed budget for Fiscal Year 2015 that was passed out of the Committee on Wednesday.

If those TANF funds remain in the budget when it is approved by the legislature and the Governor, the Commission has voted to use the remainder of the $1.4 million to help sustain supplemental funding in future years.

It will be up to future state legislatures whether funding for those shelters will be included in state budgets, and MHDC Interim Executive Director Kip Stetzler says it will be up to the federal government whether that will be necessary.

“It’s hard to predict what the level of funding will be from [the US Department of Housing and Urban Development]. If we assume the same level of funding from HUD next year that we received this year, then what we will do is we will come back before the Commission and the Commission will make a determination as whether or not they elect to continue to supplement that funding.”

Stetzler told the commission $1.2-million less was available for ESG recipients this year than last … about a 37.5-percent decrease.

Stetzler says the denial of funds to those shelters stemmed from the decrease in funding and a shift in the use of ESG funds to more of a focus on homeless prevention and rapid rehousing – moving people who become homeless into permanent housing as quickly as possible.

That most of the shelters whose ESG applications were denied are in rural parts of the state was not by design, says Stetzler.

“There was certainly no intention to leave the rural shelters out,” Stetzler says. “There was a limited amount of funding and the process is a competitive one, so as the applications are submitted and as we undergo our review process, those applications are reviewed and because it’s a competitive process they are compared to one another. There many have been some deficiencies in some applications. I can’t speak specifically to individual applications but there certainly was no intention to not distribute ESG funds to the rural shelters.”

Domestic violence advocates say in the past when ESG funding has been reduced, shelters received less funding but none were cut entirely.

Stetzler was asked why the funding that was available was not divided among all shelters that applied at a prorated level rather than cut some shelters entirely.

“That’s certainly another option,” says Stetzler.

A plan to provide funding for those shelters began to develop quickly in the Nixon Administration after Missourinet and state lawmakers raised attention to the rejection of applications to 15 shelters. State Treasurer Clint Zweifel, who is a member of the Commission, says he thinks the system worked.

“I’m actually really proud,” says Zweifel. “We had a gap in the system. We added some homeless shelters that were at risk. We found a way to use resources at the state government, use resources here at MHDC to be able to get that done, that’s the purpose of the Commission.”

The shelters whose applications were denied had not been told why. Stetzler says that information will begin now that the Commission has given final approval to the grants and the process that will replace funding to those who didn’t get them.

“After today, after it’s final, our staff will work with those shelters, communicate with those shelters as to what the concerns that we had were and we’ll try to help them next year perhaps submit a more complete, if you will, application.”

See our earlier stories on the loss of the ESG to those shelters:

Gov. Nixon announces emergency funds for shelters denied grants

Attorney General’s Office: Solution for grant loss to domestic violence shelters could come next week

Domestic Violence Shelters still waiting for replacement of lost grant

Nixon Administration moves swiftly to back domestic violence shelters after loss of grant

Attorney General’s Office: Solution for grant loss to domestic violence shelters could come next week

March 7, 2014 By Mike Lear

See the updated story from Friday afternoon

The Attorney General’s Office says it expects the Missouri Housing Development Commission staff to have a proposed solution next week for the domestic violence shelters it turned down for a grant last month.

A shelter for homeless veterans in Columbia revealed on Thursday it had also been denied for that grant.

At least 15 domestic violence shelters were told their applications for the Emergency Solutions Grant (ESG) had been rejected but were not told why. Missourinet has been told that the Commission has not voted on the final decisions on how the grants will be awarded this cycle.

The members of the commission include Governor Jay Nixon, Lieutenant Governor Peter Kinder, State Treasurer Clint Zweifel and Attorney General Chris Koster. When Missourinet reached out to their offices about the situation, Koster Press Secretary Nanci Gonder issued this statement:

“Funding is critical for our state’s domestic violence shelters. After learning of the cuts in emergency shelter grants, we discussed the issue with MHDC staff and expect they will present a proposal at next week’s meeting.”

The Commission will meet at the Stoney Creek Inn in Columbia Friday, March 14 at 9:00.

After learning about those domestic violence shelters, a shelter for homeless veterans in Columbia reached out to Missourinet to say it had also lost the ESG.

Executive Director of Welcome Home, Inc, Aneisa Sherrill-Mattox, says Welcome Home Inc. has been approved for about $18,000 each of the 8 years she has worked there. Last year the shelter was approved for $50,000.

Like the domestic violence shelters, she has not been told why Welcome Home’s ESG application was turned down and instead was told the shelter is on a list to receive its evaluations.

Sherrill-Mattox says the shelter has already cut two caseworker positions and is cutting programs. She says much of what Welcome Home used that grant for was to provide emergency motel stays for homeless female veterans and veterans with small children.

“Female veterans are one of the fastest-growing parts of the homeless population and there are virtually no services available to them,” says Sherrill-Mattox. “Our shelter, by virtue of how small we are, we couldn’t provide safe housing for them in the shelter so we had relied on the ESG for them to be placed into a motel until a more permanent housing solution could be identified.”

The Nixon Administration has also told Representative Chris Kelly (D-Columbia) and other legislators it is looking for a funding source for those shelters, perhaps using money from the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program.

The Office of Administration told Missourinet Wednesday the Administration’s office of Budget & Planning and the Department of Social Services are looking at multiple possible solutions, but have not nailed down any mechanics.

Earlier stories:

Domestic Violence Shelters still waiting for replacement of lost grant

Nixon Administration moves swiftly to back domestic violence shelters after loss of grant

March 3, 2014 By Mike Lear

Fifteen of Missouri’s domestic violence shelters that had learned they were turned down for a grant that typically provided each of them between $20-thousand and $50-thousand will be getting funding from a different source. Those grants in past years went to pay for utilities, transportation, food and other basic needs.

Representative Chris Kelly (D-Columbia) tells Missourinet that when he and other lawmakers called the Nixon Administration’s attention to the situation, it acted quickly to find another source of funds for those shelters.

“There’s a section in [the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program],” Kelly tells Missourinet, “which would allow for money to be used for domestic violence purposes, and they determined that they could use this money to replace this.”

Kelly isn’t sure how much money is available for those shelters or how it will be distributed to them. Applications for more than $724,000 in shelter funds had been rejected. At the time this story was written, an Office of Administration Public Relations Officer was still attempting to gather information requested by Missourinet.

That grant, the Emergency Solutions Grant, was for the second year being administered by the Missouri House Development Commission. The Director of Moss House in Nevada, Martha Sander, says MHDC has told those shelters whose applications were rejected they have been put on a list to receive their evaluations, and otherwise they have not yet been told why they were not approved. The Commission’s Public Information Administrator, Brian Vollenweider, tells Missourinet the records regarding individual shelters’ applications remain closed.

Kelly says the rejections were the result of a “rule interpretation” by the Commission. He says he and other lawmakers will be investigating what happened.

“We’ll have to go from here,” says Kelly. “We’ll talk and figure out a more permanent solution.”

Kelly, who has been a vocal critic of the Nixon Administration in some instances, has high praise for it in this situation.

“As soon as they did learn about it they fixed it,” says Kelly. “Both the state representatives in the effected communities … were on the job and the administration responded very quickly.”

Vollenwider says the Commission had more than $3.2 million to distribute in the 2013 grant cycle and that was down to more than $1.6-million in the 2014 cycle.

The shelters whose applications had been rejected are in Cape Girardeau, Clinton, Harrisonville, Lebanon, Moberly, Bolivar, Doniphan, Sedalia, Sikeston, Lexington, Nevada, Parkville, Portageville and one each in St. Louis and Kansas City. A shelter in Springfield had an application for shelter funds rejected, but was approved for other ESG grant money.

The Missouri Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence says shelters in Missouri gave more than 10,000 adults, youth and children shelter in 2012. Shelters also provide crisis intervention, assist individuals seeking orders of protection, offer therapy and support services and other assistance.