CEO Corner Week of 10/6/26: Lessons in Leadership and Alliance Litigation Updates

It’s hard to believe it is already Fall. The year has both flown by and felt incredibly slow at the same time. It’s been filled with highs and lows – sometimes in the very same day or week. 

Last week I got a little sidetracked – some things in my personal life collided with a quick turnaround for filings due to our legal case regarding the 2026 CoC NOFO. I bet a lot of people across the field can relate – over the last few weeks we have seen a heartbreaking whiplash of activity that included a legal ruling not in our favor, the re-opening of the 2026 CoC competition, and an incredibly rushed competition deadline that meant that activities or priorities already planned got put aside or cancelled. It meant that really hard choices had to be made about the lives of people we care about.

Today I want to focus on the difficulty of leading through an unprecedented situation like this, and how I think about what kind of leadership is needed for today and the next year. 

First, it is important to acknowledge all the effort and strategic thinking that has gone into the last 30 days at all levels of our field. For our part here at the Alliance, we (along with our co-plaintiffs) had to pivot and find the best legal path forward once the First Circuit court of appeals ruled to allow HUD to re-open the CoC competition while the case moved through the appeals process. It was a blow, no doubt. But we rallied, talked to many of our members, talked to our legal team, and developed a plan. The result is what you saw – an emergency motion filed by us in court last week that was granted in full – and that resulted in the case moving back to District Court in Rhode Island so the judge can rule on our case in its entirety.

There is a delicate balance between the people in permanent housing programs, needs of communities, and individual providers with the need for funding certainty.  We crafted a request for relief that would remove all parts of the NOFO deemed unlawful and allow Tier 1 of the NOFO to be awarded. We think of this as a form of harm reduction – continue to fight the deeply harmful aspects of this competition but allow lawful pieces to proceed. We think we made a strong case, but the courts will ultimately decide. 

In the meantime, we watched CoC leaders all over this country move with impressive speed to finish an application they only saw in E-snaps for the first time on September 18. We saw leaders all over the country stepping up to make the most strategic decisions possible for their communities and for the people they serve. We also heard from leaders that, rather than tear communities apart as it was likely intended, this CoC competition process strengthened the resolve of communities to be strategic and made them work together even more. What we saw was, honestly, an example of leadership from the field that our federal government should take lessons from.  

Our legal strategy has shifted, and our local decision-making strategies have shifted in the last 30 days. So where do we go from here? 

Here is what I would say to that question: keep leading. For your teams, for your communities, for the people you serve. I commit that we will do the same. 

We know that many CoCs made decisions for this competition that they would otherwise not have chosen. We know that many of you are facing issues related to technical problems with e-snaps that adversely impacted your applications in the final hours of the competition period. Even more of you are discovering that organizations in your community have decided to take HUD’s dubious advice and submit solo applications to the Department even though they competed fairly in your CoC.   

Your leadership and your vision for the future are more important now than ever. 

On that point, I want to remind everyone out there that we need to make our voices heard to Members of Congress between now and December 11 when the current Continuing Resolution expires. The Alliance will be sending out advocacy guidance when we need your increased advocacy. But, in the meantime, continue to talk with your Congressional delegation about the impact this chaos has caused in your community and to the people you serve. Remind them that people in permanent housing vote! Invite Members to your programs when they are in District. 

We don’t know what will happen in the midterm elections or what will happen in the courts. But we do know that it is important to keep our eyes on what works and to plan for the future. For us at the Alliance, much of that work will focus on where we can have impact in key states. More to come on how we intend to turn our vision – your vision – into progress.