HUD offers $2.8B for evidence-based homelessness solutions
GettyImages/fhm
Applicants for grants under the agency’s Continuum of Care program must support their proposals with data showing local homelessness challenges and program service metrics.
State and local governments applying for grants under the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Continuum of Care (COC) Program must deliver data to show the challenges faced by their homeless populations and their performance.
HUD recently announced that $2.8 billion is available in competitive grants for organizations that provide services and housing programs for the homeless. This year’s program expands access to Indian Tribes and Tribally Designated Housing entities, survivors of domestic violence, and youth. The COC Program is the largest source of federal grant funding for homeless services and housing programs for people experiencing homelessness, agency officials said.
In the funding opportunity notice, the agency said that COC communities must measure their performance based on local data that “consider the challenges faced by all subpopulations experiencing homelessness in the geographic area.” That includes veterans, young people, families and those who experience chronic homelessness.
HUD added that COC applicants should use local data to determine which individuals and families have the highest needs and the longest experience of homelessness and use that data to develop housing and supportive services tailored to those needs.
Applicants must have a Homeless Management Information System that can collect unduplicated counts of homeless individuals and families and has the capacity to provide data and access to subrecipients and federal agency partners, the funding notice said. HUD added that it “expects communities to be able to use the HMIS information as well as aggregate data from comparable databases to review performance for the entire COC geographic area, not just at the project level.”
Those COCs applying for the grant funding should also partner with their local housing, health and social service agencies and share cost performance and outcome data on how their efforts can be improved to end homelessness, the agency said. HUD stressed that this is “especially important” given the billions of dollars invested through the CARES Act and the American Rescue Plan to help end homelessness.
NEXT STORY: Data-driven HR management faces uphill climb