Nevada Rural Housing Authority Receives Award of Excellence
Submitted by editor on Thu, 06/04/2015 - 4:27pm
The Nevada Rural Housing Authority received a Partnership Innovation Award from the Pacific Southwest Regional Council of the National Association of Housing and Redevelopment officials Monday, May 18.
The Partnership Innovation Award recognizes innovative use of programs in areas of direct client and resident services (such as homelessness, social services); economic impact (such as creative financing, preservation of assisted housing, mixed income developments); innovative uses of funds (such as working with other partners to create community development projects); and/or administrative methods (such as inter‐agency cooperation, management systems, community relations).
NRHA was recognized for working with partner agencies to create procedures that housed more than 100 homeless households during 2014, cutting the unsheltered homeless count of January 2014 in rural Nevada in half. NRHA invested a significant amount of staff time in 2014 creating and implementing centralized / coordinated intake centers across 110,000 square miles of rural Nevada, modifying a state Trust Fund contract to provide rental assistance to the homeless, and collaborating with the state mental health agency to partner on grant funds critical to housing the homeless.
Through 2014, 11 centralized intake centers were created in the 15 rural counties in Nevada. The collaborative effort has paid off for homeless individuals, families and those fleeing domestic violence as Nevada Rural Housing Authority worked with the Nevada Housing Division to modify the Tenant Based Rental Assistance contract making “homeless” eligible to receive rental assistance.
In conjunction with creating and implementing centralized intake centers and dedicating Trust Funds for rental assistance for the homeless, NRHA also worked with the State of Nevada Department of Public and Behavioral Health, Rural Communities Health Services (Rural Services) and HUD to transition the Shelter Plus Care grant awarded by HUD through the Continuum of Care from Rural Services to the Housing Authority.
“Nevada has a reputation of having limited resources for vulnerable populations, however, by showing initiative and having a collaborative spirit, we were able to change the face of homelessness with the innovative approaches that were implemented in 2014,” said NRHA Director of Rental and Housing Programs Marka Turner, LCSW. “The ability of NRHA to provide resources and leadership continues to play a critical role in housing those in rural Nevada.”
About PWSRC NAHRO
The Pacific Southwest Regional Council of NAHRO, the National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials, is a membership organization composed of agencies, businesses, public officials and individuals dedicated to improving the lives of low income families through the management, maintenance and construction of housing, community facilities, infrastructure improvements and economic redevelopment. For more information, visit www.pswrc-nahro.org.
About the Nevada Rural Housing Authority
The Nevada Rural Housing Authority creates hope for the future by providing a full range of housing and community development programs that help build and sustain independent communities. They provide rental support, an innovative home financing program, needs assessments and economic development to Nevada's fifteen rural counties and the rural portions of Clark and Washoe counties, with a coverage area including 110,000 square miles and more than 1.3 million people. For more information, visit www.nvrural.org.
Photo Caption: (L-R) MaryLiz Paulson, Sacramento Housing Authority, Vice President Member Services for the Pacific Southwest Regional Council of NAHRO; Marka Turner, NRHA Director of Rental and Housing Programs and Robert Pearson, Housing Authority of the City of Santa Barbara, President Pacific Southwest Regional Council of NAHRO
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