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~ General Information ~
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Section 8 Programs ~
~Related Links~
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Family Unification Program
(FUP)
The
Family Unification Program is a program to
promote family
unification by providing rental assistance for families for whom the
lack of adequate housing is a primary factor in the separation, or
imminent separation of children from their families.
ELIGIBILITY - For a
family to be eligible for the Family Unification
Program (FUP), one of the following must apply:
- The
Fayette County Social Services
(Public
Child Welfare Agency-PCWA) has
certified the family for whom the lack
of adequate housing is a primary factor in the imminent placement of
the family's child, or children, in out-of-home care, or in the delay
of discharge of a child, or children, to the family from out-of-home
care; or
- The family is, or will be,
involuntarily
displaced from a housing unit because of:
- Actual or threatened violence against one
or more family member(s) by a spouse or another member of the
household; or
- Lives in a housing unit with such an
individual who engages in such violence. The actual or threatened
violence must have occurred recently or be of a continuing nature; or
- The family is living in
substandard
housing or is homeless; and
- The family is determined
eligible for
Section 8 Rental Assistance by
the Housing Authority.
RESPONSIBILITIES
- PUBLIC
CHILD WELFARE
AGENCY (PCWA) -
The Fayette
County Social Services
is responsible under state or tribal law for determining that a child
is at imminent risk of placement in out-of-home care or that a child in
out-of-home care under the supervision of the public agency may be
returned to his or her family. The Social Services will:
- Establish and
implement a system to identify Family Unification eligible families
within the agency's caseload and reviewing referrals from the Housing
Authority;
- Provide written
certification to the Housing Authority that a family
qualifies as a Family Unification eligible family;
- Commit
sufficient
staff resources to ensure that Family Unification eligible families are
identified and certified in a timely manner; and
- Cooperate with
the
evaluation that HUD intends to conduct on the
Family Unification
Program, and submit a certification with the Housing Authority's
application for Family Unification funding that the Social Services
will agree to cooperate with and provide requested data to the HUD
office having responsibility for program evaluation.
- Make
referrals to the
Housing Authority of FUP eligible families on a regular basis
- HOUSING
AUTHORITY
- START-UP
WAITING
LIST
- The Housing Authority will send a partial listing of the names of
families on the waiting list to the Fayette
County Social Services to
determine if the families meet the Family Unification Program
eligibility requirements described in Section V-2. The Housing
Authority will continue to send a list of family names to the Social
Services until all rental certificates have been exhausted.
After the Social Services determines that the family meets FUP
eligibility requirements, the family shall be placed on the FUP waiting
list.
After the waiting list has been exhausted and new applicants appears to
be eligible for the FUP, the Housing Authority will refer the applicant
to the Social Services to be screened for eligibility for the
FUP.
- ELIGIBILITY
-
The Housing Authority will determine if families referred
by the Social Services are eligible for Section 8 rental assistance and
will insure that they are or will be placed on the waiting list.
- SELECTION
-
Selection
for the FUP will be done based on the date and time of the FUP
application submission and preferences (not the date and time of the
Section 8 application). After it has been determined that the
family is eligible for the Family Unification Program, a needs
assessment will be conducted by the Program Coordinator to determine if
the family needs any type of assistance (i.e., parenting classes,
housekeeping techniques, budgeting classes, child care, adult
education, vocational training, mental and physical health care,
substance abuse testing and treatment, and family advocacy, etc.) to
help keep the family together and to promote family self-sufficiency
and get off of public assistance.
- SERVICE
PLAN -
For a family to participate in the Family Unification
Program a Service Plan will be established based on the results of the
needs assessment. This plan will outline the services needed to
assist the family. If it is determined that the family requires any of
these social services, it will be highly recommended they attend
classes and/or meetings to help achieve self-sufficiency. The
family will be jointly monitored by the Housing Authority and Public
Child Welfare Agency on
a regular basis for compliance with the Service
Plan.
- FAMILY
SELF-SUFFICIENCY -
During the needs assessment process, the
Program Coordinator will inform the family about the Family
Self-Sufficiency (FSS) program.
- If the
family elects
to participate in the FSS program, an action plan, which
will be
coordinated with the client and the Program Coordinating Committee
establishing the goals for the client to achieve, will be incorporated
into the service plan.
- Once the
family is enrolled in the FSS program, they will be
monitored,
as a minimum, on a quarterly basis for compliance with the FSS program. The purpose of
the home
visit is to:
- If it is
determined
the family is having any difficulties or problems, the Program
Coordinator will make all attempts to assist the family overcome the
difficulties.
- Ensure
that the family is on the right track towards achieving their
goals.
- MONITORING
OF
FAMILIES - The families will be monitored for the term of
the FSS Contract of Participation (up to five years).
- PROGRAM
ADVISORY
COMMITTEE (PAC) - The Housing Authority currently has a Program
Coordinating Committee for the FSS program which consists of local
agencies. The Public
Child Welfare Agency will be added to this
committee to make up the PCC/PAC to reduce administration and costs
TARGET POPULATION -
the Social Services and Housing Authority will try
to target the following two populations for FUP consideration:
- Battered women and
their children who have been displaced because of the battering
situation and have not secured permanent, standard, replacement
housing; and
- Families with
children in placement who do not have permanent or adequate housing to
which their children can be returned.
FUP WAITING LIST -
A separate FUP waiting list will be maintained and
subsidy will be issued without regard to bedroom size.
- Open
Waiting List -
The Housing Authority and Social Services have prepared a fact sheet
that will be provided to all Section 8 applicants at the time they
receive apply for Section 8. If an applicant believes that they
are eligible for the FUP, then the burden is on the applicant to
request a referral.
When a referral is received for the family, the family will be placed
on both the FUP list and the conventional Section 8 waiting list.
Any new FUP applicant will be placed at the bottom of the FUP waiting
list based on the date and time of their application is
submitted. If found ineligible for the FUP, they will retain
their place on the conventional Section 8 waiting list.
- Closed
Waiting List
- If the Section 8 waiting list is closed and has not been able to
generate enough interest from eligible applicants on their current
waiting list, the Housing Authority will be permitted to open a waiting
list for the Family Unification eligible families only. In this
case, the Housing Authority will advertise the opening of its FUP
waiting list before accepting new applicants.
If these applicants are later found ineligible for the FUP they will be
dropped from the waiting list because it was closed at the time they
applied for the FUP.
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