(a) General. Subject to the expenditure limit in §576.100(b), ESG funds may be used for costs of providing essential services to homeless families and individuals in emergency shelters, renovating buildings to be used as emergency shelter for homeless families and individuals, and operating emergency shelters.

(1) Essential services. ESG funds may be used to provide essential services to individuals and families who are in an emergency shelter, as follows:

(i) Case management. The cost of assessing, arranging, coordinating, and monitoring the delivery of individualized services to meet the needs of the program participant is eligible. Component services and activities consist of:

(A) Using the centralized or coordinated assessment system as required under §576.400(d);

(B) Conducting the initial evaluation required under §576.401(a), including verifying and documenting eligibility;

(C) Counseling;

(D) Developing, securing, and coordinating services and obtaining Federal, State, and local benefits;

(E) Monitoring and evaluating program participant progress;

(F) Providing information and referrals to other providers;

(G) Providing ongoing risk assessment and safety planning with victims of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking; and

(H) Developing an individualized housing and service plan, including planning a path to permanent housing stability.

(ii) Child care. The costs of child care for program participants, including providing meals and snacks, and comprehensive and coordinated sets of appropriate developmental activities, are eligible. The children must be under the age of 13, unless they are disabled. Disabled children must be under the age of 18. The child-care center must be licensed by the jurisdiction in which it operates in order for its costs to be eligible.

(iii) Education services. When necessary for the program participant to obtain and maintain housing, the costs of improving knowledge and basic educational skills are eligible. Services include instruction or training in consumer education, health education, substance abuse prevention, literacy, English as a Second Language, and General Educational Development (GED). Component services or activities are screening, assessment and testing; individual or group instruction; tutoring; provision of books, supplies and instructional material; counseling; and referral to community resources.

(iv) Employment assistance and job training. The costs of employment assistance and job training programs are eligible, including classroom, online, and/or computer instruction; on-the-job instruction; and services that assist individuals in securing employment, acquiring learning skills, and/or increasing earning potential. The cost of providing reasonable stipends to program participants in employment assistance and job training programs is an eligible cost. Learning skills include those skills that can be used to secure and retain a job, including the acquisition of vocational licenses and/or certificates. Services that assist individuals in securing employment consist of employment screening, assessment, or testing; structured job skills and job-seeking skills; special training and tutoring, including literacy training and prevocational training; books and instructional material; counseling or job coaching; and referral to community resources.

(v) Outpatient health services. Eligible costs are for the direct outpatient treatment of medical conditions and are provided by licensed medical professionals. Emergency Solutions Grant (ESG) funds may be used only for these services to the extent that other appropriate health services are unavailable within the community. Eligible treatment consists of assessing a program participant's health problems and developing a treatment plan; assisting program participants to understand their health needs; providing directly or assisting program participants to obtain appropriate medical treatment, preventive medical care, and health maintenance services, including emergency medical services; providing medication and follow-up services; and providing preventive and noncosmetic dental care.

(vi) Legal services.

(A) Eligible costs are the hourly fees for legal advice and representation by attorneys licensed and in good standing with the bar association of the State in which the services are provided, and by person(s) under the supervision of the licensed attorney, regarding matters that interfere with the program participant's ability to obtain and retain housing.

(B) Emergency Solutions Grant (ESG) funds may be used only for these services to the extent that other appropriate legal services are unavailable or inaccessible within the community.

(C) Eligible subject matters are child support, guardianship, paternity, emancipation, and legal separation, orders of protection and other civil remedies for victims of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking, appeal of veterans and public benefit claim denials, and the resolution of outstanding criminal warrants.

(D) Component services or activities may include client intake, preparation of cases for trial, provision of legal advice, representation at hearings, and counseling.

(E) Fees based on the actual service performed (i.e., fee for service) are also eligible, but only if the cost would be less than the cost of hourly fees. Filing fees and other necessary court costs are also eligible. If the subrecipient is a legal services provider and performs the services itself, the eligible costs are the subrecipient's employees' salaries and other costs necessary to perform the services.

(F) Legal services for immigration and citizenship matters and issues relating to mortgages are ineligible costs. Retainer fee arrangements and contingency fee arrangements are ineligible costs.

(vii) Life skills training. The costs of teaching critical life management skills that may never have been learned or have been lost during the course of physical or mental illness, domestic violence, substance use, and homelessness are eligible costs. These services must be necessary to assist the program participant to function independently in the community. Component life skills training are budgeting resources, managing money, managing a household, resolving conflict, shopping for food and needed items, improving nutrition, using public transportation, and parenting.

(viii) Mental health services.

(A) Eligible costs are the direct outpatient treatment by licensed professionals of mental health conditions.

(B) ESG funds may only be used for these services to the extent that other appropriate mental health services are unavailable or inaccessible within the community.

(C) Mental health services are the application of therapeutic processes to personal, family, situational, or occupational problems in order to bring about positive resolution of the problem or improved individual or family functioning or circumstances. Problem areas may include family and marital relationships, parent-child problems, or symptom management.

(D) Eligible treatment consists of crisis interventions; individual, family, or group therapy sessions; the prescription of psychotropic medications or explanations about the use and management of medications; and combinations of therapeutic approaches to address multiple problems.

(ix) Substance abuse treatment services.

(A) Eligible substance abuse treatment services are designed to prevent, reduce, eliminate, or deter relapse of substance abuse or addictive behaviors and are provided by licensed or certified professionals.

(B) ESG funds may only be used for these services to the extent that other appropriate substance abuse treatment services are unavailable or inaccessible within the community.

(C) Eligible treatment consists of client intake and assessment, and outpatient treatment for up to 30 days. Group and individual counseling and drug testing are eligible costs. Inpatient detoxification and other inpatient drug or alcohol treatment are not eligible costs.

(x) Transportation. Eligible costs consist of the transportation costs of a program participant's travel to and from medical care, employment, child care, or other eligible essential services facilities. These costs include the following:

(A) The cost of a program participant's travel on public transportation;

(B) If service workers use their own vehicles, mileage allowance for service workers to visit program participants;

(C) The cost of purchasing or leasing a vehicle for the recipient or subrecipient in which staff transports program participants and/or staff serving program participants, and the cost of gas, insurance, taxes, and maintenance for the vehicle; and

(D) The travel costs of recipient or subrecipient staff to accompany or assist program participants to use public transportation.

(xi) Services for special populations. ESG funds may be used to provide services for homeless youth, victim services, and services for people living with HIV/AIDS, so long as the costs of providing these services are eligible under paragraphs (a)(1)(i) through (a)(1)(x) of this section. The term victim services means services that assist program participants who are victims of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, or stalking, including services offered by rape crisis centers and domestic violence shelters, and other organizations with a documented history of effective work concerning domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, or stalking.

(2) Renovation. Eligible costs include labor, materials, tools, and other costs for renovation (including major rehabilitation of an emergency shelter or conversion of a building into an emergency shelter). The emergency shelter must be owned by a government entity or private nonprofit organization.

(3) Shelter operations. Eligible costs are the costs of maintenance (including minor or routine repairs), rent, security, fuel, equipment, insurance, utilities, food, furnishings, and supplies necessary for the operation of the emergency shelter. Where no appropriate emergency shelter is available for a homeless family or individual, eligible costs may also include a hotel or motel voucher for that family or individual.

(4) Assistance required under the Uniform Relocation Assistance and Real Property Acquisition Policies Act of 1970 (URA). Eligible costs are the costs of providing URA assistance under §576.408, including relocation payments and other assistance to persons displaced by a project assisted with ESG funds. Persons that receive URA assistance are not considered “program participants” for the purposes of this part, and relocation payments and other URA assistance are not considered “rental assistance” or “housing relocation and stabilization services” for the purposes of this part.

(b) Prohibition against involuntary family separation. The age, of a child under age 18 must not be used as a basis for denying any family's admission to an emergency shelter that uses Emergency Solutions Grant (ESG) funding or services and provides shelter to families with children under age 18.

(c) Minimum period of use.

(1) Renovated buildings. Each building renovated with ESG funds must be maintained as a shelter for homeless individuals and families for not less than a period of 3 or 10 years, depending on the type of renovation and the value of the building. The “value of the building” is the reasonable monetary value assigned to the building, such as the value assigned by an independent real estate appraiser. The minimum use period must begin on the date the building is first occupied by a homeless individual or family after the completed renovation. A minimum period of use of 10 years, required for major rehabilitation and conversion, must be enforced by a recorded deed or use restriction.

(i) Major rehabilitation. If the rehabilitation cost of an emergency shelter exceeds 75 percent of the value of the building before rehabilitation, the minimum period of use is 10 years.

(ii) Conversion. If the cost to convert a building into an emergency shelter exceeds 75 percent of the value of the building after conversion, the minimum period of use is 10 years.

(iii) Renovation other than major rehabilitation or conversion. In all other cases where ESG funds are used for renovation, the minimum period of use is 3 years.

(2) Essential services and shelter operations. Where the recipient or subrecipient uses ESG funds solely for essential services or shelter operations, the recipient or subrecipient must provide services or shelter to homeless individuals and families at least for the period during which the ESG funds are provided. The recipient or subrecipient does not need to limit these services or shelter to a particular site or structure, so long as the site or structure serves the same type of persons originally served with the assistance (e.g., families with children, unaccompanied youth, disabled individuals, or victims of domestic violence) or serves homeless persons in the same area where the recipient or subrecipient originally provided the services or shelter.

(d) Maintenance of effort. The maintenance of effort requirements under §576.101(c), which apply to the use of ESG funds for essential services related to street outreach, also apply for the use of such funds for essential services related to emergency shelter.