HUD Homeless Assistance Grants:
Overview
Michael Roanhouse
January 23, 2014
HUD’s Homeless Assistance Grants
HUD has 2 main funding vehicles to assist the homeless:
1. Continuum of Care (CoC) Program
2. Emergency Solutions Grant (ESG) Program
The 2009 HEARTH Act also authorized the Rural Housing
Stability Assistance Program (RHSP), a program to
serve person who are homeless or at-risk of
homelessness in rural areas
• RHSP is awaiting final regulations and has not yet
been funded
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CoC Program
The CoC Program is designed to:
1. promote community-wide commitment to the goal
of ending homelessness
2. provide funding to quickly re-house homeless
individuals and families
3. promote access to and effective utilization of
mainstream programs by homeless individuals and
families
4. optimize self-sufficiency among individuals and
families experiencing homelessness
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ESG Program
The ESG program provides funding to:
1. engage homeless individuals and families living on
the street
2. improve the number and quality of emergency
shelters for homeless individuals and families
3. help operate emergency shelters
4. provide essential services to shelter residents
5. rapidly re-house homeless individuals and families
6. prevent families and individuals from becoming
homeless
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Goal: To Prevent and End Homelessness
HUD is partnered with federal partners to fulfill Opening
Doors: Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and End
Homelessness to
1. End chronic homelessness by 2015
2. End veteran homelessness by 2015
3. End child, youth, and family homelessness by 2020
4. Get on the path to end all homelessness
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Current CoC Program Competition
Important Dates for the FY2013 CoC Competition
Opened: November 22, 2013
Closes: February 3, 2014
Awards Announced: Spring 2014
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Current CoC Program Competition
Similar to FY2012, for FY2013 HUD implemented a
tiered award process
• Why? – to account for the likelihood that HUD cannot
fund all renewal projects
HUD anticipates announcing Tier 1 projects first, and
Tier 2 projects subsequently
Unlike FY2012, HUD is nearly certain renewals will be
cut in FY2013
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FY2013 Funding
Homeless Assistance Grants Appropriation in
FY2013 (after sequestration)
$1.933 billion*
• $215 million for the ESG Program
• $1.7 billion available for the CoC Program
There was approximately $1.76 billion requested
in the CoC Program
* The Homeless Assistance Grants also fund TA efforts and is
subject to rounding differences.
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FY2014 CoC Competition
To expedite funding of FY2014 CoC Program projects
HUD combined the FY2013 and FY2014 competition
HUD will carry forward each CoC’s FY2013 CoC score
HUD combined the competition because to expedite the
awards for FY2014
The goal is to award FY2014 by September 30, 2014
HUD is beginning to think through the FY2015 NOFA and
anticipates announcing those awards by September
30, 2015
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FY2013 vs. FY2014 Summary
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FY2014 Funding
FY2014 Budget History (in millions)
Total*
CoC
ESG
Homeless Data
Analysis Project
President's
Omnibus
House Bill Senate Bill
Request
Bill (Final)
2,381
2,088
2,261
2,105
2,027
1,882
1,910
1,815
346^
200
336^
250
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6
7
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* The appropriation bill language states minimum amounts, sometimes resulting
in a total that does not equal the sum of the line items in the bill.
^ The President's budget requested a $60 million set aside for rapid re-housing
and the Senate bill set aside $50 million.
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Rental Assistance
Administrator Issue
The HEARTH Act did not permit nonprofit
organizations to administer rental assistance
The FY2014 omnibus appropriation bill provided
a short-term fix for grants funded in FY2012,
FY2013, and FY2014 that allows nonprofits to
administer rental assistance
HUD continues to seek for a permanent
legislative fix
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ESG Updates
HUD will announce allocations within 60 days of
budget passage
• Changes in ESG recipient status, FY12-15, posted on
OneCPD.info/esg
ESG Notice re-opening public comment on the
interim rule: “Coming Soon”
HUD has begun developing new ESG CAPER
New monitoring exhibits under development
New FAQs, SNAPS-Shots, and Guidance
documents continue being developed
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