Dr. Michael C. Threatt Encourages PHAs to Merge with CoCs at the 2024 Southern Conference on Homelessness & Housing

Dr. Threatt's session title was "How Collaborative Leadership Led to a New CoC, Merger with a PHA, Housing Vouchers, & a 10-Year Plan to End Homelessness."

DOTHAN, AL, UNITED STATES, October 22, 2024 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Dr. Michael C. Threatt facilitated an innovative seminar at the 2024 Southern Conference on Homelessness and Housing (SCHH). The conference was held at the SanDestin Hilton Beach Golf Resort & Spa. His presentation was titled “How Collaborative Leadership Led to a New CoC, Merger with a PHA, Housing Vouchers, & a 10-Year Plan to End Homelessness.” It illuminated his successful collaborative leadership approach, which led to a strategic partnership between the Low-Income Housing Coalition of Alabama (LIHCA), Collaborative Solutions, Dothan Housing, and the Southeast Alabama Coalition for the Homeless (SEACH).

Dr. Threatt facilitated an energetic, thought-provoking discussion through active participation and engagement with attendees. He underscored the importance of their role in addressing the affordable housing and homelessness crisis, making the audience feel valued and integral to the collaborative efforts.

His presentation was a testament to the power of collaborative leadership in addressing homelessness. He shared the triumphant outcomes of his efforts, including the comprehensive organizational assessment conducted by the LIHCA and the groundbreaking decision for SEACH to merge with Dothan Housing to become a regional HUD-recognized Continuum of Care (CoC). SEACH is the new AL-508 CoC that covers the same five counties (Dothan-Houston, Henry, Dale, Coffee, and Geneva) in the Wiregrass Metro Area (WMA) as Dothan Housing’s Wiregrass Regional Voucher Program (WRVP).

Dr. Threatt also highlighted the distinctive features of the comprehensive 10-year WMA Strategic Plan to End Homelessness and the specific goals, such as reducing homelessness by a certain percentage each year. He also explained how this merger would help Dothan Housing meet the goals and objectives of its two-time awarding Purpose 2025 Strategic Plan that he wrote, specifically for Goal #5: Success Indicator #6: Obtain special purpose vouchers to provide supportive housing for the disabled, veterans, and elderly individuals and families.

He also illustrated how collaborative leadership would allow Dothan Housing to use its Moving to Work (MTW) designation. This designation provides flexibility under local non-traditional activities for rental subsidy programs like rapid rehousing, supportive services such as homeless outreach and counseling, and affordable housing development programs to purchase motels for permanent supportive housing. Dr. Threatt mentioned visiting the San Diego Housing Commission and implementing some of their best practices, such as utilizing the Our Community Housing & Enrichment Center (OCHEC) as a one-stop shop for homelessness and affordable housing services.

Dr. Threatt was excited to elaborate on the significance of collaboration between a CoC and the Public Housing Authority (PHA) to bridge the gap between homelessness and housing. He emphasized that this best practice can be replicated in any community. “I encourage PHAs and CoCs to merge to address homelessness and the affordable housing crisis as the hands and feet of Christ. Homelessness is a housing problem that requires innovative partnerships,” said Dr. Threatt. He highlighted how this innovative best practice and success story is a powerful testament to the transformative power of collaborative leadership in addressing homelessness, inspiring and motivating the audience to replicate similar efforts in their communities.

Why PHAs and CoCs Should Merge
As Collaborative Solutions prepared the 10-year plan and surveyed community partners, there was a general agreement among those who participated in the community survey. When asked about the biggest barriers and challenges facing the homeless in the WMA, 97% of respondents indicated a lack of affordable housing.

Similarly, when questioned about areas of opportunity that can make the biggest impact on the community, identified initiatives such as broadening the range of housing choices within affordable housing inventory and utilizing project-based housing vouchers (PBVs) as an affordable housing development tool and other homeless programs like rapid rehousing and permanent supportive housing.

Under the American Rescue Plan, the Biden-Harris administration pledged $5 billion in support for people who are homeless, victims of domestic violence, or otherwise at severe risk—the Emergency Housing Vouchers (EHVs) furnished PHAs with EHVs for approximately 70,000 families. EHVs were awarded to 626 Public Housing Authorities (PHAs) nationwide. Although landlord incentives accompanied these EHVs, many landlords were still not interested in the carrot-on-the-stick guaranteed rental income because they did not want to deal with the red tape of the PHA.

Besides landlords' unwillingness to deal with the PHA's red tape, EHVs were unsuccessful because PHAs and CoCs did not play well in the sandbox. Dr. Threatt addressed this through collaborative leadership, with SEACH becoming Dothan Housing’s fourth nonprofit instrumentality.

The evidence also illustrates that special purpose vouchers (SPVs) like EHVs, Veteran Affairs Supportive Housing (VASH), Family Stability Vouchers (FSVs), Shelter Plus Care (S+C), Foster Youth to Independence (FYI), Housing Opportunities for People Living with AIDS (HOPWA), and Family Unification Program (FUP) get people experiencing homelessness housed quickly because of formal partnership agreements between entities like SEACH and Dothan Housing.

As an Adjunct Professor at the School of Social Work & Human Services at Troy University, Dr. Threatt firmly believes in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, and housing (shelter) is a part of the first step of physiological needs. He mentions being a fan of the book “Homelessness is a Housing Problem “by Gregg Colburn and Clayton Page Aldern. He believes this book should be added to nationwide social work and human service programs.

Dr. Threatt is excited to see the first-ever CoC Builds NOFO. He believes local strategies to reduce homelessness, like mergers between PHAs and CoCs, are the new paradigm to address the homelessness and affordable housing crisis by adding new units of permanent supportive housing (PSH).

Throughout his 18-year career in affordable housing, he has experience building Rapid Rehousing and Homeless Prevention programs at the Hillsborough County Housing Authority in Tampa, Florida, and providing governance oversight as a Board Director with the Alabama Alliance to End Homelessness (ALAEH) for CoCs.

If you are a PHA or CoC and would like to arrange a consultation for an organizational assessment, a strategic plan to end homelessness, how to create a memorandum of understanding (MOU), grant writing, or learn how to apply for special-purpose vouchers, please contact Dr. Threatt at info@elevatehousing.com. He is also available for podcast and magazine interviews.

Dr. Michael C. Threatt
Elevate Housing Solutions, LLC
+1 205-552-9491
mthreatt@elevatehousing.com
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Dothan Housing partners with SEACH