Interagency Commission on Homelessness Committees
The Montgomery County Continuum of Care (CoC) created eight committees to conduct the work of the CoC, including the Governance Committee, which has the authority to create additional committees, subcommittees, or workgroups based on the need and recommendations from committees, subcommittees and workgroups, and the majority vote of the Governance Committee. Each committee will be responsible for submitting regular reports to the Governance Committee on their activities. The responsibilities of each committee are outlined below:
Governance Committee
- Recruit and nominate for County Executive confirmation, Interagency Commission on Homelessness (ICH) commissioners from the homeless services system, private sector, and general public
- Schedule and create agendas for ICH meetings, reviewing committee reports in details, and recommend actions to be voted on by the ICH
- Coordinate with the full Continuum of Care (CoC) to adopt, follow, and update annually a governance charter, to include a conflict of interest policy, in consultation with the Collaborative Applicant and the Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) Lead
- Issue a public invitation annually for new members to join within a geographic area
- Adopt and follow a written process to select a CoC Board and review, update, and approve at least once every five years
- Appoint additional committees, subcommittees, or workgroups
- Assist in planning of the CoC activities in coordination with appropriate groups including all other committees, subcommittees, and workgroups
- Review summary reports from all activities of committees, subcommittees, and workgroups
- Approve all membership applications
- Hold meetings of the full membership, with published agendas, at least semi-annually
Intragovernmental Advisory Committee
- Recruit and nominate for County Executive confirmation, ICH commissioners from local and county government
- Meet at least semi-annually to exchange information, and discuss challenges and opportunities, related to current efforts and progress in ending and preventing homelessness
System Coordination Committee
- Coordinate the implementation of a housing and service system
- Recommend to the Executive and Council any improvements to local policy to improve the system response to ending and preventing homelessness
- Oversee the Coordinated Entry System Subcommittee, charged with establishing and operating a coordinated assessment system in consultation with recipients of Emergency Solutions Grant (ESG) funds and establishing and following written standards for providing CoC assistance in consultation with recipients of ESG funds
- Conduct, at least biannually, a Point-in-time (PIT) count of homeless persons that meets Housing Urban Development's (HUD) requirements
- Oversee population specific workgroups
Strategy and Planning Committee
- Review and monitor aggregate CoC-wide performance of all CoC and ESG programs through HMIS data, including the Annual Progress Report (APR), Annual Homeless Assessment Report (AHAR), Point-in-Time (PIT) count, and Housing Inventory Chart (HIC)
- Develop, monitor, and update the CoC's Strategic Plan to end and prevent homelessness
- Oversee the implementation of the Strategic Plan
- Conduct reviews of external policies and assess impact on local efforts
- Conduct an annual gaps analysis of homelessness needs and services
- Submit an annual report to the Executive and Council
Outcomes and Improvement Committee
- Establish performance targets appropriate for population and program type in consultation with recipients and subrecipients
- Monitor recipients and sub-recipients performance
- Evaluate project outcomes of ESG and CoC programs, and report those outcomes to the Partnership and Funding Committee
- Provide training and support on best practices
- Oversee Homeless Management Information System (HMIS), including establishing an HMIS subcommittee charged with:
- Designating a single HMIS for its geographic area and designating an eligible applicant to manage its HMIS
- Reviewing, revising and approving privacy, security and data quality plans
- Ensuring consistent participation of recipients/subrecipients in HMIS
- Ensuring that HMIS is administered in compliance with HUD requirements
Partnership and Funding Committee
- Review performance of recipients and subrecipients and take actions against poor performers
- Provide information required to complete the Consolidated Plan(s)
- Consult with State and local ESG recipients in the geographic area on the plan for allocating ESG funds and report/evaluate performance of ESG programs
- Recommend and promote partnerships with private organizations, business, corporation, philanthropic organization or foundation, and any municipal, state or federal government agency to improve the County's ability to prevent and reduce homelessness
- Design, operate and follow a collaborative process for the development of applications and approve submission of applications in response to a CoC Program NOFA (Notification of Funding Availability)
- Establish priorities for funding projects
- Rank multiple applications, if required by HUD
- The Collaborative Applicant must collect and combine the required application information from all projects within the geographic area and will apply for funding of CoC planning activities
People's Committee
- Provide critical input and feedback on ICH and committee work, including policy development and barriers and improvements to system coordination
- Recruit individuals with lived experience to participate in the effort of the ICH and provide recommendations to ICH members and CoC stakeholders on how people with lived experience should be involved in all aspects of the homeless system operations and the CoC Governance structure and process
Communication Committee
- Educate the community about homelessness, best practices to reduce homelessness, resources needed to reduce homelessness, and long-term savings that are achieved by providing permanent, stable housing
- Market the work of the CoC to the general public
- Manage the CoC's website and take lead role in events planning and messaging, including messaging and marketing of special initiatives
Subcommittees
Subcommittees are established to provide oversight or facilitate the development of policies related to a specific function of the CoC. There are three standing subcommittees listed below and further defined under their respective committee section:
- HMIS Subcommittee: Provides oversight of the HMIS
- Coordinated Entry System Subcommittee: Provides oversight of the community's Coordinated Entry System
- Allocation Subcommittee: Establishes process for review, approval, and reject of applications for funding to the CoC program
