City of Asheville Submitted: January 19, 2023 | Updated: February 28, 2023

(January 2023) Multi-part request for City of Asheville, NC Government: FY2022 U.S. Housing & Urban Development Continuum of Care Competition NC-501 documents. 06/01/22 – 12/01/22.

Hello City of Asheville, NC Government (Records Officer),

I'd like to make a multi-part public records request for the following information under NC Public Records Law.
Ref: https://www.ncleg.net/enactedlegislation/statutes/html/bychapter/chapter_132.html

This request relates to “FOIA Request for FY2022 U.S. Housing & Urban Development Continuum of Care Competition NC-501 documents”.

Under the North Carolina Public Records Law, G.S. §132-1, I am requesting to obtain copies of public records and documents related to the FY2022 U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD) Continuum of Care Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) competition. The City of Asheville, as the lead entity for the NC-501 Asheville-Buncombe Continuum of Care for the coordination and planning for use of these funds locally, is responsible for compliance with all aspects of the (NOFO). The records requested herein are therefore in the City's possession, are required by the Code of Federal Regulations to be made available to the public, and for which both paper and/or electronic copies are easily produced, thus posing no administrative burden on City of Asheville staff to produce work not already in existence.

Specifically, the following materials are requested, covering the specific time period of June 01, 2022 through December 01, 2022:

1) A copy of the completed and signed FY2022 NC-501 Continuum of Care Consolidated Application submitted by the City of Asheville to HUD via e-snaps, the HUD grant application submission portal (this portal permits a one-click download of a PDF copy of the document in its entirety);

2) A copy of every document that was required to be submitted as an attachment to the NC-501 Continuum of Care Consolidated Application;

3) The active links on the City's website where these materials were publicly posted for review as required in both the NOFO and the Code of Federal Regulations;

4) A list of all persons who served on the Finance Committee (or other group designated) of the Homeless Initiative Advisory Committee, which was charged with responsibility for local review, scoring, and priority ranking of all project applications submitted for consideration in the FY2022 HUD NOFO competition;

5) A copy of both the New and Renewal Project Evaluation and/or Scoring Matrix or other tool(s) used by members of the application review committee in the FY2022 HUD NOFO competition; and

6) Copies of each committee member's completed Project Evaluation and/or Scoring Matrix or other tool(s) used for the review of all submitted project funding applications.

If there are any fees for searching or copying these records, please inform me if the cost will exceed $100.00. However, I would also like to request a waiver of all fees in that the disclosure of the requested information is in the public interest and will contribute significantly to the public’s understanding of the local processes and tools used to evaluate funding applications for projects targeted to serve persons experiencing homelessness. The Consolidated Application will also shed light on whether the NC-501 Asheville-Buncombe Continuum of Care toward is fully compliant with the requirements of the NOFO, applicable provisions of 24 CFR 578, and the HEARTH Act of 2009. Further, the Consolidated Application must include information from reports submitted by the City of Asheville related to the City's progress toward the federal objective of ending homelessness. This information is not being sought for commercial purposes.

North Carolina law requires that you respond to and fulfill this request "as promptly as possible." Given that all documents requested herein should have already been made available for public review, I hope they will be provided expeditiously and without delay.

If you deny any or all of this request, please cite each specific exemption you think justifies the refusal to release the information, all of which is required to be made publicly available under federal law and regulation, and provide information about the appeal procedures available under the law.”
——————

[Editor’s Note for Allison: Despite the Message from the sender above, please understand that our Team is not requesting to come in person to inspect, nor to obtain printed copies of, electronic records. In accordance with NC Public Records Law, we are requesting explicitly that all responsive records be provided via an electronic medium / format (in which the records should already exist), such as an email, file share, google drive folder, mailed flash drive if necessary, etc.

Additionally -- we cannot commit to pay any potential fees / associated costs related to any request. If it is not possible to process the request without incurring fees, then please let us know the itemized potential cost breakdown, and we will consider how to proceed. We will relay this information to users on our site.

We do not have any additional or further clarifying info to provide other than what you see in the Message above. If you are unable to fulfill any or all parts of this request, please specifically cite where a reason for denial is justified under NC Public Records Law.

This request has been sent solely from the email address [email protected] . If anyone other than that email address contacts you to pursue a similar request, it did not come from our Team. Please do not commingle or treat that as an alteration or cancellation of our request – We intend to continue to pursue our request.]

Thank you for your assistance!

Editor’s Note: Sunshine Request makes no claim as to the veracity of any statements or information contained in any of the requests, or public records, we receive.

Editor’s Note 01/19/23: The above submission has been revised for some clarity.

Sunshine Request will not fulfill the following types of requests:

☀️ Requests that are incomplete, non-specific, or vague.

While we do proofread requests we receive for general spelling and clarity, we may choose not to fulfill the request if it is incomplete, or it is unclear what specific information the requester hopes to receive. In this case, the sender may rewrite and resubmit the request.

It’s the requester’s responsibility to write the request in a manner that clearly specifies a record that is being requested, and to what government entity it should be sent.

☀️ Please be specific:

It is important that what you are requesting is specific and reasonable, and is an actionable records request. Please specify the exact type of records you’d like to receive, rather than any “possible” or “potential” info that could be searched. Remember that the larger your request, the more time it usually takes to fulfill. Specificity will often help reduce the amount of time needed to process the request.

It is important that a request has a clearly written and complete Subject and Message, and also specifies the Government Entity (or entities), City and/or County, and State to which the request should be sent. If applicable, please also include any responsive timelines for the info that should be requested.

While we do proofread requests we receive for general spelling and clarity, we may choose not to fulfill the request if it is incomplete, or it is unclear what specific info the requester hopes to receive, or if it violates our policies.

Before submitting a request, please take a moment to review our tips for How to write and make a successful request. If you have additional questions about our site or how to make requests, please check out our FAQs or Policies page.

Additional Note for Users: Sunshine Request does not control if / when Government entities will confirm receipt, begin processing, complete, or deny requests we submit to them via our website. If you would like to make a request that is time sensitive, we recommend that you reach out to the appropriate government entity directly for assistance with a request, rather than submitting through our site.

Sunshine Request is run by a very small team. Due to holidays, unforeseen events / scheduling conflicts, there may be times that we cannot publish or update requests for several days. We will do our best to process all requests as quickly as possible.

We review and send in requests to the appropriate entities as quickly as we are able, and it is up to the Government agency to determine the timeline and speed with which the request can be processed. We generally try to follow up on requests once every 1 – 2 weeks as we’re able, until the government agency has confirmed that the request has been received and is being processed (and there is some timeline for completion), and we will wait to follow up again during the time period they specify.

Please do not send us additional submissions asking that we “follow up on” a request on our site, or to ask for a status update on a request. If at any time you would like to track the status of your request, please “Search” for your request via the “Search box”, or by viewing the list of requests on the View All Requests page. Any updates we receive will be posted on our site as soon as we are able.

Thank you for using Sunshine Request!

Status: Completed

Documents:

Activity:

  • February 28, 2023 5:57 pm

    1 year ago

    from: Sunshine Request <[email protected]>
    to: [email protected]
    date: Feb 28, 2023, 5:57 PM
    subject: Re: Your City of Asheville public records request #23-41 has been closed.

     

    Good afternoon City of Asheville Public Records,

     

    Thank you for your help with this request!

     

    I’ve marked it as completed on our site.

     

    We appreciate your assistance.

     

    **Editor’s Note: This request should also be viewable on the City’s Public Records Portal, NextRequest, at the following link: https://cityofashevillenc.nextrequest.com/requests/23-41

    Status: Completed
  • February 27, 2023 4:50 pm

    1 year ago

    from: City of Asheville Public Records <[email protected]>
    to: [email protected]
    date: Feb 27, 2023, 4:50 PM
    subject: Your City of Asheville public records request #23-41 has been closed.

     

    1) A copy of the completed and signed FY2022 NC-501 Continuum of Care Consolidated Application submitted by the City of Asheville to HUD via e-snaps, the HUD grant application submission portal (this portal permits a one-click download of a PDF copy of the document in its entirety). Visit this link. These records are in the Application folder.

     

    2) A copy of every document that was required to be submitted as an attachment to the NC-501 Continuum of Care Consolidated Application. Visit this link. These records are in the Document Copies folder.

     

    3) The active links on the City’s website where these materials were publicly posted for review as required in both the NOFO and the Code of Federal Regulations. These links are no longer active since the competition has closed, but screenshots are included in the submission materials.

     

    4) A list of all persons who served on the Finance Committee (or other group designated) of the Homeless Initiative Advisory Committee, which was charged with responsibility for local review, scoring, and priority ranking of all project applications submitted for consideration in the FY2022 HUD NOFO competition. Finance Work Group members: David Nash, Jaime Benshoff, Lance Crawford, David Bartholomew

     

    5) A copy of both the New and Renewal Project Evaluation and/or Scoring Matrix or other tool(s) used by members of the application review committee in the FY2022 HUD NOFO competition; and 6) Copies of each committee member’s completed Project Evaluation and/or Scoring Matrix or other tool(s) used for the review of all submitted project funding applications. Visit this link. These records are in the Scoring/Evaluation folder.

     

    All records responsive to your request have been released in accordance with the North Carolina Public Records Act. Your request has been fulfilled and is now closed. Please reply to this message or contact [email protected] if you have any questions.

     

    **Editor’s Note: Please see referenced file (“23-41-20230228T225521Z-001.zip”) at top left in our Documents section.

     

    This should also be viewable on the City’s Public Records Portal, NextRequest, at the following link: https://cityofashevillenc.nextrequest.com/requests/23-41

    Status: Response Received from Government
  • February 16, 2023 9:52 am

    1 year ago

    from: City of Asheville Public Records <[email protected]>
    to: [email protected]
    date: Feb 16, 2023, 9:52 AM
    subject: [External Message Added] City of Asheville public records request #23-41

     

    Good morning, Sunshine Request,

     

    I hope to have this request completed within the next week. If I see that it will take longer than that, I will let you know. If you have any questions in the meantime, please reply to this message or contact [email protected]. Thank you.

    Status: Government Processing Request
  • February 15, 2023 4:42 pm

    1 year ago

    from: Sunshine Request <[email protected]>
    to: [email protected]
    date: Feb 15, 2023, 4:42 PM
    subject: Re: [External Message Added] City of Asheville public records request #23-41

     

    Good afternoon City of Asheville Public Records,

     

    Thank you for confirming that you’re processing this request.

     

    Are you able to provide an anticipated timeline for completion? I will plan on following up again at the end of the month if I don’t hear back before then.

     

    Thank you!

    Status: Follow up
  • January 25, 2023 1:54 pm

    1 year ago

    **Editor’s Note 1/25/23: We’ll plan to follow up in mid-February if we haven’t heard anything by then. Thank you for using Sunshine Request!

    Status: Follow up
  • January 23, 2023 11:41 am

    1 year ago

    from: City of Asheville Public Records <[email protected]>
    to: [email protected]
    date: Jan 23, 2023, 11:41 AM
    subject: [External Message Added] City of Asheville public records request #23-41

     

    Your public records request has been received by the City of Asheville and has been assigned to the appropriate person(s) for processing. Once processing is complete, you will receive any responsive records. Please reply to this message or contact [email protected] if you have any questions.

     

    View Request 23-41

     

    https://cityofashevillenc.nextrequest.com/requests/23-41

    Status: Government Processing Request
  • January 20, 2023 4:09 pm

    1 year ago

    **Editor’s Note: This request was sent in via Asheville City Government’s public records request portal. As we receive updates, we will post them here on our website. Thank you for using Sunshine Request!

     

    Hello City of Asheville (Records Officer),

     

    I’d like to make a public records request for information that may be available in your office.

     

    If you’re not the appropriate party to contact about the request, please provide the correct name and email address of whom I should send it to.

     

    Please confirm receipt to let me know the request will begin processing, and if possible, please provide a rough estimate of when the request may be completed. I will plan on following up again around the end of the month if I have not heard back before then.

     

    Here are the details of the request:

     

    Subject: (January 2023) Multi-part request for City of Asheville, NC Government: FY2022 U.S. Housing & Urban Development Continuum of Care Competition NC-501 documents. 06/01/22 – 12/01/22.

     

    Message: “Hello City of Asheville, NC Government (Records Officer),

     

    I’d like to make a multi-part public records request for the following information under NC Public Records Law.

     

    Ref: https://www.ncleg.net/enactedlegislation/statutes/html/bychapter/chapter_132.html

     

    This request relates to “FOIA Request for FY2022 U.S. Housing & Urban Development Continuum of Care Competition NC-501 documents”.

     

    Under the North Carolina Public Records Law, G.S. §132-1, I am requesting to obtain copies of public records and documents related to the FY2022 U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD) Continuum of Care Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) competition. The City of Asheville, as the lead entity for the NC-501 Asheville-Buncombe Continuum of Care for the coordination and planning for use of these funds locally, is responsible for compliance with all aspects of the (NOFO). The records requested herein are therefore in the City’s possession, are required by the Code of Federal Regulations to be made available to the public, and for which both paper and/or electronic copies are easily produced, thus posing no administrative burden on City of Asheville staff to produce work not already in existence.

     

    Specifically, the following materials are requested, covering the specific time period of June 01, 2022 through December 01, 2022:

     

    1) A copy of the completed and signed FY2022 NC-501 Continuum of Care Consolidated Application submitted by the City of Asheville to HUD via e-snaps, the HUD grant application submission portal (this portal permits a one-click download of a PDF copy of the document in its entirety);

     

    2) A copy of every document that was required to be submitted as an attachment to the NC-501 Continuum of Care Consolidated Application;

     

    3) The active links on the City’s website where these materials were publicly posted for review as required in both the NOFO and the Code of Federal Regulations;

     

    4) A list of all persons who served on the Finance Committee (or other group designated) of the Homeless Initiative Advisory Committee, which was charged with responsibility for local review, scoring, and priority ranking of all project applications submitted for consideration in the FY2022 HUD NOFO competition;

     

    5) A copy of both the New and Renewal Project Evaluation and/or Scoring Matrix or other tool(s) used by members of the application review committee in the FY2022 HUD NOFO competition; and

     

    6) Copies of each committee member’s completed Project Evaluation and/or Scoring Matrix or other tool(s) used for the review of all submitted project funding applications.

     

    If there are any fees for searching or copying these records, please inform me if the cost will exceed $100.00. However, I would also like to request a waiver of all fees in that the disclosure of the requested information is in the public interest and will contribute significantly to the public’s understanding of the local processes and tools used to evaluate funding applications for projects targeted to serve persons experiencing homelessness. The Consolidated Application will also shed light on whether the NC-501 Asheville-Buncombe Continuum of Care toward is fully compliant with the requirements of the NOFO, applicable provisions of 24 CFR 578, and the HEARTH Act of 2009. Further, the Consolidated Application must include information from reports submitted by the City of Asheville related to the City’s progress toward the federal objective of ending homelessness. This information is not being sought for commercial purposes.

     

    North Carolina law requires that you respond to and fulfill this request “as promptly as possible.” Given that all documents requested herein should have already been made available for public review, I hope they will be provided expeditiously and without delay.

     

    If you deny any or all of this request, please cite each specific exemption you think justifies the refusal to release the information, all of which is required to be made publicly available under federal law and regulation, and provide information about the appeal procedures available under the law.”

    ——————

     

    [Editor’s Note for Allison: Despite the Message from the sender above, please understand that our Team is not requesting to come in person to inspect, nor to obtain printed copies of, electronic records. In accordance with NC Public Records Law, we are requesting explicitly that all responsive records be provided via an electronic medium / format (in which the records should already exist), such as an email, file share, google drive folder, mailed flash drive if necessary, etc.

     

    Additionally — we cannot commit to pay any potential fees / associated costs related to any request. If it is not possible to process the request without incurring fees, then please let us know the itemized potential cost breakdown, and we will consider how to proceed. We will relay this information to users on our site.

     

    We do not have any additional or further clarifying info to provide other than what you see in the Message above. If you are unable to fulfill any or all parts of this request, please specifically cite where a reason for denial is justified under NC Public Records Law.

     

    This request has been sent solely from the email address [email protected] . If anyone other than that email address contacts you to pursue a similar request, it did not come from our Team. Please do not commingle or treat that as an alteration or cancellation of our request – We intend to continue to pursue our request.]

     

    Thank you for your assistance!”

     

    Thank you!

     

    ** Sunshine Request (www.sunshinerequest.com) makes no claim as to the veracity of any statements or information contained in any of the requests, or public records, we receive.

    Status: Sent to Government
  • January 19, 2023 2:09 pm

    1 year ago

    Submitted to Sunshine Request
    Status: Pending